 We're going to start the select board meeting, March 9th, 2020. We do have an agenda. We do have several issues I want to take up before I proceed with the agenda as well as with my colleague's permission. I've already spoken to them about possibly taking one more article out of churn. First, what I'd like to do is have a moment of silence for Lieutenant Paul Dooley, an Allington resident, police officer, sergeant, lieutenant. He passed away suddenly last week. I met Paul when he and his wife, Heather, were really involved in Pop Warner cheerleading football. And Heather, who had the beautiful hair, blonde hair all crossing guard down at the bottom of Sims Hospital Hill. And Theresa, who I said I would not get involved with Pop Warner at all, quietly, patiently brought me in. And unfortunately, she passed almost 20 years ago, very untimely and a great miss for that. And the same with Paul. And one thing I can say about Paul, usually saw him first when he came into the police station, always had a smile on his face. Even when he was ticked off, he just had a different smile on his face. But great man, I feel terrible for the children, Heather and Sean, and the whole Dooley family. So I'll just have a moment of silence for Paul Dooley. God bless and rest in eternal peace. Thank you so much. Again, before we get to the agenda, because of the current events with the coronavirus, COVID-19, I have some very brief remarks because my part of what I'm going to speak to is really in the early phases of planning. And the town manager has the more salient up to date in terms of what's going on now. But I will say regarding the stratum decision, I do know that the town manager, along with members of the Board of Health, the superintendent, teleconference had meetings, spent a long time, probably a couple of hours, on exactly what to do. Because there's been varying opinions in the community. Should have done more maybe, should have done less. But I agree with the town manager and superintendent to err on the side of caution would be the way to go. But the other piece that I wanted to speak to, and it is in the beginning, and we'll have more updates in the future chair after April 4th, we'll take this on his or her, a plate platter, so to speak. We have gotten inquiries about town meeting about a week, week and a half ago, so I decided to have a conversation with the manager. There's been an email exchange with the town moderator, with the finance committee chairman, Mr. Tosti, Mr. Foskett, as well as Adam. We're looking at what town meeting might be at the end of April, depending on where we are and what the status is of the coronavirus. There have been discussions about the EV system that we use is only in-house. Right now it doesn't have the capability to allow members to be outside of Town Hall and vote over the internet. So we're looking at different possibilities as well as Attorney Hine is also working on this because we need to make sure we can do the business of town meeting and pass budgets but to keep everybody safe and healthy. So if anyone has suggestions, feel free to send them into the select board office. Our staff, Ms. Maher came up with today, if we perhaps look at a section and use the balcony. So there's different ideas going out there. So we're gonna make sure that we can have a town meeting. The town of Valentin will continue to run. The last thing I would say is if residents need any help, any information, go to the town website. The town manager will give you particulars on that but that's the most up-to-date correct information. But I also would say to everyone, check in on your neighbors. If you are someone who's decided to self quarantine, if for some reason you need help getting supplies, getting food, getting mails, feel free to contact the Town Hall through the town website, there's groups. There's also groups because Valentin's such a great community that through Facebook, one just formed today, it's like neighbors, not neighbors helping neighbors, but it's basically you can go on a Google or a Doodle and sign up and you can say I need some help with perishables, non-perishables, and there's a group of Valentin residents that not only are getting donations to cover those costs but also are delivering them. So as long as we all watch out for each other and everybody knows what we need to do to stay healthy and safe, do that. And as always, you can contact any member of the board. We'll get you to the right group person for any assistance that you need. And we'll get through this. Mr. Chapterland, our town manager. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a prepared statement that I'd like to read, but before I do that I just wanna reiterate what you said that Town Council has spent a great deal of time today researching legalities around town meeting and how we could consider different ways of conducting town meeting and should have a report prepared later this week, if not maybe tomorrow for the board and other committee's consideration. I'll also add that I've been talking with my colleagues in other cities and towns in the region who have the same concerns about how to conduct their town meeting whether it be open or representative and with Town Council's work and talking with them. We're gonna look at every strategy that's possible to make sure that we can still conduct town business and get a budget passed so that we can operate after July 1st. So thank you for highlighting that and stand by for more information. So again, I'd like to read this statement. This statement is excerpted from a release that just went out in regards to what's been happening in town over the past several days but I think it's important for those here tonight and those watching on TV to be able to hear about this information. So public health director, Natasha Waden, director of health and human services, director, Christine Borgiorno, superintendent of schools, Kathleen Bodie and I met today after an Arlington resident was diagnosed with a presumptive case of COVID-19. Presumptive means that the DPH has tested that patient and it has come back positive but we're still waiting for confirmation from the CDC. That's why the term presumptive is used. COVID-19, which is the illness associated with the novel coronavirus. The town was notified today that one of their children who is a student at the Stratton Elementary School has also tested positive for COVID-19. The Stratton was closed today but our health department has today informed all faculty and staff and the families of any students who are considered by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health as being close contacts with the infected student. Those individuals have been advised to self quarantine for 14 days and not report to school on Tuesday in accordance with the advice of DPH. The health department and DPH stress if you have not been notified by the Arlington Health Department that you need to self quarantine then you do not need to self quarantine. Arlington Public Schools will open and operate normally tomorrow. The Stratton Elementary School will be open tomorrow with the exception of those students and faculty who have been notified by public health officials that they should self quarantine. I want to urge that all actions that are being undertaken are in accordance with the latest guidelines from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC. I'm very proud of the work being undertaken by our leaders. The town and its public health, human services and public safety officials are well prepared to respond to this situation and officials prepare and train for public health emergencies regularly. Arlington's health officials are still awaiting test results which involve another Arlington family, a member of which also attended the Biogen Conference whose children attend school at the Dallin Elementary, Gibbs and Arlington High School. The Arlington Health Department reports that the two infected residents of where the Stratton family are recovering at home and that these two families will continue to be monitored and supported by our public health and school officials. I want to highlight this, the town of Arlington has opened a call center this evening which will be staffed by members of the health department until midnight. Arlington school families may call 781-316-3170 with questions. I want to note that this number is only open to Arlington school families and our staff cannot provide information to the media or the general public via this hotline. A second sanitization of the Stratton school occurred Monday with crews using cleaning sprays and electrostatic machines which are particularly effective at mitigating infections in viruses with special attention to commonly touched surfaces and objects. As always, children and adults should be reminded to take everyday precautionary steps to stay healthy including hand washing, which is always the first line of defense against the spread of germs. So this will be an evolving situation. We will continue to be working with our public health and public safety officials as well as the state and federal officials in monitoring this as it progresses. We will continue providing updates to both the board and the general public and we will continue to answer questions as they come up from the public. So thank you. Thank you. Okay, with that I am very pleased that I get to be chair for this first agenda item, the introduction of the new permanent police chief, the best law enforcement person that we had over at the Arlington Police Department who has been committed to the Arlington community, residents, businesses, and sometimes people who don't live in Arlington need services. I'd like to introduce our new police chief, Julianne Flowering. Thank you, thank you very much for that. That was wonderful and thank you very much for having me here tonight. First, I would like to thank the town manager for appointing me to this role and for having the faith in me to lead the Arlington Police Department. I'd also like to thank the board for the support that you've shown me over the past year. I'm very grateful for that. I know that I've come before you a couple of times over this past year to talk about the good work that the women and men of the Arlington Police Department do and I just want to reiterate that I feel very fortunate to lead this department. We have an amazing group of passionate professional officers who deliver quality services and follow through with the mission of the police department and love working with the community. So I'm very grateful and fortunate to lead this department. I've also had the great opportunity to work with a lot of the community members over the past year and I look forward to continuing developing these great partnerships. So thank you very much for having me here tonight and if you have any questions, if you happen to answer them. Okay, once again, thank you. We've worked with you in the past. We'll continue to work with you in the future. I believe you're gonna be here for an agenda item later on. Yes, thank you. And then again, just a little variation from the agenda. A colleague from the finance committee, the chairman, Mr. Tosti, has his meeting starting shortly if it hasn't started already at 7.30 and in the interest of, he's a really important person. He needs to get to that meeting. With everyone's indulgence, I'm going to have his warrant article hearing that we need to hear from him, article 25. Mr. Tosti. Okay, thank you, Madam Chairman. I appreciate it. We're having a man tonight. It's gonna be an interesting hearing. Article 25 is the motion article to change the dates by which the town meeting, the town manager has to submit the budget to the support of Selecman and to the finance committee. Finance committee is sort of strongly opposed to this. In fact, we voted unanimously the other night to a motion of no action. And I'd like to encourage you or urge you to support that motion. Really three reasons. The finance committee, it takes time to crank up once the budgets are gotten. So the budgets are obtained by most of the finance committee. Somebody has to hand over them or get them out. That's the third week in January. Then people have to set aside time. They study the budgets. Then they have to set aside time to meet with the other person who might be dealing with that particular department. Then they have to set up an appointment with the department head to go through the mechanics of and the numbers in their budget. After that, sometimes they usually meet together to go over it and decide what they're gonna present to the full finance committee. And then it goes through the process of presenting these budgets to the finance committee. There's like 40 or 50 different items here, different budgets that have to be submitted to the finance committee. We usually start our formal sessions in the second week in February and we're cranking through budgets as much as we can. We're also at the same time scheduling hearings. We try to get as much of this done as we can because in March, we hear before the school committee comes, the Minuteman book school comes, the capital budget comes, the Community Preservation Act people come. So those usually take like whole nights or at least half nights before it. And then we try to get everything done by the last in the last week in March. So we're ready to start putting together the finance committee report, which usually takes within the first week or two of April. We then send the finance committee report out to a lot of different people, including the manager's office, town council's office, the moderator to review and make sure that everything's on board, that we've got everything set. And then try to have it ready to send out with the selectman's report, which usually wants to get that out at least a week ahead of town meeting. So I think one or two times we've been able to do that. Quite often we're not able to do it. We have to have them on the seats of town meeting, the first night of town meeting. And with the shorter town meetings, that gives people fewer times to do it. So it really is a long process to get everything done. And I think we need the time. Secondly, the governor is sort of the, we try to get an indication all through the fall meeting with the long range planning committee of what the numbers are gonna be from the state. And so sometimes we have at least a sense of what's gonna be on that. And then we have the governor's numbers at the end of January. And I realize this was the issue that started all this, but that's just the start of it. Then the finance committee usually waits until April 15th, which is the House Ways and Means Committee, when they submit their numbers. And then we're able to finalize it and try to get it to print and get it out. Then the House meets at the end of April. Then the Senate Ways and Means Committee meets in the first two weeks and presents their report in early May. And then the full Senate meets. And then you have conference committee in June. And then the governor gets the budget towards the end of June, even to July. And so we really don't know what the final numbers are gonna be someplace in mid-July. We have a pretty good sense of the numbers, but we really don't have that sense. So I mean, things are gonna be changing right along through the process. And the third point I wanted to make is the way things have been handled with the Long Range Planning Committee and all the groups working together, the finance committee, the select one, the manager, the superintendent, is that pretty much everybody knows what their budgets are gonna be and how much is gonna be there. The only flexible part is the Override Stabilization Fund. And the Override Stabilization Fund, basically, that's the last thing on the town meeting warrant before we get to resolutions. And that's the one we wait until the end to make some adjustments. So if the budget from the town manager comes in, governor gives more money, which he did this year, recommends that more money be given, then we put more money in the Override Stabilization Fund. If for some reason the government's less money, then we put less money into the Override Stabilization Fund. And the same thing goes through with the Houseways and Means Committee. So it's not like we have to go back and redo all the budgets. It's just that that fund either gets less money put in or less money taken out. That's the variation there. So I understand it's sort of be nice to wait and hear from what the governor has to say, but if that's the case, we're practically not gonna get those budgets until mid-February, and that's really too late. Now sometimes our sessions are pretty fast. There's not a lot in the warrant to really deal with, but sometimes it gets really crowded. So again, these are the reasons the finance committee is asking you to vote no action on this and we'll do anything to help improve the process, but I think this just puts an extra squeeze. I mean, I got 21 people, most of which are full-time jobs and we're meeting twice a week as it goes, Mondays and Wednesdays, all from February and March. So I think it would put a strain on the committee and I'd appreciate your support on that. So I'd be happy to take any questions you might have. Mr. DeCourse. Yeah, I actually have a statement and first I wanna apologize to Mr. Toste because he has reached out to me a few times and I've returned some of the messages, but I owed him the last call and we never had a meeting so I apologize for that, Alan. I was the person who requested that this be added to the warrant and part of the reason that it was added is in asking the town manager, would it help him and his staff if he had a little extra time in January to get the report done on top of knowing perhaps what the governor's budget number is? And he said yes. And so I would like it at this point again, it's on me that I didn't get back in touch with Adam, but to improve the process, we've heard from the finance committee and I'm a 25 year member of the finance committee, I realized that the time constraints, I'd like to have a meeting with the town manager and Mr. Toste and I'd actually like to move the table, the vote tonight and report back after that. Not that we'll do anything different, but I feel like we should have a meeting to talk about what the reasons the finance committee had, what the reason the town manager and his staff had and then come back. I'm not saying that I'm gonna push forward and recommend something later, but I just feel like we should have that discussion and then come back. So if that's all right. Okay. Yeah, me too. Second. Table by Mr. D'Corsi. Seconded by Mr. Currow. And that's fine, but I anticipate that when this comes back on the agenda that- Absolutely. Because- There'll be a vote. Each one here, we're gonna be here a long time. Oh yeah, yeah, no doubt. And like I said, it's on me, we didn't have the discussion, but I think we should have it. Okay. Did you have a hand up, Mr. Dunn? I'll follow up privately. Thank you. Warren article, anyone else on article 25? Actually there's a motion to table. So a motion to table by Mr. D'Corsi. Seconded by Mr. Currow. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed. If I could ask Ms. Mar to note that this will appear on our next and last Warren article here. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, now we will go back to our agenda. First we have consent agenda. Minutes of joint select board at Allington redevelopment board meeting 11320. Minutes of meeting 22420. Request special one day bear wine license 31420 at the Unitarian Universalist Church. Dance with dignity, Sherry A. Baron. Request special one day all alcohol license 32420 at Robbins Memorial Town Hall for Chamber of Commerce, annual dinner. Beth Locke, Allington Chamber of Commerce. Request special one day bear wine license 32720. Robbins Memorial Town Hall for Music and Bloom fundraiser Patsy Kramer, Allington Garden Club. Request special one day bear wine license 328 at Robbins Memorial Town Hall for Beats for Eats fundraiser. Andy Doan, Allington Eats. Request contractor drain layer license Porcelli Inc. out of Boober Mass. Request contractor drain layer license Stephen Sons contracting Inc. out of Medford Mass. Request contracting drain layer license straight line excavation core, Tuxbury Mass. Appointment of new election workers and thank you to all these people because we really do need you and we keep you busy, should pay you more. But anyways, appointment of new election workers Mary-Anne Fitzgerald, 54 Medford Street, number 310 unenrolled, precinct 10. Doris M. Hutchinson, 28th Esther Street, Democrat, precinct 14. Karen M. Kramer, 63 Fremont Street, Democrat, precinct 3. Modry J. Morris, 147 Warren Street, number 2 unenrolled, precinct 9. James R. Muncie, 215 Mass Avenue, number 25 unenrolled, precinct 1. Helen Lease Minowitz, 34 Hamilton Road, number 410 Democrat, precinct 6. Joyce B. Stewart, 37 Drake Road, number 401 unenrolled, precinct 20. Lauren C. Weber, 11 Baker Road, Democrat, precinct 20. And that is the consent agenda. Can I first have a motion by? Move approval, sub-draw conditions set forth. Secure a seconded by, just heard. Is there any, I know Ms. Barron contacted us about, I told her that she need not be here tonight because she had a conflict. Yeah, and Madam Chair, if I might, Ms. Barron had sent a statement which I had said I would be happy to read. She's unable to be here because of a family illness. This is Sherry Barron, one of the organizers of Dance for Dignity. I hope that you will grant the one day license for our Dance for Dignity on Saturday, March 14th from 7 p.m. to 10 30 p.m. As of now, we are planning to go ahead with the dance but are very mindful of the virus and will act according to public health recommendations. Until three months ago, I did not know that there were immigrant families and individuals needing housing and other help in our community. These folks have fled horrific circumstances, daughters being raped, sons lured into gangs, families unable to find economic support in other devastating situations. Then I became connected to ARCS, Arlington Cambridge Somerville cluster of the refugee immigration ministry and met new friends to begin to plan the dance, a fundraiser to help these families start a new life here in Arlington. Our immigrant friends need housing, food, clothing, transportation, vocational training and legal assistance in order to stay on the path to citizenship. Did you know that when immigrants come here, they cannot work for six months? So basically they're expected to live without earning a living. Can you imagine being in that situation? We hope to raise $25,000 through this fundraiser. I ask you all to dig in and help us in any way you can. I know you're asked to give money all the time. We get lots of mailings every month at our house. We make choices. I think that this cause deserves our response. People have run from terrifying lives in their home countries. They want to live here with us. Thanks to all of you. I hope you will drop in on Saturday night. The band is fantastic and the program will be fascinating. And good food. Thank you all very much. Best, Sherry Barron. Thank you, Mr. Carroll. Is there anyone else here for any of these events or other agenda items under consent agenda? Any further questions or comments by my colleagues? If not, an emotion by Mr. Carroll, seconded by Mr. Hart. