 Okay, I am calling to order public meeting number 247 of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission on Thursday, July 19th, 10 o'clock at our offices in Boston. We lost a good friend of the horse racing industry recently and we've asked Commissioner Cameron, who is our point person with the horse racing industry among the commissioners, to say a few words about Mr. George Brown. Thank you, Mr. Cameron. As we affectionately called George Farmer Brown, he was such an advocate for thoroughbred racing. He was a longtime president of the Thoroughbred Breeders Association. He was really ill for the last couple of years, but he made his way into our meetings. His wife would help him, but he was so passionate about these issues and the fact that this sport continued to thrive in the Commonwealth. We all know him. I had the opportunity a couple of years ago. He invited me out to his farm in Rehoboth, and that was a really nice experience to see the beautiful horses, the farm he was so proud of. You know, Mr. Brown was a longtime school teacher, which I found out that day, but at the same time was active in racing and has been since the 1940s. So it is a real loss to the Commonwealth, frankly. One of the horses that I got to see was my friend Bob. He named it after the Speaker of the House because the Speaker was an advocate for racing to continue. So it was interesting to just see the passion, feel it, understand it, and again, he was always professional when he came in here for our meetings, and he will be missed. He will be missed as an advocate for thoroughbred racing and to all of us who regulate racing. It's a loss. It really is. So. Thank you. Yeah. We all feel the same way. Excuse me. Okay. We usually have the minutes done by Commissioner Stebbins, and I didn't give anybody a heads up, but maybe Commissioner Cameron could read us through the approval of the minutes as well. Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the meetings from our... The minutes? I'm sorry, the minute meeting, the meeting minutes, rather, from our, let's see, June 21st meeting that was held at 10 a.m. here at the Gaming Commission with the appropriate technical corrections. Second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. I pose. The ayes have unanimously. Commissioner Stebbins and Commissioner Zuniga are out today, so the votes will be just the three of us. Mr. Chair, we have a second set of meeting minutes from our meeting on June 26th, which was held out in Plainville. I move that we approve those minutes as well with the appropriate technical corrections. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have unanimously. All right. Then we move to our administrative update, Executive Director Berosian. Good morning, commissioners. Under what I would guess is called general update, I did notice in the minutes that you just approved, on June 21st, I had made a reference to a letter we'd received from our past Regency candidate, and I had told you staff was working on a response. They anticipate that response potentially coming from the commission today. Just as an update, we're still working on that response and anticipate that would be at a future meeting just to make sure we address items that are in the minutes. The other item, the big item that is part of today's meeting is the MGM opening. Staff continues to prepare for the opening by meeting routinely with MGM Springfield staff. We're still working also with the city of Springfield and appropriate state agencies on everything from public safety to traffic concerns in the first few months of operation. At the staff level, I have a couple reports. As for slot machine preparation, all 2,500 slot machines have been delivered. They're verified that they are in the correct locations on the floors. 2,218 are communicating with both the CMS and Advantage, which is the house system. We have state seals on almost just over 2,000. So we have the agents have inspected 83.4 percent with a goal of having the floor totally inspected on the slot machine side, not table games, but slot machine side hopefully by July 23rd. If it slides a day or two, we are totally fine. But they're doing a really great job and one of the things I hope is we can get the commissioners out to spend some time with our gaming agents and see exactly what they're doing. Second report is on licensing. As of today, we have registered, or I'm sorry, as of 4 p.m. yesterday, we had registered or licensed 1,253 individuals for MGM, 954 of those occurred between June 1st and yesterday. And of those numbers, 62 are key employees, 825 are gaming employees, and 366 are service employee registrants, which was interesting because a couple of months ago you would have thought those numbers would have been inverse or would have been many more gaming service employees. But obviously due to the work that was done here, legislative change, that has changed. And there are people who are in background and fingerprinting and stuff like that. But the reports I get both from licensing and the MGM Springfield folks are that licensing is going appropriately. And if there are any hiccups or roadblocks, we have great communications where we can push maybe or pull more important folks that they need more immediately to the top and try and get them through in an expedited fashion. So those are the reports for licensing and slot preparation. A bit about today's agenda. I would characterize today's agenda as the beginning to the road to an operation certificate. Today, you're going to hear from staff who are going to be joined by MGM Springfield representatives about how we are tracking and ensuring all the regulatory and licensing commitments both under the law and in licensing applications by MGM have been met. I anticipate that some of the information you'll hear today will be incorporated into a future meeting which I hope and believe will be August 2nd in Springfield, at which time I will be asking you to designate a commissioner, I think we've talked about commissioner Stevens, with the authority to issue a temporary operation certificate after the completion of both evaluation play periods at MGM and the completion of any outstanding regulatory or licensing issues. I want to thank staff and MGM Springfield folks for working so diligently to track literally thousands of items in a way we can both concisely present these items to the commission and be confident the Commonwealth is getting the type of game establishment with the associated commitments that the commission has approved. So that will be the bulk of today's presentation. But before we get to that, we do actually have other things to do in addition to opening MGM Springfield and one of those is obviously to take care of, as commissioner referred to, our responsibilities to horse racing. So director Lightbound is here with her agenda item for the racing division director. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning. For today, we just have the local aid quarterly payments and revenue manager Doug O'Donnell's here if you have any questions about the numbers. This is by statute. Good morning, commission. Good morning. Good morning. This is the local aid quarterly payments and in accordance with section 18D of chapter 58, local aid is payable to each city and town within which racing activities are conducted. Amounts are computed at 0.35% times amounts wagered during the quarter and at six months prior to payments. So this end of our fiscal year 18 quarter it will be for handles that were done in October, November and December of 2017. That's what these payments are reflected on. Total amount of the local aid is $184,770.13. And on the second page, you will see the breakdown of the handles for that quarter as well as a distribution to each city and town. So again, we will need your approval for this. Any questions or discussion? We've been doing this for several years now. So I think everything looks in order. And I would move, Mr. Chair, that we approve the local aid quarterly payment as outlined in the memo dated June 30th, 2018. Second. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? You ayes have unanimously. Thank you. Great, thank you. Now we are on to item number five on Woodsman Siemba et al. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and commissioners. Pursuant to the first item up for consideration today is MGM's section 61 finding revisions. Pursuant to MGL chapter 30, section 61 and 301, CMR 11.125, the commission is required to determine that all feasible measures have been taken to avoid or minimize impacts to the environment of the MGM's Springfield facility. On December 22nd, 2015, the commission voted to adopt the commission's section 61 findings with respect to the MGM Springfield project. To grant the MGM Springfield project the final region B, category one gaming license, to incorporate by reference the 2015 section 61 findings into MGM's license for the project and to require as a condition of the license that MGM comply with the terms, conditions, mitigation measures and other requirements identified in the section 61 findings. At the time, the commission expressly reserved the right to take further action with respect to the section 61 findings, the license, and any conditions included in the section 61 findings or the license for the gaming establishment. MGM recently filed a request for advisory opinion, RAO, with the executive office of environmental affairs, according to the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act describing policy modifications and refinements to the project since the issuance of the section 61 findings and they sought a determination that these proposed modifications and refinements do not require a notice of project change under MEPA. In an advisory opinion issued July 12th, the MEPA office determined that an NPC notice of project change is not required for these proposed modifications and refinements to the project because these modifications and refinements will quote, not result in material change that will increase environmental impacts compared to impacts previously reviewed by MEPA. Before you refer consideration today are the refinements to the existing section 61 findings. The request for advisory opinion filed by MGM to MEPA describe these refinements. Joe Delaney who's here with me will not read the RAO but he will provide a little more detail on the revisions. First, however, I would just like to place these revisions in context. As you know, the commission has been very actively monitoring the project since the issuance of the license. MGM's strength of representatives and staff have apprised the commission regarding refinements to previous plans and issues for consideration. For example, earlier this year, the commission received a presentation regarding a many months long in depth review of the project. Some of the refinements of the project included in these revised section 61 findings were the subject of conversations that occurred over that period of time. In general, the findings update many of the details of the project including such items such as square footage totals, now that the project is nearing completion. Further, the reflect timing changes that staff agree are reasonable. For example, on Thursday, June 25th, 2015, the commission adopted a detailed schedule for the project. At the time, we discussed how the state solar program has been in a state of flux and that this state of flux then has proven to be an obstacle in the completion of the planned solar units on the MGM's garage. Actually, I had that date wrong, but we determined that to extend the deadline for completion of such units to one year after opening. These section 61 findings reflect that newly adopted schedule. Under the current findings, MGM Springfield was required to complete such units prior to opening. The revised findings state that such units must be completed within one year of the opening subject to the reserved right by MGM to ask not to build such units if it proves to be structurally or economically not feasible. One more example discussed by the commission previously is MGM's plan to utilize a downtown circulator bus for its trolley system instead of the somewhat antiquated trolleys that it had planned to use. This bus update has also been incorporated to these new findings. And with that as general background, I will turn it to Joe to provide more specifics. MGM Springfield is here to answer any questions. We have Seth Stratton, Vice President and General Counsel and Jed Nozzle outside counsel to MGM Springfield from the law firm of Brown Rudnick. We're also joined here by Steve Anderson of Anderson and Krieger who helped us put together these section 61 findings. We thank Anderson and Krieger for all of their assistance. And with that, I turn it to Joe. Thank you. Of course, as John said, in the interest of time, I'm not gonna go through each and every change to the section 61 findings. So they were mostly very minor, but rather voluminous. So I'm just gonna hit some of the highlights. And really, I think the way this can be described is sort of three major categories that this addresses. The first is sort of programmatic changes. We have all the new square footages that are based on what's actually being constructed rather than what was proposed at the time of the notice project change. So we have that all updated. The second piece relates to schedule. As John talked about the photovoltaic system, that's been delayed for a period of time due to some things outside of MGM's control. Another schedule change is the lead gold certification. That is something that was in the section 61 findings that required that that be in place at opening. And that's not something that really happens. The submissions are generally made right around or a little bit after opening and the green building council needs to review those and so on. And so we've set a new timetable for that. And also some of the transportation demand management requirements that are enumerated in both the MAS dot section 61 findings and our section 61 findings are more appropriately addressed after opening when the employee population reaches a little bit more stability. We know there's a lot of turnover initially. And then also the other schedule components are offsite housing and Dave's retail which I think we've talked about ad nauseam at other meetings. And then sort of the third thing are really the sort of other items just on compliance with the section 61 findings. Some of them good news items. For instance, the combined heat and power system has been increased from 200 to 450 kilowatts on site that reduces their greenhouse gas emissions and helps offset that those items. We talked again before about the reduction in the size of the green roof. This doesn't affect in any way any of the commitments the environmental commitments that they made just a refinement to the design. And John talked about the trolley being more of a bus rather than those older trolleys that the PBTA had. And with that I will turn it back to John or answer any questions that you may have. Anybody? We did have the chance to meet with the team ahead of time and have a lot of questions answered. So I do recognize how much work this is by both teams. So we do appreciate that the attention to detail making these commitments and deadlines. So thanks for that. Council Blue has included a motion in your packet. I'm not certain if we need to read the motion or how we should proceed. I think it would be good if we could read the motion we can start, I know it's long we can start from the first whereas in it. And then we will ultimately attach the motion to the minute so that it'll be on our website as well. I know this is probably not the right context for this but could you just bring us up to speed on the I-91 overpass and the language is a little funny. It's kind of like it's not complete, but it's ready to go. Could you just remind us of the status, clarify that status? Yeah, so as you know, we've had a number different discussions with the MGM Springville folks regarding the sign that faces I-91. And I think