 Good evening everyone welcome to the Arlington Board of Selections meeting for Monday, October 6 2014, it's a little past 7 15 p.m. And I will call this meeting to order I would like to remind everyone that we are being filmed by ACMI. So please smile widely when on camera We will get right into it. Chief Ryan from the Arlington Police Department Good evening, Mr. Chairman honorable members of the board. Thank you for having me tonight. I'll be brief In his annual report to the Board of Selection in 1894 then Chief Alonzo Harriman outlined what he felt was a mission of the Arlington Police Department I think it's relevant today. I'll share it with you Chief Harriman stated the police officer should be civil and courteous at all times and So conduct himself so as to ensure more the moral support of the community No other Department of Municipal Government is so much expected Nor is there any that so much needs the encouragement and support of the community and I think Chief Harriman, I'm sorry Yeah, Chief Harriman was a wise man because those words stand true today and to that end the Arlington Police Department has sought and I'm happy and proud to report tonight. We see full accreditation for the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission for the first time in the history of the Arlington Police Department and part of the accreditation process is Inviting scrutiny openness and transparency from subject matter experts and a willingness to To undergo some constructive criticism and if I may mr. Chairman, I have our police accreditation team Could I ask them to come forward? Yes, of course As with any major accomplishment You can't do it alone and the reality is is I did very little of the work the team behind me here I had the vision they rolled up their sleeves and they got it done. I'm here with Captain Richard Flynn in the blue blazer Inspector Rebecca Gallagher who is now a family services officer, but she started out In the police planning position and really did Yeoman's work at getting us up to speed She was relieved by officer Vitaly Volkov who finished the process as our police planner and Joe Kniff who's our college intern who really I think was Being in college and having all the skills that college kids have was absolutely instrumental He's a graduate of Mass Maritime Academy and he's now going for a second degree at Mass Maritime he continues to work work for us as as student intern What is accreditation, you know accreditation is you know, we had to comply with over 325 national law enforcement standards as promulgated by the National Commission for law enforcement on accreditation now You know, we could we could write policy and stick it on a shelf But you're not going to get accredited if you write policy and stick it on a shelf The the subject matter experts and the the assessors came out last spring and spent a week at the honor to police department observing our activities looking at our policies and procedures and essentially They wrote a report card to the accreditation commission And I'm happy to tell you that your police department got an A plus and October 2nd We were accredited all all elements of the police department's operations were scrutinized by these experts in the week-long visit by them and I'll be remiss if I didn't thank the manager and All of the townside in school department We had a lean on the Comptroller's office and the manager's office and the legal department and many departments to achieve these standards and it was a real team effort time-wide and And lastly and probably most importantly You know this isn't mandated. This is something that that Our team welcomed the entire police department sworn and non sworn clerks police officers right up to the chief and I'm very proud that Every member of our department willingly accepted the scrutiny We accepted the constructive criticism made repairs where they need to be repaired And we went out to Boston College Retreat Center in Dover, Massachusetts Connors Center on last Thursday with a commission officially accredited the police department The work has only just begun Because we have to remain in compliance With everything that we put in place So that we remain accredited and in three years from now The assessors will revisit us and look at look at our last three years work So we're happy to answer any questions and I remain honored to be a chief of police Thank You chief. I will open up to the board First I want to say thank you chief I know you're spreading a lot of the credit where it is due but I do appreciate once again Arlington being in the forefront on endeavors like this and thank you to captain Flynn and inspector Gallagher and officer Rolkoff and mr. Kniff. I hope we see you some more very impressed with your curriculum vitae resume so far Am I correct the way? I'm viewing this is This is the police department sworn and non sworn Employees effort so that when we're faced especially with the matters that the police have to handle sometimes you get very trying taxing sort of Areas that maybe haven't been encountered before but are highly sensitive is the point of this Accreditation when they come out do they look at not only like you say, you know what the policies are They're over there in the corner, but that the Arlington Police Department all of its staff is better equipped So if they're faced with some sort of crisis some sort of community event People don't have to go running to books. They already have kind of gone through that scenario. They're better prepared I mean, I'm just trying to get my hand or my head around. Yes There's a whole operational piece to it and clearly we have to have guidelines in place. We have to train to those guidelines and and offices are we have everything electronic now, Ms. Mahan so You know years ago the officers that used to have to carry around a big binder Rebecca used to issue all these binders now everything's electronic right out in the field So the officers can do a keyword search if they have a question about a policy Do a keyword search the policy pop up they can review it quickly supervisors can review it So you're entirely correct. It puts us it postures us to be able to more effectively manage crisis in the community in compliance with national standards and in doing so that minimizes our risk to civil liability and And risk to the individual officers to civil liability as well Well, I want to say I'm not surprised that you all received such a high rating And got the accreditation and I just think of my world as a court reporter I've seen various police agencies and entities and sometimes where there are missteps and they fall down is Because they haven't gone through a process whether they're going for accreditation or not And when they're hit with a crisis dealing with some of the stuff down at Bridgewater's Right now. I know that the all into police force all the employees are certainly well-trained And you wouldn't have gotten the accreditation if that hadn't been the case so once again really proud of everybody and all the Unforeseen faces behind you that I'm behind you that helped also get this accreditation. Thanks again, chief And I would point out we're one of 45 municipal departments in the Commonwealth Out of 351 cities and towns that have achieved this and in only one of our butters Has achieved accreditation? Mr. Carol, thank you very much. I just want to say, you know your credit to the town you and everybody else in the department You know, I always point to your letterhead proactive and proud and you always live up to that that That that motto I think we all know you know a lot of the big Highly publicized challenges that the police department has faced over the past year or so And you know so much more that you do that, you know, most of us never see on a day-to-day basis We were talking just you know just before we came in here that you know There've been some well-publicized incidents elsewhere in the country where you know There isn't this level of trust between the police department and the community and I think going through this rigor and You know continuing to to build upon that that trust and be a truly community oriented police department It serves us all well and again, it's a real credit to you. So thank you very much. Thank you You know, we're only as good as the trust of community places in us and we recognize that Mr. Don I like other congratulations And I will also say I am also proud of the work that you've all done is excellent And I will the thing that I wanted to call in particular to me is I think about the day-to-day Firefighting you guys do so to speak which of course isn't firefighting, but you know but you deal I mean from From homicides to traffic stops to microbursts to whatever you guys are there on the front line Then to be able to at the same time Keep the big picture and keep working on something like this that is not the day-to-day and being able to balance that aspect of it. I think That's really impressive and I thank you very much. Thank you and as I said to team effort. Yes Thank you very much, and I Completely echo everything my colleagues have said It's pretty clear that our whole community is better off because of the work that you all did to attain this accreditation And you've made Arlington an even better place to live and I can't thank you enough for that So thank you very much. Thank you to you all. Good night. Thank you Two beautiful children in the back of the room I Saw a blonde head sticking up over the other Moving on we have a presentation of the open checkbook Deputy town manager Flanagan in town Comptroller Ruth Lewis. Good evening I'd like to do is just walk you through on the five On the home page here and if you have any questions, please feel free to stop me So the first icon you'll see is category So what Ruth and I did is we went through units every single line item in units and classified it I was the title. We looked at what other communities were doing and what would make the most sense in how we refer to things in Arlington That service maintenance other expenses personnel services purchase the services supplies of materials and utilities So just to show you how deep this is able to go when we click on purchase the services So you'll see another level of tiles that try to classify what expenses were so I'll talk about contracted transportation And I think if you click on that No problem. So you can actually go down to the actual transit transaction. So in this case 522 14 contracted transportation department school the fund in which it was paid from School general fund and then vendor payments the actual payment of three hundred and forty five dollars So you can drill down and all of these categories or subcategories Undepurchase the service and there's quite a few of them as you can see So I'm going to go back to the home page and hit department. So what we tried to do here is cluster art departments In a format that's consistent with how the Department of Revenue Clusters departments. So you'll see community safety. That's pretty unique to Arlington It's referred to as public safety at the state level culture and rec debt service general government So I'm just going to click on general government and you'll see all the departments that you would see in either our budget book or Financial plan that we classify a general government. So Because I got Ruth here will click on Comptroller And you'll see a few things. So you'll see general fund. So the entire All expenditures on the Comptroller department came through the general fund off to the right It's hard to see I know in the projection But what her greatest are the Comptroller's greatest expenditures were vendors in this case is Verizon, which makes sense as they manage The town cell Telephone account. So if you click on employee earnings, you'll see every Employee in the department by title and total earnings In a few minutes, I'll take you to the payroll function that provides a lot more detail in terms of employee earnings. So again back to the Home page and I'll click on fund and I think this is one area of this product that is Particularly helpful. We have a lot of funds In Arlington. So you'll see general funds special revenue funds enterprise funds capital projects OPEB trust fund really all of the funds That we have here in Arlington. So if you click on a special revenue funds We have it broken down yet again. So miscellaneous special revenue Then you'll see school grants we pull them out and specify them school revolving funds town grant funds and Then a town revolving funds as we authorized them at town meeting every year For the purposes of demonstration. I'll hit town hall rental You'll see all the vendors that were charged To town hall rental and again Let's say we go to Atlas sales and rentals You go right down to the transaction Next is government area and this is more for Graphical representation of town expenses if you let's say we go the non appropriated which is Non You'll see a graphical representation of how this is broken down. So again, if you go to let's say group health insurance, you're going to see the towns Generally, they're payments to the GIC So lastly vendor. So This is also a pretty powerful function. You can search every vendor that the town is contracted with In a given year. So if you look up, I don't