 I hear by call the meeting to order at eight o'clock on Monday, May 23rd. We have our agenda. Are there any additions to the agenda? No additions to the agenda. Are there any comments from the public? I don't see any members of the public in the meeting either remotely or here. And therefore let's move on to the first item on the agenda, the review of the revised quote for the 2022 Dodge Ram. So this is, I think in light of the world today, the truck as we originally configured it is not exactly how it now is going to arrive. So the original quote was for $48,358. The revised quote is $51,953. So it's an additional $3,595. So this truck is scheduled to arrive. It's going to be here on June 4th. So we are essentially asking the select board to authorize the additional funds and then also authorize us to do a special warrant so that we can go ahead and have that checked. Because we want to be ready to get that truck when it gets here. Right. Now, I didn't understand. Is there a difference in the way that the truck is configured? Yeah, there's some slight differences. We've been having trouble getting the specific details. So Guthrie went over there today and at least got this. He's currently waiting for some additional specs from the sales person. He unfortunately was on it today. So we can get those details and follow up. Amy or John, do you have any questions or comments? No, I mean, we need a truck and we have to pay for it. There you go. And the world is what it is right now. Yes, unfortunately it is. Guthrie was actually looking just out of curiosity if there were any other options. And he was like, they just no more expensive. So we're actually sitting a little better where we are. And you can't find anything out of the lot because you're not really carrying anything anymore. So pretty much what's on the line is that it's usually sold. Yeah, in the past, if you're looking at a truck and then you see it was too high and just going to another place, maybe you'd find some place of an honor that's safe at price. Because you know what, you just buy them up with a safe at price. So I understand all that. And I'm a little uncomfortable with buying a pig in a poke, basically, since we don't know all the details about the changes that have been made. So I wonder if we could phrase a motion in a way that gives us some wiggle room, like paying up to the 54, 425. Yeah, yeah, the 51, 953. No, retail price. Let me see. So let me get my right number here. Yeah, the retail is the 54, 425. And they're actually giving us a discount. OK, so the 51, 953. I think a motion would be in order to pay up to 51, 953 and to authorize a special warrant pending approval of the road foreman of the actual purchase. Yeah. Would somebody like to make that motion? So is there a second? Second. OK. We are on the first item. We are doing the Dodge Ram and that's gone up in price. We aren't quite sure all the details why. So rather than giving a blanket approval to just pay the new price that we've been quoted, the motion is to pay up to the new revised cost of 51, 953 and to do that and authorize a special warrant pending Guthrie Perry's approval. OK, sounds good. OK, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes have it. So so passed. And would you like to chair the meeting? Sure. OK. Well, next item. Thank you for starting. I was late. In the field. Anyway, so item C discussion on board of Argers advisement to board on confidentiality of delinquent tax information. Oh, so so currently we post the letter from the transfer of the delinquent taxes, including a detailed list of the delinquent taxes, how much is those individual names. So that provided some information regarding some kind of precedent and just her opinion as well, but we shouldn't be posting that level of detail. So I for how long since actually seeking like never. No, we've been doing it. No, I know. I'm just saying that once you once you the state the same amount for tax purposes, they don't they don't post the person's name and everything. So they file a leave of the town. What's the file leave of the town? That's public information. So then it can come forward. And I think in and I and hard when we did it, we would once we decided to go to tax sale, that's when you post the information about about the property, then you have right to do it. Because it's going to be in the newspaper. And yeah, yeah. So when she she complained about this, because her letter is on the website, you know, I didn't realize it was OK. So I tried to read it, but you know, that's what I got. I got one of those two, but then I was able to click somewhere up on the left and it open. Well, I haven't seen the letter, but I know the previous discussion that we had a few years ago was she didn't like it because you could back. She thought you could backtrack and get other information. But I'm so sure you have your stuff like that. No, really to calculate the person's income. Oh, and it's great work to make a decision on that, that people can't be allowed to see the amount of the subsidy that people get due to their income. Right. Because then you put maybe extract the income. And we're not putting that. We're