 All right, I'll call the town of Essex select board meeting for Tuesday, January 17th to order And speakers in the cabinet talking to us Okay First thing on the agenda are any agenda additions or changes from staff a couple of requested changes from staff one of them to goes with item 6d, which is the Evaluation for the manager on just a couple of forms that the town has used in the past to evaluate managers So those are in front of you right now. It's just another point of contact and reference Secondly, I would like to give you an update on a legal matter So request that you add an executive session to discuss pending or probable civil litigation Okay Okay, any Changes from board members Okay, I make the motion that we accept the Evaluation forms that were provided to it of the valuation manager evaluation forms that were provided to us this evening for reference and also add in an additional executive session for a Tending or probable civil litigation pending or probable civil litigation Okay, thank you. Ethan any further discussion Those in favor, please say aye post a motion passes 5-0 we have a new agenda update of the agenda Next thing on the agenda is public to be heard public to be heard is a time when Those attending the meeting can speak to the board on town business. That's not on the agenda If you'd like to speak during public to be heard you can either raise your hand here in the room or use the Raise your hand feature in the zoom application to get to that button You can if you float your cursor at the bottom of your screen a reactions button will open up You click on that the raise hand feature will will present itself and you can click on that too If you'd like to speak and so I do see one hand up will arrange the loom Thank You chair a couple of questions one is there a way to get a civic ready update on You know quarterly to see how Many people are signing up and how well it's working I'm not sure people in our town know how valuable it is how great a job Tammy's doing On the newsletter, it's just fantastic I hope that it can help deal with some of the issues around the front porch forum in terms of people being blocked and then the other thing is there a way to Make sure that all of the recording the meeting recordings are uploaded to like a YouTube channel I went to that PC meeting I thought it was recorded the planning Commission meeting last week and there was a couple things in there that I was talking to some people about in our community and it's hard for me to just rely on my memory and I Want a way to be able to go back and have people look at it refer to it and actually have a robust discussion And it looks me like it was recorded. So I'm not sure What the barriers are to actually uploading that? Thanks Great thanks learning anything that we can respond to it as far as the civic ready updates the right I'll talk to Tammy about how do you best access those and Share those. I think we're up over a hundred if not a few hundred subscribers to the newsletter, which is great As far as uploading to YouTube, I know it's been a bit more challenging than it seems like it should be on its face so we are recording meetings and Creating some new staff and figuring out some of the kinks and logistics of getting all videos Uploaded to the YouTube channel in the meantime. We do take minutes. Those are posted within five business days So that's always a good resource as well All right, thanks Greg Margaret Smith, they see your hand up. Hi. Thank you. I thought I Signed up for that newsletter, but I must have screwed something up. So I will try again. I do have a comment on the revised charter and It's in reference to section 117 206 Should I mention it now or will I be able to talk about it later? So Margaret, we're having a public hearing on that topic very soon. So you'll have an opportunity then to comment Okay, thank you. Yep. Hey anyone else anyone in the room wishing to speak during public to be heard See the hands Margaret I see your hand is still up. Is that a additional comment? Nope. Okay. All right Okay, so let's move on to the first of Our Any public hearings is open or I'll call to order or open the first of two public hearings on a proposed amendments to the town of Essex Charter I say first of two because there'll be a second one on January 30th so the intent here is to get Input from the public we've talked about this several times in meetings There anything we need to do to kick off here the Charter review committee is a committee that the select board appointed Back in the late summer early fall. They met throughout the fall to propose some changes Select board put that feedback on December 5th and decided to focus on five potential amendments Staff has done some additional work select boards done some additional work as far as Proposing what is in front of the public today? It's required by statute to have two public hearings on Charter changes and Ultimately, the select board will decide which of the amendments and in what form to present to voters at town meeting in March Thanks, Greg So is there anyone who would like to speak I know Margaret you had already indicated that you wanted to comment Yes, thank you. Do I need to put my hand back up you do not okay so and This is something I brought up in the Charter change committee, but I Think it's on page nine of the packet is in reference to 117-206 and it's the record of proceedings and It doesn't specify in any way how the minute shall be kept and And I'm concerned that the minute should be at least kept in paper form Which I think they've always been done, but it doesn't specify that You know, we had we lost power for Large parts of the town and when the power goes down if it's only kept electronically The records are of no use. So so I don't know if there should be something in the Charter that talks about how those Records shall be kept. Thank you Hey, thanks Margaret. I think to to comment on some of that or to some of that That's appropriate. Okay Statute tells us how we we need to retain Records and also our intent with this Charter change is not to change any For the most part not change any language. There is one section that we're proposing to delete and so this Language that's in 117-206 is identical to the language that's in our current Charter. So we're not changing anything there It's our intent or Actually, I should say I have proposed a select board hasn't actually had a discussion about this. I've proposed that we we Come back after town meeting and Work through each of the chapters of the Charter to look at Look for areas where language may need to be changed. There were a lot of suggested changes that came from the the Charter committee and we were we given the timeline we didn't feel that we could give due justice to reviewing all of those Proposed changes. So I think I'd like you to hold that thought and we'll come back with it We're back to it. Although we can have more discussion about it. I mean Our our our plan is to is to collect input at this meeting and at the next Public hearing and then there'll be discussion about whether to include any additional changes, so Okay, thank you. Yep. Yep Hey, let's see if I can Okay, anyone else wanting to comment on the Charter any of the aspects of it Don't see any hands online. There's no hands in the room comments from board members. I Would just note that I think that the town is doing a good thing by putting the particular wording that you did for the just cause eviction as a proposal Thanks Hey seeing no other like a motion that we close the public hearing for Better amendments. Hey, thank you, Ethan second second. Thank you Don any further discussion Was a favor of closing the public hearing say aye. I Close say nay. Okay, so we're We're out of And I just asked mr. Chairman that you remind people to sign in Yes, if you if you've come into the room, please sign in on the on the sign-in sheet over there, so we have a accurate Record of who attended the meeting tonight. Thank you They will move on to the our second public hearing this again is the first of two public hearings on the fiscal year 2024 municipal budget All that bring to order The internet can challenge on it as you all know you've spent a lot of time in the budget the past few months It's it's a big year Big transition year trying to get get a budget that's going to set the town up for the future on post separation from After the separation of the village from the town You know a few things working against us this year that separation resulted in the loss of a 41% of the town's tax base Offsetting that a little bit by sharing police services sharing assessing and sharing the senior services for half of the year Also dealing with a lot of inflation as you've probably realized in your everyday lives which has affected everything from contracts to supplies to Gasoline heating everything Including health insurance which is another big one health insurance premiums are up about 20% So when staff started first started working on this some department heads took the first shot at their individual budgets back in September from there the administration team took it and Went back and forth with department heads quite a bit We had to make some tough decisions holding off on things that were requested that we could use but knowing It's not the right time financially to go after you know a couple new staff people for instance We took a look took a look at historical spending patterns stuff like overtime in the public works department Had often been budgeted on the conservative high-end and never knowing what what's gonna happen with winters when we're gonna have Big emergencies come up if that over time was not spent it usually went towards paving or other capital projects We took a look at historical spending. We brought the overtime budget down to historical average You know, it's it's a fine line so far. It's been a fairly moderate winter. There's a winter Interoperations update in your packet Today so you can see where we compare to the past few years, but we don't know what else the winter is gonna bring We don't know what's gonna bring next year, which is really what we're talking about and If if we have a bad winter if there's a lot of overtime that line's gonna go over Police are similar. We budgeted based on police always having a certain number of vacancies Which usually results in a fair fair number of Fund balance or surplus in the budget