 everyone and welcome to talk of the town I'm James Milan today I am with a familiar face to one and all our state rep Sean Garberley is joining us today you will probably only see Sean's face and it won't be moving and yet he will be talking he is amazing that way in fact he's got some video problem with some video issues so we're just going to go with the audio for this interview the content is what matters after all Sean thank you so much for joining us James thank you thank you for hosting and thank you to ACMI for allowing me the opportunity to speak to my constituents we love to give you that opportunity Sean we're happy to do it let me ask you as we as we open practically every interview we have these days how are you faring I I'm doing well and I'm wishing you health and safety to you your family and to the ACMI family as well and to the residents of Arlington thank you very much so Sean just let you know we're doing basically a legislative update which we do regularly but of course under anything but regular circumstances so I'm sure that a vast vast majority of your time and energy are being taken up by COVID-19 related legislation and work so why don't you just you know dive in wherever you would like to start bringing us up to speed on some of what it is that you guys are working on right now great well I appreciate the opportunity and I apologize that I can't be with you in person but obviously social distancing is really important to combat this virus and I would recommend all of our residents to practice social distancing whenever possible and you know this is a disease that has hit so many of us it has hit me personally and it's hit many people across Massachusetts you know we have well over 42,000 cases confirmed you know that means that we're tested and it's certainly most likely higher than that we've had well over 180,000 tests get performed I know we have over 180 cases of COVID-19 in Arlington so this is really impacting all 351 cities and towns income level is not a factor it is really impacting all of us and because of that people are scared people are scared whether or not they are worried that they may have corona or family member or loved one may have it or they might have lost their job and they don't know where to go where to turn to and as their state representative one of my jobs is to represent them at the state level and be a liaison so to speak between them and the different agencies of state government and I can tell you that my phone has been raining off the hook for the past couple of months and it has not stopped and I can tell you that I am getting anywhere from 1000 to 5000 calls and emails during one week and as you can imagine the vast majority of those calls and emails are from people who just lost their job and they are worried about how to put food on their family's table how to pay bills how to pay their child's tuition and fees for college and so I've been helping them along with the other members of the delegation get through to unemployment and figure out you know the the Massachusetts laws as well as the laws of unusual unemployment those who are gig workers those who are self employed those who usually do not qualify for regular unemployment do now based on the federal cares act and so trying to help them navigate the law and be able to collect the important revenue from that law so that they can take care of their families and keep safe so there's a number of pieces of legislation James if you want me to go through them I certainly can whatever you would like yeah well let me ask you first of all I know that the kinds of constituent direct constituent services that you were just referencing are something that is part of your job at all times but of course at this time it sounds like it has become the the overwhelmingly large proportion of what it is that you're doing is that is that a is that an accurate impression it is you know certainly I'm working on important legislation and trying to get past priorities past but when you have you know 10 people calling you in a span of one hour letting me know that you know they haven't heard from unemployment they applied and they are five days without any type of resources coming back from the state you know that is a cause of concern and worry and I do try to drop everything to try to help that individual access the benefits that he or she is qualified to receive and so I think it's incumbent upon all legislators all elected officials to really help our constituents navigate this pandemic together yeah and before we get into the legislation that I know that you are working on even you know even as you you field these this is kind of astonishing number of phone calls and contacts on a daily and weekly basis just before we get to that I wanted to ask you about a very specific piece of data that we've picked up which is you represent West Medford as well as a large portion of Arlington and one thing that has come to light is that the that there is a higher incidence of COVID-19 per capita in Medford than in Arlington it seems like it's not insignificant I'm wondering both what if there are you know explanations for that and also if you and others are addressing that as as an issue so it's a great question James as we know right nobody is immune from the coronavirus but we do know that there are vulnerable populations who are more susceptible to the negative effects of Corona 19 some of those folks are the elderly and other folks with pre-existing health conditions and certainly Medford has been hit very hard by the coronavirus one of the ways it's been hit hardest is those living in nursing homes so the city of Medford has three nursing homes that have been really impacted by Corona one of them we as a delegation have been working to get supplies you know PPE the critical supplies that it needs as well as help from the National Guard one of our nursing homes has over 50 deaths from the coronavirus that's not 50 positive cases after testing that's 50 individuals with one within one nursing home in the city of Medford have lost and what is the population of that nursing home you know in general so it's around 185 beds so it is a significant population has lost their lives within that nursing home are you able to hear the name because we had not heard about this of the of the nursing facility or or not so it hasn't been released officially by the mayor so I want to wait fair enough you know I can talk to the mayor of Medford and share that facility's name with you at a later date well I'm sure I'm sure that it