 all right let's do it um pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 and extended again by chapter two of the acts of 2023 this meeting will be conducted by a remote means members of the public who wish to access the meaning may do so in the following manner by emailing steve mccarthy at mccarthyassetammerstma.gov that's m-c-c-a-r-t-h-y-s at ammerstma.gov no in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means in the event that we are unable to do so for reasons of economic hardship and despite best efforts we will post them at the Amherst website the Amherst town website and audio or video reporting transcript or other comprehensive record of proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting and with that done we'll call the meeting to order at 503 p.m um and take a roll call dylan here uh gaston here doug here and i'm here so we're four here and one absent heli made pop in at some point um okay so oh here she comes um hi hi we just did our roll call of attendance so if you want to say i'll say heli here great we're all here um okay so next up is public comment is there anyone here for public comment that is general public comment unrelated to anything on the agenda and if so you want to make such a comment you hit the raise hand button at the bottom of your screen and i don't see anyone here for public comment so we can go to licenses um a common victualers license renewal application cv-107 the black sheep limited 79 main street is there anyone here from the black sheep or are there any questions i assume this is standard right steve yeah this is just a standard late one that came in and nothing nothing changed or anything i don't believe they're coming okay super um if there are no questions about this common vict application from the black sheep is there a motion to approve oh thanks doug who would like to do the second second thank you dylan any further discussion if not we'll take a vote uh dylan hi guest on hi doug hi hallie hi and i vote i that is five to zero the license application is approved um next up is special short term liquor license application sst-23-32 michelle kahan hitchcock center for the environment 85 west street um october first and it's a wine and malt um okay is someone here for that one steve that's somebody in me oh hi kasey here should be coming right in okay hi i think you're muted hi oh there you are now you're not yeah great welcome and so you are this is an event at the hitchcock center yeah so um it's our second event um you all approved for us to do it last year as well um it's a one-time event it's a fundraiser it's at the hitchcock center grounds it's uh sunday october first from three to six um we've invited a few vendors local brewers to come um and offer offer their their tasting i can describe a bit more if you'd like but um you know it's sort of part of the event it's a meal um the fundraiser okay great thanks i don't have a chance to look at the application if not it came in your packet a couple of days ago are there any questions about the event dylan uh yeah just how did it uh how to go last year smooth any lessons learned yeah how'd it go it was great it was very smooth we loved it that's where we're choosing to do it again um you know no issues our our venue worked really well for it um the few vendors that came were happy so yeah it was it was smooth great um as if there's no further questions is there a motion to approve the short term license for the event at the hitchcock center for the environment so moved thanks Doug is there a second i will second oh thank you heli um any for that's all right any further questions if not um we'll take a vote heli Doug hi gaston hi dylan hi and i vote i that is five to zero the application is approved thanks so much for coming in and best of luck with your thanks okay bye okay so next up um discussion topics rental registration bylaw steve just sent around i just got from mandy johanneke the updated versions um so the crc has voted to pass them under the town council the town council is going to be talking about them on monday and um then that's our first kind of pass through them and then they're going to do a second uh discussion in tuesday i mean not tuesday september i don't know why i said that um so if we have if we'd like to go over it if you want to maybe put on the agenda for next time um so we can look at it a little more thoroughly if we have anything to add or change um those questions should go directly to mandy so i i i would say let's put it on the agenda for next time okay all right that sounds good to everybody all right so um we'll talk about that a little more thoroughly at the next meeting um next up is marijuana regulation and do we want to do the subcommittee update now is that kind of part of the whole thing or i think so yeah because we did meet last week um so oh i did hear oh sorry go ahead and cast on oh no no no i was just going to say we met and we came up with a kind of a strategy for the next session right so we should we should definitely um update doug right okay so uh we were so part of this is and i just heard from mani johannaki is that we wanted to find our point person on um the town council and many just wrote back to me and she said that she's probably the best contact um elissa but as we know was their expert