it's our intention to have the conversations with the executive director that we will place this item up for consideration at a future meeting. No, I meant the DOT, the status of the overpass. Oh, the Viaduct. Oh, the Viaduct, pardon me. Well, I mean, that project has reached full beneficial use. Right, that's the language, right? Yeah, so that means it's usable. There are little bits and pieces of punch list work. There's some painting, there's some other things that are going on. There's an update next Wednesday with the, they have a bi-weekly meeting with MGM and others that the resident engineer has. So I'm gonna attend that next week and just get sort of a final schedule on all that. It seems like everything is totally fine. So there's no question there, but it was such a big topic of discussion in a multitude of contexts, including the opening date that it would be good, I think, just to give us, give the commission at some point, whenever the time is right, a more formal update on how that's worked out. Not because there's any issues, as I said, but just because it was such a big topic of conversation back when we were setting up the opening date. We can do that. One thing we know is that we have to make a determination that all of the outside infrastructure is complete prior to opening. That's required by 23K. And so we've been meeting regularly with MassDOT on all sorts of issues and we anticipate that they will sign up on all of the work that's necessary in the nearby area. Obviously the viaduct was not a requirement of MGM Springfield, but I do just put that in context. Right, okay, great. So all of those other improvements, you don't see any red flags there. They'll all be completed in time? We anticipate they will all be completed in time. By August 2nd, we do not anticipate this one sign that ITS systems will be operational, but we have every expectation that that'll be available well before the opening date. Thank you. Okay, anybody else? Do we have a motion? If we could review, you need us to read this entire, all the where as is, is that right? That's what we've done in the past for section 61 is because you make particular findings as part of your motion. Okay, prepared, Mr. Chair? We'll take a break while you read the question. We'll be back in five minutes. So, Mr. Chair, I'm gonna move that we approve that we vote to adopt the amended section 61 findings and incorporate into the Region B category one gaming license. This is MGM Springfield, the project, the name is BlueTarp Redevelopment, LLC, and this is the category one gaming license. So, where as on December 22nd, 2015, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, the commission voted to adopt the commission's section 61 findings, the 2015 section 61 findings with respect to MGM Springfield project to grant MGM the final Region B category one gaming license to incorporate by reference to the 2015 section 61 findings into MGM's license for the project and to require as a condition of the license that MGM comply with the terms, conditions, mitigation measures and other requirements identified in the 2015 section 61 findings. Whereas the commission expressly reserved the right to take further action with respect to the 2015 section 61 findings, the license for the gaming establishment and any conditions contained in the 2015 section 61 findings or the license for the gaming establishment. Whereas on or about June 15th, 2018, MGM filed a request for an advisory opinion with the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act, MEPA, office describing proposed modifications and refinements to the project since the issuance of the 2015 section 61 findings and seeking a determination that these proposed modifications and refinements do not require a notice of project change under MEPA. Whereas in the advisory opinion issued on July 12th, 2018, MEPA office determined that an NCP is not required for those proposed modifications and refinements to the project because those modifications and refinements will not result in any material change that will increase environmental impacts compared to impacts previously reviewed by MEPA. Whereas MGM has proposed the amended section 61 findings attached here to reaffirm MGM's commitment to avoid or minimize impacts to the environment of the project and to update the section 2015 section 61 findings. Now therefore, I move that the Massachusetts Gaming Commission approve the proposed modification and refinements to the project described in the RAO, the advisory opinion, and the amended section 61 findings attached here too. Secondly, adopt the amended section 61 findings regarding the project in the form of an attached here to pursuant to Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act and to update and replace the 2015 section 61 findings. Thirdly, find pursuant to GLC 30 and 61 and 301 MCR 11.125 that all feasible measures have been taken to avoid or minimize impacts to the environment of the project for the reasons stated in the commission's amended section 61 findings attached here too and all other documents, approvals, and certifications incorporated by reference therein. Fourthly, incorporate by reference pursuant to GLC 30, 61-621 GL 23K for 1512 and 21C 301 CMR 11-125B and 205 CMR 120. The commission's amended section 61 findings attached here too. Would you say that again, please? Yeah. I would have to read it again, Mr. Chair. Findings attached here too and MGM's license for the project and require as a condition of the license that MGM comply with the terms, conditions, mitigation measures, and other requirements identified in the commission's amended section 61 findings. The fifth category here is the 2-2-1-1. To authorize the commission to execute the commission's amended section 61 findings in the form attached here too. Sixthly, authorize the commission's general counsel to take all necessary procedural actions to effectuate the commission's amended section 61 findings in accordance with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act, the Massachusetts Gaming Act, and the regulations implementing each statute. And finally, require as a condition of the license a regular quarterly review by the commission of MGM's compliance with the commission's amended section 61 findings and the terms and conditions of the license. Thank you. Do we have a second? Second. And then for the discussion on that amendment. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have unanimously. Thank you, commissioners. The next item up for discussion is the final design approval. As the commission and commission staff have begun final preparations relative to the planned opening of MGM Springfield, we recommend that the commission approve a final design for the MGM Springfield facility. The commission's regulation 205-CMR-135 sets out procedures that the commission may use to review project designs. We believe that approval of the final design would provide further clarity regarding the commission's approval of changes to the facility since MGM Springfield's RFA-2 application and would provide further clarity regarding MGM Springfield's compliance with the design review standards articulated in 205-CMR-135. As the commissioners aware, the commission has extensively reviewed the design of the MGM Springfield facility since the date of the issuance of the gaming license. We have provided some detail of the history of the review in the memorandum in your packet. In an effort to assist the commission's review of MGM Springfield's final design, we briefly describe in the memo some of the material or perhaps immaterial design changes that were not fully described to the commission at the time of the May 12, 2016 design approval. Although the approval of the final design of the MGM Springfield project does not relieve MGM Springfield from the responsibility specified in MGL-23K section 21 to abide by statements made in its application, this approval does demonstrate the commission's recognition that changes to the project have been necessary since the date of the RFA-2. It also demonstrates that the commission should take a final design approval into consideration in determining whether MGM Springfield has abided by the RFA-2 application and that the evaluation reports that were part of the commission's RFA-2 evaluation process. And with that as context, I turn to Joe to detail some of these changes. Thank you. I guess really what the commission has before today is essentially an evolution of the earlier designs as presented in the RFA-2 through the Notice of Project change, through the Site Plan review and to the final product that's actually being built. For instance, the RFA-2 contemplated a different mix of restaurants than what we wound up with today. These types of changes happened routinely in the course of complex construction and the marketing of the various spaces. Since the last review by the commission, these design changes that we're talking about today are really minor refinements to the overall layout and program, most of which we've discussed at some length previously. Some of the key items are, and again, we've talked about these, the relocation of the Starbucks from State Street to Main Street, the relocation of the salon from the spa area to Main Street, relocation of the game sense office from near Main Street back to the, near where the parking garage is, relocation of the licensing office, the MGC licensing office, which was originally proposed in 101 State Street back to adjacent to the game sense location. And of course we talked about the increase in the size of the poker room and the change in the number of gaming positions. There's been a couple of more recent changes that we've discussed somewhat, but I'll just go into a little more depth on them. The first one is the addition of four valet parking spaces on Main Street. Originally there were two proposed taxi drop off spaces right adjacent to the hotel. Since that time, MGM has expanded that to four spaces for valet parking for the hotel as well as some of the restaurant uses along Main Street. That was approved by the city council just this past Monday. Also, there's the addition of a maintenance facility at 99 Union Street. I think we talked about this at our last meeting a little bit. This includes things like a carpentry shop and other maintenance activities as well as kennels for the proposed MGM security canine unit. This building is not part of the gaming establishment, but it is part of the overall project. And the last one, which has actually been in the project for a little while, but I'm not sure we've discussed it with the commission is the addition of a FedEx business center adjacent to the function space. And with that, I'll turn it back to Joe. So commissioners, do you have any questions regarding the proposed design? You started to speak to this when I asked the other question, but the sign, we are postponing and what will be the trigger for getting that addressed? We anticipate having that. Yeah, I think it's not the sign per se. It's the usage of sign, how it's used. We anticipate coming with MGM Springfield, like I also want some clarification on this, potentially in a future meeting, maybe the second, but we want to get that resolved as soon as possible. Okay. But it still will be something that we have to sign off on. Is that right? I think we're working in a spirit of cooperation. There may be some dispute about that, but in a spirit of cooperation, I think we want to come in front of the commission and explain what's going on. Okay. Anybody else? I think we've had ample time to really discuss all of these issues. I had some conditions so that you don't have to read anything that's included in the memo. You have some conditions that will cover that? Yes. You do? I do. Why don't you explain that? All right, and then perhaps you could just say. I was prepared to do all of these four paragraphs. You've done a lot of reading so far. So with that, we recommend that the commission approve of the final design of the MGM Springfield project as shown in the attached site plan previously described to the commission pursuant to 205 CMR 135.034, provided that such approval does not include approval of the design of the planned offsite residential units, further build out of the armory to include a restaurant and lounge space, the so-called Dave's retail building, and the planned retail spaces on the first floor of 101 State and retail L2 and L3 on the attached floor plan. Those remain outstanding. It shall not be construed to demonstrate approval or disapproval of the use of the sign facing Interstate 91. Shall not be construed to supersede any obligations pursuant to MGL Chapter 23K to the commission's Section 61 findings as they may be amended from time to time or to the conditions of MGM Springfield's license, including but not limited to condition number 14 relative to compliance with the information included in the application filed by the designated licensee and the evaluation reports filed by the commission or be construed to relieve MGM Springfield from providing prior notice to the commission of any future changes to the design for the commission's review and approval. And we recommend that such approval shall not be construed to demonstrate that the commission has made any determinations specified in 205 CMR 135.062 and 205 CMR 151. Okay. With that, Mr. Chair, I recommend that this commission approve the final design of MGM Springfield's project as shown in the attached site plan and previously described to the commission pursuant to 205 CMR 135.034 with the conditions as outlined by Ombudsman Siemba. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chairman and commissioners, up next for consideration is a proposed construction security mechanism that would provide additional security to the commission that MGM Springfield will complete the construction of the plan 54 offsite residential units and the so-called Dave's retail building on the corner of Main and Union streets. As you are aware, we have been actively reviewing the progress of both of these aspects of the MGM Springfield project for quite some time. Earlier this year as part of the commission's review of MGM Springfield's detailed schedule pursuant to 205 CMR 135.022A, the commission determined that MGM Springfield would not likely complete the construction of these facilities prior to the planned opening date of the project and we established new deadlines for their construction. The commission set a deadline of July 8th, 2019 for the construction of the so-called Dave's retail building and a March 27, 2020 deadline for the construction of the residential units. The approval of this schedule, including these items, was conditioned upon a requirement that MGM Springfield will provide a construction security mechanism, bond or escrow agreement satisfactory to the commission for the construction of the offsite residential units in the so-called Dave's retail building on the corner of Maine and Union Street. Staff recommends that the commission approve a requirement that MGM Springfield provide a $25 million bond to satisfy this requirement. The terms of such bond would run from September 1st, 2018 until December 31st, 2020 under this proposal. In the event that MGM Springfield completes the construction of either of these components prior to that deadline, MGM Springfield would be allowed to reduce the amount of the bond. Under the proposal before you, MGM Springfield would terminate its current bond worth approximately $51.6 million covering the construction of the entire gaming establishment with the $25 million bond covering the residential units and the so-called Dave's retail building. We have shared this proposal with MGM Springfield. We are requesting the commission's approval of this proposal and the authorization for staff to take the steps necessary to implement the change in the bond. A separate vote will be required for the commission to determine that MGM Springfield has reached the final stage of construction pursuant to 205 CMR 130505 so that the current bond can be released. We anticipate scheduling