 This program is brought to you by cable franchise V's and generous donations from viewers like you Given that we have a quorum of the council present. I'm calling the September 21 2020 meeting of the Amherst town council to order at 631 This meeting includes audio video and is available live on Amherst media. It is also being recorded There is no chat room for this meeting. If you have technical issues, make sure you let Athena know If we have to we will stop the meeting till you reconnect or at least make note of it in our minutes And With that we're going to move to announcements Normally I don't go over the meetings, but there have been Some changes in meeting dates the finance committee will not be meeting on September 22 It will be meeting on October 6 And I'm going to be confirming during the meeting with George Ryan When GOL will be meeting because that is now in question as well Okay, and on your screen you see the coded Number and email and we'll I'm sure hear a little bit about that later on And also want to remind you that the Community Preservation Act proposals are due on October 12 So with that we're going to take the screen down and we're going to move to public comment Did you want to confirm everybody's presence? You didn't do that. Thank you. I didn't do that. Did I know? Thanks, Andy. I appreciate that reminder. Okay Shalini has not joined us Alyssa Brewer Pat D'Angelo's present Darcy Dumont is absent at this point Griezmer is here Vandy Johannikey present Dorothy Pam present Evan Ross present George Ryan See Kathy Shane present Steve Schreiber here Andy Steinberg present Sarah Schwartz Present and Shalini is still absent. I just got a message from her that she needs the link. So I'm Okay All right We are only going to have public comment one time this evening and basically it is now and So with people who are interested in making public comment, please raise your hand Okay, Zoe Crabtree is the only hand I see at the moment and she's come into the room and Zoe would you please proceed? Hi, thank you. Can you hear me? We can please state your full name and where you live Lovely. My name is Zoe Crabtree and I'm a resident of District 5 and I am here on behalf of Defund 413 MRS to respond to the Paul Bachmann's plan for Having us as his invitation for us to appoint a member to his interview team for the community safety working group We are interested With the understanding that as for his most recent memo that police chief will not be a member of the working group However, we do have some reservations about the proposal We're definitely frustrated that we were not communicated with and that the racial equity task force was also not communicated with about this plan before it was publicly released because of that they're if the time manager was able to garner I think some positive press Before we had even had a conversation about being involved and that put everyone I think in a kind of a Tough spot that we didn't appreciate Additionally, because our group's ultimate goal is to defund and abolish the police We fear that the working group will only uphold the status quo by bringing together a group of wealthy college educated residents who already hold much of the power at Amherst So in order to minimize this possibility and we have two Demands for the plan that we emailed him about this this morning The first demand is that all of the members of the interview team and the community safety working group will be paid for their time and work and which I know was discussed last week and We would like also for the interview team to clearly be instructed not to weigh subject matter expertise that comes from an academic background over subject matter expertise that comes from personal experience or prior activism Without amending the proposal to meet those conditions. It's highly unlikely that we'll want to be That will be comfortable sending a representative to be a part of the interview team And I'm speaking to you all here today just to let y'all know and I hear I see Buckleman is here as well. We heard and we saw how Influential some of the the council person's comments were In response to the plan last week and we really appreciate that And so that's why we wanted to bring not only to email that to you this morning with Mr. Buckleman But also to share our thoughts with all of you Thank you. Thank you, Zoe Bailey, please take your full name and where you live Hi, sorry, I'm a little Disorganized I thought I was gonna jump on and have a little more time to pull myself together My name is Bailey Batty. I live in District 4. Um, I sent an email last week after missing the public comment period about How I felt it was wildly inappropriate to include the police in the working group In any capacity, I know it was proposed as a non-voting position From the memo on Saturday, it looks like that has changed But I do have some additional comments About this working group. I want to start by saying that I still find it incredibly strange and Professional that an entire proposal was written for this working group That included the interview process Including Defund413 and that we were not contacted about this and we had no input in a plan that we were Involved in We are now really only open to participating in this like interview team Now that the police position has been removed from the working group Our ultimate goal as an organization is police abolition I don't want to speak for the whole group, but I still feel like our involvement in this process at all is Really only tangential to our goals Even if we had been consulted, I'm not sure why were you we are included in this plan given that one of its main Goals seems to be reforming the police and not decreasing their presence in Amherst completely this Leads me to my second point, which is that I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of this working group is I don't think it's that clear and I don't think it's an effective way to make change for all of the talk about rushing to the January deadline This plan seems like wildly inefficient In a way that feels like it can't be accidental beyond the concerns raised last week About this group being slowed down by open meeting laws We are talking in this plan about Appointing an interview committee to appoint a working group to decide ultimately whether or not the town should set up alternatives to policing And if people should be appointed to something like an oversight committee the racial equity task force asked for an oversight committee They acknowledged that these committees are often ineffective and that there are specific things that have to happen for a committee like this to be effective The racial equity task force presented a clear and specific plan about what would be effective and what they want to see And we now seem to have three layers of committees to get to the point proposed in their plan It really feels to me like there is a lot of like hand-waving and moving pieces to look busy here To distract from the fact that really like this entire plan could lead to nothing changing Really to do this I also want to remind the council of your comments during the budget process about how surprised you were to see such high levels of engagement I feel like overly complicated plans like this where we have like a committee inside of a working group Underneath this interview board A huge part of what makes it so difficult to engage with the way our town is run I felt when I was reading this plan like I was as a college educated native English speaker I was having to like draw a diagram to figure out what this process was and where it was even going Um, I Would also like to add one point that is a personal concern of mine in addition to the requests from before going through that have already been stated that The application process to be on the working group seems to me to be quite inaccessible I know there's been some discussion about how and where to post the position and I think it really needs to be Absolutely more than just the whatever it's the town bulletin board on the website It needs to be in places that are accessible in places that people don't have to know where they're looking for it to come And find it and be specifically seeking it out Um, and I am aware that this might not be something that you can change But the application being from the memo it looks like the application had to be entirely online and like consisted of multiple parts Which I think just makes this Intimidating I think people even if they find it even if they're interested even if they feel they can commit the time to it um Seeing this like multi-part application is for like a volunteer position that's very short term is Is intimidating. I think people are going to really Not feel like they like the position is meant for them Like they were like like that like they're being discouraged basically they're gonna find the application and feel like Nobody wants them to actually apply for it. Um, I Think that's the end of my comments. Sorry. They were a little disorganized. You started really on time today We did Bailey. Thank you for your comments and thank you for your email last week after You did not have an opportunity to speak of public comment. So are anybody else who would like to speak at this time? Okay, then we're going to go back to our agenda and Our first item on the agenda is the consent agenda and Let me just briefly read the following and make the motion the following items were selected because they were considered to be routine Um, and it was reasonable to expect they would pass with no controversy To remove an item from the consent agenda for a discussion later in the meeting Asked that it be removed when I list the consent agenda items The request to remove an item from the consent agenda does not require a second The motion is to move the following items and the printed motions there under and approve those items as a single unit Suspension of town council rules of procedure rule 8.4 for the following agenda items 8b participatory budgeting commission extension of deadline 8c rank choice voting commission extension of deadline. I just want to remind you this does not Remove it does not mean we approve these extensions. It just means we're allowed to act tonight and the second part of the Incent agenda is 11 a to c which is approval of minutes and the minutes include the August 17th 2020 town council meeting minutes August 31st 2020 town council meeting minutes and September 14th 2020 town council meeting minutes Is there any question or request to remove an item To another. Okay, I see none. Is there a second Okay, Mandy Joe second to that. Is there any question Then we're going to move to the boat. And Okay, I will start with ball mill. Yes. Thank you. Alyssa Brewer. Yes. Patti Angeles. Yes. Darcy Dumont has not joined us. Okay. Lynn Greece Mersey. Yes. Mandy Joe Hanneke. Yes. Dorothy Pam. Yes. Evan Ross. Yes. George Ryan. George, your son, you're flipping on and off. I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you. Kathy Shane. Yes. Steve Schreiber. Yes. Andy Steinberg. Yes. Sarah Schwartz. Yes. Thank you. We are going to then move on to presentations and discussion. And the first item is the community safety discussion. And that's Paul Bachmann. Thank you. So this is a follow up to last week's conversation when we started talking about the the community safety working group. And the goal on this is to have a group that gets in place as fast as we can that is able to evaluate the ways that we deliver community safety, specifically the way we do it now through the police department. See if there are other ways that we can do that. Under the town council's vote, you've asked for a report back to you by the end of January. And we are holding two positions in abeyance until the until this work gets done. So the four major things were brought up. And I appreciate the commenters who spoke earlier tonight and have had the courtesy to email as well. And I take those things into consideration. But there's sort of a balance between how we have to do these things. So the four major things that were brought up last week that were identified. One was, should this working group, the group that's going to actually do the study be meeting in private or in public. And one of the arguments made was, if you do it in public, then some people who might feel disenfranchised, who are vulnerable community might not feel comfortable coming and speaking in a public session. The counterpoint to that is, shouldn't the public be able to see the work of the group and transparency is important. So those are conflicting things. Things are in opposition. You know, in looking at how we've worked through the Energy and Climate Action Committee, that is a public body, but they contracted with We contracted with the company that has done a tremendous job of community outreach and was able to engage with the community in a positive way. But outside the public eye, where people felt like they were being able to be heard. So my sense is that, yes, we want to achieve that ability to hear people's voices, but not at the expense of having this whole committee work in private. The second question, so the conclusion is the committee, the working group, should meet in public and should follow the Open Meeting Law, take minutes, record their votes, and Record to mean it's just like we do with other committees. The second thing was, should the police chief or does it need have a seat on the working group, even as a non voting member, which is what I had proposed. The concern there is that just the police chiefs presence as a member of the committee would create a detriment to Deternate this people participating and also could shape the work of the committee. Now, I believe that knowing from the people who are doing the job to the committee is really important for the committee to be able to do its job. But whether the police chief actually had to have a seat on the committee as an ex officio member was probably not as relevant as having The committee have access to any staff that they wanted and it could include more than the police. You could be the fire chief. It could be the director senior services. It could be nonprofit groups, Craig's doors. People, you know, working in different communities. So I thought that was a good point. And so I in my revised proposal have removed the police chief from having a seat on the community safety working group. The second, the third item that was brought up, which was very compelling was the should there be one committee doing two tasks or two committees doing one task. These are two we have two tasks. One is The what should we do about how we deliver a service and then a broader conversation about policing in general. And these two things Are very large tasks that the town is take undertaking. And I think we are not alone. There are many other cities and towns who are taking this on. So my sense is that it may be two committees. I think I think Dr. Shabazz brought this up and I think it was very legitimate point. But that we should start with the group and that is going to be examining the work of the the way we deliver our services on community safety. Initially, and then rely on that group actually to say, you know, you actually we would like to continue on this or you should really go out and get other people to work on this other issue. And I really want to do the use the community safety working group as a resource and making these types of decisions, rather than having me make those decisions. And then the fourth question was, should the title include the words racial justice equity. And I concluded that it should not because This a this is something that should be permeating all of our work anyway. And that this this committee really is really focused on addressing community safety, the first group on this and I think if there's a second group to to meet or to work on it, that might make more sense to have it. That group named with racial justice racial justice and equity. So, otherwise, you know, with those changes and modifications, the proposal is what I've delivered to you last week and I'm eager to hear and your responses. I've heard a lot of other voices you've heard some voices tonight I've heard other voices, people who I've talked to on the phone, or who, you know, in other ways and met, you know, at the moment market or wherever. So I think that there's a lot of different voices out there so I've tried to sort of figure out what's the right position for the town to balance the various interests that are here. Okay. So, please raise your hand if you have questions or comments at this time. This is for the council. Yes, Pat. I have several concerns. I am really uncomfortable