 All right, so I'll call the Horse Racing Committee public meeting of October 7th, 2020 to order. Again, I will just have a brief, quick announcement regarding this meeting. Given the unprecedented circumstances resulting from the global pandemic, Governor Baker issued an order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law to protect the health and safety of individuals interested in attending public meetings. In keeping with that order, the committee will convene this meeting using remote collaboration technology. There are a few considerations I'd like to note before we begin. First, all votes will have to be taken by roll call. So I will ask each member of the committee to register their vote, if any, individually. Secondly, I'll ask that everybody accept the committee members to please mute themselves to help keep background noise to a minimum. And third, just to notice to everyone that this meeting is being recorded. Otherwise, the meeting will proceed in its ordinary course. So what I'll do is call on the members to identify themselves as being present. So Commissioner Cameron. I am here. Attorney Katanuck. Here. And Attorney Goldberg. Present. Okay. And Brian Fitzgerald. Okay. We'll move on with respect to the agenda in terms of the second item on the agenda, which is the approval of the minutes for the July 15th, 2020 meeting. Those were in the package for you as a pre-read. And I would ask to have all of the committee members had an opportunity to review those minutes. I have. Are there any comments or questions or corrections to be made to those minutes? No, sir. No. I think they're fine as well. Well done. I think they're great too. So is there a motion to approve with the authority to correct any misspellings or clerical errors? So moved. I'll second. Oh. Janks. Okay. All right. So moved. So I'll take a roll call vote. Attorney Katanuck. Aye. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Attorney Goldberg. And Fitzgerald is aye. Mr. Chairman, I think maybe we should also request. And we'll ask Mr. Umbrello. Yes, I was going to say thank you. I did review them and I accept them. Aye. I'm okay with them. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Okay. The next item on the agenda is just with respect to the appointed thoroughbred representative to the committee. So with that, my understanding is that Mr. Umbrello is the interim member of the committee on behalf of the association. And Mr. Umbrello, I just ask if you just wanna kind of shed some light in terms of whether that appointment would be permanent for you or if there's the plan that the thoroughbreds have at this time. Yes, Mr. Chair, as I stated earlier, I am appointed by the board as the interim seat for this committee. And also as stated earlier, I am currently reviewing two candidates to see if they're willing to come on as a permanent fixture to this committee. So we're currently in those discussions right now. So I'm trying to see if someone wants to accept the position, then so be it. If not, I might be filling this position during the interim. Okay, all right, okay, all right, thank you. Do any of the other members have any questions? No, just welcome, Paul. Thank you. I'm excited, actually. Welcome, Paul. Thank you. And then just as a side note, Emily, I guess I would just ask also if you just want to introduce Liz in terms of... Yeah, sure. So I am shortly to go out on parental leave, which is very exciting. So the treasurer has named an alternate designee which is Liz Zelnick, who is the deputy director of policy and legislative affairs for the treasurer. And Liz is on the call. Thank you, Liz. Thanks for having me. Liz, welcome. Okay. All right, so moving on with respect to the next item on the agenda, item number four, review of updated 2020 resource development fund revenue. In your packets were the updated revenue from August in terms of the overall funds that have been received as of August 31st. Obviously, as the committee members know, the gaming licensees were closed for part of March, April, May and June, and then they reopened in July. I just wondered, has everyone had a chance to take a look at those revenue figures just to see where they're at at this point? I just wanted to know just as a point of comparison, I looked at the figures from August of 2019, which would have had all three of the licensees operating at that time. The revenue that was collected into the fund at that point in time was about just over 1.5 million. And for August of 2020 was about 932,000 just over that. So obviously, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, virus, it's had a significant impact on the revenues that are generated into the fund. So we reduce capacity of the licensees. So do any of the members have any comments or questions about the revenue figures? No questions. Okay, okay, great. So moving on then, we'll move to item five in which