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed, unanimous vote. We now go to appointments. Zoning Board of Appeals. Traditionally when we have openings for associate members or full members, it's whoever is the chair of the select board at the current time. So I had the opportunity and the privilege to meet with two people, Aaron Ford and Steve and Revillac for appointment as associate members to the Zoning Board of Appeals. Their resumes, curriculum vitae, certainly speak to their years of experience. Mr. Ford and his family moved here early in the 2010s, have a family here. He's extremely knowledgeable. He's I think a principal of a structural engineering firm. And really along with Mr. Revillac realizes that serving on the Zoning Board of Appeals, it's their personal failings and there's policy statements but that doesn't play into their role. They certainly have the breadth of knowledge in terms of looking at what the zoning by-law and other applicable laws say, applying that to what's before them, see if it works, if it doesn't work, if it can work or maybe it can't. So I really like that objectivity because also there are only two residents who care about the town, which is why they're volunteering their time and expertise. So first, if I could, I would like to bring up Mr. Ford. If you could come to the microphone and just for the record, say your name and any sort of premier 101 or sort of the short version of what I got out of you. You got to speak into the mic, sorry. This is LAP's partners. We designed professional buildings and we've been a resident since 2013. You got to speak into the mic. Oh, right in the microphone. Sorry, it's recording the record. That's what they said. Got it. And we're excited, I'm excited to be part of this group and on the board and look forward to representing Arlington and the Zoning Board. So thank you for the invitation. Thank you. Next, Mr. Sorry. Oh, Mr. Don, sorry, Mr. Ford. You might not be off the hot seat yet. Yeah. He's trying, he's trying. Sometimes we ask questions, but I don't know. I actually don't have a question, but I'm going to tell you something and I think it's really important. And I know Steve has probably heard this speech before and I don't need to, which is, so this is the board that's hearing about the MuGar property. The MuGar property is one of the, and what happens to it is one of the most significant issues about the fact that it's coming down the pike for the town over the next few years. And we can expect that whatever vote happens, and who knows, you may not even be voting on it, but whatever vote happens, it's going to end up in court and it's going to probably be in court for a long time. And the quality of the decision that's rendered by the ZBA is going to be what decides whether or not we win. And so it is really important that the ZBA feels like it has all the resources and all of the assistance that it needs to render a good and technically correct decision. And I know the town manager knows it, I know the town council knows it, and I know that they've been working and they've secured a lot of technical assistance, but every zoning board appeals member that comes up, I give the speech to and I say, don't let it slip and don't say, oh shoot, if we had more we could fix this, we've got it. We can make this happen, it's that important. So don't be shy about raising your hand. And thank you for volunteering. Well, it's my pleasure. I understand what's at stake and I think the one thing that I can bring is the ability to interpret the intent of the codes and what the precedent is in order to help guide the town and respond to what's being brought before us. So I'm excited. Thank you, thanks. Any further questions or comments for Mr. Ford? You're free, you can go back. But we haven't voted for you yet, so you should hang up. Next, Mr. Revlock. And just name for the record when you. Steve Revlock, 111 Sunnyside Avenue and someone who is under no pressure whatsoever. I've been an Arlington resident since 2007. I served on the town's zoning recodification working group and it's since been a member of the zoning by-law working group. I've been interested in things like land use and housing and also honestly helping people who are just coming before the ZBA who really don't understand what the process is, who don't have representation and they're just trying to do something for their families. And I see this as a natural progression for Steve. When he first moved in to the Sunnyside Ave area, a group formed, he's certainly gotten well-versed on floodplain maps and CSO discharges, which that really doesn't have anything to do with the ZBA, but since then I've seen a natural progression where as you said, the recodification committee, which one time the previous board of selectmen was called, thought they were banishing me to a terrible committee and I was placed on the town's by-law recodification committee and it really does give you a working knowledge because you go through everything. And again, I appreciate what he's gonna bring to the table on that and he's been on various other committees and commissions and last year I worked with the redevelopment board as sort of our liaison from the select board. So I was very excited that he's willing to stack up once again and commit some time. Any grilling for Mr. Revillac? No? Is there a motion by? Move approval of both Mr. Ford as a associate member and Mr. Revillac as an associate member of the Zoning Board of Appeals. Is there a second? Second. By Mr. Dunn, I decided to say expiration but that's because these terms, there's no expiration. They usually, if we're lucky, they go on to full member if an opening occurs. Any further questions or comments? If not, a motion by Mr. Carroll. Second by Mr. Dunn. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed unanimous vote. Thank you again. You're welcome to stay, but you don't have to. Because our next exciting vote is what we'll honor sewer rate changes to mitigate the MWRA and I'm gonna say it right, Kevin. Debt shift. Mr. Greerling always had a problem with that word. I'd say see the F in shift. Mr. Chapelling. Sorry. He's in my mind. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I think I just won't say that word. I think it's agenda item because I can't help it. So this is a matter of the board's been discussing for quite a while now over the past couple of years and then more intensely over the past couple of months. So obviously as the board recalls, we talked about this at the board's last meeting to get a sense of the board's interest or tolerance for how much of the shift to roll off in this fiscal year and then in succeeding fiscal years. And ultimately the board had a pretty quick, easy consensus of rolling off about a third of the shift, which wouldn't be the full amount of high school debt that's gonna be coming on the tax rate at the end of this year, but would get fairly close to that. So what you have before you tonight is a memo from the Director of Public Works, Mike Rademacher, laying out in various ways to look at it, what the rates would be for all of the tiers for water and sewer in FY21 if adopted, as well as what the percentage increases would be and also what the annual cost increases would be and the quarterly cost increases. So that's all broken down here on this memo. And I think it probably stands to call these out that, so the average annual bill right now for water sewer would be $753. If these rates were adopted on an annual basis, that would increase to $877. And on a quarterly basis, the average is $188 right now. If these rates were to be adopted, that would increase to $219 a quarter. Now, for those watching, to be very clear, moving this means that tax increases will be mitigated. So the tax increases that were expected based on the high school debt exclusion will be mitigated based on moving this bill because we will be taking just about, just under $2 million off the tax levy. So though these admittedly, these increases may seem large, the whole idea that the board has been promoting is rebalancing the deck of what's raised on the tax rate versus what's raised on the water rates. So these impacts will not be felt fully because of what's being mitigated on the tax rate. I also wanna add, there'll be a discussion later tonight about a warrant article for a senior water sewer discount. And I think that's, that is a matter that was both related and can be considered separately from this. Basically not to take from what town council will say later, to be able to offer a senior water discount as expansive as the senior tax deferral and the senior circuit tax, senior circuit breaker tax exemption that was passed by town meeting last year, the board will need to, in town meeting, we need to approve the filing of home rule legislation to be able to create a program that reaches the higher income limits like the property tax deferral and the circuit breaker program. However, a smaller, less expansive program can be adopted by July 1st to be able to provide relief to qualifying seniors on July 1st when these rates would start to, people would start to see these rates in their water bills. So though I don't have a program for you to consider and adopt tonight, I can tell you that we can bring you something before the start of town meeting for your consideration. That would be again, probably less expensive than what I imagine the board wants to do on a long-term basis and also assure you that the way the budget is currently constructed for FY21 along with these rate increases, we have confidence that we'd be able to absorb whatever type of program the board would put in place. So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. And I just want to say this, I want to commend my colleagues and the manager and others. This sort of came out of the first June, 2017 election that we had for the Gibbs, the Hardy and Thompson. And we heard from a lot of people in terms of what their tax bills would look like. And they basically said, this hits and then the assessment hits, don't you people look at all this and stop having it pile on at once? Can you do some future planning? So by the time the June 2019th exclusion, high school exclusion and override, which Mr. Dunn chaired, this was pretty much in the final stages so that as the manager explained, nobody's taxes are gonna go down even previous to what they were, but we took into account different taxes that a resident needs to pay so that as one tax is going up, the other tax because of what the manager cited with the $2 million sort of shift brings it down. So hopefully you see more like this in your financial commitment in taxes versus up, down, up, down, up, down. So it was something that it took a while to do that because it's really hard to forecast. There was always a recession is coming and recession is coming. So we had backup plans for that and continue to do that. So I just wanna say to voters out there that say, don't you people think about this? Don't hit us with everything all at once. We heard that and that's why this was implemented for some other reasons also. But just that the board and the manager and departments do take those concerns very seriously, but did someone have their hand up? Mr. Kiro and then Mr. Dunn, sorry. Yeah, thank you very much Madam Chair and thank you to the manager. I think you summarized it well. I just wanna add a few little pieces here. I mean, one of the reasons we were so insistent on doing this this year, as you noted that there was some concern, particularly with a lot of our seniors about the impact of increases in taxes. And I think the thinking of the board was that by shifting over to the water and sewer, we achieve a couple of things. One is that with water and sewer rates, you do have some control over your usage where you don't have control when it's shifted over onto the tax rate. That's one. The second is the recognition that a lot of most senior households are smaller households as one or maybe two people in general who would be using less water and sewer. And one thing that should be noted is when the manager talked about the cost average for the home use, what we'd be looking at, that's based on 60 CCFs per year, which is a higher rate of usage. But we have actually a tiered rate. So if you're using less water, you're actually paying less per CCF. So the combined impact of that should serve as some buffer. And lastly, I just wanna say thank you to the manager for explaining that. I'm looking forward to hopefully at the next meeting to be able to look through those scenarios for at least a short-term relief program. Many, many cities and towns in the Commonwealth. I lost a Saturday, I'll never have back, going through the cities and towns that have discount programs, generally targeted at seniors, sometimes needs-based. Often, most of the time needs-based and targeted at seniors. So to allow us to do that on a short-term basis and then have a longer-term program should we recommend in town meeting approve the warrant article it's before us later on this evening. So I wanna thank you for your work on this. Thank you to the DPW and thank you to town council. I know has been involved in this as well. The analysis. Thank you. Should I take that as a motion to approve? I move approval. Move on, Mr. Carroll, seconded by- Second. Mr. Dunn, Mr. Dunn, would you? Yes, I'm really happy for us to get this done. This is something I wanted to do the day that I took this seat. And I had to be persuaded for a while why it wasn't the right time. And the reasoning was really convincing. It wasn't the right time in particular because I think about like six years ago for other reasons in our dynamic, our water rates were going up a lot. And by doing this change, it would have triggered, it would have been really difficult for a lot of people. But so being able to combine this with the override and being able to say, you know, this is partly how we're paying for the high school, I am really glad to get this done. And we should note for everyone that we are not voting on this right now just so Dan can get an opportunity to vote on this. Right, we can do that for the next meeting. We can keep voting, woo. Okay, any further questions or comments from my colleagues? If not, an emotion by Mr. Carroll, seconded by Mr. Dunn. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Gender item 14, discussion 2025, semi-quincentennial, Patriots Day celebration. I'm gonna make you all say that before you leave. Sorry, Mr. Hard. That one's a little more difficult than debt shift. A little less hairy to get wrong. So I talked about this a couple of times in new business at past meetings, but probably about a month, month and a half ago, I attended a meeting with representatives from the Slack boards of Concord, Lexington, and a few other surrounding cities about the 2025 semi-quincentennial celebration. So it'll be Patriots Day weekend in 2025. They anticipate, so it'll be, obviously the 250-year celebration. So they had discussed the potential further than President of the United States to attend. And someone had mentioned, we don't know if the president will be, but we at least know who it won't be in five years from now. So, I don't know. Not touching that one. Not touching that one. I got a couple laughs at the meeting, so I figured I'd throw it out there. So anyways, it sounds far away, but we have to submit a plan to the committee and the Department of Interior in the next year. So the recommendation is to create a committee, a talent committee, in order to handle this and start getting the ball rolling on the planning of the event. So it would be this particular weekend in 2025. Easter Sunday is that Sunday. So the events that they're planning are all gonna be on Saturday and Monday of that Patriots Day weekend. So whatever steps we need to do to get that committee rolling. I guess I, if I may, would assign, continue to assign you, Mr. Heard. Working with the town manager, perhaps at the next meeting or an April meeting, whenever that it appears an agenda item and we have sort of the framework of what the committee, it will be a select board committee. Andor, if there's anything else that we need to do to structure this committee because I know as part of this consortium and designating this first step with plans, talking to some of our colleagues in Lexington and I think the other gentleman was Bedford. If there's anything else we have to do to structure this committee that qualifies us to apply for grants and be able to receive them if we get the approval. But I'm gonna leave that to Mr. Heard and, oh, Mr. Chaplain. I would only ask too, if board members have constituencies or people they think should serve on this committee, let me or Mr. Heard know before the next meeting and we can build that into what we have proposed to the board. Okay, so if there's anybody out there that would like to perhaps offer suggestions or their time on the semi-quincentennial Patriots Day celebration for year 2025, please direct those to the select board office. And Mr. Heard and Mr. Chaplain will receive those and do what they will. It's just a five-year commitment, right? Just a five-year commitment. Yes, though. Wait a minute, should I do that? No, we'll get it. I don't think, do we need a vote or move or sit? No, okay. We will now go on to, everyone get their calendars out and we're gonna be a little creative with this. We need to set April 2020 select board meetings. We automatically have, and I think we posted the meeting for Monday the sixth because it's an organizational meeting but it also will be rolled into a regular business meeting. But looking at it, of course we start meeting on the 27th for a town meeting but that's usually a very abbreviated agenda. So considering everything we have to do as well as the holy days, the holidays, and the holidays, I would put forth to my colleagues the sixth and maybe 15th. Or do you wanna meet, I'm trying to, or something else. Or do you wanna meet six and 13? I'm just afraid if we meet on six and 13 doesn't have much. So what is the will of my colleagues? Yeah, Madam Chair, thank you. And I didn't realize the sixth was already posted just so my colleagues know. I'm not available the night of the sixth and I don't know if it's already posted. There's nothing we can do about it. If it isn't, if there's any way to do the eighth and the 15th, but I'll just defer to the other members on that. Well, under law, we have to, since there's an election and there will be different people in the chairs, we have to have a. Organization. The sixth and the eighth has passed over. Okay. All right. And then Mr. Curell. No, that's what I was gonna say even though the calendar reflects first day of Passover it actually begins the evening before. Part of people feel, I mean, we definitely need to meet the sixth. We could, but then again, it's vacation week by the 22nd, which is a Wednesday. Is there any night that week because we can't do Patriots Day? I'm trying to do it so we can get the business, if we can space it out with at least a week apart. But Mr. Curell. Do we only need an organizational meeting on the sixth? Is that all we need? And then we can. Yeah. That's all we need is an organizational meeting. What you can do is if we can do an organizational meeting on the sixth, I believe under the law, as long as we have a majority, we don't need all five members. And then we have the regular business meeting on the eighth. But then my next question is, I'm not, we've never done it in my time on the board. I don't know if we accepted the provisions to allow for remote participation or even if Mr. Curell, of course, he's available for remote participation for the organizational meeting. I'm available. I don't know if it's something that. So I believe that we have accepted remote participation in Arlington. So I can certainly look into it. It's on a board by board basis, I believe, though. I think the difficulty, I'm sorry, Madam Chairman, I think the difficulty is making sure that the remote participant can be heard and that everyone can hear them. So we'll have to just sort of double check to make sure that we have technology available in this room that can meet those requirements. And if not, we could always perhaps go to a part of Town Hall, the manager's conference room, have that first part of that meeting there that has a telecommunication system that might be satisfactory if we can't get it up here. I don't want to spend a lot. If ultimately we do that in the matter, of course, then we'll look into it and spend the money. And then after that vote, I'm anticipating what I'm hearing is we did adjourn, the organizational meeting and the select board meeting. And are we saying to meet on the 8th? Madam Chair, not that it's my business, but when do you need to go to print? For the warrant? For a second. Do we know that? We like to get it out as early as possible, so it's just dependent on, once we have final votes and comments, when we need to get it, we usually print it ourselves. We don't usually send it to the printer, so. We have a little leeway. Did you want to? It's just for you, depending upon whether you want to get it out a week or two weeks before a town meeting and mailing and stuffing time, that was my only thought. Oh, okay. All right, so how, first let's get this part, sorry, I'm stumbling here, that we have the organizational meeting on the 6th. Can people do the regular business meeting that week on the 8th? Well, that's the first evening pass, so. Oh, you said that. Well, you know, why don't we just keep the 6th as a regular meeting, because, you know, because we definitely need that, and I don't see any other night that really works. And then, what say you, Mr. Chapterling? I mean, what if we hold the 13th as, if necessary, date, if there's business that needs to be done before town meeting on the 13th, but if it's not necessary, the board wouldn't have to meet and then could meet again on the 27th on the first night of town meeting for any business the board