each year We took that down to their historical number of these if we run into the good problem of having having officers Stick around and new officers come. You might be having a conversation about going over on that budget So we took out a lot of the Buffers that we had in there before where it's a really a lean budget We did look for efficiencies reshuffling some staff positions and within departments It's a sort of better align better provide services We presented that to the select board back in November and you've taken your your Hentals to it. I suppose and major major adjustments to where we are today we're looking at a Total budget that has gone down from fiscal year 23 The tax levy has also gone down quite a bit back to the loss of the village village of Essex Junction tax base Grand list is on town now. We're projecting about a 1% increase in the grand list We're proposing to use six hundred thousand dollars or this point I should say the select board is proposing to use six hundred thousand dollars of fund balance to offset the the tax rate Where we stand right now, it's a tax rate increase of 22% The average home in Essex, that's about three hundred and forty dollar increase over the past past year Staff knows I think the select board knows it's it's a big ask of the community, but it's also Think what we need to keep going forward and to maintain the services that community has come to expect But that happy to answer questions or turn it over to all of you All right. Thanks, Greg. The one thing that I want to add is that we're Only required to have one public hearing, but we're proposing to have where we are going to have two part of that is because now that we don't have the option of Modifying the budget amount from the floor because we've gone to Australian ballot for the budget like to Make sure folks understand that the time to ask for changes in the budget is now Once we once we want it for the For town meeting for the town meeting ballot then it's Just yes or no No changes. So if you want to make if you want to suggest any changes now's the time to do it So anybody have any comments? Yes, sir come on up to the microphone introduce yourself Can you come up to the microphone please to the Yes, yes, sir, you know, it's placed correctly just to you can just tweak Your health insurance you said you were looking at a Jennifer yourself my name is Dennis white. Thank you You said you were looking at a 20% increase Are we a member of the Vermont League of Cities and towns? Yes, we are do we get our insurance through them? Hope insurance. No, we get our property casualty insurance and workers comp through the LCT Okay, and so why would it be jumping by 20% is it because we don't Have a required minimum number of employees now that we've split That's a small factor. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, so that's a small factor that goes into it We we belong to the Vermont health exchange. We get a health insurance through MVP We've been with MVP for I think three or four years now Blue Cross Blue Shield is the other provider through the exchange. We did look at them It was probably going to be in the 18 or 19 percent increase for health insurance premiums through Blue Cross Blue Shields We've management team the HR director talked a bit The amount of savings to do that we didn't think was worth it for upheaval to staff to change try to change Plans get used to a new system everything else We did make the switch from to MVP about three or four years ago We came from Blue Cross the time we were going to save well over a hundred thousand dollars We thought it was worth it at that point at this point. We don't answer your question about the number of employees We were always two separate organizations. So it was a little Little strange between the town and the village combined. We did have enough Enough employees where we could go outside of the exchange And when you do that you have a few more options a bit simple, but you don't have that option We didn't have that option to explore this year Very good 20% just seems like a big increase and it is it's set by the Green Mountain care board I believe is the entity that allows health insurance rates each year and Blue Cross MVP all about the same very good All right, thank you. Thank you for the question Anyone else? Yes, sir My name is Brett gas kill. I just want to make sure I understand what you're just saying is that our taxes are going to go up Another seven hundred dollars on average per year Is that what we're saying? No three hundred and forty. I thought you said three hundred and forty per half year No for the the average home. We'll see about a three hundred and forty dollar tax increase the average home So so we use two hundred eighty thousand dollars as a representative home value based on 2007 assessments, so I understand that houses are selling for a lot more now, but it's it's based on your What yours home was assessed back in 2007 and we use two hundred eighty thousand as a representative And it's if you if you take our grand list and you find the the median or the average It's pretty close to two hundred eighty thousand for the for the town has extra and it Add on to that too if you're curious about your home value, you can reach out to the assessor's office They can tell you it's it's online as well. Don't go to Zillow if you go to Zillow. That's not the That's not the assessed value of your home. I'm not worried about the value of my home I'm worried about the value of the money that you're Digging out of everybody's pockets You guys seem to pass these things with very flippantly Suggested it's no big deal Three hundred and forty dollars after everything that people are paying in gas and everything else. I Just don't see Where's the concern for the average citizen? Where are they supposed to come up with this money? where My my my property taxes have on my house 25 years now. They've gone up three hundred percent in that time period And now here's another five percent no big deal, you know, I Just want to say on behalf of all the people that aren't here You're doing a tremendous Injustice to the people of this community. Thank you. Make sure your comments anyone else any board member I'll follow that up by saying I've said before and I would say it again I don't think the budget increase is enough If you look at the amount that your health insurance insurance costs have gone up 20% You look at the level of inflation right now. It's 8% And you look at some of the other things I think that you're cutting it really close I mean three hundred and forty dollars Isn't something but it's a dollar a day and the best value that you get is from your town services and Essex has a tremendous staff and You do a lot of things So I would also point out that when we separated Everybody said the budget was going to go up 20 percent. Well, you're at 22 percent in a year with record inflation record costs for all of materials and supplies record health insurance costs and Record staffing costs. So I I'm just afraid that you cut cut it too close to the bone You're taking six hundred thousand dollars or savings to keep that rate low And we don't have a lot of people that are coming in and saying that the increase is too much So I just think you really should consider putting a little bit more into the budget than the 22 percent I think you're gonna find that it's too big a dip For where we are. It's just my two cents. Thank you Thanks Anybody else Hey, I don't see any hands up make a motion that we close the public hearing for the future year 24 municipal budget. Okay Thank you, Ethan. Thank you. Don any further discussion Was in favor, please say aye. Hi Opposed in a That's just five zero where the public hearing is closed Move on to the next public hearing. This is again the Call to order the first of two public hearings on fiscal year 2024 capital budget and five-year plan Again, we will be having a second public hearing on January 30th on this topic We're warning the budget or the yeah the I'm meeting ballot any but the many comments from the public Capital plan or any any introductory words I'm just admitting some people. I don't know how long they've been waiting. I apologize They may want to check and see if they had any budget comments. I'm sorry I was Patty Davis and Marie Stumbart who just came Okay, so for those who just joined we have I guess I'll ask the select board. You're okay with with backtracking here, but I think we should Yes, I mean, I would ask that give them the courtesy of that question so Marines and Patty, I know you've just been Allowed into the meeting we've already discussed the Charter amendments and the municipal budget that we'd like to give you the opportunity to speak Comments on either of those Go ahead. Well, I was just going to mention If public temporary heard I just wanted to mention basically Alan Martin That there are still trees and brush and everything I mean it we already accepted the sidewalks don't get plowed but People can't even pedestrians are not even able to walk along Alan Martin And I just wanted to bring it to your attention that you know It's it I Understand, you know taxes are going up and everything and you know a lot of us put more money into our homes and a Lot of money into our homes and you know, we'd like at least the streets that are around us to be somewhat maintained I'm not asking about plowing but if the if the dead trees could please be removed My husband can't even run along the sidewalk there, but other people can't even walk their dogs So maybe you don't know and I just wanted to bring it to your attention. That's all. Thank you Yeah, and I Actually have no comment I joined for An issue that you're going to be discussing later. I assume All right. Thank you. All right. Okay. All right, so Any introductory marks to the capital plan Capital budget is also before you tonight again, we're proposing well for how holding two public hearings It's a little bit out of the ordinary but with it being a Big year in a different year and having time in the agenda to do that. That's the you'll have the first of two public hearings tonight Through the capital plan and budget the town has a two cent capital tax which raises money towards the capital each year There's also money that gets transferred from the operating budget into the capital capital budget But that two cents this year is going to expected to bring in about