 this special meeting of the town of Essex-Luck Board for Thursday, March 11th, 2021. Are there any agenda additions or changes? The one business item, 5a, we have a letter from Annie Cooper regarding the petition to reconsider article two from the Australian ballot vote on March 2nd. That is the covered letter that accompanied the petition. There's an email from town clerk, Susan McNamara Hill regarding the petition and she has, she and her staff have, excuse me, checked all the signatures and confirmed that they are valid. These are requirements for a special... Thank you, Greg. Any other agenda additions from board members? Or changes? I'll take a motion to approve the agenda as amended. So moved. Thank you, Vince. Thank you, Dawn. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? An amended agenda. Now we're on item four, public to be heard. This is the part of the meeting when the public can talk with the select board about items that are not on the agenda. If you have something you wish to talk to the select board about that is not on the agenda, you can do so by raising your hand by using the team's toolbar or indicating in the chat that you wish to speak. Would anybody like to speak to the board about items that are not on the agenda? 39 people total on. Thank you. I don't see anybody raising their hand to speak up. Go ahead, Irene. Oh boy. Here we go. Could you mute your microphone if you are not participating in the meeting? Everyone please mute unless you are an actual speaker. Go ahead, Irene, and then Andy Champagne. Thank you, Elaine. I wanted to relay some comments from someone who was unable to attend tonight. The following are his words. I have a concern about fixed income and senior impact of the merger tax on their finances. I have thought long and hard on this and believe both the town and junction need to reconsider before any revote causes more anguish. The board needs to go back to fair and equitable methods if we vote again. Simply put. This is on the agenda. This is on the agenda, Irene. We're talking about the revote. No, this is about a new merger plan. This person wants a new merger plan. Simply put, an income cutoff for this tax should be put in place to aid or eliminate this tax for fixed income and seniors. I have been going to the farm to family pickups and distributing food to seniors in both the town and the junction. You see, I don't see a village boundary line. I see people in need and hurting, not a tax break, driving people to make harder, not a tax increase, excuse me, driving people to make even harder decisions on food and prescriptions. Thank you. Irene, you need to tell us the name of this person who's given you their comments. You wanted them anonymous. So you can say they're my comments if you must, but they're on behalf of someone else. And I would argue that those are very much in regards to a merger conversation that we have as a business item. It's also, I think, a very fair and valid point to relay that those concerns are equally true for those who live in the village and would not see tax relief in a continually inequitable situation. So with respect, I think that members of the select board did comment, Irene, that this was fitting in a agenda item that is currently on, or rather that we will be dealing with later tonight. It's just, when we make a comment like that, it needs to be at the appropriate time and place. Thank you. Thank you. Darby, can you please be sure to note in the minutes that the individual whose comments were shared wish to remain anonymous? I'll do that. Thank you. Thank you, Darby. Andy Champagne, do you have any comments or questions regarding business that is not on the agenda tonight? I do. Can you hear me okay? I can, but try to be a little louder, okay? Okay, I'll use this. That's great. So everyone's losing their heads over a merger yet I don't see any signs out in people's yards about merger. I see Black Lives Matter signs. So why are we going crazy over a merger when the town organ has been set up for decades and it seems to work out well? This is the second largest city in the state of Vermont and we don't even really have, you don't even have a committee set up for Black Lives Matter, for racial justice and things like that. I mean, you go out to Richmond, Richmond's got their state rep, they've got their select board members and they got a team of 16 people. So what's up with that? Mr. Champagne, I can tell you that the town has a racial equity task force that has a lot of people on it, including representatives from both the select board and the trustees, the school board, the police department, the community justice center and many other residents and they have been meeting for months now. So I appreciate you're bringing up the importance of this topic and I can assure you that the town is absolutely taking steps to address it and working on it as a community. So thank you for bringing that up. Who is running that? Pardon me. Who is running that? We have facilitators that we have hired to do so. Go ahead, Evan, if you wanna give some more detail. The town manager. The town manager, what's their name? Me, Evan Teach. What's your name again? Evan Teach, E-I-C-H. And your team, your task force is how big? I don't know the exact number off the top of my head. Okay, so I don't believe you. I wanna see the money. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Annie Cooper. Hi, thank you, can you hear me? Yes, as long as it's about stuff that's not on the agenda. Yeah, I wonder if it might not be a bad idea for us. I don't know if you can read the thing we've been reading recently before this like board meeting starts about that before. I don't know if this, I don't know, just an idea. Thank you. Yes, we had gotten into the habit of reading the indication of civility at the beginning of the meeting. Board members, if it's appropriate and acceptable to you, we could certainly do that. Look for a nod or anything from you. Okay. Vince, do you have that handy? And your muted, Vince. I can find it. Well, I can certainly, I think it's on my desktop, so hang on just a second. I can try to find it. I'm just gonna go back to one of our old packets. Yeah, I've got it. I should know all the words by now. All right. Okay, can you see it on the screen, folks? Yep. Okay, go ahead. We are gathered together in civil assembly. We gather as a community in the oldest sense of the word. We gather to come together and try to make decisions about what is right, about what is wrong. Let us advocate for our positions, but not at the expense of others. Let us remember that there is an immense gap between saying, I am right and saying, I believe I am right. And that our neighbors with whom we might disagree are good people with hopes and dreams as true and high as ours. And let us always remember that in the end, caring for each other in this community is of far greater importance than any difference we may have. Thank you for being here this evening. Thank you, Vince. Anytime. Have I stopped sharing my screen? I think I have. Okay. Is there anybody else who wishes to speak to the board on items that are not on the agenda? Dennis Bergeron. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. I just wanted to relate that, you know what I mean? I believe that the select board and the members that are on the screen now should have respect for other people. You know what I mean? There's a lot of stuff that's going on in this world today. And if a person raises their hand and they wanna say something, I believe this meeting's about a revolt. So whatever people say, you should sit back and let them speak their words and instead of interrupting and stuff like that. You know, I think that's the most common sense. Maybe you should practice what you're preaching on that statement that you made. Thank you. Anybody else who wishes to speak on items that are not on the agenda? Okay, thank you. We will move on to Business Item 5A, the only business item on our agenda. Consider approval of warning for special town meeting on April 13th in response to voter backed petition. Evan, would you like to open it up? Sure. There is a state statute and Bill Ellis, the town attorney is here tonight as well. If I get my words wrong, Bill, you can please correct me. But the vote happened last week, March 2nd. There is a provision in the state statutes that petitioners can ask or seek a reconsideration vote of a vote. They must do so within 30 days. They are required to achieve 5% of the registered voters of said town for that. The petitioners did bring a valid petition into the office. Those signatures of the people on that petition were certified by the town clerk. Therefore, we called this meeting for the select board. You are the authority to take up this request. The other part of the statute by the state is the petition is required within 30 days of said election. It is required to have 5% of the registered voters. It does. It asks you to put it on the April 13th ballot, which is the next election available to the community. That is certainly in your purview. The select board has to hold an election within 60 days. That is the state statute. It is not whether you should