needs to attend to before the start of town meeting? Someone's watching Bugs Bunny, I don't know. Okay, so, so we'll do the 6th and the 13th, but just knowing from the select board office, there may have to, if there's something that we need to do before town meeting the 27th, I'm gonna leave it to the future chair for him or her, her or him to, if there's a need for a meeting in that third week to oversee that. So we're okay with those dates? Great. Now we go to warrant article hearings, articles for review, article 13, by law amendment, fossil fuel infrastructure. I just need to pull up my warrant article, sorry. This is when I miss the paper stuff I'd have a tab on it. Excuse me, Madam Chair? Yes. Yeah, we're starting with article 13. I'm going to recuse myself from that discussion as I do legal work for national grid. So I'm gonna step out for this portion. This was inserted by the select board at the request of the Clean Energy Future Committee. Do we, Mr. Chapter Lane? I'll give a brief introduction. So I just wanna say that, as you just mentioned, this has been worked on for some time now by the Clean Energy Future Committee. This committee started talking about this measure after Brookline adopted a very similar measure in December at a special town meeting. This is something that we were already beginning to look at as part of our net zero planning. I think as the board knows, the Clean Energy Future Committee is working on a net zero plan by 2050, looking at a whole long list of measures in the heating and cooling sector, transportation sector, and so on and so forth. And this would have been a measure we would have likely looked at somewhere along the way in that plan, but given Brookline's action and a lot of community interest in Arlington's pursuit of a similar action, the Clean Energy Future Committee voted to move this forward. So I'm gonna ask the board's, the chair's discretion for Ken Pruitt, the town's energy manager to give a little bit of more detailed info and then turn it over to members of the community for a detailed presentation on the proposed measure. Just a name for the record, sir. Yeah, good evening. My name is Ken Pruitt. I'm the town's energy manager. Good to be here tonight. So I just wanted to give a little bit of background in terms of how we got to where we are. Should take about two, maybe three minutes to do that. You know, Arlington has a long history of leadership on sustainability and no less so in the area of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and carbon pollution. You know, we, in 2005, the town adopted a sustainability action plan that among other things called for a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. In 2010, Arlington became a green community. One of the things that we had to do to become a green community is adopt the building stretch code. In 2012, Arlington ran a very successful solarized campaign that was more successful in signing up residents for solar installations than any other community in the state that year. In 2015, we installed solar panels on six of the school roofs that are generating a tremendous amount of renewable electricity. And so what we're talking about tonight is really sort of the logical, a logical next step in that progression. In 2018, this select board voted to commit Arlington to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. It was one of the requirements of joining the Metropolitan Mayors Coalition. In July of that same year, your board created the Clean Energy Future Committee that was tasked with writing a net zero by 2050 plan. In 2019, Arlington, so last year, we ran the most successful heat smart campaign that has been run in the state to date, signing up over 135 Arlington residents for either air source heat pumps or ground source heat pumps. There were a couple of other technologies, but air source heat pumps was by far the largest. And several of those homes were all electric. They retrofitted entirely to air source heat pumps, had no backup, fossil fuel heating. As the town manager mentioned on January 29th, the CEFC voted unanimously to support this word article for a fossil fuel bylaw. And that vote is consistent also as the town manager mentioned with the building electrification measures that are under consideration for the net zero plan. Since that January 29th vote, a working group of representatives from the CEFC, from sustainable Arlington, mothers out front have been working on the text of the bylaw, trying to determine exactly what it should say. It's largely initially modeled after the bylaw that successfully passed in Brookline, 211 to three I believe, but with we are making some changes that we feel are appropriate. We have made some in the draft that we feel are appropriate for Arlington. The Department of Planning and Community Development has been working very closely with this bylaw working group to conduct research to solicit community feedback and also to help draft the warrant article. And then advocates from sustainable Arlington and mothers out front have been running a townwide advocacy campaign that they plan to continue running right up to the town meeting vote. I do want to introduce Amos Meeks, who's co-chair of sustainable Arlington to show you a PowerPoint presentation on the bylaw itself before he stands up. However, do you have any questions, any further questions for me? We'll keep going. Okay, great, thank you. I know how he feels. I'm a court reporter and whenever I go to a depot that wasn't scheduled and I walk in, everyone's watching to see the equipment set up. Take your time, please. I admire his confidence that it's gonna just work. Good job. Just name for the record and. Well, thanks for having me here today. My name is Amos Meeks. I live at 25 Lee Terrace in East Arlington. I am the co-chair of sustainable Arlington and I'm on sort of the steering committee for this group called Clean Heat for Arlington that was put together to sort of support this warrant article. So just to start with some of the, whoops. Just to start with some of the motivation, climate change is happening and it's already affecting Arlington. I'm just showing here quickly, annual average temperature observations at the Blue Hill Observatory, so pretty close to here. And as you can see, we've already sort of warmed from pre-industrial times by about two degrees C, which is actually more, the world as a whole has warmed by about one degree C, so we're actually warming faster here. And what that means sort of concretely for Arlington, among other things are sort of the increased effects of the heat island effect. We get hotter temperatures in the summer, which are concentrated in urban areas. We've had some pretty hot summers recently and this has a whole bunch of adverse health effects on numerous residents. And we also, climate change gives us more extreme storms, so more flooding, more extreme snowfall. There have been tornadoes and microbursts in Massachusetts, so this is happening now and it's only going to be getting worse. Fortunately, as a state and as a community, we've sort of made pretty strong commitments to try and deal with this. So in 2008, the state legislature passed the Global Warming Solution Act, which committed the state to reducing emissions by 80% by 2050. So this sort of graph on the side here just kind of summarizes what that looks like. So in 2016, the biggest chunk of our emissions were transportation and then the second biggest were heating and electric. And so if you see the 2050 level, sort of an estimate of where our emissions might be coming from there, the whole heating and transportation section, which takes up well more than half of our 2016 emissions, has to be less than half, maybe a third and overall vastly reduced by 2050. And that heating, that's primarily building heating, space heating, the sort of things we're talking about. So there's really just, there's no way to meet those legally mandated emissions requirements that includes using fossil fuels for building heating on a large scale. But in Arlington, this is sort of even more stark. So in 2018, as Ken mentioned, the select board voted to commit us to the goal of net zero by 2050. And in Arlington, emissions related to buildings are actually commercial and residential buildings are about 60% of the town's total emissions. Most of the rest being transportation. So again, in order to reach this net zero goal by 2050, we have to reduce this as close to nothing as we can get. And again, of these building emissions, space heating and water heating are the vast majority of them. So what the picture that this is sort of painting is that we're kind of deep in the hole. We've built a lot of infrastructure that has a long lifetime that burns fossil fuels and we need to start getting out of that hole and getting towards these net zero targets. But as the saying goes, when you're in a hole, the first thing you wanna do is stop digging. And so that's what this article is really about. We wanna stop digging. We want to stop building new fossil fuel infrastructure in new construction and gut renovations. So the focus here really is on what is sort of the most practical, most immediate step that we can be taking now, which is to stop making this problem worse so that we can start trying to get out of this hole that we're in. So the key thing here is that existing buildings are entirely unaffected unless they're undergoing a gut renovation, which is construction that's essentially equivalent to new construction. Things that most people would consider to be major renovations like kitchen renovations, bathroom renovations, even additions, those are all entirely unaffected. We're just talking about new construction and gut renovations. The planning department has estimated that this would affect a total, a maximum of 70 buildings average per year. So this is about 0.5% or less of Arlington's total housing stock every year. So the annual effect is really relatively small. It's not nearly enough for what we wanna do, but hopefully at least we stop digging, can put down the shovel and then can start making our way out of this hole. So, but even though focusing on new construction, our focus here is really on something that's practical and economical. And so we've included a number of exemptions towards this goal. So the first one is this affects the customer side only. This does not affect the utilities, it does not affect the right of way. All gas cooking appliances are exempted. This is especially important for restaurants where there aren't really non-gas alternatives. Backup generators are exempted. Portable fossil fuel appliances like a grill, totally unaffected. This only affects fossil fuel piping. So real infrastructure that's being put into place. Hot water for large buildings are exempted. This is largely sort of a technical reason. Current products that exist for central hot water for large buildings are quite expensive and sort of limited here. Economic alternatives for central hot water and large buildings do exist elsewhere in the world and are likely to get here eventually. But currently at this point in time they're not economical, so there is an exemption. Research and medical facilities are exempted. They have higher needs for sort of air turnover and heating, that sort of thing. Repair of existing and unsafe piping is exempted. Again, common sense. And while the bylaw only affects fossil fuel piping, we make it very clear that extension of modification of the non-fossil fuel side. So if the water or steam systems of a heating system or hot air ducted systems, those are unaffected. This only affects the pipe going in. So if you did have a gut renovation with an existing system and you wanted to extend that out to an addition and keep the existing system, you can do that as long as you don't need to add or move any fossil fuel piping. And then even with this set of exemptions we can't foresee everything. So we build in a waiver process to handle any sort of unforeseen issues. So if there is an undue expense or a practical obstacle, someone can seek a waiver. And this would be sort of managed by the building inspector who would be sort of on the ground enforcing this bylaw, but the building inspector would be able to get support from other town staff and outside experts as needed. So we've hoped to sort of cover all of the exemptions here, but really the reason why this bylaw is practical and economical is that economical and practical alternatives to fossil fuel heating exist. These exist in the form of heat pumps. So heat pumps, primarily air source heat pumps, which you can sort of see some examples of on the side there. They look pretty similar to a standard AC unit. And in fact, the technology is quite similar to a standard AC unit. Only they provide heating as well as cooling. But also grounds for us heat pumps in which you're actually digging a physical well or trench to help to get heat from the ground. And then heat pumps also exist for water heating. And so a lot of people when they hear electric heating they think of sort of old resistance-based electric heating that's very different from a heat pump. Heat pumps are extremely efficient. They're air source 200 to 300% efficient, ground source 300 to 500 plus efficient, sort of annual heating season average. That's not like their peak efficiency. That's averaged over the heating season versus electric resistance is very expensive and only about 100% efficient. And heat pumps work in our climates. So the NEAP, the North East Energy Efficiency Partnership studies heat pumps in the Northeast region and they keep a list of sort of cold climate. They define cold climate air source heat pumps which mean that they can be efficient down to five degrees C and can work down to negative 13, sorry, five degrees F and work down to negative 13 degrees F which is frankly colder than it ever gets around here really. And then these can be used also as the sole source of heating. About 10% of new homes in Massachusetts use heat pumps as the only source of heating. And then we had our recent HeatSmart program where over 100 people installed heat pumps and many of those had that as the sole source of heat, no backup heat. So this really works in our climate in Massachusetts in Arlington. And in some cases there are additional costs but these are really quite minimal. So this particular study looked at the cost of new construction comparing a traditional gas and electric AC to an all electric heat pump and electric hot water heater. And they found that the installation costs, the cost difference was less than $1,000 and the operating cost difference was about $40 per month. And I think it's important to put those in context. So if you look at the, you know, for a new 3,000 square foot home in Arlington this is selling for well over a million dollars. So that additional roughly $1,000 of installation cost is not very noticeable among that. It's less than a percent, well less than a percent. And then for that same home, the monthly costs in terms of mortgage, taxes, that sort of thing are over $6,000. So the $40 per month increase again is a fraction of a percent increase there. But of course not everyone can afford any increase to their expenses at all. But it turns out that affordable housing is already leading the way on electrification. So these are two existing and in-process projects, one in Cambridge, one in Brookline, both use entirely heat pump heating. And this is a trend throughout Massachusetts in general for larger multifamily buildings. Heat pump heating is generally the lowest cost or one of the lowest cost options. And in fact, all of the housing corporation of Arlington's currently planned projects are planning to use heat pump heating. So just going back to the point of this, electrification is really the only way to reach net zero. But we do also get immediate emissions benefits even with a lot of our electricity being produced with natural gas. So the graph here shows compared sort of emissions, relative emissions of gas compared to a heat pump with the current grid. But then a net zero grid, which we hope to achieve by 2050 or so, emissions from the heat pump are basically zero while emissions from gas don't change. And that's really what we're driving towards. But even in the current day, a heat pump being installed now saves about 49 tons of CO2 over its lifetime compared to a new gas system. So there really are substantial and immediate benefits to doing this. Our group, Clean Heat for Arlington, as well as working with the Town and Clean Energy Future Committee have been working on extensive and ongoing outreach. We recently had a 60 to 70 person public meeting. We've done electronic outreach through email lists and social media. We've met with multifamily, commercial and residential developers and property owners. We've met with Arlington realtors, Arlington architects, HCA staff, keep members of the Chamber of Commerce, and we've put together a robust system and have contacted a majority of town meeting members already at this point. So just to quickly summarize, this is sort of necessary if we want to reach these goals. It's practical now because of heat pumps and it's quite economically feasible. So before we go to questions, I want to sort of quickly introduce a couple of people we have in the audience to help answer questions. Some people from the town and outside experts. Corley Cooper, a member of the Clean Energy Future Committee. Jeremy Koo, who is a consultant that worked with us on our HeatSmart project. Karen Kellerher, who works for Lisk Boston on affordable housing and Kathleen Scanlon, who is an architect. So they'll come up, briefly introduce ourselves, introduce themselves and then we'd love to sort of answer all of your questions. Hello, I'm Corley Cooper and I'm a member of the Clean Energy Future Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to express support for the smart article. And if I can just jump in. We do, we don't want all of our supporters kind of coming up as a steady stream. So if we can just take a moment and people in the audience who support this, if you can just raise your hand because we have a fair number of people that we've brought. Thank you. Good evening, Jeremy Koo with the Canvas Group. We're an international energy consulting firm. My colleagues and I have worked with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and it's a state clean energy center and Department of Energy Resources, as well as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources on studying heat pumps and their role in helping these states in achieving their climate targets. So I was invited here by Ken and Amos as just an external expert, both continuing my previous capacity, serving as a technical expert for the Heat Smart Arlington Winchester program and to answer any technical questions that you may have. Hi, I'm Karen Kelleher. I'm a town meeting member. I'm also one of the Housing Plan Implementation Committee and I'm the Executive Director of LISC Boston. We are deep affordable housing advocates and financiers, if you will. We provide support to organizations like Housing Corporation of Arlington and others who are creating affordable housing throughout the Commonwealth. But we also work at the intersection of affordable housing and greening multifamily buildings and have developed significant expertise there. I'm not personally a building science expert but we've looked closely at these kinds of ordinances to determine whether they might have an impact on housing affordability and have concluded, we have sort of the Dummy's Guide to thinking about it for drafting recommendations. You have this with some correspondence with sort of like red light, green light but I can really just support what the presentation provided that these bands with the kind of exemptions that are included should not dramatically increase the cost of housing, affordable housing or otherwise and that if we would like to move forward with heating hot water and multifamily buildings then we'll need additional subsidy but it would be great if we wanna move in that direction and get to the goals that we've set as a town press to advocate for additional resources to subsidize that cost and push the industry to develop the technology that we need. Thank you. Good evening, I'm Kathleen Scanlon. I'm a lead accredited registered architect and I live and work in Brookline. I'm a town meeting member and I was a co-petitioner on the prohibition for new fossil fuel infrastructure and major construction which is very similar to the bylaw before you. When we started the process it seemed very controversial and as we explained it and people got acclimated to what we were really asking for it became very non-controversial. It ended up passing on the floor of our town meeting with a 211 to three vote and it's because it became very clear to the community that the intent of the bylaw similar to yours was to make it something that worked for everyone in your town and that the goal was to make the bylaw as practical as possible for residents, staff and business owners. And the intent of our bylaw like yours was to capture new construction but also major renovations and that's very important because when you're replacing heating systems in very old housing stock and this is so important in New England and a gut renovation is the time when it's equivalent to new construction when there's virtually no added cost implementing these systems and it truly is catching the low hanging fruit on your way to achieving your climate goals. So that's all we had to start. We'd be happy to answer questions or open it up for any questions. Mr. Carroll. Thank you very much. I am gonna want to hear if there's anyone else to testify but first of all, I really want to commend the groups that have been working on this site. I have met with I think two members of the committee at various times who have walked through some of the issues around this and I did have the opportunity to attend the information center in the Lions room and I have to say I've gone to a lot of, I've gone to a lot of information sessions over the years and this was one of the best organized and informative ones that I think that I've seen. And I'll admit I walked in with a lot of questions. I didn't have a lot left when I walked out of there. So I have a way of looking at this. My home was built in 1927 and when we moved in, we went downstairs and it was clear that the boiler had originally been a coal boiler. You could see where the hatch had been welded shut and we actually still have the poker to poke the coals with. It had then been converted to an oil burner and then we subsequently took advantage of the programs through national, whatever