 Good evening everybody welcome to the board of select when meeting for Monday, February 21st of 24th excuse me of 2014 First item. We have is a consent agenda We've got the minutes of the meeting for February 10th and a request for the one-day beer and wine license For town hall for Dalin elementary school spring auction. Is there anyone here from Dalin who wanted to talk about that? Seeing no one do I have a motion? Oh you are then do you want to come on up to a mic and Welcome hi, could you introduce yourself? I'm Kate Lucian welcome at 39 Inferness Road, and I'm the PTO co-president at Dalin so we're Grateful for you to consider our request to have a one-day liquor license for our biennial auction We have approval on a second on our desks right now. We've got something that wasn't in the packet Just read it a second ago From officer Ratau and about he reviewed and signed off on the application But he had a couple concerns He wanted us to talk about and one was you've got one And you're expecting 300 people do you expect to really only have one and if so are they gonna bring in other people? And if so you have to be they have to be in compliance and have their names ages and training certificates listed We expect to have more than one and they will be in compliance And if we need we can provide him with that information in advance of the event to satisfy his questions So the movement the motion that we make as part of this is complying with all conditions So it is required that you have to have all that stuff before beforehand understood Okay, and the second thing is it's a first for application applicants plan on transporting excess alcohol Premises rather than having them distributors retrieve it And so just want to be clear that your licenses for serving and pouring and the excess alcohol cannot be sold to any Individuals to take off-premise. We understand that and we again With his request excellent. Thank you for dealing with the Administration and just to do a little bit of plug on what's happening on the April 11th So Dallin holds an auction every other year. It's our primary fundraiser for the PTO at Dallin and We have lots of wonderful donations both from the Dallin community and from Greater Arlington and anything beyond And anyone in the community is invited to join us. There's a website which of course I don't have off the top of my head that would be nice but we We can probably put a link to it through through our Dallin school website, so If people go to the Dallin school website, they'll see it soon enough any questions further on Dallin Thank you very much. I did have one note on the minutes that I've followed up with just today Mary Annemarie under article 54 minutes, which is the resolution to have an electronic voting. It says We talked about favorable action. I think the vote we actually took was for to report to report because we want to Talk we don't we aren't actually making a recommendation about electronic voting We're waiting for the electronic voting experiment then actually doing that so without objection that minute correction Does anyone else have anything else on the consent all those in favor, please say aye Thank you Next up introduction of the new veterans agent Jeffrey Chung low So I just wanted to give the board an opportunity to meet face-to-face the new veterans agent Jeffrey Chung low He can refresh me. I believe he's either a second or third week already He comes here with a very impressive resume 19 years in the Navy as a Navy reserve As well as experience working in the medical industry and at the Veterans Administration Hospital with a real passion for veteran services So I know he's already impressed since he's been here, and I just wanted to give him the opportunity to say hello I tell you a few things about himself and then give you a chance to ask any questions you might have Thank you Good evening Jeff Chung love your director of veteran services Very thrilled to be here as Mentioned it is a passion of mine So past 19 plus years I'm a Navy senior chief hospital corpsman So familiar with the medical side of all the issues Also past employee with the VA. So I'm very familiar with that side as well So all the paperwork side just really really keen on Serving the community your veterans needs We do face some challenges now with the returning younger population Some other female specific issues Trying to capture those people and provide excellent service for the community First I want to say on a personal note. Thank you for your service for our country I definitely appreciate that my husband's a former Marine I made the mistake of saying X Marine on time introducing him and you don't do that First foremost, thank you on that Second I just wanted to ask you in terms of and from your resume curriculum vitae Cover letter. You're certainly well-versed not only being a veteran, but by some of the past positions you've held I'm just wondering and you haven't been here Bailey a month, so I don't expect you to have a hundred and fifty percent answer But being a veteran and you site in there, you know the experiences that need that you will encounter coming back Coming out of the service or coming back and going back into the service We have many different departments and services here in Allington We're your first sort of outreach besides, you know for veterans and veterans clubs But thinking about veterans and their families whether the servicemen or women are overseas and helping the family That's here now with whatever services they might need or helping returning veterans whether it's filling out forms of the VA or getting Services that they need psychological or vocational. I'm just curious. How you envision doing that for us Multifaceted there are a lot of different aspects your elder Veteran population and dependence so senior center outreach programs that way and then media campaigns Launching different campaigns through the community through the VA If you have people that have registered for welcome home bonuses reaching out to them Anyone who has filed a DD 214 or through your town census has been listed as a veteran That's a point of contact. So that's information that you have What's the best way if a veteran or his or her family member wants to contact you? Are you an email? Are you a phone? Are you something else? Any and all any and all open access Sure, we're very delighted to have you here You obviously have some big shoes to fill Bill McCarthy was really I think just not just because of what he did When he was earning like when he was you know collecting his paycheck But the stuff that he does around that and outside that he's a significant part of our community and you know We I'm sure you I'm sure you'll enjoy the challenge Yes, and thankfully hope he'll still be a resource I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Chung a lot Mr. McCarthy is very well and I'm looking forward to working with them All right. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Thanks One thing I meant to do with the opening of the meeting and it slipped my mind Which is I generally announced that these meetings are being recorded and being cable cast on ACMI and might be Recorded by other people. That's something I should have done in the beginning, but it is done now next up Appointment for the Transportation Advisory Committee major each morris Marjorie. Excuse me. Thank you Welcome you want to introduce yourself. Tell us what your relationship with tack is and what you want to do My name is Marjorie Morris. There's no problem. I'm used to it now And I have been an advisory Role to the tack for about eight or nine months now a non-voting member and with some turnover They've asked me to step up I'm just you know getting to be in sync with with all the issues and the projects and things that the committee's been working on personally I am Marketing and sales professional 25 years and consumer products. I work most of that time with Welch's food I have found myself with some free time lately and this is really my first time kind of volunteering in a town committee and I'm really you know pretty much enjoying getting used to Meeting everyone and learning the ropes Thank you I We rely on tack a lot as you know already so We they definitely get some of our thornier issues and they do a lot of homework for us And so we really appreciate it. We thank you very much for signing up to help out and bring your wisdom back up So we can make smart choices about Do we have Motion Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, majorie Next up we have a pointy to the board of registrar state law says that the two leading parties each get a seat on our three person board of registrars and The Republican seat I gather is vacant and the Republican Party has come a Republican committee has come forward with three recommendations And we've got a letter from Sean Harrington the chairman Sean are you here? Okay, so but we do have three names here We've got Philip Lones. I apologize John Warden and Judith Quimby and Mr. Warden I see your Standing up do you want to come on up and introduce yourself and then we'll it will also invite Not mr. Warden that you actually need introduction, but Thank You mr. Don John Warden Jason Street. I think most of you know me from my long services 19 years as moderator town meeting and I've been involved in elections in this town since 1968 And I've run in quite a few of them since 1970 I would be honored to have this appointment as The Republican I know those are those strange words in this chamber Member Long pleasant working relationship with the town clerk's office going back the days of Mrs. Powers and then Corrin mainville and now Mr. Correlli and I know all the people in there and we all get along very well together So I think it would I think it would be a good fit as you know the law requires as you mentioned that three people be nominated and the the town committee had a meeting and they The majority of them supported My nomination and requested that you make that appointment. Thank you. Thank you Any questions for us to ward Thank you Mr. Lones miss Quimby Mrs. Mahan I'd like to move that we appoint John L ward in the third of 27 Jason Street as the Republican appointee for the Board of Registrar voters I also spoke with a few members of the Republican town committee over the weekend who? Spoke well of all three candidates, but my sense was The majority support was with Mr. Warden I will second the nomination for a former moderator in our Arlington honor award recipient from this this board All those in favor, please say aye Thank you very much congratulations, mr. Warden Next up immunity development block grant I Community development block grant performance update for program year 2013 We also have a second one which is to vote which is the request for the 2014 2015 funding I'm assuming you want to do these separately Carol Okay Thank you. I'm going to just give you some highlights. Is the microphone position properly to I want to first give some highlights six six bullet points on highlights of performance from sub recipients this year If I may the Arlington Boys and Girls Club provided working parents with a safe affordable place for 62 children To spend the summer months. They also provided summer employment for five teens in 2013 The club also made improvements to the boys locker room, especially for accessibility improvements for patrons with disabilities Vision 2020 conducted their census survey in 2013 with a strong return rate of 24 percent Focusing on how residents receive information about Arlington issues and events How they participate in town government and Arlington events and awareness of town goals The Arlington Youth Counseling Center used CDBG funds to ensure that 34 eligible families received mental health counseling