know if you can see it. I'm looking at 2014 you can click on 2015 it's a year to date or go back to 13 or 12 For the purposes of this, I'm going to stick with 14 Again, if you scroll over, you'll see all of our top vendors none should be Too big of a surprise MWRA. Those are our assessments that are charged to water and so are commonwealth of Massachusetts Which is again the GIC The Arlington retirement system minimum invoke assessment JRM our trash our trash hauler and again if you click on a Let's say a disease foods You'll see the different accounts. They were charged to in this case I think they're all school department field trips food service Miscellaneous receipts are the classified again click on it And you have here's an area where we have several transactions the date of the transaction where it was charged how we've categorized it and then What fund it was charged to? So The last area I want to show you is payroll So here you'll find an in-depth Accounting of every employee in the town of Arlington both town and school side Of their earnings and what it is broken down on the top. I regular pay overtime details type in these are all types of Pay you'll see under each employee We do not include the names of employees, but we do include the titles of employees so It's basically alphabetized based on Where they're like group code is in munis so administration is schools on to nap today school school care and so on Because of all the different types of pay I'm gonna search for firefighter because I think that best Shows you the capabilities of The system so here you go. You have firefighter fire services is dead department You have 2015 near the date earnings and I can say that this gets updated once a week 2014 earnings 2013 earnings and then base rate. So I'm gonna click on a firefighter and you'll see Every component of that person's pay detailed differential Education incentive EMT pay holiday pay other overtime regular pay stipend and then total Total earnings So that's the last thing. I'm gonna go over tonight We are very hopeful that this is gonna be a good compliment to Arlington Visual budget Which really provides a much broader overview, but this provides the resident with an option or an opportunity to go a little bit deeper So I'm happy to answer any questions Otherwise, we're excited to get this going and hopefully I will be able to launch in the next couple weeks Thank You Andrew Thank you very much very excited about this I think we're on the right trajectory starting with the visual budget and now moving to this You know my former life on the school committee, you know every You know week four of us would have to go and sign the warrant for for vendor payments And go through that I'd spend a lot of time looking at that There's a lot of information we gleaned from that. I remember thinking that this would be Very valuable information to have up Online, but with so many other balls in the air would it never quite happen And it looks like you've you've now achieved that here with the roll-ups as well, which is just extraordinary I Just want to know I didn't see This tool is strictly for expenditures going out the door though, right? Correct? You cannot take a budget to actuals view using this tool or not yet as far as I know Ruth I don't I think they're working on the budget to have budget to actual so you can have comparisons and also they look They're looking at revenues to so you have an idea of what revenues Yeah, so for instance right now under FY 14, you won't see the revenue that was going into the override stabilization fund Yeah, you'd only see you know in future is what an expenditure from would be yeah Yeah, I only ask because I can imagine somebody going into the tool and if they missed the note that you know 2015 is just year-to-date expenditures You know it'll look Naturally low, you know a lot of those line-out is that look unnaturally low When they look at it, but I think the tool is great I started poking around a little bit on the the link that you gave the the board and I'm looking forward to drilling into it A lot more great Thank you miss mine I'm gonna leave a lot of the technical Kudos to mr. Kuro's already spoken to mr. Dunn because I was watching their facial reactions and How great this system was by how many time I saw twinkles and smiles so it looks like this is a really good thing My question was sort of what you touched on at the end where you listed the position versus the employee Which I really stand by that I'm just wondering and maybe I was reading it wrong But I thought when you clicked and I just want to find out if this is the case if we can treat that the same way Also, unless the law says no, but I think when you clicked on and I don't want you to do it right now Contributory retirement or OPEB or something like that. I saw individual names and the amounts We can certainly look into that a little bit more closely We've actually spent a great deal of time trying to identify sensitive data But I'm just thinking on things like that if it's doable will certainly take a look I'd like to definitely be transparent and give people information But also respect the fact that we do have town employees and you know, especially around their retirement But if you could look into that, I'm not asking you whatever that screen was it was OPEB Contributory retirement something like that if you can go back and look at it If it's not a Herculean task that it can also be identified a different way, you know 29-year DPW employee or maybe even not 29 year. I don't know or maybe there's some rules Mass state law retirement law that you have to put I just know that some people I know my husband would be concerned if you could look up his portfolio and See it to that degree in depth, but he is a private employee not a municipal So I understand the onus on that so if it's doable and if it's appropriate. We'll certainly take a look at it If that's okay Mr. Dunn, I think it's great I was playing with it last night at home and I think the compromise that you've made on payroll data makes a lot of sense So I think you got that right Which I'm really happy with this is a huge step forward I think like when I win will brown fur made happen for the statement for the state's funding I mean I was like pulling teeth and here we are doing it without any teeth pull Thank you. I had one question. I was also going through it earlier and for I think particularly in salaries Force, you know when you click on an office, you know, it would have one One job and they would have you know three different rows. Can you talk to why that might be? Like under their salaries they would have sure so One of the things we identified sort of last minute Today was there's two ways to get to salary detail One is to go Into other reports payroll and the other is to click on the department and see earnings and what they were doing was Let's say an employee had a regular pay a stipend and longevity that let's regular play on a totally separate line Longevity and then stipend or whatever the particular pay was so if an employee had five Let's say you were a captain in one of our departments You may see thirty five lines of captains because they each had several different components of pay. I Think this afternoon and looking at the controls office I know as of this afternoon we're able to consolidate those all in the one line So now you have two options you have total salary if you go through the department function or You know every component of the pay including the total if you go through the payroll function So I think that's something that we resolved. Oh great And one of the question with Do you see this Adding, you know extra work on to town employees I'll let Ruth speak to this a little bit too because we were certainly It was certainly in a partnership to get this to where it is today But one of the best components of the of this whole operation is that it links directly the units it updates On a weekly basis without any Employee interaction with it. So I would say Other than you know chasing down some of these initial Snags and how we're presented the data. It'll be almost effortless. I'm happy to hear that. Thank you very much Any further questions is anyone here from the public to speak on this I think I've come to this microphone in a long time I just wanted to thank Andrew and Ruth for all the work they did on this and really thank the board for its leadership in regards to transparency It's a long history of transparency here in Arlington starting with very detailed budget documents a couple years back starting with that four page Public annual financial report moving forward till last year with the Arlington visual budget and now this real high level of detail In terms of expenses and I know we hear at town meeting every year. What are the actuals? We'd like to see actuals now This is an opportunity for town meeting members and other residents to see those actuals. So still a little bit of a work in Progress, I think some of the points the board members made will take a look at before we launch We'll be showing it to the school committee later this month at a school committee meeting and then we'll officially roll it out to the public So it won't be on the website tomorrow But before the end of October we anticipate it being ready being launched and having it sort of be that next step in Transparency in Arlington. Thank you very much Adam. Any further discussion? Seeing none. Thank you very much for all your work on this Moving on public hearings national grid petition Hilton Street, Mr. Regan or not Mr. Regan Yes, hello, miss Keller. Hi, my name is Barbara Keller. I'm the acting permits rep for national grid Thank you Questions from the board Do you want to talk about sure The national grid here here by respectfully request your consent to install and maintain Approximately 70 feet more or less of four inch gas main in Hilton Street in Arlington From the existing four inch main at house number 36 through 38 Westerly to house 32 and 34 for a new gas service Mr. Don move approval subject all conditions and look forward to hearing any of butters. Yes, second We have a motion in a second. Is anyone here to discuss this agenda item? Seeing none. We have a motion and second any further discussion from the board Seeing none all those in favor, please say aye. I Nothing vote and moving on please stay right where you are on Oldham Road the national grid here by respectfully request your consent to the locate to install and maintain Approximately 100 feet more or less of six inch gas main in Oldham Road in Arlington from the existing six inch gas main at house number 38 easterly to house number 18 country club derived for a new gas service Questions from the board Yes approval subject conditions. Thank you. We have a motion in a second Is anyone here in the audience to discuss this agenda item? Please come forward Good evening Hi, I'm Dianne Dupont 32 Oldham Road. Hello, and I got one of the letters so I just have a couple of questions and What are any negatives and what about the impact on the street and accessibility to our Homes and how will the street be will it be returned to the order that it is and If anyone has objected to these items before other, you know, what or some of the objections because I Personally don't know what I should be asking about except what I've just asked a hundred feet may look Long it's really not. It's it really doesn't have it. It won't have that much impact I can't speak for the construction department But it seems to me that it wouldn't have too much impact on the the butters and the butters would also They will always take into account someone who has to get into their driveway They will put a steel plate over coming and going into someone's home. They would never block Anybody's way to get into their driveway So what about when they're digging because if possible you if you could put the questions into the microphone Yeah, what about while they're digging because There's a project that I work on and we're constantly going in and out of my driveway, so They'll they'll always try to accommodate the butters that is that's as far as I know and I'm pretty sure of that So you mr. Dunn so I can only speak from my experience of having my street it was as much of mine was They replaced the entire gas line up behind street because it's too old and It is definitely something that when it happens there isn't some inconvenience to the people live on the street because but you also but there's a police detail there and They're generally reasonably good about notifying you about it about when it's gonna happen and how long it's gonna happen and stuff like that But I mean it is true that there's an inconvenience here that happens as a result But in general we see we approve them because the you know the the other resident in town who's getting the benefit You know, it's there's a given a take there Thank you. Thank you very much Hi, good evening Anthony Sharaf at 38 old them So I'll be right and I'll be right in front of where you're doing me the work and all I want Yeah, all I would like to know is what is the degree of disruption that will be there from a morning till? For access to the driveway and anything like that's actually up to the public works department in the town that the amount the Times