or shouldn't. It's a question of is it valid? Are there questions, which there certainly are. And if not on April 13th, what day? And then we can also go into for the people at home. The town of Essex uses the Essex-Westford School District property for its elections. The village votes at the high school, the town votes at the middle school. April 13th is reserved in both gyms for that purpose. There is others that if you choose another day, we are gonna have to work with the school district to find a day that we can use their property for those things, because those are the normal voting places. Staff is here, Bill Ellis is here. We have some representatives from the school district who are here that can answer any of your questions about this item and any of the legalities around it. But this is one last thing. This was not brought forth by the village or the town. It was a citizen petition. Thank you, Evan. So I think what we'll do is our usual habit. The board will discuss for a bit and then before we vote, we'll open it up to the public. So board members, questions, comments. So the school district traditionally has not wanted to have kids in school at the same time as voting is going on. It was something they've moved away from in the previous years, just made the children generally uncomfortable to have a stream of strangers going in and out. That said, since we are, to be clear, compelled to place this up for vote, I see no reason why we should not use the date that the schools are already set aside when kids will not be in school. I'd absolutely agree that if we are going to do this, we should align that as much as possible for those dates or we may find simply that our usual polling places are not available. And I'm not sure what we would do in that case. Thanks, Pat. Greg, can you put the petition up on the screen so folks can see it? Sure. Give me one second. Thank you. Any other board members, questions, comments, observations, Dawn? If we checked with the school district to make sure it's okay we piggyback this vote with them because it's my understanding the expense for mailing comes out of the school budget this time. I don't know the answer to that, Evan. I did see Martha Heath join in the meeting chat a few moments ago. Apologies for interrupting Evan, but I think if someone knows, she would probably be the person to ask. We also have Susan McNamara Hill available as well, but Martha, you're welcome to jump in. Yeah, hi. I just joined. So we've been talking with the village who is piggybacking on our voting date as well. So we haven't talked about cost. There is a possibility of getting reimbursed for the cost because the state put aside quite a bit of money for meeting day and other elections happening this spring to help with the cost of mailing ballots and so forth if communities wanted to do that. I have no, our board has been so interested in having comment voting dates. I have no reason to think that we won't be perfectly happy to have the vote take place on the same day. Thank you, Martha. Other board members, Andy, Vince. Yeah, I'm trying to find my hand. There it is. Go right ahead, Andy. The hand moved. I think Patrick mentioned that kids won't be in school that day. I think that is a school day. April 13th is a school day, as was the town meeting day. Kids were in school that day also. But anyway, a number of questions that I had raised I think have been addressed. There was a question of whether the authorization to mail ballots for town meeting extends to this vote. And I was provided with information from the Secretary of State's office that said that indeed any vote that springs from town meeting as in a runoff or a revote such as this are covered under the, we do have authorization to mail ballots. I think that's been answered. The other question that came up is there is a section in the statute that talks about a petition needs to be provide, there needs to be filed 47 days before, and it just says the meeting. I think that's been interpreted to mean town meeting. So it only applies to petitions that are brought forward for town meeting. It's not, doesn't necessarily apply in this case. I guess, is that the correct understanding for that? And I guess we're, how do we, how are we coming to that conclusion? I don't know that I understand your question, Andy. I'm sorry, can you repeat it? So there's a clause and I could find, I could go look up the exact section of statute. But it says that a petition needs to be filed with the town clerk 47 days before the meeting. It just says the meeting. And so the question that I have is what does that mean? What is the meeting? Is that any meeting or is it specifically town meeting? Because the chapter is, the chapter that it's in is annual meeting and other general meetings or something like that. Let's go find it again. Madam Chair, if we can direct that question to attorney Ellis. I think that's a great idea, Bill. Can you call us out? Sure, my reading of the statute is that it applies to the annual meeting. If you look at the rescission re-vote statute, it talks about filing it within 30 days of the vote. That's the more particular or more specific statute. That's what controls. But I'm wondering it says it has to be filed not less than 47 days before the meeting. And so, but you're saying that specifically town meeting, not the meeting where it's re-voted? Correct. Okay, all right. And then my other question is now that we're having yet another vote, are we gonna have more informational meetings? Bill, do you know whether if a, I don't recall what happened the last time we had a re-vote in our community were there subsequent public information meetings prior to the re-vote as well? Is that something we should be scheduling? I don't recall whether there were or not, but it's certainly within your discretion to do so. Evan? So the statute is silent as I remember about this that is clearly up to the select board and your desire to do it, but you can schedule those at any time. They do not need to be scheduled tonight, but that is the board's flavor as to whether you specifically want to do them. If so, staff will certainly put in whatever help needed to do that. Okay, Pat? You're muted, buddy. Thanks. I would be very hesitant about us trying to schedule informational information about this. I don't think we schedule any informational meeting about previous citizen petitions that have come to us. And I also think as a board while we had a specific stance on merger itself, I think that to be frank, this is a new topic. And I don't think that we have as a entire board have really come and decided is re-vote something that the select board approves of or disapproves of or however we want to use the language. So I mean, my gut feeling is that I would be very hesitant unless we really mechanically at another select board meeting said, this is the position we are going to take on a re-vote. And then if we wanted to do information meetings after that, so be it. But I don't think that's something we should be talking about or planning tonight. Bill? Yeah, Evan did a great job summarizing, but he left out one important piece. Once you have a petition signed by 5% of the voters, you don't have any discretion. You have to warn within 60 days a re-vote. It's not a question of whether there'll be a re-vote. You have discretion as to when it's going to happen, but it has to happen. Thank you, my colleague and lawyer, Bill Ellis. Dawn? I'm sorry, I hear all my questions together at the same time. And I apologize. I understand that there was a petition presented at the trustees meeting Tuesday night, which I didn't watch. And I'm not sure what that petition was for. And how does it impact this, our re-vote on the merger? Evan? Okay, so they petitioned the village board to put a advisory question on the ballot for the village stating that if merger, and I'm paraphrasing because they don't have it in front of me, Susan, I don't know if you do, I'm paraphrasing, if the vote for merger is not approved in the negative, then they wish that no later than November, 2021, the village put on a measure on its ballot for separation. It goes on to say that they do not want any other sharing of services or intergovernmental agreements except for potentially the police department. Again, that's paraphrasing from memory. So the relationship between what was presented to the trustees versus what we're seeing tonight is basically a dependency. We are being asked to put this on the ballot tonight for April and then the outcome of that vote in April would determine would be advised by the initiative or the question on that was presented to the trustees the other night. Thank you. And again, far be it, I'm a little out of step here, but it's advisory, it has no authority beyond that. However, usually boards take those very seriously as depending upon the vote, you'll see how much support it gets. Andy, you had your hand up. Yeah, one question I was gonna ask is probably inappropriate because it's not our jurisdiction. So I'll withdraw it. The other thing is for the three plus three citizen led petition, we did have a number of informational meetings. So to say that we haven't