for the purposes of this meeting is essentially an agenda setting discussion. So we can talk about agenda items that we would have on our next scheduled meetings as well as executive summary submissions and public comment deadlines. So I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts in terms of our scheduling of the next meeting and moving forward with respect to next year. You know, I think Mr. Chairman, one of the issues and questions maybe for Dr. Leipaum that we always grapple with is when do we think the numbers, the figures, I don't know, when racing closes, when can we expect to get the metrics from 2020? Yeah, so Plain Ridge is the only track that's racing this year and the day after Thanksgiving. So their live handle figures and all should be available pretty quickly. You know, and I would think we'd be able to have that information by the end of December. Most of the information on that memo that I do up that's horse racing in Massachusetts, most of those figures pertain to live racing. So we should be able to wrap that up in December. A couple of figures on like 1099s and W-2s, the tracks may not have available until January, something like that. I can certainly do the report up without those figures. As far as some of the handle information and all that comes out of our annual report, some of those figures, if they're like total simulcast handle and things like that, those numbers aren't done until the end of the year. And so again, that would probably be January or February before the tracks will be able to confirm with us all that information. Thank you. And Dr. Leipan, would that be, do you think maybe mid-February, would that be kind of the timing? Bless you. Yeah. I mean, it's possible, maybe we could get it before then, but I think mid-February would be a good place to aim for. And also like we've done in the last several years is we get the pages of the annual report done that this committee uses so that even though the annual report may not officially go in front of the commission until months afterwards, at least those figures are available for the committee to use. For instance, we don't do our first review with Plain Ridge until probably February because that gives them time to get their information together and all, but we have unofficial numbers before them. And I take it back to Leipan so for year to year, the unofficial numbers are pretty correct. When the official numbers come out months later, we're not talking any kind of differential variation. Exactly. And I don't even know if those particular numbers have changed any, sometimes it's, sometimes some of the budget numbers have changed or whatever just for different ways of accounting, but the numbers for this committee have stayed the same. And this year, the numbers on the thoroughbred side are, there's no racing. So there's not gonna be a lot of numbers on the side of the thoroughbred racing to come up with. That's a good point, Dr. Leipam, that Peter for, so what I think what Peter, what you're getting to is we could use those unofficial numbers and feel pretty confident that that won't change when the official numbers are finally out. Is that your point? Absolutely, you're correct. Wanna make sure, no one wants to take their time and waste time if the numbers are gonna change dramatically. So if they're not, then I think it's safe to say, we can rely on them. To do our work, yeah. Correct, correct, yes. Correct. I know it's always our goal to get the work done before the start of next year's racing season, correct? Correct. Correct, yes. You know, Plain Ridge did put in the only application for racing for next year that we received. Those had to be in by October 1st and their schedule that they applied for has them going from mid-April, April 12th to the November 26th, or 110 days next year. Similar to this year, Dr. Lighthouse. Yep, yep. Same time period, same number of days. We can only hope that they get the 110 days in this. Exactly, yeah. Yeah. Okay, great. So then with that, do we wanna think about you know, scheduling a couple of meetings in terms of in order. You know, this past year we had, we did have a public comment meeting. And so I just kinda wanna see from the committee members' perspectives if they would want to consider that again, having it again next year based on the 2020 review and you know, scheduling a meeting, you know, more specifically for that public comment to take place and then later on scheduling another meeting to review the executive summaries for the 2020 year based on the criteria that we established this year. So. I think that makes a lot of sense to move in that direction. I thought it was very helpful to have public comments last year or this year rather. I would agree. Okay. Yeah, I agree as well. I think public comment was helpful if informative. I think if we work, I think you're right, Mr. Chairman, if we can work