will come to light obviously when you're talking about upwards of you know more than 25 percent of the population of the facility has now not just contracted the virus as you mentioned but died that you know I don't have words to describe that that is really horrific news yeah no it's it's it's scary so I actually so thinking about it I do I do believe it is public information so it's the courtyard nursing care center in Medford and so I don't want to get into the specifics of how this has happened but that is a nursing facility but there are cases across our nursing facilities in Medford and so the National Guard has been in we're working very hard to try to support the current individuals who are still there and making sure that they're quarantined from those who are also sick or were exposed by COVID so is that it is the both the density of or the number of elder care facilities and then you know some of these just terrible outcomes that are that are that are occurring in within them is that kind of the the main explanation for the the higher incidents in Medford as far as people understand it in terms of the nursing homes in Medford I think there will have to be an investigation done as to how this unfolded in the kind of magnitude that it has you know the only other comparison that I've seen is in there's a couple of nursing homes in the Littleton area that were really hit and of course the inexcusable outcome of what happened at the Holyoke Soldiers home right you know that there needs to be an investigation done obviously I'm not pointing fingers at any individual but those are a lot of souls to lose much higher than the usual that we've seen across nursing homes across the state there has been no nursing home that I've that I have heard that is literal that is immune from this tragedy from this pandemic but as you pointed out James the what courtyard is going through is very very high and so well I'm not pointing fingers obviously I want to make sure that that facility is given as much support from the state as possible to make sure that number doesn't continue to rise but also to find out what is the explanation for why this has occurred understood all right well thank you for that and yeah let's let's proceed to to hearing about like obviously there are so many different kinds of needs that that that require addressing for different segments of the population you had mentioned that you've been getting and you know the the largest number of calls that you get are around people's having lost their jobs or being concerned about how to make up for income that is is no longer there is that the main thrust of your efforts in the legislature as well or are there other things that are kind of just as as as exigent right now that you're tackling so there's a there's a couple of themes right one is doing the work to try to get all of us as a commonwealth through this pandemic and two this pandemic has highlighted in my sense that we are that many of our most vulnerable populations that we don't have the appropriate safety nets to address many of our vulnerable populations and so to what do we need to do to get through this pandemic and to how do we secure the safety nets so our most vulnerable populations are are treated better and can flourish after this pandemic and during this pandemic so in terms of the specifics around you know what do we need to do to get through this pandemic I mentioned you know nursing care facilities long term and short term facilities you know obviously the issue around transparency how is this happening what you know what is going on and how do we move forward is very very important so I know the House of Representatives recently passed legislation to require long term and housing facilities to report and track the corona cases that have been positive and their mortalities and so that is really important in terms of just transparency so we can get the information you know to the command center but also figuring out how the state can be helpful to cities and towns that house a lot of these you know long term care facilities the another one James is around the civil liability protections for health care workers obviously a lot of health care workers want to help they are helping we are so lucky to have them and they are literally putting their lives and their health on the line to care for the most vulnerable populations across the state but many of them are concerned about civil liability protections you know so we did pass and the governor signed it into law that puts civil liability protections to allow them to care for individuals at the very best of their ability and I think that is really really important we recently it was actually a house initiative and it was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor that places a moratorium on eviction and foreclosures this legislation is actually the best and the strongest in the country if you talk about housing advocates and this is important because it'll mean no one will be thrown out of their homes during the pandemic and a couple of months after the pandemic or after the state of emergency is declared over by governor Baker and that's really that's really important to support the most vulnerable right and I'm wondering does that apply to business businesses as well it does yeah so it's both commercial properties and your personal property as well okay and you know Sean I've been asking you about the legislation that you have been working on and that has been recently passed etc without actually clarifying how is it that you guys are getting this stuff done how is being conducted right now so that's a great question James and one that is kind of a constitutional question so in in state government there is something called a full formal session and that is when representatives and senators physically go into the building and vote on these pieces of legislation from our respective chambers there is something else called an informal session and under the Constitution we need to be in session every 72 hours but the Constitution doesn't dictate if it's should be formal or informal so an informal session is when you know you have a presiding speaker a Democrat a Republican and things that are deemed as noncontroversial items or items that have not been objected by anybody can get passed these are things like liquor licenses home rule petitions sick leave banks things that are deemed easy to get through all of these pieces of legislation are passing during informal sessions so that means nobody is objecting to any of it