with not putting racial justice in the title of this working group. And I'm uncomfortable for because what got us looking. What got us even concerned about police policies and procedures was the murder of George Floyd, the public murder of George Floyd that the nation witnessed and it became very hard for those of us who are white to close our eyes again. So not putting racial justice or equity in the title of this working group, I think is a disservice it's sort of like saying, if I say black lives matter you say, all lives matter. And if all lives matter, then why can't we say black lives matter. And I think that this is a moment where we can garner or gain some small Iota of trust by naming this committee, what it should be named to address issues of policing, because of the deaths and of black men, women and children that happen on a regular basis in the United States of America. So, I really want us to think about that. And it seems to me that this is an advisory group, and we do need to ensure that all voices are heard and not make that a little mantra that we say and then we don't pay attention to. The mobile market and and greet people and have a nice time. But if you're not sitting there and really engaging in conversation, specifically focused on the issues you want this group to look at then it's a meaningless act and I don't think we need to pay attention. But I'm concerned that I'm concerned that we will not really be gathering all the information that we need and I really want to be wrong on that. I really do want to be wrong on that. I'm concerned about the lack of transparency. Paul you want this committee to function with the open meeting law. I understand that. But you're not willing to have transparency in the appointment process. I appreciate that you're here and I appreciate deeply appreciate that you listed the names of the people, potentially, that you wanted to have on this committee to help you come up with appointments. And I want to continue Amherst's biggest weakness around transparency is that the caps aren't public, even though they are in other cities and towns across Massachusetts. And more importantly to me is I want to see every statement of interest that gets written or recorded. And I say that because I watched OCA struggle to create a process that began to really work and I watched the planning board, I've watched the committees that have taken OCA's lead and call for public SOIs. Well, at least public to the council. So you're basically erasing the possibility of transparency by not having statement of interest available to people on this very, very important committee. And I think that's enough for me for a while. Andy. I have a couple of thoughts about this topic that I wanted to share. And for what I'm going to say at first is something that I've shared with the council before but there are some members of the public presence who are not aware that my career was in civil legal aid for poor people that I worked in. I didn't work from time I graduated from law school until I retired from Western Massachusetts legal services in 2007 and during the period from 1980 to 2007 I was executive director of the Fort County legal aid program. And during the latter part of that time I was also on the board of directors of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. I've thought a lot about the experiences that I had in working in that particular field for so many years. And this is not just in relation to the Amherst issue but nationally, as this is unfolded, we're in a complex issue. For my work I was working with poor people and my experience all throughout my time working in legal aid was that poor people are often victims of crimes. Poor people are often accused of committing crimes and disproportionate and we all know that a disproportionate number of poor people are people of color. So it's not a simple issue because when I had discussions about police over the many, many years with people. I heard lots of stories, but I heard stories on that whole range of issues that I just described, including the question of how often poor people are preyed upon and become victims and see the police as being there to intervene to protect them as well as I hear from people who feel that they have been victimized by police. So I think that it's important to recognize that and make sure that we have a process that enables us to think through all sides of the issue. The other is something that Alyssa brought up at the last meeting, which was how to get poor people to be effectively involved and her point was that we have to remember that we're still in a time of pandemic and this committee is going to be meeting mostly or entirely by zoom because there is no safe way to otherwise do it. And in that regard, I did contact the person who is currently directing the legal managing the legal aid offices and Hampshire Franklin and Berkshire County. And my questions to her were along the lines of how they interact with clients now and how they find that people are able to interact with the courts now that the courts are open and having zoom meetings and what she reported back to me was that poor people have problems because we all know from our experiences in many realms including schools that access to technology is a problem, but there's it's not just being able to get to have a computer have internet access. It's also having a place where people can go to actually sit down and participate in the meetings that that in and of itself is not always a problem. So as we set up the working group that I hope that we can find a way to get a range of poor people who are a distinct group. The other way has been defined and make sure that they have the ability to know about this and participate in a conversation that goes forward. And the, and I think that I'll leave it at that, but with one other thing that I just wanted to touch on really quickly. And that is that the question about the open meeting law. I think that there's a question in my mind is whether we even have a choice on that. I think that the open meeting law may speak to itself. And having read the open meeting law many times. I'm not sure that this is a committee that legally could be exempted from the open meeting loss and that may be a question already resolved. So I'll leave it at that. Thank you. I raised my hand when Pat was talking because I wanted to express my agreement with her statement about the name. The fact is that we were all well, as far as I know the members of the town council were very happy and very content with our police department and felt that the police department was doing a great job. And then in the change of climate and when many things were revealed nationwide, we began to realize that we had to look at things more closely, and that we had to look at things as part of a larger system. So I do think that the the impetus for this committee is to do with racial justice racial equity, and that that should be in the title to make it seem more welcoming. I also agree that the meetings have to be open because otherwise people will think what is that group doing and there will be lack of trust and trust is essential, whatever happens we have to trust what the results are. I do admit I'm feeling a little conflicted about the making the statements of interest the SOIs public. Yes, I always want that. But in thinking about what some of the members of 413 are saying to us about the willingness of people who may not have been within the leadership structure of Amherst, and who's actual reason for thinking they might add something to this committee might be there some experiences that they'd had. And again so this is something that we can't we council members can't answer but we would have to consult with people, some of the people who've been coming to our meetings outside and ask them, would the public statements from the candidates would that turn people off from because I mean I don't, we can, you know, think about it logically, but this is an emotional question. The point is, we want good people, old faces and new faces to come and meet together, whether it's virtual or whatever to deal with this issue, and we want to be able to trust what that their results that their conclusions are good ones that should be ones that we should take seriously consider for our town. So, that's, that's my comments. Alyssa. I hesitate to speak at all for a couple of reasons one is it's always easier for white people to stay silent, because every time we say something chances are good, we're going to be told that we are terrible human beings. And so I have to work under the assumption of trust that people will try and understand that I am coming from a place of where I'm coming from, which is a place of having been an elected office in Amherst for over 20 years, one way or another. And that I, you know, it's been mentioned that town council needs training and I agree we could use some additional training and a whole lot of areas including this very important area that looks at where each of us already are and where we can move forward. I've been participating in those trainings, most of you with the exception of perhaps Andy and Lynn do not even are not even aware of the concept of becoming a multicultural school system. And so I'm going to study circles on race and class, etc that have been held throughout time in Amherst and have been wonderful projects that have not had the long term effects that many of us have been looking for. It's a dispute that town councilors thought that we were very happy and content with the police department until now I certainly would not characterize myself that way and I think Chief Livingstone would disagree that is how I feel about things because certainly one of the things I learned as a white person who has been privileged in this community to have had the opportunity to serve in elected and appointed office for a long time, have heard from many people, whether they be parents of my children when they were school age, or through the various trainings that I was part of or simply through all the outreach through the development of the master plan that many people do not feel safe here and that despite the fact that many white people think that it's a perfectly safe little bubble. I have known for a long time that it's not and not known really what much to do about it other than showing up and listening as best I can and so I do really appreciate everything that's been brought to us publicly, even though it has been very difficult to hear sometimes that I am part of the problem because I know I'm still part of the problem. Along those lines I do still want to call it community safety and I don't want us to get too bogged down here and honestly and in the long run, I don't care what we call it. But I appreciate the focus on community safety, and I appreciate that is absolutely that we are doing this at all because black lives matter. We call it community safety racial justice social equity, we start to lose the pieces associated with poverty with sex with gender identity, and I don't want to lose those pieces, even though the whole reason we are actually doing this thing at this time is indeed because black lives matter. And when it comes to just a couple of specific practical things which I know many of the people who call us and write to us and speak at public comment get very aggravated with me and say that I'm being condescending. I am not I'm telling you practically how government works. We've talked about open meeting law, etc. The way government works is not in Massachusetts that most CAFs are public that is not factually true that needs to stop being said as a factual statement it is not a factual statement. In most communities in Massachusetts, the way people apply for appointments is they're told send us a letter of interest. They're given no public indicators of what they should include in that letter of interest so that individuals can coach them on what are the right things to write in their letter of interest. It is not at all a transparent process. Our Charter says the town manager is going to appoint committee members. The Charter says nothing about how we can force the town manager to share CAFs or statements of interest with us. As you know, and as was stated earlier, OCA did struggle with this for a long time wondering how much we wanted our town council appointment process to diverge from the town manager's appointment process which was in fact based on decades of Amherst history it wasn't something new it was the way we've always done it. We are trying to not do things the way we've always done them. That's one of the things I appreciate about this memo and the update is that it's very clear that the interview committee is going to go well beyond any interview committee has ever gone before. It's been a long time associated with town manager appointments ever that is huge progress. It also says statements of interest would be public at some point potentially, and that's terrific CAFs don't matter. They're just contact sheets so that everybody has the same basic information. And I would also point out that I find it incredibly offensive that said that town counselors would say that they need information the public doesn't need. You're a legislative body, you're not an executive body. You do not need to see CAFs that the public can't see you don't need to see statements of interest that the public can't see if their material that you think it should be known it's because it should be known to the community, not to you because you're special as a town counselor, because you're not because you're not making the appointment. Now it's true. The charter is funny that way that we get to confirm town manager appointments by saying either approved deny or do nothing. And as you say, we've struggled with that. And we now have several different processes in place to do that. But the point remains that if we want information to be public then we should, you know, set the example and we should also encourage the town manager to do that. But the reality is the town manager could walk out of tonight's meeting and do whatever he wants about appointing this. What I would like to see us do is to make sure what we're doing, as I mentioned earlier in the summer, is that at each and every meeting as this process unfolds, we let him get started with doing this and then he needs to report to us in his town manager to report and preferably verbally, not just the committee started meeting. It's made a lot, but to actually talk about what they are doing, where they are. If they're running into stumbling blocks, if they think they need a task force to do something else, if they haven't been able to do effective outreach. And I think we should devote substantial time to that at every council meeting so that we and the public know what is going on, rather than just an assurance that somebody's meeting and that will get a report in January. And I think we'll make a huge difference as to how this process works, both in the public eye and with the town council understanding and having a shared understanding of what the town manager is doing on our behalf. Thank you. Evan. So I had maybe one, but I first want to say that I appreciate the revised memo, I'm supportive of the changes that were made. I had one question, which something was brought up last week about whether or not people who serve on the interview committee who might be interested in serving on the committee, if that was something that was allowed, or if it would be clear. I mean, my personal opinion is that shouldn't be, you shouldn't say on the interview committee, if you're also a candidate for the committee, but if that was made, or was going to be made clear to at least the resident recommendations or perhaps even a charity or Sid Ferrara who can serve on multiple committees under our handbook and so if that was something that was being considered. I did want to speak just briefly. I feel that anytime OCA is invoked I feel like I have to say something as the former chair OCA struggled for a long time as we know with CAFs. This is not the OCA process and this is not the town council process. We looked at other examples of how communities treat information I don't want to go into this too much because I think Alyssa did a lot of this, but I will say we often bring up North Hampton as an example. I often say CAFs are public in North Hampton and I want to just make sure I say this clearly because this is said a lot. They are not only the CAFs of people who are being recommended for appointment are released in North Hampton. Not every person who is applied, the council, the public in North Hampton have no idea who applied for a committee. They