it was, Boston gas or whatever it was at the time to go to natural gas and it just seems to me that there's been a natural progression like this throughout time. So this isn't that radical to be talking about changing our source of heating. And I think that the environmental benefits that you've outlined make it particularly urgent. I also look at, when we discuss this, kind of the success of the Solarize Mass Initiative that Mr. Pruitt talked about and we started with a campaign with support from the town to get people to install personal solar. At that time, I didn't take advantage of it. I looked at it, but I was told that I would have to cut down the big tree in my front yard and I don't cut down all trees. So we didn't take advantage of it at that time. But what I think we've seen throughout town is that even though there was a great participation then, that when all of those panels went up, it in turn created kind of a social norm. A lot more people started taking advantage of it. Social norm has led to a market, has led to greater efficiencies, has led to a drop in the costs, which is great, which means that later on I did take advantage of it myself, my family take advantage of a solar program because I could do it. I didn't have to worry about that tree, that the panels were more efficient. And the work that we did with Sustainable Arlington Mothers Out Front and others on the Community Choice Aggregation by covering the extra balance there with 100% local green renewable energy, it's carbon free. It's carbon free, which means what you've presented here for a lot of people if they go that way, coupling it with the CCA, it's actually carbon free if they go with the heat pumps. So I'm pretty enthusiastic about it. I mean, I'm pretty confident that the market is going to shift, but sometimes it takes actions like this to nudge it just a little bit. That said, I do have a couple of questions, even though I've gone through this several times, two specific questions. The first is you talked about on-site fossil fuel infrastructure. Everything seems to concentrate on piping. I don't see any reference in there to heating oil tanks. Now I know that most people don't have them installed anymore, but look what's happening right now, even this week and oil prices plummeting, you could see a scenario where people might be tempted. So I'm just wondering why fossil fuel infrastructure only concentrated on piping didn't include oil supply tanks? My understanding, and maybe one of the other people can comment on that, is that you have a tank, but you will still have a pipe from that tank to your boiler or otherwise. And so that pipe, however short, would still be prohibited, effectively prohibiting oil. Okay, okay, that makes sense. And the other question that I have has to do with the definition of major renovation. This is just for my clarification. I'm looking, there are two clauses here. Looks like they're, okay, I see. One is referencing the residential code and one is referencing the commercial code. So you're looking at more than 75% to define a major renovation over the gross floor area for residential, which is a higher bar before you kick it in, but 50% for commercial. I'm reading that correctly. Yes, so a couple of points of clarification. So the residential code actually applies to anything more than two stories as well. So a triple-decker falls under the residential code. And that 50% threshold is actually built in, it's a level three or a class three renovation. It's built into that commercial code. So it's an already existing definition that we're sort of levering it. And that's a threshold at which they already need to sort of update the building to code and that sort of thing. On the residential side, we currently have it at 75%. We're still trying to determine whether or not that's the right threshold because we've spoken to some architects and builders who say at 75% that actually would not catch a lot of still what would be considered a gut rehabilitation. But we do wanna make sure that we're not catching something that is not a gut rehabilitation as someone's just sort of project that they're gonna be doing at home and not sort of redoing the whole house. So that 75% mark, we still might change a little bit before town meeting, but that's sort of the thinking behind those. From the architect's perspective, when you say a level three renovation, they know what 50%, it's a very commonly understood term when you're applying for a building permit. It would be easy for a building inspector to make that determination because it's language they're commonly using already. To clarify, that does not exist though in the residential code, which is why there's not something already there for us to work on. Okay, and the last thing, I think I know this, but I think we should surface it here for our colleagues that I know from talking to Mr. Hanlon and others that there is still an open question about what the appeals process would look like. I know my first reaction on reading the proposal was that Brookline created a sustainable review board and we always have kind of this balance of trying to do. There's been this push to not create so many committees, a plethora of committees and try to vest responsibilities with existing entities if possible. Sometimes that's not possible. So I see that there's placeholder here to potentially activate the Board of Building Appeals, which is on our books, but is not currently activated or filled with any appointees. And I just wanted to flag that. Is that still the preferred course? Pat's sort of the legal expert on this side of things. So thank you. I'm Pat Hanlon, I'm a time meeting member in Precinct 5. Yes, right now I think it's true that the preferred way of dealing with appeals is to go through the Building Board of Appeals. It's sort of a logical structure. It's what they're equipped to do. The alternative would be to have the appeal go to the town manager and that has, it's quicker and it doesn't have as many people involved, but it's really an alternative in case this board or town meeting wanted to go in that direction. The preferred alternative is the one that you mentioned. There's a similar issue with respect to waivers where the appeal might go to the town manager as well and not to the Building Board of Appeal. Waivers involve very different considerations from appeals. Appeals are like, are you actually a multi-story building? Do you have 10,000 square feet of that sort of thing, which is sort of easily dealt with by an organization like the Building Board of Appeals. Dealing with special circumstances that involve economic analysis, not so much. And they're the ideas to basically have a simplified matter and then to develop guidance. So for time to make the waiver process as predictable as possible. Great, thank you very much. And I think it's worth clarifying for folks who are following that the Board of Building Appeals is not the Zoning Board of Appeals. It is a separate board that's outlined in statutes. Thank you Madam Chair. Mr. Herb. So just a couple of comments and then one question. So as I mentioned when I first saw this, I was a little weary about the proposed article, not because I don't agree with the intent, but I just wasn't quite at the time when I read it aware of what the alternatives were. So I had just recently gone through a renovation in my house where we added a second floor. And so I reached out to my HVAC technician and it turns out the system that we installed would be allowable as an air heat pump source. And the system that we use is amazing. And we have now on our second floor, we have our old seam on the first floor and we spend most of our time on the second floor because that system is just so much more efficient, so much more comfortable. And when I spoke with him, he said that they're installing these types of systems everywhere, residential, commercial, large buildings. And these are really the wave of the future, the systems that actually comply with this law that will be left over for the new construction. And he did mention that, and you mentioned that some of the equipment costs upfront are a little more, but he said the installation costs are cheaper. And he, I mean, you had mentioned $40 a month. It was his opinion that it actually runs a little bit more efficiently and cost effective than some of the other alternatives. So with that, just in doing research, I think that there is people that are doing new construction or major renovations are left with viable options that can provide the cost effective heat and can actually provide a better source of heat. And we're now in the process of looking to put this type of heating system in our whole house because it just works out so much better for us. So, you know, I, you know, I've turned. I think this is time. I think we're the town's ready for this. So one question on the renovations. So under this bylaw, hypothetical that someone had say a new boiler and they had existing fossil fuel piping in their house and they gutted their house and they left all their heating systems in place. Could they technically just leave those pipes there? Yes. And so they wouldn't be subject to, you know, this bylaw because they're not putting a new infrastructure. And at that time, while the house is open, if they saw portions of the existing piping that was in need of repair, they could make the repairs in order to make sure that piping safe before they close it up. Yep. Okay. That's all right. Yeah, I mean, that was an excellent presentation. I did have a number of questions before, but I think just about all my questions are have been covered. So I think the town's ready for this. I'll wait till after. Okay. I just have a question. It's sort of an offshoot. When you were going through the presentation and looking at comparison of utility costs, one of the benefits that really sort of mitigated it even more in terms of utility costs was in concert with having solar panels. My question would be for the residences and or other buildings that this would apply to where, I guess it's a two-fold question, where solar panels weren't an option because I've heard that in the past or have solar, so my thing, if you're in that case and point you can't do solar panels, is there another remedy to that? Or are you going to tell me that in the past, sometimes it works, you could put in solar panels, sometimes you can't, but now there's another option. So what I'm saying is to someone who puts it in, it says, if I was able to put in solar panels, my utility costs would go lower. Did you get my question? You're asking if you can't put in solar panels, is there some other sort of alternative to ameliorate the cost? Yes. My understanding is no, there is an area that I'm not super familiar with which is community solar where you basically, rather than buying solar panels to put on your house, you're buying into a solar installation elsewhere and that can actually basically provide you lower cost electricity. I don't know off the top of my head what the current status of that is within sort of state law and economics, but that's what people generally tout as sort of a viable alternative for those who can't put solar panels on their home. But otherwise sort of our main point is that even without the solar panels, the cost, the increased cost is fairly negligible to someone who's buying a new million dollar home. Okay, and I guess I would say, we're talking about residences and businesses. The town and adopting the net zero 2050 in terms of basically becoming carbon neutral, we're going through and the manager can either correct me or expand upon this. As we go through our new buildings, our high school was sustainable. Allington, others to try to make sure we have energy efficient buildings and we take advantage of all the renewable energy alternatives and we also recognize that this is one step of net zero 2050. There's other steps, especially around transportation which isn't germane to this but sort of runs parallel and constitute and the town has been implementing that in terms of looking at transportation and reducing emissions, looking at electric and hybrid vehicles with EV charging stations. And we've also looked at increasing opportunities and areas in terms of alternative modes of transportation, biking, walking. And so we're doing the same thing in concert with everything that's being done here because everybody has to do something. And 2050 is a date but I really think that Arlington along with other communities, Brookline, we're gonna be in the forefront of this and I think we're gonna get a lot more done by 2050. So I put that challenge out to other municipalities. I know I can't tackle big businesses in BP and Shell and all that, that's a whole other thing. But if not, this is a warrant article here and anyone here to speak to this that hasn't been said. If not, is there a motion by my colleagues to? Mr. Dunn, I'm sorry. It's fine. So I'll get two for one and I'll move that we recommend positive action on this article. Okay. Mr. Dunn, seconded by Mr. Carroll. So just, and so I guess one thing that I wanted to call out that I think is, at least it's a little bit in the weeds but I think it's relevant is that what this is not is a change to the building code or a change to our building bylaws, which is why we're not doing things like referring appeals to like the zoning board of appeals or the ARB or something like that because part of the way to get this to be legal, to get the Attorney General to sign off on this is to have it not be one of those things. So we are regulating a pipeline. We're not trying to regulate a building or a building code in that way. Did I say that right, Doug? Madam Chair. Thank you. Madam Chair Mayer, thank you. 90% right, yeah. The one thing I want to highlight is that one of the options being considered is the building board of appeals, which is a body that is under our current bylaws, hears appeals from the building code. But in the same section of our bylaws, basically, which regulates building matters, we also have our historic building bylaw that protects historically and architecturally significant buildings and contains a demolition delay, as well as some of our other measures that have nothing to do with the building code or the fire code or the gas code. And just because those things might be somewhat related to building matters doesn't mean they don't have different sources of authority. So the gas code and the building code obviously come from state law. What we would be arguing here is much like our ban on plastic bags, plastic water bottles of certain types that we're trying to regulate a very specific concern that's not covered by state law. And the fact that it's not covered by state law is why we're doing it. There's a slightly different reason why the zoning board of appeals is not a feasible mechanism. It is one thing that we had talked about as well. And I just want to commend these folks from top to bottom, from folks who volunteered time to look at a lot of the legal issues, to folks who have obviously volunteered the time to look at a wide range of technical issues, to really come up with a comprehensively thoughtful by-law that builds on what Brookline-Duds has done, but it tries to tailor things for Arlington. So a few sentences more, and I'll be brief. Part of the reason that I'm in favor of this is because the impact is actually so small, and the flip side of that is that it's unfortunate. If we're going to get to the 2050, some of the things I learned at the Clean Energy Future Committee is that we have to convert something like, it's like 450 or 480 buildings per year to stop being heated by fossil fuels in order for us to get that. And if you look at the numbers where we're getting, we're only getting 70 or so per year. So this is, it isn't enough, but that means it's still the right thing to do because it's in the right direction. I'll stop there. I just have a question for Mr. Dunn. First, it's probably going to be more than 70, I would assume, with knock-on effects. Once we can't measure that, we can only assume so. But yeah, you're right, that's ambitious. But I appreciate that there is some pragmatism within the proposal to get us started here. I think there are two question areas here that are in brackets though, in the draft. Before us. I think that they both pertain to whether or not the appeals process would be through the Board of Building Appeals or the town manager. Town manager would be my motion. Town manager. For the exact reason, because I want to, I do not want to give the Attorney General the slightest excuse to turn us down. Madam Chekka, we ask the town manager to be back on my opinion. I think that would be workable in discussions with the article proponents. I don't think any of us expect there to be a large number of applications in this regard, and I would be able to rely on Can Prue, its expertise and other expertise within the planning department. I don't think it would be burdensome from an administrative point of view. Okay. Okay. I want to thank you. Oh, yes. Can I ask other questions? To the microphone and your name for the record, please. Jordan Weinstein, precinct 21. I'm just curious. I live in a house that has steam heat with a boiler. Is this conversion for only forced hot air? Does it only work for forced hot air? So this only applies to new construction and gut renovations. So, yes, in general, heat pumps don't work for steam heating systems. They can't really get hot enough to boil water. But in most cases, most new construction is installing central air for AC anyways. So this kind of fits right into that. Retrofits are a whole nother, sort of very big kettle of fish that we're not really getting into with this bylaw. Attorney Hine. Madam Chair, I just wanted to, when you take your vote, you've been clear about your preferred appeal mechanism, but the folks had mentioned that they were still debating one issue. And so I just want to make it clear for the motion. If the board is comfortable leaving that open in terms of what your final percentage will be with respect to residential renovation, I can come back with a vote and comment consistent with their final recommendation. Unless you're prepared to make that now, but it sounds like they're still discussing it. No, I generally would be, Mr. Hard. Is the discussions about the percentage going to increase or lower the percentage for the residential? I would not want to necessarily commit us to anything, but from the sort of initial conversations that we've had so far, probably it would make sense to lower it. 50% would be, it would definitely not go below 50%. That would be commensurate with the commercial code. We might want to, we might think about lowering it, but still having it be a little over 50%, such that if you have a duplex and one duplex undergoes a gut renovation, the other half wouldn't then be sort of covered by this. So we're still trying to work those details out, but most likely the threshold would be lowered. Okay. Excuse me on a motion by Mr. Dunn, seconded by Mr. Currow, any further comments or questions to move approval, designate the town manager as the overseer for the appeals and leave under, in the final residential percentage a blank line that will designated our next meeting for final votes and comments. Is that okay? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed unanimous votes. Thank you Ken Amos and everyone else for appreciate this. Thank you. Next, article 16, vote establishment of town committee on auto and property insurance claims and losses. I think this was submitted by Mr. Fisher. Yes. Just name for the record. Hi. Can you hear me? My name is Andrew Fisher, precinct six in a town, town meeting members since 1991. No, wait a second. Let's let everyone get out because I want to make sure we can all hear you. All right. This is your time to go if you want to. Steve, go home. He's right there. I thought I had anyone else to hear. Can someone shut that door so we don't hear the conversation. Tell them conversations out in the hall, please. Sorry, I just, one second. And Ms. Ma, the minutes were reflect at the very beginning of our last agenda item, Mr. DeCorsi exited the chambers and at the very end after the vote and verbites, Mr. I'm just saying for the record, DeCorsi returned to the chambers. Okay, if you could sign over, I'm sorry. My name is Andrew Fisher. Live on Lombard Road, precinct six. I've been a town meeting member since 1991. And I will be very brief, but I did want to say I started wrestling with the notion of insurance when I was introduced to all the vision 2020 standing committee, which I attended every month for about 15 years, starting around 1997. And I so much appreciate I would never had the possibility of attending so many of the meetings of the employees, town of Arlington and employee committee that oversaw the self-insured health insurance plan, which was so interesting. I had the opportunity to interview John Ma and Ed Marlinga to learn how the self-insured workers comp program worked and led me to read many of the histories of insurance companies, which is fascinating. And over the years, I've been involved with several insurance claims as a home improvements contractor. So thank you for considering this article and for taking the time. The article asks for town meeting support to form a committee of volunteers who would canvas Arlingtonians about the cost of their insurance premiums and claims. I talk with many, many people about this. They always tell me their experience and the cost of their claims. And I feel that if I had town meetings support, I could organize a formal precinct by precinct survey, at least in precincts that are interested. The project is completely focused on gathering information. Everyone I talk to assumes that I wanna start a separate town-based insurance program and I don't think that's realistic. If nothing else comes of this, what we would have is a more informed community. And I think that's important. The project would propose no change in town operations and would not incur any cost to the town. All questions would be designed to respect privacy. I propose this action for several reasons, but the primary one is that we have so little knowledge about our insurance costs that are specific to our town. And in the information age, we have the capacity to learn it and record it. I think this is an example of where the communities just have not caught up with the capacity of the fact that we have in-home spreadsheets. Most of the knowledge that we do have is in form of gross estimates and averages. An example is that the Insurance Information Institute publishes that the average now to insure a car in Massachusetts is $1,096. And we have 38,000 cars in town. So it's not fathomable that we pay $38 million. The police report that we had about 740 accidents in town in 2018, even if the real number was 1,000, that would mean $38,000 per accident. I do talk with people who are truly experts in the field and work in the field and they're convinced that their budgets are cut to the bone. So the question is, where in lies the truth? And I can describe similar information in the realm of house insurance, but it just isn't time. So my goal is that the next town meeting, we would report back our findings. It might be that enough people were not interested, but from all my conversations with people, they're extremely interested. If nothing comes of it, we'd be a more informed community. And our report would be to learn if the town wants to pursue it further or take any action. So again, thank you for your time thinking about this. What would the makeup of the committee be? I know you say it's a, I believe you say it's, it'll be a town meeting committee, but what members and what, if any staff would also be expected to participate. Honestly, it would be a precinct based affair. I would ask town meeting members at the precinct level, if they are interested and if they can garner interest, I would work it myself. And if any town officials wanted to be part of it or be informed, that would be excellent. But for the first year, I don't see any need to take any town, town officials time. Honestly, just to be open. So I guess when we get to town meeting, you'll have that more crafted. Yes. Who's voting members? Who's ex-officio or something other? And it'll be an odd number in the end. Yes. When we had the... Meaning not even, not odd, but not... When we had the town meeting, town... Sorry, you got it. No water faucets. When we had the town meeting, community-based health insurance study committee, we didn't take any votes. It was just sheer gathering of facts. And what we found, the most glaring thing that we found was having so many different insurance companies means that you don't have any central brain. You don't have any central repository of knowledge. And that was the main finding. Thank you. Before I turn to my colleagues, anyone else here on article 16 regarding the committee on auto and property insurance claims? If not, I turn to my colleagues. Oh, Mr. Dunn. So, why town meeting? Like, what makes this... Why do you think this is a good thing for town meeting to do? So there's a lot of fact-finding and a lot of research that people do, they create committees of excited, interesting people. Like, for instance, one we just saw, sustainable Arlington is parts of that are independent. And why should we do it as a town meeting committee? Because I find that there is a lot of interest in town meeting. It concerns the town. Town meeting is a governmental body. Insurance in many ways governs us. And frankly, if town meeting does support this, I'm able to say to people that town meeting is interested. Town meeting respects privacy issues. But we also respect that there's a huge cash flow that we are obligated to support. And there's curiosity about how it works, where it goes. Does the auto insurance... They claim a 40% overhead. If our schools work with a 40% overhead, that'd be an outrage. I believe schools are much more complicated to operate. So there's simply a lot of curiosity and support that I find in town meeting. Mr. Carroll. Thank you. I have kind of a similar reaction. And I know you're, thank you for coming. I know you're passionate on this. I remember you, I think you came to us over at the school committee talking about this at one point, I'm not sure why, maybe because of our fleet or what, I don't remember. Maybe it was incidental to what you made. I remember many years ago conversation. But I think my question is similar to Mr. Dunn's. Because tip, my conception of town meeting committee is generally, generally a committee that's either going to lead to some policy proposals or is going to serve in an ongoing capacity, advisory capacity around either policy or administrative actions or what have you. And I think I'm struggling a little bit on this because I'm not necessarily seeing the direct line with the policy proposal. Where I do see possible value and I don't know if I wanna put representative from Vision Arlington on the spot here, but where we do a lot of general data gathering about the town, about residents is through the Vision Arlington Annual Survey. I could see something like this possibly in the context of a total cost of living type of analysis where you include the insurance as one component of it because obviously that's a lot. And we were just talking a lot about cost of living tonight for some of our more vulnerable populations. And to me, it seems like maybe that might be the better route to try to design a survey and convince Vision Arlington that this is worthy of inclusion in the annual survey which gets a lot of coverage, a big return. And then also gets a lot of exposure at town meeting every year because those results are always presented to town meeting each year. So I'm struggling I think a little bit also with the idea that this would be a town meeting standing committee from that perspective. But I see what you're getting at and I think that if it were within the overall context of a cost of living survey, to my mind, most logically through the Vision Arlington Survey that that might make sense, I don't know, if that's something that you've thought about in all of using that vehicle. No pun intended. Sure, sure. It is a cash flow of somewhere in the neighborhood of $60 million. And we're required in the case of auto insurance by law to carry it and by reality for the mortgage. The annual survey usually gets around 4,000. And I'm hoping to, pardon me? It does vary so to speak. Right, 3,000, 4,000. And I'd be more than happy to use that vehicle but I'm really after many, many, many houses. Yeah, yeah. Mr. Heard? Yeah, I don't want to reiterate points that have already been made, but you know when I went through this article this clearly had interest and you have an interest in this, I think that aside from insurance there could be other expenses or whatnot that people face on a daily basis that could also benefit from the same data gathering. But I just haven't been able to come to the conclusion that a town meeting committee based on this type of data gathering would then come back and present something that would lead to any sort of policy change that town meeting would make so I don't want to, you know, create a committee that reports a town meeting that then, but the report doesn't bear on anything that town meeting will then take votes on. Mr. DeCorris. Thank you, Madam Chair. And then Mr. Fischer, thank you for your letter and the supporting information. And I tend to agree with my colleagues. I think it's slightly different reason too is that the insurance companies are regulated by the state so we don't really have any regulatory authority over an insurance company. I know you're looking for information here. And town council had referenced a resolution back in 2009 town meeting where the town meeting had a resolution to request the attorney general's office to study the issue of municipalities as auto insurers. And just a question for town council. Do you know if that ever was studied by the attorney general? Mr. Corsi, I don't know the answer to that issue, that question. I think that Mr. Fischer sponsored that. So I'd be curious to. And it got nowhere. The fact that it got quite a bit of resistance from insurance companies. All right, well, I think part of the reason is the state regulates insurance. And while the information may be best through an Envision Ellington type request, I agree with Mr. Hurd's comments that you hate to create a committee that at the end of the day, there's really nothing that can be done through town meeting with the information. Okay, is there anyone here that wishes to speak to Article 16? If not, a motion from my colleague either to move to approve or move no action. But I think what I'm hearing is refer this. Oh, I'm going to go to, I thank Mr. Fischer for putting it forward. And I think our comment can reflect that, but I'm going to move that we recommend no action. Second. Move by Mr. Dunn, seconded by Mr. Hurd. And if the comments could include Mr. Carroll's suggestion, whether this can sort of envelop in with Envision, as well as you may have a substitute motion at town meeting and it goes back to your original intent. Okay, any further questions or comments by my colleagues, if not a motion by Mr. Dunn, seconded by Mr. Hurd, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, unanimous vote. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. We now go to Warrant Article 17, establishment of a police civilian advisory board study committee. I believe this is a 10 registered voter warrant article. I'm sorry, I got out of it. I jumped ahead, I apologize, let me get there. It is. Mr. Weinstein, just name for the record. Hi, my name is Jordan Weinstein, Precinct 21. I'm also a town meeting member for Precinct 21 and also the co-author, lead author of Article 17 that if passed would establish a committee to study and craft a warrant article for next year's town meeting that if that passed would create a police civilian advisory board. So the question to begin with is, why should we want to study the creation of a police civilian advisory board? And I'd like to just offer some context and background. My call for such a board, or the call of myself and other supporters, comes out of recent experiences that you all know about. We're a member of the Arlington Police Department targeted immigrants and others in three racist, xenophobic and hate filled articles that ran in a statewide police publication which was also published online. And it's worth noting, I don't think it's been discussed pertaining to this, but that these articles were published merely a year after Arlington as a town passed its trust act that declared Arlington a place that welcomed immigrants and promised them safe haven within our borders. Such behavior on the part of a police officer employed by the town in a leadership position as he was should not have been tolerated. But for a variety of reasons that I won't get into now, the town chose to deal with this behavior by applying a restorative justice process that was never really meant to be used for police misconduct. The end result was that the officer in question remains on the job right now and the communities he verbally threatened now, now wonder whether the town's passage of the trust act was simply an empty gesture. At the heart of the problem as I see it is the lack of an adequate process and procedure in the town for dealing with police misconduct. The way things are set up right now except for the police department's own internal process for processing claims of misbehavior on the part of police or complaints that they have, the town moderator has sole jurisdiction on such matters. And I believe based on how the Lieutenant Padrini was handled that this arrangement is no longer viable and it's inadequate. Civilian review boards have been adopted in Cambridge and Springfield in Brookline. They have a civilian review process and Boston has an ombudsman that takes these complaints outside of the police department. Had Arlington had a functioning police civilian review board or advisory board as we're suggesting in 2018 when these articles were published an investigation into Lieutenant Padrini's behavior could have been launched. Such an investigation would have revealed that Lieutenant Padrini had had complaints made against him in the past. It would have considered the options or opinions that is of those close to Lieutenant Padrini professionally including former police chief Fred Ryan who advised the town not to use restorative justice in the case because in his informed opinion as we found out through a, not similar to a freedom of information request, Lieutenant Padrini in his opinion would not benefit from it. Such an investigation also would have revealed that indeed there was precedent established in Massachusetts elsewhere in similar cases to support the argument that the town could have prevailed on appeal if it had decided to terminate Lieutenant Padrini. So what are the details of article 17 that we're proposing? It would establish a study committee and I emphasize study that brings in a variety of very diverse cross sections of Arlington bodies that would have a stake in the creation of such a board. It would include representatives from Envision Arlington, the Arlington Human Rights Commission, the LGBTQIA and Rainbow Commission, the Disability Commission, the Board of Youth Services, the Equal Opportunity Advisory Committee and the Town Moderator as voting members, non-voting advisory members would include representatives from the Arlington Police Department, the Town's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Coordinator and the Town Council. In constructing the study committee, we sought to make it as broad-based and inclusive as possible and give it wide latitude in its decision-making. Now I anticipate that some may speak against the proposal because it has a mandate included that the study committee do more than simply study. We deliberately included language requiring that the study committee craft a warrant article for the 2021 town meeting that would in fact create a police civilian advisory board. Now the nature of such a board, its powers who sits on its seats and what it is authorized to do would rest solely with the study committee and ultimately with town meeting. But we're convinced that we do need to do more, in this case, than simply study the issue. We need some kind of systemic change. Finally, I'm aware that there is a proposal to create a police chief's advisory committee and I wholeheartedly support this initiative and feel that our proposal to create a civilian advisory board would work well with it. While the police chief's committee fosters communication and collaboration among the many town stakeholders and is an internal body within the Arlington police department, our civilian advisory board would offer a safe venue for resident complaints against police misconduct and a body outside the police department and the town governance to investigate them. Thank you, I'll take any questions. Thank you. If I could just because it was referenced and then go back if I could ask the police chief to address her recommendation for the chief's advisory committee. Just so we have both before us. Thank you and I'd like to thank Mr. Weinstein for bringing this forward. I recognize that for any police agency to be successful, we need the input of the community and I recognize that for us to be successful in Arlington, we need to work closely with our community going forward. I would like to, I have a proposal to share with you and I would like you to consider implementing a police chief's advisory committee. I've been researching this for the past couple of months. It's been one of my missions to take on to bring this to the police department and the community. I've researched best practices from the IACP, the police executive research forum and I've studied the president's task force on 21st century policing. I believe that a police chief's resident advisory committee on 21st century policing would be extremely beneficial to the town in an effort to further our mission of building and maintaining community relations, building trust, fostering cooperation and increasing transparency. I would like to form this commission to involve residents of Arlington in the overall mission of the police department. I envision creating this committee consisting of 11 to 13 community leaders, including members from the Human Rights Committee, the Diversity Task Group, Arlington Public Schools, Student Council Leadership. I listed a number of representatives in my memo and it would provide a forum for discussion and present the chief of police with a diverse spectrum of viewpoints represented by community members. The mission of this committee would be to foster open communication and cooperation among community members in the police department and the commission would be tasked with advising and making recommendations to the chief of police, enhancing public community relations by serving as a liaison between the police department and the community in reviewing and making recommendations on policies, procedures, recruitment, training, culture and programs. Working with the chief of police, the committee would identify areas of focus, including homelessness, the opioid crisis, immigration, police officer safety and wellness and best practices as well as any other trending issues in law enforcement. As part of my research, I have consulted with many law enforcement leaders including law enforcement leaders from Boston, Chelsea, Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville and I consulted with the president of the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs, who reinforced my belief that this initiative is progressive and an exceptional model and he's quite familiar with a similar model at Framingham Police Department. In addition to forming this committee, I would engage the services of a consultant with experience in developing benchmarking standards and a comprehensive evaluation instrument to measure the effectiveness of the committee and ensure the goals and objectives of the committee are accomplished. And I believe through forming this committee in addition to our state accreditation assessment, we'll continue to move the town forward as the 21st century policing department. Just commenting on Mr. Weinstein's research, he's done for Boston, Cambridge and Springfield. I believe that Arlington is a very different community and that's really comparing apples and oranges. Boston police has 2,500 police officers, Arlington has 70 police officers and we're completely different communities and address different issues and crime in this town. So I'd like you to, I respectfully request that you consider my proposal and if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Okay, before I call on anyone else, any questions at this point or should I? Let's see here. Okay, is there anyone else here on article 17? Just name an address for the record. Yeah, Louise Popkin, 9 Cliff Street. I'm reading this for Rajiv Sonesha, who some of you may know as one of the co-chairs of Diversity Task Group and as a member of the Human Rights Commission, although he wrote this as a resident. I Rajiv Sonesha write this in support of the warrant article proposing to explore the creation of a civilian police advisory board for the town of Arlington. I'm sorry I can't present this in person as I will be at an Envision Arlington Diversity Task Group meeting called for the same time. One of the recommendations that came out of the report filed by the Consensus Building Institute was the creation of a civilian review board to provide advice and accountability regarding community police relations. As we know, that report was commissioned by the town of Arlington in the summer of 2019 in response to the controversy regarding the racist writings of an APD officer and the process that followed his suspension and reinstatement. If created, the board would be an independent channel through which residents could report grievances and complaints. I appreciate the hard work the APD puts into effective policing and community relations and this board can be an important tool for building trust and a sense of safety within the community. My hope is that it will contribute to greater transparency and more open communication between town residents and our police force, since identifying and dealing effectively with individual cases of improper behavior benefits everyone concerned. Thank you for your attention to this matter, Rajeev Soneshak. Thank you. Hi, Lynette Culverhouse. I just wanna say, while I appreciate the proposal from the chief tonight, I have to ask myself whether it's not happening just because we've proposed a civilian review board and the importance for an independent place for citizens, especially those who live in fear to go with their complaints. So I'm actually here to read a statement from Laura Kiesel who is unable to attend. So I'm unable to make it tonight due to coronavirus concerns and related health needs. But last time I attended a select board meeting, I spoke of my uncle's assault by police officers. What I hadn't had time to mention then was that neither my uncle nor my family reported or filed suit regarding the abuse. Despite the privileges of being white, American-born and native English speakers, we felt too disempowered and quite frankly, too scared of the backlash and additional targeting we might incur if we were to file a formal complaint. Had there been a civilian review board in New York City at the time, things might have been different for us. Unfortunately, my uncle is not the only family member of mine to be victimized by police. My brother and his friends had been repeated targets under Mayor Bloomberg's stop and frisk policies in New York City earlier this century. Like with my uncle before them, though, they had no recourse. The truth is, the best studies that exist, which are sparse, show that those who are targets of inappropriate treatment by police rarely, if ever, report it. This is why I took it with a grain of salt when the town manager told me last spring that Lieutenant Pradurini had no past history or record of anything that would be concerning, which is why he was offered so-called restorative justice. However, a Freedom of Information Act request I filed yielded a 200-plus page disciplinary record on Lieutenant Pradurini. Though much of it was redacted, what text was available painted an unsettling portrait of an officer who had multiple allegations of threatening or negligent behavior towards civilians and citizens in his custody. Perhaps the town manager and I have a difference of opinion over what qualifies as concerning in one's record because I not only found this to be concerning but extremely alarming. Up until this point, I had, despite my personal familial history, felt safe in Arlington and that the APD was different than what I'd grown up knowing. But upon reading that report, I lost all faith in this institution and the town government that seemed to prioritize protecting it over concerned and vulnerable citizens. Having published on this issue in the context of the APD, I am now associated with it in the town as a public figure. This means I have been the recipient of a steady trickle of emails and people stopping me