backwards and sort of figure out the series of meetings so that we can get our work done you know, prior to beginning of April or when the race starts, that'd be very helpful for everyone. I mean, the whole industry in Commonwealth I think would be well-served. So should we look at probably potentially scheduling something towards the end of February? Schedule a meeting or schedule a time for public comment? Okay, yeah, that makes sense. The numbers will be available, right? There's no reason not to move forward with that. So do we want to look at respective calendars and set a date then? Just for a public comment meeting? For public comment. Public comment meeting where the people can sign up to give their opinions on the proposals or whatever, do we do that before executive summaries are done just as a public comment? I think that's probably a good idea. Yeah, I think we probably did it the last time it was, I believe we had it before the executive summaries were submitted, correct? Perfect, I think last year, Mr. Chair, if I may, the initial purpose of the public comment was to get input on the new way to split the money. So they definitely were before the executive summaries, but this is a slightly different purpose, equally as valid and it's still a great idea, but slightly different. So it could be whenever would be helpful. And I guess I would defer to both Attorney Goldberg and Mr. Umbrello in terms of your comments, in terms of generating, based on when the figures come in, having the time to submit your executive summaries. Yeah, I'm not sure of the question, but yeah, I think public comments meeting is helpful, executive summary date, and then maybe then a date to review them and take any votes that might be necessary. You know, maybe meeting in the middle of February might be helpful, even before public comment, Mr. Chairman, to look at the numbers to sort of have a chance for Dr. Lightbaum and everyone, all the numbers to sort of be disseminated out to us, maybe we could have it, maybe it's not necessary, I don't know. This is just a general discussion of what's out there and what numbers are available. It might be helpful, I don't know. So if I recall, I think when we had the public comments like the executive summaries was two weeks after, somewhere around that, if memory serves, I don't have it in front of me, but I mean, just looking at a calendar, doesn't it make sense to have the, I just lost it, sorry. I think the week of the 22nd, your public comments come in, so it would be about one week after the numbers come in. And, Peter, I'm not sure we need the numbers. I think if the numbers just come in, we assess it. And then I think somewhere, I would say in mid-March, we have the executive summaries submitted and that still gives you a couple of weeks to get a meeting, one or two weeks before the start of the standard bread season. So it's kind of like looking at two, two and two, right? Does that make sense? Yeah, that makes sense. The only issue I would have while in the rest of the committee is when we make a schedule with no wiggle room, it creates a problem, right? As we've learned over the last year, you always have to plan for people testing positive and things happening. So who knows what's gonna happen moving forward in 2021 I think if we plan on, if we work back with the say, okay, executive summaries do mid-March, meeting April 2nd, we could run into an issue of, Paul, maybe, I don't know when you guys are gonna appoint, if you're gonna appoint a new person, I just, I know I hear in the future, well, the new person needs some time to get up to speed. If something happens with the pandemic that slows us down, I just hate, I hate to be pushed into June, July, April, May, June, July, August, as we have in the past. So, obviously we can't do the meeting in December, we don't have numbers, I get that. But it looks like Dr. Lepp, Lightbound stated that the most information, most information we've got in live racing will be available the end of December, 1099s and W2s in January, handle information in January, maybe into February. So, it looks to me like most of the numbers will be available by the end of January. I'm not sure waiting until February 22nd is necessary for public comments. I just know we- Oh, that's okay, that's sorry. I don't think public comments, well, they will depend on the somewhat of the numbers. I don't think they're gonna be a huge factor. And again, with wiggle rooms, I heard, I'm sorry, I didn't hear end of January from Alex. It's irrelevant, I mean, just look at the calendar and stop picking some dates. I just think you have to give some time to get the public comments, folks to digest them, then back that up or include that with your executive summary and then give this committee enough time to submit and review. I honestly feel I will speak candidly that the last time we submitted and killed ourselves to put