 here we are downtown at 615 in Rochester and January 27th and I'd like to confirm that this meeting has been posted in three public places right and on the website and email to interested parties in the world all right so we legally continue on before we start does anyone have any additions to the agenda they'd like to make the Harlan usual okay all right and Mason you have something just an announcement at the end of the meeting okay all right and then we'll go right to we the last meeting we could not approve the minutes from the December 23rd meeting because we didn't have enough people here to do that I wasn't at this meeting so I will leave that to you guys to approve those minutes well make a motion to approve the minutes from December 23rd and we also have the minutes from hello the last meeting of January 13th I would like to make a statement like to make a correction to what was noticed on the orca media video that someone from the audience had made a statement that the budget and finance committee meetings that were closed that indeed is not true those are open meetings and they conform to the open meeting law and they were duly warned so I just want to make that correction so that's something that is an orca media so I'd move to approve these typed up second it all in favor good catch and we had in on the in the guest line Mason you had something you had put on the agenda or requested put on the agenda last meeting which was about the treatment of personal data important numbers and the town records is that you want to know was it and that what you want to talk about that was recreation now this is going back with Bruce Marshall and over to cyber issues oh sure right and I put on the agenda see if we have a discussion about it and in my opinion I I feel pretty strongly that the town can benefit with a policy about our town records well we have there's I don't want to interrupt but there is we we have to conform to state rules about those it's it's even about policies but talking about 9 9 SA 2440 is the is the statute that dictates dealing with issues when Bruce came in concerned about Social Security numbers and things like that I'm feeling that the usage of cell phones to record our records shouldn't happen or other electronic equipment if someone is looking for a copy that it be a hard copy and actually probably should be dated and signed off by the town clerk now a copy like that can leave the office and then it could be photographed all at once but it it's marked as a copy what kind of records are you referring to any records that people are looking for for the purpose of obtaining what if someone comes out of wants a copy of the tax map is that part of your hard copy print I'm gonna ask you a question what would be the harm in photographing a tax map a lot of towns have them online right well that would probably be the way to go there okay I'm just like some records okay I'm just trying to clarify what kind of record you're referring to well a lot of records are just right public information yeah well it's it's pretty easy to have a phone and be taking photographs that's why people use them well right and that's the question that I think that was what Bruce Marshall was you know was referring to his concerns about safety and it could be a protection for the town to stay with hard copies leaving the office okay I'm just trying to understand this if it's a public record and anybody can come in and get a copy of that public record yes why can't they photograph it with their phone what's what's the difference if they receive a hard copy mm-hmm it can be dated by the town clerk okay as a copy when it's photographed it's unclear what what's the what would be the purpose of that date when it was obtained as a copy why would like why would I be concerned about that well we don't know yet it's similar issues that you were looking into it's a cyber issues you know there's a lot of hidden areas I'm looking at how do we protect ourselves but what are we protecting ourselves against in this case I'm just certain there's certainly things we don't want out there recorded as being a copy okay but I'm still not I'm still not grasping and that maybe it's just me but if it's a public record what's the difference anybody can view a public record now we're now we're also now when you're talking about social security numbers things like that that's a different story but I'm talking about I just use the example of a tax map again what would why would I have to have a signed dated copy of a part of a tax map what would be the purpose of that what what does it gain anyone when you I'm not talking about the tax map okay other records like what okay well you said any records that could potentially be an issue for an individual like when Bruce was here that for us the safety is not allowing electronic equipment being used in that area that you want to copy you get a hard copy and it can be dated inside out so you're asking us to do something that's not considered green taking a photograph saves paper so you're throwing a whole ream of paper do you ever do you ever have people ask you over the phone to email them a copy of a record so you get some requests to email copies of records so that's when you look at how old the books are and the handling it's actually better to take a photograph than to have you handling them on the printer and them all apart yeah I'm not I'm just not clear with what you're referring to where the security risk would be and in public documents because you would requested why don't we have email voting couple meetings actually I like that back up that's a whole different right that's not related to our records well you're talking about security well find out soon enough I want to carry Tom you had you were doing some homework on that what did you discover you had concerns I have concerns about hacking the town computer system yes in general absolutely but that's that's not what we're talking about here how could that happen with electronic equipment closer by what type of distance is hacking okay it could happen in this room it could happen anywhere that's that's the location is not the issue so you have concerns of hacking taking files that way or it's not our threats are not necessarily taking files it's