not putting that on. And I did read that today. Right. So so that's not a factor because we're not posting that. Right. So they were probably fine. So my memory of the history of this is that we never posted this stuff until COVID. Oh, no, no, we were posting it by alarm, but that didn't light the fact that we weren't. Because I remember us getting it in the select board meetings and then being very discreet in the way we referred to things. Referring to things by parcel number in our conversation rather than by names in the minutes. But most probably we haven't mentioned anybody's names that I can recall. I think since COVID. I looked at last year and the list is there with names and a mask. Yeah, we always go back. But we didn't talk about it for a while or anything else. But we have, I think, in the past year we have done that. And I wish now that we're televised, especially, that we wouldn't do that if we talked about parcel number. So as far as I can tell from reading the Supreme Court decision and the other document that she said, there's nothing that prevents us from publishing this information. But I agree with her that it's just a friendlier way to run the town if we don't publish it. So I would recommend that you email it to us so that we haven't to look at for a meeting and that we'd be discreet in the meetings and talking about it. I mean, you know, females are public information too. Oh, yeah. So the other component of what she asked is that we not give it to somebody who asked for it. And I don't think we can do that. No, I think it's, my understanding is if somebody requests it, yes, we would be required to provide that correct. But it wouldn't be on the website. I think her at least verbally when we spoke was that it's on the website. So on the website, I mean, Carl, what you're saying is that we should just take the names off. We can leave the parcel number on and the address on, but just take the names off. So that it's not automatically searchable. No, my understanding is that we not post it at all to the website. Oh, OK. We send it out to select board members ahead of a meeting. So everything else we post on the website for the meeting, but we don't post that. And then we have it in our emails to talk about it. So if somebody wants that information, then they would have to come to the office to get it. And that's fine. Not necessarily. You can make a public records request over the phone or by email. I think it's going to last for it. But it just wouldn't be out there for everybody in the world to see. Right. I mean, that's kind of, yeah. OK. You can do it in a newspaper or in a tax cell. Well, yeah. At that point, yeah. At that point. You can do a process, yeah. But I'm a little bit confused because we've always brought a list to our meetings of delinquent texts. But it's only in the last few years that we started having the material for our meetings posted on the website. Oh, I understand that part of it. But as far as this goes, ever since I've been on the select board, we have a list of names. Absolutely. And I'm not suggesting to change that. Right. And that's public knowledge. That can be public knowledge. That can be public knowledge. So many requests. Yes. Yeah. So we can post it to the website. That's not a problem. The website, you can go either way on that. I don't really care. But if somebody asks us for that list, we still have to give it to them. Oh, I understand. Yeah. It's just like we have the totals in the town before. Yeah. So, you know, we can, you know, but to your point, yeah, I mean. Well, I remember years when it was by name in the town before, you know, like, well, if you don't want your name in there, pay your taxes. Yeah. It was a deterrent. Yeah. So I don't know. Yeah. But I know when I was doing minutes, then I was careful to refer to parcel numbers, the motions to go, even the motions to go to tax sale were made in terms of parcel numbers without the person's name. And of course, once it actually did go to tax sale, then all that is in the newspaper, as you say. But people are researching records and everything else. Yeah, the idea is that a lot of these tax sales don't go to tax sale. That the moving forward on it is enough to get the tax sales. I don't really have a strong opinion either way. I mean, I guess if she's worked out about the fact that it's going to be on the website, I guess we could take them off. That's what we're talking about. Yeah, I know. And like you said, every town does it differently. They do, yeah. Yeah, no trip. I don't think it's a problem on the website. It's a wild jump to get from a delinquent tax collector to delinquent tax on someone from their name to figure out their income. Yeah, I don't get it myself. If you had the information from the subsidy from the state, you perhaps could extrapolate their income. You would only know if you knew exactly what their grant list number was. And then what the tax ability was. I don't see it as being such a big deal. It doesn't make any sense. People aren't going to calculate that. They'll figure it out if they know the percentage is. And if you just know how much they're delinquent, then maybe they