an executive summary together of 52 pages, folks had days to review those. There was a significant amount of information in that. So again, you want public comments, week of February 15th, that's a big, here we go, we into school vacation week for folks. I don't have that school of the calendar in front of me because my kids are growing up, but I think bottom line, why can't we get an executive summary done by the week of March 8th to the 12th? It still gives you three weeks. Isn't that really the crutch to the? That's all great, Paul. I don't disagree with you whatsoever. I'm just saying looking at the last eight years of history, which is how a lot of times we plan for the future, we've come into, we've run into roadblocks that have caused delays. That's all. I'm just saying we'd be smart to give us as much time as possible. So if we come into any kind of delay, we're not left with five days to review a 52 page executive summary. I think your point was well taken, Paul, that this committee does need adequate time to review these summaries in order to discuss them and discuss any potential split alteration. So does anybody else want to make a recommendation? Because I'm looking at my calendar and still think March 12th gives you into three weeks into the first week of April. There's plenty of fluff. Look ahead, what do you want, the fifth? So we're trying to schedule the timing of these meetings and the timing of the submissions. And I just want to defer to the two of you in terms of just based on when the numbers come out, what sort of time period do you need to have the time to prepare your executive summaries in order to have them submitted for review? So does it make sense to visit the public comment period should be sometime in January? Should it be in February or Attorney Goldberg, do you have any comment? I think public comment meeting, I think that's what we're proposing, right? A meeting for these public comments live? Yeah, well, first the public comments and then on the basis of that would then be a date for when the executive summaries would be submitted for review and then the third item would be a meeting to review those executive summaries. So I would say end of January, as Mr. Umbrella suggested, February 5th might work fine, the first week of February might work fine and then with executive summaries do even if it's three weeks later, the third weekend. If let's say January 31st, we had a public comment meeting and then February 22nd or something like that, you had the executive summaries do, we could then schedule a meeting for this committee to review the executive summaries. Now, if it's two weeks after that, it would be the first, the second week of March, which is fine. If we get stuck and we need to, we haven't had a year yet where a meeting hasn't been rescheduled. So if we have to reschedule a meeting a week three days or five days or two weeks later, we have time where if something comes up with what's going on in the world now, who knows what's gonna come up in February or March or November. We have no idea. I just think it's reprudent to give us as much time as we can. It doesn't, I don't think it matters to anyone here if we start in January 31st or February 5th. I mean, it's just prudent to start sooner. Yeah, I think you're right. Let's just get some dates on paper and go from there. Cause I will a bit, whether I remain the interim member on this committee or like anything have to find a replacement, it does take time to bring that individual if they have no obviously racing experience behind them, which is always a challenge for us. All right, so what are you saying? Like the week of fifth for public comments and then executive summaries, the week of the 26th of February. Do any of the other committee members have any comments on that timeline? I think that makes sense. Yeah, I think it's fine as well. Sorry, Goldberg. That sounds reasonable. All right, so first item then is saying for the public comment hearing. So when you're looking at the dates, then you'd have roughly the week of January 25th to the 29th or February 1st through the 5th. So do we wanna say Wednesday the 27th of January? That works. That works for me. That works, okay. Fine with me. Okay, all right. So one day the 27th of January then for a public comment meeting. And then I'm gonna ask in terms of how the logistics of that meeting were the committee members satisfied with the way that it was run this last spring with the timeline that we had for each of the parties because I do know that there was some confusion about having the number of representatives from each industry speaking at the meeting. I mean, I think as long as there's, we have guidelines that it's the same for both industries and it's adhered to, no issues. I mean, I think what's important is that this committee gets all the information and that the public gets a chance to, I think in