done it before is, I think maybe we should talk about it at some point. It's you right, it's not necessarily a topic for tonight. We did have informational meetings on that because the select board put it on the ballot. So we had two public hearings prior to the initial vote. I think the difference here is because it's a re-vote. And then certainly you guys meet next week, you certainly can add that to your agenda that's proper. Okay. Would that be the consensus of the board perhaps to add that to our agenda next week to discuss potential informational meetings regarding this vote? Yeah, I'd like to discuss that. Yeah, I think we should, yeah. So let's add that to Monday night. So returning to the initial question about putting this on the ballot in April, on April 13th or a different date. Are there other questions or comments or observations from board members? I have no questions. Thanks, Vince. Okay, if you don't have further questions or discussion then before we make any vote, Evan, did you have something you wanted to add? Pat has his hands up. Oh, thank you. Go ahead, Pat. No worries, sorry. I think it was probably, I mean, less anything more specific that's a concern and more just a comment while I realized that this is going to become very divisive in our community, especially considering how close the original vote was. I just want us to be aware or rather have the public who's here be aware that this is something that the select board itself must do. We must put it on. It's been spoken before, but this is not us making a decision to kind of get around the fact that merger did not pass. Rather, we're responding to what citizens have brought to us. It's a small point, but I think it's very important. I don't personally like very much the whole idea of revote. I think it kind of is, if I'm being honest, it almost seems like an end run around a democratically elected position or rather how a vote went down. But it is something that we are compelled to do by state statute and that's really all I have to say. Thanks, Pat. If the remainder of the board members don't have any additional questions or comments, then before we vote, we'll open it up to the public. All right. I see we'll go first with Betsy and then Bill and then Dennis. Please go ahead. Thank you. Quick question. I guess this is Susan. Is that do we have time to get the absentee ballots to people who are overseas that did vote this last time and would like to revote? I guess it doesn't have to do. Do we have time for them to get it and get it back to us by that date so it can be counted? Madam chair, could we have the questions directed to the chair? That'll make it easier. Yes. Members of the public who wish to speak do remember to press the chair and I think what I'd like to do is take your questions. I'll write them down and then we'll come back out of public input and answer the questions. That's okay. So Betsy is asking about time for absentee votes in order to get out and come back. Next person to come back from Europe because that's the order. Got it. Okay. Thank you. Bill Silverstrom. Yeah, good evening. So I have a concern about that vote coming up on the same day as the school budget vote for one reason. You're taking an already very divisive issue that's undoubtedly going to produce a very aggressive campaign by both sides here moving forward. And while you're I know it's not the select board. I know it's the people that brought it to you who happened to be the ones that had the one Essex signs, but at the same time there's going to be a bunch of people going in there and you know how the vote was split the first time around. And if you go back and you look at the historical numbers for school budget vote turnout, you may end up producing for the school budget a down vote in a year where they probably don't need that by putting this on the same day just because tempers are going to be flying high and people are not going to be pleased with how this went down. Has the board thought about that? Thanks for that question. We will we will talk about that as well. Dennis Bergeron. Yes, I have a couple of questions. One is I believe we will be receiving the ballots in the mail like we did with the town meeting. Yes, we will. Both for the school and this revote. Yes. Are they going to be separate ballots or is it going to be added to the same ballot? That will ask our clerk and have an answer for you. Okay, thank you. Yep. Mary and then Bruce. Hi. I want to comment on on your and Betsy's little discussion there. I would prefer if you would try to answer questions now instead of writing them down and answering them later because my experience has been that sometimes if I would hear an answer, let's say that you might give Betsy, I might have further information to say, but wait a minute, don't you remember that back when we had this and then it becomes a discussion. So if you just write down the questions and we can't speak again because it's closed off, that's not a discussion. So I would just prefer that we try to do it in a way that we all have an opportunity to participate. Other people that don't have a question might have a question once they hear, you know, an answer. So that's just what I would request of you. Thank you. I appreciate the request. I'm going to try to make a list of the questions so that we can be respectful of everyone's time. And if we have further need for clarification, we will do our best to get that from the folks who ask the questions. Bruce and then Michael. Madam chair, can we get Mary's last name please for the record before we move? Oh, yes, Mary. What is your last name? Mary. Oh, post. Thank you. Thanks. You're brought muted. Oh, sorry. Hi, we're in different rooms. I have a question for the chair that I hope could be directed to the town attorney. I was looking, I think Bill is right regarding the timing of the petition coming in. And he's also correct in citing the statute on reconsideration, recision of vote. We have to do it within 60 days. My question is, it does not set a time for warning that vote, except it says it shall be duly warned. It's not defined in this particular part of the statutes. Exactly where is that definition? And please define where it is and what it says, what constitutes duly warned. Thank you. Okay, we will ask Bill to answer that. And Michael. Thank you. Can you all hear me? Sure can. No, I'm not trying to hide. I just don't have enough bandwidth to show my face on camera. So it's spinning, but it's trying. So we'll be fine. Can you pronounce your last name, sir? Sure. It's Kupfer, K-U-P-F-E-R-E-R. Thank you. Sure. And first, Evan, thank you for teaching us appropriately named about the process here and that we have to go forward with this based on the state statutes where they were written. That was nice to see right up front. And thank you, Patrick, for your commentary about your thoughts on the revote. It was nice seeing some honesty in that answer. I guess my comments are a little less of a question, a little more of something I wrote. I'm going to ask you several questions, but the fact is this year has been like no other. We have all lost something along the way. I work in healthcare. My wife is a teacher. We have one child in college and another in high school. The decisions we made over the last year on a daily basis have been challenging. I also lost my dad to COVID. He was number 55 in the state. And we still haven't had a chance to properly grieve as a family or as a community around him and it's been kind of tough. With all I said, I got to be honest. I haven't had the energy to really focus on the merger issue as much as I'd like to. So instead I have some questions that are probably two months too late, but questions nonetheless. And my first question is, I know in March of 2020 the town voted clearly for a three plus three. So my question is, has the select board acted like a three plus three? I understand the legislature has not accepted this change. They had a lot of other things going on with a pandemic, but it'd be nice to know if the select board went along with the will of the voters and acted in that fashion. And my recommendation would be you can't stop to vote, but would be to have, you know, if the select board could recommend a pause where we could revisit the merger under the lens of the three by three, if it wasn't put out that way in the first place. So that would be my questions. Thank you for your time and if you're all that you do, I know you guys have spent a ton of time and energy on this during the middle of some very difficult times. So we appreciate the support. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Cooper, sorry for your loss. No, it's thank you. Thank you. We're very sorry for your loss, Michael. Thank you. Ken. Good evening. Thank you, Madam chair. I'm not even a simple country lawyer. And I see what built what I'm Bruce sees. He notes that in the recision statute, it refers to a duly warned meeting, meeting being the term used there as well, meeting also an election. So what is duly warned mean? And I do turn to the requirements for a warning. There are in a section titled town meetings, which is the annual meeting that was referred to, but also local elections in general. There are two sections which refer to annual meetings. And then there is the section about the contents of a warning. And when the contents of a warning is to be a petition article, it pretty clearly says that that petition needs to have been filed 47 days from when the vote would be. So the 13th 47 days prior to that is before the 10th. That's my reading of it. And just thought I'd pass that along. That's it for me. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else wish to speak on. This topic before I bring it back to the board and we answer some questions. Thank you. Lara Hagen. My apologies if I mispronounced your name. Okay. So it's our a Hagen. Thank you for taking the time, Madam chair, and everyone here tonight for being on a very long road of lots of ups and downs and opinions. So I appreciate what everybody is doing. and ask that I think it would save money if we were to include the vote which were required to do on upcoming election and ballot that's sort of already on the radar. Secondly I think there is very strong momentum to separate with the village and the town if this does go down as a no vote. If that's how it goes that's a okay but I think there is long term costs for both the town that we should be aware of and convey to constituents that there would be a increased cost either way if it's a no vote or if the village separates there's sort of an increased cost coming if we merge that's the the least costly component how I'm seeing it so if there are information sessions or anything like that if there's a way to share or understand what those costs are that would be terrific thank you. Okay thank you. Irene and then Bob. Thank you Madam Chair. Before I offer my prepared remarks I would like to address the fact that if this is a revote we are voting on a merger or not a merger. People who vote no on merger are voting for status quo and only status quo and all of the commentary and offerings of other options are only just that we need to have future conversations about options that are on the fringe options that have not even been offered up yet there's a lot of work to do in my mind if we go for the status quo or not merger. Thanks. I would like to say that as a frequent petition carrier I applaud Annie's effort to gather so many signatures in short order. I also appreciate Evan reminding us of the statute that tells us about the timing of the warning needed after petition is submitted. However as a voter and a taxpayer I also expect my town to do its utmost to follow the laws about elections and proper notifications thereof. I appreciate that the statute you have in your packet responds to a petition and warns of vote and considers warning of vote for April 13th which does satisfy the timing of a rescission per statute. My understanding is that any local election as Bruce and Ken alluded to including this one must also satisfy statute with regard to the rules about the warning itself not just the timing but the content of the warning and this is where April 13th misses the mark. Per title 17 if Bill hasn't already found it yet chapter 55 section 2642 a 3a quote the warning shall also contain any articles requested by petitions signed by at least 5% of the voters with municipality and filed with the municipal clerk not less than 47 days before the date of the meeting. End quote we have passed the magic 47 day mark. According to my reading of that statute you may warn a meeting that is a vote between 47 and 60 days from yesterday March 10th which would allow you to warn a vote for Tuesday April 27th or Tuesday May 4th. But no sooner. Thank you. Bob. Bob Bates. Bob you're on mute. Okay. I think I'm on now. Can you hear me now? Yes we can. Okay. Thank you. Madam Chairman. My apologies for coming in late to this meeting. I was on another zoom meeting for a church event so I'm sure I've missed a lot and hopefully I'm not repeating things but I would I would agree with concerns that have been expressed recently about the timing and in compliance with state statute. But more importantly I'm concerned that our community is truly suffering from merger fatigue along with pandemic fatigue. I don't think we've ever seen anything in the 30 years I've been in this town including discussions on previous merger attempts and votes. The vitriol and bitterness and personal attacks that have appeared on social media on front porch forum etc etc. We're a divided community right now. And to we need to take a deep breath and start to heal. I would definitely advocate for moving this vote out as far as we could be at May 4th I think Irene just mentioned. And I understand that we incur the cost of another election to do that. But you know we've incurred a heck of a lot of cost over the past two or three years in everything that's been done to investigate the the merger proposal that was just defeated. You know KSV attorneys etc etc etc. So another few thousand dollars at this point would be worth it in my view if we allowed our new board to come together with the trustees and look at what are the definite needs that perhaps have been overlooked by both parties both sides of the issue. And what can we what can we resolve collaboratively in a less than two month period before we have to do a re-vote. It's possible as someone else just alluded to that we might come up with a plan that was more acceptable to people on both sides of the issue. So I would encourage us not to rush this not to put this on that April 13th ballot. Give our boards a little time to work collaboratively together and I know that's been going on for years now but now the you know the rubber hits the road and we have a definite time frame to work with. So and I think again I want to emphasize there's a lot of emotional scars in our community right now as a result of obvious. We need to heal as a community before we rush into another vote. Thank you. Thank you Jason and then Lisa. Hi I'm Jason Valdesero. I have a few questions and a comment I suppose. The first question I have for you to take down please Madam Chairman Chairwoman is what would we know what the actual cost of mailing the 16,000 plus the halts out on the separate balloting measure would be is I think it's more than just a few thousand dollars and it's probably considerably more. Secondly do we have any options to warrant and move the meeting on the 13th further out if there is a few-day issue with what Irene has brought up and third just as someone who sees the passion that I haven't seen before in my community I would be less in favor of moving this vote out further. I think it should happen as soon as possible within the law while people are passionate and while people are energized to get out and actually vote their opinion and vote for what they think is good for the community. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Lisa and then Mike. Sorry this is Gil on behalf of me. Hi Gil. Sorry just I wanted to second that comment I think I understand the desire to push this vote out a little bit longer but I'll just say first of all I wasn't initially all for this revote I thought you know the people that's spoken we're done let's move on but I think that we've been trying to do this for 20 years and we continue to fail and this isn't the first time that this this merger vote has been put to a revote based on campaigning and petitioning and I felt that the village the village residents are serious about about separating and as of both a previous village member and an Essex member Essex town member I I'm very concerned about what Bob Bates was just talking about the kind of fractured division of our of our of our of our community and I feel that I feel that creating more legal loopholes and barriers and pushing this vote out more longer to make it more expensive really just doesn't make sense. I think we need to vote now on this again and we and we and I don't think this is just about a vote for merger or no or no merger status quo. The village is making it very clear that they're fed up with the status quo. I was part of that status quo for 13 years. I live out in the town. I think we had a plan on the books for a fair and equitable and gradual transition to a more equitable point of of taxation of both town residents and village residents. It was a close vote and I'm worried about seeing this this this community divide. I really don't want it to happen. But I do think that that is a very serious possibility aside from what what Irene is insinuating. This is this is a serious potential possibility. So I feel like we do need to revote and I think we need to revote soon. That's all I'll say. Thank you. Mike. Yes. Thank you. Madam Chairman. In the past few days, I'm going to be part of this stuff because I don't speak necessarily contemporary contemporary whatever. You know. In the past few days, I've been collecting signatures for the revote. I've knocked on well over a hundred doors. I've walked over 20,000 steps. My watch has told me so. And I met some excellent excellent. I had some excellent conversations with with the residents. And we really are a friendly place. We have people who are I had very, very few conversations