and therapy $15,000 in CDBG funds helped provide 221 client sessions for children and adolescents many of whom are not covered for these services anywhere else The Arlington recreation department dispersed nearly $12,000 for scholarships 37 individuals and families they also provided three Arlington individuals with jobs for low income youths and allowed 11 young people to participate in the Arlington Hockey Club through the Arlington Youth Hockey Scholarship program Just a couple more highlights here Operation success you're going to hear more from them themselves Shortly, but they're located in Monotomy Manor housing development. They provide educational support to 25 to 30 students it's all volunteer and The program is Monday through Thursdays every Monday through Thursday evening during the academic year CDBG funds used were used to purchase supplies and equipment for the program Fidelity house provides an outreach program to the children of Monotomy Manor which include free memberships Free transportation to and from Fidelity house and free camperships and participation and other youth programs offered at Monotomy Manor Typically 90 to 100 children are served annually So those are some impressive in my opinion impressive results Where a lot of our community groups are really making the most out of the CDBG funds they receive We've received and you will receive some more requests this evening. We've received 2.5 million in requests for the coming year We do not know as you are Familiar with past years you typically don't know what your allocation is going to be for the following year at this point in a program year So we'll have to see what we get, but we'll make our best attempt based on the current year's allocation Thank you Do you want to walk through a little bit about how CDBG works? Or do you want it? Or do you want it? Were you planning on doing that when we talk about? the request for next year I Can try to address any part of that We receive funds from housing and urban development the There is a subcommittee of the board of selectmen that works with planning staff to develop the budget and to allocate the allotment plus any program income from the current year and there are several different categories Rehabilitation and housing public services public facilities and improvements and Planning and administration Well, there are other categories that we have not For some years used I think this coming year you'll see some for the historic preservation Which is that can be a separate category and economic development? Then just where we're at this point It was sort of an informal process in past years and it's gotten a little more formalized and I know the town manager Miss Kowalski have done it if we could at whatever point the town manager and the planning director Deem appropriate whether it's halfway through the year or two-thirds of the way through the year Just sort of an approximation of you know the funding that went out what's been spent Similar to requests that unfortunately we can't for I hope we can fill them all But I anticipate that we may not be able to fill them all to the exact amount that I really want So it was done informally in the past with previous town managers. I know it was done this past year So whatever point I just want to sort of put a placeholder and that you all deem appropriate halfway through two-thirds of the Way through if we could get that it was just a one-page informal report just saying here's where we are And then I think last year one or two projects that were highlighted That's that's a Incredibly fair request and I believe what we did last year was when we put the proposed budget before the board for Endorsement to go before a town meeting. We had a report on what had been spent today and we can go back Other questions about the item 6 the update for the 2013-14 For receipt then Second This is a public hearing does anyone have any comments on the current program year Seeing none all those in favor of receipt, please say aye For zero all right next up our requests for 2014 2015 Which at least this far Looks something like this We have requests at this point Totaling almost two and a half million. We expect I expect you will have some additional requests tonight We've received requests for a million fifty thousand in rehab and housing 264,000 in public services 930,000 in public facilities and improvements 118,000 in planning and 110,000 in admin Is there anyone here who wanted to talk about proposals or present new proposals come on up Welcome back. Thank you so much. My name is jenna McGuire and I am representing Peggy Regan and myself for our operation success We are going into our 15th year of volunteering For operation success We'd like to thank the town of Allenton Allenton housing authority Allenton police department Allenton advocate for just doing a recent article on us and of course Anna Whitten who has always supported us and helped us through the process For operation success to run though we have 16 teacher volunteers from the artist in middle school They volunteer Monday through Thursday evenings Peggy Regan and myself are the supervisors along with Julie keys We have five community residents that are volunteering as well one retired teacher and two teachers from outside of Allenton We are in the process we have scheduled a girls night a boys night and Thank you again for the computers. They're still up and running and being Service, so thank you and we are requesting 6000 for supplies and keeping up the center again It's a total volunteer project and all the money goes to the students that come in voluntarily there So again, thank you very much. Thank you questions. I'll say I Find yours is one of the easiest ones to Like there are a lot of competition and yours is one of those ones that it's like it is just so easy to say yes to and so I look forward to I mean, obviously we have to make an official vote later on But I'm really delighted with the work that your group does and I thank you very much Thank you. We'd love to have you come down some time Thank you Oh Sorry second row. Sorry. All right. Good. Well Hello, I'm Lisa urban. I work at Deli house and I Know I've come every year and I really appreciate the support and that's one of the reasons I want to make sure I come and and make sure that people are aware of the program that we do offer because it's it's such a necessary thing for our town and One of the things we do do is We provide transportation the number the two things that we've found have been the biggest barriers to Acclimating kids to the whole community is transportation and Just giving financial opportunity So we try to fit the needs of all the different kids down there. We down that reside down in the housing at Minami Manor we Provide transportation for day camp They attend their day camp. They have swimming lessons in the morning. It's a whole it It really is like the old-fashioned values of day camps from the past Current hopefully years to come And then we bring them back at the end of the day So they are getting swimming lessons there with camp minimum of two weeks It's really three weeks average for each kid that attends Then we also do an onsite program during the school year one day a week And then we also bring them to Fidelity house twice a week and you know They join all the activities at Fidelity house and then we bring them back so obviously the transportation and getting them as Involved in pot as possible and given the same opportunities as everyone else is what our goal and we obviously can't do it Without your help so we appreciate it And I did ask for a little bit more this year. Just we've really seen a lot of the younger kids Always asking us how much something costs, which is just a sign that The parents are really struggling and money is a huge issue So we want to make sure that those kids Are enjoying things and not worrying about how much things are and can I participate because it costs money So I did ask for 4,000 or 18,000 but Hopefully it can work out and thanks Again for your support because we couldn't do it without you guys Thank you Thank you very much Hi, I'm Pam Hallett. I'm executive director of the housing corporation of Arlington. Welcome. Thank you I want to say first of all, thank you very much for all your support over the last 27 years We've done 90 units of housing and there's no way we could have done probably any of it without the town's serious support I just want to tell you that we're looking forward to a very exciting couple of years We have a number of locations in the town that we're hoping to develop additional housing for I think it's most of it's in the report that you received So I won't go into specifics here But you should know that we have over a thousand households on our waiting list Which is astounding to us and we have many many elderly and Sort of middle-aged people walking into our offices on a daily basis either almost homeless or Currently homeless sleeping on someone's couch. So we really appreciate any kind of support you can give us To go ahead and build 27 units in one location ten in another and perhaps six to 27 if we can Get the rest of the land under control for the next couple of years Department of Housing and Community Development for the state has invited us to apply for the 27 unit So we're madly putting that application together now to make for the mark 21st deadline So wish us luck on that, but I just want to say thank you and I Hope you look at us finally Thank you any questions Thank you very much Welcome Hi, I'm Ann LaRoyer the chair of the open space committee and I've been here for quite a few years But some of you know in the past through CDBG grants We've gotten funding to help us put together the open space plan and the current plan expires in December of 2014 So we're asking for less than ten thousand dollars this year To help us hire a consultant to help us do some of the research background research and also do the graphic design And the presentation of the final report that will of course come to you In draft form and for your endorsement and it will go to town meeting and then it goes to the state for their official approval and As you might know the open space plan is important for the town to have it in place so we can apply for state grants for open space concerns and recreation issues and Timing is good this year because with the master planning process going on both plans are actually Complementing each other, so we're able to you know use some information back and forth So that's another reason why we're requesting less money this time than we were last time which was fifteen thousand dollars So we hope that you will of course again support this planning grant and Look forward to seeing the plan as it comes together during the year. Thank you. Thank you Thank you very much Anyone else want to talk about community development block grants have an application. They want to submit anything like that Seeing none I guess the one thing I should mention is that because we talk I sit on the subcommittee with Steven and One of the things that we're concerned about is that the amount of money that we get from community development block grants continues to Be challenged and especially with things like the budget sequester and other items that happen Because this of course is a purely federal program is that we lose money and so not only do we get more requests We also have left less to pass out and so One of the things that I think we at this point need to pass out every time we Is talking about What the long-term plan is and how can we all these you know charities and projects and plans? Identify other sources of funding because the community development block grant probably it's not going to be the one that can solve us Forever, and it's