had. They'd have to pay for what they owe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it has nothing to do with it. Yeah, it doesn't give us whatsoever. They're going to figure it out. Yeah. But it's no big deal. No big deal either way, it's fine to answer. Yeah, I mean it. So I don't have to do it. Would you care to sign in? Would you care to sign in? Sure. OK, so what are we going to do about that? We're just going to say it's OK not to post it on the website. Yeah, give me a specific motion. I don't think so. We're just altering a process. Yeah, right. They're probably we'll stick to an email. Yes. So item D discussion on letter in response to the MFD, it should say potential election. Sorry. It's election that's coming up. Or the one that just occurred. What's that? Or the one that just occurred before. Yeah, we're not talking about that one. Potential executive session. So exactly. What's that? No, just me. Yeah, yeah. So we should go on an executive session. And what we can do is we can go to the personnel matter and then do the rest of it later. Or do you want to do the rest of it now? What could do that? I would do the rest of it now and then do the executive sections back to back. That way it makes it easier. Right. OK, so the next thing we'll just skip item D for the moment. We'll go to warrants. We have a regular expense warrant here. Yes. Not very long. I see. Pass it on. It's done. This is it. Yeah, there's six items here. OK, and today is 5.23. And I wasn't here for the beginning with our other business. No addition. So there's a little bit of other business on the annotated agenda. OK. We've added to the other personnel because of the administrator. We have received an animation from the planning commission. Yes. OK. Tyson Brown. Yeah. So my thought was we would bring Mr. Brown in to the June 6th meeting. Yep. So I guess really the question is, you know, how would you all like to proceed with this agenda? Right. And that's a good question. So we do have to come up with ours and pay, but we also have to come up with the interview process. Questions? Mm-hmm. Who's going to ask them? Right. And time. Well, we have just gone through some interviews. So we have a good basis of a set of interview questions, with not all of which are appropriate for zoning administrators, maybe some additional ones. But I bet if we got together half an hour ahead of time and talked about it, we could probably come up with a pretty good list of questions based on what we already have. Does that make sense? Well, we could put it on our agenda for a certain time and then have half an hour for that rather than moving our meeting earlier. Yeah. Just schedule. Yeah. And then another time for the actual interview, which could follow our half an hour. Right. Right. Right here. We need. Oh. Thank you. You're welcome. Now, we do realize that we don't have to ask a lot of questions because you've been nominated for the planning commission. Right. But we will have some questions. Of course. Yeah. Of course. So the meeting on the 6th starts at 6.30. Yeah. No, I don't want to move it up from the 6.30. No, I don't. What timing would you? So what we'd want to do is at some point in the beginning of the meeting, we want to say half an hour or so to develop the questions and then bring Mr. Brown in after that. And we want a hell of 45 minutes for that. Max. Half an hour. You want to do the questions that get him to talk ahead of time? Well, it'd be good if we had some sort of questions that we had in front of us to say, oh, we want to ask this one, that one, that one. That makes it quick. We're not going to, I don't want to sit here and we have no questions in front of us. They say, oh, what are we going to ask? Are we going to have a sea resume? That's going to be a weird question. Yeah, we have a resume. I mean, my suggestion was that we meet. Yeah, you said in the meeting for a certain amount of time that just come up with a question. Yeah, but we should have some questions already in front of us. Yeah, well, we have the LCT or something with the template. To your point, you've had two recent hires. Exactly. So we can take a look at some of those questions. Right. We can have, you know, 20 questions on a sheet and then we can say, oh, we want, you know, one tan in six or something. Yeah, you want to ask the Planning Commission to send us a list of the questions they asked? Yeah, so we don't ask the same one. Or maybe so we are asking the same one. Yeah. We might think they're really good ones. Well, I'll duplicate some of the questions and I'll fair this. It's similar to get a feel, so. Yeah, well, we don't have a lot of choices for the GA at this point. But it is good to ask some questions. Yeah, OK. So with the meeting starting at 6.30, would you like to start with this for that meeting? Yeah, we can do our usual, we can do a review of minutes, this is agenda, the public comment, then we can go right to our list of questions. And then we can allow a whole hour for the whole thing. If we've got a bunch of questions in front of, it shouldn't take us long. And then we can have Mr. Brown come in. So from 6.45 to 7.45, we can allow for the