that were at all uncomfortable and many people we discussed a lot of stuff. So I like to explain why I want why I did all that. I was as I was conversing with one resident. He told me he had just picked up a copy of the Essex reporter and he had read the article of articles about merger costs. And I was surprised. And I said, Are you sure it's the Essex reporter? He said, Yes. And he says, Wait a second, I will get it for you. And he left the door and he came back with this. I hope that's in focus. I asked him to look carefully at the banner. When he did, he said, Oh, I thought this was the Essex reporter. I explained it was a publication produced by a group of town residents who and I'm sure it is he that is not the isolate and isolated case. I feel it's very unfortunate that the publication masquerades as a public service when clearly meant to mislead the reader. How many votes were misled by this publication? It bothers me quite greatly. I absolutely understand why the town outside the village taxpayer would not want to vote for merger. It is going to raise their taxes. There's no doubt about it. The village has very graciously, in my opinion, offered 12 year mitigation. In fact, I had several people say I don't want the 12 year I want it now, which led to separation discussion. When it comes to contentious issues over money, the usually the bottom line is who's ox ox is getting gored. In the context of the merger, the town inside the village is a tethered ox who can't even run away. I'm tired of being that ox. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other folks in the audience who have not yet spoken who would like to speak? Andrew Brown. Hi, everyone. And thank you, Madam Chair. I just first want to start off that these are my own words, and these are not the words within my village role, just so that it's clear. For clarification, if you could state whether or not that the plan that would be voted on is the exact same current status that we have with status quo, that would be appreciated. Or if it is, in fact, the same merger plan that was already voted upon, that would be appreciated. Lastly, I just want to state my appreciation for the efficiency of using the existing voting date to reduce cost, as well as volunteer time as our volunteers have already put in many hours on this topic. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else who has not yet spoken? Marcus Serta. Thank you. I would like to first ask a question, Madam Chair, about the cost specifically and where it's coming from. I heard a comment earlier concerning the fact that it sounded like the state would pay for this. If that's the case, then I would say that I don't think it matters about when we do it. Let's do what is right by the statute because cost isn't the factor. So I understand the concern that was expressed earlier considering putting this alongside the school budget vote. I agree that there is potential that the cascading feelings about one issue could spill over to the other. I also acknowledge that it could also potentially bring out more people to vote on a school budget than ever before. So we just don't know. Lastly, I want to acknowledge the fact that I am kind of in the same camp with Patrick in what he expressed earlier in the fact that I did not sign this particular petition. I did not sign this petition because I genuinely feel like we voted on this. We missed it by the smallest of margins. But the vote happened. Well, I cannot ignore just as you cannot ignore the fact that residents of this community have asked for this to be a ballot item. So I will not ignore my fellow residents and voting on this one way or the other. And so I support what they've done because they've done it so well. They've done it strongly and they've vocalized it. I will also acknowledge, too, that technically speaking, yes, this vote for all of us will be strictly a vote for whether or not we're going to accept the merger charter as it was put out by my understanding by the select board. This does not and will not in any vote cause the village to separate. But I can also not we cannot ignore the fact that unlike in past conversations and right now there is that petition before the village. So it needs to be if everybody needs to be aware that village residents have spoke loudly and with conviction that change will happen whether you want to do it with us or not. So I just want and we all need to know that elections have consequences. And this is going to be a very important vote, regardless of which side of this you fall on. Thank you. Thank you, Raj. Hi, thanks very much for the opportunity. And I'm also speaking for myself also as my role on the board of civil authority as a justice of the peace. I think the board has a responsibility to maximize the amount of people that are able to vote on this. And that would indicate ganging up the votes together with the village vote in the school district. But also, as was raised earlier, there will be dozens and dozens of people that will be working this election. And if this vote does not happen concurrently, this petitioned revote, those same dozens and dozens of people will have to go and do this all over again. Stuffing ballots, opening ballots, staffing polling places during COVID, which we do, but it's not comfortable. Not, you know, not the best idea. So I'd like you to keep that in mind that any opportunity we have to both maximize turnout and reduce exposure for those actually carrying out the process would be appreciated. Thanks. Thank you. Is there anyone in the audience who has not yet had a chance to speak who would like to speak? Gabrielle? Hi. Thank you all. I worked really hard for merger the first time. I think this plan is as good as it's going to get. And they think that it's workable. It's not perfect. But we lost. And as a town resident, that was really hard for me. I think merger is the best thing for this community and the sooner the better. Every time we do this, it just just divides us further. So I woke up Wednesday morning. And sure enough, my village resident hat came out and I said to my husband, I am done. I'm done. I know merger is what's best. But you know what, maybe we just have to go our own ways now that we're too divided. And I think I think I'm just gonna put all my energy into separation. And I sat on that for a while until any Cooper called me. And I said, no, Annie, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna fight you on this. But I don't think it's a good idea. We've spoken. It was close, but it's done. And then I got to talking to some of my friends, a couple who live in the town outside the village. And I realized that this is this is it for me. And I want to give merger one last chance. I don't ever want to vote on it again. Ever. I'm not interested in going back to the table. I said this to my trustees this week. I'm not interested in you ever spending time on this again. We separate or we push to some other solution, because if the town outside the village or people in our community in general, don't want merger, I don't want the status quo. And this effort was our was our way in the village of communicating to the rest of our community. I understand that the ballot can only say, do you want merger this plan? Or do you want to separate? The point of the other petition is to help everyone understand that that is the choice in front of you. I can't guarantee we'll get separation through. But I can guarantee you that's where our energy is going to go in the village. It is not going to be to come up speaking for myself as a resident. It's not going to be to come back to the table and do this again. I love Essex. I want to see us come through this together. But I'm okay with coming through it separately. Thank you all so much for all the hard work you have put into this. And I know you can hear this you can hear the emotion in my voice. It's very difficult to be a resident of two different municipalities. And I'm so grateful for this board and I'm grateful for my trustees and I'm grateful for this whole community. I hope we make it through. And I hope where however this takes us that this community can thrive. Thank you all. Thank you. Sarah Michelle. Oh, I didn't even know I had my hand up but yes, I'll speak. Thank you. Um, I agree with all the reasons Michael Raj, Gil, if I said his name correct, Andrew and there was another woman who spoke about the reasons why to place this right to put this on the April ballot. Those are all incredible reasons. And I beg you guys to fall through with that. Another reason I think would be really important to to the village residents is that to have it in April, we'll give us that final answer because yes, I agree with with the fact that we can we're not we I don't want to vote on merger again. Like this is it. And the village needs time. We need time for discussions before November, if merger doesn't pass. So I ask that you think about half of your constituents who are past of your constituents right now, and allow us the time that we need to do to talk about separation and see what that all means. So if you put it off, that's really doing a disservice to half of your constituents. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else who'd like to speak who has not spoken yet? Margaret? Okay, yeah, I didn't want to unmute. Thank you. I'm just a reminder, Madam Chair, that the two merger the two merger documents are not the same that as a long time Essex town resident, I have always been concerned about representation. And the one voted on recently included three plus three, but the one that the village only voted on had a three plus three plus one representation, which means that it's very likely that the one person could be a village resident and the balance of power would be skewed again, which it is right now. And if merger passes, there will be an interim board which includes the trustees and the town. And right now that would mean that there would be five village residents on that board from the trustees. That's not my dog. And two more, at least from the village, so that the board the interim board would include seven village residents and three town residents. Did I get that right? Not quite, Margaret. Oh, would it be six and four with Tracy's election? Yes. Right. Okay. And in any case, there were there were still more village residents than town residents. And that that what's the right word, weighing in gradually increasing the town taxes instead of doing it all at once is something that could be changed at any time. There is no guarantee that that would continue for the 12 years, the board could decide to make a change there. So I don't feel comfortable with what my representation is going to be. And not looking forward to taxes going up, just a reminder to village people that for a long time, IBM paid a percentage of village taxes. So that village residents included more things in their budget. And then once IBM stopped paying their taxes did go up. But it was all stuff that they voted for people in the town outside the village had no say on any of those tax issues. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone who has not spoken yet who wishes to speak? Okay, we have three folks who have already spoken once will go in order Betsy, Mary, Dennis, please keep your remarks very brief since you've already had a chance to speak. And then we will move back to the board. I guess I get first. Thank you. So I know you've taken the under advisement that you may have informational meetings. Given ballot that you have and the request for separation should the merger fall or fail. I think that informational meetings are absolutely needed for both the village and the town outside of the village, because everyone needs to know what are the repercussions of the vote. And it can't be well, you talked about it before. We need to have a very clear statement and not based on two years ago data, we need to have it right now hearing clear, I think, what happens to the mo use that we have for some of the things that are put together. What happens with the things that we haven't really blended? What happens with the police? What happens with the public works? What happens with the role and the rolling, rolling, moving parts of the public work. But you know what I mean, but all those things need to be laid out, clear the bell for people. And so I do think you need to have information for meetings. But I'm sorry that the 47 days doesn't match with the April 13 vote, because that would make it easy. But if we need to go by that, it just would be more time to do those meetings. Thank you. Thank you. Mary. Mary Post. I believe this is germane, because Mike Sullivan was allowed to speak about it. But I'm, I am a little upset with him talking about how the Essex retorter is essentially lying that they tell on truths. My experience with the retorter is that everything they talk about or or figures they give are all documented. And it'll all say things like you can go look at the town, you know, the town site, everything is documented. And, you know, the people that work on the Essex retorter were accused of being liars. They were accused of absolutely giving misinformation on I'm paraphrasing, no, I don't have the exact words, but essentially accused of giving wrong information and being manipulative. And then later, Sarah Macy, our own beloved Sarah Macy, you know, exonerated them and said no, actually, that the figures they were giving were correct. So at a subsequent meeting, it was brought up a little bit about they were correct. And there was no apology given just something said about well, you know, we maybe got our own, you know, a math wrong. And they were never still given an apology. All the venues where the accusations and the defamation I believe of their character was put up was never ever retracted. And I'm just very upset about that because we took we had to sit and listen to this statement before we began on how we would treat each other. And that has not been the experience of a lot of people not only during this merger vote, but through many, many select board meetings. And I think that it's, we need to have time to rethink everything. There is so much nastiness and ranker. I think that this is going to make everything worse. But I also to get back to what I was talking about, I think that Ken Signorello and Irene are owed an apology, because I think they have been extremely and egregiously mistreated. Thank you. Thank you, Dennis. Yes, I just want to just paraphrase a few things. You know what I mean? I know this, this is going to be a re-vote. However, I'm a little appalled at the people that that came on to speak. They're using this, you know, the we're going to separate the village is going to separate from the town. You know, maybe that would be a good thing. Because if the village really wanted a good merger, they would have put all their cards on the table from the beginning. And they would have listened to the town taxpayers from the town outside the village prior to making up their own charter plan, which is different than the town plan. And so that was one of the reasons why I voted no on the merger in the first place is because you've got conflicting charter plans. And I'm a single I'm a retiree on a fixed income. I have to figure out where I'm going to come up with the 4 plus percent tax increase for the town budget that was passed, let alone another additional $2,000 over the course of 12 years to pay taxes on my house. You know, I mean, every time I walk around my neighborhood, I see another house go up for sale. Every time taxes go up, houses go up for sale. People move out. You know what I mean? There's going to be like New York City, you know, where people just moving out because they can't pay the taxes. You know, unfortunately, our elected officials should be looking at how to reduce cost and listen to the taxpayers. That's all I have to say. Thank you, Bill and then Ken and then we need to move on. Yeah, I just wanted to make a couple comments since I went early and and had a chance to listen to some folks on here. I just wanted to give you a quote, you know, Einstein put it nicely, you know, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. And in listening to people like Bob Bates, obviously we're seeing and hearing the frustration and the and the fatigue that's out there insofar as how this merger issue has gone thus far. And I even from hearing and like I said, as Dennis put it, where there were folks that came on here and are almost threatening, you know, that the village, oh, we're just going to we're going to separate and this is going to be it. We don't want the status quo. And if you don't vote for this, guys, you're drawing battle lines here, whether you like it or not. And this is going to be a very, very divisive month. If you have another vote on this, you reap what you sow. And I'm telling you, it this from 10,000 feet does not look good. I think social media is going to be supercharged this time around. I don't think it's going to be great. I think it's it's going to separate us even more. And you know, it's on you. I also want to know before we even do this, is this legal to do it with what Ken brought up, and the amount of time that has to take place before a vote can actually happen? Because that also takes my concern out of it. Because if this issue gets as divisive as I believe it will, I think that you're going to have people go in there and possibly vote on our school budget. And then that's on you. Not the select board, the people who wanted to revote on the same date as the select board vote. I'm sorry, it's going to cost more money. And that's terrible, because we really don't need to be spending money on things like this. But at this point, I'm sorry, you know, I've been in sales for 25 years, you know, I win and I lose. But you know what, I've won more than I've lost. And to me, this doesn't look like people are moving on. It looks more like sore loser syndrome. Thank you, Ken. Thank you, Madam Chair, I will be brief. I'm all for saving money. I'm also for following the law. If Section 2642 of Chapter 55 of Title 17 does not apply here, I wonder where is the specifications for the contents of a notice? I don't see it anywhere else anywhere in the statutes. I also note that as part of Chapter 55, it talks about special meetings and