of this vote well before the September 1st, 2018 date for the new bonds. And with that, we welcome any questions. Good morning. You mentioned that you have discussed this with MGM. Obviously there's no, they're in agreement that this is appropriate. That's right, commissioner. We are in agreement with the proposal. John, the date December 31, 2020, given what we know now, there's low probability that the housing would be done by then, right? Well, and how does that? That remains to be determined as you recall when we just developed our schedule, we set up an interim deadline of March of 2019, such that if the planned units at 31 Elm are not able to be constructed within the period that we've identified March, 2020, that MGM would move along to another development and have that completed by the 2020 date. Was that part of our point? That is correct. So the theory would be that between March, 19 and December, 20, that there would be time to finish. So we include one caveat. So if indeed they move forward with 31 Elm by that date of 2019, it is not likely that they would complete 31 Elm by that 2020 date. But that would require further action by city council, et cetera, et cetera, because that's a complex construction project. But if the alternative plan moves forward, we very much anticipate that they would get that done by that March, 2020 date. And I'm sure you've covered this, but if everything is not done, then the bond will lapse, do we then have to get another one or what? We would have them renew that. We have the right to do that at any time. Anybody else, anything to have a motion? Mr. Chair, I move that the commission approve lowering the bond amount. I move that the commission approve lowering the bond amount from 51,579,200 to $25 million, beginning September 1st, 2018, that the term of the bond shall be from September 1, 2018 through December 31, 2020, that upon a request by MGM Springfield and approval by the commission, the bond amount may be lowered by the amount of any construction completed during the term of the bond, that MGM Springfield shall notify the commission of any changes in the construction plans with the residential units and the Dave's furniture retail location and the impact of the changes on the bond, if any, and authorize staff to take the steps necessary to implement the change in the bond. Second. Further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it unanimously. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and commissioners. My final item for today's meeting is a brief presentation by MGM Springfield regarding its compliance with the conditions specified in the Agreement to Award category of one license to Bluetarp Redevelopment LLC. This agreement, which includes 25 specific conditions, has been incorporated into MGM Springfield's license. In your packet is a letter from MGM Springfield detailing how most of these conditions have been met. This letter will be further updated before the commission is scheduled to consider granting MGM Springfield an operations certificate. However, given the importance of these conditions, we determined that it would be beneficial for the commission to hear from MGM Springfield now how it is meeting its obligations under these conditions. No vote on MGM Springfield's compliance with these items is anticipated until they are considered as part of the more comprehensive presentation from all commission departments scheduled in August that Executive Director Bedrosian detailed a little bit earlier. One example of an update will be the inclusion of further documentation from the city of Springfield that MGM Springfield has met its obligations under the host community agreement. Also, you will see that the letter in your packet references some internal control submissions that MGM Springfield has made to commission staff but are not yet approved. We fully anticipate that such internal controls will be approved in short order, allowing MGM Springfield to reference such approvals in its updated letter. With that as a general overview, I turn this over to MGM Springfield to provide some further detail regarding this letter. Thank you, John. Thank you for the opportunity. I will keep it brief. I just want to provide a general overview. The conditional letter speaks for itself. I don't want to read through each item, Commissioner Cameron. But I will just give you the background as to what this letter represents and why we're before you. This letter is generally prepared based on what the commission relied upon for the issuance of the operations certificate for the Plain Ridge Park Facility. MGM's letter is specific to the MGM license and the conditions contained in our license. As of now, as John mentioned, the letter does not address a few conditions with respect to which review is ongoing and those particularly include the conditions set forth, the sub-conditions and condition nine of our license, which relate primarily to the host community agreement compliance, surrounding community agreement compliance, final design and construction. We anticipate wrapping all of those up by the meeting on the second and we'll either update this letter or supplement with an additional letter demonstrating compliance with those conditions. The conditions include many required plans which have been filed over the last several years, as well as reporting requirements that the company has worked with the IEB on to ensure compliance. In some cases, specifically in regard to conditions, 20A, FNN, commission reporting regulations or other direction from the IEB has replaced the conditions in the license. We look forward to the legal divisions further input over the next few weeks and further update on full compliance without every condition in the license by the second of August. And if there are any specific questions, I will note you'll hear on a few of the conditions relate to our retail plan, regional marketing plan, which you'll hear about in a few minutes for members of our team. There is also one clarification, I think, that I want to make with respect to condition 16. The regional tourism plan, which is one of the plans that you'll hear about today, was there was a requirement that that be submitted 90 days before operations commencement. We submitted our original plan back in May within that 90 day period and based on some feedback and updates and discussions with Jill and Commissioner Stemmins have updated that plan. And so the reference to the July 10 submission is our updated plan, but we did satisfy the original 90 day pre-opening requirement. There are any questions? I'm happy to address them. Anybody? Okay. Do we have a motion? There's no vote expected on this today. It would be scheduled for August 2nd. Okay. Just as an aside, can somebody explain the letter, the stationary? In question. Does there, this looks like it's from Istanbul. So I'm gonna defer that question. Sarah Moore, who's here to present on our marking plan shortly, can help address that question, but we were very proud of our letterhead. You are. It makes for, it makes for longer letters sometimes because it really does. It's like when you're in college and you're trying to make requirement for pages, right? That's right. That's right. What are you talking about? All right, we'll look forward to hearing from Ms. Moore. All right, thank you folks. Mr. Chairman and commissioners, that concludes my report. Thank you, John. Jim and, I mean, Joe and John, we'll probably keep saying this, but you guys have really done a great job on overseeing the really complicated process. I don't know whether MGM imagined that anybody would actually hold them to all these thousands of things, but you guys have done a great job. It's really impressive. Thank you. Yeah, thank you both. Director Griffin. Actually, let's take a real quick break. Let Jill start. Meeting number 247, and we will turn to Director Griffin. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning. Good morning. Today, our licensee, MGM Springfield, will present a hiring update and provide you with updated information about the status of their hiring goals along with their benefits program and projected employment numbers so that you may potentially vote in an August meeting on compliance. No vote on employment compliance is expected today. I have reviewed the employment information that's in your packet in the context of the RFA two application commitments submitted by the then applicant in 2013 and the Diversity and Affirmative Marketing Program adopted by BluTARP redevelopment LLC and approved by the commission on January 22nd of 2015. MGM has this program in order to demonstrate how it intends to comply with its obligations in respect to the labor participation goals for hiring during operations phase of the gaming establishment. Following MGM's presentation, I'll summarize in the context of those commitments and the license conditions, license condition 12 and the host community agreement and the MGL chapter 23K section 2120. But right now, I'll turn it over to Mike Mathis to highlight employment projections. Thank you, Jill. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning. Happy to be here. I think the next time I'll see you will be in Springfield and shortly after that I will see you at the opening. So very excited to update you today. Just a couple of opening comments. I think before the break, Chairman Crosby mentioned that the MGM team would have been surprised to hear that anyone was holding us accountable for the thousands of commitments that we had in the RFA too. I can confirm as the author of many of those commitments that I am surprised the audacity of your team and the stubbornness of your team to go back and look at those commitments but like many things that were better for it. So I really respect the effort. Like any great piece of work that you spent a lot of time on I think it's gratifying to know that it meant that much to the commission to go back and look at all the little details and excited to comply with them and make this presentation today. I'm gonna hand it off to Mary Kate Murr and our VP of HR in a moment and so proud of the effort of our team and you're gonna hear some of the stats. You've heard some of the stats previously but when you think about the people side of our commitments, whether it's construction and design and you've seen the Brian Packer updates and every update he tells you, I'm not sure if we're gonna get there. He's a true under promise over deliver and frankly, every time he updated I was concerned about the bar he was setting for us on the operational side and I'm happy to say that in same form we're meeting and exceeding some really aggressive, some goals that you're gonna hear shortly. As of today, we are 36 days and three minutes away from our opening so we're working very hard towards that goal and looking very much looking forward for you all to visit and see the progress both on the building side and on the people side and you'll hear some of the stats of where we're at on the people side. Just a couple of other comments. You know, we've had many vendors, I think of the slot machine vendors, some of the other vendors that work throughout the country. We've had our senior management come out many times. We've had our own employees, many of whom are transfers from other competing jurisdictions and competitor businesses in the industry and all of them have said what a smooth and collaborative pre-opening process we have and I think it's a real credit considering this is an infant jurisdiction for you and your staff. It says a lot about the quality of work and the effort that's been put in by your staff and certainly myself and our team we're really proud of the partnership and how smoothly this has gone and it's pretty unprecedented to be able to open two, three weeks early as smoothly as we believe we're gonna be able to open. So I don't wanna jinx us but really, really proud of the collective effort that allows us to be in the position we are here today. And lastly, this is just an anecdote but I was just walking down the street the other day reviewing the exterior of the building and a resident of the south then stopped me on the street and he said, Mike, I've been following all of the design and the work on your projects at the very beginning and I'm so confused. I thought you're only preserving the one historic building on Main Street and I confirmed that we were and told him that the other buildings were all new build that none of it was restoration of any of the old storefronts that he saw but it's really, it speaks to how well we've done it. We've got consultants that literally age the brick, go up on ladders and put a finish on it so that it's not monolithic, that it's got some intentional imperfections and a comment like that just speaks to the level of effort we put in. So as you can tell, very proud, very excited, very exhausted but it'll be well worth it when I see you on the 24th. So with that I'm gonna pass it on to you. Before you pass it over, are you gonna explain why Istanbul was on your letterhead? I'm gonna punt like stuff into Saramore. Okay. But yeah, there's a rhyme to the reason. That's what makes our company special. We don't just mail in even letterhead. I get it, that's great. You want me to get into these steps? Okay, great. So yeah, I'm just gonna set up Mary Kay a little bit in terms of where we're at overall and I'm not sure if I had seen you the last time we did one of our mass hiring events but I do wanna talk about, it was Sunday, June 24th, right? Sunday, June 24th with our last mass hiring event in Springfield and as opposed to some of our earlier mass hiring events which were a little bit more of the traditional process wise we wanted in the prior events we wanted people to apply, go through a couple of rounds of screening and interviews and then we sent out basically virtual calendars for folks to set an appointment for when they would come in and be part of this final round of interviews and hopefully resulting in offers and those two or three prior events were really successful. We held them all in the Mass Mutual Center and I went to Mary Kay and I said, as well as I think we're doing, I'm hearing some feedback from the community that they find our process difficult or for those that aren't computer fluent that they were having struggles. So she said, you know, let's just do an old fashioned open call hiring event to see if we can bridge that gap. So no one would have the excuse that they can just come in and put their faces in front of us. We held that on Sunday, June 24th. I think we staffed it hoping we would get to 1,000. We ended up with 2,000 people. We were hoping to hand out three, 400 offers. We ended up handing out 550, which is the most I think we did in any of our events. And what was most gratifying to me is we saw a group of people that we hadn't had access to before that for whatever reason weren't able to work through our system or didn't have a desktop or laptop or weren't fluent on the computers. So just speaks to the effort and the commitment on our team and really the need in that community for employment. So really excited and she'll talk to some of the stats that came out of that event. That's a great story, Mike. And it's a lesson to remember for Encore, to make, because you learned a really important thing. Certain kinds of tools are off-putting to certain kinds of audience. So that's a really important lesson. It's great. Yeah, if we could do it again, we said that. We would employ that more. I think both are necessary. Some people need the certainty of a time slot and are organized enough, but the irony is some people is easy to spend a whole Sunday with us and to hit 10 o'clock on a Thursday morning. So really excited and you're gonna hear the results of that. Just overall in terms of where we are in employment, this is a combination of active employees, the numbers I'm gonna give you, as well as folks that we've made offers to and that are in our internal background check and then folks that are in the gaming commission staff background check. So active employees offers as well, but we are projecting to exactly 3,000 employees. Mary Kay, I don't think we'd necessarily backed into that, but I know that was an emotional psychological goal for us to be able to hit 3,000 total employees. 