corrupting the database that we have that's that's what it concerns me if it is your crush it was like blanking them out well I mean if we want to if you want to have a talk about cybersecurity we can do that I don't think this is the really the time to have it I'd be glad to speak to you in details about these things but my concern is not is not public records being propagated I don't I don't see the security risk in a public record being propagated I do see a security risk in a computer system getting hacked where corruption of files can occur there's a difference and I just want to make that clear so you see files being corrupted files can be corrupted in many many ways yeah you can go and research it on Google so but I want to distill this down to what I think your your request here is that we don't allow people to take pictures of the town records is at your request I was putting it forth as a discussion to talk about because it just felt too easy for for people to be taking photographs when Bruce and his wife are here they had concerns about potential records being top and the topic was not about records being found but the sensitive information like social security on those records in the policies that's irrelevant if there is a there's a number on a document that should not be shared to the public whether you photocopy it or take a picture it's irrelevant it's the it's the treating of those numbers coming in and so that's what what we have investigated research and that's what this state has statutes about so that that was really my understanding of what your topic was not about photographing records so I guess you want to switch that anyway we've talked about photographing records I guess that's we could go forth and inquire from the state statutes that's not something I researched about whether that's that's illegal to prohibit that or not so I guess we could report back on that but if that's enough I guess we discussed you know was anyone else have anything they want to say about yes or no to use cameras to take pictures of town documents Martha well I was what Julie said about it's really better to take a photograph of some of these older things I mean our archives at the Herald go back to the 1870s and you know often people come in looking through them and we ask them if they have a device to take a picture because it saves the I mean some of those old books are pretty fragile and instead of trying to wrestle it on to the coffee machine you know although I did have somebody once after we first scissors but anyway I just thought that that was a good point she made about how it's that way to preserve records sorry so I will I will inquire if there's any policies around using cell phones to make copies of public documents because recently we've got that we're charging for the process of using a phone to take correct which is new correct that is new that's new right it's a good idea not even to use those phones convenient because that's why I'm talking about it convenience and maybe it's too convenient that person is going to take the printed document scan it attach it to an email and send it more than likely it's going to be exposed in the same exact way as a cell phone photograph would be hard copy can be dated and signed off that it is a copy well there's date stamps on photographs to stamp as well so it's all there the main thing is it's it's public your public documents like this is a public meeting minutes I always thought you were concerned about the same thing public the publicness of our work in the documents find it strange that you're concerned about making it interested in making it harder to you've always been an advocate of open government yeah to me this is AIDS in that we have to also look at our own protection and it saves trees I don't disagree with that I'm just saying sure right now I'm just saying that the state level there's they're dealing with record issues too it's right so there's a lot of detection others that do not others do not it's a public record I don't I don't see what is well you know if policy changes in the future we will adapt but right now I don't believe there's any restrictions on a public record no none so that have enough record of that conversation now we discussed it Joan here does she have some updates not in here okay I know she's been working away Tony any news from the library well yeah we were wanted to thank Patty for coming to the last trustees meeting my pleasure most of this stuff though I talked about you get in the paper anyway but I just will mention that what last week we had a film done by Rob and shard on the Islamic Islamic art and culture so it's really quite a good one and there were quite a few people there and then Jeanette has been working on a lending library of things and I think that was written up in the last week's paper here too so people could actually go to the library and get some kind of a device or thing that they might not have to use and this is just beginning but maybe that will work out to be something that kind of tomorrow night this is not a library thing but tomorrow night there is a film called suppressed and it's about the effort in Georgia to suppress voting rights for well for blacks mainly about Stacy Abrams and so on everybody knows about that for the thing there'll be some voter stories on the film and a discussion afterwards about this what maybe we should be aware of and Lizzie Shackleton will be leading that and I think that's thank you thank you thank you so that moves on to the exciting topic of Cooter's big day today I had a plow dig in and puncture the hole in the radio and life was pretty bad there for a little bit broken plow frame and punctured radiator yeah at least you didn't get hurt big head on the windshield no I'm going to see about what we did this happen on Clay Hill right in front of losses out I offered him coffee but he refused I needed something stronger where is the truck now the track is at the garage now it's gonna go to clerks come on hopefully they'll get the radiator and then we'll take it to bury in the well-framed pack which truck mine the international the red one they're towing it up there you put on a little bit you do it yourselves that's Richard blues gonna okay cheaper than coming yes thank