only know who's being recommended for appointment. So when Paul sends his memo to us and says these people are being recommended for appointment and hear their qualifications, we have pretty much the same information that counselors in North Hampton have because they don't know who else applied either and I don't think we need to. I don't know what we're not the appointing authority and I don't know what value I get from seeing every CAF and every SOI that's been submitted by every person, except for me to be able to then go to Paul and say well, I like this person better why didn't you choose this person. And I don't think that's our job. I think that starts to overstep our role. So I know, you know, clearly Pat and I have differences in opinion on this and I think that's fine but I do want to make sure that time Andrew hears from me. I have no interest in seeing the CAFs or SOIs from all of the candidates who apply. And that's especially true because of this expanded interview process. Actually, my first concern when I saw this was, oh my God, that's a huge interview committee and having sat on interview committees I thought Paul what are you getting yourself into, because I think more than four people on an interview committee is setting yourself up for a lot of long discussions. But I figured he's doing this to himself so I'm not going to throw my opinion on the interview committees too big if he wants to do it he can do it. But what that means is there are a lot of people vetting these candidates and considering them and so I don't know what added value is served by having the council also then have access to the whole pool of applicants if this interview committee recommends people. I think that we should have you know Dorothy mentioned trust I think we should have trust in that interview committee, because this is a more rigorous process than any other committee and if I'm being perfectly in us that that gives me a little bit of hesitation. Because it is a much different process. And I question whether we now have to do that for every committee, it's easy to say well this committee is special and sure it is but I think the affordable housing trust is special to and I think the engine climate action committee is special to and so I do think we have to think about how this sort of new process is going to put pressure on. Is this what we're going to have to do for for every committee or for every special committee. I don't want to say that I was supportive of what I saw in it but I would like to hear about whether people are being made aware that if they're serving an interview committee whether or not they are allowed to also then serve on the committee itself. Thank you. I'm going to pause for a moment and have Paul answer that question that Evan just reiterated. I don't want to preclude anyone from the serving, even if they are on the interview committee if the entire interview committee which is a large committee. I acknowledge that someone if the committee as a group says no we really want you to be part of this. Because I, I think that we need to leave the the the group open, you know, to putting the best group of people together on this so you know I yeah so I don't want to say no you can't serve if you or if you're on the interview team. So first I just want to start by thanking I read Paul I really appreciate his efforts in meeting with the different community groups. I'm reaching out through email and do different by book by book books in a community, and based on which he's come up with this proposal so I really, and he's also mentioned consultants so I really do appreciate his intentions and the work that has been put in creating this proposal. I have four questions and then one comment. So I'll start with the four questions. The first one is we're hearing a lot about the timeframe, and will the committee be able to do a good job. Given the timeframe so given up budgeting budget timing constraints. Is there any flexibility where we could increase the time for this committee to do the work that's first question the second is I'm hearing about concerns. About from the community about transparency and their ability to do the work and I completely agree we need the transparency for the important policy decision that are going to come out of this so they need to be complete transparency in the way the work is done. However, when the hopefully the committee members are going to use either human centered design or some way of engaging reaching out into our communities and speaking with the residents. Is it possible for those conversations to be private. So that's the second question. The question is, can we pay committee members who need support in order to be able to participate. And the fourth question is regarding the title. And I think I mean whether to include the word social justice and equity into that and I think that begs the question. What is this committee doing is it to handle systemic racism which I'm very interested in us doing but I feel that's a longer term goal and right now the immediate goal is public safety. And so, depending on what this committee is going to be doing whether it's addressing systemic racism issues in which case yes that should be the name. And if it's only focusing on public safety then for now maybe that's what it should do that should be the title and or is it the same committee that in the future is going to address systemic racism. So depending on that I think that should inform the title. And Shalini, you said you had four questions and a comment. They're in addition. Yeah, would you like me to make the comment. Also. Okay, so regarding the composition of the committee I'm truly hearing the concerns and of some many community members about including a police member. I just wanted us to take a pause here and really invite us all to take a breath and not literally let's take a breath. Okay, and, and here is what I'm thinking and proposing. What if this could be an invitation to create a model committee where we do include diverse perspectives. The case is in touch with the nuances that general public is not so they do provide a perspective that is going to be very different and informed informing. So we really included other stakeholders like businesses and schools, and I'm just thinking of the key stakeholders in our community that are affected in addition to BIPOC folks, for sure, in addition to residents. And, and what have we created a transparent commit committee that really is able to have those conversations that are going to be difficult conversations but I do really believe this is an opportunity to also engage the police and have them see what's what truly here and listen to the issues which they might be creating intentionally unintentionally so it's really an opportunity for the police to listen to the commit community members to participate in the process and be a part of the solution. And that to me feels like that's really paradigm shifting rather than again creating these, you know, like us versus them kind of a situation that being said, I did reach out to a black a friend of mine who is. He's a black police officer and also he is part of. Wait, let me get his thing he's co founder of the American Society of evidence based policing. He's in the National Institute of Justice leads which is law enforcement and balancing data and science and he's has a PhD in organizational leadership and he works and does consulting in this work of policing and building community safety and all of this kind of work and so I reached out to him and asked for his opinion what he felt and he said absolutely police should be part of it because they know the nuances that general people will not have and one other piece that he mentioned what it should not be the police chief, rather it should be someone one of the police folks who are on the road in the community and closer to the ground, because they really understand what are the real issues and so forth and are not tied to the rules and operations. So those were. And we've already heard from some residents who are including some black residents who also supported the idea of including police member and even if it's not police it could be a retired police person it could be someone who's from law enforcement who knows what the real issues are I can want to speak to it. Thank you. Paul, do you want to deal with the issue of timeframe at this point. I think the timeframe is very challenging I think that, you know, that was mentioned last last week I think it's true. I think though that the timeframe is good, and that it's going to it's making us move fast, and I think that's really important, and also that it fits into our budget for FY 22, which I think is also important. So I think that having that time urgency is is good is going to make us move faster on this because they're there isn't because you established a deadline I think that was very important. That's why I sort of bifurcate the mission here and this this first one is just to look at the, you know, how we deliver community safety and I do use that term. I don't talk about policing. I talk about community safety because there are other ways to deliver community safety and that's what this group should be looking at. And the larger questions that we've all that everybody has been talking about. Those are really big things. That's not going to get done by January 31. That is something that's going to go on I think it's really a commitment of the organization, i. The town to say, we want to engage in this process of reimagining our police, how we do policing. You know, you know, I know some people say where there should not be a police department at all. And there's so there's a range of opinion on that. So, you mentioned some a couple of things. One is paying the committee members. And, you know, I think that that's, we've learned a lot from the ECAC process where people who are contributing their time were compensated for their time for the interview team. I don't intend to do that. It's a new thing. But if the committee comes back and says we think this is a way of engaging people. I'm all yours on hearing this because I do think it is, you know, it's sort of a pandemic world is harder. But we need to allow, give people space as sort of Andy was identifying is to say, we need to create help people get space if that means they need support for daycare, they need technology, they need location. You know, that type of thing we don't want to exclude someone because their their their personal lives and their, their family lives make makes it impossible for them to participate. We want to take away as many of those barriers as possible. I think I think I hit most of the points. Okay, Kathy, you have your hand up. Thank you. I'm going to try to build on comments rather than repeat them with different words. Just a couple of things. One of the things I liked very much on this revised memo. And it may have been in the original one too was an emphasis on fact finding and a community based research approach. And I think that was the course of the longer term that would serve us all well. And I do want to keep the lens open to racial justice but also social justice because Andy spoke about his legal aid clients. And I think that the grants in over a decade of working with a low wage union were the, that low incomes put everyone at risk, and too often people were pitted against each other, and didn't see how they were united on common concerns. And as a member there are pockets of poverty that do get in the way of participating in all sorts of ways in terms of parents able to support their kids. And so I think we need when we're doing that community based research approach, and I've actually heard from a couple crossing color lines but one whose last name you would think she might be Hispanic but she isn't she isn't in terms of her parentage, talking about their experiences so I think we need to be really doing broad based, and I think it's important. So I, the social justice part of me, I just want to see some words somewhere, not necessarily in the title that we're doing that larger lens of racial justice, and trying to collect those stories and experiences do you feel unable to speak up to you or are you not listened to. And secondly, the notion of ability to participate of people on in the workgroup, even in the era of zoom. One of the things you, I see some counselors have but if you're in a crowded space where you live, and it's a shared space where you have access to Wi Fi. It's difficult if the volume is up and you're listening unless you have headphones and earpieces so that you can be quietly participating and not interfere with everybody else in your family or in your household so I think Paul you mentioned there's a lot of excitement or places but we was working with a group in New York it's people who have coming out of prison. Young offenders and a lot of them are in homeless shelters and the homeless shelters, even when they delivered the computers had no quiet place to talk to anyone let alone the zip drive and often the laptops just disappeared they actually didn't make it through and sometimes it was the mail system just, I'm trying to think of what can we do to make sure everyone feels like if they get on this working group of full and full participant on. So, headphones with earpieces would potentially help if we're talking to people from their homes, and then the last piece on, you know the police on or off. It's important to have them be available and called in on specific issues. It's a lot of somebody's time to sit through wrestling on large issues and small issues so I think the notion that they will be brought in anytime the committee wants to for a full discussion, or just a listening session where they're sitting and listening to the fact finding is very critical. I'm agnostic on whether they have to sit through every meeting I mean if you notice some of our council meetings, not everyone is a full 13 people are full participants at every meeting but we all sit through them, and I just think of bringing in if there's any sense that their presence might have people not talk about personal experiences I want those personal experiences in the fact finding to be confidential if need be or however you plan to do this notion of community based research or post that is culturally and sensitive. That's really important that we gather those stories so I'll just stop there because that I think that's one of the things that we want to know we're not just hearing from some voices, but a broad range of the bike park community. Not everyone who's come and talk to us during the council meeting, but a really broad range. George, a couple of things quickly. It does seem a little strange to me that that this body is focused, as I understand it primarily on the police department is delivery of services to the community. That seems to be the central focus. And so the fact that they would not be a part of the discussion, except when needed, when called upon when the focus of the discussion as I understand it folks inquiry the focus of the working group is on how community safety services are provided. And the primary provider of that is the police department. And the issue that that some people have with our police department is focused on that so that's one just Shalini brought it up I hear it, I echo it. I also hear what Kathy is saying about the importance of stories being told the importance of social and racial justice. So in a way, maybe we're struggling to balance to very important things at the same time but I am concerned about a body that is going to it's an advisory body. It will come back to the council and I'm very much interested in what it will advise us about. So primarily one of them is going to be the issue of racial and social justice and the police department. My understanding, but also my understanding is it's also about the delivery of services such as mental health, homelessness, sexual assault, domestic violence, where our police officers by societal default it seems, often are the first responders, and I've also acknowledged publicly and over and over again that they are not the best responders in many of these circumstances. And so I would also be looking to hear what this advisory body, however, whoever constitutes it, whatever title it's given. What is their advice to us about how to better provide mental health services homelessness section dealing with sexual assault, domestic violence. Some people think that you can just replace the police department with someone else. And I think that's naive. In fact, it might turn out that you might need more police officers in some cases in order to provide what I assume is what we all want to