2228 of those will be full-time headcount. 506 were projecting will be part-time and 266 will be on call. And when you convert that, that turns into, we talked about full-time equivalents when you balance the full-time part-time. That's 2,581 full-time equivalents. And I think the important of that stat is in our early RFA-II submissions, we referenced 2,200 FTEs. So excited to exceed that goal. We think the business volumes are such that we'll not only need all of those full-times, but we'll convert a lot of the part-times into full-times and then the all calls into part-time. That's the ideal evolution of all those employees and some of those folks don't want full-time and that's a little bit of what's going on in that market. So this is based on really understanding the labor market, some of those early mass hiring events and to understand the feedback from those folks, but we're gonna comfortably get to 3,000. Above and beyond that, we've got 100 to 150 or so that we expect will come out of our retail employees. So when I think about employment of this project, I don't think of it just as the MGM employees, but the employees of the campus. So that's the regal syndemas of the world and the Kringle candles and the Hanoosh jewelers as well. So I think we'll drive more employment. We have to have them do their own onboarding and we'll be able to report those stats back to you. And then that also doesn't include the 125 folks that we brought on board from MassMutual Center. So we are comfortably landing, I think Jill's holding me to the approximately 3,254 employees that we projected back in 2013. And that comfortably puts us right in that range, which is great. So I think with that, I can hand it off to Mary Kaye to give you a little bit more of the granularity of what that composition of employees are, but we're in really good shape in terms of the overall hiring number. Thank you. Good morning. Jill and staff, if I may just, I wanna reiterate what was said earlier by Ed is the cooperation that we have with Paul Connolly and his staff and the license inside, the ability to transition, assist, and really getting people through. I just wanna reiterate the cooperation that we have from the staff is just unmatched. He is taking my calls on vacation, which I so appreciate. So I just wanted to reiterate. I'm sorry, did you say vacation? I might've just ratted him out. So if we could redact that from the official record. No, it's just for us to be successful, we have to have this partnership. And I do understand that. And it goes both ways. And same thing with Jill. So I just wanted to reiterate that. I also wanted to thank you for the field trip, getting me at a Springfield in my office. As Mike said, it's been very a crazy, chaotic, but really exciting time for the city and for the employees and the team that Mike has put together. We are starting to really change the culture of the property and the enterprise and really be the beacon, I think, for something different that we've ever done for the enterprise. So once again, I'm gonna embarrass Mike. I wanna thank you for bringing me on board here. It's just been, and my team members who are behind me and next to me, it's just what I am going to talk to you about is not just HR. It is the entire team that is from corporate, from regional, and from cross-property. So I just wanted to reiterate that to our team members across US. So I'm gonna jump into the presentation, the PowerPoint commissioners that's in your packet. We'll talk about the total number of employees, our percentages as they relate to our host community agreement with Springfield residents. And as you recall, that's at the best efforts at 35%. The four Western counties upon the higher date is that 90% that we've been referring to as regional. The percentage of Massachusetts residents hired is also included in your deck. The percentages of part of the host community agreement with minority women and veteran individuals hired. And then I'm gonna talk briefly at the end to give you a really high level example of our benefits package, our scremely robust benefit packages that we provide every employee who is qualified for that. So I believe it's a slide to commissioners that you'll see as of July 5th within the chart above and then below that as of July 5th, we are at 35.8% Springfield residents. That is representative of 618 total individuals, as Mike said, that were active employees, actually working. And that is also only representative 20.4 of our overall. I'm gonna hold my really excitement till I get through a little bit. Women, we are at 40.8% and just remember the goal is 50. Not really concerned now as we start to onboard the entire pipeline. That same number at 43.7 for minorities, that is also 50%. And then 8.9 for veteran and that host community agreement, best efforts with 2%. I am happy to report as of July 12th. We had 762 employees on. This is not in your packet, I apologize. 36% of the employees are onboarded. We already are increased to 36% Springfield residents. That's a 0.2 increase. 42.3% for women, that's a 1.5% increase. 45.3% for minorities, that's a 1.6% increase. And we have just a slight decrease in our veteran to 8.1. We continue to track daily and almost weekly. I'm reporting to Mike and the executive team on this really excited about as we continue to onboard and as our really important frontline and our Springfield residents come on. I was telling the chairman on Monday we will onboard 350 individuals. That entire week there'll be close to 700 and the week of July 30th, that entire week we will onboard in excess of 1,400 individuals to really ramp up that property. Moving forward, outside regional relocations are 10.5%. So that is 0.5%, just over the 90 as required, best efforts to the host community agreement. The four Western counties is 77% and then Massachusetts residents is 78.8. And as you recall, commissioner, that is reflective of the numbers on board of July 5th is only 20% of the current population. To get those numbers, what we do is I'm pulling reports out of our workday system, getting those running doing a VLOOKUP with the zip codes within Western Mass and then we have that ability to really run those in real time as employees come on. I just wanted to pause there to see if there was questions or comments before I move on. So the numbers look great. I know how hard you've worked and it is refreshing to see that. You did mention the 40% of women that you are not concerned meaning. You think with what you have in the pipeline those numbers will go up? Yes, yes, we are anticipating, we're tracking that right now who's in the pipeline right now with our, as Mike said, our drug and background and the licensing. I'm projecting those numbers to go up. So we're gonna be close to that but we're something that we're continually concentrating on and especially also with the minority number. Commissioner. Commissioner Cameron, if I can just add, I think it's sort of the ramp up of different departments that impacts that. So early on we had an onboard was typically a more male dominated department such as security. We have to change that though. We do and we're making strides but notwithstanding. I understand. So some of the other departments that are more customer service marketing related where women are more represented is where we're seeing more of the pickup on the FNB side marketing. So I think some of that is just by nature of the departments as well as an extra effort. We were so focused on residency and when our team is focused, we can get there. We feel comfortable enough on residency. Now we're focused on a couple of the other sort of line items that we really need to try to hit. Great. Thank you. And we'll make sure we hold Jason Rucker, our executive director of security's feet to the commission. Yes, women are great at diffusing the situations. That's right. America, this may be a question that you could not answer at all too soon but everybody's anticipating and it's customary that there would be a pretty substantial turnover in the first few months to first year. Do you have any way of assessing your bench strength? Will there be Springfield residents to backfill as you turn over or are you skimming that off and it's gonna get much tougher for these categories that you're targeting? We are not resting on our laurels. We have already scheduled contingency events and have our regional staff that will come in immediately following the Labor Day weekend because we know what has happened at National Harbor and other. What we've done, Chairman, also is we've overhired in those division and departments that were adversely impacted by attrition at National Harbor and based on experiences. We've got that approval from Mike and Courtney, our Courtney Winletter, our CFO. So we have overhired even to the extent to account for that attrition. And so we are seeing a little bit right now but what we've also done, we've had in excess of about 42,000 applications within the system. And so what we are doing, we're not dispositioning people. We are keeping them almost like mother henning, keeping them engaged to ensure that we will have that attrition. The industry standard is about 30%. That is our goal that we wanna- In the first year set industry standards? In general, yes. Or just in general? In general a year. It's the nature of the hospitality industry with food and beverage in some of our high volume jobs. So that is what we're already looking at and planning for. So if we are expecting a 30%, we wanna make sure we overhire and keep people in the pipeline. And that's the team of Jason Randall, my director of human resources and Jennifer Russell, director of talent acquisition. We're already on that planning. Unfortunately, a lot of my executives are getting those calendar appointments about hiring events. And they're like, did we just do this? Yes, but it's a process that is continual. And given that we have brought people on our training programs that are really very robust, new hire orientation, it really starts with the management and the supervisors who are gonna have daily contact with employees. That's what builds the commitment and the ability to lower the attrition that we might run into. Okay, interesting. I'd like to just bring your attention now to slide three. And I believe in your packet, there's also one pager. This is the employee benefits that those who qualify as full-time are afforded. As you can see, these benefits commence after our probation and parity of the first 90 days. So we had during, through the workday system, we contact our employees who are in those positions. We will have benefit fairs that they can come and speak to the health benefits, the PPO, or the HMO that we do offer, dental, medical, eye. Every one of those providers will be on site answering questions. Our corporate team is also here. We have our 401K provider, Prudential also comes in. So it's really, we start that probably about 40 days before they run out of their 90, just to make sure everyone's on the same page, having conversations of what an employee's needs are from their spouse to their dependents of their children. And as you can see, it also goes into voluntary benefits of life insurance, FSA accounts. Ooh, that should say short-term, long-disability, apologies, with my fat thumbs there. We even have pet insurance, 529 saving plans for college. I'm proud to report, it's one of the road bus that I've been ever had the opportunity to go into. And this is, as you know, driven by our corporate colleagues in Vegas. So we're very proud of that and that will start happening very quickly. Great. That's really impressive. Wellness program really, you know, something that makes a difference. It does. To drive down cost, we're encouraging even our employees to walk up our stairs now, because I'm a really firm believer. No one takes better care of yourself than yourself, right? So we keep people healthy, emotionally strong during especially this urgency that we're gonna run into the next 30 days. It pays dividends as we really, because we are going to open. I don't worry about the opening. I worry 30, 35, excuse me, 60 days later, keeping people engaged, keeping them really focused on the customer and the delivery of our show basics. So that's something that we're working on daily. If I could share anecdotally, just on the benefits package, I know one of the questions is, well, how good of a package is it? And my family, like many families with both parents working, my spouse and I both have available coverage. And she's had two employers since I've been with MGM. She was a public employee with the school system and is now in higher ed. Both of those areas generally have good benefits packages. In both instances, we've elected to have my family and my children on our MGM plan because the benefits and the costs are better than the public school system and higher ed. So I think those are the benefits packages that a lot of employees are used to in the region and as being strong ones. And I can attest personally that ours is less expensive and richer than the option we had with my wife. So I was happy for my own selfish reasons. I was happy to have access to that. But I think it goes to the question of, well, any employer could lay out a benefits package, but is it a good one? And I can personally attest that it's a very good one. Great, thank you. If I may, I'd like to share a story with some of our employees, just to really put a dot on the eye of what we're doing in Springfield based on the law that came many, many years ago. We opened up our EDR recently just to do some testing on some of the food. Employee dining. So excuse me, sorry, employee dining acronyms, right? Employee dining room. And I was one of the first in line, so I got my food and I sat down and being from HR, no one really would sit with me. So I saw a group of our kitchen stewards who were also in the employee dining room and I got up, brought my lunch over to, asked if I could sit down. And of course, they welcomed me. You know, I started talking to them and where they're from and what they're doing. They'd been on board about two or three weeks. And I noticed their body language. I noticed the smiles on their face and I noticed really the word yum coming out of their mouths. As you know, our Vice President of Anthony Caracuzola is responsible for that entire outlet. And what I started, I said, what is this about? And some of the young men in front of me shared that they had never eaten food as good as we were provided. That they didn't know what real lettuce was. And when I sit back and look at these young men and these young women, that the company and the enterprise and how we are changing Springfield, I get a, I'm privileged and proud to be part of this company and what we're doing for Springfield. And we are gonna change generations. And I'm not, I'm not, I'm gonna say that because we are. And I wanna thank you sitting in front of us commissioners and Ed and your entire team because this is truly a partnership. And I cannot wait for you to experience what we're experiencing in the culture. It's something special. And I don't know what took me so long to find the company, right? We'll have a conversation with someone later. But it's just a privilege. I wanted to share that with you because they even said to me, their manager came by and they said, there's Danny, I would take a bullet and do anything for him. And they had only been on two weeks. So that goes to who we're hiring, how we're training. So I just wanted to share that with you commissioners. You will see this when you're on property, when the thousands of people on the employees and the customer come through. So I just wanted to once again thank you and share a little bit of the culture that's happening on campus. That's a really good story. Thank you for sharing that. That is what this is all about, right? Yeah, and I