three hundred and twenty two thousand dollars Past years we've brought in about five hundred and thirty five hundred and forty thousand dollars. This is another result of Losing the s-extruction tax base so The team working on this Catherine sonic community development director Aaron Martin public works director and Dan Roy finance director and myself Went through we tried to Propose a capital budget capital plan Based on what was been there in the past but also looking at now funding it with three hundred and twenty thousand dollars as opposed to The amount that we've typically been used to the requests from department heads came in right about five hundred and thirty five thousand dollars I think They're right about where we're typically spending or sitting aside in our capital As we went through we allocated that three hundred and twenty two thousand dollars for fiscal year twenty four to different line items We made some decisions about projects to hold off on Projects where we could take existing money That's already in the capital budget kind of reallocated or use it for purposes without adding more money into those lines We also held off on funding Items such as paving stormwater some of those big ticket items gravel roads at the amount that they've historically been been funded at We're proposing to use undesignated capital to offset some of those expenses this year and some of that savings It's something that we can we can get through this year The select board last week or at your last meeting decided to put two hundred thousand dollars of surplus towards capital, which will help That's what we're looking at this year Beyond that beyond this year It's going to get tough to keep keep pace with our capital needs without changes Not entirely part of the public hearing tonight, but part of the capital discussion is looking at raising the capital tax Putting that up before voters at town meeting staff has recommended three and a half percent Sorry three and a half cents up from two cents That again, that's basically to make up the difference of revenue from what s-exjunction had been paying into that It's a little bit more Just to make up the difference mess extension will be three point three nine cents We're proposing three and a half cents looking at inflation looking at some of the costs that are coming whether it's for your Vehicles your roads Building stuff like that That's the overview happy to try to answer questions about it and the rest of the team is here too. All right. Thanks Greg the The one one point of one thing I want to Comment on is that the capital plan Itself is approved by the select board, but the Town there will be a townwide vote likely Asking for the a increase in the the capital tax rate so The the Public hearing here is in is intent is to collect information about the the capital plan Given that it the the five-year portion of that assumes the potential of a increased tax rate My thought is comments on an increased tax rate that capital tax rate could also be appropriate Hey, so any members of the public have any comments on the Capital plan don't see any hands up in the room No hands up online Dennis come on up me again Is it one and a half cents per year for five years? in this case it would be a One time that was for being proposed talked about is a one-time increase of up to three and a half cents So one and a half cents over one time. So it's a permanent increase. Okay, right. It's not a increase every year, right? Very good And Ignorilo come on out it's ignore. Hello Question is was the anticipated increase in the grand list due to reassessment taken into account when determining the three and a half percent I Made the same mistake just want to make sure yeah, yeah, it was not and that's that's a consideration that that Probably I've suggested we look at but it's hard. It's different extremely difficult to predict what Respecance gonna look like right and so There there could be a scenario where Right a smaller increase is approved in anticipation of correcting it later once we have a reassessment done Well, if it's not too late, I'd suggest reducing the increase bit and wait for the reassessment and then adjust them Thanks again Anybody else I'm seeing any hands in the room. I'm seeing any hands online Any board member comments and I just noticed and maybe somebody asked this and I missed it But under vehicles and equipment There was no funding for the police department equipment and I thought they had a replacement plan So nobody for what I'm sorry miss There's no funding under capital tax FY 24 for the police department vehicles and equipment And I thought they had a replacement plan, right? So the the reason for that is that we put all of the police capital into the police budget itself with operational transfers so that the city of s extension pays its portion of it Payment for their police services. So all police capital runs through the general fund budget. Okay. Thank you So in keeping with that does that mean that next year we won't see Police station under buildings the police department under vehicles and equipment on the capital plan because it's rolled into the police budget I think it's a good question and something we can consider Part of what we want to do over the next year is really Build out the five-year plan the five-year piece of that and and get some better projections about vehicle replacements storm water repair stuff like that First plus reaction is that we would probably keep it in there. It's still the capital plan We'd also be showing that we show some some lines where Columns where we have revenue coming in from operating transfers or other ways, so it's not showing just the capital tax That's my quick reaction, but No, I would just note again What's your capital budget is very very important I would note since I've been on the board that there's been almost 400,000 pulled out of that count or a couple of major Courses that the town had it didn't affect the budget at all because you had the money I'm glad that we're putting 200,000 more into it, but I would like to see What we actually need for the capital budget as it's proposed versus having staff make do whatever the board give them more or less I think you could break it up into both 10-year items, which you know are going to be replaced And then you have long-term items and you've had the fire chief come in here The public works guys and everything everything is really expensive And you get your biggest bang for your buck from your capital because that doesn't affect the budget once it's set Thank you anybody else Make the motion that we close the public hearing for the future year 24 capital plan and the capital budget Thank You Ethan. I have a second. Yep. Thank you Don. Any further discussion? All those in favor of closing the public hearing you say aye. I Close say nay Passes 5-0 the public hearing is closed. Let's move on to our first business item Consider a approval of resolution in appreciation of Jerry Ferkey Jerry Ferkey has been our health officer for many years before that. He was the zoning administrator He worked in the community development department all told he's probably been providing service to the town for about 50 years Many capacities and he is finally retiring. He's reached that point where he's ready to I Figured it was Could be just a small gesture for the select board to approve a resolution and appreciation of Jerry for all he's done for the town and a proposed resolution is in your packet All right, thanks great Make the motion that we approve the resolution and appreciation of Jerry Ferkey Thank You Don second thank you Ethan now typically we have asked the clerk to read it into the record so I Apologize in advance because I have a horse throat, but if I have to cough in the middle, it's not intentional So this is the resolution and appreciation of Jerry Ferkey Whereas Jerry Ferkey was hired and served as zoning administrator for the town of Essex from November 1971 until November until 1977 and again from November 1980 until April 2006 and Whereas Jerry was appointed as health officer in 1972 Taking on this important duty for several municipalities including Essex Whereas Jerry retired after 31 years of service as a zoning administrator But remained active in his contribution to this community to the community as health officer for 50 years and Whereas Jerry performed focused and diligent work as health officer even when the rules and guidelines that exist today were not in place to support the professional position in earlier years and Whereas Jerry investigated public health hazards enacted to prevent or remove potential public health risk for the good of the residents of Essex and Whereas Jerry completed his term and final appointment as health officer on December 31st 2022 and Whereas Jerry's dependability dedication and loyalty will be missed and difficult to replace now therefore be it Resolved that on the occasion of Jerry's final year as health officer at the Essex Blackboard On behalf of the staff and citizens of the town of Essex hereby extend our most sincere appreciation to Jerry Ferkey for 50 years of continuous service in investigating and forcing and resolving public health issues To support and maintain a high quality of life for the Essex community adopted this day this 17th day of January 2023 by the Essex Blackboard. All right. Thank you, Ethan Any other board member comments? Thank you for your service Yeah, thank you, and it's a and it's not an easy job We fully appreciate all the Jerry's done Okay Right, we have a motion in a second and we've read it into the record All those in favor of approving the resolution, please say aye. Aye. Oh, say nay Okay, motion passes 5-0. Thank you everyone. Let's move on to the next business item consider approval of mailing ballots to all active voters for 2023 annual town meeting Is you good I can do this so the for the past few years it started off a belief largely as a COVID response to COVID The state allowed municipalities to authorize a mailing of ballots to all registered voters active registered voters the town has done that the past few years the legislature has made it a permanent permanent piece of legislation Where the legislative bodies can decide to do this with town meeting coming up? The question is before you tonight if you want to do so again for this coming March There is a cost associated with associated with mailings Susan