questions and having him come in at work. And I think in terms of open or closed meetings when we're coming up with a question, that sounds like a closed meeting. Yeah, that's personnel stuff. Right. And when it's the actual interview, I guess that's an open meeting. Is it? I don't think they work for. They work for anything in other ones we did. Interviews we did before they were closed. They were closed, OK. OK. Well, that leads to better answers. Generally, you keep the view of this as you can come in at some time. Well, that's right. Right. In case they have another job. Right. So we already have it posted on the website. But what's the name of the person? Oh, we did. And we said it a number of times. That's OK. Here. It's all right. But it won't go in the minutes. OK. So I can communicate with them, maybe like a 7.15 then. Yes. Maybe in the next, OK. Yeah, perfect. And I will email the select board. Now, the way we've done it before is we did it in the person. We had the person that was being interviewed come in in person. Yes, that would be my turn. And that would be best. I mean, the members of the select board, of course, can always zoom in. Like Amy is tonight. Yeah. And I noticed that Tom, city manager, candidate to last two for Berry City, where their pictures and their names and everything are in paper. So at least when you get down to that level. Right. Yeah. That's right. And this person is a finalist. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So I guess we're on. I think we're fine. Is that good? Yeah. Yeah. That's good. OK. And the office hours, did you want to take that? Yeah. The only thing there was we're just when I first came into the office, I was told that the Listers are here from 10 to 12. So you can always kind of count on having the native home in the afternoon. But we've had some inconsistent hours lately. OK. We have limited space. So it may be a little difficult to get into this room. But I think that we I talked to the Listers on Friday afternoon and I've discussed it with the team because we just have what's in potential new CA coming in. We have times where we're going to need to kind of overlap in this room. So we kind of came to an agreement that either they'll leave, the Listers may leave so we can have the meeting room space or we'll cohabitate peacefully and share the space. So I just wanted to make sure you all knew that we were working through that and kind of trying to balance our limited space accordingly. So on the hours, I think there's got to be some posted hours for the zoning administrator. But two days a week at the minimum. Yeah. Some of the work can be done from home, but there's got to be posted hours for people to know what they are and make them come in and apply for permits. So I don't know what those hours should be. I think once the candidate has accepted the position, I think we would work through that timing. But yeah, absolutely. But I think that we do need to be up front with the candidate to say there are some officers. And they should be a minimum of two days a week or two afternoons a week or two mornings a week, whatever. So the public knows. And then there will be some time when the candidate can do a work at home. So that was kind of hard. It's funny that we've gotten to this stage where that needs to be made explicit. Okay, if you get this job, you have to come into the office for a while. Yeah, well, these days it's like a lot of variables as far as in-person, out-person, whatever. Yeah, but the pay thing is the other thing, but that's something we really haven't fleshed out. Do we do that in open session? No, no, no. All right, I think we should. No, it's a negotiation. Okay, we'll just leave it at that. Okay. Okay. Well, that's something that we're gonna have to talk to among ourselves. Yeah, okay, thank you. Was there anything else? That's it, anything else that I think likely goes to the judges. Yeah, okay. We have a member of the public that came in after the public comment period. Did you want to say something, Tom? Yeah, I was just a little concerned that the agenda I was on regarding the fire chief. This is not the first contested election. This is the third contested election. Were we talking about the fire chief? Yeah. I think our department has done a very good job managing resources and trying to make sure that we run very efficiently. Anybody who's elected chief is a known commodity, including myself. You served the Decatur Morris chief? What's that? You served the Decatur Morris chief? No, five years. Five years. Okay. Yeah, that was one of the contested ones. Right. I lost one once. My question is, I don't even know what's going on here. So, we're not doing anything with the chief tonight. Well, I just thought on the agenda. There's nothing to do with the chief. Okay. So, a couple of us know no more than you do about what the agenda item's actually about. Okay. But it has nothing to do with the chief. Okay. Well, I just wanted to make sure because there was... Well, we don't have anything to do with it anyway. There was a rumor flying around that it was the first time. It was what? The first time there was a contested election. Oh, this