around town to share with me their own stories of having been witnesses to or recipients of mistreatment by members of our APD, including Pradrini. Like my family was so many years ago, they are too afraid to go public with this or to report it in our town, especially after the leniency with which Pradrini's hate speech was viewed as being treated. Despite the findings of my investigation, I still believe the majority of the APD are comprised of good cops who genuinely care about the residents they are sworn to protect. The problem for me and so many others, however, is we have no way of knowing who the bad apples are. And so I, like many others, now live in fear and trepidation in the town we call home or work in. We are reluctant to call the cops, report incidences or even be in the presence of police. This erodes public safety in our town overall and is not a sustainable long-term situation. I am sure that all of us would like to have healing and restore mutual trust here in Arlington. If, like the select board and town manager have repeatedly assured us, the APD is a generally trustworthy body with cops who abide by a certain code of conduct, a civilian review board will simply confirm that for all of us and give us peace of mind. However, it will also serve as a check to those officers that may otherwise be acting below the radar and that do harm others or put vulnerable people at risk. Such a review board then can help prevent a situation like what happened with Pradrini from happening again by catching troubling behaviors by officers early on and bringing them to the light. A civilian review board will allow those of us from vulnerable populations to feel we have an authority to appeal to if or when we have need of it. Its existence alone could be a critical tool in restoring the faith of many in the APD and the town and rebuild bridges that have been burned. Thank you. Anyone else? Elizabeth Drake on Jason Street. I'd like to preface my comments by acknowledging the positive relations that have been built with the police department and with the town manager in the last six months. And I don't want you to interpret these comments to be that I've not, don't appreciate that and don't want to continue to work with you and your departments in the future. Because we're talking about the past but it's important that we talk about the past so that we don't repeat it in the future. So I'm here to speak in favor of the warrant. I'd like to acknowledge that on these chambers on October 28th of last year, our town manager thoughtfully responded to the petition put forth by many in the Arlington community. And when he addressed the final request to develop a plan for the establishment of a racially and class diverse civilian review board, he responded that it's generally not the town manager who tells the community how to govern itself from a structural point of view. That said, I would be very happy to facilitate the process of considering such a proposal if it's brought forth by the community. So here we are, here it is. And so I hope that you can all consider moving it forward. One concern I have heard about this warrant is and Jordan addressed it is a specificity of it that it is not written to study whether or not a civilian review board is needed, but it is a warrant to study what kind of civilian review board will be put forward. It does not leave room to decide if one is needed here in Arlington. And I know that that was done intentionally because there's no doubt after the last 17 months that a civilian review board is needed here in Arlington. And the question is what kind? What kind will work best in the Arlington community? And that is what this warrant is for. Arlington needs to be prepared for next time because it will come in one form or another. When the Arlington Police Department is faced with another situation like this or an allegation of misconduct, we will have a clear path forward with an increased role for the community to play a transparent structure, policy and rules. We need to form a plan now to avoid the kind of fracture of trust that resulted from the mishandling of the previous situation. Arlington's reputation cannot afford another bruising blow like we have suffered. And there is no current mechanism in town that I'm aware of and for community input and oversight in these matters. There's no place for community members to come forward to be heard and to voice their concerns. And again, I speak of the past and I know that the select board and town manager have moved forward, but I think it's important that we address the past and learn from it because when we came forward, when the concerned citizens came forward to these chambers and spoke to you about our outrage at the inappropriate use of restorative justice, when we came, the brave residents who shared their fear with you, we were met with disparagement. We were belittled. We were interrupted and most outrageously, we were blamed. The inability to empathize with us and take responsibility for the mess that we were in shows that Arlington residents need deserve a better way of dealing with police misconduct and this warrant will ensure that after the mess of the last 17 months, Arlington residents deserve to know that this will not happen again. And I wanna add that I really do appreciate the proposal put forth by Chief Clarity. I think it's fantastic. I think it would make a great sister committee because it gets to communication and building that trust with the town again, which is really great. I'd like to see it represent more or call for economic diversity and a diversity that reflects the racial and ethnic diversity that we have in town. I'd also like it to specifically contain or involve people of color and people in the recovery process. But other than that, I really think it's great. So thank you for putting it forward. Thank you. Thank you. Continue on. Just be mindful if it's already been said once or twice, if you could, if you wanna say it again, you can. We do have six other warrant articles, but please feel free and I'm letting people go. They're really getting up there in minutes. Thank you. My name is Kate Tranquata. I live at Park Avenue Extension and I'm here reading a statement from Gwen Wong, who lives on Lowell Street. She had concerns about the coronavirus and so couldn't be here today. So Gwen says, according to the Pew Research Center in a study of American police departments, published in 2017, a key finding was that a majority or 72% of officers say they disagree or strongly disagree that officers in their department who consistently do a poor job are held accountable. So seven in 10 American police officers reportedly feel that their departments are unable to discipline poorly behaving officers and those who are doing a poor job did not get the appropriate discipline or training, counseling or coaching. These self-reported trends in behavior and police departments from across the country demonstrates the need for civilian review boards. They give town residents the authority to review and recommend discipline of police officers. On the Springfield, Massachusetts website, it describes the purpose of their civilian review board. Quote, review and recommend discipline of police officers where warranted on all civilians complaints involving allegations of harassment, use of unreasonable or excessive force, use of language that is insulting, demeaning or humiliating, discriminatory treatment based on a person's race, religion, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation or disability or retaliation against a person for filing a citizen's complaint. Unquote, our town needs a civilian review board so that the town can complete the disciplinary process of Lieutenant Padrini and have the system in place for any future complaints. Thank you. Thank you very much. Hello, Adam McNeil, precinct four. I just wanted to add to the small point as a lot of ways I look at this as a kind of a small d democratic matter of bringing a greater governmental or governmental institution or accountability back to the people in a representative. In many ways, I see this as a parallel to the warrant article last year that moved the police chief out of civil service. I think there's a lot of powers in that but I think it's generally outside of the specific incidents that have been spoken to, I think that's an important point to give you. Thank you, Adam. Hello, my name is Emily. I'm a fairly new resident of Arlington. My husband and I moved here from the North Shore last year. One of the only things I knew about Arlington before moving here was about the racist xenophobic remarks that Padrini had made and it didn't really make me want to move here. I don't generally trust the police just because of what experiences I personally had with them, with experiences that friends of mine and family members have had with them and the fact that Padrini was allowed to remain on the police force to sort of confirm that for me. I live in a community with a lot of people of color, a lot of people with disabilities, a lot of LGBTQ people. We don't call the police because of the sorts of things that are happening with people like Padrini. I don't think that the civilian review board will solve all the problems that are inherent in police departments. I think it's a good first step. I'm not entirely convinced that the proposal put forward by Chief Flaherty is the right solution because it seems as though the methods that you're proposing would be fairly up to you as to who would be appointed, who that consultant- You have to address the board, sorry. Who the hired consultant would be would be up to the police department. So therefore you would get to decide who that is, who that company is. I think it really should be up to the people since you are policing us and we should definitely have some say in what goes on, especially with, again, people who are making remarks like Padrini has over and over and over again. Thank you. Hi, Robin Bergman, Park Avenue. I just wanted to make a brief comment in favor of the review board. I don't feel that, I feel that it would be important to have it as an independent body and not as part of the police department. I think that the other suggestion, the other proposal could work hand in hand with it. I don't see them as exclusive. But I also wanted to make the comment. Someone made a comment earlier that we are totally different than Cambridge and Springfield, that it's apples and oranges. And I just wanted to point out that Brookline is closer in size to us and that there are ways of crafting this so that it is the appropriate structure for a town or size. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good evening. So Christa Kelleher on Medford Street. In the last year, I've come before you to ask for your supportive measures to make sure that Arlington is among those communities which are leading on matters of access, inclusion, and equity. So I've advocated for the creation of an election modernization committee and for the provision of school committee stipends. I now ask for your support of a committee to create a civilian advisory board and to ensure that the principles I just mentioned, access, inclusion, and equity are realized along with the principle of justice. It seems very important at this time in our town's history to develop a mechanism for resident engagement and input on public safety personnel and operations. Such a body must address the needs of all of our town's residents and acknowledge diverse perspectives that may be connected to one's gender identity, immigrant status, race, ethnicity, religious cultural, or linguistic background, disability, class, sexual orientation, age, and or military status. The body should provide an effective means for fielding concerns of those living and working in our community, and it should ensure that procedures and policies are carried out properly and that accountability is maintained. If created and implemented in a way that is inclusive and reflective of our community's values, there is great potential for such a mechanism to be a significant resource to the entire community, including residents and those serving as public safety officials. As someone who believes that study committees can provide a roadmap for policy reform and implementation, I remain hopeful in the opportunity that lies ahead should this committee be established. And I think that a study committee would help us to accomplish the goals that we would like to see. Thank you. Thank you so much. I guess, Barri and meeting member, we sing a team. Thank you. Can you speak into the microphone? And can you pull it up also and address the chair? Thank you, Chief Flowerty, for what you had to say. What you had to say, I think is honorable and I respect you for that. But that's one body. You're a bullet. I'm sorry, sir, can you just address the board? Okay. The police department is one body. I'm a retired public school teacher, but I think the citizens of our community have a right and a responsibility to account for those civil servants who we pay for to provide services to our community. It seems reasonable to me to provide some empowerment to the public and not just to the police to make that determination of what is going on and to be transparent. Now, I don't wanna go into details. I think I can pretty much sum it up. I think this is a reasonable approach and honorable people who are in the police department and I thank you for coming here should not be fearful of civil participation. Of the public to be involved in this decision-making. This is something as part of democracy. We don't live in authoritarian state. We don't let one force determine what the rule should be. And if we do, we are in serious jeopardy. And we talked about a president who takes authoritarian power at times and we object to it. I think we need to be responsible for our own communities and be true to the views and the values that we have and not be hypocritical. And I think this issue with officer Padrini is going to continue unless the select board has another way of addressing this. I think what Mr. Weinstein said is absolutely right. And I think it's reasonable to approach this. And this is something that can be discussed and resolved in a positive way. And if the community cannot get involved in this or not permitted to be involved in this, then we don't respect democracy. That's all I need to say. Thank you very much. Thank you. Do you have a? Hi, I'm John Gannel. I'm also a new resident in Arlington. And I think respect is a really good way to think about this. We brought up the issue of public trust a lot, but how do you have trust without respect? And how do you have respect without a sense of mutual responsibility? And I think that a civilian review board would be an excellent means for the community to take responsibility for itself. Instead of being in a position that's a paternalistic relationship with the police, where they're merely sort of left to accommodate public relations responses, instead of actually playing a part in how decisions are made. Because no matter what, you're going to have some sort of relationship of resentment as long as responsibilities aren't shared. That was the operative tone of Lieutenant Padrini's address in the screeds that he wrote was a contempt, profound contempt for members of our community. And so of course, our community is going to be uncertain about how the police are going to be behaving in the future. And I think the only way that you could conceivably allay those fears is by coming up with a solution that is lasting and structural. And that's what this is that's being put forward. Otherwise, you're going to be putting out fires again and again in perpetuity. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you. Beth Milovchuk, 20 Russell Street, and I'm a town meeting member in Precinct 9. And I'm here to speak to you, to encourage you to respond favorably to Mr. Weinstein's article. I think it's very important to start the healing process. The request is not to establish a civilian review board but to study it. And I think that were it not for what's already been stated about how certain incidents or writings were handled, we wouldn't be here. And we're not going away. And we believe so strongly in Arlington as a holistic and welcoming community. And we want that reflected in our town administration. I think this is an integral step to achieving that. And I thank Chief Flaherty for her idea. But again, I think it could be, as Elizabeth stated, a sister component, two components working perhaps compatibly. But I do think it's essential to have a civilian review board independent of, independent again, crucial components of a healthy democratic municipality. So thank you for your listening. Thank you. I do want to also enter into the record, we have an email from Peter Katzen of Beverly Road writing to voice his strong support for the proposal in the Warren article 17 submitted by Mr. Weinstein. We also have correspondence from Damon Vassetti of Yale Road, also writing to register support for Mr. Weinstein's proposed Warren article 17. They could not be here tonight. Mr. Dunn. I have a couple of questions for proponents if that's appropriate. Thank you for bringing it forward. And one of the things that has struck me as I've listened to both what you said and some of the other proponents is the interchangeable use of advisory and review. And I'm curious what your thoughts are. To me, they feel like different things. And tell me, and you use both, but the language is advisory. So I'm curious what you're thinking on that. I think that the title of whatever is created is really not important because frankly, the study committee will determine what kind of power is ultimately a civilian advisory or review board will have. So it really was just a judgment call and what to use, what kind of language to use. Thank you. And so my second question is about the membership itself. So the way this Warren article is written is it's very prescriptive. Like the vast majority of the Warren articles come across the saying, we're gonna talk about this particular topic. And then on the town meeting floor, or either in these hearings and then subsequently town meeting floor, they can be amended as the will of the body. But this article is written as like my way or the highway. There's nothing else, there's no, like we can't amend it as it's written. Why can't it be amended? Because in general, like so for instance, article 16, the one we just talked about, it says to see if the town will do a vote or to establish committee to learn the cost or take any action related there too. So then it's like create a committee, you get to talk about who should be on the committee and what the purpose of the committee is and what the charge of the committee is. So on both in these hearings and then subsequently on the debate, you have legal latitude. But when we have a Warren article that's written like this, if someone writes, if someone on the floor of town meetings says, I wish to change it from seven members to nine members, then the moderator is gonna be compelled to rule that motion out of order because the Warren article specifies seven. That wasn't intentional? The real intent was, if I might explain it, was to, first of all, this is a study committee. We're not creating a review board. And the study committee, what we wanted to do was to create a small enough body that could function. So seven was the number. At the same time, we wanted to be as inclusive as possible among the widest range within the number seven of other organs within Arlington that would have some stake in this. So therefore the Human Rights Commission, Disability Commission and Vision Arlington. And we felt that based on some of the other ways that some of the other committees were constructed that there wasn't enough diversity and diversity, frankly, it was part of what we were looking for, so. Yeah, okay. So I definitely appreciate the importance and value of diversity in a committee like this. I'm just, I've got like two thoughts that are hand in hand, but they're not exactly the same. One thought is, are these the right seven people? And then simultaneously, why did you write it such that we can't, like the town meeting, for instance, can't even change it? Like it is a my way or the highway, the way it's written. I think I just answered the question. To be honest with you, I didn't know that that would prohibit town meeting, or we didn't know, from amending it if it wanted to. And frankly, if that was something that seemed to be the general consensus, I could make a, whatever it's called, a friend of the court resubmission. I don't know. See, unfortunately, once the warrant is published, this sets the boundaries of what town meeting can talk about. And this set the boundaries so narrowly that we won't be able to make any of it. Well, I do believe, what? It doesn't say we'll take any action related there, too. Or take any action related there, too. I mean, it will be up to the town manager, the town moderator, the person who gets to decide what's in and out of scope, but I... Right, I mean, if anyone in town meeting thinks that they could come up with a more representative collection of voting members of this, I would like to hear what they are. But we felt that it was very broadly representative of all the organizations and ordinance that would have a stake in this. Including members, non-voting, but members, a member of the police department. Yeah, my concern isn't that it isn't the most possible representative. My thoughts are, as I'm wondering whether it would reach the... Like whether it's got good expertise in representation across different parts of the town. What do you have in mind? Not just diversity. Diversity is obviously very important, but it is not the only goal that I'd have for the committee. What would you have in mind? We can only really discuss what's before... Well, unless you want... Okay, go ahead. I'm gonna leave that to you. I don't know. Well, it's a criticism that you're leveling against and I'd be curious to hear what your thoughts are. So I come to these hearings, not necessarily with knowing what I want out of them because I want to hear what people have to say. Well, I can't hear knowing what I want. I resist interrupting and I'm... Okay, sorry about that. I mean, so part of the hearing is I listen to what people have to say. I listen to the people in the audience. I listen to the proponents. I learn things and then I talk with my colleagues and then I share and these are... I ask you some really genuine and serious questions about the construction of the committee and the naming of it because I... And that's why I'm asking because I'm