McMurray Hill the clerk has put that Into the memo. It's approximately $6,700 to do the mailing if you want to put on return postage. That's about $4,700 There's also the cost of printing ballots envelopes collating stuffing envelopes Printing is going to be happening no matter what total cost is 19,400 if the return postage is included and if not, it's about 14,700 are the estimates Okay, thanks Greg. So there's two questions before us One is whether to mail Ballots to all active registered voters and the other is whether to include return postage And I'm curious if you have a percentage of folks that have voted with the mail-in ballots versus folks that voted without mail-in ballots Good question and Andy it asked a similar one Susan so the town clerk has said that most of the ballots are returned by mail, but she doesn't have a percentage Is there a percentage of how many? Voters and yeah, I mean the turnout must be a lot higher with the mail. Yeah, it is. I Don't want to say without So I have I see like all three sides of this I say the third side because I have an idea also but I Think that we should return to the way that it was before COVID But I also think that we should Allow like we did before to request a mail-in ballot and send them with postage But I don't think we should mail everybody about it because there's many people including myself Who take that stamp and throw it away in the recycling box at the election post poll? so I just I Fully support mail-in voting, but I have a little bit of a conflict thinking that it should be on the town's any so there's another there's another option that's not reflected here actually just I've just remembered that the response that came from Susan was that we could get a metered permit So that only those that are actually returned to the mail get charged postage So there's a there's a thousand dollars a thousand dollar a year fee to have that and then there's just there's a set-up cost-associated to which I'm not sure what it is, but That's a a third option Again, it's not reflected in this memo But I had asked the question, you know, whether there's a because I was I had the exact same concern where if you know You know, I was I was at the polls and there were plenty of people that would come in and just rip their envelopes and have Throw them in the recycle bin with the stamp on it and everything Wasn't a true stamp it was a printed it was a printed posted right so you can't use it Brandon You can't use it for anything else, but it's but it's a it's a sunk cost When she's when she's we send out those letters with that printed stamp on it. It's it's spent But again, I'm sorry. I'm going on too long there's a third option of getting a Metered postage that only gets only the only the ones that are returned in the mail So in the past when we I know you've always been able to request a mail-in ballot when in the past before COVID when you requested a mail-in ballot did it come with postage return postage? They're not recall. I'd have to get back to you on that. I don't think it did. No, it didn't That's that's that's the kicker that I'm you know thrown out there was We're we'd have to let people know We're letting people know about everything going on But we could let people know that if you want a mail-in ballot We'll send you one with postage if you don't have the ability to make it to the pole, but you know $1,000 fee. I don't know what stamps are right now. Are they over 70 cents? There's 60 cents until the 22nd and then there's 63 cents so you're most 2,000 1800 ballots before you actually save your thousand dollars It'll be more than anything because it's not you're not sending a regular letter You're sending a heavy-duty ballot with a return envelope, right? So yeah, so you'd be Yeah My thought I support all of it. I just Get to see $20,000 cost Basically, I see your hand Yeah, I had asked the question previously around Whether we were charged for Every envelope that went out or only the ones that were returned and I was under the impression that that's how it Currently worked. So I'm glad to be corrected on that Because I had a different understanding I also had a question around The cost of printing ballots Envelopes collating stuffing is approximately $8,000 How many ballots do we need to have at the polls to begin with? I mean is that deducted from? The number of ballots in that $800 or $8,000 excuse me I do not know don't you know how many no, that's all it's not they send it to the printers We need 8,000 of the 8,000 we want 6,000 mailed and we like 2,000 delivered to the town clerk's office So we have them for the polling place or whatever then I don't know what the numbers are but that's okay They tell the mailing place how many they want mailed and how many they want Delivered to the office for the polling place It does raise a good point though because although You bring your mail in ballot to the poll you don't have to as long as you sign the affidavit So you could have them mail you about leave it at home sign on affidavit and get another ballot. That's correct There was another You know situation that could arise just on that out there Right, so the pieces the three pieces well, I guess the 8,000 includes the stuffing of the envelope You know, it's not it's hard to just parse out the cost of the bags themselves information Kind of like I'd like to understand a little bit more about the third option $1,000 meter, they only have to pay postage when that's brought back Yeah, my understanding right is you can you can put a you can use a if you have the I Don't know if there's a number on there I don't know how I'm not sure how it works But only those that are actually sent back through the mail are would be charged back to the town that there's a again It's a thousand dollar annual fee You keep that to have that service On top of the cost of all the bouts and all that but then you wouldn't have to pay that $4,700 you may have to depending on how many are returned, right? Is that a one-time cost for that $1,000? No, that's an annual fee. It's an annual fee every year be every year There is a one-time business mail permit fee. I don't have a cost on that There is a one-time fee in addition to the $1,000. Are there any other? Nailings that the town does that that would be a benefit Authority Question Yeah, well, I don't think we send out anything else that is prepaid posted down So I'm trying to think I mean that maybe a survey would be the only thing that comes to mind But we don't do those regularly and if you're doing you go into that expense You're probably going to be spending the money to do a scientific survey anyways There's going to be costly probably that we haven't done one of those Anything that you add more to mail out is just going to cost more postage It's not going to be prepostage for any more mailings. It's just going to be Repostage on any that are returned. It's only the rights the ones that aren't returned that you won't pay for a scenario with the meter postage so I guess Maybe we should ask for public comment All right, so let me go back to the meeting here Um, anybody have any comment about whether we should be mailing out Ballots and whether they should have return postage on them Then it's come out. So in addition to saving thousands of dollars by not doing mail-in ballots This is a statement of mine that that I don't understand how people Don't see that the biggest threat to election integrity and Democrates democracy itself is mail-in ballots So getting back to your your metered mail-ins you you Purchase or you contract with the post office to get that stamp to mail out Stuff is that is that a yearly fee? That allows you to do that. Yes. Yes, it is and It would only be for One time like if you had multiple elections in one year primary a town meeting day Could you use it throughout the year? So in 2023, it's correct. We're only gonna have one there's only one election this year is town meeting next year there'll be town meeting and I consider primaries to potentially right so and in in odd number of years It's only one election in even number of years. There's multiple elections But it would cover all of them in recover all the thousand dollars recover about other mailings that you that you Do like even the would it cover the parks and recreation pamphlets that comes out It's what this is. This is only applies to the return mail. Okay, and so typically We don't I don't think we have very many mailed in We don't provide envelopes for people to mail to mail and registration. Just just return the stuff you said Okay, thank you. All right. Thanks guys Anyone else Just come on and identify yourself. I'm Len Smith. I'm here only because the Essex Westford school board district was canceled But as far as mail and ballots go I'm totally against The blanket mailing of ballots to households. I do believe it contributes to election fraud. I know of situations in our county where There was fraud So I believe we have to do everything we can to mitigate that I agree with even that if you Request a ballot because you cannot make it to the polls and the return Possibly should have return mail on it. I think that most of us would spend 60 cents Going to the polls So I think it's part of so even if you decide not to put your Return mail on it. I feel like that's not hardship for most Or probably everyone 60 cents would not be a hardship if you run a really bad So I but I would absolutely be against the blanket mailing of ballots It's town for many reasons one of them is the cost Right. Thank you, Lynn. Okay. I see petty Davis I just want to say that I Think it's a good compromise That's the third option you gave Andy on So that people are not ripping up the ballots as they walk in the door to vote with a paid stamp but the reason I want to comment is I don't know about everybody else's neighborhood, but where we live We don't even get our mail four days a week So I know that it has to do with the post It has to do with the mail the not so much the town post office But the working conditions over all trying to attract people to even deliver the mail It's such a horrible issue Wilson has it worse They went few more months than we do but we can't just stand out in front of the post office with a sign to say Please come and work. They need to change the working conditions so that they're not on call To get people to want to work at the post office. It's a nightmare I Think that's the bigger issue before you even decide on what you want to do with whether to put postage on or not Because if they're not going to get there in time when you vote That's my comment. Thank you. Thanks, Lorraine Or Patty. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I saw Lorraine's hand up also a moment ago. Lorraine. Did you a comment? I did but I'm not sure it's helpful because I was just curious in terms of some of the public and their concerns over ballot fraud and just to be able to address that because my understanding is that we have a pretty good robust civil authority in terms of making sure that there's a certain error and that we haven't experienced that so Not sure where that concern is coming from and also I guess if you Decide to have private citizens pay for a ballot that could run into other issues in terms of cost for a vote and You know other legality issues that haven't really thought about and And I you know, I don't I think certainly we should think about if a ballot's requested as opposed to blanket mailing I know for myself certainly through hardship it has been a godsend while we're taking care of my father-in-law and I still use mail-in ballot because it's just so much easier for my crazy busy life and Also because my concerns about COVID So anyway, just a couple sense I'm just not sure where that the voting integrity question is coming from and I think someone here has Performed as the on the civil board authority could maybe enlighten people about the process. Thanks. All right. Thanks. They're in Any other comments from the public you do have a comment in the chat which we typically don't check but Might be worth mentioning and asking if Maurice Dunbar wants to give her comment Maurice did you want to have a comment? Yes, thank you. I was trying to unmute and there's no way I can raise my hand on this I can only put something in the chat. So thank you for asking. I Think it's really important to save money. Everything is so expensive these days so I Agree with I believe his name is Ethan the man the man in the blue shirt. We really really should keep it down to to Just mailing out ballots to people that request them and then there's a greater degree of Legality going on also. So please consider just Mailing to the people that request it otherwise people need to show up at the the polls and as far as the postage That's six or half a dozen I do believe that most people can spare 60 cents, but I understand that nobody can so maybe Somebody could plead their case at the town clerk's office if they can't afford the postage So that's it. I just I'm into trying to save money because it's too easy to spend The public's money at large and let's just keep it as inexpensive as possible, please Thank you. All right. Thank you Yes, see I don't see another hands up any other comments from the room can you want to comment? What was budgeted for this election? I don't remember offhand. I'd have to look do we think it was the full mail in with return? You guess Or was it standard Vote at the polls $8,000 I'm curious. So the question really is how will it be paid for if you go with the full boat? I'm if it wasn't budget question All right, I believe that all the voting was put into one budget. It wasn't broken down primary versus true. That's true because there is right there. We were in the same fiscal year as the The fall elections, yeah Primary presidential, I don't think it was broken down that way. It was just one lump sum was put in Think so I'd have to Question about that. I thought that the state paid for the primary election They don't pay for the postage on the primary election. I Believe it was going to be reimbursable, but I don't believe it's been because that was that was part of the reason Why they couldn't add any of the solid waste district? Boats that they had because the states paid for the ballots and they did the mailing and that's why they couldn't Accept it and they had to be picked up In my understanding I could be wrong, but I've always understood that the state paid for primary elections And they print the ballots and for midterms and and primaries but you know, I Believe they do it for the ballots if there's a If there's a local issue on like the November from November election in the August primaries in the town pays for That piece of it. I do believe the town is paying for the poll workers pretty sure Okay, but no postage the question here. No, we had to pay for printing and I Believe it was return postage May not be wrong, but I know a part of the printing I'd like to clarify all that because I mean with the question that was raised was Will this benefit primaries and midterms? Yeah, that's great. It's good questions Right. Well, we don't have any coming up. So I don't think that You really need to just right but the questions if we go to this thousand dollar a year thing is it only for the town meeting? Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good clarification make up and did you have a clarification there? so just to Address the prior question about whether it's budget. I'm looking in the 2023 town clerk's budget The election expenses line item is at a total of thirty three thousand eight hundred dollars with sub categories if you will of election workers being thirty nine hundred mailing ballots for March election being fourteen thousand and Postage to mail ballots being budgeted at fifteen thousand nine hundred within that within our current Answer your questions all budget. Yeah, it is all budgeted. I Hear you can you know make more comments coming up. I have a question for Dan Okay Thank you for that Dan. That was great. Um, right. So it's already budgeted if I understand it correctly 14,000 some odd dollars Decisions was made we voted we voted on that budget. It's in that sounds to me like your decisions already been made This seems moot to me I Think I'm sorry if I didn't hear it right, but you said that that was Subtitled as March election Yes, so I'm reading it directly how it's listed in the 2023 budget So the the three lines one was election workers. Yeah for our total thirty nine hundred And then the description is mailing ballots for March election. That's exactly how it reads here There's no other November No, it specifically says for the March election fourteen thousand You know assuming just the one election in an odd year and then postage to mail ballots fifteen thousand nine Thank you That's a lot more than what you're saying is the cost. It's gonna cost. Yeah Appreciate you. Oh, I was just gonna clarify That we're talking about the FY 24 budget which ends June 30 2024 so Those that falls elections would not be included in the FY 24 budget But that would actually be FY 25 budget for the primary conversation. Oh, right, right, right, right? We're what we're right what we're talking about now though is mailing them Next month, which is an FY 23. So it's yeah, so that's why I'm getting but yeah for future ones. You're right. You're right the Budgeting for it would not be in the 25 So Any other public comment Then did you want to comment so I'm For us for clicks go ahead the Ken's point if It's already budgeted Is it a must that we do it that way or can we come in under budget and not mail the ballots? Okay, so bring it back to the board There's been a lot of comment about not mailing ballots Stuck I guess talk about that first. We want to mail ballots And it would just speak up sad a lot of respect for our town staff and they recommend that we mail ballots to all the voters Could you speak to that Greg? That's the why it is a recommendation to do that? Excuse me. I Believe we've gotten much higher turnout since we've been mailing ballots I don't have the numbers in front of me to say exactly what it's been but We have gotten more people Participating in elections since we started mailing them. Anybody else? Thank you I'm really having to bite my tongue here. I know I'm gonna get myself in trouble But if someone has worked on elections for over 50 years, I Truly believe That people should be able to just call in and request it and we should not do a mass mailing We can do return postage on the ones that request it to help them return it But I truly believe if you want to participate in the process You go to the polls, but if you're unable to go to the polls Then you feel free to call the clerk and we'll be more than happy to send the ballot And I truthfully just because money is in that budget We need to save wherever we can save and it doesn't mean we have to spend that It sounds like there's like $30,000 in that budget roughly maybe more I'm all I mean I made the recommendation, but I'm all for Including postage on requested ballots if there's a hardship Then we don't have to worry about the question of there being a hardship if you're if you use a hardship You request a ballot. There's gonna be postage on the return envelope And we're just soon save significant So Tracy any thoughts I have long been torn Randomly sending about not randomly, but sending a ballot to every single voter Anyone can call the clerk's office. They can go to the secretary of state's office. They can request a ballot and go to the polls There's same-day voter registration there are avenues which exist in order to make it very much easier to vote Requesting a ballot is extremely simple. Actually, I think there was a question in one of the Meetings the other day, so I went on the website just to see what the wording was and I requested ballots right there in less than two seconds Yeah, it's a lot easier than I used to be. Yeah. Yeah I'm leaning toward Not mailing ballots at this point So to talk about some history And then not you you have more sorry, however, but if someone does request a ballot that return postage should absolutely be covered It wasn't too long ago where we were doing floor votes probably we were probably the largest community in the state still Voting the budget from the floor. It was a significant concern expressed by And many people including the the As a governance group folks wanting it to go to the ballot and so we've we've done that And that you know, we went we've gone from a couple hundred people deciding whether the budget is approved to several hundred If you don't mail out the ballots now if we bail out the ballots Of course, we don't yet have experience with and we don't know what the numbers are for the town itself I mean the town that town as it exists today without