other sort of activities besides annual meetings. So I do believe that my opinion, not legal, mind you, neatly trained is that this does apply to this warning and maybe a problem. Thank you. Thank you. Please keep your comments to something you have not already said. We also have someone who has not yet spoken once. Adam Newhart, please go ahead. Hey, this is actually Athena. I'm using my husband's account since he already has one set up. I just wanted to thank you everyone for your time. I'll be really quick because my babies keep waking up and I don't know if I will get interrupted mid-sentence. So I just wanted to share something that I was reading on one of the meeting minutes from September 2020, where Sarah Macy gave her budget about how the village and the town were paying for things from taxes. And in the final section under Final Thought, she states, there are inequities in the way government is funded in our current situation. Village taxpayers are paying for services they are not eligible to receive and are paying more for services that they and town outside the village taxpayers have equal access to. This means that town outside the village taxpayers are paying less than the true cost for some services. That's pretty big and I've never seen that explicitly stated anywhere. Obviously it was in this packet that I just quoted out from. I live in the town outside the village and obviously that's that's a pretty sweet deal for me. However, for my friends who live in the village, that's that's pretty terrible. And I can understand why they do not want to be stuck in that situation. I don't think that it's threatening anyone to say that they do not want to stay in a situation that feels untenable. People have a right to leave situations that they do not feel good in. Point blank, they are not obligated to stay to make anybody comfortable or to make their life easier or to improve somebody else's taxes. They people have a right to their own autonomy and to do what is best for them. And I absolutely support their decision to do that, even though separation would cause my taxes to skyrocket. But, you know, people have a right to make their own choices. And thank you very much. Thank you. Jason, brief comments. Very brief. I just wanted to echo what I was just said that I don't think that folks hearing that the village is interested in separation if a merger is not attendable for the majority of the residents of the town and the village voting. I don't think that wanting to separate is a threat. I think it's just trying to be educational that there really is finally the momentum to move forward. And I'm torn out what's better, merger or separation. Honestly, I love the village that I live in. I love the town outside the village. But if we do totally need different things, that will be what it comes down to. But I think overall we should be able to combine it into one entity. But if not, I definitely see that the energy is there to look towards separation. And I don't think that's meant as a threat to anyone. It's just the facts of what's the position we're in. Thank you. Thank you. Irene, brief comments. Thank you. I believe separation is unaffordable for the village or else the village would have gone there already. So I do believe it's an idle threat and I don't appreciate it. The quote that Athena offered, I have rebutted at length on Facebook and I will continue to rebut it at length. There are no services that the village pays for that the town outside the village. I won't go down there. But suffice it to say, there is no proof for the four departments that have not yet consolidated that that statement was true and holds up. I would hope that Annie would reconsider her reconsideration and offer the Select Board some sort of deal. For example, if the Select Board promises to warn a vote before November 1st of 2021 of El Merger, a more complete plan, something that all five members of the Essex Select Board could get behind and promises her that they would offer that, that she would pull this back and not make us rush to vote on something that we've already voted on. Thank you. Thank you. I'm assuming this is Gil Allen, not Lisa Allen. Brief comments please. Sorry, this will be very brief. I just want to echo what Athena and the other gentleman before me said and that is, as a resident of the of the town, I do not feel that I'm being held hostage by a threat from the village. I know I have friends in the village and the town and and I know for a fact that they are simply tired. I don't see this as a threat. I see this as them ready to move on. And I worry that this is not a threat. It's a dire warning for all of us and I want to remain whole as a community. That's it. All right. Thank you everyone for your comments. We really appreciate it. I'm going to bring the conversation back to the Select Board now. We have a number of questions that I've gathered over the conversation and so we'll just proceed from there. So the first questions were will there be time for absentee ballots from overseas to come in with the timeline that we're looking at? So I'm guessing that's a question for Evan and Susan. I will defer to Susan on that. Okay. The timeline for the ballots will be about the same as it was for town meeting. We have about 70 overseas voters that we are able to email ballots to. I'm sorry about my lighting here. We're able to email the ballots to them but they have to print those and fill them out and mail them back by regular mail with the signed certificate. And we did get several back in time for March 2nd. And I email those as soon as I don't wait for the actual ballots to arrive. I usually send the proof when I get it so that they get it earlier and they have time to fill it out and get it back. But I expected to be at about the same timeline. Okay. Thank you Susan. Thank you. Okay. So that's that one. There were several questions regarding the 30 days versus 47 days. So there were I think four different people asked about that. So can we have some information about that? I would like Bill Ellis or the town attorney to address that please. I thought I addressed it earlier in the meeting but the specific statute regarding rescission says the petition needs to be submitted within 30 days of the vote. So I don't believe 47 days applies. That's my opinion. I'm going to stick with it. And Susan I don't know if you had any conversation with the Secretary of State's office on the subject matter. No, but this is a petition for a revote. It is not a petition to put something on the town meeting ballot or warning. And the statute is very specific. There's a specific statute for reconsideration or rescission of articles voted on at a meeting, a previous meeting. And the petition has to be received within 30 days of the vote. And the board, once it's received, has to set a meeting date to vote on it within 60 days of receipt. Thank you. Thank you, Susan and Bill. Evan, there was a question about the ballots themselves. Will these questions be on separate ballots or will all the questions be on one piece of paper? What will that look like when people open their mail? I am trying very hard. Sorry. Just decided to start. It was coming to you anyway, Susan. Do you want me to answer this? I'm trying very hard to get it on one ballot, two sides. But the village ballot is very long and I think the school district ballot is pretty long. And we might have to go over onto another page. I mean, possibly you could do an 18 inch long ballot, but I don't know. We're going to try as hard as we can to get it all on one piece of paper that's double-sided. Okay. Thank you. There was a question regarding whether the select board was already implementing three plus three and then whether the select board should revisit three plus three in the merger charter. So if I'm incorrect and interpret. I can answer that. Of course. Go right ahead. Okay. Thanks. The merger statute is another merger statute. The reconsideration rescission statute is clear. You have to want you have to have the same article. No changes. Sorry. Sorry, Bill. If I'm stepping on your toes, it is you have to put out the same article. No changes. Right. And then I think we missed one alert. There's a question. A person was worried about the school vote. And have we given any consideration to that? Yes, we've given a lot of consideration to the school budget vote. So much so that I contacted their CFO about if if the April 13th vote was moved. What was the school district comfortable with? He did not want to speak for the board because he had not had that conversation with but based upon the state law, if their budget does not pass, they have to figure out what they want to do in terms of presenting a new budget. They have to warn it, etc. etc. They his converse unofficial conversation with me was we could do something no later than May 4th. That would give time for at least one more of vote with the proper warnings. So that's just the answer to that question. That's why we also wanted to make sure that if the select board was of a mind to do April 13th, that was one option. The next option latest would be May 4th because of other notice requirements. Sorry to