hope, we're not cheerleaders, as you know, we're your regulators. We'll do our job and I've said this many times. But I do take, as I've also said many times, the commitment of MGM to be quality corporate citizens. I mean, we're looking over your shoulder, probably wouldn't be exactly the same if we weren't here, but it would be close, and I'm impressed by that. And I hope there's a way someday that if this works out like we all hope it will, that the story will be able to be told. If you're able to do for Springfield, to participate in doing for Springfield, what it looks like you might be able to do, because it's the casino industry, it's gonna be an uphill battle to get that story told right. But those kinds of anecdotes and the phenomenon of changing generations for years is an extraordinary tale, and I'm proud to be a part of it too. Anybody else? I just wanted to circle back, I had a question about, I'm looking at the stats of the 3,000 positions, and I have a concept in my head of what on-call means, but I don't think it means what you think it means. So I'm just wondering if you could explain to me what on-call means for you guys. Sure, so if you're in a food and beverage or server, those are positions that when our part-time and full-time call out are sick, are on personal time off, they're basically, we call them to come in and work shifts. So it's really that definition of we, someone has already called out and will not be able to work their shift, we have a nice pool of people we can call to bring them in and to work that shift, and they've all gone through training in that specific role. So they're per diem people, they aren't people who already have other positions part-time and come in for shifts. They only come in when you call them? Yes, they could have other jobs and other companies, and so they specifically have asked for that type of on-call opportunity, or that was the only thing we had left after we did our mass hiring events, and then the hope is as we lose some of our full-time or part-time would move up to full-time, and then our on-call would then move into part-time work, seeing if they want that or move into full-time employment. Are they compensated in any way to be in abeyance for you, or is they just say, call me if I can, I'll come in if I can't, call some people else? That's right, they are paid and compensated when they work for us, but there are a large group that want these type of employment opportunities to stay flexible, and though the hope is once we have them exposed to the company, they'll commit more full-time for us, because then we can start to invest in additional training and education programs for them. Are they part of your stats in terms of your percentages? Are they part of your percentage stats, or are they off to the side? They are built into that. Into your stats? Yes. Just gonna say, I think the best way to think about that group is a group. Sometimes it's because we don't have part-time available, so by default, that's all that they can get, but also it could be a lifestyle choice on their part. It's really a free option to work, and we've trained them to be in a position, almost like the Uber driver who can turn it on and turn it off, and it is a great pipeline to get involved in the business and then move yourself up to part-time full-time, so it just has less predictability in terms of a part-time schedule. Even part-timers have some ability to predict their schedules for the following week or the following two weeks, with some minimum amount of hours. This is a group for whatever reason, depending on the category, are just available on the bench to be called and join the workforce. And I think a good example of these employees are special events in banquet staff, so it's driven by the demand for a wedding or a big event, and you have banquet servers and banquet bartenders, and I met actually a few individuals in their hiring fair who were specifically looking for on-call opportunities. One of them was a mother, a mom who generally stays home but had a career as a bartender and wanted to have availability in the evenings to do special events and make some extra money, but not work full-time. And so I think those are the examples of, she said I'd love to get on board and hopefully a couple of times a week there will be an event that I can come and earn some extra money. So that's an example of what would be an on-call employee. And how do the benefits apply to part-time and on-call, if at all? On-call they do not, chairman. If you, as a part-time employee, you have to work 1,050 hours in a certain amount of time to qualify for eligibility for benefits, and then our full-time are afforded that when they have a full-time position. So what does that mean? What percent of the hours is that in order to? I think the average is around 30, 32 hours a week. Right, that's correct. Is the trigger over some period of time is an average. And then do you get, are you prorated the package or you then qualify for the whole package? You qualify for the whole package. Yeah, it's a binary, either you qualify or you don't. But that's industry standard. Anybody else? Okay, director. Thank you. So, I have, Do you have more? No, no I don't. Okay. So I have to add that I have been very impressed by the outreach, the availability in the community. MGM Springfield has been everywhere. If you don't know about a job, it would be very unusual. So that being said, it's my role to analyze some of these, some of this employment information compared to their RFA2 commitments. So regarding the benefits, we just talked about the robust list of comprehensive benefits package, which looks fabulous and is comparable to the RFA2 package. They are also providing subsidized meals, which is not exactly what is included in the RFA2. And we understand that the final hiring numbers are not available yet. And the numbers that we have are a certain point of time and that compliance is ongoing and occurs over the 15 years of the license. But regarding the employment projection specifically, at this time with 618 active employees and some of the numbers that Mary Kate updated us on, although the projected project totals of new jobs at the gaming establishment appear to be higher than their original estimates, the model is different than the RFA2 application made in 2013, as like the retail model that changed, some of the jobs in the gaming establishment are provided by vendors, some are on call, the total appears to be incomparable. We are pleased to see that almost 80% of the employees are Massachusetts residents and that's very impressive. And as of the July 5th date of the report, MGM Springfield is exceeding two of their hiring goals. Currently they are exceeding the goal of hiring 35% Springfield residents and they are also exceeding their 2% veteran employment goal, really fabulous. They're at almost 9%. So MGM Springfield has not yet met their regional hiring goal of 90% from the four Western Mass counties that is reasonably close at 77%. Their hiring goal for women and minority employees at 50%, they are reasonably close to their 50% goal at 41% women and 44% minority were a little bit higher based on those numbers. And I have to say that MGM Springfield has maintained their commitment to hiring and maintaining a diverse, multicultural, multiracial workforce reflective of its host community and customer base. We look forward to continued commitment to hiring Western Mass and Massachusetts residents and updates regarding their progress towards all of these goals. So I'll turn it back over to the commission for questions and comments. Well, I think you set the bar very high for yourself and when you look at those numbers, 50%, 90%. And so in reading that I said, wow, this might be difficult. And to see you work this hard at it, come this close to meeting those goals. And it certainly is reflective of the entire team from the top down. I know you were proud to introduce your management team, which is very diverse and I think makes everybody else here in the Commonwealth that that's the bar they have to try to meet as well. So I think it's terrific and it's really apparent how hard you're working to do this. Anything else? We don't need any votes or anything. You just- No, no, no. So, all right. Thank you. Great, thank you. Thanks. So commissioners, today you are expected to vote on the MGM Springfields Regional Tourism and Marketing Plan. We have representatives from MGM Springfield including Sarah Moore, Vice President of Brand Marketing and Retail. Anika Gaskins, Vice President of National Marketing at MGM Springfield and Seth Stratton as well, Vice President and General Counsel. After some brief remarks of context, I will turn the mic over to MGM to present their plan and we'll return to make brief remarks following the presentation. As the commission is aware, an important priority of the 2011 expanded gaming law is tourism promotion in Massachusetts. This is evidenced in MGL chapter 23K section one which states promoting local small businesses and the tourism industry, including the development of new and existing small business and tourism amenities such as lodging, dining, retail and cultural and social facilities is fundamental to the policy objectives of this chapter. Recognizing seven, recognizing the importance of the Commonwealth's unique cultural and social resources and integrating them into new development opportunities shall be a key component of the decision to award any gaming license under this chapter. Cross marketing and tourism promotion was also highlighted as an objective to be advanced in determining the granting of a gaming license under section 17 which highlights the following objectives. Promoting local business and host and surrounding communities including developing cross marketing strategies with the local restaurants, small businesses, hotels, retail outlets and impacted live entertainment venues. Building a gaming establishment of high caliber with a variety of quality amenities to be included as part of the gaming establishment and operated in partnership with local hotels, dining, retail and entertainment facilities so that patrons experience the diversified regional tourism industry. Finally, in the agreement to award a category one license to BlueTarp redevelopment LLC license condition 16 requires MGM Springfield to produce a regional tourism and marketing plan in consultation with the Regional Tourism Council and the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism and subject to approval by the commission. Such plan shall include but is not limited to making space available in the gaming establishment for state and regional tourism information, links on the licensees website to the Regional Tourism Council website and a joint marketing program with the RTC and with MOT. Staff training in regards to the plan and the sharing of visitor data. Such plan shall be provided to the commission for its approval at least 90 days prior to the anticipated commencement of the operation of the gaming establishment. So with that context, I'm gonna turn the mic over to MGM. Hi and thank you so much for allowing us to present our regional plan to you. We're very excited to be here. We're honored to be able to present this presentation but since the beginning of the project we have and continue to understand the importance of supporting and promoting local and statewide businesses to ensure visitors in and out of the region experience all that Western Massachusetts has to offer. And this plan will outline how we'll drive visitation and incremental revenue to the property, to the city, the region, all utilizing a multitude of marketing channels to do so. So in summary, the marketing objectives presented in this plan will leverage MGM Resorts brand equity to drive visitation, revenue and exposure to local businesses as well as local and regional state tourism agencies and Western Massachusetts in general. This will be achieved by the implementation of a consistent marketing strategy, exclusive of seasonality, designed to position MGM Springfield, Pioneer Valley and Western Massachusetts as a world-class full service tourist destination for the region. Now I'll turn it over to Sarah Moore to present our regional tourism and attraction partnership initiatives. Sarah, before you begin, would you like to share the story you shared with me? Yes, please let me address the elusive stationery. So what you were looking at was actually our memorial bridge right outside of our property. And yep, this is one part of our new design package and platform that you will see carried throughout the property when you visit. We've chosen some of the most iconic elements that are either on campus or around us and we've kind of refashioned them in a new modernized way. It doesn't always translate perfectly to screen, but I think you'll be impressed when you see it. And throughout our presentation today you'll see some of those additional elements. Great. I think it's meant to just be on the first page, though, of the, of the letter, to be- It is, there's a second page. Yes, of the letter. I'll address it with someone later. Yes, I will. There's a full complete system. I'm not used to using fancy letter heads like that. They love it so much they couldn't stop. Thank you. Thank you, but moving on, so we're really excited to be here today and talk about some of the, some of the partnerships. And I emphasize some because our partnership program is growing every single day in terms of the different businesses, big and small that we are working with and amplifying and growing throughout the region. So moving on first and foremost, one of our key partnerships is the Greater Springfield Convention Visitors Bureau. We, they are partners through and through. We have an incredible relationship with them and we're so excited to be kicking off a really multi-level dynamic partnership and joint marketing agreement. That includes everything from having our general manager, Alex Dixon, sitting on the executive committee to, we've increased our financial investments substantially to support them in their marketing dollars and their media dollars. Utilizing our marketing engine, our various touch points through our different communication channels and marketing channels, but also on property as well, that we can drive exposure. As Jill mentioned, also the sharing of research, we've obviously conducted significant research in this area, all of which we've shared with the GSCVB so that they can take those insights and share them across the entire region and utilize that to drive their marketing efforts. We've shared our media plans with them, we're identifying opportunities because we're about to launch a very large-scale media brand campaign, huge financial investment, but we know that with that, we have the ability to create added value for our partners, so identifying parts of that media plan that we are able to even give them some of that media airspace as they, to help amplify their campaigns as well. How broad is the Greater Springfield Visitors Bureau? What communities are in it? How far outside Springfield does it go? I believe it's Hamden County, I believe it's the county RTCs. All of Hamden County. Yeah, all of Hamden County, so you would have additional RTCs in the other counties, but they cover the whole. Those which doesn't include Berkshires or North Hamden or Berkshires Hamden. So we have regular meetings with them, ongoing from a sales and marketing standpoint, also to help drive group and meeting a convention business as well, and we're constantly understanding each other's efforts and how we can further continue driving support for each other. I'm gonna go through these fairly quickly, so please stop me for questions. One of the partnership highlights we wanted to focus on with our GSCVB is the Cambridge College Apprenticeship Program, and this is a great example of how we've pulled the GSCVB into some of our efforts in other facets of our business. So we partnered with the Cambridge College to provide training classes to City of Springfield Job Seekers, and Mary Kay Wydra, the