but uh due to a state committee she's serving on she's been talking to her about it and she can't make we're going to have our next subcommittee meeting on the 15th at nine in the morning um she did she does recommend reaching out to elissa and said she might have good insights and i think we know from past years that she does and she said she's fine with being the town council contact for it um even though she can't make it on the 15th in order to help the blc shepherd any required bylaw so the board is able i guess the board is she says the board is able to sponsor general bylaws in front of the council for their rules so it won't need a council sponsor but she can help us navigate the system so that sounds good so we decided to start looking at the yeah that's great so we can just get to work on that so get to work on the we sort of think with the bylaw language first and um and then move on to the regulations and we were also going to look at uh the Worcester application i mean the Worcester license and a couple of other things the ccc uh guidelines and their their laws was there anything else well yeah i mean Doug what i um i guess one insight that we got to is that what we're looking at is a bylaw and regulations and moreover trying to figure out what are the sweet spots of the commission being able to do stuff in the future without going back to the council yeah and your your first draft is in the is in the form of internal regulations and so and so the suggestion that that i made was how about i can try to just put all of the terms that are in your draft in the Worcester law in uh present in the local agreements and anything else we thought of so that we can go through it at that next meeting of the of the task force and just kind of say okay we we want this and this seems like bylaw or this seems like regulation or this is not something we feel like we need to do and just kind of create a master list of the issues and where we think we'll locate them between those two documents yeah it sounds good yeah okay so those were our tasks for the next uh subcommittee meeting and um that's going to be on the 15th and we did nine in the morning just because it seemed to work out best for everybody and we hope to keep it i think to like every other thursday that we're not meeting as the board of license issues so all right anything else on that oh yeah go ahead dylan oh yeah i was gonna say um i was talking to my work and it looks like i should actually be able to make some time uh for um the subcommittee it's something i'd like to work on a little bit more so i figure i'd like to officially join it and if i'm gonna officially join it as well there's no point to not have dawg officially join it as well so uh would i be able to uh i'd like to make the motion to have uh me join the subcommittee yeah sure can we do that i would interject at that point it really defeats the purpose of the subcommittee um because the purpose is that um a quorum of two could still meet um when if there's only three members but if there's five members then it would have the same quorum requirements as the full board but if um everybody would be around on some week it could just be a regular board of license commissioners meeting with that the only topic on the agenda and that'd be what's the rule for four uh i believe it would be three at that point yeah oh really okay i mean because if it helps i can step off just for numbers and still join meetings but yeah i think we i think when we set this up we said people can step off if we wanted to keep it kind of small well i mean i would suggest if we if we can plan ahead of time um then um you know if any day that there would be three people confirmed to come it could just be a regular board of license commissioners meeting okay and then um everybody'd be able to participate anyway there wouldn't be the you know subcommittee members and non subcommittee members and right um so that that would okay i still think having a subcommittee uh we have the advantage because that's the only thing that we're talking about that day but it's not for regular business so i don't know we can we can change it up i i'm sick with my mom's me and dog on the subcommittee um the full the full members of this uh body that's hey that's my motion well let me yeah just a question uh Steve so um is there any difference bearing on agendas and public comment or anything else that would turn on whether it's deemed a you know unusually large subcommittee or a regular or just the regular quorum of meetings nope everything's pretty much the same okay we're venting a there's nothing preventing a a board of license commissioners meeting from just being purely okay public comment always has to be on there and then okay topics not anticipated you always want to put on there but besides that it could be just um just marijuana regulation okay yes go ahead i'm not sure we have to have public comment at those meetings but i think you're required to have it to some extent but i don't know that you have to have it at every meeting but not that we're going to get a lot of public comment and sometimes we don't want it but right okay that important i don't think it'll be a big deal we can just leave it off is that required can we just i don't know if that's a state law or just the cameras