provide, which is the best possible public safety community safety services in these areas. So I'm very much interested in what this body is going to give us in terms of its advice. I'm not as much concerned about who's on it, though I do think that there should be a place somewhere for the police, given the focus of this of this body. But most important is that we not lose sight of the larger social issues around mental health, homelessness, sexual assault, domestic violence, which also seem to be crucial here along with the issue of racial justice. So, I'm hoping that whatever this body finally produces. It will listen to those people who actually do provide these services in the community and also listen to our police department that often are the first responders in many of these cases. I'm actually going to go next since I raised my hand. So, first of all, Paul, I like the fact that you've moved police and other staff who position of being resource, my own personal experience having chaired two committees for the town of Amherst is that it is important to have the police or in my case it was the fire chief, it was the head of DPW have them available, but they clearly were not a member of the committee and at the same time I knew that I could call on them for information and so in many ways I feel like this makes this much more consistent with the way other committees have happened. As we look at the issue of pay and compensation for time, technology, equipment, headphones, space to go to meet family care. If we do that, and I'm not saying we shouldn't I actually believe there is a point where we have to do that in order to broaden the engagement of more public of different backgrounds, then we need to do it for all committees. It is consistent with what has to happen. And then as we look at our budget in the future, we need to look at the impact of that on all committees, and it needs to be made very clear when a person is applying if they're going to need that additional assistance, although that should be a blind piece of an application. So it does not influence their ability to be put on a committee, and then properly provided with the additional assistance they need. At this point, the only committees that are compensated in the town are the ones that are elected of the public. And at this, so therefore if we're going to look at this, I would suggest we look at it in a very broad way, and we develop guidelines that can be used for all committees to encourage broader participation across all of them. And that's not a small task. It's a very, very steep line and a very big task. I do want to mention on the SLIs. I personally do like the fact that substituting experience for education is always acceptable in my mind. You have some people who are as brilliant as people without PhDs and authored books and been widely expected in, you know, widely representative. So, when the people who have asked that we weigh experience against education or at least weigh it equally, I think we have to accept that as an option. How someone demonstrates that experience I can get, I think can get very tough. And it's going to take some artful way of doing that, which brings me to the statements of interest and Evan, I want to just thank you for clarifying the North Hampton Pride onto a committee for committee can create enormous embarrassment for someone in any number of circles. And I don't care whether it's an academic circle or a personal circle. I believe we should only be seeing the statements of interest or the CAFs or your write up is fine of those people you're recommending otherwise it becomes a process that is well beyond what the council should be dealing with. We hire you to do that. And we expect you to do it and do it well. Um, so I want to thank you for the changes you made to this on the issue of the title. Again, I'm just going to go back to the experience the GOL has gone through in its discussions of your goals, and that is racial justice and racial equity permeate everything we do. And there's no way that we cannot admit that that's what we have to do. So I don't feel it needs to be in the title. But on the other hand, it's in the charge, it's implicit in whatever else we do. So those are my particular comments and we'll move on. I wanted to call on people who have not spoken. And that would be Steve Shriver. Yeah, so I haven't spoken and I found the discussion to be really interesting. So on the question of whether or not the police should be part of this discussion or not. What are the a lot of the public comment is from when I can interpret is that one of the there's an expression if you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you're, if you're in the world of a if you're in the. So for me, I'm an architect, everything looks like a building problem. So I think that not there's an advance to not having the police on this particular task force because then we get away from the hammer and nail problem and maybe there's broad ways of, I really am intrigued by this idea that Amherst could be a model of really rethinking community safety. I think I also heard some many comments amongst my fellow fellow and fellow counselors about maybe not an active police officer but somebody involved in community safety and another way. The fire department or related departments or, or somebody who's retired. I guess another comment to make is that some police and probably not enough police are also our fellow residents. So they have as much of a vested much of an interest in the outcome of this as residents and, you know, taxpayers or whatever in Amherst as we do and I think that's one of the issues is not enough of our community safety folks live here in town and I'd love to, you know, hear more about what that is but there are lots of studies that show that if the police live amongst you, then some of the issues that are being described are diminished. So I think maybe the last thing to say is we're starting off this discussion as if there's a problem that we're trying to solve. We definitely have heard a lot of voices indicating that there is a problem. Those are very powerful voices. So I'm arguing now the other way that the police could be on this committee that if you if this were to investigate a particular issue with the police. It would be inappropriate to have the police on that because we're investigating them. But if we see the police as part of the team, you know, they're as interested in addressing this issues as everyone else is the public who have spoken, then making them and feel as part of the team. I'm not getting clearer answers here but I think that there's good arguments both ways. I see the police as possibly part of the team that can help address the issues. On the other hand, I think that you get away from the hammer and nail problem if you don't have the actual police, the active police on the committee. So thank you. I just want to make sure that we all recognize we have other agenda items and I'm now going to circle back to people who have spoken. Dorothy. I will be brief. Just picking up on police role in the committee. Obviously, well to me it's obvious. I'm not saying the chief, but it's people connected with the police to get details about how things are done, and maybe things that have been tried and why they were failed and why they're doing things the way they do. But the power dynamics would are better if the police representatives are not members of the committee, but are as Paul said resources, because then it's the committee that decides when and where and even who to call in and on what issues. And then the committee has more control of that meeting and can get the information that it needs. But I wanted to mention about paying I do agree with Lynn, completely, that if there's going to be pay and support for committees which has been brought up many, many times by various council members, whenever we've talked about getting broader participation that the policy should be the same townwide. And just a little piece from my own circumstance. I teach at HCC have been taught teaching in face to face. And like many teachers had to go online, suddenly in the middle of the semester. We dealt with it in emergency situation, but over the summer, there was lots and lots of training offered. I took every piece I could get. No, I haven't been paid for it, but there will be some payments to some people if they have successfully completed it for training. And, you know, if you're on a committee to deal with public safety, there's a lot of meetings or seminars even that they might be asked to sit through talking about these various methods that are the cahoots and different methods that have been used in different cities, just gaining a lot of information before they sit down and do a lot of their deliberation. And I could see that as being something that is paid. So we've dealt with many, many issues. I think that Paul's given us a very detailed document and has made adjustments from his original proposal in reference to comments from the public. And with a few more changes, I think that we will be on a good start. So I just want to say that I feel like some of this conversation that we're having is somewhat tone deaf. And I feel like a lot of people are coming from the perspective that, you know, you know what, we have to be practical. I understand that we have to be practical, but I just want to say that this has to do with racial inequity, and I'm a poor person that's had issues with the police that I don't own a laptop I struggled to be on certain committees in finance because of having kids with autism. But I agree with Pat that by saying we don't want to lose out on the scope. I feel like we are saying all lives matter and I just, I think that that's really difficult for me. And the whole reason that this came up is because policing is an issue and I know that we live in an affluent liberal community and, you know, maybe some of us have never seen the police as an issue. I feel like people are telling us so honestly and truly and desperately asking for help and saying that they do not think police at all is the answer. And I just, it just heartens me to hear people saying well we have to ask the police because they're the ones that know, and I just feel like there's a real disconnect maybe between the, the reality that a lot of us that sit on this, this council and the reality of others and I just I feel disheartened in the fact that I feel like we are saying that all lives matter and I feel like by saying if we're going to give you know compensation to these people we have to give them to everyone. And really what I'm also hearing is that if you, if you have to, if you don't have the time to devote to a committee and have the money to still feed your family and take care of your kids, then you don't belong here and I know that that we have to be reasonable because we only have some so much money to give but I feel like we just did discourage a whole lot of people right there. So that's that's all I want to say. So, I originally just had two quick things because I know I spoke before. So, in terms of managing expectations which feels like one of my main jobs on the council is it's been referenced a couple of times by people that when this study group comes back to the council, they're coming back to the council. Let's remember that they don't report to us that's not their job. They're reporting to the town manager, the town manager is bringing us information now he may well decide at various points between now and January to have individuals that are part of the committee come in and talk to us he may even have somebody from the interview committee come in and talk to us, but that's up to him, we they are not coming to us they are not reporting to us, just like the conservation commission doesn't come and report to us. Just like the conservation commission, I am in no way diminishing the incredible importance of this conversation versus, I have to say conservation commission matters but you know it's not like what my focus is right now and it's not where we're concerned. I think that there is partly here a difference of opinion that cannot be simply resolved. I am not saying all lives matter when I say community safety so for someone else to say well that's what you're saying well no that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it's community safety because one of the reasons as I mentioned previously, if you add racial equity but you don't talk about economic level you don't talk about gender identity you don't talk about mental health, then what you're doing is you're saying, oh, that's a racial equity thing, unless you're really into that and let's be frank a lot of white people are like, you know that's not really my problem right now I'm thinking of something else. This is community safety at all levels for all ages for everybody focused brought to us by thankfully members of the BIPOC community. So that is why I'm still very eager to call it community safety and not just say oh look it's this thing that's over here, because again that history that I've had with the town. If you would go through and count up the number of volunteer positions we're talking appointed positions now right because as we differentiated between who's paid and who's not appointed positions. And you added up the BIPOC community who has served in the town of Amherst even over the 20 years I've been here. It's been incredibly tiny and that's for a lot of different reasons and that's one of the things we expect to grow out of right this initial conversation and then future conversations and I fully expect this working group one of the things that they will report to Paul that he will report to us is here's a way of breaking down some of those barriers we've all thrown ideas around. They can report to us what they have experienced as being barriers for them, and I totally support the idea of providing actual equipment for people who may need it at this time. But these are zoom meetings we don't need to high child care we don't need to bring pizza in for people, there's zoom meetings people can participate, but it is a whole different thing moving forward like Lynn talked about like we talked about for other committees. And we just need to be clear. This is not a police oversight committee right in terms of the public is still hearing that this is some messed up version of a police oversight committee. It's not it's initial stages, it's the aggressive timeline. And we are going to get a lot more out of this and other groups that grow out of this, some of which may very well not only have equipment provided for them but may also have family care provided may also even have a stipend I am totally in support of exploring that, but that's not going to happen. This thing before January. Leave one more comment, shall me. Yeah. You have another other agenda items. I just want to clarify again that when I suggest and that we invite police or representative in that way is not saying that police knows better, but it is just after speaking with a lot of people people of color and black people in particular, who do this kind of work and work with the community in consulting and community engagement, and they have recommended that if you want to have really good solutions come out of a committee like this you want to do something different and not just a bandaid then do want to have the diverse perspectives in the community in the committee itself, and just also the other part that we're discussing is it seems like we think there's a balancing act between in the committee itself of people feeling safe to speak in front of police and, and, and, without having police and all of that but the point that's, I truly believe that the people who are going to be in the committee will need to be able to hear the different perspective because they're going to be competing needs, sometimes, and the committee members need to be able to hold the different competing needs and listen to them, and then make informed decisions. And the part that is really critical that I really really feel passionate about is that there need to be processes that this committee is going to use in order to reach out to people and, and thank you Kathy for bringing in social inequities as well so we want to reach out to different, not only by Park but also socially disadvantaged people and so they will be processes where hopefully they will be processing that this committee is going to use in order to reach out to people and police will not be part of that of course, but yeah, that's all. Thank you. Any final comments. No, this is a very rich discussion and I have to say I'm really glad to be part of the community is having this conversation in