going to it's going to require us to make some really hard choices Going forward All right, so we have a motion for the comment. I just say to your point. I appreciate the Quite a number of the applications did include a denda that addressed that specific point as well that that's appreciated All those in favor, please say aye opposed Not for zero. Thank you very much. All right, and I you know if you hadn't been here, we would have five questions for you Storm approval and revival and continuation of the Arlington Belmont Cambridge stormwater flooding board Mr. Todd manager, thank you, mr. Chairman So back in 2005 via a special act of the state legislature the Arlington Belmont Cambridge or ABC Stormwater flooding board was formed and Based upon that original act that board ceased to formally exist in 2010 It continued to informally operate and continues to informally operate But based on the advocacy of the board via a letter sent through my office last year as well as I'm assuming advocacy on the part of Belmont and Cambridge a further or another special act was passed Last year which would allow for the continuation and revival of the ABC stormwater flooding board Retroactive to its original expiration date of December 31st 2010 continuing until December 31st 2017 so part of that act says that to reestablish it Arlington's board of selectmen needs to vote to revive and continue Belmont's board of selectmen needs to vote to revive and continue in Cambridge's city manager needs to sign off Once all of those things happen, we notify the secretary of energy and environmental affairs Who holds a public hearing on the matter and if there's no concerns? Reestablishes it and we once again execute a joint powers agreement So you have before you tonight the original joint powers agreement if the board votes in Favor tonight of reviving and continuing the board will send the appropriate notification to the secretary of Energy and environmental affairs begin the process of updating the joint powers agreement and then bring it back Updated with new days for the board to sign once the other communities have approved Years ago when we went through the CSO variance hearings, and I think they come up every five or ten years I know Or it could be every ten or fifteen I know it was myself at Mizzro And then probably I think three or six years before that. I think this Mrs. Dias might have gone I Assumed from reading this that the same Role that the ABC took back in Tri-community group took back in when those variance hearings and permits were coming up with nip D's and all the other acronyms for all the agencies that this is not in Encumbering them to necessarily do that, but it's allowing them the opportunity should this group also want to Go to the various hearings and represent as the ABC after a vote like that Yeah, the same powers that were allowed under the original agreement would continue under this agreement So yes, yeah, and with the caveat. It's not binding anybody It may be that sometimes it happens all into the Belmont goes in and we have we're sort of kindred spirits in terms of You know, but we're asking for in Cambridge, which I totally respect and understand Sometimes, you know, we run parallel or a little bit of skew So I just want to make sure what we had before which is I think what was that said in here Anyways that opportunity exists and it's whether the ABC or Tri-community wants to Yeah Their discussion All those in favor, please say aye post Town managers evaluation so The town manager provided us with a narrative of his year's performance and reviewed the goals that we set with him Mid last year or early last year, I guess And then each of us had an opportunity to review that then each of us wrote our own reviews Which were passed back to Karen Maloy and Karen Maloy combine all of those reviews into a document here, which I You know I reviewed and then passed along to everybody So it's a favorable review and I mean the overall received on a Most of the rankings are on a scale of one of the rankings are all on a scale of one to five And in each of the major areas he earned between a four and a five So the collective group we are happy with the job that he's doing as a personal matter I'm delighted with the job that he's doing I Briefly talked to the town manager because the other thing we his contract permits us to talk Not permitted distracts us to talk about compensation adjustments at this time and Adam and I Thought that a 2% raise might be the right number for us to talk about which is a half percent less than the the negotiated union rates are getting this year and so I wanted to see if we endorsed and accepted this and if we wanted to go forward with that or other Second point Is that something either through the chair to the town manager or town council acting town council? Is that something we need to have as an agenda item or that we can vote on tonight something? We need to go in an executive session. I come out and vote it in public You know the process my asking for action on the second I am I just want to make sure yes I guess I did consider the town manager's evaluation to be enough noticed that that's what we are going to talk about But if there's concerns, then we can certainly bring that up at a we can you know more explicitly title it in a future meeting It's my I would totally take responsibility for that because I'm the one who put this on the agenda And if I didn't title it well, then that would be my mistake I'm happy to do that tonight unless I hear anything to the contrary. Are you concerned? No, I'm not I think it's a broad enough in the agenda item to bring up his salary increase or adjustment Steve Now after reading through all of our comments and you know seeing the Pretty high scores As well as you know most of the comments and the 2% raises, you know what everyone deems fair I certainly think it is acceptable I Would also concur. I also want to just say as an aside that I think we should thank Ms. Malloy for the excellent job She did on on collating these this is actually very useful instrument I think for us as well as I hope it's useful for the mainstream to have this This feedback, so I'm happy to go along with the compensation. I would ask that When we get to the contract portion, which I know will be at a future meeting that you Seek advice of counsel as to whether or not we should be listing that as An executive session item for the board to discuss before going into public session on it. Whereas it is a negotiation Yeah, thank you Adam I'll just say I I do find it very useful and I really want to thank the board for taking the time I know it's not It's not easy to go through all of those areas and put comments down But I find it very useful to go and see where you know where I am doing good work And I can continue in other areas where I need to shore up my performance and perform Better to meet the board's goals, so I find it to be very useful And I especially appreciate how time-consuming it is now that I've begun the first formal Department head review process, so I am feeling what you would have went through going through this So I especially appreciate it based on that Thank you, Adam. I've had as having thought about a little bit. I'm Hearing both About this. I would think it'd be our Whatever race we choose to give at whatever point is retroactive to February 22nd or something It's actually today. Is it today? All right. There we go. Happy happy anniversary So I would be completely fine with delay because we will be having a future discussion talking about a contract Is that we could delay the raise until that conversation then make it retroactive to I think that that would probably be entirely appropriate as well. If the board's more comfortable with that I'm totally fine with that. I think it'd be great to have a little bit of backup information. Okay Would you like move receipt of the 2014 town manager performance area? I Think we should act on it, but I think do you want to do something a little bit more stronger than receive Do you want to say like this is adopt or something? Yeah Well, does anyone want to make that? I move acceptance Or endorse yeah, I do I mean it's your motion, but that would be what I would move to endorse the Consolidated performance review as as presented to us by the chair and Ms. Malloy Is there a second Discussion and just briefly I also want to echo My thanks to Ms. Malloy Actually had to bother her offer off hours when she was home with her family And she certainly took the time and I really feel I almost feel like I'm a reflected in almost every comment in here Which is a good thing for me and I think she did that with our colleagues also So I think it's hard to balance five different personalities and five different comments But I definitely felt like not only you know, did you take the time to read everything and encapsulate it? I certainly feel whatever comments I had were certainly Contained in here. You know, I had a pretty strong voice in it And I'm sure my clothes saying but I thank you for doing that because I know with me It's sometimes it's a little bit of extra juggling act Any further discussion I Next up is And I see in the audience you've got this Minuteman and seeing as we discussed it already, I'm suspecting that we can dispose of that relatively quickly and I want to pull that All right, we're going to jump to article 21 regional agreement At our last meeting we had Charlie Foskett who's on the regional agreement Share his thoughts and we went through it in some detail. We talked about it so Dr. Rickle and did you have anything in particular that you want to say or were you here to answer questions or I have nothing in particular to say. I'm here to answer questions. Mr. Foskett has done a great job representing Arlington and I Don't think I can add much to what he's already said, but I will clarify any questions that you may have Well, thank you for coming Bill I see a little is there we've got a question in the audience is there any comment Bill come on up Thank you, Bill. Hey, I'm speaking as a town meeting member I just want to ask you is it the intent to have this agreement sent out to all town meeting members a Reasonable time before it comes before town meeting Murray, what's the schedule the printing and delivery schedule for the slackman's report roughly? I appreciate that I Don't know if it has to go with the whole your whole package because this is potentially a Hut bot item. I think if the members of the town meeting have a chance to look at it and digest it it may forestall Some of the debate do you have a physical mailing in mind or email or both? What do you think? I I personally love electronic, okay, and I Think if the majority What an effort you can go forward. I either way like that I think I don't want to speak for town meeting members But I think quite a few of us have profited our email address on that and just a little something to have out there I'd appreciate that And I would add for any town meeting member here tonight or watching Tonight all of these documents are currently available on the Minuteman website So they're currently publicly available online But we can certainly send a town meeting member email both with the attachments and directing folks to the Minuteman site I appreciate that but I think if it comes with your Seal on it. It has a little more impact to pay attention to it. Okay. No offense to But thank you Mark We have millions of years mark they need to hear I would hope that valuable information like that were available to residents so they can then Contact their town meeting members and express their opinion on the on the issue at hand. That's all. Thank you. I Agree so the will definitely as on the town website There's the town meeting section and there's reports to town meeting and This of these documents will be placed there as well So they'd definitely be available online in that in that way So, yes, so I definitely agree that that and other reports are available at that location We'll favor a reaction for article 21 second We will motion a second. Is there anyone else in the audience who wanted to talk about it? Sorry for the discussion from the board Ed, do you think you've got everything you need to for a dog to write the report? All those in favor, please say aye aye. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Blum All right, now we'll resume to our order article 10 home rule legislation cemetery commission So we've got this is a ten registered voter article And we've got a memo from town council who is out of town today Ably served by Ed Marlinga who described this of this article 10 is Cemetery commission to see if the town will vote to authorize request the board select them to file home rule legislation To amend the town manager act will allow direct election of the cemetery commission upon a positive vote of the electorate And so in our packet, we've got a memo from the town council. We've got some background materials from I think the manager and the cemetery commission and The first signatory of the 10 voter article Stephen Harrington Anybody Mr. Harrington you're on Good evening, I'm going to read from my phone So my name is Stephen Harrington. I'm a town meeting member representing precinct 13 Tonight I represent I present to the board Initiated warrant articles with our meeting. I'm going to just talk to both of them Before I begin I request that you keep all your interruptions and questions until the end of the presentation It's read along and I wanted to show pictures and video tonight to support my arguments But mr. Dunn was concerned with the technical challenges Both on display and cable cast of video and didn't think that the video would be appropriately useful for the hearing So, you know the 21st century not really that hard to show pictures on cable television So instead of showing pictures of the worth of thousand words, I'm going to have to suffer through speaking through about 5,000 words I'm backed into a corner, you know, it's standing at a microphone. No podium to put papers down Not even a bottle of water. So however These two warrant articles including one that changes the town manager act certainly deserve the board's attention for at least 15 minutes and Some of what I present might be embarrassing I'm embarrassed to have to be here, but the extreme nature of these articles unfortunately Are supported by extreme behavior? For those viewers at home who have access to the internet My entire presentation including those challenging pictures and videos can be found on truepersons.com TRUE true as in persons There are two warrant articles in front of the board tonight that ask Tom meeting to remove the authority of the board of selectmen and the town manager in varying degrees over Mount Pleasant Cemetery Of course, it is unlikely that the board will vote tonight to limit their authority and A vote of no action will lead to a substitute motion at our meeting Make no mistake Without action by the board and town manager, we will be discussing Mount Pleasant Cemetery in the spring with both the picture and videos However You have the last opportunity to act to head off the real possibility of losing all authority and control over Mount Pleasant Cemetery So I'm going to first start with the second article. I know that's not up until immediately after this one so beg your Indulgence and it's on the restrictions in parking in Mount Pleasant Cemetery And to see if the town will vote to amend the bylaws to restrict parking The first article asked a town meeting to restrict parking in Mount Pleasant Cemetery Let me briefly review the record two and a half years ago I appeared before this board when Clarissa Rowe was a chair On the occasion of the sudden death of my brother to seek the board's help in ending the practice of cars driving across and parking on grave sites in particular several of my family members are buried in four contiguous sites along Sacha Mav and As one person who signed a petition said Deep ruts filled with rainwater along Sacha Mav Where the fire truck and police park Prevented family members particularly those of us dressed for church From having a reasonable passage to the grave site for internment. It was deeply distressing and insulting I was referred to the Cemetery Commission The Commission decided to place signs restricting parking on Sacha Mav. They're there today Signs there were sham and Really if ever enforced over the next two years For a full history of this you can go to that true person's website. There's a link there with our pictures showing it And you also have on the documents that you referenced earlier on in your packets under the title Mount Pleasant Cemetery Municipal parking lot In it you'll see dozens of pictures including 10 ton fire trucks driving across grave sites Daily parking the private vehicles of fire and police personnel Construction equipment contractors trucks all parking on Sacha Mav over a period of more than six years The official record of the Cemetery Commission reveals that in 2007 parking was a long-standing problem The current police chief Fred Ryan was asked to discuss the flow of traffic going through the cemetery in 2010 the official Cemetery Commission record describes a parking of cars on the graves in 2011 parking is still a big problem and in 2012 discussed the parking problem over on Sacha Mav In all the Cemetery Commission discussed parking issues around Sacha Mav 20% of their meetings between 2007 and 2013 The photograph record shows from 2008 through well today Cars parked daily in the cemetery As I said today, there's actually a fire truck and personal vehicle mark parked on Sacha Mav Interesting the chair of the Cemetery Commission was quoted in the island and advocate on Thursday last week as saying once the work was all said and done the parking issue has actually disappeared and That the situation itself doesn't exist anymore Since Mr. Dunn denied my request to show pictures that proves his most recent statement I just want to say I did not actually I said that you couldn't show video I did invite you to include pictures and pictures are included in the packet I just wanted to be clear about that. Yeah for the residents for the millions at home watching So instead of being able to show a picture So thank you very much could not bring pictures Concerning cemetery parking is not supported by fact There was a series of photos that you can see on true persons are covering the period from November 24th when the Mystic Street construction ended through February 13th As recently as 10 days ago The picture shows on December 3rd Six cars three of them that I know are actually people who work in the public safety building December 17th during a snowstorm four or five more cars parked there February 6th for more cars parked there on February 6th at night Because I drove by that Silly every single night for a couple months At 8 p.m. There's cars parked in the cemetery. The restriction is that there's Cemetery is closed from dust to dawn So it's a trespass On February 11th four cars are parked in Sacha Mav February 11th at 2 o'clock the three of the same four cars are still there So 8 o'clock in the morning. They're there 2 30 in the afternoon. They're there It goes on and on February 12th. So for someone to say that It's not an issue. I think that the facts don't support that Now I'll discuss my August interaction with the Cemetery Commission near the end of July I went to visit my parents grave to have some headstone work to have some names engraved It was impossible to park near the grave site. I Kind of over 40 vehicles parked inside the cemetery along and adjacent to Sacha Mav Private vehicles construction dump trucks municipal employees private vehicles a large open truck piled Highwood junk Below are some quotes from residents who notice the same thing My mother and father's grave are right there and as you drive in it is hard to stop and say a prayer for them or to put out plans I Have relatives in for the graves on the left as you went to the cemetery from the police station side of the cemetery The barriers have helped some but it's unsightly and intrusive for fire trucks and town vehicles to be parked there So often when you visit during the day, I Too have family and friends buried directly on the streets where the city workers park I had an injury and walking long distances that were difficult for me For quite a while and it was near impossible to park to go visit my family and friends graves There's dozens of comments like this. I Came before the board that very night During public participation to complain about the ongoing parking issue in the cemetery The board did not respond The next day I asked to be placed on the agenda for the next cemetery Commission meeting and attended the August 14th meeting. I Ride by bike. I was in shorts and a t-shirt Just bike helmet sneakers. I was pretty well Unintrusive and I was met there by the commissioners cemetery staff fire chief Bob Jefferson Assistant town manager Andrew Flanagan DPW director Mike Radamaka and DPW operations manager Jim hard Jim dodge Later we're joined by Mrs. Hassler's husband Jim Hassler There were four department heads at this sleepy Cemetery Commission meeting I Informed the chair of the commission that I'd be recording the meeting as Is the my right according to mass general law and three times? She said I couldn't I suggested she checked with town council the meeting started at 9 15 a.m. And I think it was very important that we show this video because I'll just play it So you'll hear it Sorry, Mr. Harrington. I don't think it's appropriate for us to have video being shown You are asked I told you that in writing or excuse me the office staff told you that in writing before the meeting Could you please stop the video and continue with your presentation? So miss hasla Tried to violate my civil rights she then went on and Lied to the Ellington police followed a false police report with them They came down with three police officers To intimidate me and at no time did I disrupt this meeting at no time You don't want people to see this video, Mr. Dunn because it clearly shows that I did not disrupt this meeting miss hasla further went on and Wrote to the Attorney General testimony That said that I was unresponsive That I disrupted the meeting. I read the law before the she stormed out of the room Chief Jefferson came back in with the two police officers. I'm stunned that four department heads Were unaware that public meetings could be recorded and that they sat there With three other police officers behind me while the chair of the Cemetery Commission acting a rude and demanding demeaning manner So I contacted the board of selectmen and I asked To be placed on the agenda to speak about this and this brings me really to The second warrant article the homeroom legislation to change the Cemetery Commission from being appointed to elected Because really this isn't about miss hasla or about me. This is about Your the board's response to this situation So the reason I'm asking town meeting to start the process to rescind the selectman's authority is Three-fold the subsequent action of the board of selectmen after the August meeting The continued improper use of the cemetery and the failure of the cemetery commission to perform its fiduciary responsibilities Immediately after mrs. Hasla's behavior in August. I requested to be on the board of selectmen's agenda Mr. Dunn responded Chairman Daniel Dunn has determined that this request will not be an agenda item on Monday, August 19th After you decided not to allow