town policy but okay we were advised to put that on every agenda okay i don't think it hurts to have it on there i think the key thing is who we just you know have meetings that are are fully focused on this to think it's gonna you know it's a fair amount of work and i think that's the intention behind what was it yeah years to get to that and you know keep moving okay i mean what i'm hearing is that it seems like given the importance of this and i guess you know the interest that dylan has and and his availability work wise that our quorum is not going to be such a concern but i i think the advantage of having those focused meetings and having it be its own kind of process is is uh is considerable to help us kind of keep cruising along and stay focused so i don't know if that's a reason to basically just say oh we have a we have a big subcommittee but that's what we do or we just run it like it's a subcommittee in the sense that it's kind of got its independent agenda and momentum well we could just keep the sub game i guess we are just i don't know do we want to keep the 15th meeting does everybody want to make that or do we want to try who couldn't do dylan so what is your schedule like dylan so you couldn't do the seven the the 10th right or no guest on you needed more more time to do your your chart and that was you're gonna you were going to schedule that correct and so the 10th was going to yeah okay well yeah the 10th is the 10th is is a tough date for me for a couple reasons so if that if that morning is continues to work for folks i can i can i can commit to delivering for that okay what i would suggest all right so we could either keep that and everyone can show up for the current subcommittee meeting or we could and then we've got another blc meeting standard on the 17th and then we have we could do uh or we could just move to the 24th and do either um a subcommittee meeting or just a regular board of licensed commissioners meeting with just adult use marijuana on it and nothing else um and dylan would that work that would be at five would that work for your schedule or what is with your new your new work thing now how is that going to work um so if so where are we looking to keep the meeting at the time i that's my question is everyone still want to do that or um either we keep that meeting and then do the 24th or we just do the 24th at five i mean i can i can potentially do either okay for meeting times okay all right i don't know what anybody else is i like this day morning though okay the morning of 15th i can't do but i don't think it should stop you guys from keeping on so if the four of you can get together then go for it okay all right only fourth i'm available so the 24th you're available okay great so is everybody else want to keep the 15th at nine in the morning yeah i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm open to what people think here okay yeah me too uh dylan and hallie let's see if we're gonna try to get this for licensed this for january i'd say we continue if we realize that that may not happen and i'm happy i can do either day so whatever the group wants to do okay dylan what do you think how was i mean i either one as long as i know the dates i can i can make sure i can have the time to do it mornings are generally better for me but um okay i can still all right so should we just keep the 15th and guest on if you can you said you can schedule time to do the chart for then we can have yes perhaps i will okay we're not too long meeting and that will be just be the subcommittee do we want to expand that to include dylan and dug or do we want to keep it in its current iteration manifestation we can expand it we can always reduce it later if we if we feel like we need to okay great so let's expand that sorry who's that i this is steve i really um i am coming against my limit of public public meeting laws and everything okay but i don't really know the if it is possible to have a subcommittee of every member of the board okay i may have to ask around about this but we could certainly keep the the time and just make it a standard board of licensed commissioners meeting with just uh just this on the agenda okay let's do that then um so nine a.m. august 15th standard board of licensed commissioners meeting just adult use marijuana on the agenda and then the 17th is uh standard board of licensed commissioners meeting at five o'clock and then the 24th we do a uh spread of licensed commissioners meeting five o'clock just adult use marijuana on the agenda for discussion and then steve will look into making a larger subcommittee and see what the laws are does that sound good to everybody in the meantime yes i will okay does that sound all right dylan go ahead sounds good wait steve you can do you can you can be on the staff for meeting so long as they're below a certain threshold of people but the number of meetings you're on is irrelevant no i i'm not sure what what you're asking so i was i was saying that um you know the reason for the subcommittee was just so that work could continue with a focused group of you know three people who were the most focused on it and um and uh and and then um only a quorum of two would be needed but if um four or five people on the on the uh subcommittee then the normal quorum of three is needed which