you Richard and Julie started the insurance process and I haven't heard from them but I'm sure I will so you're going down hill no I was doing about 5 miles an hour and the road is hired two feet from and from where did it and two feet after but right there it was I'm soft the guy in Barry I think all of said this winter because of the freezing pause they've been doing two to three of these really you said I shouldn't feel bad I know there's at least a half a dozen inverted speed bumps on maple hill it's like a rollercoaster it's okay slows us down anything else from the highway department I think that's enough that's enough that's enough yeah for me anyway Terry then he found some bumper yet no no hasn't rained much either no I haven't rained much enough to do it but it's it's still a bit high at times when it's warm I mean I don't know whether we can I'm gonna guess call state and see what our brakes are about going in everybody's house to look I mean we haven't got going everybody's but a few we need to I wish somebody just say you know we yeah I got some pump going so if the thing can be there's a pump coming in because it drops right down three days after rain is nothing coming in again well terry's talked about this a couple of times the conversation is held in here and Martha make sure something in the paper much I'm wondering if I read your articles and I don't know if I read last weekend but maybe asking the person to come forward it was it was okay if it's ready done I mean I would draw that doesn't mean it doesn't mean the person was the rogue some pump read the Herald but you know true but if you've done it that I think probably next in mark when we send the water bills out I think we should write something that everybody would be sure to get it yeah especially a fact that terry says we'll help you solve it yeah right well I just I mean most everybody's had water problems I've gone I haven't charged you know find a toilet that's running through or anything else I think that's just part of helping out but this is just it's something that's been done last three years two to three years two years I'd say it's funny it won't do it every time either that's what I guess that's to be and to find a pump when it's pumping you know I'll say if it's up brook street somewhere else pick the right man won't cover a secret coming from you had a better chance finding the diamond hay pile then to find that you know and I hit the right spot at the right time I mean you know I mean do it really is is real early in the morning you know before anybody's up because soon people get up some way you know taking a shower something like that now you got your foals are up and down right well I think that's a good idea to put a note in with the water bills that's to yeah I think I have to be the first yeah and then maybe some way I'll step ahead and say yeah you had some way to focus on pop up on my baseball yeah and then maybe I'm gonna look at it then we could send our constable over there to talk to him which leads me to the next item on our agenda it's quite a certain charge on the system and that's the only one's bothered the other one time doing that all right so on the new business we finally getting around to approving constable the name of course our law enforcement services have been shifted over to the sheriff's department but in terms of having someone fill the position of constable in town we did finally find someone who's willing to do it and that's Mr. Dylan Dudley over and Nancy along with that does that also take the responsibilities of animal control and humane officer I don't think so I mean it'd be nice to pile it all on him but I don't think he signed up for all that but this is something that we're required by state law to have that position filled and we haven't had it since Mark left the hiring the sheriff doesn't satisfy their requirement so and no one else that's interested in Dylan's willing to step up so I would move to and prove him or appoint him as a constable and then of course we would reappoint you at the town meeting if you're still join the position after a month month and a half yeah I'll second that yeah all in favor we don't have a cool badge for you but special police bicycle for something that took a little more work than convincing someone to take that position we have the fiscal year 21 budget that budget and finance committee spent I don't know how many hours lots of meetings hammering this out and it was a challenge of course we get to the point where it looks like a tax increase and the double digits and then we struggle and sharpen pencils and try and figure out how to keep it down as we've got it presented now this is of course we are just approving this to present to the voters at the town meeting we're not we don't just approve this budget and run with it it's up to the voters to prove this but we've got it down to a three point six percent increase in the tax rate which is a it's a budget of one million eighty eight thousand seven hundred dollars of which seven hundred eighty thousand five hundred and fifty dollars are to be raised by taxes excuse me I just want to make sure I think they were at one million eighty thousand seven hundred yes of which how much for taxes seven eighty five five oh five five little raised by taxes thank you and there will be I'm sure more conversation about this at the at the town meeting but to there were some things that raised the expense I think the overall budget itself went up like eight point something percent and we were able to keep the tax hike lower than that even though the cost of running the town went up and this the cost of living cost of insurance cost of taking care of our employees sand and gravel and other sundry items but what we did not include in the budget to keep it from raising too high as we're not funding any of the reserve funds and in fact we took the money that was in the reserve fund for highway equipment and we decided to pay off the note on the loader which means then we don't have the expense of paying for that that was one of the tweaks that we did to ratchet that tax increase down just to try and keep it as low as possible anyway that's that's it in a nutshell really you guys have anything you want to add to that trash so