me to speak to this I made a formal complaint to the board You all received that complaint. I know Marie sent it out to all of you. So I won't bother to read through it. I never heard a word At that same time. Mr. Dunn received another complaint About mrs. Hasla as chair of the Cemetery Commission, which reads in part This is from an elected official in Ellington in my 20 years as a town meeting member I have dealt with appointed members from every board and commission in town Some are better than others, but I've counted on these folks to be civil and thoughtful even when we have substantive disagreements That has not been the case with mrs. Hasla during the time the Cemetery Commission was looking to convert Cook's hollow into a cemetery Ms. Hasla was scolding an outright nasty She told me I didn't understand the zoning by-law that was deliberately misleading town meeting And I shouldn't even dare to disagree with the decisions of the Cemetery Commission Her behavior on mr. Harrington's videos was pristine and polite when compared to the encounters I had off-camera. I question if she has the demeanor required to serve on a board that needs to be Responsive to the residents of the town Immediately after this the board voted to put the matter to the town manager mr. Chapter Lane and no time after that did mr Chapter Lane contact me I'm unaware of any subsequent action relating to my complaint or to the complaints of elected officials concerning Ms Hasla's inappropriate behavior I have no indication that any other complaints received were shared with either the rest of the board or The second plane even with the town manager This is the first reason the board Should lose authority over the Cemetery Commission a Lack of response by the manager in this board on legitimate complaints about appointees under their control appointees who make misleading statements on simple matters of fact a rude and Nasty to residents and elected officials Attempted to deny residents the exercises of their civil rights Who defame residents in official testimony and make false statements to the outcome police to use them to intimidate those who might complain about their misdeeds This brings me to the second point We've discussed the use of my own some But that is not the only improper use that has resulted in an extensive damage In addition to employees parking their private vehicles in the cemetery Residents use Sacha maves as a cut through to avoid traffic at the Chestnut Mystic Street intersection If you remember this was discussed by the Cemetery Commission in 2007 At this point I'd be showing pictures and video of this practice on February 11th and 12th of this year around 8 a.m I collected a series of photos showing an average of one car per minute entering or exiting Sacha maves Positioning cameras and comparing the distances involved in the time stamps in the pictures Suggests that the average speed through the cemetery exceeds 30 miles an hour. I Have 10 photos. I'd show there's a sample of them So in addition to passenger vehicles, I've had pictures of FedEx trucks Construction vehicles box trucks regularly use Mount Pleasant Cemetery as a cut through The only route through the cemetery passes over a nine foot wide wooden bridge that spans about 20 feet of the Millbrook You could see from this photo below The damage a large vehicle recently did to the wooden guardrail on that bridge Both this high all the way down The compromised wooden road surface of the bridge in the inappropriate chain link fence They would fail to protect any vehicle from going over the embankment Combined with an average of one vehicle a minute passing over the bridge during rush hours You have the recipe for a needless tragedy The bridge in Mount Pleasant Cemetery is the sole responsibility of the town of Ellington according to the mass DOT Mr. Chapter Lane, this is a public records request For all inspections the dates on which they were performed and any written report of that bridge over the last five years Mr. Harrington you intend to plan that in put that record to question writing I'll send an email to him. Mr. Harrington. I just want to say you did say that you'd take I thought I Asked Mr. Harrington, excuse me, I'm the chair. I would like to address you briefly You said that you were gonna take 15 minutes. We're passing 17. Do you have actually much longer than that? Do you have a sense of how much long more you have to say? So in addition to the photos below the marks over the grave mark Yeah, I'm almost done. Thank you In addition to the photos below you can see that a grave marker right at the bottom of that bridge Had tire marks across it and chips throughout it. Just bring me to the last point of why you should lose The authority over the Cemetery Commission It's just not just failure to supervise an improper use of the cemetery But another important reason the board should lose authority is due to several breaches of fiduciary duty Anyone who walks through Mount Pleasant Cemetery soon realizes the road surface is horrible The edges along the roads in the old section are rutted the edges in the section along Sacha Mav Have been compromised by vehicles encroaching on the grassy area and onto the grave sites Large swaths of the cemetery, especially over by the veteran section are covered by dirt with no grass whatsoever The cemetery commission should be ashamed of the Memorial Day services that they provide my father a veteran With a site along the Sacha Mav has only once had his grave marked with a flag What people may not realize is that Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a revenue source for the town of Ellington Several years ago. Most of the cemetery staff was laid off and maintenance services grass mowing mostly outsourced toward the lowest bidder The result was that the cemetery became a cash flow positive and that the condition of the cemetery deteriorated rapidly In comparison to other local cemeteries Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a not nice place Grave site fees are high lot sizes small burial services expensive when graves are purchased funds are deposited into a revolving account as Well a $500 fees assessed in deposit into the perpetual care trust fund The perpetual care trust fund is controlled by mass law Inspection of the town's general ledger indicates that principal has been dispersed in excess of income received For expenses not directly related to the cemetery operation Instead of using income or disbursements from the graves revolving account to fund more maintenance over the past five years About a hundred thousand dollars a year has been diverted from the cemetery revenues into the DPW's general budget And not spent on maintenance as well We've seen the cemetery Commission have several initiatives to spend that money on projects that amount to landscape design Two weeks ago, I asked town manager chapter lane and finance committee toss chair Tosti About warrant articles for appropriations for the cemetery They told me there was nothing new should be the same as last year So imagine my surprise when the outing advocate quoted the chair of the cemetery commission saying the appropriation for $250,000 for another landscape design project who's being requested through the warrant articles and start a meeting You've been going for 20 minutes, do you think you could wrap up in three you think that mr. Dunn Do you think that I change the town manager act shouldn't hold your attention for 15 or 20 minutes? I have in fact to believe it has held my attention for both so I'm at my conclusion So if you'd stop interrupting me, I would be done at this point. Thank you So this board has a choice tonight It is a foregone conclusion that you'll not vote to limit your authority. Well, that does not mean you should not act Stop the inappropriate use of the cemeteries a cut-through and as a municipal parking lot Put a gate of Sacha Mav direct the chief of police to enforce cemetery regulations As mr. Chaplain told the advocate you and the cemetery commission have the authority to end these practices at now For risk losing that authority. Good night. Thank you, mr. Arrington Are there any comments from the board before we go to the audience? Just one question I have about think if I added them up correctly Nine or ten citations from residents regarding ruts regarding quotes Do we have any names of who the residents are or just representations? Mr. Dunn you received every one of those you were on the chainshot org Petition one you're not I do remember seeing some spam from them. Mr. Dunn received every single one of those You should ask him to share it with the board. I'm just asking is your presentation if you don't have any I'm just asking if you do Every single quarter that I gave is a residence of the town of Arlington. They provided their name These aren't anonymous quotes. Mr. Dunn has that information. Thank you. He has not shared with one I'd like to ask the board a question. There's no mr. Harington. I don't see my time I sat here for twenty six point three four minutes So I just when representations is just the court reporter in me. I made it from the microphone Normally we do ask that whoever is presenting them Because I you know, I could get up and Is there anyone else who'd like to hear to talk about in particular I would like to talk limit ourselves if we can to article 10 Which is talking about the cemetery commission? Mr. Langone Good evening. My name is Richard Langone resident 12 swan place I Like to speak about the parking in the cemetery as You know the residence of Arlington were held to a different standard of parking and The town employees are held to a different standards. There's two different standards of parking one for the tax payer and the other one for the employees But the tax payers we have to pay our residence to swan place have to pay an overnight parking fee to park in this town And we were told that we would put under that situation To be equal with everybody else, but I guess everybody else Isn't the town employees. That's a separate category and that's the problem with The cemetery commission the way she treated mr. Harrington. I've seen the video She was arrogant and the arrogance comes from the people that appointed her The first time I came to this chamber. I Was treated poorly I Was asking questions. I had never been in this chamber before And I was treated Like I shouldn't even be asking questions a matter of fact They shut the cameras off and you walk out the door on you wonder why people are getting fed up with it because We just we want respect just like you won't respect in this whole situation the parking at the cemetery is More about not respecting what the people of the town want and the people of the town wanted to stop And it's very simple to stop it. You have the power to open you don't do it because it's that arrogance Where how dare the people of this town? Tell us what to do Well, it's got to the point now where we're gonna bang heads over things because People are getting fed up with it, and I'm fed up with it And I think if you're gonna enforce parking on the citizens you are in force parking across the board It isn't an entitlement if you work in this town that you've entitled the park wherever you want If you're gonna put the citizens under the knife then everybody else ought to be treated the same way Thank you Mr. Harrington, I'm sorry Sean Harrington Thank You mr. Chairman shun Harrington precinct 15 for sorry I wasn't here earlier my mom was locked out of her house So I had to help out with that not to beat a point senseless, but I think that we saw a great example of The need for proper respect during a meeting When Pete when one is in charge of a meeting in the sense that why this issue? I think really came up to refer to someone's emails a