president of the GSCVB, was actually a co-architect of that Springfield Concierge Program, helping us to put together an education opportunity on the development and history of Springfield so that we could utilize that group of people to continue promoting the various attractions around the area. Another key partner for us is the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, or MOT, and we really look at MOT as a partner for a number of different things. First off, just from a co-op marketing standpoint, we're exploring various efforts with them, including social media influencer summits, and media fam trips, and also obviously the international customer being incredibly important. So how can we work with them on their various sales trips and sales efforts, specifically driving Asian customers, which Anika will speak to in a minute. But then also, how do we include them, the other side of that, just as we are with GSCVB, and all of our efforts that we have coming up and ramping up over the next, you know, six to eight weeks. So having them have a presence in our grand opening activities so that all of the media coming in has exposure to all of the incredible work that they're doing as well. And then again, using our marketing channels and our marketing engine to help promote massvacation.com and the MOT organization. So additional agencies that we're exploring or have developed partnerships with is One Berkshire. We understand, you know, to help drive our seasonality program which we know is incredibly important from the summer standpoint as well as the winter standpoint with ski resorts and golf courses and all of the like outdoor adventure venues that One Berkshire is a great organization for us to partner with. So talking to them now about ways to get engaged in their community. It's not just about meeting, you know, the right people to help us but really getting engaged in their community and what that looks like and what's most appropriate. And then similarly, we've done a lot of work with the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and everything from, again, holding business affairs with them, getting engaged with the key stakeholders of that community. We're a founding sponsor of the Worcester Railers which is really exciting. They've had a great season. So further continuing exploring both of those areas and more, quite honestly. And so from a regional standpoint just kind of zoning in a little bit to local attractions as everyone is well aware. We are blessed with an incredible area of local attraction. So how do we use what we do to help promote them and drive business to them but then also utilize the incredible assets that they have as well. So we have gone, we have developed or established joint marketing agreements and partnerships with a number of different attractions including the Basketball Hall of Fame which I believe we presented at a separate hearing. And this is a multi-year agreement and this is everything from marketing but also hospitality and getting their visitors on site around Entryment Weekend and helping amplify their events around the weekend as well. Working on community events that we can co-promote, co-developing, co-promote together whether it's with youth basketball organizations and looking at some really fun stuff there. The Springfield Museums which we had our infamous moment with the artifact that we brought in for Springfield. We're really excited to be partnered with the Springfield Museums not only from a marketing standpoint but also we're displaying that incredible collection the Curiosity Cabinet on property as well. Six Flags, we just finalized a multi-level marketing partnership with Six Flags to help drive their customers to our location but also our customers and give them exposure on site to drive during some of their peak times as well. And then the Big E. So we're currently finalizing pretty robust partnership with the Big E as well so we can support them during their big events. And then we have a number of sports sponsorships. We sports customers, they align with our demographics so we understand how important that relationship can be for us. So we have a number of established partnerships obviously with the Springfield Thunderbirds the Worcester Railers, the New England Patriots as well as the Boston Red Sox and others, many others in discussion. What you said that says the Big E might be involved in your opening activities? What would that be? What? Do you want to be a part of that? Or is it? We are working with the Big E to support our parking. So we're actually going to be having out we're actually going to be promoting the Big E as our primary parking location at Grand Opening to help alleviate some of the congestion downtown and create a really nice kind of fluid experience. We're working with the Spirit of Springfield who is curating this entire experience in Court Square to help support all the traffic that'll be coming in. So it really is this collaborative effort across many different organizations around the Grand Opening. So you'll be like bussing people over from the Big E parking lots? Yeah. Okay. So one of the other things we are committed to not only in the RFA, but in general is okay, so what touch points do we have that we can further promote these organizations? And so we looked across our entire kind of marketing engine and we're excited to be promoting. You can see it, that's actually a picture of our live website. So we have many of these organizations already up on our website as part of our local attractions, but then through social media, as well as our email newsletters to our database, on-property signage, in-room collateral, our front desk, our EmLife rewards desk, we'll be able to kind of promote all of these attractions. And then in addition, which I'll speak to a little bit in greater detail in a bit, is our activations on property, whether it's in our armory or in our plaza, we have many, many local partnerships that we'll be representing through that event programming. And then there's always the downtown businesses and they've been such an integral part of the fabric and the DNA of the city. And so how can we further support all the incredible work they're doing? As I mentioned, the spirit of Springfield, I actually sit on the board of the spirit of Springfield, so we are very much aligned with their event programming that they're doing downtown and working closely with Judy Matt. We've actually engaged them to help us plan some of our special events happening around grand opening. So we're really excited to not just give them that business but really collaborate with them on these events. Another one is the bid, so the Springfield Business Improvement District, they're also known for the incredible events that they throw downtown and we are having some of those events take place on our plaza. So whether it's cruise nights and the vintage cars or we're actually bringing back the city block concert series which hasn't happened downtown for a while but was a huge, huge event to draw people downtown, we're gonna be having that event on our plaza. So it's a great way that we could provide infrastructure to support something that's really important to the city of, to the people of Springfield. You mentioned cruise nights, could you explain? It's a vintage cars. So all of the vintage cars come down and they park and they just kinda show off and it's fabulous and it brings a lot of people to downtown Springfield and so we'll be hosting a few of those on our plaza. They also drink beer outside during that and if you'll recall, Chris Russell, the head of the Bay came out with us in our presentation to explain the positive experience they've had in the city with their various downtown events and having alcohol consumption as part of that. So it's great to have that collaboration with the bid to help us program our plaza based on the experience that they've had successfully in Springfield running events like cruise night and white line Wednesday and jazz fast. Yep, thank you, Seth. So moving on to advertising, we are, if you remember back in March of 2018, MGM Resorts launched its first global marketing campaign on behalf of our parent company and it was the first time we went out with that scale of a campaign for MGM Resorts as part of that global campaign, we chose New England in Massachusetts specifically as a location for targeting some of that media so that we could start to set the groundwork for the incredible marketing efforts that we'll be doing and so that time has come. We are within days of launching our brand campaign and we're very excited about that and it'll be throughout New England and so we list here some of the key markets that we'll be in, Albany, Providence, obviously all of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and this is an omnichannel campaign so it's TV, radio, out of home billboards, digital, social, PR and we chose those markets specifically based on all of the research we did here and what media, besides population and income, obviously, about media behaviors and then also overlaid our MLive customers where we see our MLive customers coming from and then also, you know, propensity to visit our property as well so that you will see that very, very soon and it's, I personally, you know, it's very special to me. So I'll hand it over to Anika to talk about our MLive Rewards database. So Sarah's been talking briefly a little bit about MLive Rewards. MLive Rewards is basically what I call the crown jewel of MGM Resorts International and that our database is very extensive and most likely one of the most extensive in the industry. We have about 30 million members in our database and we plan to utilize that database at MGM Springfield for in a few different ways. One is in all of our direct marketing efforts. Second is to do cross property marketing which basically is bringing, importing people from other areas of the country that are MLive Reward members into Western Massachusetts, utilizing our database to leverage casino host relationships of our high-end customers and then lastly, we'll utilize the MLive Rewards program to establish local benefits with some of our partners in Springfield. So the next slide shows you just the imminent reach of the program. It's extensive, it's expansive. We have a multitude of properties on the strip that we have access to the customer database as well as Atlantic City properties in Mississippi as well as Michigan and now we're proud to say that we are creating our own database in Massachusetts. So in terms of tactics, direct marketing is one of the strongest vehicles of the casino industry and we have over a half million MLive Reward members that we have access to within our region as well as outside of our region within a certain mile radius to our property and the goal there is to ensure that we are constantly and consistently actively marketing messages about our amenities and Western Massachusetts to those individuals. So a lot of the customers that we're marketing to, the goal obviously is to bring them to our property, get them to utilize their card and then we'll be able to track all of their gaming and non-gaming spend and send them with offers. And then included in those offers we'll utilize different strategies to make sure that we're hedging against tourism dollars going out of the state and staying here within Massachusetts. So some of the things that we utilize on the direct marketing and email marketing side are offers in email or mail where we're giving people free slot play or free bet, comps to restaurants or even comps to some of our partners like the movie theater. We'll also do special events for VIP events and with VIPs that's where we have the opportunity to do a lot of cross property marketing. So if we have an extremely high end slot tournament and I'll just throw a prize pool out there of $100,000 prize pool, we have the ability to reach out to customers that are not in Massachusetts and drive them here because the prize pool is so big. And then in general we'll also be- Is that a play up, loyalty play up program? Play up program. So the slot tournament concept that I just described would be more of a cross property effort. A play up program basically and sends customers to either increase their frequency or their share of wallet at our property by giving them, for example, different point hurdles to earn as they play. So the more you play, the more I'll return to you either as a bounce back offer or immediately at the slot machine. So that's an idea of a play up offer. And then also we'll always be actively marketing our entertainment partnerships with Mass Mutual Center, Symphony Hall and City Stage. So I touched on briefly about cross property and casino hosts. And the beauty about our casino host team is that they're able to provide personalized service to very high end customers. And with that personalized service comes the relationships. So again, going back to cross property efforts, we would be reaching out to our host at MGM Springfield to reach out to a host that's at the Bellagio to say, guess what, we have these amazing amenities here at MGM Springfield. Bring your customers here. And while your customers are here, we'll introduce them to the loop. We'll introduce them to various opportunities where we can take them trophy fishing or experience golf at some of our partners. On the next, thank you. On the next slide, in terms of MLive rewards benefits. So we, from a competitive standpoint, we have great benefits that come on a standard basis with each of our tiers. We have five tiers to our program. And the more that you play, the better card that you'll receive and the better benefits that you'll receive along with those cards. But in addition to that, in order to enhance the experience of our customers and enhance and externalize the MLive rewards program, we are partnering with some local businesses to provide discounts at restaurants. We're also partnering with other local entertainment companies, which we're still in the process of working those things out, so I can't mention them. But so we are looking to, we are externalizing the benefits to enhance the program, so that not just within our four walls of the casino, do you see the benefits of MLive rewards? But if you go outside into the community and show your card, you'll receive a benefit as well. In terms of Asian marketing, we're engaging with Mott and Massport on our Asian efforts, including sales trips. But other opportunities for us are to partner with our MGM properties that are in Kotae and Macau to charter flights and bring known Asian customers here, not only to experience Springfield, but also to experience Western Massachusetts. And really, the goal there is to ensure that we're providing revenue, not only to MGM Springfield and Western Mass, but we're also providing the region access to business professionals that are in China, bringing them over to come and experience what we have to offer here. So really the goal is that we have high hopes of repeat visitation, increasing the number of visitors that come here, as well as allowing Western Mass to leverage the relationships that we're able to bring to the region. How do you, sure how you can, much you can get into this, but just out of, marketing to the Asian market, which is gonna be a priority of Encore also, how do you position, how do you sell against Encore in Boston, in effect? What's, I mean, I guess there'd be something about your particular customers, people who always go to MGM facilities and use their rewards program, maybe that's it. But how would you, how do you sell Western Mass over Boston? Well I think that one of the things that we can do to sell Western Mass, well let me just step back and say that the biggest advantage that MGM has is the loyalty program, as well because of the connectivity to all of the various properties. Encore does not have a lot of properties. And our resorts, we do, so that's a big one. The way that we would bring people to Western Mass is one, we would leverage the relationships that we have with some of our local, I would say