of the beginning and end of the job is up to the public work So when if we are granted if we're lucky enough to be granted the the Permit it would be up to our construction Department in the public works In the impact it will they'll try to keep it my other concern with is with restoring the road to its condition That's also up to the that's they have to agree to the terms that I'd like to request if it's a this is the right form for it For the the hot top to be sealed afterwards because with winter coming Frost heaves and everything that will be that will be a problem if it if it isn't sealed Yes, mr. Dunn would it be appropriate for the town manager to weigh in If he so desires, yeah, yeah, that's fine I would have to check on what hours in this particular road that engineering will be signing off on in regards to the seal Without the engineer being here what I would suspect he would say is we absolutely will require an infrared seal But we might allow for some settling to happen over the winter before requiring that seal So there could be a less than sealed patch but come springtime we would require a national grid to come back out and inferred seal it Thank you. Thank you very much Anyone else here to speak on this agenda item Seeing we have a motion in a second all those in favor, please say aye. I oppose. Thank you very much Thank you. Good night. Thank you. Good night Moving on citizens open forum Except in unusual circumstances any matter presented for consideration of the board shall neither be acted upon Nor a decision made the night of the presentation in accordance with the policy under which the open forum was established It should be noted that there is a three minute time limit to present a concern or request Is anyone here for citizens open forum? Yes, please come forward. Hi. My name is Amy Haberland. I actually Submitted some Information beforehand so I hope that everybody got it on July 3rd a tree branch from a town tree fell on my car Causing several thousand dollars worth of damage. This was a holiday weekend So everything was closed as a matter of fact It was not a holiday though for my family my husband works in a grocery store He had to be at work at 4 a.m. On July 4th I had we were really desperate. It was very scary. I had no car. I had no way of getting a car I had no way of contacting his office Finally on Saturday when I Tried it contact. I didn't know how to contact the town and find out what to do about it. I reached out to my friend Sally Naysh who's on the tree committee and she emailed mr. Radamakir for me Who then sent someone down from the town who gave me a very hard time who first accused me of? Lying about the event when I told him I had ten witnesses to the event He finally relented and said that the event actually had happened Then he told me he was going to prune my trees and they were going to be permanently ugly and horrible And I came to the town I talked to mr. Flanigan who started to help me with that and eventually I Talked to the town manager who told me I had to request a tree herring which I did I went through the town again I requested a tree herring. They then told me I didn't need to request a tree herring that I just had a request a pruning This was over a time period of a long long time anyways Finally, they pruned my trees They came by and they cut one one branch off of my tree and two branches off of the tree next to me It took about 15 minutes that I thought that was it. It was fine. I was done with it there were treat, you know, I just was hoping the tree would not fall again on my car and This morning all of a sudden I hear trucks outside my house and they are Taking every branch off a completely different tree in front of my house My neighbor tried to stop them my neighbor who has a two-day-old baby. He couldn't stop them I finally went out there to stop them and I was greeted by a very angry dpw worker and I Finally got them to stop they showed me the order for it. It was the same order from Way back when so I have no idea why it could come up again and he explained to me what the order meant I then contacted I called the town To try to speak to some people Mr. Flanagan called me back. He's very nice. We went over everything It was great and then I'm sorry. We are approaching three minutes So yeah, if you know if you want to make a closing statement, please feel free. Yeah, I just want to say that this has been you know a very Stress, I just don't understand how this is supposed to be easy I mean I just it just seems like it's supposed to be a really easy thing to get a tree fixed and pruned and it's been a Three-month thing now And all I get is sort of like really angry hostile Responses anytime I call the town. Thank you very much for coming for us tonight Moving on I saw another hand for citizens open forum Please come forward. Good evening. Thank you for hearing me. I'm Vera Bart I represent Hoden property management in Boston We're property management company for 12 pond Lane condominium We've been doing this for about 25 years for this building love the building in the community Mr. Chairman is it am I correct to understand this is under correspondence received or do we want so we could it is there It is on their correspondence Certainly could hear her now or under correspondence So if I think that the issue is is if you do want to proceed now You will only have three minutes if you want to wait until correspondence received You can have my three minutes and then the many many residents from pond Lane can choose to have their time during correspondence If that's okay, yeah so we we've Have we are neighbors with the American Legion post who's directly above our property of this building and Because we are below grade we have for years and years suffered through flooding and erosion problems, which we've asked them to To please Mitigate the drainage coming off of the building In addition to the problem with this flooding which about a month or two months ago We suffered tens of thousands of dollars worth of sand and drainage mud mud piles into the building itself into the lobby of the building and so on from Erosion lack of maintenance of their rear of their property walls that are broken down Sand sand and mud that's basically gushing down the driveway gutters which have come off of their building with no downspouts in no place for the water to go Except down the driveway onto this property We are right now looking at about twenty two thousand dollars worth of damage to the interior of the building We've sent them letters. We've sent requests and We're very very frustrated with their lack of response and lack of community our secondary issue and probably one as Important to the residents is the amount of noise Drinking the smoking that happens outside the building of course happens in the back of the property Which is where all of the balconies of this building are? One two two thirty in the morning They do have access through our Parking lot and driveway out so that they don't have to turn back around to Mass Ave They can cut through our property which they do but they do it at such excessive speeds and also I'm not as worried about safety of residents It's two in the morning as I am of the safety of the person driving in a very narrow driver with stone walls We've had a car come Through a fence Fortunately the fence stopped them from cascading down The my point to the select man is that we would really like you to seriously Take whatever next action you you reasonably can to bring these people to some accountability. I mean they are Serving alcohol They have some responsibility to the community No one has a problem with an American Legion Club. We understand it We understand the aspect the social and all of that, but there's got to be something that Greater police presence we've asked them to put a stop sign or something that would slow these people down when they're cutting through our property They have taken absolutely no action whatsoever on any of these issues if you could just make a closing statement We're out of time we are asking the select man to please do whatever you can within the realm of your responsibility To bring them to some accountability. Thank you very much Moving on. Yes, please mr. Fiori Peter Fiori 58 Mott Street precinct to I just I come up with a concern What I think is a big picture concern in the neighborhood We've had six homes torn down in the past three years three in just this past year Three of them are on for them are on Dorothy Road to on Mott Street The Dorothy Road homes are all single families make I can understand that they're in an R2. They got rebuilt as two unit condominiums I've gotten a little bit concerned that To two family homes on Mott Street rather be converted to condominiums have been torn down foundations and all And are being rebuilt as condominiums If this is the trend for Arlington with the older housing stock Then I think we need to get ahead of the curve on policy issues and As for the practical issues Heavy equipment comes and goes debris haulers come and go There's no police detail. They're not required to hire police detail I have a shameful paper presentation shameful because of mr. Flanagan's excellent open check with presentation You know debris haulers back in illegally the wrong way up a one-way street No police detail hired to allow them to do that. There's not even Somebody from the demolition company walking behind the truck walking up the street these excavations have been open no gate No fence no lock Nothing has stopped some kid from chasing his dog in there and having these sidewalls collapse on them I'm not faulting these companies. I'm not saying this is malicious. I think they just don't get it I think there are safety issues that should be addressed that aren't and going forward again If this is the trend now that these homes are going to these two families gonna get torn down and rebuilt as opposed to renovated Then maybe they these companies need to be required to hire police detail when this work is being done when this heavy equipment and Supplies are being delivered They ought to be expected to put up a fence with a chain with a gate So that's why I come here tonight. It's just to express the concern. I'm not asking me around beat up these guys I Don't they haven't been particularly bad, but but again just going forward. I I think there are issues that we need to address I I have copies here It's just building permits a couple of photos if I could hand them off to if you just leave them with friend So so that's really it If you could persuade the building inspector chief Ryan the police just to keep an eye on things that's great But again, I'm not I'm not here to complain about the work that they're doing or fault them. It's not It's not really really bad, but Spoken too much. Thanks. Thank you very much Thank you. Is anyone else here to speak under said yes, please come forward I'm April rank the executive director. I believe you're you have an agenda item Yes, it was on the addendum. Yes, and so we're going to speak at that when we come to it Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this was no. Thank you Is anyone else here to speak under citizens open forum? Seeing none moving on yes So I want to thank you for my three minutes and I'd like to thank Vera for presenting our Issue with the American Legion I I'd like to speak on the flooding issue. I don't know if you can help us with that but She had addressed the drain pipes that were Not going into a drain and I just want to inform you that he's got three Three drain pipes without a drain in that water what it's only when we have flash flooding I only have an issue when we have flash flooding as in when it rains other than that It's it's not an issue and I have a video of rain water coming from his Drain pipe into our drain if you want to see it. I don't know if this is Probably it's not the right Okay, and I just It's Very disturbing when that this event occurs flash flooding so I would just Like for you to address to him if you could To to head to stop that water from coming into our drain because just that Would may that's all we need is to stop the flash flooding They've built the berm a wall with where she showed you a picture of that was water coming through there And if we have we just want this, you know for him to put a drain in or It reroute his drain pipes so that water went only when there's a flash flooding. I just I it's only when that occurs and so That's it for him and it's just disturbing one because the water backs up and it goes into our building and we've had in it floods the hallway and it's created like Ferris had lots of damage so and the building next to it I think it's mr. Priscilla's with requested that he attach his drain pipes There's just two drain pipes that need to be hooked up But those three little things if I if they just fix that I that's all I want If they fix that it may solve the whole problem, but we've sent the lawyers sent letters of absolutely no response and it's like It doesn't seem that difficult to me and we could even help him if he came to us and needed money You know, maybe we could work the money out if he needed money to put in the drain. We're we're not fighting I don't I'm not I don't want to but he's not addressing he denies the problem He denies the noise of