thinking that they're important. I don't exactly know what I think would be on this, but I'm also not exactly a proponent of this. And so therefore I come here with an open and questioning mind. And I guess my final response is that if town meeting as a whole feels that this is not representative enough of a town or doesn't provide enough expertise to investigate this, then they can make that decision. But I don't see the reason to use that as a reason for not recommending this to town meeting. Okay, and I just wanna... We do have six more Warren articles and then we have nine more Warren articles on the final review. And I wanna be respectful of everybody. Right now we're at the point and this is another question. Any, Mr. Curell? Yeah, thank you. So I'm glad Mr. Dunn raises because you do have the phrase take any other action related there too. Unfortunately, I think it's a technical error on where it's placed because that phrase, what it means is that town meeting probably has a latitude on the charter of the committee. Probably has a latitude on how many people are on the committee, but that's it because everything below that doesn't have that proviso. So you've been around enough. Every time we propose a committee to town meeting, let me know. So the debate often centers around who the members are or they're representative enough. Town meeting can't change that the way that this is written, which is a concern to me. And I'll tell you, let me say a little bit more about that. I think you have an excellent list here. I question the inclusion of the town moderator because I'm not really sure what the town moderators involvement in this would be. I think, unless the intention is that it be a town meeting member, which would be a great thing for us to be able to craft in the language we can't as it's written right now. I personally, and I'm sure others, I'm concerned that there is a lack of three of the major stakeholder groups that really interact with the police department. So one that's missing is one of the most vulnerable groups in town, Council on Aging and our senior citizens who are very liable to be taken advantage of and rely on community safety and rely a lot on first responders. So there's no representation here. Arlington Housing Authority or tenants is not represented here, which is a concern to me. That is a very, that's a vulnerable population and also works closely with the department. There's a substation that might not be manner. And the last is what I don't see is any kind of school representation, which also one of the large partners of the police department. I know the chief's proposal included student council representation. So we actually hear from the students. So those are some things that I see as far as substantively with that. I do have concerns with assuming that we're going forward that the mission is to go forward with the police civilian advisory board. We do have a latitude to change that charter. I think I read it that way and council will correct me if I'm wrong. The last thing that I think is a technical deficiency is that there's no appointing authority here. There's no what? There is no appointing authority here for, well, let me see. Madam Chair, may I? Mr. Attorney Hyme. Mr. Curie, I believe that. Actually, it looks like they're all representatives of standing committees. I stand corrected. So in this case, they're all standing members. I think the intention is that each of those commissions or committees would designate someone. Is that correct? That's correct. And I just want to clarify it. They don't have to designate a member of their own committee. They could decide that you're correct and somebody from the housing authority or somebody representing the elderly should be on this. Yeah. So where I am right now is that I appreciate you bringing this to us. And yes, it's true. Of course, we're talking about some alternate proposals because of the conversation that's been started over the last month. Of course we are. But I'll note that the chief's proposal includes a lot of the same organizations and groups that are here. And I think that there could be a compromise or there could be an agreement reached between the proponents of this warrant article and the chief as to what the makeup of an advisory committee to the police department would be. That's first. I think one thing that I would like to see, I would like to see it specifically called out that town meeting number representation would be there. I'd like to see it specifically called out that at least one graduate of the Citizens Police Academy be there. We have all of these citizens in the town who have taken six weeks out of their lives to. But I just, at the very end of the day. No, one second. There is one town meeting member that's required to be part of this. I don't see that at the very end. All right, we can't go back and forth and we still have other warrant. Right. 15 other warrant articles to deal with. Do you have a question or do you want? Well, my proposal is that I'm gonna move no action. I'm gonna request, I'm gonna suggest that the proponents get together with the chief to find a formulation that would be worth bringing back to us because as I heard the chief, I didn't hear you chief. And I might, I think through you, Madam Chair need some clarification. I didn't hear whether you were asking for us to create a committee by the board's power. We can create committees on our own or whether you were looking to do that through your own devices yourself. Okay. So I'm gonna move no action with a suggestion that the proponents get together and work with the chief on a proposal that can be agreed upon, that can be brought back to us for at least receipt or endorsement. Could I just respond to one thing? No, one second. First procedurally, there's a motion by Mr. Carrow. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Dunn, Mr. Hurd. Just on the long lines of what my colleagues have said, I think two, two groups, vulnerable groups that are often interacting with the police are the homeless population and the opioid population, representatives that fight opioid abuse in Arlington. So I think that's another just efficiency in the makeup of this group that I think should be considered when coming, bring it together. Okay. No, we have to follow a procedure. Any, Mr. DeCours? Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. And I apologize that I have a few things to say and I realize we have a lot on the agenda tonight, but I think it's something that we need a little bit more discussion on. So I look at this, no matter how we vote tonight, this is gonna be decided by town meeting, you know, up or down, which is fine. That's what you brought forward, the Warren article. Just a question for the Chief, in terms of the advisory committee, when do you see that, when would you like to establish that or when do you want to establish that so when it would begin its work? You have to come to the microphone, sorry, if you could step back, please. I'd like to move forward with that as soon as possible. I know the proposal by Mr. Weinstein calls for a year to study and then possibly two years before the committee would be put together and I think that would be valuable time that we would be losing in getting together with the community. So as soon as possible and I would see establishing it by July 1st around there. Okay, thank you. So I look at this and I appreciate that the Warren article, the Chief just started, the Chief just came forward with the proposal and as I look at the membership of the study committee that you've proposed in the Warren article, Mr. Weinstein, and I look at the membership that the Chief has proposed of an advisory committee, I realize they're different. I actually, we don't know if they're different because we don't know what, as proposed what would be put forward a year from now. But as I look at the membership, other than you have envisioned Arlington, the Chief doesn't, you have the Board of Youth Services designee, the Chief doesn't, and you have a town moderator appointee, the Chief doesn't. The other members are the same, the Chief. I'm sorry. Well, let me finish, please. Really? Thank you. Chief has Arlington Public Schools representative membership of the student council, religious leaders, elected official, town council, and a police union representative. And she doesn't have non-voting members as you do here. But I look at this for the study, I'd like to see what the Chief does with this over the next year and let's hold her to putting together the committee. We have the membership, we'll see what happens in a year. If it doesn't work out, we will know where that stands and there'll be a membership on it. But for some of the reasons the other members cited and just some of the concerns I have, I'd support Mr. Kerr's no action vote. Could I? Will I have a chance to say one more thing now before you vote on this? This is another question. If I do that, then I have to change it for everybody else. I just need to, I need to, wait, wait, wait, I need to correct. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave now, please. I just need to correct. I apologize. I just need to correct the record because some. Can you just follow the process or please just follow. No, unless somebody asks you, it can't go back and forth. We do, we have to be respectful of all the warrant article hearings we're having tonight. This will take 60 seconds for me to just make one statement. I don't see why I can't do that. Go ahead, 60 seconds. Okay. Number one, what is being proposed by the chief has nothing to do with what we're proposing. The civilian review board is a venue for people to citizens to file complaints of police misconduct. And it's an investigative body sitting outside the department. So to compare them to say they're the same is absolutely. And I suggested that Mr. Weinstein do the same. In fact, what I said is we don't know what your, what the committee will bring forward because the proposal is to study it. Yeah, we kind of know, but that's okay. The other thing is that the grammar of the placement of that phrase to take any action related there too was placed where it was for grammatical purposes not to have any other reason. If you placed it at the end it would absolutely make no sense. The way it was written. Okay. I think what I'm hearing is Mr. and I'm just confused on one thing. Mr. Cureau's motion of no action. My motion is no action. My comment is to encourage the proponents to work with the chief on the makeup and the resident advisory committee that she has proposed. So we're not supporting the chief's recommendation or are we supporting it and also. The chief's recommendation. Isn't before us for a vote. It's not before us. I think what the chief is doing is she's getting up speaking not in favor of the Warren article, recommending us to say no action but then as an aside to saying she is proposing what has been cited as perhaps a sister committee but to me it's the same committee that this would be our action and she could begin the course of establishing this committee. Did you want to clarify? I didn't mean to speak for you. I'm sorry. That is correct. That is what I put before you today. And Madam Chair could I have 30 seconds to just respond to Mr. Ray's comments about not having a procedure or a place to go with a complaint? We have procedures in place. We have policies in place. We have professional standards, an office of professional standards where we investigate every complaint. We take police complaints very, very seriously and for her to say that we don't have any procedure or place or any place to bring them is not correct. Complaints can come to me. We accept anonymous complaints. We accept anonymous complaint forms by email, by telephone, by facts. If somebody wants to drop a complaint off at the police station or to the town manager's office, we investigate every complaint that we receive. I just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. Okay. I'll be very brief. No, no. Just if the board would indulge me. It does sound to me like bifurcating a vote on this article and perhaps asking the chief and whoever else the chief teams appropriate to sit with the article proponents to discuss her proposal. Sorry, I thought she was still standing right there. To discuss her proposal before it's finalized would seem prudent. I mean, I think our goal, at least from town administration point of view is as the chief laid out, we want to rebuild trust. We want to restore things to the community. So I think before saying what's established exactly what the chief has put before the board tonight, I think it's certainly warrants a conversation with the article proponents as Mr. Cureau suggested. And so I think if the board would indulge it, I think bifurcating the article vote and then any action or endorsement on the chief's proposal would make good sense. If I could ask the town manager or through the town manager, the police chief, just trying to get the warrant and everything done. Do you think this could be done by March, our next and last meeting? Well, I don't think what the chief is proposing has to be addressed on the warrant. Okay. Because it's not the subject of the specificity of the warrant article. Oh, okay. I just want to make sure something happens. Okay. So on a motion by Mr. Cureau of no action seconded by Mr. Dunn, any further questions or comments? If not, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, unanimous vote. We now go to article 20. We now go to the next warrant article here in article 21, vote election modernization committee. Wondering, I think I'm okay in terms of taking a break. You can keep plowing through. We're going to turn the ACO on, Steve. Oh, I thought there was a lot of action. I thought you were muted on it. Okay. Oh, okay. Super. Okay. Let's do it again. Yeah. I'm sorry. If you could just wait. I guess, go ahead. We're here to discuss article 21, 23 and 24. And I'm James O'Connor, chair of the election modernization committee. And I'm Greg Dennis, the clerk of the election modernization committee. So, would you like to address article 21 first? Sure. Okay. We presented and I believe you have on your desk a written copy of the draft motions after talking to town council Heim. We made a couple of adjustments. The first and foremost is we talked about in our previous report to the select board that we felt we'd like to continue our mission. Excuse me. So, could you please take your conversation outside? We're now on the next Warren article, please. Thank you. Thank you. Can you start over? I wasn't, I'm sorry. I understand. I apologize. We felt we'd like to continue our mission until 2022. One of the issues we addressed before was the ex-officio status of some of the members and which may have led to some members failing to designate or to participate. We'd like to add two members. One, we had a request from the Arlington League of Women Voters that would like to participate is they have been longstanding and involving in elections. And the second is to include a new member under the age of 25 to be chosen by the Honorable Select Board. And that's primarily this article to extend the time of the committee and to establish it as one person that communicated with us said the original warrant article called it the Election Modernization Study Committee. We felt that we're already doing that so we'd like to be the Election Modernization Committee with your blessing. Any questions? Anyone else here on Article 21? Any questions from my colleagues? Anything else you wanted to add if otherwise we're ready for a vote? Is there a motion by? Is there anyone else you want? I said, is there anyone? I already said that and no one got up. Okay. Move approval or move recommend positive action. Second. Move by Mr. Dunn, seconded by Mr. Decorsi. Any further questions or comments? If not, our motion by Mr. Dunn, seconded by Mr. Decorsi. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, unanimous vote. That's Article 21, Article 23. Article 23 is asking the Select Board to submit home rule legislation to change the way we elect town meeting members. And I'd like to ask Greg if you wanna address the decision. Sure. So this would change and consolidate town meeting member elections when there is a vacancy and an unexpired term to be filled during the annual town election. So today if there's a one year remaining or two year remaining seat or seats, those appear in a separate election and the result of that is there's often sort of some intrigue and gamesmanship over who's running for which seat, confusion on the part of new town meeting members seeking to run and they show up and say I wanna be on town meeting and they're asked which seat do you want to fill and well, what's the difference? Well, there's no difference, you just have to choose. So this would take away some of that gamesmanship and sort of inside baseball aspect of running for town meeting and simplify the process. I'll add that a number of towns already elect their town meeting members this way when there are vacancies, particularly towns that have had the opportunity to revise their charter, revise their charters, excuse me. And it is also the same mechanism we use to elect town meeting members when districts are redrawn. Okay. So anyone here on, I jumped off the thing. Article 23, Mr. Dunn. Just two comments. One is just if I remember correctly. All right, so you're not trying to change the way for an interim appointment, it's appointed by the remaining members of the precinct. Correct, we're not changing. Okay. And the second thing I wanna point out, I'm pretty sure it's next, so when we redraw the precincts, the affected precincts follow exactly this process and I know you know this, but just reminding everybody else, so that means that like all 12 people get chosen at the same time on the same ballot and it just does it in order of vote. So having joined town meeting the first time and exactly that, and I received the 12th least number of votes and thereby got on town meeting the first time. And so that's actually gonna trigger next year. So for a lot of times the precincts, this isn't even gonna trigger for two years, even if it's approved. Yeah, I realize I didn't actually explain it. It's where the most top vote getters get the longest terms and so on. And the other sort of odd result of the process is sometimes you have someone not be elected with say a hundred votes and somebody with a couple right in votes gets in and generally prefer if the person with the most votes wins. Move approval, hold on a second. That's what, I'll move by Mr. Dunn, seconded by Mr. Curell, Mr. Curell. Thank you very much. I very much support this. I mean, I think we've seen this, there's been confusion at times, individuals wanting to run for town meeting, not realizing there's a one year seat, there's a two year seat, there's a three year seat. I just had a quick question about the issue with the ties. You're referring to the caucus when you talk about a precinct ballot administered by the town clerk will determine the division? Right, yep. The caucus. And that is in also state law in terms of how things are done when precincts are redrawn. Okay, thank you. Okay, any further questions and comments on article 23 from my colleagues? If not on a motion by Mr. Dunn, seconded by Mr. Curell. All those in favor say aye. Aye. And those opposed, unanimous vote. Article 24. Article 24 pertains to a request for home legislation pertaining to rank choice voting for town elections. And we'd like to address that. You wanna? Sure, this would apply to any town-wide office where excluding town meeting because we have this other concurrent change we wanna make to town meeting if you don't wanna conflate the two, this go around. And for any single winner election where there's more than, when there's three or more candidates in the race or any multi-seat election when there's more candidates than there are seats, we would use rank choice voting to determine which seats, which people were in those seats. It's used in, we've been here before, but it's used in 20 states for political elections in different jurisdictions. And we think it makes sense in terms of encouraging new and diverse voices to seek office. We happen to have a lot of people running this year, but it's kind of an anomaly. Often town elections can be a little sleepy and we wanna make sure that we have new voices trying to run every year. We have article 24 before us. Any comments? My colleagues, Mr. DeCourtsy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a question, I remember you had presented this earlier Mr. Denison talked about rank choice and just a question on the standard of what you're basing the transferable vote method is the number of countable votes. And so just thinking about a situation where you have multiple seats and a lot of people don't choose, typically choose more than one, well not a lot of people, I shouldn't say that. Some voters will not choose all, if it's three votes, they may not elect to use all three votes in a three person race. Is it one third the threshold for before you move to rank voting? Right. And one of the things about the draft that I should mention is that draft leans heavily on the term single transferable vote as sort of a term of art. But we've been advised by town council that we should probably just spell out the exact procedure in the home rule legislation. Yeah, the experience around the country is that people do use the ranks a lot. So in Maine, in their first democratic primary, I think it was 80% of voters opted to rank the candidates. And so the question was if people do not use the ranks, what then? How do you get to that threshold? To like the minimum threshold that you need like by reordering votes? Right, so you eliminate the lowest, if no candidate reaches the threshold, then you eliminate the lowest vote getter and all of that candidate's votes would transfer to those voters' second choices. And so on until enough candidates reach the threshold. And so in a single winner race, the threshold is a majority of the vote. In a two-winner race, it's a third of the vote. And in the three-winner race, it's a quarter of the vote. Because once you reach that, it prevents any additional candidate from winning. Thank you. Mr. Carroll. So I like this a lot. I think it gives your vote a lot more power because we know that we vote often, sometimes, often, you vote for multiple candidates even in multi-seat race, particularly. You may have some preference that you wish to express. So I think that you're able to, it's a more dynamic expression of the voters. That said, I know that I asked you this yesterday to walk through how this would work