without the village What my my memory says that I you know I've been elected to the select board by 800 people or so that come that come to the polls But that includes the that includes the included the village at the time, so I don't know Is that number going to be half, I don't know So you'd assume that you get about that many people voting on On the budget if that's there any people that come to the polls in March Often a cold day I was just gonna in response to that. Yes, we made the motion that we would do it by Australian ballot But then COVID hit so we haven't really Done it without the automatic Mailing We haven't had a year where people had to call in a request Because we just for the last the two years. We've been doing it. We automatically mailed it to everybody So we don't know what your response is gonna So there wasn't kind of think Cuz I'm pretty sure that it In 2020 March March of 2020 all of the COVID restrictions weren't in place yet Did we vote on them did we vote Is that that was the last 20 was the last four votes, so we've never actually Done it where people you're right, right? Okay, just a regular come to the polls and vote Australian ballot cuz the first great The first Australian ballot vote was by mass mail because it had to be Because it was a question. Do we want to vote by Australian? That was the question on the ballot so now that would that would have would have had to have been in 2019 that that we You know it was a November vote not a March vote, right? But it wasn't it wasn't a for but it was the no, yeah, but we still had voted the budget We that was just one we added with the election of officers I don't know I just I we need to save money and the a night. Yes, okay There's really been since 2019 that we had a time meeting in person No, 2020 2020 was in person. Okay. It was in March and it was right after that April everything shut down. I was there just doesn't seem like it's been that long. Yeah, you were there. You were my hero then You absolutely work May I bar gen again? No, we I think we've we've completed the Public comment. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Very much Never a popular position, but this year there's a significant budget increase. There are some Important questions for town of Essex all the folks that live in the town of Essex, right? I do agree with Greg is that there was no question You get more participation if you supply those ballots to the mail you are gonna lose some postage, but I Might want to consider doing it this year because it is such a transition such a change year You give as many people as possible a chance to weigh in on the budget and the issues that the town is facing. I Would speak in favor of the whole boat So we will have the budget question five charter questions likely five charger questions and also potentially a question on increasing the capital tax Just saying if you do that nobody can say that well I didn't have an opportunity or I didn't get the memo that I have to request a ballot this year because I've got a ballot for the last couple of years Well, I will speak in favor of the whole boat On a side note if you save $20,000 You could use that for the things that you've been asking for increases on like public works and capital and all those other Things you could use that money turns those Oh Okay, so it sounds like all right, there's there's two questions here Do we need two motions for these one is whether to mail a ballast the other is whether to include turn postage We need to vote return postage The wise idea today later so The Motion should be worded in the affirmative and if you don't want to do it then you vote now I make the motion that we return to request ballot voting for March Town meeting Thank you. Don is there a second. Thank you, Ethan so the the motion is to return to Request absentee ballots Any further discussion of the board you see and I'll just spark something in my mind If we don't send ballots Will there be some sort of educational component? To let folks know That they will not be receiving a ballot because for the last Two plus years however many elections Dave it's just automatically showing up in their mailbox. Oh, I'm I would think with the newsletter and in front porch forum and the Essex reporter and Meetings with the manager and we could get the word out This would use all those channels just for anything else We try to get the word out on we would do the same thing for this This is happening, you know across the country and let alone across the entire state of Vermont, too It's not just Essex that's having this question and there's gonna be many other municipalities that don't Mail ballots, so it's not like this is something that's just specific to No, this is not a requirement anymore. It's basically the reason why the question is being posed to before it was a Mandatory requirement, you know, I Expect I'm just just an assumption, but I expect you know rights and democracy and a few others are gonna go out there and say Hey, this is happening this year. I would assume I don't know what others we're gonna do I want to raise a concern with the way the motion was worded Because if it fails then what happens because we need to vote in the affirmative to do it if we want to do it Do to mail the ballots, okay? I will reword it then so give me a minute here I make the motion that voting for town meeting Occurs in person unless an absentee ballot is requested so again, Don I think the motion should be more along the lines of voting in favor of Mailing the ballots and then you vote no if you don't want it That way if it does pass then we have a motion that's passed that allows the town to send the ballots Well, then I can't make that motion because I don't Approve that we're mailing them You vote no, you know, but I'm not gonna make a motion. I right okay, okay So you're gonna withdraw your I'm withdrawing my emotion then yes, okay? Because I'm just trying to make sure that we have because we I think we need a motion that says we're going to do it If we do it, it's okay if it fails Then we just do what's what's in statute And so You go see if I can find the words Somebody else wants to make the motion in the affirmative. I'll make the motion then Make the motion the select board vote to mail ballots to all active voters for the budget and election of officers and to Election of officers. I'll stop there Hey Kendall is seconded. So this is again I'm just changed the wording around if you're not in favor of mailing the ballots vote now vote nay If you are in favor of voting of mailing them Vote I just to be clear everybody understand what we're voting on But if you don't want Ballots just being a clear you don't want ballots mailed these vote nay So all those in favor, please say aye. Aye Oh say nay. Hey a motion fails Do three and so statute free veils You will not mail out the ballots, but then there's a second question of this time Can I make the motion that we put return postage on those that every Verbally requested I can thank you Don. Thank you Tracy any further discussion And the question is whether to include return postage on Bellas absentee Bellas that are requested from the town clerk And just clarify should I know you didn't mean to say but you said verbally requested me to just say Okay, I make the motion that we include return postage on Absentee ballots, how's that? All right. Thank you Don. Thank you Tracy Thanks for clarification. I'm sorry. It's not this good. It's good. Good details are important any further discussion All those in favor, please say aye. I post Okay, that motion passes 5-0. Okay, so we will not mail ballots to The registered voters, but we will include postage on those for those who do request them Right now, let's move on to Mr. Chairman I make motion to get this started that we approve the letter to the Vermont Agency of Transportation to install crosswalk and flashing beacons on Route 128 So good All right motions been made already rock and roll Get this going Okay, any discussion You have made a point about Referencing there's a sign near that area that indicates there's pedestrian traffic ahead and we can add a line to that That's in the letter Yeah, because I was the that was my point at the last meeting Yeah, and I saw this on the pack and I reached out to the person who lives in the area frequently Asked me about it and they weren't able to make the tonight But that was the the biggest concern for the for the resident was that it's a failed attempt at a crosswalk There's a there's a crosswalk ahead and then there's no crosswalk signs. There's no crosswalk on the road There's no it's just crosswalk ahead much out for the dog and the bike is what it shows on the sign Well, it's a person a person and so I did I did I did Google that sign and there is a an official Definition of what that sign means it does mean that there are pedestrians and and bicycles crossing Head but doesn't say where yeah, there's no indication of where it is. So yeah, if if we could update the motion to include Adding in a reference to the existing road sign to the memo some moved Okay, who seconded that? Second again. All right. Thank you. Thank you said nice All right, any other comment from staff? We didn't take any public comment on that I suspect this is okay with everyone I've made the school district aware they take a look but they're generally supportive of safe crossing So they may be able to also provide a letter of support Thank you guys for the work on those Gragos And thank you appreciate it and so to clarify this is about 128 near the intersection with is it Irene Avenue whether or not we can put in a some sort of a safe crossing Stuff there the scene in this road sign indicates that there should be something there, but Right We have not voted yes, you can say so I just wanted to make a mention and It's not a big deal, but they I'm sure they'll know the speed on that of their road But it is in the 50 mile an hour zone Becoming one way. It's 50 when you come the other way. It's 40. Yeah, I know that's in the transition piece Well, it's 50 miles and I were going south and 40 miles down on north So you have a 50-50 chance again hit it 40 or 50 I mean, which way traffic is going you can't make this stuff up. I'm serious If they're doing this we don't all right, so we have a motion to Have this the Prove a letter to the From my agency of transportation as modified the