because if they did it would get laid upon the table and we would have to take it up during a formal session the House of Representatives right now is in the middle of the of a debate in an informal session trying to come up with rules on trying to have a full formal session remotely virtually and we're trying to get that done because we do have several other pieces of legislation we want to debate and pass that we know are not going to be unanimous so we can't pass it in an informal session right I mean clearly it's great that you guys can get any business done in the informal session model given the fact that again as you pointed out a single objection is enough to table that but I imagine that there's just no way to to address a majority of the things you need to in through this mechanism because you're just not going to get that agreement without debate and deliberation I would think you're absolutely right James both pieces of legislation addressing corona 19 and legislation beyond corona you know we're still trying to pass some very important pieces of legislation not to mention we still need to deliver and debate a budget yes a minor point huh right and the only the only other two things I will mention because it is important for the town of Arlington is we did pass to extend the state income tax filing deadline to July and so that was important for a lot of people all in ten I heard from a lot of constituents on that as well as we pass legislation extending the date for local elections and flexibility for town meetings that time moderators could exercise and those were two important pieces of legislation for Arlington that allowed the select board to extend the date for the municipal election from April to June 6th I believe and obviously doing some changes around time okay Sean that you're absolutely right and I'm very glad that you took the opportunity to mention those last couple because we've heard from others here in town about the significance of that legislation for us here let me ask you Sean this is well it's complicated and we understand that but just give us whatever clarity you can thinking about the fact that we are hopeful that we will be passing the surge period you know nowish I'm talking to you in the near the beginning of May and that in a month from now things will look somewhat brighter or slightly more stable in terms of dealing with the pandemic on that assumption people I think are already at least with some part of their minds trying to conceive of what things are going to look like on the other side how are we going to reopen so to speak the economy and reopen for business I'm sure that you guys have done a lot of thinking about that and that there is legislation or action pending around all of that clearly economy can't be shut down completely and you've already mentioned that the budget itself is part of what it is that you still need to do even under the current circumstances so here are my questions number one what is how do you figure out a budget when you don't know what the economy looks like going forward number one and number two you know how what are the major the major ops with the major challenges that you feel like you need to tackle and be ready with appropriate legislation or policy as we start to come out of this to two great and very important questions one of the reasons or two of the reasons we haven't had so usually the house debates the budget the week after school vacation in April and the Senate follows deliberating and debating on their budget sometime in May two of the reasons we haven't done our budget in April obviously as you mentioned James the whole issue around you know not being able to get 160 members to deliberate in close proximity in the House chamber so is concerned around that but also the revenue picture is really unclear so whenever you deliberate a budget it's based on the revenues that are available that haven't been just projected but we know are coming and so each month we get a revenue estimate of how we're doing for revenues that particular month and what and we had a virtual ways and means hearing where many economic experts experts who understand the economy statewide and also nationally and how this or any pandemic impacts an economy obviously is going to impact revenues and revenue growth so we had that kind of we had that hearing and it was very clear from us and I serve on the Joint Committee on Ways and Means and that it was very clear to us that the March revenue numbers were not going to give us the kind of forecast that was critical for us to make any assumptions around future forecasts for revenue growth or in this case a decrease of revenue the April numbers will April and May will certainly allow us the picture of what the revenue picture will look like and will allow us to deliberate in a budget and you know the House has not decided when we are going to deliberate our budget but I based on what we've done recently my assumption is it's going to happen sometime between the end of May and July whenever we are able to have a strong enough sense on the revenue numbers that we can deliberate and between now and then at that point because we can't operate as you would most wisely say James we can't operate without a budget how do how do we do it so we do it just like we did in other years when the House and the Senate is negotiating to get one budget it called a 112th budget where we pass a budget for one period of one month until we are able to deliberate on the budget so like a series of stopgap kind of you know month-by-month funding as you work your way towards the towards the consensus you need for the larger budget correct that makes a lot of sense and also I think again worth reiterating what you just said about the fact that March which is the last period of time I assume for which you have fairly firm numbers was not representative that's the old normal right and now we're in something and moving towards the new normal and you guys have to have some time in order to be able to absorb that that that makes a lot of sense so I you know I have served as a member of the legislature during our last recession and that was back in 2008 2009 even 2010 and I can tell you I deliberated and voted on a budget that when the budget went from the House to the Senate during that time when it traveled through the hallway to get to the Senate chamber we lost about four billion dollars in revenue when the banking industry collapsed nationally which set us on a course for a deep deep recession and so that is what we're being