spam or to overpower them with Yelling is not a proper way to handle a meeting whether you disagree with someone or not Mr. Harrington do you have a comment on the actual article that we're talking about the comment on the article is That the issue I see here is Politeness from our From committee chairs From people who work for us are hired help are elected help and in this case I think we have seen a perfect example of which why we should have an appointed board the fact that respect is Needed and respect is not needed Major to major changes should be made to stop the disrespect and to stop rudeness and proper Chairmanship of meetings. Thank you. We will continue with an appointed board perhaps then Is there anyone else who wishes to speak mr. Kaplan? I'm Mark Kaplan precinct 7. I just quick clarification the alternatives to a Selectment appointed board is an elected board or would be Decided by town meeting so realistic the way the way most of the select the hearings work is that When I spent with a ten registered voter article or something brought forward by a department head is that? Sometimes the proposal will include what the recommendation is but either way the Selectment will discuss it will make a recommend will vote a recommendation and that'll go to town council will actually write up What the actual proposed vote is and that comes back to us for approval? So realistically in this particular situation the board could either recommend no action or could go along with the discussion of as suggested by the tens registered articles to make it a Change a home rule petition or we could theoretically recommend a proposed vote of some third choice I'm not sure if that answers my question So if if the select man didn't appoint the Cemetery Commission Oh, you mean in general week would they become elected on the on the ballot? No, I if What would have to happen is? To change the way the Cemetery Commission works is that we would have to have a home rule petition that home rule petition Would the most expected outcome would be making it an elected position where it would be on the ballot It would be on the April ballot, but you would the home rule petition you could do it You know and that home rule petition could say anything, but the election certainly makes sense as the next most Okay, thank you. That's what I wanted to understand. Okay. Sorry Is there further discussion from the audience? Seeing none. Mrs. Mahan On article 10, I would like to move no action I'll try to keep my remarks brief first and foremost video referenced by the proponent is Available on the site that he cited because at all times he there was a video of it The Attorney General reviewed that examined the video of the meeting in question conducted interviews of various parties and determined that the Cemetery Commission did not violate the open meeting law and I would say if the video wasn't allowed to Be performed we wouldn't have it as a reference material as cited before and then the other thing that we do have in our packet that I'll just encapsulate briefly is that Has listed cemetery commissions for comparable communities of Arlington, Belmont, Brookline, Cambridge, Lexington, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Natic, Needham, North-And-Over, Redding, some of the Stonem, Watertown, Winchester currently before Tell meeting here's this article on a possible substitute motion if I'm successful of all those communities only one have an elected Cemetery Commission as well as all the other backup materials that we have from the proponent as well as other named department heads and people that I can Conducted outreach for all those reasons. I would recommend no action. We have a motion is there a second? I Will second it second steves And and I'm gonna second it for a couple reasons The first of which is that we've actually received very few compilates regarding Mount Pleasant Cemetery and When we do Make these appointments. It's done in an open process. It's done at an open meeting and yet You know these appointments aren't contested, you know, there isn't a line of Individuals speaking about these appointments, which there could be in which, you know, if there was perhaps You know that would change my vote on these appointments. So Regardless that I Just don't you know while I understand these complaints. I think that In the past there has been very limited discussion on this and I think that changing The cemetery Commission to an elected board really is Unnecessary if there's more discussion during the appointment process, which is very much a You know, there is an opportunity for that. Thank you. Thank you. I'm gonna go with Joe I'll be supporting the motion of no action I'll be supporting it for a little bit of a different reason though. It's you know, I've sat there I've had disputes with appointed boards and I've actually Wondered if maybe we shouldn't be looking at an elected board, but on further reflection, you know, I realize There's a difference between the board of selection and something like the cemetery Commission or the redevelopment board or the zoning board of appeals or the Conservation Commission or the historic districts Commission or whatnot. We are by necessity. We're generalists and we run that way when we run for election we run and we reach out to to Constituencies across the board. We're looking for very specific expertise When we look to fill these appointments, sometimes we don't have you know a pool of candidates to choose from but I would submit that we would have an even narrower pool if somebody knew that to Put themselves forward to be a member of the Cemetery Commission or one of the other commissions I put forward that they would have to go out and raise money and and take months away from their family To be able to provide that service. So I feel uncomfortable cherry picking one commission. I understand there. We all have At one time or another I'm sure I've had disputes and disagreements with various Elected and appointed boards in town, but I feel that Cherry picking one and saying let's let's make that elected But we have so many others that make up our town manager act right now. It's just It's not policy This really yeah, my apologies that I was late getting here How I wish I could have heard the presentations, but I'm gonna support the move for no action I think we have an excellent Cemetery Commission And I think the fact that in my 25 years, this is the first complaint That's been brought against them this testimony to the kind of work these appointees have done for I'm also gonna support the motion. I think for and I think I agree. I agree with I Believe every thing that my colleagues have said on this issue Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of Mr. Mahan vote of a motion of note recommending no action on article 10. Please say aye opposed It's 5-0 next up is article 12, which is we've been obviously discussing significantly already which is the parking restriction Anyone from the board before I go to the audience is there anyone here who specifically wanted to talk about article 12 in the parking? Seeing none. Is there a discussion or a motion? Mr. Kaplan you want to come on to the mic mark Kaplan precinct 7 mr. Burn mentioned about You know objections to appointments, and I I'm not sure I don't understand what the process is for doing that For example an appointment tonight. It's not part of the open the public hearing and no comments are allowed So there's no opportunities for objections to appointments. I guess I So we do definitely do have public comments that happened during that and it's also we receive both written in We have people approach us during before meetings about things that are on the agenda thing We also excuse me receive correspondence periodically, so there's actually we get a fair amount of feedback on those Okay, so it doesn't sound like there's a formal process however In this particular case the formal processes the trustees are recommended by the town manager town manager So when there's a vacancy of the town manager chooses You know we publish the the vacancy and he can interview and do whatever he wants Then it comes before us to approve that recommendation, so I disagree there is a well You didn't recognize me when I raised my hand for the appointment to the transportation advisory committee For it's this a number of issues first. It says open term So we're trying to talk about the parking now I know I know but again I'm just saying there's no there's no forum for for for objecting or questioning, you know at points 2013 we had a number of open forum during the citizens forum talking about appointees that the slackman eek So I just it has happened on a number of occasions, but I do want to move on and really talk about the parking Thank you. I'll speak with it. I guess town legal The town manager be an excellent person to this violations of the laws to here you say open term and it's not a life sentence It's a four-year term members with 12 years who've never had their terms expire and Renewed mr. Kaplan. We're trying to talk about article 12. Thank you Mr. Harrington second time Not very polite Stephen Harrington Tom meeting member precinct 13 When Miss Haslow is reappointed Was it done through a? Consent agenda item. Mr. Chairman. Can I say I think this is beyond the scope? You were just mr. Burns made a comment and I'm replying to mr. Burns comment to interrupt me Why don't you wait until I finish? Excuse me? I had the floor mr. Harrington. I sat and listen to the floor Excuse me, mr. Harrington. I listened to you for 26 minutes and 34 seconds. I did not cede my time It was time for comments from member of the board of selectmen. I'm asking the chairman of town council We have dispensed with article 10. We now are on article 12 I think any discussion regarding the cemetery any cemetery commissioners under article 10 is not appropriate now that we've moved on to article 12 Cleverly done. Thank you Is there any further comment about article 12? Thank you, we've already heard is there a motion mr. Greeley yes, I move no action on article 12 It's an unnecessary first of all the Commission regulates parking there is already restrictions parking only for cemetery business They can't restrict it any further than that and since this has come up I've ridden through that cemetery about 20 times I get to find a car park there as all this evidence has pointed out all of the construction that took place at the time Caused that to happen and that's a shame this board actually had curbing put in there to when someone came before us and complained that cars were parking on the lawn too close to graves and stuff So we try to be responsive, but this is a totally unnecessary move no action We have a motion and this is behind you just a second. Is there further discussion? Yeah Is there a let's come to a vote all those in favor of the motion of no action, please say aye Thank you next up is article 20 Pardon me. Well, we I think take a breath a little bit So article 20 is by law amendment tar free excuse me tar sands oil free Arlington It is a 10 registered voter article we have a memo from town council talking about it and They definitely is I believe I mean there would be difficulty in Actually making this is a by-law change, but I understand it from correspondence received from you that we're talking about a resolution Which is often ruled in order by the moderator. That's obviously the moderator's choice not ours, but my experience is is that he'd accept it so I Would love to hear from you about what I'm assuming is given the paperwork you provided us a resolution Yes, my name is Gina Sonder and this is I'm not a town meeting member. I'm just a concerned citizen and My proposal is to put forth a resolution to town meeting I'm supporting a tar sands