time around? This time around. That is not the case. So, that was the third time. Well, you've got a long historical perspective with the department. So, thank you. Yeah, 48 years. Yeah. Anyway. The process is what it is. It's a democratic process that the emergency services department engages in as far as the election of the chief goes. Now, you know, that happened. It's history at this point. I remember. Whether we're happy or not with it, it's history. It was a democratically run election. Right. Now, as far as our relationship goes with the fire department, emergency services will have to see how that plays out. We're just going to see how it goes. Right. Yeah. And like I said, we do have some concern for the department didn't have faith that things would be as good. If not better, it wouldn't have happened. So it was a close election. Not as close as mine. OK. Anyway, all right. And there's a small group of people to really. So there's 20 people. There was 20. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. OK. OK. Well, thank you for coming in. Yep. All right. So let's see. So now we can we've taken care of all other business. So now we know an executive session. So what are we going to do in executive session? I don't understand. We're discussing a personnel matter to do with the fire department. OK, coming out of executive session. No action taken. 833. 833. So let's continue on our. Let's go to item D and the potential of sending a letter over to the emergency services facility. So you dashed up a lot. Did you want to let us see it? I drafted something. I guess I'm not sure what exactly you all wanted to say. OK, so so there was concern. OK, I'll just lay it out. There's concern expressed by the president of the fire station emergency services that there was personnel running for the seat open seat that might not be qualified and didn't have a skill set to represent the interests of the fire department in a productive way. So that's where I got out of it. He's concerned. So I thought we should send a letter over or he wanted us to send a letter over there to express our concern. But that's what I guess one question is, is the board universally concerned? And what would the board? Well, I didn't, of course, we couldn't act on anything about reading to the board. So I'm sure we couldn't send a letter. So that's why we one of the reasons we met is to come up with something to or should that's. I agree that when when the president raises questions, he's a valuable, valuable person, their contact that we need to take them seriously. We can I'm not in a position to have an informed position about either the candidates and even if I were, it's a different organization. If we want to send a letter saying, you know, we value the ongoing cooperation between the fire department and the East Montpelier select board and the gala select board. And we look forward to working with a board that is going to cooperate with us. That's fine with me, but that doesn't. Well, it isn't just a board that's going to cooperate. It's a board that's going to run the operation in a safe, productive way. And that had and the board needs to have the skill set to steer the ship. And I'm not sure that I mean, I do know all the candidates and, you know, there are some candidates that would be appropriate. So I don't know what you wrote. So she and I did talk about this and we agreed that we should say something but fairly obnoxious. Essentially, the paragraph I drafted that said, said the select board understands not having votes like the new vapor to the MFD board with the change of leadership at the MFD, the select board is concerned about additional changes in future direction of the MFD board. We encourage the MFD to ensure those elected to the board have the necessary experience and qualifications to maintain the quality of the board going forward. So that's good, perfect. So if you all are comfortable with that. Yeah, we thank them for their recent visit to them. I did. That was my first paragraph. All right. So I did thank for the recent visit. And I said, we appreciate the transparency and desire to foster a strong relationship between the things not really a select board and the MFD board. So would you like this letter sent to the chief to Larry Brown? OK, that's what the request was. So what's actually the purpose? I mean, I don't want to take the wind out. But what's the purpose of this? I mean, isn't that kind of like, hey, you know, you're going to send a letter that says that you don't want to work well with? I mean, I guess I OK, whatever. No, no, the letter the first paragraph is just window dressing. No, I understand that. But this whole this whole letter seems like it's window dressing. But I guess if if if there's some intrinsic that OK, whatever, that's somebody requested it and we can do it. I just I don't get it, I guess. Why we would we are also concerned about who's going to be on the board of directors? I understand that. But do you really think that there as an independent entity are going to look at this vaguely worded thing and say, oh, yeah, you know, we should definitely go this way. I don't get it. They're