this area is this area of the conversation versus a different other communities we are having different discussions on this so I'm really happy to be part of this conversation. So Paul, I'm going to, we're not going to take a break because we already have our acting town work meeting for us, as well as our maintenance director waiting facilities manager waiting for us. And so we're going to move on to the next item on the agenda. And that is the whole issue of polling locations. And I'm going to have you introduce it and move on. Last week we talked a little about about the voting results. Today, we have our acting temporary town clerk. So I did, we keep going back and forth. And so she's just again, I want to really credit Sue and Amber for stepping up in a very tough situation when our town clerk was required to take a medical leave and so she she willingly stepped up and is taking this on and doing a fantastic job. And then Jeremiah plant who's our facilities maintenance manager who's relatively new to the town but boy, we could not have done this without Jeremiah and I think Sue will attest to that the work that he's done in terms of air sampling and logistics and on all these different sites was just really remarkable. So they're here to very quickly walk you through what the results are of your decision to where how to hold your voting locations. And obviously the council has the ability to change that if you so choose but I think the recommendation is we should just do it just like we did last in the primary election for the general election. So I'll turn it over to Sue. Everyone here me. Okay, I've got a headphone here and so I don't disturb my whole household. So, um, who's going to flip the slides. Do I just say next. Yes, please just say next. Okay. Okay, so hello everybody. My first time ever appearing before the town council so nice to virtually see you all. So I just want to quickly speak about the decision to change the polling places into the high school base out of need mostly because of precinct to, you know, in all the situation that arose from that. So we walk through multiple times and Jeremiah, you know, and Rupert school superintendent and just identified how to best lay everything out for the three polling places. And let's see so this slide just shows that it were it was precincts to four and 10 that went to the high school so we can go next slide please. There we go. Alright, so everything went well we had the few usual glitches that we always do on election morning. Just you know people showing up at one time building not quite being open at another time you know, but we work through everything. I think a few tables were missing here and there staff have set things up, but all day long we had not one phone call from a voter not a single call saying where do I go. Or I went there and I can't find it. How do I get into built nothing not a single thing. It was great. We had the usual, you know, people calling us saying I'm my registered voter, but everything seemed to go well we didn't get any calls from the people working in the polling place. We had, you know, we had Jeremiah had done some maps up which we included with their supplies in the morning. So everybody knew the flow. How else can I say about it. We go to the next slide. I said everything on this side. Okay, so this is something we'd like to do after the election to get firsthand feedback on how things went from the wardens who are in charge of the polling places. And Paul was there and Jeremiah was there in the zoom meeting, and nobody reported any problems with the high school was, it was great. The one thing that we did. I mean it wasn't with the high school itself but we forgot to notify people that there was a party to use for their bathroom facilities. And so they actually tried to use the bathroom in the high school and it wasn't the best experience for them but other than that, there was no cross traffic people knew where to go we had adequate signage we're going to do a better job on the high school. So we had no signage for November. Hopefully we're having the polls in the in the high school in November, but we have more than enough space for the free precinct so it was just it was it went well and, you know, can't ask for anything more than that. In the last slide is there another slide. Yeah. So yeah, oh yeah better signage. So the handicapped parking. Oh this is Crocker farm up high school could be closer to the door because we've moved the polling location at Crocker farm to the library so instead of it being on the left hand side of the building it's now moved to the far right so we have to compensate with the handicapped spotter or however many we're going to use. So for November. So September was pretty quiet, as far as in person voting the town as a whole voted overwhelmingly by mail. So for people coming out it was it was nice and quiet actually. In November I expect more people to vote in in person. I think the percentages are going to be the same as far as the ratio go so we have currently I would say we're still entering applications each day because they come in each day for I want to vote by mail but I think we're up around 7800 vote by mail applications right now. But I think more people will come out in person just because more people want to vote in general in November. A lot of people historically the hit the primaries aren't a big draw but obviously presidential election is so there will be more people. I do believe there will be observers because there always are in presidential elections. So Jeremiah is going to speak on this I think about the observers and where we're going to put them, but unlike September primary we put we sent over all the early battles. I can't get tired sorry. All the early ballots went to the polling places for processing we're not going to do that November. We're going to send them to a central tabulation facility which is hopefully at the bank center and room 101. And that way the only thing the polls are dealing with is the increased volume of voters that may come out and and the absentee ballots which they're used to dealing with. And you know we'll promote early voting as we have been but I don't think we really need to people seems just like to vote by mail or you know come out and early vote. And that's pretty much it I don't think there's a one more slide. Let me see what we have here nine. And Paul this is Paul's. This is Paul's and my recommendation that we would love for there to be no change because everything worked out well and I feel changing up things constantly is just confusing to everyone. And let me see the next is there another one. And we can we can take the presentation down. And Jeremiah did you want to speak or just respond to questions. I figured I'd sit here quiet and smile. Certainly, I would have to say that you know my number one goal for for the September election was just to have a positive voter experience and and after the election. It really did feel that we had a positive voter experience. It was really, that was number one goal number two, your one a would just be that everyone felt safe that people felt comfortable enough to come and come out and cast cast or vote and you know I did a fair bit of running around that that morning that day and and I felt like I leaned on some of the other the newer locations a little bit more just because it was a new building and it was just a little bit different dynamics. I did want to get out to all of them, but the wardens did ask if I could visit visit all the polling locations with them and I'm happy to do that with for each of them. One of the other things that Sue did bring up and is the observers. And so what what I wanted to do is take a look at each one of these polling locations because we have to be mindful of how many people we bring into these polling locations at one time. So I started looking about the at the occupancy loads of these spaces and really what I found out that the occupancy load is not going to be a limiting factor. There's only one location that has a pretty small occupancy load and that would be Crocker farm. So the Crocker farm library has a general occupancy load. So that would be at 49. So now if I go and take the governor Baker's recommendations that that now we have to reduce that and we can only allow 25% and well I'm looking at basically 12 individuals inside at any given time. So to use help, we sort of put this together this list and with all our election workers and with four voting boxes. That's 10. So it would have that space would allow for two observers. And really that's about all I could fit in there. The other locations, the high school, the high school has it's almost 2100 is the occupancy load. We're not going to see those numbers. So really it what it boils down to is the space I have available to put individuals and I would say in most instances, it would be comfortable to sit up to fit maybe two to six observers at each precinct. And I would probably want us to walk through those spaces. Some of the middle schools or the elementary schools they have probably the most amount of space we only use half the gym. And that's the way that it's, it's set up where we enter the space and where we exit the space. There's a lot of negative area negative space that's just underutilized. And that's a perfect area for the observers we could probably fit six easily, all six feet apart. Some tend to be a little bit more of a challenge to get some some in there, but I did look at it and and I have that all mapped out I updated my maps and I'm going to share those with Sue. I've also added some some maps for the campaigning distancing. I'm looking forward to the locations. So now the wardens or the constables have a map that it's it's all laid out so they could see exactly where on the property is the closest any of the campaign signs can be. I'm looking forward to the November. I know it'll come with some challenges. But, but looking at the September, we, I, I put provisions in for longer lines. We just didn't see them in September. I think we will see them in November, but I feel for the most part the work has been done. Some more stanchions and chain, just to help direct the all of the voters but but I'm, I'm feeling very confident with the way that we've created these polling locations. Let me start off by just thinking so. You've been with us for many years, but you stepped into the brink and you've done a phenomenal job. Jeremiah, we ran you through your paces. Let's let's see if we can just change your decisions and have us go back and do seven polling places that we're used to and one more so we know what you can do. We know you did a phenomenal job of it. I'm not sure that you'll trust that you'll continue to do that again, but we really want to thank both of you for everything you and also sue the other staff in the town clerk's office as well. So with that, other comments or questions Kathy. I want to echo what Lynn just said I think you all were fantastic and I did early voting on a Sunday. And it was like I was being welcomed into the family was really, really nice. Some people are greeting and I brought my 99 year old mother and got a picture taken of her voting but I, I want to also really praise you for the dropbox outside of town hall. I'm such a concern that if you stick it in the mail it might not get there that the more we can do if people get their mail ballot and I'm happened to be one of the people that never got mine so I just voted early that people know they don't have to go to the mail office to mail it that they can drop it in that dropbox. And there was some, I got some questions of whether they could go to early voting with their mail and ballot and drop it in there. I wanted to vote before the day of the election, but so making it as clear as possible that if it's early voting can you go with your mail and ballot and drop it in, you have to go to the dropbox so all of these things were new. So it gave people a great deal of comfort to know that they were getting as near as possible to putting the ballot in somebody's hands, other than sticking it somewhere and I'm from what I can see the post office may or may not get better at delivering things since since it's a larger issue than clearly it's not the Amherst post office, but I just I just thought everything that was set up was helped make this go smoothly and thank you very much. Right. Alyssa. I just want to echo that everybody did a phenomenal job. It really was a huge amount of change and we did. And we also saw a ton of outreach associated with it, both the town clerk and through the CPOs and through all the individual counselors, etc. So I think that really was successful. A couple of things I just want to ask notes about one is, as the town manager did in last week's election report I prevail upon the town clerk, I know that town clerks tend to get these directions from the state and then they just ask them as is so that they don't mess anything up, but it's really helpful to have on the town website days of the week. So when you say that early voting is between such and such date and such and such date. If you point out to people, those two are Saturdays that really helps them out and it helps us when we tell other people that. So if you could continue to sort of add that in even though I know that's not what the state published to you, I think that would be incredibly helpful. The state isn't always as helpful as we are locally so let us take credit for that. Also, of course, at the end of this I'm hoping you're going to tell us now and we'll be putting on the website, unless you've already done it a couple days ago, which was when those November 3 ballots are being mailed to people because we already have people who are all jumping out and we got to print them and stuff with people's names on them. So people would like just again managing expectations so they know, oh if I haven't received it by such and such date I should call, but I won't call them before such and such date because I know that they're not ready yet. And then the final thing is and this may just be like a report back in future, given all the setup we did. It sounds like everyone's quite comfortable with the cracker farm location. The concern is just legally what's our exposure, if more than two people show up and say no, I am saying I want to observe this election. And you say well but there's only X amount of space here. Just, again, I don't need an answer tonight but just so that people aren't caught off guard if it happens if it shouldn't happen right we shouldn't have people who are that desperate to observe. So we do just so that the staff is ready for that and so that it so that they don't feel caught off guard by it. And frankly, I'm not too worried about it in terms of legal exposure during a pandemic because we are leaving spaces for two. But I don't know how you're supposed to resolve that, given all the circumstances that you have because normally that is part of how you construct a polling places you have space for observers who who decides if to is enough. And that's what all you're doing in terms of getting all this information out and again, as always the fact that you got results out to people so fast and that you provided the information later on how much of it was early voting was incredibly valuable so thank you. Andy. Thank you. I also want to start by thanking both the two of my sue and through sue to please to all the staff in the clerk's office and for the phenomenal job that they did. I had one question though that was came up and was really out of the memo that we got not from the slides. And it had to do with early voting and Kathy alluded to it a little bit because I myself was a little bit wondering when I heard that other people had been receiving ballots and two weeks later I was still hadn't received my ballot which I did get. I assume that there were other people with that question but what struck me about that election results that you gave is that it said for the September one state primary 7,180 ballots or cast representing 42.94% of the voters but then you went on and it says that for the number of people who actually cast ballots versus the number of people who received ballots by mail or 6420 early voting ballot requests and 4747 people cast returned those ballots. It was a little bit uncertain as to why there was that why the discrepancy and the number did people not receive ballots to people not return ballots to people vote by alternative means was there some glitch in the system. So I just wanted to ask that question. Can I speak. Yes. So the difference is, it's simple people did not return the ballots. And I think it was because of the primary and just going on