Asian entrepreneurs who have a connectivity to the folks at home. So once you, we're in the community now already establishing relationships. And so grassroots efforts is one of the biggest ways to do that. There's a lot of things to do in Boston, but there are a lot of unique things that can be done in Western Massachusetts and those are the things that we would leverage to bring those customers over to our area. Is there a way to make transportation easier so that typically someone coming in from another country probably doesn't wanna drive an hour and a half? Yeah, there's absolutely opportunities to do that and one of the things that I'll discuss a little bit further is our transportation marketing efforts. So bringing customers from China, directly, we could probably most likely bring them directly into either Boston or BDL, right? That's one way to do it. We can set up tours, that's another way to do it and those are things that I'll talk about in the, during the motor coach presentation part, how we'll have people from flying into Boston coming to Springfield utilizing our motor coach strategy. If I could add one of our piece, risky having the lawyer talk marketing, but as a long time Western Massachusetts resident, I think one thing Western Mass can compete with Boston on is access to fine institutions of higher education and private high schools, prep schools. We have one of the most prestigious in the country, 30 minutes north of our project and so when and when there's a lot of international students and parents visiting to both those institutions and right now, I know this anecdotally because my son attends a local prep school, they struggle to find entertainment and good accommodations in the area. So I think we'll be able to really target some of those audiences and tie into some of the visiting families through the educational institutions in Western Massachusetts. And another thing too that I'd like to add is the positioning of our property versus an encore is very different. I can tell you that being born and raised in Las Vegas, you don't just kind of walk into encore in jeans and a T-shirt. It's fairly intimidating sometimes for folks to go because it's just extremely high end. And so we wanna be the more friendlier and less intimidating environment and we're competitive when it comes to gaming just as encore is on the table games and slots so we're equally as competitive but the environment will be much less intimidating and I think that with that particular culture that's important. And that's one thing that we would leverage. So transportation marketing. So as I mentioned before some of our transit efforts, one of the things that a major goal of ours is to intercept and divert day trips and overnight business that's currently going out of. That sounds illegal. Oh, it's not. You're coming to Springfield. Exactly. And we're doing that by providing people great offers and staying closer to home. So that's one of the things that we have in play at this point in time that we're setting up is we've partnered with a local motor coach company and that's exactly what our goal is. The way that we've placed the various line runs that's exactly what will happen. It will prevent people from going to Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York because the trip's shorter, the offer is better and the equipment is better as well. We're also partnering with local and non-local tour operators to encourage charter business to travel to Massachusetts. So we're looking at companies that operate out of Canada and New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, as well as New Jersey. So we are members of the American Bus Association and Group Leaders of America. We are also going to partner with the National Tour Association as well as the International Motor Coach Group. And some of the packages that we are offering to those groups include day trip offerings, which would be gaming offers, discounted round trip transportation, and then discounts to some of our local and regional attractions. On an overnight basis, we would provide a hotel stay discount based on double occupancy. Gaming offers and discounted round trip transportation as well as discounts to our local and regional attractions. So in addition to that, we are creating a national and international air program in partnership with Massport and local regional airports. So we're in conversations with various airports at this point in time. And then we're also looking at partnering with passenger railroad companies such as Amtrak and New Haven Rail Hartford Springfield Rail Program to offer travel discounts on tickets purchased to Massachusetts and encourage people to come to Western Mass as their final destination. Sure. So we've also mentioned a couple of times we're really proud of our partnership with the PVTA to create the loop, which is our downtown shuttle. We're a proud sponsor of it and an architect of the program alongside the PVTA. And this is meant to just make the city smaller and really highlight how accessible the city is from all of the various attractions but also promote all the various attractions around town. So this new public service transportation service is at no cost. It's environmentally conscious. It's an electric vehicle. Seats about 40 people comfortably and we'll have various runs Wednesday through Sunday, but we will, and in amping up at peak times, but we'll be constantly monitoring and adjusting the line runs as we need to to support the downtown volume. And just wanted to share some of the great feedback. It's just another sign from our general manager, Alex Dixon. It's just another sign that the city of Springfield is on the rise from Mary Kay Weidra, president of the GSCBB. The loop has always been a key component of the MGM project and it introduces our visitors to the many attractions downtown that make us special as well. The loop will be operated with zero emissions electric bus as part of the PVTA's goal of providing sustainable transportation. And that's from Sandra Sheehan at the PVTA. So moving on to entertainment. So entertainment is, we're an entertainment company. So it's very, very important to us. And so how do we utilize the entertainment arm of our company to really support the various attractions and venues downtown? Obviously Mass Mutual Center is, we operate it. We consider it a part of our campus. We promote it and market it as though it is a part of our campus. It's an extension of MGM. And we are really excited already about the programming that we've been able to put into Mass Mutual Center. Stevie Wonder is September 1st. We're bringing lots of different shows. We've announced many shows with a lot more to come. We have the goal of really programming it with four of our big, what we call, MGM caliber events every year. And so we're excited to show that we've already done that. We're bringing the NHL All Star game there next year. But it's so much more than just programming it. It's also, like I said, it's about a marketing partnership. But then also buying blocks of tickets for our customers, putting people in the venue. Buying tickets for our employees, allowing employee discounts. We're very lucky that we do have Great East Coast now with National Harbor Open in Bogota. So we've been leveraging programming at their locations as well, so we're creating these really great East Coast tours, which we're now a part of. So we're excited about our partnership with Mass Mutual Center. But then, as I said, entertainment means many, many different things. And we want to be able to provide our customers with various levels of entertainment. And there are some fantastic venues here in the region that we are committed to working with as well. City Stage, Symphony Hall, the Hanover Theater, Majestic Theater, Tanglewood is part of our seasonality program. So we're excited not only to support them from a potential booking standpoint, but also, you know, driving customers there through our bus program and our MLIFER Awards database. And then employees, we'll have 3,000 employees. So what a great opportunity to use our employees to really help drive the community and promote all of the interactions to our employees. They're a whole little community of themselves. And so getting out in front of our employees to help promote the regional attractions and the venues, but also, you know, buying blocks of tickets for our employees, such as the Springfield Museums and the Basketball Hall of Fame, providing opportunities for volunteering, which you've probably seen we've done that quite a bit. We've, our employees are very active. They're out in the community. They're part of the community. We live here now. So it's important to us personally. And then obviously, we've partnered with the UMass Donahue Center Institute as with the Sigma Study. And so we're working with them to utilize the findings of that study to support all of the visitation of Western Mass. That's great. Yeah. Great stuff. And then finally, measurement and reporting, because as Mary Kate said best, we never rest on our laurels. So it's important for us to see, what are we really doing here and are all of these efforts working? And what do we need to expand, change, et cetera? So the GSCVB, obviously, they drive a lot of the reporting of the visitation in the area. So we work closely with them to share our insights, to share our reporting with them, so we can see right now, let's set a baseline, and then let's see a year from now to five what we've really done for the visitation of the area. And of course, we will be reporting out to the commission regularly on all of our expanded marketing efforts, because this entire presentation quite honestly is just a summary. There's so much more that we're working on to really put this area on the map and utilize our engine to do so. Is that been difficult to do? I mean, say driving events, banquets, conventions, I mean, I know you're just beginning, but is there, people don't know Western Mass necessarily from around the country? I think there's always room for improvement. We have a great pipeline of events, and with Mass Mutual Center, obviously they have solid events that they've already been hosting for years, and so working with them and our network to continue driving that, we have smaller meeting footprint on properties, so it's a different kind of event we're going after, but we have a pretty robust pipeline, and it's through these partnerships with, you know, MOT and the GSCBB will continue to do that, and then also leveraging our corporate meeting, obviously we're a huge meeting convention company, so leveraging our corporate power to continue driving the area as well. Thank you. Thank you. You know, I well remember the RFA II process, and this, when you were pitching this, and it was a very high, I think Bruce Stebbins was responsible for reviewing this, right, because he had the tourism and economic development side, but in those days it was just paper, just ideas, and it's really great to see it come. Does everybody just look to you as a piggy bank, and just, you want to do marketing partnerships to them, that means give us money, or do people get the synergies, or what's it like to try to interface with all these folks that see you as King Kong? I always err on the side of honesty, so I always say both equally. We have been just overwhelmed with the energy and excitement of partnering with us, and I use that word, because yes, there's always the people that are just looking for a check and looking to sponsor, but the vast majority has been organizations that really want to partner with us. They see the opportunity, they see this isn't just about a marketing sponsorship and putting our name on something, but really driving their business with what we have to offer, so we've been overwhelmed with how many, we don't have enough, there's not enough of us to support all the potential partnerships out there, so we're really focused on what's best for the business, what's best for the area, what's best for the region in the state of Massachusetts and the company, but there's no shortage of partnerships out there, and as I said, this only represents some who are constantly evaluating new partnerships every single day, but yes, they get it, and they're engaged, it's much more than just a marketing sponsorship. When we were considering it, there was a lot of apprehension that MGM would come in and soak up all the discretionary dollars and take away the people, Northampton was concerned that it was going to affect their downtown, the ILEVs were concerned, is there antipathy still and fear, or are people seeing this as a positive? I think the vast majority are seeing it as a positive. I think it was Mike who told the story earlier, if you walk downtown right now in Springfield, there is this incredible buzz and we've injected so many people and in every restaurant, every patio is full, it's really hard to get lunch sometimes downtown because we have brought so much volume to the city already and we're not even open yet, so I think people are seeing, their businesses are benefiting from this already, so imagine when the doors are open and so I would say very much so this sentiment is that we're here to make them better and they're seeing that. I can also add to that surrounding communities are extremely excited as well, so they're always looking for a place to go and a place to have a good time and so this is turning into sort of a destination for cities that are outside of Springfield as well. Everybody's excited. Great. Great, thank you. Yeah. Okay, we need to do something here, right? So I'll just provide some brief remarks and then I think we're ready for a vote. So as Seth mentioned earlier, MGC staff received an initial version of this plan in May 2018, satisfying the 90-day requirement prior to opening. I've reviewed the plan presented to you today in the context of the RFA II application commitments. My apologies to Sarah and Seth. But, you know, MGC staff have also had several conversations with François Laurent Nivot, the Executive Director of the Mass Office of Travel and Tourism and Mary K. Weidre, the President of the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Regional Tourism Council of Pioneer Valley. So based on feedback from those two entities and from MGC staff, we received revised versions of the plan. And I want to just mention that Commissioner Stebbins also has seen the plan and is supportive. He concurs, he would very much enjoy seeing the updates in progress during regular reports to the Commission. So both representatives of the RTC and of Pioneer Valley and the Mass Office of Travel and Tourism were pleased by the final version of the plan. I recommend approval of this final plan as shown in the documents. So, Mr. Chair, I move that this Commission approve MGM Springfield's final version of the Regional Tourism Marketing Plan as shown in the attached documents provided that such approval shall not be construed to supersede any obligations pursuant to MGL 23K or the conditions of MGM Springfield's license, including but not limited to condition 16 relative to compliance with the information included in the application filed by the designated licensee and the evaluation reports filed by the Commission. For the discussion, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Lots of good stuff. Thank you. We'll take a quick break and then finish up with retail and beverage. Now we are. We reconvening public meeting number 247 and Director Griffin is back with us. Commissioners, you have in front of you the food and MGM suit and beverage and retail plan as per license condition 24, the designated licensee agrees to report to the Commission on the designated licensee's efforts to have appropriate representation of local and regional businesses in the designated licensees retail program. I'm going to turn it over to MGM that also let you know that I've reviewed the plan presented to you today in the context of the RFA II application commitments submitted by the then applicant in 2013. And I have asked them to elaborate further and highlight further