mindful of we're looking at those revenue projections most specifically in sales tax revenue and capital gains tax revenue because those are the most important in terms of how we spend our dollars on on vital programs for the Commonwealth but those are also the numbers that are the most volatile and they change and during a recession those are the numbers those are the revenue numbers that are going to change the most just out of curiosity shown what makes those the most important in normal circumstances the sales in the capital gains tax that's because they amount to the largest pot of money I you know my my sense is because they're the most volatile that when you have an economic recession right like you know we have restaurants that are not open we have movie theaters that are not open people aren't spending their money and because of that revenues do tank and that's a similarly how it happened in 2009 so that is those are numbers we're watching where other sources of revenue are probably they could you know they could fall quite a bit but you know we'll look at what the numbers are the end of April and May but my hunch would tell me just based on my experience of the last recession that those are the two revenue numbers that are going to fall the most and I hope I'm wrong I hope I'm right yeah I can't I can't see any flaw in your logic unfortunately there Sean and I think you're probably you know yeah yeah there's no there's no magic calculator out there that's going to come up with a better answer I don't think but so I just I also want to touch on the second part of your yeah thank you was around reopening and you know I know my constituents are turning on the TV whether whatever news channel they're watching they are certainly seeing other states start reopening so I just want to remind folks that places like Florida and and Texas and other folks they are reopening slowly so some of them are doing you know 25% occupancy and places like movie theaters and you know places like restaurants so it's not a full reopening you know I I still believe we really do have to air on the side of caution and make sure that we reopen slowly because if we do reopen just like other states you know I think are doing unwisely and you know based on what the health experts and folks in science and medical field say that if this disease does continue to increase to that amount we're going to be in an even worse off position than we were when this first started obviously we want the economy to to start again we want people to go back to work we you know certainly I just like everybody else want to start going back to restaurants want to start going back to movie theaters wanna I want to see the Boston Bruins play for the Stanley these are things that we can all agree that we want to see but we also have to be careful of the unknown and so certainly you know the governor has extended a couple of times now to stay at home order these are conversations that we're having with his administration in terms of you know how we are going to reopen but the way we're going to do it is not based on emotion it's going to be based on science and it's going to be based on fact and I think that's really important and people have to understand that this is not a made-up disease James as you know and I really don't want to bring this up but I will because this is touched everybody including myself you know last week I lost my father to Corona and it obviously has had a very devastating impact on me and my family and our friends but this is happening to families all around the Commonwealth and all around Massachusetts we're all around Massachusetts and all around the country and what we do know is that there is a high probability that there is going to be another surge sometime in the fall and so in terms of reopening I want to reopen but we need to do it based on the facts and the science that's medically available and I believe that Governor Baker is doing that so a couple of things Sean the first of which is I know that it costs you to make reference to your father a very recent loss and a very real and devastating one for you so I appreciate your being willing to share that with us and I'm sure I speak for the rest of our audience as well in you know given sending you our commiseration and and very best wishes because as you said it nobody's immune but boy you have been hit very hard so our best goes out to you the second thing I wanted to ask you about and this is you know I'm just going to ask the question and I hope that you know you feel like you can answer the fact that there are states opening up right now whether gradually or more dramatically etc. I think that there's a lot of the American population and a lot of the population here in Massachusetts who sees that in the way that you've already described as being probably premature and possibly you know dangerous and unwise I'm wondering however whether you and others would recognize that we in Massachusetts and the other states who aren't doing that right now might benefit in fact from what happens what we what are able to watch transpire over the next weeks and months in Georgia and Florida Texas wherever else they are taking steps such that we have better information when it comes to doing that you know to following the same process ourselves yeah you know you know we you know we're all in this together and so no doubt we can learn a lot from other states and I think that's something that we certainly will do certainly in terms of what not to do but certainly as to what to do as well you know I've read the governor of Ohio's reopening plan it seems very well thought out other plans I don't other states plans are not as well thought out and they seem to be too much based on emotion and kind of a sense of urgency that we want to do this and I can understand that so you know we certainly will learn and we will watch and learn from best practices but you know it is important to understand too that way back in November when we saw this happening in China you know many of us you know during that time we're out to eat right we go to not your average Joe's we go to Trist we go to tango we go to Jimmy's nobody was looking around and thought that this disease that was impacting the lives of so many people on the other side of the world would come back to the would come to the United States as quickly as it did so because of that we also have to be mindful that when other states open up the economy and if they are negatively impacted in those states and we see a spike that impacts