oil free Arlington and That that would mean that As a town we would take a stance to say that We would like to keep Arlington free of Tar sands oil. That's oil. That's a very heavy oil that comes from Both Western Canada and there is some in the United States, but it's primarily from Western Canada And to say that we're in opposition to the supply and transport of that tar sands Product and their derivatives into or through New England The goal the goal of this is to in the short term Have Arlington join and encourage other municipalities in the region to oppose Tar sands oil coming into the northeast right now. There is very little That comes into our region of the US about 1% of the oil we use is blended in with tar sands derived oil but There is also in in the proposal a three-year phase in for this for for Saying that the there should be a regional rejection of tar sands oil as an energy source and Hopefully a state legislation requiring public disclosure of transport and heating fuel greenhouse gas Intensity that's life cycle intensity So it's not just the admissions that come from cars that are here, but when they as from extraction to use and There are several precedents for this Locally the In 2000 Arlington joined the International cities for climate protection campaign through a vote by this board Committing itself to reducing local emissions of greenhouse gases and then in 2007 the board of select men endorsed the Arlington's the Sustainable Yeah Sustainable energy part one that set goals of reducing our local greenhouse gases emissions by 12% in 2015 so those two things have already come through the town in The state and Brookline passed a resolution in 2013 Saying Saying that they opposed tar sands oil Transmission and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts adopted their regional Climate action plan and it's known as Reggie The then regionally Vermont and Maine have passed resolutions in in 26 towns in Vermont about six towns in Maine and The New England Governors and Eastern Canadian premiers Climate action plan in 2001 set goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 10% below the 1990 levels by 2020 globally the European Union has a low carbon fuel standard a fuel quality Directive and is now banning imports of tar sands oil So as you can see I'm working from our town out to the region out to the country and then Further out to the world, so I can see I would like to see Arlington take a leadership role here and Consider this resolution to have Arlington declared a tar sands free region and Then have that grow into a greater movement Thank you Thank you, thank you, Ms. Underberg coming coming forward with this It's a little difficult with me because I have a lot of respect for you and for all the peace and social justice work You've done in the town and I think you've been involved in resolutions that have come before town meeting before Have you haven't? Apologize then I think that You know I think I'm on a lot of the same wavelength with you as far as that the concern around this But over the the past years there's been kind of a growing concern also within the town meeting space as to What we should appropriately put forward for our town meeting to to to to take up and spend time in Debate on and a lot of times these become you know time-consuming and and divisive, so I just I just want to just I Think your idea of starting locally and trying to move out to the global space is a smart one. I just want to List off a few things that are coming top of mine I know the manager will have a few others that I think we could Continue to support locally through town meeting and through this body and the manager You're probably aware that that Arlington was one of the leaders in the state when the solarized mass Effort came through we want I don't know if we were the top community for sign-ups on that But we were one of the top communities and in the Commonwealth We're underway right now trying to do Install solar panels on some municipal buildings We hired a regional energy manager with another community We've gone for and received green buildings grants of some of the municipal buildings Town meeting funded an energy efficiency fund a couple of years ago We've switched over to LED lighting with a lot of savings actually in the in the budget this year Not only energy savings and such and I only mentioned that because I I feel that With a lot of what town meeting is trying to deal with even we take for example some of the other warrant articles We talked about this evening, even though I may have disagreed with the opponent I Recognize that these were issues of local local governance that we were talking about and So my own feeling is I don't think that I can I can support this But going before town meeting for that reason I think if we're more Locally focused on the specific actions that we could take as a local Government body, I might however what I might suggest that you consider and I and this has been done at town meeting in past years is You know every session does have an announcements and resolutions section and the moderator has given latitude in the past For proponents of resolutions to come forward and put these forward and invite all town meeting members who are Interested in signing on to do so and making space available Behind the halls, so you you may actually have a path to a majority without potentially Side-tracking that the meeting itself and I just I put that forward. I mean I personally it's not it's not a perfect analog But personally I've had success with this in the past Seven years ago we had an outbreak of Anti-Semitic anonymous hate Mail it was being directed towards some of our public officials and others and I came forward before town meeting it was when I was chairing the Human Rights Commission and I Surfaced this issue and invited those who wanted to sign on to an open letter. We got thousands of people who signed on to the open letter, but It was a way to do it without I think Potentially sidetracking town meeting because I read through this and I and I'm absolutely with you on the goal But there are a lot of assertions in the resolution that require a lot of independent research that I think that I get a sense that a lot of members might be uncomfortable with and I'd hate to see the message deluded by protect protracted debate along those lines when There are ways to to to educate the town meeting members and also solicit their support without going my way So unfortunately, I won't be able to support the resolution going forward for those reasons And it's killing me to say that because I really respect the work that you've done on it in the material Kevin yeah Thank you You really have an impressive amount of work which you have done But at this point, I just moved it we move receipt at this point in time So You're not taking the position on it by moving receipt So is your intention then to put forward in the selectman's report that we'd move Like a recommended vote of receipt because this is what we're gonna because we're trying to figure out what we're gonna put in The selectman's report for town meeting That's an excellent point mr. Chairman, I'm glad you're in that seat And see what my colleagues come up, but I was trying for us not to have to be outright rejected no action I'm just trying to think of what we've done we've done in past practice When we had the Patriot Act when we had I don't know if it was corporal punishment We had citizens united we also had the National Guard And what we've done, which is what I think the course that we're asking I blanked on Gina's last misogynist Is that when they've come before us saying we want this as a warrant article of bylaw We've deemed that it really isn't appropriate You can do a resolution and what we've done is while we haven't supported the initial request to make this a bylaw Warrant article, I mean warrant article that turns into a bylaw, but what we've done is we've recommended With the town moderators approval that this be put forth for town meeting as a resolution only I think that that is what Miss Saunders has moved towards So I that was my original right and I was wondering if we could follow just that same course where it's you know The moderator rules it in order and he lets the person Proponent give the resolution and he makes it very clear that it really isn't it unless it's a strongly debatable I'd like to follow the same course that you know the original action We're not approving, but we do recommend favorable action this coming through town meet to town meeting through the town moderator as a resolution So what's the select ones report say? That ultimately we would recommend Fable a favorable action that this be reported as a resolution to town meeting with the town moderators approval As we've done in past with the other citations. It just seems to me. We're saying we support the resolution by doing that So I'm gonna move no action. Sorry. I'm gonna move no action I'm gonna second it doesn't you still can go to the moderator. You still can bring a resolution before town meeting Sorry Yeah, other than I wish there was a better way forward as well Well, I guess I feel that that unlike some of the other things that have come before you this does directly impact Arlington I think that In order to meet your greenhouse gas initiatives that you're going to want to have something that says that This kind of fuel is not brought into town I hope that within the next three years Perhaps the the board considered is it differently as we don't have a whole lot of time I see not a hand raised mark Standard for for these sort of articles is how you know to what effect do they directly improve the health safety and welfare of our residents and And something like a ban Some sort of enforcement strategy You know put it into real-country terms is how how is this going to benefit Arlington residents? And if it's not a local issue that you doesn't have some kind of measurable impact Then it's it's really not the business of town meeting in Arlington local Government to address Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the audience who wanted to speak on this issue? Come on up I'm Lynette Culverhouse and I want to thank Gina for her work on this. I feel like it's really important I think I speak for many parents and grandparents in the town Who have serious concern for the future of their children and I would love to see Arlington take some strong leadership on this issue I think that the little-known story About the small people along the route of the pipeline that carries these toss and soil is not heard And there are people dying as a result of the toxicity of the running water of that drinking water of the seepage into the agricultural land and the cattle and the feeding stock on the land are getting contaminated and It's it really feels like to me It's time for us to take a strong stand and I understand where you're all coming from but This does affect us in Arlington and it's going to affect our children even more than it's affecting us and You know our elected state Legislator shown gobbledy is supporting this warrant and I really would love to urge you to Reconsider supporting it Thank you Sarah and I also wants to speak on this issue Adam The only thing I might suggest Hearing that the board and concepts supports the issues raised by Miss Sander But has concerns about the both the format of the resolution at town meeting and what actionable items might actually be before town meeting It seems that one of Miss Sander's most Tangible statements in the resolution is the three-year time Limit to limit the sale and transport of tar sands based oils in Arlington Perhaps if the board is interested Miss Sander could work with some town staff over the course of perhaps the next year to