their plans for Plaza activation with local and regional retailers. They have agreed to do so, so I'm going to turn it over to Sarah. Great. Thank you. Great. Thank you. So first we'll go through kind of what the overall retail and food and beverage plan looks like and then we can talk about the local and regional partners and some of the activation. Some of this you've seen before as we presented previously and some of it might be new, so that's exciting, but we're really excited on this first page to see how our retail and food and beverage plan has come together. It's a really incredible collection of brands and experiences that we believe will drive people downtown, drive people to visit and provides just incredible amenities to the already incredible things that are happening on property. So moving on to food and beverage, we'll go through each one of these, but Calmari Coastal Italian, which we've already presented, this is our Amalfi Coast concept with Chef Michael Mina. I was very fortunate enough to experience a tasting for this here in Boston and it was phenomenal. So we're really in for a treat here and Chef Mina is so excited to be a part of the project and really looking forward to getting this venue open. As part of this is our Calmari wine shop and I think this space is really exceeding all of our expectations. The space right on Main Street is absolutely beautiful. It's coming together incredibly and it's going to be a really interesting experience for our property, but also the downtown visitors. Is that a... Can you... You can order drinks there. It's not just a tasting bar. So it's a wine shop. It's a market. You can buy bottled wine, but then you also can sit and drink wine and experience a specific menu. But to be clear, you can't drink the wine that you bought at the retail. That is correct. Remember that. It's nuanced. But you can get food? Yes. Okay. Yep. Chandler Steakhouse. This is our signature steakhouse and this is helmed by Chef Megan Gill who was the season 14 Hell's Kitchen winner and really looking forward to this tasting and steakhouses is one of the things we at MGM do best and so we're really excited to bring the best of all of our steakhouses throughout the company to this location and this is housed in the historic Union Chandler building. Hence the name. Tap Sports Bar is our signature sports bar. We have a tap located in Las Vegas at MGM Grand in Detroit at MGM Grand Detroit as well as MGM National Harbor but none of them will be like the one we'll have here at MGM Springfields because this will be the first time we'll be doing a bowling alley and an arcade which is just a really, really dynamic, fun, fun space and we're excited for all of the sports programming we'll do here. They have a great outdoor patio right on to Armory Square so this is going to be a really kind of the hub of energy on property. South End Market is our food market and it's absolutely beautiful. It has so much personality and lots of different options for various palates. Hearth Grill which will serve palates and sandwiches, Bill's Diner which is your real kind of quintessential diner. Wicked Noodles which will have a great Asian noodle menu. Wine Bar this is where you want to just grab a great crudité and a glass of wine as well as espresso and gelato and Jack's Lobster Shack which I know many people are looking forward to having a great lobster roll downtown. Commonwealth Bar and Lounge so this is our center slash entertainment bar and this is right in the center of property and this is where all of the energy of kind of the nightlife of our property will stem from right in the center with great views of the casino floor. Have a great mixology program. Moving on to Knox Bar. Knox Bar is our high limit bar a bit more elevated of an experience but again right there with great views on to the casino floor as well and Lobby Bar. Lobby Bar is up in our lobby and this is kind of what we call the Abpray workplace to grab a great cocktail they'll have an incredible mixology program so sit back in a big comfy chair and have a nice cocktail or it's right across adjacent to Starbucks so great place to start your day with a cup of coffee. And then our attractions so Topgolf Swing Suites which we previously announced which we're really really excited for three bays about 2200 square feet it'll also have a full bar a retail component and we're working closely with Topgolf to bring pros and into the space and just activate the space all the time we're also seeing a lot of buyout opportunities here so many many companies reaching out big companies, global companies that want to host events there as well so this is really turning it to be a dynamic space. And most recently we announced our partnership with Regal Cinemas so Regal will be our movie theater partner if you drive downtown right now you'll see the Regal Cinemas sign went up and it's pretty impressive it's fantastic and it's hard to miss it downtown but this is a full luxury theater with full recline seats we'll also have a great bar and food program as well and then our Armory which is really kind of the crown jewel of our outdoor experience it's absolutely beautiful and as we previously presented we're looking at all different types of activations for the Armory from an M life rewards what we're calling now a sign up party as well as we're looking at pop up night clubs musical performances we're working on a partnership right now with the symphony orchestra to host some events in there as well a Halloween activation during the month of October comedy club holiday marketplace we'll really transform this space during the holidays into a huge holiday marketplace with Santa Claus and all kinds of different programming pop up retail as well as beer yoga and we have access with North Hampton and with Professor John Simpson in downtown and many many others in the area tons of artists and so right now we've gotten really great outreach from many of the artists in the art communities so art installations that we're working on various art exhibitions that we can stand up so we're excited about that and then there's our plaza which immediately is behind the Armory itself and we have a very robust calendar I can tell you the calendar changes hourly it is a living breathing document as we look to program this plaza space all day every day pretty much once we open our doors and this is where we're really excited to partner with locals and really bring the local businesses to life on the plaza and quite honestly they're already doing great things so we're just giving them the infrastructure to better showcase their products outdoor concerts as I mentioned so we've partnered with this Brinkfield bid and we're bringing back the city block concert series which hasn't been downtown in a while so that will be on our plaza we'll be having our first farmers market in September this was something not only as part of our RFA and our commitment but it's just a great opportunity we recently did a call for vendors for our farmers market on Facebook and I can tell you it was overwhelming we had to kind of turn it off so the pipeline of local whether it's crafters or hummus makers or pet photographers and everything in between the pipeline of local businesses that we're looking to bring into our farmers market is extensive we'll be standing up a yoga program and we'll have yoga multiple times throughout the week and that's really focusing on that downtown lifestyle visitor but also then just the downtown business community as well we got asked a lot about having yoga on the plaza for after work and we're partnering with there's the shops on market street it's this really great little collection of shops and they already do an incredible business and so they'll be helping us with our yoga program food and wine festivals sports viewing parties as I spoke to the vintage car cruise nights we're working with the local dealership for Indian Motorcycle to do a bike fest small business bazaars and this is where we showcase small businesses we'll be first and foremost kicking this off with SIBA the south end business association and so one of our first business bazaars will be all of the SIBA businesses they're fall fest and then obviously our ice skating rink which will be one of our hero activations throughout the year which we're really excited about and then retail Essentials is our sundry store it's the most beautiful sundry store I've ever seen it's pretty much done actually so this is where you can pick up a candy bar and a bottle of water or you can pick up an MGM logo to peril and many other things this is in the front lobby this is Jason to the front lobby Kringle Emporium so Kringle is activating our church and they will have essentially a condensed version of their Bernanston campus with everything from their candles but also they're going to have a small food counter they have a beautiful outdoor terrace where they'll be serving you know their flatbreads their home decor a really really dynamic space that they'll activate seasonally as well Indian Motorcycle so again as we previously announced we're excited to be opening the very first Indian Motorcycle apparel boutique in the world and this space is also just beautiful and it has these great garage roll-up doors that will open right onto the plaza so the energy of all the activation that will happen on the plaza will really transcend into all of the retail spaces out there Hanoosh Jewelers which we previously announced they're a local family owned business with locations all throughout the region here and so we're excited to be opening up their flagship at MGM Springfield and they're also going to be releasing some of the most recent to the lobby as well Western Mass News is opening their satellite broadcast studio we're very excited to have a media partner write down property great and then moving on Western Mass News has three affiliates yep those are their three primary channels so three four so one company owns all three of those CBS, ABC and Fox really how we're infusing the local and region local businesses and regional partners throughout all of the different parts of property through food and beverage and retail so the list on the left some of which I mentioned but you know the Lafayor and Tina downtown the Market Shop, Spirit of Springfield Whiteline Brewing, AC Produce Berkshire Distillery Kitteridge, Williams Distribution this list is not exhaustive by any means but really shows the length at which we've gone to incorporate local and regional businesses throughout the various activations but also throughout our retail and food and beverage venues and with that I invite any questions anybody well I can't wait to see it we've looked at renderings for a long time now to actually see these places for real I really do look forward to it it looks fantastic you've incorporated so many other non-gaming amenities that I think it really will be a special place we believe so and I promise it looks better than the renderings wow great can't wait to see it thanks very much thank you thank you very much see you in a couple weeks thank you thank you commissioners all right thank you very much director Griffin now on to our final item I believe general council blue thank you commissioners we have three regulations for you today going through the final process the regulation hearing for these three regulations was held this morning and I don't believe we got any comments this morning nor did we get any online through the regulation promulgation process so the first one is an amended version of 205CMR 13403 this amendment allows the licensee to request an extension of up to six months for those employees that are on project on site but come from other licensee properties and we think this is helpful to keep the kind of staff they might need around for a little bit longer our regulation only allowed them to stay 30 days we think maybe it's helpful for them to have the ability to extend questions anybody we have a motion so mr. chair I move that the commission approve the amended small business impact statement 205CMR 13403 gaming wait a minute is this the right one yes 130403 gaming service employees included in the packet I also move that the commission approve the version of 205CMR 130403 gaming service employees as included in the packet and authorize the staff to take all steps necessary to finalize the regulation promulgation process second discussion all in favor I pose the eyes have unanimously the second regulation is 205CMR 146 we have the amended small business impact statement and the amended version of the regulation this was where we made some changes to fix the references in the regulation to the rules of the game which are on our web so we we didn't want to keep going back and forth to change the references so this is basically more of a technical kind of change so we need you to approve the amended small business impact statement first and then the draft regulation mr. chairman I move the commission approve the amended small business impact statement for 205CMR 146 gaming equipment included in the packet and I further move the commission approve the version of 205CMR 146 gaming equipment as included in the packet and authorize staff to take all steps necessary to finalize the regulation promulgation process second for the discussion all in favor I pose the eyes have unanimously and then finally we have the amended small business impact statement and the amended regulation for 205CMR 138.15 this is a change to the regulation where we acknowledge the fact that we do not issue the credentials but we do approve the form of the credentials and they're issued by the licensee so mr. chair I move that the commission approve the amended small business impact statement for 205CMR 138.15 internal control process for access bad system and insurance of temporary license credentials and restricted area access areas included in the packet I further move that the commission approve the version of 205CMR 138.15 internal control procedures for access bad system and insurance of temporary license credentials and restricted access areas as included in the packet and authorize the staff to take all steps necessary to finalize the regulation promulgation process second further discussion all in favor I pose the eyes have unanimously that's all we have thank you last item commissioner updates anybody have anything mr. chair I had a very very you know very positive meeting in spring field last week with all the police chiefs and their crime analysts well attended Christopher Bruce presented his baseline study of spring field and surrounding communities and lots of discussion about what each community feels like they will how the opening will impact their communities but just a really you know group of individuals who are very positive about this project and about having it safe and secure opening up in spring field MOU signed as director Bedrosian explained to us the commissioner was very pleased about that commissioner spring field PD so it was really a positive meeting and I continue to be impressed at the level of commitment of all the law enforcement folks with this and around this project how many actual chiefs were there all of them but one so it really was a total commitment crime analyst strategizing about how to work together so it was really an impressive meeting to attend and I think there's a real shot that this group you know this is going to be well done as far as an opening as far as safety and security disbursement of crime I mean all the plans are in place well in advance and it's not always easy to get a group of law enforcement professionals to be this committed and engaged in a project like this it's great it's really it's a credit to you among others you know to pull this together it's amazing have you started the process for preliminary meetings we have not started the baseline yet that'll be next but definitely have had preliminary meetings with chief maize there and state police and it's that's all positive so far as well anything else motion to adjourn second all in favor we have it thank you everybody