okay yeah we we did the cost for the recycling pick up in you know bi-monthly in the town office here went originally was doubled and we talked with them a little bit and they lowered it some but it still was raising by $10,000 yeah yeah yeah so it's $20,000 a year so we have separated that out as a separate devoted article from the budget and that gives for the again for the town to make the decision if we did not pay for this $20,000 for recycling that would keep our tax increase to like 1.4% increase but that is not again not a decision that we wanted to make on our own we're coming to a point where we're gonna have to differentiate between critical services and extra services in town and Nancy I think we should say also that the other two items that are not part of the figures that that you just read are wereva and the library both of which will be voted as articles right and it doesn't include any of the appropriations from nonprofit agencies so that's what we're going to put in the in the town report for the town to digest and and vote on at the town meeting March so I moved to prove this and I guess we already dealt with the discussion of handling public records we also have an application for the class four-road winter maintenance from Kenny Beatty and Oak Lodge Road that small piece of road that they have been plowing and taking this step to conform to our relatively new policy so that so it seems to me there's another oh another one that would need yeah we'd like to make a motion to approve funding for new some new computers for the town hall as well as a new server and that amount has come as to around it's gonna mean approximate but it's about thirty seven hundred dollars and that's gonna buy us a new server a couple of new computers a couple of new monitors and associated hardware and accessories trying to get the the town's computer system is in need of a serious update many in many ways in this show what should you take care of it no no we just we generally look for the cheapest place we we can divide you know they'll be online somewhere we'll buy the equipment it's it's tough to beat the prices yeah exactly but I mean it's a good point but it's this is such a small amount of it's really just a small amount of equipment yeah in reference to new equipment like this in our town website and dot com is that is that how we work it because I've been hearing that through this dot gov has safer systems for communities than just being exposed actually there is some discussion I've had some discussion about that very topic with one of our people we've actually we're actually that's that's in discussion right now no it's it's it's it's a good point we are talking about pros and cons work right now yeah I mean commercial well it's easier to hack but we're not calm well I don't know I just I was just we are currently dot org or whatever but dot gov has a safety system in it that towns can utilize supposedly to help protect the firewall perhaps perhaps I'm not sure I just want to put it out there yeah okay so are you voting to approve this or I'd make a motion to approve an approximate funding of 3700 for new computer equipment for the town of Rochester yeah second that all in favor right can't wait to buy it I don't have anything to report about the book to you no I don't know you got any new places for me to look or anything actually not just for the book as we call it but for any other material it might be of interest I did talk to Mr. Brown is I guess currently kind of in charge of the room downstairs and he told me to go ahead and go in check it out so I'm gonna be doing American Legion yeah now we'll be doing that on Wednesday yeah Jeff thank you and my correct you're going downstairs to look at the room downstairs in the American Legion room yes just to inspect actually I went to middle sex some microfilm but I was not able to find anything but we haven't given up there's a possibility that middle sex will will have another set of some microfilm that was sent there that they misplaced I'm not sure they misplaced it someone else did but so we'll it's all coming back together and we will be viewing all of that too see we're making some remarkable strides with a little perseverance well it doesn't happen quite as often as you'd like it to happen well yeah but things are happening that's better than we haven't even thought about it we get an A for effort that's good we'll see it's it's good it's good all right I think that's all we have for oh yeah I just want to preface my comment by saying I appreciate the work that you guys do and I understand that as the select board that you have to deal with lots of difficult situations during the meeting but I did want to bring up something for you to consider I was very disappointed in the last meeting when we were here because I felt that the way that cloud was treated was really unfortunate and I feel that particularly for you doing that as the head of the select board that you have a very high standard that you need to set to to set as an example for everyone and how to treat people in these meetings and I felt that the way that you handle the way that you interacted with cloud when he brought up his concern about the about the tennis courts was and you brought up the fact that he had a lawsuit and that the bridge had been paid for I just felt like that had nothing to do with that and I also feel that regardless of whether you agree with someone or you find them annoying or whatever it is they have a right to bring up their concerns and their questions without being attacked and so I would just like you to consider that that in order for all of us to be civil that you yourself have to model that and you know he had brought that up and you had you know mentioned these things about the bridge or mentioned the things about his lawsuit and like saying like really how dare you cloud bring this up because of these other things I find that you said you know that you felt that that was you know ironic that he was bringing that up and I would just say that when I'm sitting here first of all I find it incredibly unpleasant and there have been times when I thought I'm not coming back to this meeting because it's so unpleasant I hate I hate that when we are not able to treat each other