speed bumps and and the water it is he claims it's coming from massive And there's no water coming from massive There's two sewers that collect the water before massive and it's his It's before the point that the water starts coming. Thank you. If you could make a closing statement your three minutes are That's it. I just want to thank you. Thank you Thank you. Just very briefly just so I just want to make sure our remarks that you don't take them a different way The way our agenda is crafted is it's basically three pieces the agenda, which is people who have Information they've contacted the selectman's office town manager's office And now they have an agenda item We looked into it department heads have reported another part of the agenda is executive session Which we don't have tonight and then a third part once we get done with the agenda is Correspondence received and what typically what happens with that is that's the first time that the selectman are being Contacted or communicated and typically what we do sometimes it's just an announcement saying you know on tonight football team five and zero But sometimes it's a letter like yours. So basically this is the first step Coming before the board where when we get to that I don't want you to think that gee They didn't really seem to do much normally what we do is the chairman will you know look at each piece of correspondence and as He deems fit where it goes So what I'm saying is this is just the beginning of the process because I just want you all to know that we're not if our remarks seem Brief or anything like that. It's just that this is our first notification This this is shooting the clock and to get it all started. Thank you, Mr. Is anyone else here for citizens open forum? Seeing none moving on traffic rules and orders for approval Arlington Center parking management prosal, Mr. Chaplin. This is an exciting one. Thank you, Mr. Chairman So before the board tonight is a proposal to move forward on the somewhat long worked on Arlington Center parking management Discussion concept study however we want to name it so for the benefit of the board the benefit of the folks here tonight as well as those watching at home The millions as so I can really would say I'm gonna walk through the proposal Frankly read it a little bit just so we make sure we get all the ideas out there Again as the board knows this has been discussed for some time it probably Decades in terms of concern, but most recently we started several years ago Discussing the need for a study the need for a solution to both issues in the lots as well as availability on the streets That's what prompted a capital planning request Two cycles ago to fund a study which resulted in the hiring of Nelson I guard professional firm to work with a working group of town officials and town committee members to do a study that study was supplemented by work done by TAC in terms of Traffic and parking counts Once the study was underway. There were several points for public input. There was a nice session in the auditorium I know where residents and business owners could come in and talk about some of the proposals that were on the table Followed by a specific agenda Excuse me a specific meeting for business owners and then the most recent was in April when Nelson I guard as well as members of the planning and community development office came before the board to present their findings The next step is really to get the board to adopt Some portions of their recommendations so that we can start to move forward if it's the board's prerogative In terms of implementing a parking management strategy in Arlington Center That would create availability Through a pricing strategy So the first thing being proposed to the board tonight is really what I think is the important thing to remember for anybody watching This is the establishment of what the goals are in for parking in Arlington Center. So establishing parking goals So the first goal I'd like the board to establish is voting to establish clear and consistent parking regulations throughout Arlington Center Second adopting an availability goal of 15% on-street and 10% off-street for vacant parking spaces And this goal will be tracked using utilization reports that we would require in any technology that we buy to implement and Third really tied into the second goal would be Pricing parking to meet the availability goal using the principle of the most convenient and desirable parking being priced higher than the less desirable This is all really taken right from the recommendations of Nelson Nygaard And again, it creates a principle for the board to work with and to adjust in the future But still a principle adopted stating that availability is key So as going forward we can monitor something up against this goal Second tonight, we're asking the board to create a governance committee that can really help the board work through these issues as we move forward So you see in your proposal we have proposed the establishment of a parking implementation and governance committee And this would have representatives from a number of groups that I'll name in a moment That would really help first with implementing this new management system that's being proposed tonight As well as then monitoring and governing the system once it's in place and advising the board When changes might need to be made and finally we hope they play an important role An important advisory role in what funds could be spent through What's raised through meters on a parking benefit district? I'll get a little bit deeper into what a parking benefit district is later But the general idea being money raised from this parking strategy to go back into the district to improve Infrastructure to improve Arlington Center So this implementation governance committee that we're talking about what's being proposed to the board tonight is a Nine voting member make up with one ex officio member the first member being a designee of the board Second member being a designee of myself the town manager Third being a member of TAC the transportation advisory committee fourth being a representative of the Chamber of Commerce fifth being a representative from Arlington Center merchants group Sixth being a representative of one of the larger institutions located in Arlington Center such as Arlington Arlington Catholic or St. Agnes Seventh the parking clerk eighth the community safety traffic unit and nine a neighborhood resident and Finally the ex officio member being a member of the planning and community development office to serve as a technical Technical expert to help the group Moving on from there We were asking the board tonight to adopt a parking management fee structure And there's a map that the board has before them and should the should this be adopted tonight We'll make this map available online The map's actually already been available online through the the larger parking study But it's just a one-page attached to the proposal tonight and what we're talking about is creating on-street parking on Mass Ave Spots on Court Street spots on Medford Street through Broadway Plaza and down one block on Broadway the total universe being basically from Mill Street down to Mass in Franklin creating on Street one hour One excuse me on Street one dollar an hour parking for up to four hours from 8 a.m. To 8 p.m. In the two lots The Russell Common lot and the water Water Street lot creating 50 cents an hour unlimited parking From 8 a.m. To 8 p.m. And then on designated streets. You can see on the map I won't read through all of them free for our parking from 8 a.m. To 8 p.m. The key differences here are as we know there's currently no on Street paid parking And in the lots we have 50 cents an hour, but it is capped by three hours So this would be creating pricing on the streets on the very convenient spaces with access to business and Maintaining the same price in the lots making it unlimited for long-term parkers people who work in the center people want to spend more time in the center So that is the fee proposal and that ties back in with the goal that I mentioned at the beginning of Creating a higher price for the most convenient desirable parking and a lower price for the less convenient less desirable Not that it's undesirable, but it's just not as convenient as street parking So if you get to park right out front, it's going to be a little more expensive than you park in the lot and walk your destination Finally in terms of the a funding plan nothing Specifically requested for the board to adopt tonight But I think it's a key part to talk about how we're viewing all this and get the board support on this Is to break the revenues down really into? three different areas and the three goals I've laid out are holding the general fund harmless currently monies that are collected via violations Permits and money that's put into the meters in the two municipal lots now goes into the general fund So that basically helps support in a general way. I just help support the whole Town government it just goes in through local receipts, which is the category of revenue. We call it and it supports the budget So I'd like to recommend we hold that harmless So we're recommending putting violation revenue and permit revenue not from the two lots to hold the general fund harmless Next we want to make sure we can pay for the new meters We buy and also support what it's going to cost to operate them enforce them and really run the parking district So money's from the on-street meter revenue We are asking to put into a special revenue fund, which is enabled by statute that is allowed to pay for meters and pay for the operation of meters and then finally we want to create a parking benefit district as I mentioned earlier and for that We would use a general revolving fund, which is something that's authorized every year for different different issues a town meeting and for that we'd put off-street permit and meter revenue from the lots and What we would want to do with that money very specifically is have an annual amount approved in the revolving fund that we can reinvest in Arlington Center sidewalks roadway improvements lighting Decorations other issues that we can talk about you know with the representatives on this Implementation and governance committee that we've mentioned, but it shows You know both the benefit of managing the parking managing the resource creating availability But also not just taking the revenue and just going to a town benefit But directly impacting the business owners and the residents of Arlington Center So I think it creates sort of a win-win strategy of both management and sort of a return to benefit to the district Finally, there's still a number of concerns that are very important to address tonight that aren't addressed in today's recommendations The goal would be to have and before anything's implemented on the street have this proposed implementation and governance committee spend the next several months making some final Decisions in terms of what to recommend to the board These issues are the permits for off-street parking lots. We know we need to have permits that make sense to have permits There's enough room for permits during the day, but we need to sit down with all the stakeholders Especially the big users like Arlington Catholic High School Arlington Catholic High School potentially American alarm figure out exactly what they need They make a final recommendation for how much a permittal cost and how many we'll have and exactly how we'll manage them Next taxi stands. We had quite a bit of discussion about taxi stands during the first presentation the recommendations from the study were to move taxi stands off the premiums Parking spots on Mass Ave and perhaps find a different location for them before I'm prepared to make any final recommendations to the board I want to make sure that the parking committee can sit down with the taxi owners Make sure we fully understand their issues and how they utilize the taxi stands before we make a final recommendation Third ADA spaces We need to make final recommendations for the appropriate number and location of these spaces I think we my understanding is we have the appropriate number, but they might not necessarily today be in the right location So we need to iron that out and make a final recommendation Loading zones. This is an issue that a number of Arlington Center merchants have raised and I know it's very important to them There's currently no loading zone as I am aware in Arlington Center But there are trucks that come and load and they block up either bus stops or ADA spaces or wherever they are and create concern so Again, we want to sit with the stakeholders figure out if we can get a handle on what times a day these trucks need How much space they need and see if there's a way we can manage that effectively Bus stops get the bus stop that's in front of the region theater as well as the bus stop that cues on Broadway Plaza We've made some progress with the MBTA and a willingness to relocate the bus at Broadway Plaza Further down in front of American alarm that where it currently has been designated no parking for a firetruck Swing into Central Station. So we need to have some final conversations with the MBTA to finalize that Also, I know there's been a number of conversations in regards to relocating. I believe is the 80 bus bus stop in front of the region theater. I I know Quite a few times. I believe there's been recommendations to not move it But there's still an interest in the part as part of several Arlington Center merchants as I understand it to move it So we need to take one more look at that before we make a final recommendation And then future rate setting So tonight we're asking the board to take a look at to take a vote on the rates that I mentioned earlier However, we we as staff have a very sincere interest in getting to a place where we're doing demand based pricing You've probably heard that mentioned in terms of some things Boston or larger communities are doing Basically says there's times where parking spots are worth more than other times You know when the middle of the day when there might not be a lot of business in the lot or maybe on Mass Ave You know that price comes down when there's a big show at the region and getting parking right on Mass Ave Near the region a restaurant is a real hot commodity that price goes up a little bit and it pushes other people into the lot So that's not being proposed tonight, but we'd like to eventually get to the place where we take a look at demand based pricing So I'm sure there's a number of questions about this, but that's sort of the run-through of the proposal That's before you and hope you will look at upon it favorably tonight, but happy to answer any questions Thank you very much Adam. Mr. Cure. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the manager First of all, they say don't bury the lead or anybody who's watching this part of what this means is those bloody machines are going to go away They'll be replaced by new machines ultimately, but those machines will be gone I Think that was asked of me in my first debate when I ran for this board So it'd be great to finish out my term and see that actually happen but all kidding aside This proposal has been a long time coming and I think that Philosophically, it's right where we need to be I consider this probably the most important economic development Measure that we have taken at some time On this board, I think I reported at one of our meetings I attended the MAPC's parking someone I know a lot of the staff Were there as well and this is right in the place where other communities are looking to the demand demand based management, I think that the The philosophy on the rates is absolutely correct. I appreciate the manager I forwarded some comments on the composition and the charter of the implementation Governors Committee and I think that that is also I Appreciate you making some adjustments in the recommendations to accommodate more of the stakeholders within the center around that and I Will say that I was I'm losing my train of thought I think that We're right on track with this in the general outlines of this I did have some concerns about about the proposal and I think I've already shared some of these with the Manager My initial expectation had been that we were going to be sitting here We were going to be voting some of these what a quarter Quote-unquote other issues that you listed You know at the end, you know the permits taxes to the ADA spaces loading zone Stops and such but I understand we're in kind of a chicken-and-egg situation And I think that as going back over the Nelson-Nygard study I see that there are some very concrete proposals in that study around here, so Having reflected on it. I think this this does make sense That we go in and take that as a starting point. I'm assuming that's you're looking at that That is absolutely accurate. Yes, and that this this group of stakeholders will have the opportunity to To sit down and review that as a concrete proposal and then make adjustments to it One other aspect of this that I'm very Very enthusiastic about Is the parking benefit district? I think that is really part of the key to to gaining buy-in to this change because we're now implementing If if we assuming we adopt this we're implementing meters in the street That's a big change for a lot of folks and to see a benefit come back to make the center more of a welcoming place for Visitors to the center for residents who go there for the merchants who are there For what I learned about benefit districts They can be some of the capital type improvements that you mentioned it can also go to Maintenance and town provided maintenance that can help to fund things along of that nature And I'm glad that you know a role for the stakeholders In that is as we go forward. So all that is is Is great. I'm very enthusiastic about it the the only thing that that's really bothering me and I recognize these are these are Just projections and estimates is around the violation Revenue and I think I flagged this Under the projected revenues was seeing an increase in the meter revenue Both on-street and off-street Obviously on-street is brand new but we're also seeing a little bit of an uptick in the violation revenue and I hope that that's just pessimism or optimism deciding on Depending on which side you're on but I hope that that actually doesn't come to fruition that way because In my mind if we're at that level of violation revenue that that level of violations It'll mean that there's something is off in the parking system people are feeling a need to skirt the system and To violate it, and I think this is something that we've talked about that you're welcome to Arlington Shouldn't be printed an orange and on your windshield With a violation ticket so I'm all for beefing up the enforcement, and I don't know maybe you can speak to this I don't know if this represents, you know beefed up enforcement of the existing Regulations are if you really expect that there are going to be that many more violations As a result of these changes, but I would hope that that we would see that go down Even as the meter revenue goes up and could be plowed into the positive things for the district so So I it is a very good point. I know I myself said when Nelson I guard was here presenting to the board that In a proper system you're collecting a lot more in meter revenue than you are in violation revenue Because I totally agree with the concept that this is supposed to be able to create churn and not be penalizing people that said with a new system in place and 450 new spots that are being metered that aren't being metered today Which is a significant increase a percentage increase in the number of actually metered spots And on top of that the fact that we were going to be seeking Technology that would tell parking control officers when someone's meters expired so they could be much more targeted in their enforcement I would suspect in its rollout and in its early implementation first year or two There would be a spike in violations, but as people adapted to the new system and compliance increased There could be a reduction in violations so I think we want to achieve what you're describing but early on based on it being a new system and based on What the technology would enable a parking control officer to do we would see that uptick I'm gonna be cautiously optimistic that that the regulations are uniform enough that there isn't that type of confusion that leads to violations now, so I think we're gonna want to track that very closely as we absolutely go forward and just lastly I would say Again I'm glad the implementation committee is going to be looking at these this set of other issues as well as having feedback into the An advice in an advisory role around investments in the parking benefit district. I would only ask that on the Decisions around the ADA spaces. I would hope that that committee would consult with the Commission on Disabilities as well Yeah, I think it's a fair point That's all I have Mr. Chair. Thank you scurril Mr. Dunn Thank you, mr. Chairman. I'm delighted with this proposal. I'm really glad I'm happy to support it I have two or I have a couple points about it that I want to make One is in our planning meeting. I made this point pretty clearly But I how I want to make it again, which is to me so much of this needs to be driven by the Want to deliver good customer service that's both people who live in Arlington and people who visit from Arlington excuse me visit Arlington and We I think with our current parking plan There are with our current parking implementation have managed to fail delivering customer good customer service And I said if nothing else because of the number of complaints that I get about the infernal machines And if they you know we're provide if that if those machines are the face of Arlington and the current implementation of it we have we've screwed it up and So I like a lot of what's in this plan because it is an opportunity to for us to reshape it in that direction And two comments specifically, let's get rid of those machines and two One of the yeah, this is also has to be a for us to solve these problems So there has to be a process change because one of the reasons those infernal machines are so infernal is that when they break? First of all someone has to figure out that they broke and they don't have any the technology that tells us what are sufficiently when they broke Then when they break they call the parking clerk is of course the treasurer and the treasurer like we'll send Over or send somebody over to look at it and they'll figure out that it's they'll agree that it's broken Then they'll have someone from DPW call come and look and then someone from DPW will get the vendor to come and look by the time You know we've gotten through all those gyrations four days have passed and We've written tickets and people have walked up to those machines and you know poked and prodded at them And so I really want us to rethink this process like all of this and say how is it that we can deliver a good customer service So I appreciate you sitting through that a second time My second comment is I Know we want to get this right, but let us make haste you know Mr. Kuro says I may gave this in his debate I made a very similar, you know This was one of the things about talking about things that I wanted to get changed when I ran for Selectman 2 You know three and a half years ago, and I'm delighted at the progress that we've made on so many things You know we have an electronic meeting format in front of us We saw an electronic checkbook today in four of us There's so many things we did right this parking meters are still there So I can't like you know if we're honestly if we're still if those parking meters are still there You know 4th of July or something like that. I feel like we've you know We're gonna have you get rid of them. No I two years ago I stood up at town meeting and told them what I wanted to do is throw it in the Mystic Lake All right, thank you, Mr. Chairman First just to get it on the table I'd like to make a motion to establish the parking goals The three of them is outlined by the manager to create the governance committee again is outlined by the manager and Input from the board of Selectman and third part of the motion would be to adopt a proposed parking management fee structure, and then I just would have second second Just in terms of Mr.. Kuro spoke to this. I also had it down on my piece of paper In involvement of the disability commission. Yeah, I don't know if it's an ex officio member I don't know if it's this the governance committee is tasked with at some point in their meetings that that has to be an agenda item and invited Factor or group and or if it's part of the final report To the board of Selectman that they've had the opportunity to somehow be involved in the process whether reviewing documents are being involved more Or I don't I don't know if it's another ex officio member But I really want to stress that because it's one of the things with the some new members coming on board that basically said it And this was secure online. Don't forget about us We want to help out the other thing is in terms of the scope duration of the governance committee What do you anticipate sort of piggyback? You know what mr. Dunn said like if somebody like the board of Selectman is going to have a designee when they say Well, what is this committee? What is expected of me? And what's the time commitment? What do you envision and also? What's the reporting mechanism? Is this going to be a committee that meets for three months reports back to the board of Selectman meets for six months? Maybe comes back twice. I mean, what do you imagine it would be recognizing that once the committee meets They'll define the parameters that work best for them So I believe while this committee is in the implementation phase so probably over the course of the next six months It's going to be more frequent meetings Maybe a couple times a month and maybe some subcommittee work that would be on top of that Once we actually have what we're talking about here implemented I would think this committee would probably be you know a monthly maybe Infrequently a little bit more than that to just make sure it's a it's monitoring reports And then maybe quarterly or start quarterly then go semi-annually coming back and according to the board Or maybe even more frequently when we start to see how things are going So I think it would be fair to probably say up front