interrupt, Madam Chair. Thank you, Evan. You might as well keep going. The next question is about the cost of the mailing. Just before the meeting, I sent an email from Susan, our town clerk. Please don't quote me on the exact number, but it is somewhere just above $25,000 to do an Australian ballot with all the envelopes, all the ballots, this postage and printing. And then there was a comment, will the state pay for it? The state is stating that there's a pot of money that they will look to communities to do some reimbursements. That is generally thought to be for town meeting votes. We have no indication yet that the state would reimburse the town for any expenses beyond town meeting because it's a pool of money statewide. Okay. There was also a question about whether the select board could consider moving the April 13th meeting out a little bit. That's not our jurisdiction. That is the annual meeting of the trustees. So Evan, unless I'm misinterpreting that question, that's not something the select board can do. That is not in the purview of the select board to move anybody else's meeting. I referred to my previous statement about the school district. It would be the concern of whether it's the town or the village that their partner in the school district is not harmed. Can I ask a related question on that? Just a clarification. When does the school district need to warn their vote? If it's going to be on the 13th? Or has it already been warned for the 13th? They've already warned it. Okay. So I was confused by Evan's comments that it could move to May 4th. That's where I'm... As I understand it, they could re-warn their meeting. They can move it. The state has said that communities and municipalities can move their date of their annual meeting. They could do that, I believe, and I'll leave the lawyering to Bill. But they came to that. What's that? We did that last year. The school board warned originally that COVID hit. So it was re-warned this president. Yeah. And so the following date, the latest because of warning requirements for an annual meeting, not a reconsideration is, I believe... I really hate to do this. I believe it is 47 days. But that is for an annual meeting, not reconsideration or rescission. We would just match it because we really would only want one more election. And then we've mentioned elections are very difficult to administer. You have a town this size, 16,000 registered voters. That's envelopes. That's mailings. That's stamps. That's postage. It's absentees. It's people overseas. And it is also happening at a time when we are collecting taxes. We are collecting water bills and we are doing dog licensing. It just... If it can be avoided and can be combined, that was a consideration. We thought the select board should take up. Is there a complication with regard to printing the ballot, though, if there's a possibility that the school board's date could change? If April 13th holds, there is no issue with printing ballots. Right. Sorry, I guess I'm confused by that question, but I'll table it. Thanks. There was also a question or request to specify specifically which merger plan is being re-voted. And so it's the merger plan that was approved by the select board on January 11th. And it was the one that was voted on on March 2nd. And it's the one that contains the three plus three governance model, not the village version that was three plus three plus one. Hopefully that answered that question. I believe I've gotten all the questions, but Evan, you usually. I have I have one. What what is the depth? And I'll give this to Bill. What is the definition or constitutes duly warned? Seventeen VSA section twenty six forty one. No less than thirty days. No more than forty days. Publish in a newspaper, post in two or more places in the municipality. And then twenty six forty two talks about the content of that. Warning, but that's that's duly warned is no no less than thirty, no more than forty. So you got a ten day window in which. So that's why this meeting had to happen tonight because you'd have to warn it for April 13th by Sunday the 14th of March. And our next select board meeting that was on the calendar was Monday, which would be too late. Correct, sir. And that would address the rules of warning. Of this particular statute for reconsideration rescission, correct, Mr. Ellis? Correct. I'm going through the madam chair. I'm going through my list. There was a same question. What is the actual cost to mail out the ballot? Susan, I don't have your email in front of me twenty five thousand. But not more than twenty six roughly. Same question. What are the options to move it further out? Again, the the select board has a maximum of 60 days from the from yesterday when this petition came in. Therefore, one option is the 13th. Another option would be made forth at the latest. Again, once you start, and I'll explain this, once you start getting into this, we have ballots that need to be printed. We have envelopes that need to get done. We have envelopes that need to be stuffed. We have people that have absentee ballots. They have to be mailed out. It is a chorea choreographed chaos to do this. The other thing we also need is we need polling places, which we use our school district. Thank you very much, Martha and others who are here that allow us to do it. That is a disruption of the school and the schools that we're in. They're very gracious to do this for their community. And so we try to fit with them what is amenable to them as well. So that's the answer to that question. It is the same ballot measure that was addressed. Is the state going to reimburse us? Again, we mentioned this. We have no indication that they will, but we will apply and we're going to apply for April 13th anyway, as I understand it. But we are hoping to get funding for that. We have no indication from the state that they will reimburse us for any special meetings that are not town meeting related. This is a a ballot item that is up for reconsideration. But on that on that question, though, it will be somehow shared with the school district and or the village. However, I don't write. So it's not that the town is not paying the full. I don't believe or are we? Yeah, that's the full cost of this election. I'm going to turn that over to Susan, because I'm not really familiar with what the arrangement is with the school district or the village on this vote. Yeah, normally with the village in school vote, we split the costs with the school district. So that's so we would just the town if they decided to go with the April 13th, they would just be coming in with that group. Maybe we would split it three ways. I don't know. And again, this is a citizen led petition. It is not coming from the town, but it is the right of the citizens to bring it. It is the requirement of the select board to address it and warn it. They they're you know, they can take a position on it, but it wasn't theirs to to put it on the ballot. It's just required. Madam chair, those were all the questions and things other than there were comments, but they weren't questions. We both got all the questions then. So thank you, Evan. Board members, further comments, observations or questions? OK. Our next step should be to vote. And I just want to confirm the language is in our packet. So would anyone like to make a motion based on the recommendation that is in our packet today? Can I ask one quick thing? The people who have their hands up if they could possibly take them down. It's a little confusing. I know you I see Greg. Thanks. I don't see any other people. I still see Sarah Michelle, Dennis Bergeron. Maybe it's my screen. Thank great. And then. Thanks. Never mind. Greg, go ahead. Sure, the motion that's in your packet was included last night before the town clerk and verified the signatures. She has Susan has done so at this point. Slate modification for my recommendation for the motion would be that the select board approve authorized staff to approve a warning for special time meeting on April 13th, 2021. Assuming that is the day you want to go forward with. Right. So just drop off that last phrase because the signatures have been verified. Correct. OK. OK. Is there a board member who would be interested in making that motion? Yeah, I move that staff or I move that the select board approve a warning for a special town meeting on April 13th, 2021. Provided that. Yeah. OK. Sorry. Is there a second? I'll second it. Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed. OK. This is unanimously. Thank you very much. There are no other business items on the agenda. So unless there's something, Evan or Greg, that we need to address that we're unaware of, I'll call for yes. Seven. Just one thing, I really want to thank the board one for being available to do this very quickly to thank you to the citizens for coming out and voicing their opinions and their questions as much appreciated. And thank you and good night. For me for a motion to adjourn. I make the motion we adjourn. Thank you, Dawn, second. Second. I think I've heard Vince do that one. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed. All right. Thank you for coming out on Thursday. Thank you, Elaine.