Massachusetts as well and so we have to be mindful of that and set up regs I believe we have that prevents that from happening but you know it's important to understand that you know even though you know we are far away from some of these other states for the most part we are one community right and what impacts one will impact the other as we learn from this disease starting on the other side of the world so we can't be blind to that well for sure not Sean there are things that we talked to you about issues that you have devoted yourself to as as a politician and a representative of the people for your whole time in office things like climate change and health care and mental health care etc we are interested to get an update if there is any on progress that you're able to make around any of those issues or whether it's all been swamped by you know pandemic directly related pandemic legislation so I wanted it I do want to invite you to to give us an update around around any of the perennial issues that we talk about that you do have anything new to report on but I did also want to ask you and proceeding that so just my question right now and then and then feel free to also address these other issues we've talked about vulnerable populations and I know that in general that is a great concern of yours and and a galvanizing cause of yours in forming legislation one of the populations that we haven't mentioned in this conversation but we've talked about with many others recently is because of the hot the kinds of hot spots that this pandemic highlights we've already mentioned the elder care facilities the other place is jails and prisons yeah so I'm wondering what you can tell us about anything that is being addressed within the state house around this issue of you know just these places being kinds of petri dishes for the growth of this of this virus yeah no it's a very very important question James and I would highlight you know and I say vulnerable populations I would as you just pointed out I would say those who are incarcerated I would also say those who are immigrants right if you see some of the highest cities that have been hit with this disease it is places like Lynn with very high immigrants and immigrant populations so it's your your question is well taken or your points as well taken as well so there are a number of pieces of legislation that have been filed that I am supporting around incarcerated populations and one of them was filed by a colleague of mine representative sabbadoza from north Hampton and it's a bill that I am supporting that I am co-sponsoring and it would really mandate the state of massachusetts or you know the the folks across the street to set up a process for looking at how you you know split up that population right so they're not so concentrated in one area because we do know that social distancing is very very important to combating this disease this pandemic and we know you know I tore prisons a lot in my role as a representative and we know that many of the prisons in massachusetts social distancing is not possible and because of that we know that the amount of corona 19 on our prison population and our employees who work at our prisons is just skyrocketing and I haven't seen actual data in terms of the population so one is I want to see the data in terms of what are the public health you know what is going on right now in terms of our prison population but two what's going what is governor baker going to do about it and I think this legislation is important and it's a good first step you know it does not say we're going to release everybody right what it does say is that we are going to set up a system to look at each facility to look up each specific situation and come up with ways to make social distancing possible right whether that's removing inmates from the current location that certainly has to be part of it because but we also can't continue to go the status quo as corona is just you know I have been told just based on what I have been reading that corona 19 in has increased the cases have just skyrocketed and many of our incarceration centers across the state but I haven't been able to get my hands on specific numbers and because of that that concerns me I also heard nightmare stories coming out of Bristol prison over the weekend that does involve some undocumented immigrants in terms of you know hot style workforce so that has I have a lot of concern with that so you know I think this legislation is an important step forward but I also believe that the governor has to come up with a plan I think he should be able to do it on his own because we want to protect all of the populations of Massachusetts from corona those in prisons are no different than the goal right a human being as a human being as a human being and our goal and our role should be protect you know all populations we shouldn't have to do file legislation to do that but if we have to and that's that's what we're doing right now so would you do you think that the you know if we're if we're trying to again not a portion blame but trying to figure out who's responsible or who are the actors who could have the most influence the quickest here you have cited the governor is that the place where action needs to emanate from well if it doesn't come from the governor it needs to come from the legislature of course the different sheriffs as well have enormous roles in operating their their centers their jails and so but I would hope to see that the governor would provide some leadership around statewide information in terms of what is happening in terms of the public health of all of the inmates in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and what the plan is for the administration to keep those individuals that don't have corona at the moment healthy and how they plan to care for the sick okay Sean so I again I don't want to trivialize them by calling them your pet issues but I want to you know have a one one term that that gives you enough flexibility to address as I mentioned those things of perpetual concern for you and find out again whether there is it is possible at this time to make any progress in those areas so yes I'd love to address that issue one issue that I do want to talk about real quick is that there have been a couple of pieces of legislation that that I have filed in response to corona 19 and I just want to talk about those really quickly your line is I have always been a supporter of the way states like Oregon Washington Utah some areas in California vote they vote by