heavy-loaded and then a little bit of an evening out going forward And do you anticipate within six months? You're saying just setting it as a goal that we might be just about close to where we need to be So that we can take an actual step on this. Yeah, I am we are and we'll talk about this actually in the next agenda item We're going to take part in a joint procurement with the MAPC for parking meters And that's happening very soon Once that's issued I'll be able to speak a lot more clearly on exactly what the timeline will be and Actually determine whether or not we can do something with the lot meters before the street meters because that will take longer The street meters will certainly take longer So probably just in the next couple weeks. I'll have a better understanding of the exact timeline Okay, and last housekeeping question Since we have a committee of 10 with one ex officio will be is it anticipated unless the committee feels otherwise That the ex officio member from the planning department will be also responsible for the administration of this committee posting agendas taking the minutes And those associated tasks that are going to be huge with this committee meeting so much in six months It's a very good question. I actually hadn't given that consideration I think between planning and the town manager's office we can okay. I'm just saying I'm thinking with our limited staff Oh, absolutely. I just want that to find in the beginning because sometimes through nobody's fault at all It it does fall and it's yet another thing. So so you're on the record. You're taking care of you He's buying the ticket. I'm sorry. That's all I have and I see thank you. No, that that was a great point Well second your motion So we have a motion second So I really like this as well, and I know this is a long time coming. I've Adam I I think we've talked about every agenda for the past three months trying to determine when we'd be ready to To put this on and I really like what came out of it I do have one question that I'll make a couple more comments in the consultants report They mention, you know Projects like additional Bicycle parking, you know some new crosswalks. Do you consider that being part of this parking implementation or potentially You know make taking those steps when the benefits of the parking district come in I I think upgrades like that would probably most They'd probably get done quickest through the parking benefit district, okay No, that that makes sense me I just wanted to make sure because I was reading through the port and didn't know if we were you know If we were kind of just giving the okay to that as well Yeah, if I can just expand a little bit I don't want to make that sound like if you know an opportunity presents itself to put a bike rack in an appropriate place That just hasn't presented itself before that we won't act if it's something that we have within our resources But some of the larger scale improvements that they talk about would be subject to having funding availability So I As I said before I really like this as some of you may know I'm back in school right now getting a master's degree and I'm actually taking transportation policy right now and we've been talking quite a bit about parking and This is actually spot-on with what just about I think every community is doing really across the nation And I really really like the movement towards the demand-based parking. I think that will Create the right amount of turnover in Arlington Center to make sure you know Say you want to stop by For a cup of coffee or a slice of pizza that will really help to make sure that you have you know a spot accessible right outside And I think you know that incentive You know based format will be really beneficial to us And the other thing I will do is echo Mr. Dunn's comments is that you know the sooner the better on this I am I look forward to making these changes ASAP but with that I understand all of the work that will go into it and thank you for bringing this to us Is anyone and Mr. Gilligan? Thank You mr. Chairman members of the board for the record Stephen Gilligan town treasurer and parking clerk Mr. Chairman as you know as treasurer I went to town meeting Requesting funds to replace the four parking meter kiosks and town meeting voted that appropriation this past May I Think it's important to note that we were prepared to go out to bid to replace those meters over the summer and have that work done by Middle of last month the town manager's overall parking plan Hopefully encompasses that and the manager asked that we refrain from issuing that bid I went along with that request knowing what was to come However, I think it's important to note that based on the timeline in the manager's report those kiosks those parking meter kiosks Will not be replaced until late spring if not the summer of 2015 And I think it's also important for the board to keep in mind and to take note of is that those kiosks need to be made Ada compliant they need to be made accessible for persons with disabilities. They are not today Furthermore those kiosks are very unsafe. It's problematic at best and that needs to be rectified I think that the planning needs to go put into place now to address those issues Rather than wait to go out to bid come next spring or next summer because those issues of logistics operation safety and Collections are going to be tantamount to anything being effective once implemented and it's more than just issuing an RFP for a particular type of equipment Thank You. Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Mr. Jaffer. I Wasn't I didn't see if mr. Gilligan was here during our discussion, but The RFP is not going out in the spring or summer. It should be going out within the next week or so Thank you very much Yes, that's great news. Thank you. Thank you Any further discussion from the board? Any further discussion from the audience? Yes Thank You. Leland stein koner of the region theater. I just wanted to Say I don't word hallelujah Thank you for Anything you can do to Accept the proposals in front of you I also want to thank mr. Dunn for his assessment of the current meters and I want to go one step further and This is going to sound radical but I'd like to say that they be permanently dismantled and Parking free until we get a new system in there because it really has been so long and If the town is worried about lost revenue Remember that all of the extra revenue that has been collected because so many people did not realize that you did not have to pay after six o'clock or on Sunday and it really would create a Tremendous amount of goodwill For both the people in town and coming from out of town and believe me we hear it You know almost at every event because of how Confusing it is even when the meters are in operation and that is rare also regarding some of the Secondary as I understand it things that aren't part of the proposal but That have been recommended for discussion Regarding things like the loading zones the bus stops and the like on Medford Street and Mass Ave some of those were addressed well before the The consultants presented their proposal, so I don't quite understand why all of a sudden They're on the back burner again when they were really Things that seem that they could be easily addressed ahead of time and one of the things that was not addressed as a handicapped parking spot in front of the region theater And again, I want to say there are two handicapped spots on the other end of Medford Street in front of St. Agnes Church, and yet there is not one on the side of Where the region theater side where we have so much traffic and so many people coming in and so many Seniors and so many people who need a handicapped spot let alone a drop-off spot lastly regarding the loading zone For the fifth time in four years or the fourth time in five years a Truck has backed into the region theater marquee. This is a serious issue because first of all It's a very expensive thing to replace We've got two great film festivals coming and an ugly Broken marquee that we cannot fix in time because either the Coke delivery truck for CVS or the Starbucks delivery trucks backed into it when they're illegally parking in something that isn't designated as a loading drone Loading zone for tractor trailer trucks And it's also quite a safety hazard because they tend to deliver Many times of day, but a lot of their delivery schedule seems to be a time when we are Seating people or people are coming into the theater or leaving the theater, and it's it's just it's crazy So I do want to make sure and emphasize that that those considerations are addressed And I don't know if if there's anyone from the planning department or other departments that can kind of Let us know where those things Stand because it's it's it's a continued frustration and as I mentioned it's a very real Thing and a very expensive thing for this to have happened again to the region theaters marquee And frankly we cannot afford to to fix it because of the deductible on the insurance and and those kind of things Thank you. Thank you, Leland. It does seem like this strategy will You know address those concerns and I look forward to you know addressing this in You know very much comprehensive Way and not just doing it piecemeal, and I think that's the best strategy to accomplish You know the needs in Arlington Center for parking regulations any further discussion Seeing none any further discussion from the board we have a Motion a second all those in favor, please say aye opposed Thank you very much. Thank you, Adam Moving on for approval community innovation challenge grants Mr. Chapter Dillon. All right. Thank you, mr. Chairman So I believe you're all familiar with the community innovation challenge grants that the governor Patrick's administration Started several years ago. I believe back in 2012 Open checkbook is actually made possible by a community innovation challenge grant that we jumped on After the fact after it was awarded to the original communities that applied In one part about community innovation challenge grants is that the board of selectmen needs to authorize as signing on to any grant Applications under this grant program. So tonight actually asking for the board's authorization for four different grant applications One we would be the lead on three. We would be participants or supporters on The first one is a grant that Arlington would be the lead on and we'll call it a visual budget enhancement The group that has been that really created Arlington visual budget members of the finance committee former selectmen town manager's office as well as the local company and pollution studios have been talking about ways to stabilize and improve Arlington visual budget as well as Expand its access to other communities across the Commonwealth. So We've Worked on putting together a grant application that we'd like the board to approve us signing on tonight Has a goal again of creating it as even a more robust planning tool that could even have better citizen civic engagement properties We want to grow to at least 20 communities by the end of 2015 that would start using this tool add features that You know could specifically drill down into debt service move between budget to generate multi-year forecasts And make make it even easier for a user to use and to upload or download data so right now I know we have Newberry port Salem Melrose and co-hasset on board to sign on to this grant So we'd like board approval to be able to be the lead applicant for this particular grant Do you want to stop putting 20 I'm going to run through all You know, I think that we can do Potentially one vote for all of them Yes, so please go on the second grant is tied in to the visual budget tool But we would be a supporting applicant to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council or the MAPC And this is a grant application for the creation of a municipal financial data standard I provided the board a little bit of further backup produced by the MAPC on why this is important. I Personally really love this grant when we put together a lot of our budget documents We always try to compare ourselves to other communities And there's a lot of good ways for us to do that with Department of Revenue data But there's still a lot of limitations on how we can do that and a lot of that just has to do with how Municipalities can report their departmental expenditures in different ways and that's okay, but it creates difficult comparisons The example I'll use is You know, we have a water sewer enterprise fund So we have all of those revenues put out separately and all of those costs separately Burlington just collects water and sewer fees as a local receipt in their general fund budget So they probably report DPW expenses much different than we report DPW expenses So if we were going to compare ourselves that instantly the apples and oranges So the idea of trying to create one data standard that we can use in all of our different tools Namely the visual budget budget tool is very exciting to me It's a lot of work But getting to a point down the road where you know two communities that are using Arlington visual budget And you could type in an average tax bill and see that you know Arlington spends 50 bucks a year of your tax bill on snow But you know