the past we've also had written comments or written public comments allowed so anyone could submit those. But for the public comments, I think we need to develop just a guideline, Mr. Chairman, that whether it's 10 or five or 400, whatever it is, people that will speak for each side and the number of minutes they get. And I think you did a very good job of adhering to the timeframe for the most part, better than Chris Wallace did at the last debate. So who goes to you? That's all, I think as long as we go, it's organized like it was last time, I think it'll be fine. Okay, all right. Agreed, I think it went very well the last meeting that we had, a meeting with the public comment. So yeah, I think that'll work again this year. Okay, all right. So are we limiting the time to an hour or two hours or an hour? I'm trying to remember, what was it last year? How long did it take? I'm trying to remember. I think we gave each person three or four minutes. Four minutes, yes. Four minutes max. Yeah, yeah. So if we do an hour, that's only 15 or less though, four minutes, yeah, so it's 15 or fewer people. So maybe, I think we did an hour and a half. I think it was an hour and a half, yeah. I was just trying to say that we did an hour and a half. So maybe four minutes and 10 people from each side, that's 20, that's 80 minutes. That gives a little in-between wiggle time to tell someone to be quiet and get the next person aboard. Okay. Okay, all right. That's reasonable. So 10 representatives from each industry, each speaking up to four minutes each. Makes sense. That sounds very reasonable. Okay, all right, okay, all right. And then just the time on that, on January 27th, do we want to, the last one was at 10 a.m. I just don't know our schedule. Typically we have an agenda-setting meeting at, on Wednesday at 10 a.m., every other Wednesday. Don't think we've planned out far enough. Okay. I'm sorry to interrupt. That's actually the day before a scheduled commission meeting day. So we won't have an agenda-setting meeting. We shouldn't. Thank you for that. Perfect. So 10 a.m. works then. Thank you for that clarity. I don't have anything on my calendar yet. 10 a.m. works for me. Okay. Mr. Umbrello. Oops, sorry. I thought it was a mute. Nope, that's acceptable. Okay. Works on my end too. Okay. All right, great. Okay. All right. So we'll look then to have the public comment meeting on January 27th, 2021 at 10 a.m. And one for an hour and a half. Okay. I'm sorry, did someone have a comment? All right. All right. And then the next item then would be the executive summary submission deadline or timeline. So based on that, with respect to the two representatives, Mr. Attorney Goldberg and Mr. Umbrello, I think there was some comment about whether it's towards the end of February. Yeah, maybe third, I think we talked about or third week in February, probably gives us time, the end of February. I mean. So then you're looking at February 19th. I would prefer the 26th possible. I'm hoping considering this is my first meeting, Mr. Goldberg may give me that week. And I'm only saying that I think isn't that, again, school vacation and I'm still concerned about numbers coming in from Alex if they run late. But again, if it's a placeholder and the numbers adjust, I guess we can still shift it. I just think it looking at schedules now. We're talking about February. Week of the 22nd. Yeah. Through the 26th. Yeah, so if you concluded on Friday, be Friday, February 26th. That's a month after the public comment meeting. Is that right? Yes. Yeah, that would be. That gives us two and a half weeks before the start of racing. Two and a half weeks. So if we give the committee. No, you're talking about February 26th. February, I'm sorry about that. So February, February 26th. For this just, and this is just for the submission of the executive summaries. Okay, I think I skipped the month. February 25th and tomorrow, okay. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Plenty. Right, then we can have our meeting. Right. In March. Meeting, you know, March 10th or, Okay. Yeah, 17th, which is St. Patrick's Day. Yep, that gives you four weeks before the racing season. So you've got your wiggle room built in if you need it. So then for the, so is February 26th agree for a submission timeline? It's fine with me. Okay. Yeah. I will defer to Mr. Umbrello. How's that, Paul? Thank you very much. I appreciate it. And February 26th is acceptable. Thank you. I did one, one. I'm on a good start. I won one. And then the meeting to review the executive summaries. Mr. Chairman, is that, when you say to review, that's a meeting to review. And if there's gonna be a vote, if there's gonna be a vote, not saying that there necessarily will or won't be, but if there is that meeting, what happened at that time? You're not suggesting another meeting after that, are you? Or are you? No, no, I was saying that that, yeah, my thought process was to review it and then discuss it, whether you didn't discuss it, whether there's a need for any sort of change at that time. So, okay. I think you said it too, week of the 15th, right? Three weeks in between. So March 10th. March 10th gives us two weeks, I think. Yeah. 10th or the 17th? 10th is fine. Thanks. 