civilly and you know tonight was a great example you guys were fantastic and I know it's not always easy but I think just to be aware of that and also that it may make someone feel like oh I can't bring up something that people disagree with because I might be attacked like that and so just to caution you to to be mindful of that and really everyone should feel comfortable raising issues and I think 99% or 95% of the time they do but really that should be our goal as a community but also you're leading that as the select board person and you know that and for that instance you know there were three other people that said well actually you know what I am kind of curious about that I you know I'm interested this was you know something that maybe we should talk about so even though you had kind of dismissed him after the fact myself Jim Bowman and Rob I think his name is said you know actually maybe we should talk about that oh that is something that is valuable so I think that you know there may be times when you guys are irritated or you don't agree with a person or but everyone should have that right and everyone should feel comfortable doing that without feeling that their past history or things that are unrelated are going to be dragged up so I just like you to consider that and I think that that will be good for everyone encourage everyone to feel comfortable and raising concerns and make us a more civil a more civil community okay well I agree with everything she said and I'd like to add the misconception that this lawsuit was somehow brought you know by Mason solely there's two parties involved in this and I know for a fact that when we started out on this journey the last thing and that Mason wanted was to have to hire a lawyer to sue the town the town pushed Mason into a corner where the only alternative he had was to sue the town so I think you guys are just as much responsible as anyone else in this room for uh you know what's going on I don't know if there's anything we have to rehash that whole thing but I do think there is something to be said for that in our society when you don't agree with something that is that's that is what's available to us I mean if somebody did something to you and you didn't like it and you tried other things you may very well have a lawsuit but you know and people may agree with you but there's other people that disagree with you in this case there are people that agree and there's people that disagree with a lawsuit but um I think that you know that's that's just in our society that's how you handle problems when you get to a point where you can't do anything you mean you go to you go to you know yeah yeah have a lawsuit so I think that you know that that's uh and that in particular was just not related to the issue that clouded brought up and I just think it's only through money but take well taken and you know in the town is in in response to what you're saying Harland is the town is responding we're the ones that were the defendant we're the defendant there's no attempt to mediate yes no that's not true that's not true that's not true at all Patty and I spent a whole day this whole idea we it's there has gone wrong we rode they had four signatures this is not on the agenda so this is on the free time right at the end when you get to say you guys can but we can't then right but I thank you do just a job Susan thank you for your comments and I you took the job right the job you're saying you know be nice to the public be nice to the public yeah it's recent I know we should treat them you don't have that you know so what's your point my point is you don't always do that okay we're going to make a phone Susan what's your final thoughts yeah thank you you've got an announcement here though yeah I recently signed up for the emailing from the town clerk and I realized how helpful it is and having community access is a great way to communicate to our voters that getting on Julie's email list is a great idea I noticed it's pretty sparse at the moment there's probably 20 20 folks on the email list and the email list is very helpful in being able to see the agenda ahead of time so you uh basically well with select board meetings we have what 24 meetings a year and voters are a little more educated about what's going on you know six meetings a year is pretty good for a voter to attend but I think it just needs to be ways that the select board can reach out more to the voters to to see that involvement and I think this email process that got started for notification is a great way to go even like tonight when we're you're looking at the budget preliminary ideas can be put out on the email so people can look at it at home and digest it and be able to get feedback you know before it's actually printed in the the town report which is what two weeks uh two weeks in advance and just knowing that there's also a great place to with community access to be able to let people know that we have like six openings positions coming up this year for election and to give the voters an opportunity to think about it instead of it just being at the town meeting quite often where those thoughts get gelled so better participation by sharing the information a little more because that was my announcement since community access is here and thank you I'd just like to just um Mason the morning will be posted no later than Friday which is by law it has to be posted by Friday so that will happen and there is a pre-town meeting at the February 27th is it is that a Monday no 24 22nd 24 24 so being posted most likely we go out on email right so this you know and so there's a pre-town meeting on that Monday of the select board meeting prior to the select board meeting and then town meeting after that probably second you know even like today with community access letting folks know it's I know a lot of people have free jobs but this is the opportunity now to let your employers know that you're going to take Monday night off you know because you're coming to town meeting in a few weeks so a little more advancement to let people know they're going to get their town reports somewhere around the 20th of February February that was what I wanted to thank you anybody else going once going twice he's gone thank you all for coming out