mail-in voting and so I am filing legislation with representative Dylan Fernandez who represents Martha's Vineyard Nantucket in parts of Cape Cod that would allow Massachusetts to move towards mail-in voting in September 4 November and permanently I think that is really really important obviously it's going to go through the process there's several similar pieces of legislation that would allow for mail-in voting some of the questions that need to work out is you know we do have a primary system where members where voters take different ballots and that is not how it works and some of the other places that have mail-in voting but this is something that we should be able to have in Massachusetts it makes sense it is safe none of the states that have current mail-in voting have reported any type of fraud and so I think that is really really important and yeah you say that it's it's very important Sean and I know that you that our viewers will understand what the importance would be within the COVID-19 context but I'm sure you mean beyond that yeah so explain a little bit more why is it important or I assume you mean better to move to a mail-in system so if you look at states like Oregon and Washington that have transitioned in Colorado to which have transitioned to mail-in voting now some of those states haven't gotten rid of polling locations completely but they have decreased them and have transitioned to mail-in voting and what they have found is an increase in voting population so they have they have found an increase in those voting those who are exercising their franchise and to me that is really really appealing and important that mail-in voting allows one to keep the public safe from not making them go to a voting location and getting you know people sick there or getting sick there themselves to but it allows for greater flexibility right it allows them to be able to vote from the safety and confines of their own home and three they're less likely to forget about voting right because excuse the interruption but something just happened with your with your audio it's gotten much less clear not sure if you made a change about 10 to 15 seconds ago it's still still the same much much thinner as if you had moved far away from the microphone for some reason yeah well I think we'll carry we'll carry on it it still sounds a little thin maybe we'll be able to just deal with it in post-production or whatever anyway this is this is it's worth continuing the conversation we will do the best we can sorry for the interruption no no no problem so to me mail-in voting just makes a lot of sense if you care about people voting in greater populations so you know to me this is going to be something if we can get done in Massachusetts that will allow registered voters to vote in greater numbers and to me that is the most important part of this but also it is important during the pandemic to allow democracy to continue without voters and the people who work at the polls of putting their lives on the line I don't want to see another Wisconsin where you saw hours of lines just to allow people to exercise their democratic right right so you had and I think I interrupted you while you were about to mention one other thing yeah so I you know I've also filed legislation in Massachusetts with the raise up coalition raise up Massachusetts which is an act relative to emergency paid sick time and obviously protecting the health and safety of all of our you know Massachusetts residents needs to be a top priority and because of that no worker in the commonwealth should have to go to work when they may be sick and contain just others so you know obviously you have the federal families first coronavirus response act that was created that allows for a paid sick leave program but it isn't adequate in the bill that I filed a lot with rep hold an auto for Bedford and the state senator Jason Lewis in Winchester guarantees of all workers up to 10 additional sick days 80 hours and to me that's really really important and something that a lot of folks are putting a lot of work this into especially during a pandemic but also these are rights that workers should have even when we're not in a pandemic so we're working very hard on that piece of legislation too what I just wanted to raise those two because as you pointed out James legislation is happening it's just not happening for all the bills that we've talked about in the past and I'm still working on those bills but if I were being realistic you know these pieces of legislation are taking priority because of the current pandemic that we're in but obviously the other bills I filed from a hundred several energy and allowing students with disabilities to go to college and you know health insurance coverage for those who live with multiple sclerosis their top priorities as well and I'll be working very hard to try to get them past this session you know we go until you know the end of session is July 31st but I wouldn't be surprised if the legislative session continues into September October and November because of this pandemic and if that does happen during that time I'm going to continue to work to get these pieces of legislation passed well anybody who has listened to this conversation Sean I think is going to understand why it is that you and others may not be able to be working on that legislation with the same fervor as usual given the plethora of concerns that you are addressing so thanks for the update just to let us know and thanks in general for taking the time to be with us today and you know we have always been appreciative of the work you do on our behalf it's more important at this moment than perhaps ever before and you have our confidence you have our deepest condolences with reference to your dad and once again just thank you for taking the time to talk to us today my pleasure and I wish I could have talked last week James and I really appreciate you hosting as you always do so outstanding and to ACMI for allowing this to happen and trying to get the information to the residents of Arlington that is so very important and I wish you your viewers and the staff at ACMI and the residents of Arlington great health over the next many many weeks to come. Thank you Sean and the same to you we will talk to you again I'm sure soon enough for us to get a further update on progress made both within the state house and for and on behalf of Arlington so this has been a conversation with our state rep Sean Garbley I'm James Milan you can watch him talk in the town thanks for joining us