10th works. Commissioner Cameron? Yeah, it looks fine for me. I mean, all likelihood, all these meetings that we're talking about are going to be WebEx meetings. Which is that, I mean, that's pretty much, I think we're resigned to that fact, right? Yeah. All right, so yeah, the 10th works. Traffic won't be bad. Okay. And Mr. Umbrello, are you okay with the 10th? The 10th works as well, thank you. Okay, thank you, Chair. Okay. What time are we talking for that meeting, Mr. Chair? And I guess, Shar, does that conflict with any other meetings for the commission? No, there are no conflicts at all. Okay. So would we say it does 10 a.m. work? That's fine. It does. Okay. Mr. Umbrello? That's fine. And Emily? Yep, that works. Okay. So then the executive summary review meeting would then be March 10th, 2021 at 10 a.m. So we want to reserve two hours, Mr. Chair. What are your thoughts there? An hour and a half, what do we think? Yeah, I'm thinking, yeah, it's, you know, the last meeting went, I think somewhere around two and a half hours or so. So I think, you know, two, you know, we should reserve at least two hours. So. Okay. Okay. I think if we limit the amount of time each lawyer can talk, you know, we'll do it in two hours. That's not really fair. Mr. Umbrello is not a lawyer. I take that back. Thank you. I would track that statement. And I was going to say, if I stay on the guys who are in trouble, I can talk all day long. Mr. Goldberg, I miss seeing you at the meeting and laughing at your joke. Thank you. Thank you. A little bit for Chris. All right. And then just in conclusion then just, are there any, you know, the agenda items for that particular meeting, you know, we can have the review of the funds, a racing update, the schedule that for that year, a legislative update, and then have the executive summary presentations and discussion of the executive summaries. So I just wondered if anyone else has any other agenda items that they would want addressed at that particular meeting. Does it make sense at all? I'm just thinking out loud. Does it make sense at all to schedule a short meeting prior to that, a March 10th meeting to do that, to do that work, and then keep the 310-21 meeting just for executive summary review? I'm just throwing it out there. So we don't go two and a half hours. Okay. You know, maybe a week before, just a short meeting, an hour meeting to review the legislative updates and also give the committee a little extra background. Just throwing it out there. It's... Well, I just, I wonder if, because we are not spending the time this year to talk about the split and, you know, how to put those three buckets together differently, I just wonder if we would need that extra time knowing that's not part of this. Oh, you know, we clearly won't need that much time as we did last year, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's how I felt, but I wasn't, I didn't know I was gonna get into it on this call as well, but everything should go hopefully swimmingly, a lot smoother and easier, in my opinion. And the legislative update usually is not that long a list of items to discuss. Correct, correct. Yeah, that's fine. I mean, one meeting's fine with me. I just was throwing it out there if the committee somehow wanted, you know, but that's, it's perfectly fine. I can meet for five hours if we have to. All right, so as the consent is that the pre-meeting, then, you know, we should be able to accomplish everything within those two hours based on those agenda items. I believe we can do that, Mr. Chair. Yes. All right, okay. I agree. Okay. And are there any other agenda items that any of the committee members want to address for purposes of what they may want to hear at that meeting? No. Nope. Nothing at this time. Okay, all right. Okay, all right. So we've obviously, you know, thank you to everyone. We've been able to set a schedule up. So hopefully it works for, I mean, it seems like it's gonna work for everybody. So I'm glad about that. Is there any other business that any of the committee members feel need to be addressed at this time? Not this time. Okay, all right. All right. Seeing none then, do I have a, is there a motion to adjourn the meeting? They'll moved. Second. Second. All right. And again, we have to take a roll call or vote on that. So attorney Katana, commissioner Cameron. Aye. Mr. Umbrella. Aye. Attorney Goldberg. Aye. And Fitzgerald is aye. Okay, all right. Well, thank you. Thank you to everyone. Thank you for. Thanks everyone. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Bye everybody.