discussion Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Oh saying a Motion passes 5-0 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Discussion and potential action on evaluation standards for town manager So as part of my contract, you're supposed to evaluate me each year, which I welcome One of the parts of the contract talks about how the board and the manager are supposed to come up with Agree to some standards for what that evaluation is supposed to look like. It's also one of the goals that you had set for me Last year's to come up with what those evaluation standards look like Provided you in the packet with some examples from South Burlington and Winooski and at your desk are examples of what the town of Essex has used in the past To evaluate my predecessor all of them take feedback from Elected officials and department heads They kind of touch on different areas about leadership, budget management, interpersonal relationships Customer service communication Appropriate skill sets so on and so forth So this is to start the conversation. I suppose if you like any of them well enough I'm comfortable with with any of them. We can move ahead and you can approve a set of standards tonight Otherwise happy to take some feedback and crap something up and bring it back to you for consideration at a future date Okay, so this is this is one of our required tasks as a board is to evaluate the manager The the way this has been done in the past We don't we don't have to continue doing it the way it's been done in the past We can we can do whatever what we'd like, but we need to need to do a fair Evaluation of the manager we have Approved goals that Greg is working toward I'd like to suggest that we ask him well, I guess first thing is we you know, we need to do this I guess by July 1st because that's when the next fiscal year starts and and Nominally if he's gonna get a raise when it would would take effect Couple of things to consider is there's an election coming up here and some of us may not be at the table It may be more difficult for a new select board to evaluate past performance my experience In prior years is that when the Evaluation goes beyond the election and there are seat changes it does become very difficult to do It just generally falls on people that that are remaining To complete it and a couple years ago. We didn't even ever complete the evaluation. We totally failed to get it done Don't want to see that happen. I'd like to have you know do this Really quickly if we can I don't know what others are feeling like to ask Greg to write up his self-evaluation of how he thinks he's progressed against the goals that we asked him to To achieve and then at one or both of our February meetings have a discussion about Evaluating how to respond to that And I'd like to get it done as sooner rather than later much, you know Others have different opinions with regard to how to do it In the past there's been a fairly long drawn up I guess I'm putting some judgment in there by saying drawn up a process where the Board chair would interview all of the department heads just my understanding that the department heads are not crazy about that The recommendation in the documentation that was given to us the recommendation from the Was that managers association? I see I see a Suggest that you have an independent third-party collect input like that if you're going to collect it It would be an expense associated with that if we want to do that. We could do that But we have some budget. I believe the HR director has done that in the past. I do trust him to be impartial Okay All right, so we can In the past these two the these two that Greg gave us tonight I know the one reviews have there been any concerns with this evaluation form this coach Other than you don't want to talk to them to get that but they have a chance to input The department head has a chance to evaluate so you wouldn't knock them personally But I didn't know if there's any other concerns So in the in the past only the the chair saw those did the direct responses Did we did we share that? I don't think we did with the with the manager or the The department had evaluations of the manager. I don't recall them going beyond the chair Aggregate Involved them. I think there's there was no direct no direct, but it's just sort of a general Travis had done that. I think he compiled everything and then get them to the Shares, but I don't know if it went beyond the chair Yeah, I don't know I mean to remember seeing the average scores No names just right just average or questions. Yeah, I Just I'm happy with these forms. You know, I would take out the village of s6 junctions But I would also ask that the department had speak to their employees before completing the evaluation Because the department head may think and the actual employees may think Be different That makes sense. No No, it makes sense to me and the only thing I would ask in that and I welcome that 360 evaluation I welcome constructive hopefully constructive criticism I guess my one request of taking input from department heads or other staff is that I have a chance to respond or Oh, yeah, provide contact And in some cases I'll say yep absolutely in some cases will say well, you might want to hear question such Thank you, lady You won't really get any good comments. So unless it is completely confidential Yeah, that's that's the thing is right if there's something that said that makes it obvious who somebody is that that's a challenging situation to put both of both the manager and the individual and Ethan I'm new to all this and and it raises a good point that you brought up about Seat seats and stuff like that because you know coming into this position We had reviewed the the in Greg's contract about the bonus and I had only Men on the suckboard for three months, but just that was in my mind before but even more so now to the last comment I was just made that discussion was made in the executive session This is a review of an employee So I don't see why we couldn't use these forms and include what Don was talking about and make that evaluation Now we can have public discussion about certain things for goals and stuff like that, right? But the actual valuation Can be done in the executive session and then we can make a decision and then we can bring it back and Give our decision and have the conversation with the public then if we need to Let's just say depend ourselves for anything or make on that decision or whatever But just to support our decision. So that's kind of my thought on that's The right way to say it, but right So the two that we have is the department headed evaluation and What's the other one? It's a board member. Okay, so we've we would fill out one of them the the one thing that that I always struggled with on this is Is I don't I don't see everything that that Greg does that the manager does so it's hard to answer some of these questions But And be done, I guess then you'd write in a They added a bubble for that. Yeah, there is one there isn't there I don't like the one to five because it's like what's good is it four is it five? I guess five perfect is four still good, you know should be in my opinion I like the one two three four scale because it's either doing a bad job doing a pretty bad job Or you're doing kind of good or you're doing really good Okay Bumbles is too much. It's like well, which is it is five good or is for good? I included the evaluation form that the rest of the staff Uses not not to necessarily say that that's what you should use but it does provide a score metric and it has Descriptions, I think it ranges from Either zero to three or one to three, but it has here's what is excellent. Here's what is good. Here's what is satisfactory, right? They're pretty high standards Achieve those Okay, so something like that could be good. I could work on something like that to you to throw the index in here What's that an index? Oh, yeah And it was um, I think the self Burlington one has a you know describes what a one to five is Excellent above average average below average poor If you do the one to five skill So maybe my thought of getting this done by the end of February is a little aggressive actually the end of March should be the One of the new the new new board doesn't sit until the beginning of April, but the So I've gotten it close. There's a typo on there too. It says in May respects instead of many respects all right So so does everybody agree that we should ask Greg to put together a do you want to do it? Do we want to do on it? I guess that I figure out the right order asks these questions Do we want to try to get this done before? Let me select for to see it Everybody agree. Yeah, it seems to see me have consensus on that so then There's sounds like is there any Greg have you taken any way any any comments here about modifying these forms at all to The the main thing I've heard is to make it clear what what each score what each ranking is. Yep, whether it's excellent above average average or You know Satisfactory good excellent, but just provide clear standards to help you with the scoring again. I think pertaining to the city. Okay. Yeah Yeah, you got to take out the relevant pieces. Okay, and so then we can ask ask you to or Get that information out of the forms and take out the references to this to the Mm-hmm That's extension Yeah, we don't need the the question about whether we're on the select board of the board of the first ease anymore And then ask you to write up something about your progress against your goals I'm you know our Our next meeting is in 13 days. It's probably Way too quick. Yeah, I'm gonna be gone for a few days. I want to make sure we get town meeting prep So we need to get ready for town meeting. So maybe yeah, okay, my Get this done before we before the February is a good month Yeah, I'll target end of February. I'll get at least mid-February Yeah, I'll target the first meeting of February to get you something and if everyone's happy great If not, we have the second meeting of February. I know I only gave you the Essex evaluation form tonight So you haven't had much chance to review. Do you quick reactions? Do you like? Bill furlington with Wadooski and South Burlington are kind of the same Because I had a manager that shifted from one to the other. Do you like that form? Do you like the Essex as a function form? Do you want me to try to combine the two or take take different parts of the