was the the point of the subcommittee if i recall our discussions but i don't know if it is i'm not really uh well versed in subcommittees at all it's not something i've ever dealt with so um i don't know if it is possible to make a subcommittee of every member of the board i am sorry hey i can i was to say i can step down and still attend the meeting we do live in a very vocal town so i don't want to do anything that could be perceived as us trying to bypass any kind of open meeting law or and you have to have a subcommittee of the entire right i mean i'm bored yeah i'm happy i don't have to be on the subcommittee either um so i'm happy if dylan and dug want to be on it i'm happy to i don't really know the the ramifications of um non-subcommittee members attending i i mean again this is not something i'm really but i think they would just have to be treated like any member of the public where you know they raise their hands for comment and if they're allowed to speak the entire time i don't know if you can have different different um you know then a member of the public who's not in the board could be okay not allowed to speak the same amount of time i don't really know the ramifications of these things um okay but i would but the regular board license commissioners meeting with just the just that and the agenda will certainly work and just be like normal so um if the board wants me to look more into a five-member subcommittee or those other ramifications i certainly can but at least for this upcoming meeting i would suggest to just make it a normal board meeting okay so as long as we have three people for the 15th at 9 a.m we're good right yes okay great okay and then we'll figure out the subcommittee intricacies a little bit later um okay does that sound good to everybody dylan has his hand up oh sorry dylan go ahead yeah i just i don't want to be like koi about this while i'm going for like i know on this issue this is something i care about um and i would like to take a more active role in like the subcommittee and potentially try to lead on this issue but uh i don't want to do that in terms of trying to you know take take lead on the on the board of licensing uh so i like the idea of it being a separate body but if that's going to be too cumbersome i think we can take a different approach on it as well but i like it being separate uh for that reason but i also want everybody to be you know able to participate fully in it so i guess that's why i want to expand the board but keep it a separate body or something right right right right well i think we plan that like the the subcommittee would work on the off weeks and then update everybody on the the regular weeks so that could certainly happen um and that can because we we're not just a just a focus i mean there's certainly nothing improper at all about uh meeting every week and every other week is strictly about marijuana and the other meetings are about regular business that's certainly perfectly kosher okay so so we've got a we've agreed that we want a separate kind of discourse a separate space and and we'll figure out the uh kind of nuance of of how to structure it next time and i'm hearing that bill wants to wants to kind of is willing to step up and and and push forward on this and and so that is good good for the commission okay great so um so the 15th nine o'clock um that's great that's a regular meeting all right fantastic thank you um anything else on this currently let me see where my sorry okay so we did kind of covered marijuana regulations subcommittee update marijuana regulation um upcoming meetings agendas i think we just did that is there anything else we want to keep rental registration on um any other discussion items uh steve anything that you know is coming up soon um lunch carts i would like to um oh right really move forward with that i just have to follow up with the town engineer who's on vacation right now but um i think we might have uh you know maybe some um draft altered regulations to allow for uh the plan as it has been discussed to uh go forward in um in the fall on a trial basis so okay probably have that on for then okay great i do think we have a couple minor liquor license applications coming in but nothing nothing huge okay sounds good like that fantastic oh did you ever find out about garcias did they ever submit a change of manager spoke with him this week and he said he would be submitting it this week oh good okay that's great thank you and how is the update from oh are we in what about the um interim police chief and the abcc uh he definitely had said he would be reaching out i haven't um i haven't uh heard back from him about that okay great thank you um is there anything else for upcoming meetings and agendas no all right um let's see topics not reasonably anticipated 48 hours prior to meeting any topics no okay and then we go on to adjournment so is there a motion to adjourn so moved thanks Doug is there a second second thank you dylan um we'll take a vote Doug hi hallie hi gaston hi dylan hi and i vote i five to zero we're adjourned at five twenty eight p.m thanks everybody i'm good to see you all hi and okay feeling better see people yeah well i appreciate dad i'd say i'm about 85 percent of the way there thank you all right all right bye good luck okay thank you bye