phone calls that I received. When someone milled in their application whether it was a, I want to vote postcard or an absentee ballot application. I think we were missing we were calling people to get to complete their application and a lot of times people say oh I'm really not that interested in the primary really just want the general election. So I think we got a lot of people that got the application from the state and checked off I want all elections but then when they actually got their physical ballot for the primary they looked at it and said I really don't care about the primary. That's my, that's my take on it just from feedback. Oh, again, it's world gratitude day today by the way so just feeling very grateful for all of you town staff and our community that's watching and the community that members who sent us this question so I have three questions that I got in. The first one is what is the procedure for counting the mail in votes. That is, does the town clerk do it volunteers counted before election day. The second question is how is the signature on the ballot envelope verified, for example does emitting your middle initial disqualify your vote. And third is if a person was sent in a mail in ballot goes to the poll and tries to vote. Does the poll worker have the information that this person has already voted. Okay, so the procedure for counting the early ballot so for September primary they were all gathered precinct by precinct and put in order and they were delivered to the polling places they were actually checked off their own check in list and they were put through the tabulator just like everyone did. For the upcoming November election we're going to like I said have a central tabulation facility, which is going to be hopefully for tabulators set up and the bells will be delivered same process but just done in, in separate location so that's all the people have to focus on is putting the balance to the tabulator. For November, the separate tabulation facility results at eight o'clock we can't close out the election to late o'clock. Those will be added to the in person machine read tabulations to get the total amount, not the total total but the night the total for that night. So that's how the ballots are counted. There are some ballots that are delivered too late to go to the polls on election day those would get hand counted in the office by our board of registrar so there's just a handful of those. But those are how ballots are counted they're not counted ahead of time they're counted on election day. Okay, I think your next question was on signatures. Okay, so we are not handwriting experts. We do not look at the signature we do not compare a signature that is on the EV seven envelope which is what the ballot is inserted into and sealed. We don't compare that to a voter registration form let's say we wouldn't possibly have time for that. But we do check to make sure there is a signature. I don't know the name. I don't know if you know, a lot of people signed like this. As long as assigned we accept it. So that's that's pretty much it if it's been returned in the mail it's in the mailing envelope it's got the label on it that we put on there. We're going to accept it. Okay. And then for the last question. I wrote down mail in. So somebody shows up at the poll they've not voted before. Oh, right, right. So everything is computerized so when the ballots come back to our office after somebody returns their early ballot comes to our office. We log it into the voter system the state voter system. That creates a record for the record starts when we receive the application giving you the whole low down here from start to finish. I think when somebody comes to vote in person at the early voting or on election day. The list that is the voter list has a notation that that person applied for an early ballot and that that person either return ballot or not. If there's any question we just always advise our poll workers to call our office and we will double check. But if that bell has been received back by our office and somebody shows up on election on early voting. They cannot vote. We've already received the ballot. So there are checks and balances in the system. And I think that answers healthy question. Okay, maybe your hand up but last week when we first talked about this you had several observations any questions. Nope, they were answered. Um, so I want to thank you but I also want to thank all of the people in our town who came out and work the polls and just really knowing that some of them had to kind of say, do I feel safe and others showed up that have never done this before. And all the people who in the past have worked the polls, but just felt it wasn't safe. We could not do these elections without you and so thank you very much. And thanks again to Sue and to Jeremiah. Thank you. We're going to take a five minute break, and we'll be back and go on to the next percent for our. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to quickly start. Alyssa, can you hear me. Yep, I'm just plugging in my power cord. Great. Not de Angelis. Can you hear me. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Dorothy Pam. Yes. Evan Ross. Yes. George Ryan. Yes. Mark D. Wayne. Just back. Yes. Do you shred her. Yep. And Eastine bird. Yes. Sarah Schwartz. Yes. She is. I'm sure she will join us momentarily. There she is. Shall I can you hear us. Sorry about that. Yes. We have the first reading of this last week and it's been posted for the required days. This is the second reading and unless there's a problem, the council will go ahead and vote tonight. I want to mention that I have spoken with Kathy and Shane and Bill and Cason and Bill is available in the audience if we need him. But we wanted to make sure that at this point you're not going to go ahead and try to put in special language that accommodates the Jones Library. We will leave that open for a possible future amendment to the bylaw but not at this time. Is there any question about that. Okay, Kathy do you have any other comments at this time. No, no I don't other than I just want to thank everyone for the discussion last week it was terrific and Alyssa speaking up saying that I won't paraphrase but it came across to me that we did a nearly perfect job in putting together a package. We really worked hard at it at the ad hoc committee so some of what you saw was reflecting counselor comments, Dorothy during the CRC meeting had talked about the importance of users of the building, being part of the selection committee and that is written into the bylaw as a composition so we were listening to how we could make this better and the public art commission people who participated were eager to move it forward but also to have it be the best it could be. So I really think a lot of effort over a number of years not just recently went into it. So I want to thank a larger group of people who worked on this, not just the ad hoc committee and the back and forth. Since you chaired this committee. I'm going to ask you to make the small motion and then we're going to show the actual bylaw on the screen, you're not going to read it from front to cover from front to end. So Kathy, if you will. Can you put the motion up Lynn so I read the words that you have because I didn't print them out. So can you add the percent for art bylaw to the general bylaws of the town as follows. I'm moved to just what Lynn said I moved to add the percent to art bylaw to the bylaws of the town as follows and then we have the text of the bylaw. And would you please put the text up that this text appears as attachment. E of the package. I'm sorry, Serge, I called you Jeremiah can't believe that Serge, could you please put the text of the bylaw up on the screen. I say one second. You embedded it Lynn in the motions, I think. So, but when we rehearse today. We actually use the handout. All right, so this is the motion and this is the bylaw. And I'm going to just quickly. Ask. Yes, was there a second. Thank you, Pat. And so the bylaws on the screen, it's part of the motion. Again, it's in your motion sheet. And so I'm not going to have us read it fully. Motion's been made in second. So Jeremiah since people have it in their packet and the motion sheet, I'll have you take it down. Okay. And any questions. Okay. If we have one at this time, then we're going to go. And I just have one. I'm sorry. It's kind of persnickety. Are we moving to add or are we moving to adopt? That's a good question. We are to add. The percent. It's a friendly emotion is that friend friendly emotion. Friendly motion. Kathy, is that okay? Yes, it is. Thank you. Is that okay? Pat, the changing it to adopt. Is okay with you. Yes. Thank you, Pat. Good catch. Any further questions? All right, then I'm going to do roll call vote. I'm going to start. With Patty Angelis. Yes. Yes. I'm going to do a vote. And then Greece Merseyes. Mandy Joe Hanneke. Yes. Dorothy Pamm. Yes. And added note from Darcy. Dumont that she cannot be here due to wedding plans, but she supports this strongly. Thank you. Okay. Evan Ross. Yes. George Ryan. Yes. By the shame. Yes. Steve Schreiber. Yes. Andy Steinberg. Yes. Sarah Schwartz. Yes. Melanie Balmille. Yes. And Alyssa Brewer. Yes. The motion to adopt this bylaw passes with 12 in favor and one additionally wanting to support and no opposition. Thank you. We are now going to move to dissolve the percent for bylaw ad hoc committee effective immediately. That's a motion. Is there a second? Anarchy seconds. Okay. Any questions? Okay. Then we're going to move to that. And we start with grease burn it. So yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. 12 in favor and none opposed. No abstentions and one absent. Okay. We're going to move to. This is for a budgeting commission and Paul. This is your memo. Thank you. So there's a memo in front of you requesting permission. Mr. Permission, but an action by the town council to. Authorize the participating budgeting, participating budgeting commission and the rank choice voting commission to extend the deadline from which they are supposed to. Report. Rank choice voting would be extended to December 1 and participatory budgeting would be extended to June 30th of 2021. Obviously the pandemic has. Had an impact on them on their ability to do their work. And both chairs have requested this. And so this is before you for your consideration. The memo has a legal opinion from. The town attorney, which outlines the ability to do this under the charter. You're muted. Lynn. Phone rank. We're going to start with a motion to extend the deadline set forth and charter. Section 10. 11. For the participatory budgeting commission to propose a measure. From December 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. Due to the COVID-19 state of emergency, emergency declared by the town manager. On March 16, 2020. Is there a second. Second. Hannity is a second. Is there any question? Okay. Seeing no question. Then this is. This is where we are extending the support. Participatory budgeting commission deadline. And we start with. Anarchy. Yes. And it's a yes. Dorothy. Pam. Yes. Evan Ross. Yes. Ryan. Yes. Payne. Yes. Triber. Hi. Diner. Yes. Torch. Yes. Call now. Yes. Roar. Yes. The Angeles. Yes. Mons absent. Yes. It's 12. Zero. One absent. Yes. Right. Yes. Payne. Yes. Triber. Hi. Diner. Yes. Torch. Yes. Call now. Yes. And the next one is to extend the deadline set forth and Charter section 10.10 for the ranked choice voting commission to propose a measure. From September 1st, 2020 to December 1st, 2020 due to the COVID-19 state of emergency declared by the town manager on March 16th, 2020. Is there a second? Steinberg second. Okay. Thank you. Questions. Seeing no questions, we'll move to the vote. Dorothy Pam. Yes. Evan Ross. Yes. Greg Ryan. Yes. Kathy Shane. Yes. Steve Schreiber. Yes. Amy Schreiber. Yes. Sarah Schwartz. Yes. Shalini Bonoom. Yes. Lisa Brewer. Yes. Sarah Schwartz. Yes. Shalini Bonoom. Yes. Lisa Brewer. Yes. Angela. Yes. Thanks, Pat. Dorothy DeMonte is absent. Yes. Yes. 12-0-1 absent. Okay. We just made up some time there. Thank you very much. We're moving on to appointments. The first one is the human resource director. And Dorothy Pam is giving the vote. For the town services and the outreach committee. And after that reports, Paul, you might want to say a few words about the candidate. Dorothy. You need to unmute. Thank you. The committee met and voted. Heard the credentials and voted unanimously. With Ross absent to recommend approval of the town manager's appointment of Donna Ray Kennelly. As human resource director. And Dorothy Pam is giving the report for the town services and the outreach committee. And she is also giving the report for the town services and the outreach committee. Donna Ray Kennelly. As human resources director. And also voted unanimously. Ross absent to recommend approval of the town manager's appointment of Emma dragon as health director. Okay. We're taking care of both of them. Paul, would you like to speak to the. Appointment for the human services director. Donna Ray Kennelly is, is the, is the person that is on table for your consideration. Donna Ray has been working at Western New England university as the associate director of human resources and title nine investigator. She's been with the university for 17 years and serving in other roles, including working with benefits and things like that. She is an adjunct faculty member at the school of law, teaching employee benefit law. She is an attorney. And so she brings that skill set to, to our community as well. She is a senior certified professional and human resources and a senior professional and human resources from HRCI. Now those are really high certification levels that we're really proud that we try to encourage all of our staff to seek their professional certifications. She interviewed really well was a really strong candidate pool. And we had a really good interview team that, that went through this. So I really credit them for, for taking this on. I also, I really want to recognize our partners who, who come to the, to help us out during these interviews. So we, you know, the, just been Riga Rodriguez, who is the chief human resources officer operator for the, for, yeah, excuse me, for Amherst college was part of it. And she was very helpful for us in looking through the candidates, helping to interview the candidates. And so it's just, it's, we have really good outside people helping us to going to these department head level processes. So, so that, that's for Donna Ray. For the health director. It's Emma. She's a, um, Um, Dragan who is on the board of health in the town of Hadley. She has extensive experience in disaster management and she has been a registered nurse at Holy Dickinson. Um, she has a bachelor's degree in nursing and a master's degree in emergency and disaster management. Um, and she's on the state, uh, local and regional public health advisory committee. Um, grew up in Hadley, knows a lot about the Valley, is really plugged in here. And just an interesting thing on Saturday when I was with the CPOs at an event, someone unsolicited came up and said, I saw this person's name and just went and this person was a nurse at Cooley Dickinson and he was complimenting her ability as a leader, as an advocate for nurses and things like that. So it was just sort of just blindly walked up and said, oh, so it was a very positive thing to hear that as well. But references all checked out. We've reached agreement on salary levels and they are prepared to start the Human Resources Director on October 26th and the Health Director on November 2nd. And I would like to add that the TSO Committee was praised the interview process as having sounded being very thorough and was very impressed with the credentials of the candidates. Thank you. So we're gonna be the Human Resources Director first. The motion is to approve the town manager's appointment of Donna Rae Keneally, JD, as Human Resources Director as filed with the town clerk on September 16th, 2020 and recommended by the Town Services and Outreach Committee report of September 18th, 2020. Is there a second? Second, Ryan. I just want to note that they actually met on September 17th, but the report is dated 2018. And so consistent with the way the motion's written, that's the data I used, okay? Is there any question, right? Then we're going to move to a vote, Evan Ross. Yes. George Ryan. Yes. Kathy Shane. Yes. Steve Schreiber. Yes. Dineberg. Yes. Fort. Yes. Delmellon. Yes. Brewer. Yes. DeAngelis. Yes. Rees-Merz, yes, Hannake. Yes. And Pam. Worthy. Yes. Okay. The vote's 12, zero, zero, one absent. The next motion is to approve the town manager's appointment of Emma Dragone as health director, as filed