Winchester spends 70 or whatever that number would be would really give The citizen the ability to see what am I getting for my dollar? Am I getting a good bang for my buck for my municipality? So that's the municipal data standard grant The third grant I was approached by the town manager in Needham who had an interest in Pursuing a grant to help do some analysis and then recommend best practices for tablet use in the field by inspectors From inspectional services board of health fire department who are doing field work with tablets I guess even police department uses it's something that we already have as part of our it street Strategic plans several departments are looking in that and wanting to to use that so this grant would Help pay for a consultant to come in help us make some recommendations and also buy some hardware and software So I think this is a no-brainer to jump on to And then the final one a little bit different than the first three is tied back into parking meters The MAPC is running a joint procurement as I mentioned earlier for parking meters We're going to sign on to that joint procurement, but they also are applying for a Community innovation challenge grant any community that is either pricing parking. That's currently not priced or pursuing Demand-based pricing would be eligible to apply for this grant So we're definitely after the board's vote tonight putting parking where there currently isn't Priced parking and we're at least talking about demand-based pricing. So we definitely qualify and couldn't qualify under both accounts so The the current structure would be that if they were successful in getting this grant participating communities could get up to $20,000 to buy down the capital investment of new metering technology So happy to answer any questions I think these are all good opportunities for the town to to get on board and in some ways innovate and in some ways Just try to support some innovation. That's already happening in town. So Thank you very much Miss one first. I'd like to make a motion to authorize the town manager to sign on to four separate CIC grant applications One is the lead applicant and three as participant and supporter Second and then We're getting really excited by a lot of these agenda items tonight So that means we have no life or we're doing some really good things. This is another a Innovative way to open up government and take the technology that we have as well as getting Getting information out whether it's to our employees or whether it's to our citizens I really want to applaud you. Mr. Chapelle in the town manager for really being at the forefront of this as well as I take away from some of the grants and how they came to be, you know when you are the Lead supporter or lead requester, but I really want to applaud you. You did this as deputy town manager And you've certainly magnified it on it as a town manager that you are Very well known in the town manager circle Just by the shared fact that one of your colleagues from another town has approached you as well as you have approached where you are requesting to be the lead Requestor you've reached out to other communities and not just the budding adjacent communities not that there's anything wrong with Lexington Medford Burlington Belmont some of all they're all great But I think that's a testament to one of the things when we were looking for a town manager That we really wanted to make sure that you know Recognize your jurisdiction is the town of Allington But also getting us out to the state and tap into some of these new ways to get Business done the only question I would have and that's I really I would like to go on and on about that But I know we have a lot of people here. So The only thing that it doesn't necessarily need to be answered tonight unless you have it off the top of your head The first would be I see on one of them I think it was the last one. There's about $20,000 figures cited Just curious on one two and three Is it going to be that once you find out if we are approved then you'll know the scope of what the funding is and Or what will be you're reporting back to the board of selectmen again is when it gets awarded Then we'll get all the details and you'll go once the grant applications are all finalized this week I'll send the final copies on Friday through the board. So you'll know on Friday Visual budget, I believe we're asking for $95,000 to get 20 communities up and running That's again, not just Arlington. There's a great cooperation with Involution Studios in that regard The municipal data standard. I'm not clear exactly what they're asking for but I can get that number the field tablet use we're asking for $75,000 per community for that consulting time hardware and software purchases And then I don't know what the total number will be for the MAPC, but it will be that $20,000 per community, but I will follow up. I know when you can get a handle on that because I'd like to show that while we're taking the request from citizens and Helping our employees in terms of how we do business and how we do business effectively and as much transparency as possible That similar to when we went before the voters with an override one of the promises that we all made was that we are going to try to find different ways to fund things You know, we come to you for an override and we don't want you to think that we're not Lifting up every rock looking for money and funding and I think this we're talking six figures right here alone Just by it's whether it's high low middle six figures But you know in an $80 million budget that may not seem like a lot But I know a lot of people who live in nickels to dimes. I think innovative Exploration of getting funds like this for something that really will be a town municipal Is a good demonstration that we are keep keeping our commitment to the voters in terms of when we've gone before them for overrides Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the comments Seeing none is anyone here to discuss this agenda item Seeing none as well Yeah, I just want to say this is really awesome. Our guy. This is something I really love seeing on the agenda Kudos to Adam and for that Yeah, and you know going off we talk a lot about regionalization And working with other communities and that's something we have tasked Adam to do particularly in our town manager In board goal setting and he's really following through So yeah, this is a great opportunity and I Look forward to seeing its benefits. So that being said we have a motion a second all those in favor. Please say aye I oppose Nothing vote. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Jeph Lane Moving on Discussion and vote for the draft selectman's handbook So as we heard at our last meeting Kevin Kevin Greeley is really spearheading This but unfortunately he couldn't be here today. He had to be out of town on a work assignment that being said I do want to discuss it. I talked to Kevin and He's really given quite a bit input with to Doug and I've also been Working with Kevin on this so My comments have already been heard as well But I would like to hear what the board thinks any changes and just once again I'd like to reiterate that this is a really important step that we're taking and Developing this policy handbook and it will go quite a long way to You know Making everyone's life a little bit easier When you join the selectman when you're working in town working with us and yeah, it's really cool So that being said I would like to just open up for discussion to my colleagues Mr. Kira I was very very pleased to see the first draft here. I you know, I think it sets It's great to start with the tone setting and the the charter for for the board It's what we have before us. We're not into the meat of actual policies or whatnot But you know, we were discussing, you know a lot of the boards and committees here Always talk about the difficulty with onboarding processes and this this I think will help, you know In the next next new selectman comes on board to to help Help them to be oriented and understand their role a little bit better. I did have just One little question here, we do enumerate some of the responsibilities for the selectman and I Meant to look this up today. I didn't know if a word is missing It's in class one and two when it feels like there's a noun missing there Under service the licensing board responsible for issuing and renewing licenses for the following categories on page four So it's between lodging houses in keeper and secondhand dealer Class one and two it's Doug do I'll take a look at that, but I'm Trying to recall what the class one and two licenses that the board typically issues are Unfortunately, we're a little bit disadvantaged because the board administrator isn't here. Yeah It looks like a word may have just inadvertently dropped out And I meant to look it up and see if I can find it in the bylaws somewhere But I just didn't have a chance today the other thing that I believe the board has in its purview is to to actually serve as the appellate body for step five disability complaints ADA complaints, I'm pretty sure under under our current plan that that's the case and It seems that we should probably mention that as well, although I don't I don't believe it's exercise very often if Never has can you just say where that was one more time? I'm not sure exactly I'd actually defer to you and to counsel as to where we would put it in But I believe that is one of the duties. I think would be under According to juncture with the general laws the board possesses the following duties or sponsors actually this I don't think is a general General laws, I think it's actually the disability Plan for the town Just to provide a sort of Quick summary of what I hope the board can achieve tonight if it can come to some reasonable agreement on These sort of sections or chapters that are before you The sort of plan that mr. Greeley has laid out is the idea that the board will be voting on The language to the extent that it's complete in any given section so that it would become almost an interim Policy document and then that you would go back at the end of this process and decide You know does the document once it's all put together with each chapter really makes sense Is there too much in here? Is there not enough in here? Are there some pieces of information that we feel like should be moved to a different section of it Are there some responsibilities that we want to highlight more things of that nature? So these lists under the sort of second chapter here powers duties and responsibilities are not meant to be exhaustive But they're meant to highlight the sort of Major powers duties and responsibilities you have the things that are going to come up most frequently So I've got no objection to inserting Serving as the appellate body over disability complaints for example and we could find out exactly how that would be articulated But this is not meant to be an exhaustive list of everything that the board does It's merely a highlight of the things that the boards do the board does the functions and roles that it serves in Obviously either more most significantly or most commonly so I just wanted to emphasize that point for a second so any additions and changes that you want me to make I'm happy to make and We can obviously bring it back to the board for a second time for a final authorization of an interim Basically policy with these first couple chapters where they're not really focused on policies as much as there's some background information Including obviously the sort of if you will it's only a page and a half but chapter one There's going to be a history inserted by mr. Richard Duffy Obviously, that's not there yet. There's going to be a little bit of revision that that that comes along along the way so If there's things that you feel you want me to insert I'm happy to do that, but I want to assure you that for these at least first two pieces of it here This is meant to be sort of basic background information and guidance Okay, thank you very much and I thank you for that explanation I appreciate that and it just once again. I also appreciate the the emphasis on that You know the code of conduct ethics and such I think it just sits that's a good tone for the rest of the document I like I like as well in particular that last point that Joe made It's the right tone. It was also the right statement, which is this is the way in Care well, there's a line. You have to walk that is this is what you should do is a select one And this is what you can and can't do and there are things and it doesn't try to say that you Can't when really you can't I mean does any one of us have the record that can we be jerks? Well, yes, yes, we can you shouldn't be and this goes a lot into about how that and I think it the language is really well Phrased about how that can go. So I like the draft as we see it. Thank you That I will say one thing that even you know in developing this and you know talking to Kevin it is One thing that's difficult for me is keeping in mind that we're a very well functioning board in my opinion and You know this being a document that will span You know, hopefully or most likely past all of our time here that this will We can't predict what future boards will be like so it's important to keep them