going to say, you know, the select board never sent a letter before before election. So this might mean something that they are concerned. OK. God across the bow that says we're concerned. We've never done this before. We've never we've never interfered. We're not going to interfere with the election. But we're saying our concern about the election. OK, I personally think that's broken. OK, we do that we are concerned. We're concerned. And when certain personalities that could be on that board, it could be difficult for them to do the business in a way that they need to. Well, yeah, I totally get that. I just think that they really have pride at themselves on independence, and I just don't really. But, you know, I guess if you if you want to state an opinion, then that's the way to do it. That's fine, as long as, you know, it's not so big that they can kind of. I mean, they're going to know what you're saying, I guess. OK, fine. Well, I don't know what we're saying in that the person that asked us to say something about it, we will be satisfying what he asked us to do. And that's important that we are supportive of someone that's been a strong proponent of the fire department. Emergency services have done a really good job. We need we need to be having as an ally as we move forward through a process that could be problematic. We don't know. We hope it's OK. OK. We do need, I think I personally would express this the way we did it. And it doesn't hurt. OK. I mean, I don't think it hurts anything. I guess, you know, it's fine here. Yeah, I don't know any people involved. And I think that's good. I'm glad I don't. Yes. And and I do have and I do think that, you know, they are pretty clear and separately existing corporation that doesn't have to do anything we ask them to do in that regard. But if we're sending the letter, we're just sending it sending it as a way of saying this is our concern. Yes, just want to make sure we get the best people we can on the board. Of course, we're in a positive. Man, that's fine. Yeah, but I don't I just don't want it to be because, you know, we're trying to control what they're doing, because we're not. OK, so so so I'll push back on this. They're dependent on us. They're dependent on our contract. We can end the contract for sure. And so and so to say that we're completely hands off is not the right message. We are the select board. We do control it. We have a contract with them that we can end. We can end the contract speaking from my my home for myself, because I don't know anybody who's being who's running for the board. I don't know any of that. No, those issues are who they are, what their qualifications are. So it makes it harder for me to support something like that. But I'm willing to do as long as the knock was kind of like that's why we did it, though. Right. We did it. It's a two for it's innocuous, but it still sends a message and it doesn't tread too much in anybody's toes. Right. About what's that? I would say half faith. You say half what? Faith, faith, faith, faith, faith. The right thing will come out. I hope so. But at the same time, I think we should send the message. And I don't think it's going to hurt anybody. And if they say, oh, they're interfering with the business. OK, we we are the controlling interest here. And don't forget it. And, you know, as we move forward, we'll have to see how it goes. And that's what we decide in our last meeting, we talked about this, we're going to see how it goes. Which I think is fair. It's it's hard to see anything objectionable in that letter. It is. Why would you object to a letter? No, I think that if I got to a letter and if I was the person that is addressing, I got the letter. I'm like, I would say, oh, they are interested in what's going on here. Yeah, that's what that would that would be my reaction. Yeah, it's essentially to me what my my intent with what I wrote was to encourage what we heard from Mr. Brown. Yes. The last meeting, which is transparency. Exactly. Style of communication is desire for us to engage more with the MFT board. That was the spirit in which I wrote the words that I did. I think it's well written tonight. And I'm full support of it. OK, then I will get this drafted. Does everyone feel that way? Are you OK? Yeah, OK, yeah. So is it going out under your signature? Is that the idea? That's how I have it. OK, so so I moved to authorize the chair to sign the letter that the town administrator has read for us tonight to the popular fire department. I'll second that. Can you hear me? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Guys, you appear to have it. They do have it. Um, I guess that's it. That is it. Perfect. Forty-five minutes, we got a lot done. Sweet. So usually. You'd be efficient when you started at 8 o'clock in a meeting. That's right. That's why I thought you'd be in a meeting. You'd be on top of all the start of the day. Yeah, I figured we could do that. You did? So there is one more item on here, John. And it's usually one that you take care of, it's called H. I'm making motion to read Jerry. Oh, you seconded it. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Guys, you have it.