with the town clerk on September 16th, 2020, and recommended by the town services and outreach committee report of September 18th, 2020. Is there a second? Second, Ryan. Okay. Any further discussion or questions? All right. Then seeing none, we will begin with George Ryan. Yes. Kathy Shane. Yes. Steve Schreiber. Yes. Andy Steinberg. Yes. Sarah Schwartz. Yes. Arshalani Balmilm. Yes. Elizabeth Rowe. Yes. Pat DeAngelis. Yes. Then Rees-Merz, yes, Mandy Johannake. Yes. Dorothy Pam. Yes. Evan Ross. Yes. Rowe's 12-0-0-1 absent. Okay. We are moving on to the MIDI and liaison reports. Mandy Joh, CRC. Most of you attended the last CRC meeting on September 15th. I think it was a really good discussion on zoning and bylaws. We will be continuing that discussion in CRC on September 29th at 2 p.m. We will also be discussing the comprehensive housing policy as we're moving forward on trying to draft one of those. And the third agenda item on that September 29th meeting will be a look at the just completed appointment process for the planning board and the CRCs adopted process for that to see if there's anything we think we can do to improve it. I'm going to ask Athena to pull the council to see if other people beyond committee would like to attend that CRC meeting and if they do, we need to call it as a committee of the whole. Okay, thank you. Finance committee, Andy? Yes, let me just, you heard at the beginning of the meeting that there was a change in the date for the next finance committee meeting, which was supposed to be tomorrow and has been postponed till October 6th. We had agenda items set forward, which I'm going to just run through really quickly for you so that you know what is coming up on October 6th. But the staff advised us that they would be better prepared to assist us with these discussions if we gave a little bit of extra time so we did do the postponement. And the issues that are coming up just so that you know is that Sonja Aldrich has said that she will have completed the year end FY20 financial report which includes the third quarter. So we will be discussing that. We will have a discussion of capital inventory criteria which is the next step in the process that we developed for the referral that was made at the last meeting to the finance committee of the recommending capital inventory criteria for the, is required by the charter. We're going to have a discussion about the FY22 budget process by reviewing what had happened in the just completed process so that for FY21 and see if there are any improvements we can make to the process itself. Some of this is going to do with, and I think actually most of it is going to do with the material that was presented to the committee information meetings with the committee and whether that was most efficient and beneficial way to get information about the budget. And also talk about the difficulties with the challenges that we see ahead for the FY22 budget process. We're going to talk about water and sewer rate structure a little bit more. We had a discussion at a recent meeting that I have not had an opportunity to report to you that we're not likely to follow up on the May 1st council meeting where a presentation was made by consulting engineers about the different methodologies of rate structure. And we felt that there was probably insufficient time to do that in an orderly and thoughtful manner to implement for the next round of rates which will be for next year but that we don't want to get behind again. And so we want to continue that discussion immediately. And we found that we have several members of the committee who have taken great interest in it. And then the last two items we're going to talk about is a little discussion about capital funding needs both for the regular capital because so much was deferred this year and we cut from in half the amount of money we allocate to capital and the four major building needs. And finally, we'll establish review our meeting schedule then for the year. So that's what's going to be on the agenda for October 6th and that's the report. Thank you. Thank you. GLL, George. GLL has not met since the last report. The meeting scheduled for the 16th of September was canceled to allow sponsors to meet with the town attorney and discuss the review of wage theft. So that next GLL meeting will be September 30th at our usual time. And again, the agenda item will be wage theft and the legal review. So that's GLL. And I want to make note that on your agenda that was posted it was not listed as September 30th but it has been changed to September 30th. Okay. A JCPC, Kathy. I gave a report on JCPC September meeting last week and we haven't met again and won't be meeting till probably early February. We don't have the schedule yet. Okay. TSO, Dorothy. We met and heard the report on the interviews of the candidates and voted on them. And we're getting ready to have a report on the Lincoln Avenue for the next meeting. Okay. And I believe you have several other appointments coming to you as well. Thank you. Are there any liaison reports at this time? I'd like to report, Lynn, very quickly. Please, Pat. I am liaison on the Disability Advisory Committee, Access Advisory Committee and I attended several of their meetings. I'm really impressed with the commitment and thoughtfulness of the members of the committee. A lot of time has been taken up in their meetings with because two members, longtime members, Jerry Weiss and Joe Tringale, were not reappointed, which impacted the committee since there were no replacements. That's obviously in the works now, but it is affecting their ability to prepare for a grant to create a grant proposal which they're working on. It's a municipal Americans with Disabilities Act improvement grant. And that grant, the goal is to remove barriers and create and improve accessible features and programmatic access. So they'll be working on that at their next meeting on the 22nd. The other thing that they've talked about was the ADA self-evaluation and transition plan group that they were updated on, but they had not met when I first met them, met with them. They had not been included in that self-evaluation and they had to reach out. Maureen Pollock was able to reach out to the consultants and have them meet with the committee, but that needs to be placed earlier. The other thing that has been very important is how well, basically how well the elections went for people with disabilities, but there are ongoing issues for people who are visually impaired or have dexterity issues and they wanna investigate auto-marking and other things that would make it easier for people with disabilities. So thank you. Thanks for that very thorough report. Are there any other liaison reports? Dorothy, you have your hand up. I just wanted to say that the reason that I gave that report, Evan Ross is the vice chair of TSO, but that meeting was specifically for the appointments and he had another important appointment he had to be at. So normally you would have heard from Evan. Thank you for that recognition. Are there any other liaison reports? Okay, seeing none, we're going to move on to the town manager's report. Oh, it's not even nine o'clock. Don't press your luck, Lynn. I know. Thank you. So our last meeting was just a week ago. So there's not a lot different in this report. The COVID hotline is working well. We will start to, we've been monitoring when the calls come in. So we will be assigning some ambassadors to answer the phone on real time, on weekends during certain hours on Friday night and Saturday night in particular. These are for when people are mostly reporting large gatherings, but it doesn't rise to the level of noise complaints. So the police are going to start to monitor the calls they'll come in and they'll be able to handle those and answer the question in real time for many of our community members. The ambassadors are out on the street and doing what they do. And it seems to be pretty successful and they're still recruiting other people. If there are people in the community who would like to work as a ambassador, we're still out there looking for that. We were going to be a cup of joe, doing a cup of joe on Friday from eight to 9.30. It'll be Zoom. It's on the town's website. We're worried about our census numbers because they're relatively low. We knew that was going to happen. We've been working really hard to get the word out. Again, want to make sure that if you haven't filled out your census, please do so. Please ask people who you work with or you live with or that live near you, have you done your census? It's very important. It takes less than 10 minutes, but it will impact us for the next 10 years. So it's really important to fill out the census. It's really easy to do, it's not that hard. It's online, it's really quick and easy. Lynn mentioned that the university is adjusting their schedule. Also, today they announced that they are going to have football games without members and the people in the stands. We don't know much more about it than what we've read in the newspapers. We're hoping and we'll have, we talked with the university about how they plan on doing this. They feel like they've done a really good job with their entire athletic staff over time with the testing and things like that. But I think this, because they're not going to have people in the stands, it should go pretty well. So I think those are the high points for, I want to thank you for appointing and approving the appointments for the health director and human resources director. I think they're going to do both the terrific additions to our staff, very positive people. And I think you'll really enjoy meeting them when we have a chance to do that. That's pretty much the things I wanted to mention and if there are things that anybody would like to ask, I'm here. Dorothy, you have your hand up. Not everybody goes to the town website. I'm just wondering, if you have any signs, I've got a great spot in front of my house and it could just say have you, whatever words you'd want to give, but have you turned in your census and then with a link to the town webpage or to whatever. Because it's really important that we get the count and people are busy, they have things they're doing, but if they see signs out, other people might want one, have a good place for a sign, we might get more responses. I'll talk to the team about that. Thank you. Andy. So my questions were also about the census. So it's a good follow up to it, Dorothy, just pointed out. One of the concerns that we had when the census date was coming up was that COVID had just started and university and colleges had just shut down. And there was a question that was asked at the time of the council meeting, whether that was going to pose a challenge because of the fact that students were not here, they may then get counted at home or they certainly wouldn't be here to respond. Has there been any investigation of that issue and whether it really will have an effect? And so that's sort of one round and the other is just to encourage that we take every possible mechanism, even reverse 911, anything that we can to get the word out because this is so incredibly important to the town that I think we should do whatever we can, even if it means violating our normal rules like when we use verse 911. So for the colleges and the university, the census had set up a system where the colleges and the university could provide you a list of all their students living on campus. And we didn't have to go door to door to count them or send things. So those counts are done, those were done in the spring. So we captured all the students who are living on campus as of last spring. What's harder are the students who live off campus and that's the group that we've been working struggling with. But the bulk of the students who live on campus, we've captured them, the university and the colleges have been very cooperative with sharing that information. There's a separate data upload they can do directly to the census that covers on campus students. And that's done for all colleges and universities in the country. Yeah, I think the reverse 911, I like that idea. We don't use it very often and when we have used it, people didn't like it because they get upset about it. But I think this is one of those things that's pretty urgent for us in terms of what kinds of funds we will get over the next 10 years. The census is doing a pretty good job of outreach themselves and they have been doing it for years. But it's a person by person household by household effort right now. Yeah, one quick follow up on what you just said is that student houses change their tenants on the 1st of July usually. And so the most students will have moved. It's very difficult for us to get back to even nearby student houses and reach anyone. So if the university has any records of who was registered off campus last year and if they can do anything to follow up, that's probably the only way you're gonna get to a large number of people then. Thank you. Kathy. I'm gonna build on this and then I have two other issues. I'm Paul, I saw in your COVID report that the university is making an effort to estimate the number of students who are living off campus right now. So could we use that information to make sure we reach all of them to make sure they're counted? So if we do that count, I realize it's not gonna be the same as the number that we're living off because you said there were fewer than before living off campus. So it wasn't clear to me whether they'll share that information with the town or not but maybe they can at least help us press on the census side of that. And I think it would be useful to share that information with the town. And on Dorothy's sign up in the North Amherst little community center where there's a post office and there are a series of shops, have you filled out your census form? That would be a really good place to post it because people come to Cumbies and they come to the post office. It's a regularly frequented site including a lot of students. The distance is an idea. Then I had two other not related to census. One on the COVID working group, the reopening working group. I had a question from a downtown business or a suggestion of putting one business person on the COVID working group. And this person said there isn't one and it was partly so they would know when there are changes in plans. They said that with the decision not to reopen when students were coming back early warning so they could get the word out. So it was a suggestion of putting one person on. However, that's picked. Then I wanted to stay on the COVID side. We're having a district one meeting tomorrow. It's posted and Paul, Nancy, two people from UMass, Nancy and Tony will be there to take questions. And we've been getting a lot of residents already sending in some fairly detailed questions of things on how do we know what happens after we call? What happens if we've called four times on the same place? So some of those answers, I will try to capture the answers to them so that if we can feed them back to other people because I haven't been able to answer those questions. So anyone who wants, it's the first, it's tomorrow night at six o'clock. The first hour or 45 minutes will be that back and forth. And the other piece of it, if anyone is interested about the North Amherst Library, Paul will profile the next stops on the expansion of the North Amherst Library where we are in that timeline. And then I just want to thank you for the lights. You have a note in your report that the North Amherst intersection lights are up. And many of us have noticed the green turn signal because the traffic keeps moving. We're not backed up as much anymore. So it's a big thank you that that got done. And at first we thought we'd just see those telephone poles for months and months, but it turns out there were lights that would be attached to them. So thank you very much to DPW staff for getting them up. I'll let them know. Thank you. Steve Sharper. Yeah, so thank you for the thorough report and everything, this is to Paul, everything you're doing. So we were visited by three of the ambassadors. Is there just one ambassador program? Cause I actually didn't answer the door, my wife answered and she said there's three UMass ambassadors, but that must be the town ambassadors. Yeah. So they came to our house. If they had yellow shirts on their ours. Yeah, the yellow shirts, yeah. So they came to our house. I was upstairs probably talking to you all. Yeah. So I didn't, but so she said they were offering masks or whatever, but I'm just curious why we would have fit the profile of somebody needing a visit by the ambassadors. I don't know why your rowdy house probably