really drill down on what actions Arlington Could take and perhaps come back with a more Direct recommendation next year if that's something the board's interested in And I say that based on I'm not Sitting here tonight very comfortable with what the practicalities of achieving some of these goals might actually be. Thank you I did myself. I didn't want to weigh in and that is that I I Exact or very similar to the way Joe describes his struggle with resolutions at town meeting I think that I would I'm a Passionate believer in the power of town meeting and how important it is to the community and governance of Arlington And one of the things that I worry about is that we by making the meeting longer We reduce the number of people who will volunteer I think we lose important people in town meeting because it just goes on for for days And so I just think about the people in that room And I try to jealously protect their time and protect it subset in ways that it's only going to the talks about things that And I essentially draw the line for myself at when the less concrete it is the more Appropriate I think it is and so this isn't about the content in Because if you look at my blog and how I voted on resolutions I I think there's there might be one that I broke down and voted in support of regardless But I just say no because I don't want to talk about them because I want to stick with the stuff We have to so that's why I'll be supporting mr. Greeley's motion Kevin But I think it's a wonderful step that the town manager has recommended And I think it's wonderful that he will look into us and I think all of us feel we need more study on this We need to understand more of the dynamics of it So I wanted to thank the town manager and hold them to that Yeah, he's true to his word Is there any further discussion Joe? I think just very specifically to what mr. Greeley just said I mean, I think you mentioned the transportation. I don't know what our leeway is within traffic rules and orders I know we're restricted a lot as far as truck traffic or what not, but that's a type of thing that I could see us You know try to delve into I would appreciate any support that you can give me so that I can come back and Present something that you can support. Thank you all very much. Thank you For the discussions seeing none all those in favor of the motion of recommendation of no action I No, we have a vote of four to one Diane voted against the recommendation. It's there So that finishes our warrant article hearings for the night How about 21 we did I took it out of order Correspondence received we have a letter from Paul Paul Paula are you here or is there anyone who wanted to talk about crosswalk and Massab and Daniels or Richardson I Asked this seeing the correspondence on the agenda. I Tried to inquire whether or not tack wanted it in specific officer Officer toad thought the tack should have it and tack said yes, we'd like it or at least that said yes, we do it Put any words into their mouth beyond that So I would just Second no, I'm over with right attack. Is that second any further discussion all the favor, please say aye Mrs. Cappado I have nothing to remind you that February 27 Thursday night that They're gonna have the awards for the police department. You're interested in going I think it's 6 o'clock Just to brief business Pieces of new business first in response to some inquiries from the board at the last meeting I met with John Maher and David good in terms of beginning cable advisory or cable negotiation Discussions so attorney Maher has drafted a letter to send to Comcast to kick off our interest in opening negotiations Hopefully I can finalize that in the next week share that with the board and then talk to you more about the process that we'll start rolling out in terms Of negotiations as you know It's staggered with each of the three providers Comcast our CNN Verizon So we have time to ramp up for each one But also align what our goals are in those negotiations I ask a question on that I don't know if this is appropriate of the chair or the town manager can let me know When is the appropriate time to put in and repeat the request that the selectman's office? Chambers at the very least get Wi-Fi Is this the appropriate time to stop putting that before you I mean the school committee has it their office is there and We have it downstairs and the town manager has it, but I know Okay, is this the appropriate time to pose that to you or no It's the appropriate time, but I'm gonna tell you that we're gonna be able to get that done outside of anything to do with the cable Okay, I just want to keep banging the drum just like Just because previous town council Two or three times she couldn't and you know, it's not I'm not trying to get it so I can go online I mean still don't quite get Wi-Fi and I don't want to know so okay It's I mean I took advantage of the opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Chair And the second piece as you know the town's currently undergoing a study of parking in Arlington Center There was a public survey done a public forum done several weeks ago Recently internally they presented to the working group of some of their initial recommendations They're also going to present those to the Chamber of Commerce this Thursday morning or members of the Chamber of Commerce Followed by another public forum takes some last minute feedback before making final recommendations Which will come before this board in the next several months So I just wanted to keep the board abreast of that progress. Not a chance of those being controversial is there Not a chance that they won't be controversial That's all I have for new business Thank you, Mr. Chairman just Briefly if I may a through you sir to Adam Adam I saw something about the opening of the bids for the East Arlington project is that Where are we at that? So is DOT at this point mass DOT has opened the bids for the Massav corridor project The low bidder with J H Lynch of Cumberland Rhode Island But it takes them about a month to go through all the bids ensure Qualifications check references before they actually award a bid. So there's still a From now basically a month until we actually learned that they are officially the contractor After that, there'll still be several more weeks before DOT would issue a notice to proceed and give us the opportunity to actually start communicating with the contractor Adam and I have been talking about I'm going to revive the old town hall topics program on cable and we want to get Get as much information out to people about what's about to happen. What is happening? What's the calendar? What's the dates? How are you doing? They're also will be an ombudsman. Is that a right phrase? Yeah, that's a point by DOT as we have done at the Simmons project Neighborhoods and stuff. So I'm going to be meeting with the attack Early next month to also talk with them about what strategies we all can employ To inform people that makes everybody knows what's happening Diane I'm going to Advance thank my colleagues indulgence. It's just because I'm always so proud of When we all get to tip our toe into the school side the I'll again I know you want an update I like to high school varsity cheerleaders competed in their league qualification at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence Mass on Sunday and they Were successful and continuing on to regionals Which is next Sunday in Chelmsford along with the team that they cheer for the sport that does to sports Askew all are in the tournament They will play Tuesday night. It's in a way game And it's a took spray as well as really proud because I have several parents We I think we all have friends and parents who also have players on the Allington High boys hockey team Who also are in the tournament and we'll be playing St. John's prep ranked 15th St. John's prep sometimes is number two public school hockey, and that will be Wednesday night And I think that's a way Just very proud as well as our girls hockey team is doing really well And I have to follow them more closely and I also want to on behalf of myself and my colleagues Thank the chairman along with Mrs. Malloy for Taking the time to coordinate. I know you work with Karen and others to get the town manager performance review I know sometimes I look at certain tasks and say are we just doing this to do it and you know Put a lot of time into it But I really feel that through the chairman and the town manager Mrs. Malloy that This is one of the things that I did spend a good amount of time as my colleagues did But I think it was well worth it. I think we really you really got it spot-on and Mrs. Malloy And it's a tool that we had before but I think we're really you know I sometimes have a little bit of a hesitation on it But I'm really proud and I want to thank you for the extra time and effort you put into this You're very welcome, but I will say that I I Really had the the pleasure of just redoing what we did last year. I mean I didn't I didn't have to say Kevin I knew you'd remind us I agree I was really happy with the process. I'm really happy with the way we do it It's a I think it's a powerful tool for us. It's but we have You open the can of worms. I'm gonna ramble a little bit We it's a tough thing for a public board to manage a full-time employee Because open meeting losses that all reviews have to be public and that is frankly awkward in a lot of ways And we have to give them candid feedback We have to give candid feedback in a public forum where everyone else can see when we're happy with that We're not happy with that. I'm everyone else gets to watch in fact the law says and so this Document in this process. I think really helps us do that in a very productive way And I wish I could take credit for it But while I beg for the praise and please stop But this gentleman deserves an awful lot of credit along with Karen Malloy along with this board We designed that instrument They did their Karen did the background for us. He kept insisting in terms of you know, it's really about time for the evaluation and that kind of thing and Then did met some job of just carrying on a process that all of us can take great pride in All right Joe Well, I'll say one other thing that I was very happy with was this This public annual financial report the four-page summary of the way the town is doing It's it's things like this that really set us apart Just a little suggestion all those chamber of commerce folks who are coming over for that parking thing on Wednesday Little stack of those a good idea serious, yeah It's very busy week, but just I just want to note two things that might be of interest to the public Tomorrow evening both of these come out of the master planning process tomorrow evening in the Suckman's hearing room at seven o'clock Inspectional services department and the planning department will jointly be presenting It's mostly going to be special services, but knowing more about Arlington zoning really a primer on zoning Especially anybody who's a new town meeting member or a veteran town meeting member or a resident of the community who wants to really Understand a lot of the concepts behind zoning and how Arlington zoning works and has come to evolve I think it'll be a very Useful session very very Educating session and on Wednesday evening. There is the next Master plan advisory committee Public forum this one will be on public facilities and That will be in the senior center at seven o'clock, and that's also open to the public and public Public's input is really sought I know we'll see Thank you, Steve Falling up on Miss Mahan's update on the Arlington High boys hockey team If you're going over the game feel free to stop by the Arlington Catholic game, which is the same night at the same place I've got nothing Oh