in a multi-candidate race. And I wonder if you could just quickly summarize it again because the biggest issue I see with this is voter confusion and the need for a lot of education and moving over to a system like this. For example, one question that I have is if you go through the first tabulation and no one meets the threshold, you drop off the lowest vote getter, you then go to another tabulation. Still nobody's met the threshold. What if you go through, what happens is you start encountering votes for candidates who have already been dropped off. Is their next, the next preference chosen on that round? Or does it have to wait for the next one? It counts towards the, well one thing I should say about multi-seat elections is that it doesn't matter whether you're electing one, two or three, the experience for the voter is identical. It's an identical experience. You see the candidates and you rank them in order of preference. So we're not asking the voter to do anything different. Whether electing one person, two people, three people. They see the candidates, they say this is my first choice. If they have a second choice, they say this is my second choice. If they have a third choice, it's completely an optional power that they can exercise if they choose. So your question was if their next choice has already been eliminated? Yes. The vote always counts towards the next candidate that's still in the running. That's still in the running, okay. Thank you. Is there a motion? I move favorable action. By Mr. Keros, a second. Second. Second by Mr. Hurd. Any further questions or comments? So if not on article 24, a motion. We approve of my Mr. Keros second by Mr. Hurd. All those who say aye. Aye. As opposed, unanimous vote. Thank you for waiting. I'm now going to temporarily put article 26 on the table and have article 27 before us. Article 27 is home rule legislation, retired police officer details. I can do it. Mr. Chapter Lane. Thank you, Madam Chair. So this was brought before the board and then ultimately hopefully town meetings, foretelling consideration based on an agreement the town reached with the police bargaining units on offering details to retired officers. Primarily from the town's point of view, this would be beneficial because during summer months, during high vacation periods, also coinciding with high construction periods, we sometimes struggle to fill details. We often go outside of town and use officers from other communities to fill details and sometimes we can't fill details. Most notably, I would say this has limited our ability to allow more crews to work from the gas company to do main replacement and also fix gas leaks from time to time. We've tried to allow them to do more than other communities are doing, but we still hit up against the availability of details. So I do feel like having retired officers able to be able to step forward and serve in this capacity would be a benefit to the town in getting important work done while keeping that work safe with the presence of a police officer. I'd also state, there is no added cost to the town. Detail costs are paid by, if it's a town project, the town's already paying those detailed costs. And if it's a private project, the private entity is already paying those detailed costs. And retired officers would be required at their own cost to participate in all the in-service trainings that would be required of them to serve as a detail officer as well as furnish themselves with uniforms and equipment. Gotta come in from all angles here. So I think, again, we've agreed to this to bring this forward with the bargaining unit, so that we feel strongly about bringing it forward, but I also think it would be a value add for the department. Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Brian Gallagher. We're really just here for questions, if you had any questions for us in regards to what that would look like. The town manager did a great job by summarizing everything that is in the plan for us, and whatever you said is exactly what we have. Essentially, it's bolstering public safety at no cost for the town. That's really what it adds up to. Is there anyone here? Article 27 is before us. Again, just name for the record. Sorry. Jason Street. So normally this wouldn't really be of concern to me. It seems like it makes sense to get coverage, but there's nothing in there that says what would prevent someone from being qualified to do this. There's nothing about what their record is, whether they have retired before they were gonna be fired, or they retired early, or any misconduct in their past. To me, it's extremely vague and open and ripe for interpretation. And I am very concerned that that is not part of it. Thank you. The next call, the House Draper Avenue, and I would like to, I'd see no problem with this, except I would like to propose that offices that have disciplinary record or any record of misconduct be excluded from this. Thank you. Any questions, comments from my colleagues? If not, are you ready? Oh, sorry. Oh, I didn't see that, Chief. I apologize. Sorry, I just want to comment. Offices in good standing would be eligible to work details upon retirement. Thank you. Okay. Is there a motion? If there's not a question? Move approval. Move by Mr. Hurd. Move approval, action. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Carrell. Any further questions and comments from my colleagues on articles 27? If not, oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Dunn. I respect the question that's being posed about, and this is where I think people understand that I have a, I believe that we trust the chief of police and if we don't trust the chief of police, we should fire them. And or if we don't trust the town manager, we should fire them. That's my control on these things. And if I, and I don't, and even if I wanted to codify it, I wouldn't codify it as they have anything in their record, like any disciplinary action. It's too, it's too specific and that standard is too low. So I just wanted to comment that I hurried you and I thought about it, but having been brought up, but I'm comfortable with the language because I respect, because I'm willing to sign the discretion to the police chief. And no, I'm sorry. We still have more business. It's not a back and forth. If there was a question, yes, but there isn't. Okay, any further questions or comments by my colleagues? If not on a motion by Mr. Hurd, seconded by Mr. Carroll on article 27. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed, unanimous vote. Thank you. We now return to, we already voted article 25, article 26. Sorry, Madam Chair, just a moment. Just putting notes. I'm not going to let people that want to go, go. Okay, Madam Chair. We now have article 26 before us, home of legislation, senior water discount attorney Heim. Thank you, Madam Chair. As we previously alluded to, at present, the select board has clear authority as water commissioners to offer discounts under what's known as section 17D and section 41C for property tax exemption criteria. Those are the kinds of water discounts that you can offer and they have a limitation on how much that can be. In order to offer further water discounts, and including water discounts that might capture a larger portion of the population, it's important to file this home rule legislation to clarify the select board's authority to offer this discount to seniors. The long and short of it is, is that the Department of Revenue is taking a somewhat conservative reading of a case about water rates that involves what circumstances in which we can basically charge a different rate for the same service in the same manner that service. Because of the way those other discounts are phrased in the law, they're much more comfortable that the water commissioners of the city or water commissioners of a town, in this case, the select board, would have the ability to offer those, but not all. So the two things that you're getting out in this home rule legislation are potentially additional water discounts and a potentially broader pool of folks who are eligible. If you perform me one second, I'm just gonna pull up a note on the example. So for example, this isn't a 100% accurate comparison, but so under section 17D, you need to be 70 or older and you need to own or occupy property for five years and you have a specific asset limit and a specific discount that you can be afforded. However, under some of the other property exemptions that we've offered, for example, senior work off, the age limit is lower and there's not necessarily the same limit on assets. Similarly, under 41C, you have to be 65. You have to own or occupy for five years and be a resident for 10 years, but the range of income is perhaps a little bit low for who we might want to be able to avail themselves of this type of programming where if we're talking about the circuit breaker or the senior work off, the criteria for those things is a little bit more flexible and would encompass a broader range of holding commitments. So as the manager said, you can already adjust, provide some senior discounts, but this home rule legislation would expand your authority and make it very clear that you have that authority to offer greater discounts to a wider range of seniors. First, we have article 26 before us. My colleagues, questions, comments or let's say you, Mr. Kirill? No, I appreciate the work on this. I don't think I have any questions. I mean, I would note that there are some communities that also extend us to fully disabled that looks like we probably don't have the latitude as the proposed vote is written here. And I know that we've talked mostly about low-income seniors, but I don't know if that's, if we want to retain that latitude. What do you think? Home rule? I don't, Madam Chairman, I don't think we have the authority under this article to extend it to. Okay, that's fine. This gets at the thrust of what I think we've talked about, means tested seniors. Thank you for the work on it. Is there a motion? I move favorable action. By Mr. Kirill, is there a second? Second. By Mr. Hurd, any further questions or comments from my colleagues? If not on article 26, motion by Mr. Kirill, seconded by Mr. Hurd, all those in favor say aye. All those opposed, unanimous vote. On article 52, endorsement of parking benefit district expenditures. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I'll call the board's attention to a spreadsheet that was on their desk, and I apologize that it wasn't submitted to Novus in time for Friday. So quickly, I'll walk through what you have before you. At the top of the sheet, you have our projected FY21 expenditures from the parking fund. That's the statutory fund that allows us to pay for the cost of leasing the parking meters as well as administering the districts. So you see how those costs are laid out, inclusive of the bottom line parking benefit district costs projected at $200,000. Below that, you see our revenue projections, what we've collected, what we had collected midway through this fiscal year. So FY20 through December 31st, 2019, we'd collected 282,000. We'd projected only collecting $450,000 for FY20, so we're far beyond that from a projection point of view. So we've increased our projections for FY21 to $525,000. For FY20, you can see where we spent or where we have allocated funds out of the parking benefit district. We allocated $150,000 for FY20 and the $36,500 amount was from the prior year's allocation that we asked the board and then town meeting to move to put towards our Lincoln Center sidewalks. So that's a Broadway plaza in our Lincoln Center sidewalks and that's why those are two separate figures. Below that, you see our FY21 parking benefit district proposed budget. We're asking to set aside another $50,000 for the sidewalk and Broadway plaza improvements. We don't have bids in hand yet, so we just want to put that there depending on how bids come back for the sidewalks. We've set aside $100,000 to start considering the improvements that have been recommended to Russell Common from the designer that had been hired using parking benefit district funds in a prior year. Continuing to put $10,000 aside for snow removal, $20,000 to officially fund the seasonal planting and those planters that have been placed along the sidewalks in our Lincoln Center. $10,000 to support DPW efforts to water those planters and water trees in the center district and then again, $10,000 for sidewalk cleaning. I will tell you there may be one small adjustment made to this to account for $40,000 being included in the capital budget for the replacement of the parking kiosks in the lots in FY21. And what we will likely do is put that expenditure up above any expenditures and maybe make an adjustment to how much we're putting aside for the Russell Common law improvements. I can bring back that final version under final votes and comments at the subsequent meeting of the board. Article 52. Move favorable action. Moved by Mr. Kiro, is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Herd. Any further questions or comments from my colleagues? If not on article 52, a motion may move approval. Mr. Kiro, seconded by Mr. Herd. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, unanimous vote. We now have final votes and comments on article 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 22, 66. First, is there a motion? Move by Mr. Kiro. Is there a second? And then if anything needs to be changed, just, is there a second? Second. Mr. Herd, anybody have any comments, additions, deletions to any of the final votes and comments? Mr. Kiro. Oh, yeah, I just had one. I think when we discussed article 11 the last time, we talked about changing actually the article title to outdoor performances, although in further reflection, probably open air performances make more sense because we're not just talking about streets anymore. We're also talking about parks. So if, Take care of that house. If I touch the nerve, is it? I just want to make, I just want to make sure that I'm sorry, Madam Chair. Attorney Hine. I just want to make sure that that's consistent with the article. Sorry, let me just pull. While you're looking that up, Mr, if I may, Mr. Kiro, did you have something else or should I ask Mr. DeCorsi? No. Mr. Herd. Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I had a little time off earlier tonight. So I have a couple of just typo type things. And I don't know if that's something that you just want to take care of with Mr. Heimloft line or if you want to discuss it now. So if I could on the comment to article 15, and it needs a minor, but mine is a little correct. And four lines from the bottom, this sentence starting meanwhile, it seems highly likely there's a comment between highly and likely that should be stricken. You don't like highly, comma likely? And then in the next paragraph, I think following a joint meeting, if we could put the date of that meeting between the board and the ARB, so following a joint meeting held on, and I think it might have been January 27th, but I think whatever that date is. You just approved the minutes, so it's January, yes. Okay, all right, thank you. Thank you. And then two small ones, Madam Chair. Oh, if you don't do this now, it will be down a town meeting floor for a fold in time, so please. Okay, I may not have gotten everything. If the discussion went longer, I would have had more, but no. If I may, I'm sure. I also just want the board to know that, I think the last, I think two years or maybe, so we've been following a practice where once we've finalized individual votes and comments, we've gone through a whole separate editorial process to try to capture more of those typos, and so we'll put the final votes and comments back out to the board for a final review, sort of final review. It also is an opportunity for anything that board members didn't vote on that they want to support to make those votes 5-0, not where there's been a recusal, but where someone was absent and they want to support the board. So I'll make sure to get a revised draft, but. Oh, that's fine. All these things are very welcome. Yeah, and I don't want to take up that. These are two small things. I can take care of that with the train, and we don't need to go through it. Okay, and now Mr. Kearrow, Attorney Heim, I had a question about changing it to outdoor. Open air performances. Open air performances. So Mr. Kearrow, I just want to make sure I mentioned, you want to change it to open air performance within the definitions, or do you want to change the name of the by-law to open air performances? Yeah, but. Yeah, Title III Article 18 street performance is currently says street performances, and I think it should be saying open air performances with. Okay. That's what I'm looking for. Okay, thank you. Is that okay? Okay. Any further questions, comments? If not on a motion by Mr. Kearrow, seconded by Mr. Heard to move approval of final votes and comments. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, unanimous vote. Vote. Votes. Correspondence received. Is there a motion to move received by? Mr. Heard, is there a second? Second. By Mr. Kearrow. Madam Chair, I'll just add for the board's information that number 17, actually I received the letter, that exact letter as well, and I already referred it to Dan Amstutz to respond in detail to that. And the request for traffic calming, I assume that might be something that goes to TAC? I think we can refer that to Dan Amstutz for triage first and then decide whether or not it needs to go to TAC. Is that okay, Mr. Kearrow? Yeah, I just did have a quick question though. What is the status of that crossing? Tom Meading, I owe appropriated funds for it, so where are we in that process? It's been received, contract awarded, finalizing start date, but we're assuming we'll start on July 1st after school is out so we don't interfere with the Hardy School. Fantastic. I'll look forward to doing a tour on the way to work. Yeah. Okay, with that and the amended actions to refer both to the town manager, move receipt. Any further questions or comments by my colleagues? If not, a motion by Mr. Heard, seconded by Mr. Kearrow. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Unanimous vote. New business, Ms. Maher. New business. Charney Hyme. I have none. Thank you. Tell, almost a town council. Tell manager Chaptelay. I have no new business right now. Mr. DeCorsi. Sorry, Madam Chair, very briefly. Two weeks ago I talked about March Madness. Arlington High Hockey Team sailed through the winners bracket of the Super 8 tournament and they will be playing this Sunday for the state championship at the TD Garden. Now the time hasn't been selected yet because they don't know their opponent, but it's three years ago they won the state championship. My son was fortunate enough to be on that team and it's a great day for the community if people can go out and root on the hockey team. So I want to wish Coach Missouri and the entire team best of luck and go ponders. What day again? Sunday, Sunday the 15th. And again, there's one more game to be played to determine the opponent and then they will select the time. Good luck to them. Mr. Hard, Mr. Carroll. Very quickly. Yesterday I attended the kickoff of Arlington Reads Together, the library put it on. Great program. Esmeralda Santiago, the author of, when I was Puerto Rican, spoke great, great talk, great turnout, great idea that the libraries are doing. I know they partner with the diversity task group as well on this. With their three community reads this year, there's one targeted adults, one targeted teens, young adults, and one targeted at children. I know that some, you know, the children's books are being used in the schools. So just kudos to the library. Another great community read program kickoff. And there's a whole program. They've got the whole program online of other events this month. Thank you. Thank you. Just two things. I believe I forwarded an email to the town manager. I'm doing it from memory. I believe it was from Cheryl Vosmer about the lights at night in the heights. And I think you said Deputy Town Manager Feeney and someone else is working on that. Do you anticipate, like, that's something that's gonna take months? Or I honestly hadn't noticed, but. I think it'll be sort of a gradual process. So Jim Feeney did go out and do an assessment after we received that email. There's only five or six lights out, not the same quantity that had been suggested by that resident. But a few of them are awaiting parts that are on order and should be received soon. So we should be able to get some up and running. Unfortunately, two of them were struck by cars over the past couple months. So there's a little bit more work that needs to be done. But gradually we will be getting them fixed and back up and running. Should I answer that email? Or can you, Jim or someone? Yeah, well, your preference. But I can draft something up for you to share with the resident. Okay. And then through the town manager, I spoke briefly to the police chief when she was acting, but I said, we have to wait until she's permanent. But now because of a time constraint, I need to put this on the March 23rd. I think that's our next meeting. There was a individual, there were a group of people who held a fundraiser in Arlington, led by a woman named JJ Gardner. They collected proceeds, which they want to donate to one of Arlington's domestic violence funds for domestic violence victims. They were told and ordered by someone from the police station, they say, that in order for them to donate it, they can't do the outright donation to that town account. They would have to present it to the board and we would have to accept it. I spoke very briefly with chief Florida about that and said, this is just my memory, so I could be relaying it wrong. The only thing is, the terms of the check will, if that's the case, and we have to do that to accept this money that was raised, check becomes null and void in April. I was hoping I could get it done tonight, but we didn't. So if you could follow up with the chief on that, I know it's a lot of stuff. It's just this group, they raise the money and they want it. Ideally, you look into it, you and the chief and you can say, no, you can just donate it to that town domestic violence fund account. But if not, it will have to. Otherwise, you know, she said there's a time limit on the check, 60 days, 90 days, and it runs out. Okay. All right, I apologize for rambling. You should have. Before we adjourn, our next meeting is Monday, March 23, 2020. Do I have a motion to adjourn by Mr. Carroll, seconded by Mr. Hurd. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed, unanimous vote. Good night, Arlene, and stay healthy.