got a visit, but they are targeting certain neighborhoods. They do what they call knock and talks. And this is with the university and the town, APB, and the ambassadors, they'll go in a neighborhood like they'll take South Whitney, North Whitney area and they'll just go door to door and sort of just engage with people, give them things, talk to them about, you know, the noise required with the noise issues are, say, are you aware of the gathering limits and things like that? It's just a sort of a warm welcome almost. And also to connect with neighbors and say, if you have an issue, give us a call. We want to hear from you. So it's not just going to the people who are rowdy. It's going to anybody else. So say there is a connection here that we're in this. Pre-emptive. Pre-emptive, an offering to see that. So every Monday, the university and the town, the police department and the fire department gather. They look at the call logs from the entire weekend and they go through it house by house, call by call. And they say, wow, okay, this is a noise complaint. Who's going to go and knock on that door and talk to those people? And it's usually someone from the university and the town who go and they have a conversation saying, we got a noise complaint or you got a citation. We're sorry, we had to give you a citation. Here's how we'd like to not have to have a repeat of that. So it's really that kind of communication talking to all the members of the household if they can. And they really have a proactive stance on going into the, based on the calls, going into the neighborhoods and talking to folks. And then just as a general thing, they're picking certain areas. So this year, last year, Lower Main Street was a pretty big hotspot. Now this year, South Pleasant Street, it seems to be a hotspot with several households nearby who are gathering, whether gatherings are starting to pop up. And we'll just go there and sort of, it's like, here's how you can get along with your neighbors and here's how you can avoid having anybody else show up at your house when you're having a party or something like that. Cool, thank you. So one interesting thing that has happened is that because the university is doing so much testing is that not our people, a neighbor had gone to one of the households and they hold up their phone saying, we all been tested, we're all checked green, none of us have COVID-19. And that was a new one for us because it's like, oh, they all been tested and they ask, have you been tested? Like, well, no, I haven't. So the sort of an interesting side effect of unintended side effect of having frequent testing is that many people sort of feel emboldened that they don't have COVID-19, and as long as everybody else doesn't have it, we're all okay on it. So it's kind of an interesting situation that has developed. Thank you. Steve, we know where the party house is, right? Alyssa? Just because you mentioned, Paul, the that the ambassadors might mention the limit on gatherings, they are being clear, right? They aren't giving the simple answer that the newspaper keeps publishing over and over again until I wanna scream, that the indoor gathering limits 25, which is not accurate. The indoor limit is capped at 25. If you have a huge indoor space, which I would argue probably none of these places, including Mr. Shriver's house, have in terms of square footage per person because of the way their actual walls in most people's houses. So I'm hoping that when they're, if they are sharing information on limits, they are not saying you're allowed to have 25 people in your house, because they're not allowed to have 25 people in the house. Yeah, I don't know exactly what they say, but the one thing the police have reported is that they have been, the gathering, the size of the gatherings have been remarkably small compared to prior years. We aren't seeing the 100 person gatherings, 500 person gatherings at all. They're still gatherings, they're still making noise and they're still getting noise complaints. But I think there is some social awareness to size of gatherings now amongst people who are gathering. I haven't taken my hand down because I would argue it's our responsibility to tell the ambassadors to say that it's not a hard limit of 25. It's to give accurate information. Thank you. Evan, you have your hand up. Yeah, so while we're on this, I wasn't intending to speak, but while we're on this topic, I really appreciate the description Paul just gave about how the ambassadors are going to households trying to find different ways to connect with students. I think that's great. The other side of it is I've been talking to a lot of students, including one who reached out to me over the weekend to talk to me about our noise by-law who said that the police showed up at their house and just immediately wrote $300 tickets. When they said, do we get a warning first that police told them, no, it's a zero tolerance policy. The town has told us zero tolerance. And I said, is that true? And so he connected me with several other students who have said that the general policy has been police showing up and immediately writing $300 tickets for everyone in the house. And I talked to multiple students who reported that the police told them the town has told us it's a zero tolerance policy right now, which is very different than I will now publicly admit that I have been the subject of many noise complaints in the near decade that I've lived in Amherst and every single time I've always been issued a warning the first time the police have shown up. And then if they come back, they write the $300 ticket. Usually I'm smart enough to turn the volume down between the warning and the return. And so the conversations I've had have always led to them saying the town is using police and the noise by-law to try to implement what they want for COVID. And so I'm hearing on the one hand that we're doing these really great innovative things with ambassadors and trying to make students feel like we're not out to punish them, we're making them part of the community, but I'm actually not hearing that from the student side of things, which is still a problem. George and I recently spoke to a couple of student groups and when we asked them what the experience has been like, there is still a lot of feeling of we're being watched closely, the town doesn't want us here, the residents don't want us here, they're calling the COVID hotline the moment they can and the feeling that the town is using noise by-laws to try to control a COVID problem. And so I wanted to bring this up because I know we are trying really hard not to have this impression. And I think there are probably ways in which we're being successful, but there are also ways in which I think we're not quite there yet. And so the success stories and the ambassadors are one story that we need to tell, but I also think we need to make sure that we're recognizing that we're not getting that message across as clearly as possible. And I'm not sure if the police officers have been told, it's a zero tolerance, you write a citation, once you get there for a noise complaint. I did talk to a decent number of students who have all said it's a ticket the moment they get there. And then whether, and a lot of them have said, yeah, we probably deserve to ticket, we're being pretty loud, but in the past we've gotten warnings. And so just again, always keeping in mind sort of the messages we're sending. And I think the ambassador program is great, I'm glad we're doing this, but I'm still hearing from a lot of students who are saying the town does not want us here. So, yeah, that's not the message we want to send. You know, the university does have the party smart registration system, which if you register your party in advance, if a noise complaint comes in, you get a phone call. And it's like, you got 20 minutes to quiet down. You know, and we're not going to respond. So that's sort of a sort of an early warning system if you've registered your party in advance with the university. I've not heard the term zero tolerance. I will check into that tomorrow on that, whether that's been given to the police officers or not. We knew early on that when we said we would still respond to noise complaints that people in the community would recognize that if I just say noise complaints, the police will respond. And we recognize that as a sort of a fault in our system. And while we're trying to funnel as many calls as we can to the COVID-19 hotline, because I think that's like the appropriate place for some of these things, some people have learned that if you say the word that we respond to all noise complaints, it's just what we do. So, whether they deserve, I'm not sure I can't judge whether they've deserved it or not or anything like that. But I'll check on that zero tolerance that's, we have not used that term. Dorothy. Well, I guess Paul, maybe it would be good to clarify whether the registered party thing still goes because that sounded like a fair system that if you register your party, that you would get a warning. It may be that they think that's not being enforced anymore, but if it still is policy, then when they go to a house with a noise complaint, they should make sure to tell people if you register the party, because I think we want people to register their parties. It's just everything is better if the parties are registered. So it should be important. I mean, Evan, did anyone mention registering the party or was it just we got slammed? I did not ask and I don't know. My impression is some of them might not have necessarily conceptualized what they were doing is having a party. It's just their house may have been loud, right? Oh, cool. Yeah, that makes sense. It is based on the meetings that Paul and I have been in with the university. I want to mention a couple of things. Yes, the party smart registration is still available. And we are doing everything we can to try to make students feel as welcome as possible. They are part of our community. And the problems that we're having in the town are not only students. This is something that as Paul has mentioned a couple of times. I also want to mention that some people have asked, well, what happens when a student actually is cited? And just this past week, the person that works with students that have been cited gave us a very detailed in layman's terms explanation of the process that the university goes through. I personally have served on one of these committees when I was on a different faculty than the University of Massachusetts. And it was extensive and they do it to make sure that they're fair both to the students and to the public. And they are not going to stand up and say, today we have expelled two students because that's just not the way it's done and it's not appropriate to be done that way. But they do have a very, very serious and significant process. They follow that honor students' rights as well as make sure students get the message. I personally want to say, I think the university has been doing an amazing job. If you look at what's going on in Amherst, I know it was rough in the beginning. There was some very tough words said and some hard feelings, but the university has stepped to the plate in terms of testing and as a result, our community right now is doing very, very well. And I think that's a lot of credit to Paul, a lot of credit to the university and to our first responders. So George. Just a suggestion from my colleagues to consider but district three, Dorothy and I, we have our public meeting coming up in the first Sunday of October and we've invited two student leaders to attend. One has already said she will be there, hopefully the second will get back to me soon. So we just want to have them there for a few minutes, talk about their experience and then have the residents ask questions if they have them. So something to think of is a way in your own district if you have a student or student leader, invite them to a district meeting and let them speak. Great, Pat and I have one coming up. Other questions, George, do you still have your hand up? Okay. Any other questions of Paul at this time? Okay, then I basically just made a brief president's report and I'll let it go with that. Are there other future agenda items or other councilor comments? Alyssa. Yes, I have two and I'm hoping that they're just something we can talk about in the future, not trying to get addressed tonight, just catch a bowl of kitchens, sink type items. One is our role as individual town councilors who are not serving on other town council committees, that's something we keep continuing to work out. Some town councilors regularly attend other town council committee meetings that they aren't a member of, some do not. And so we're always looking at how to circulate information better, but I'm also wondering what that position puts us in. For example, if I have something I want to tell the finance committee, because it's something I'm going to bring up at some point in the future when the finance committee reports back to us. So I want to give them a heads up, but the reality is I'm just one counselor. I didn't get the whole town council to refer a motion to the finance committee about something. So maybe we could talk in the future about what's a good way to do that so that it isn't that some people feel like they can call up a particular member of a council committee and other people feel like they have to do it in some more formal fashion. So it's all just new, right? It's we're still figuring out how to make that work, but I'm trying to not show up at a bunch of meetings. I'm not actually invited to, but there are things I want to give people a heads up about because I know I'm going to have questions about them at some point down the line. And then the other kitchen sink item that I want to ask, and then I have a specific example, which I won't give it this time until we have that discussion. The other item is I've now heard at a couple of different town council meetings, I'm getting a question from someone just texted me to say, I have no idea why we are doing that, as a town council. That strikes me as eminently unfair to the public that some people are being texted during the meeting and then saying, oh, I just got a question from so-and-so. This is a town council business meeting. There's public comment and there's town councilers talking and there's presentations. If you're getting a question from the public that you think is so brilliant that you need to ask during the town council meeting, take credit for it yourself as being your own idea. Do not share with the rest of us that you're taking texts and emails while we're talking and so that the public hears, oh, there are certain town councilers I can text during the meeting to get my question answered. No, we can't do that. So if we have to have a discussion about that in the future, great, but I don't see how we can continue doing that. I just find that really offensive to other members of the public who don't have those numbers easily accessible. Are there additional comments at this time? Okay, then we are going to move into executive session. Before we get started in the process to do that, let me just say that we are not going to be reconvening in open session. There will be a notice on the TV that says we've moved into executive session and we are not reconvening. Councilors will need to log off of this and log into the additional web of Zoom link that you've been given. So it will take a few minutes for us to assemble. I need to, you know, I need to say certain things. All right, I need a motion. Nandy Jo, I'm just going to ask you, what am I? I need to convene an executive session under MGL chapter 30A, section 21A7. To approve the town council executive session minutes of June 17, 2019, August 19, 2019, August 26, 2019, September 23, 2019 and August 31, 2020. To retain for future town council review the approved executive session minutes of August 19, 2019 and to release the minutes of June 17, 2019, August 26, 2019, September 23, 2019 and August 31, 2020. The town council will not reconvene an open session. I second that motion. Thank you. Is there any further question about it? Alyssa, you have your hand up but I think you just forgot to take it down. Okay, so we're going to move through a roll call vote and we start with Kathy Sheing. I see that. Yes. Steve Schreiber. Yes. Andy Steinberg. Yes. Sarah Schwartz. Yes. Shalini Balmille. Yes. Alyssa Brewer. Yes. Fatih Angelos. Yes. Lynn Griesmerz. Yes. Nadia Johannike. Yes. Dorothy Pam. Yes. Evan Ross. Yes. And George Ryan. Yes. It's 12, zero, zero and one person absent. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. We'll see you all in a moment.