two? For sense of time on You and us I would say my opinion. I've done this before so I hope you guys don't like this form for any reason but I would say keep this form for this year and evaluate it maybe after election and down meeting and All that That's just me Who else have any thoughts on that? I haven't had a chance to compare the two different forms, but it's it's My first and looking at the I like the The thoroughness of the one from South Burlington, but on the other hand, it's For each one each question you have 10 Questions under the section so there are 50 Items that you're scoring So I think that might be a little too in-depth I mean I I like the simplicity of ours, but I think it could go more into He's more information out I'm gonna figure out you need more any any guides with regard to doing that I can work at that. I'll propose something and Do you have what you think about it? and if that works You okay with that? That's fine. Yeah, and and If you know again, I haven't had a chance to do it Is we just got these these forms tonight I will go ahead and go look at these ones compared to those and if there's any and not like you know If if if there's an opportunity to do so yourselves You know send any comments to Greg about If there's particular things you'd like to see He can we can you know don't copy everybody because we can't have a discussion You know offline like that, but you know since in your comments to Greg And I recommend it maybe Travis had input on to what the form should be and yes Yes, yeah, and the other thing is everyone okay with having Travis handle the Department head slash employee forms as a Greg is indicated he trusts him and and I'm sure Travis will will do what he can to anonymize That's a word stuff I have no problem with that Anything else you need from us Greg. Oh, thank you, and I'll You know if you want to I mean we meet Thursdays anyway, we can talk about it if there's anything you want to bring up Bounce off anybody All right, that's good. I guess I'll just put in a pitch of it if you've got issues good or bad Don't wait until the evaluation happy to hear them and try to adjust well ahead of time Yeah, all right great Thank you One did that too, so I went back to the last We need a motion here Don't think we do we want to have an executive discussion discussion about this. I think we're mostly just talking about us We're just talking about process here and once we you know once we get some of the inputs going or whatever Then we will definitely have executive session discussions I need to we need to ask a technical question. So the civic clerk timeout Same here, yeah, you've lost yours to Google Drive is working. Well, I just wish back to Google Drive So yes, I have you go through the agenda and minutes on the website. You can still get to it. Just not the board view Sorry, that's all right. I got Google. I'm good. No, it's a good good thing if that's It's kind of time out on you. That's your word. Yeah, it's not working for me either. Okay. I'll make a camp. Oh, I'll talk to Tammy and Even restarted to see if I could kick the gremlins. It's just it's just spinning. Yeah, mine came back All right, let's move on to Business items 6f discussion and potential action about memorandum of understanding with us exclusive association This is this yeah, you want these now before we move to them just such as some discussion You want to approve of the rest first before we go back make these motions? Yeah, you want to skip? Well, we'll come back to executive sessions And then the next one is real estate person these actions Yep, I'd come back to that one too. So consent agenda. I Make motion we accept the consent agenda as presented. Thank you, Don. Thank you, Tracy. Any further discussion? Yes, how long has the town mechanic worked for the town? He's been the mechanic for about a year Aaron And he has had different roles in public works prior to that Our most of the big equipment John Deere right now. It's got to write the loader Only asked because I put a lot of stock in the staff's recommendation and they want to loader great I just wanted to kind of feel a little more of it is more expensive than the other ones All right, great, thanks candle anybody else Hey, we have a motion to approve consent all those in favor, please say aye Oh say nay a motion passes 5-0 moving on to the reading file any select board member comments Well, of course, I want to thank everybody that has participated and that helped with the sponsoring of the planning meetings because they have been Well attended and awesomely handled. I want to thank you for doing that Who else Ethan and I had the opportunity to participate in the the town tours That's Friday, and I met the town mechanic It was it was a fantastic day Really, if you know if you have the opportunity and the ability to participate. I encourage you to do so I think this is something that we may it was interesting. We also had a new employee go along with this it was kind of an orientation for the for Alexia I've been I'm dev and so it was great to have her along I learned a lot about the town I also learned stuff about Ethan that I didn't know before I Heard he asked good questions as I heard well any any any he talks about himself, too So I'm impressed And we also found a place that stinkier than my farm Yeah, we went down the the pump station at the end of the Cirque Yeah, that's the thing that thing goes down about three three stories. I'm showing me pictures today. Oh, I didn't know that building was that When you get down to the bottom one the sewage is just flowing right through there Oh, we were warned. There's a little trouble. We were warned if you go in there and then you go home later Make sure you're not going out, you know to fancy dinner or anything good. You will smell like the sewer And I tried to talk us not going in and me There's the option not to participate in that piece of option not to go downstairs actively encourage us not to go down there But anyway, it was a great day fantastic planning I did let them you know that I thought it was a you know a fantastic thing though The one the one challenging part is there weren't there weren't any bio breaks planned But the things things worked out All right, I just I just had a comment about where are we with SS rescue? Well, I want to make a comment today so They're holding a board of director meeting tomorrow to address the letter and I've been excited to invite to attend. I think they're going to reach out to other municipalities to attend But this is the first time that they're introducing the letter to their board For comments, so I'm going to attend the meeting at six o'clock tomorrow. I'm just there to listen I mean, I would just make the general Comment that we're not asking anymore for a message rescue than we asked for all the rest of the apartments We've grilled everybody equally. I'm pretty sure so Hope going forward that we can maintain a little more even keel And the other thing the other thing too is we we There was never an indication from us that we were not going to fund them. So I did note that some EMT services went out of business today, so It's the world that we're in All right Anything else? Okay, let's go back to there's we're we don't need an executive session for Talking about Greg, but uh, yeah, there's a separate item there There's a third item The last item Yes I have one 60 I'm looking for the other one done. What's the one on computer? I have two on the computer. I got the paper Okay, wait, you wanted to all right. This is the one I have So we don't need to one for executive session over her discussion on evaluation, right? No, you do we do. Yes. All right, wait a minute. Okay I moved it to slide board entering to executive session to discuss the appointment or employment or evaluation of a public officer Or employee in accordance with one vsa section 313 a3 to include the town manager Second. Thank you. Don. Thank you. Tracy any further discussion? Well, is in favor, please say aye. All right. I opposed a motion passes 5 0 next motion I move this like would make the specific finding that a premature general public knowledge of the town's position concerning ongoing contract negotiations and labor relations agreements With the employees would place the town at a substantial disadvantage Second. Thank you. Don. Thank you. Tracy any further discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye Opposed saying a motion passes 5 0 I move the select board entering to executive session to discuss contracts and labor relations agreements with employees pursuant to one vsa 313 a 1 a and 1 vsa 313 a 1 b to include the town manager and We need to please Steve add it to that just that manager. Okay Okay. Thank you. Don. Thank you. Tracy any further discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye Aye. Those say nay and passes 5 0 I move that the select board enter executive session to discuss the negotiations for securing a real estate purchase Or lease options in accordance with one vsa section 313 a 2 to and to include the town manager second Hey, thank you. Don. Thank you. Ethan any further discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay A motion passes 5 0 I move that the select board make the specific finding that general public knowledge of pending or probable civil litigation To which the public body is or may be a party would place the town at a substantial disadvantage Thank you, Ethan. Thank you. Kendall for the second any further discussion Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay Motion passes 5 0 I move that the select board enter into the executive session to discuss pending or probable civil litigation to which the public body is Or may be a party Pursuant to one vsa 313 a 1 e to include the town manager Thank you. Ethan second Thank you. Tracy. Um, do we need to make any motions? Yep You yes, there's a motion that you'll be asked to make after. Okay, so we will be coming back, but scott you don't need to stay We will leave the meeting active. We'll probably go upstairs to have our discussion and come back down to Make our final motion and adjourn so We have the final motion here. I was like to have that discussed before we had the last book um any further discussion on the You can do executive session Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay Okay, motion passes 5 0. We'll go into executive session. We'll come back down to me