in mind And maybe they aren't as great as we are At that point I'm not sure if what I'm going to propose is in concert with what town council Was requesting or suggesting and or if you all would agree, you know my vocation and Sometimes that comes into select me too much what I would like to do. I just would like to put this forth as a Possible motion. I would like to move receipt of this document as a draft. I'm really cautious in terms of especially a document that we're really going to be judged by as we should Until something is in its final form I don't care if somebody else can come up with some other language But until we take the final vote on this because of what I was hearing was can you vote this in sort of? This is what's in place. There's some more pieces to come To me. I'd like to continue to view this as a draft So make a motion to receive this document as a draft Let everything else get put in and then in the next four or eight weeks or whatever Mr. Greerly and the chairman think it's the appropriate time then we voted officially and say yes This is an official document because what I'm hearing is I want you to give it some official position right now But it is still a draft and there are still some things coming and we will incorporate like I don't know if we still have a Role and or if it's in here or if it's defined differently in our board of survey role If that's inherent in there somewhere, I don't know if we still I know some of it through a town meeting vote some of our Responsibilities went to the redevelopment board, but I know that we still play a very minor role to that And that may be included in the highway or it's something like that But that's just things, you know that we're all going to work out in the future So I don't know how my colleagues feel about that. So Seconded for the purpose of discussion. Thank you I would like to hear Doug's thoughts on it. Just to make sure we're working within the legal ramifications So when I call this a draft document I call it a draft document because it's subject to your revision and approval at this meeting You guys can take as much time as you feel is appropriate, of course, but to be Sort of upfront with the board about how long this process is expected to take the board has a lot of areas of Jurisdiction it's got a lot of policies and practices that right now might be codified in different places They aren't either essentially codified haven't been updated in a long time or Things that are really more of a practice things that haven't been necessarily outlined and clarified so By keeping it in draft form until it's Until it's all complete. You'd be waiting quite a long time I don't think mr. Greeley and mr. Burn may be able to speak to this as well But I don't think mr. Greeley expects this to be done in you know, eight or ten weeks I think he expects this to probably take the better part of nine months or so because as each policy comes in some policies are going to be very detailed and Gonna involve a lot of sort of intense discussion We may need more than one meeting even to get through certain sections of what is at least Anticipated when you saw that outline that mr. Greeley provided you at the board's last meeting Some of those things are going to take a significant amount of time for the board to go through there Maybe only one Subject that the board gets through it give a meeting so the idea of the sort of interim policy was Rooted in the idea that as you go through and approve these things you'd have a sort of interim policy That's in place until it's Completed so that there's some sort of Building of a foundation over time as to this is how the board's policies are slowly coming together I obviously Respect that the board may have sort of a different view on the ideal way to do that But I don't think I would characterize it in terms of some sort of liability or legal obligation what I would characterize it is as right now there's a lot of sort of There's a pastiche if you will of different things that are sort of holding together the board's policies practices and procedures They're not all not all of them have been updated recently Some of them have been updated recently some of them are again more rooted in practice than in a written policy So as we go through this if the board's so inclined to adopt these things as an interim policy that it could then be Subject to a final revision you'd have something in place over the course of The like I said nine months or so while I expect to have this be developed but that's obviously at the board's discretion and what the board would like to do in terms of how it wants to Structure this process. Thank you, Doug So I will say as you know, someone who is working on this I feel pretty strongly about Doing far more than moving receipt on this It for you know, how I see this working is that you know We need or at least I would feel more comfortable Knowing that doing this on a piece-by-piece basis that we have the support and that you know after There's quite a bit of work done on this that we're not going to simply move Receipt now and then come back and say a year or so and then have you know Thousands of revisions that you know, we'll have to be discussed at that time So I think for the sake of How this process or at least how I saw this process working that I would you know, really I think it would be would be better off, you know, taking a vote as we Move our way through this process, but that being said Yes I think I'm inclined to agree with you, Mr. Burn The reason that I'm I'm not worried about the ramifications of this is because It is It's a handbook as opposed to you know, I don't feel bound by the you know, it's it's What I think about where what we're doing I do not feel bound by any of the things in this We will not be bound in our future actions There's nothing that we're agreeing to in here We'll keep us from being able to exercise any of the powers or Responsibilities that we get by by being a member of this board And so for instance, you know and it talks about like this is this is the introduction talking about this is the handbook You got an overview about what the Arlington about what Arlington is that powers duties and responsibilities We are neither adopting nor power any powers nor are we giving them away and we're not even trying to enumerate them All we're referring to all the other places that give us those powers And so if we miss one, you know, whatever it's not gonna We don't lose that power because of it and similarly in the code of conduct that part that I really liked about the language Or it says member of the board should conduct him or herself with us understanding the basic functions to make policy But you know, that's not a something that if I do it wrong, you know, I can't be thrown out And I'm not doing so for all those reasons I Would prefer that that we move forward and adopt this and if we if there's anything in here that actually does Encumber us in some way that would be negative. We should bring it up. We should talk about it. We should remove it I don't see any and therefore I'm prepared to support. So having having seconded your motion I'm gonna go with the what the majority of you all want to do with the caveat that if the circumstance that I'm foreseen in my head Does arise it's gonna fall to town council because we have had some incidents in the past and I'm thinking of that, you know, the Play pen that we all play in and who else is involved in that and I I'm just looking at it in terms of I know legally In terms of if I think if any attorney was advising somebody that you know Was going to adopt something that you could be measured by that It would be kind of foolhardy if it's done piecemeal. I'm not trying to make a big thing out of this It's just that once we do adopt this. This is going to be used by perhaps a few people To exercise their right to use it. Whatever way they want to do that And I'm kind of leery of pointing out what I think from the legal ease limited legally size side that I have What those areas are because then I feel, you know, am I creating the very scenario that I am concerned about? So if you all want to adopt this tonight, you can I'll be happy to go through that and then through the chairman if everyone's agreeable with this because there are two areas that I Again reading it from the legal side that I do Have some concerns and questions about so if I follow up with the chairman on that I'm probably not saying What I how I at least in doing this is that not even just stopping it but these issues that you're talking about the point of having this discussion is to make it so we it's a policy and what we're moving forward with is Something we can all agree on and that the the purpose of putting this on every agenda is so we can hash it out And we can hear what everyone thinks about it and I and so I think that that you know That should kind of alleviate some concerns that you know if you see issues with that I think this is you know the point where we discuss them and that's what these meetings are for Mr. Dunn, so that said I so I agree with that and I and so what I would be supportive of is Emotion to postpone for to future meetings such that we can if you want to Something you want to talk about this language you want to change that you think you can be best resolved Talking directly to town council, and then we come back. We actually take a vote I think that in the interest of getting a document we all like I absolutely would favor like I would have no problem with postponing but my For me the postponing would be Postponing until we can really actually just say yes This is the first chapter of the first draft of the excuse me. This is the first chapter of the handbook No, I want to keep the interest of the work that's been done and moving it forward if we want to adopt This is an initial document I do have two areas of concern and I don't want to waste anybody's time and in brain matter I want to if it's appropriate follow-up with the chairman in the in town council And if those you know I'm just overthinking things and it's nothing to be concerned about then we don't have to spend any more time on it if it is something that the chairman or town council feels is ambiguous or perhaps creating a circumstance situation that we should all be Aware of then discuss it at the next meeting that we're talking about adopting things And so I have no problem adopting that tonight I just wanted to get it on the record my comments just in case something should happen in the future that I can get Somebody else to follow Can I can I interjection something? This chairman said, okay, I It's my strong opinion that this board shouldn't feel rushed into adopting a policy or Codifying a practice that it's not comfortable with And that if the board feels that it needs more time to review the document to think about the document to Evaluate what it wants to have in here and what it doesn't I'm all in favor of that and I'm also Want to note that? Yes, it's true that if you adopt a policy handbook that sets forth say a code of conduct That code of conduct may not be Tantamount to state ethics laws or To you know have the force of the open meeting law But it's a policy in a practice that you're adopting and so it shouldn't be adopted with the you know Anticipation that it won't be followed and I don't think that anybody on the board is saying that here so But to put those two things together if there's a concern about whether or not Something in this handbook would be used against the board in some kind of way and that someone's not comfortable with I think it should be fully vetted and I have no concerns about Taking more time than less time on a specific policy What I want to get to it mr. Burn sort of highlighted though is that whether you adopt them all at once Or whether you adopt them sort of you know one sort of piece of this policy at a time Just makes is it really a matter of logistics in my mind because once the sort of handbooks complete You can say all these things are now in effect and whatever else was in effect later Has all gone away in an instant or you can take it one step at a time I say okay, this is just our establishing of what the board what we think of is the board sort of Major powers to decent responsibility summaries right now, and then this is what we think the board's code of conduct Would be I don't anticipate that things should be changing hugely in a material way Once you guys get that full handbook, but one way or the other the policy is gonna Come into effect and whether you do it all at once you do it piece by piece You are going to be binding yourselves It's just a question of what's the most efficient way to go about doing it so the discussion can be robust and relatively efficient, so you're not saying oh jeez, you know we're adopting a You know 50-page policy manual I just can't talk about chapter six at this point in time because we just spent you know two hours talking about chapter five that's I think the approach that was was contemplated and I Just wanted to make sure I added that perspective on that context. Thank you Yes, Joe So I think all of that haven't been said I think I feel comfortable what Dana suggested which would be to post poem with the anticipation that we will adopt we will adopt the draft at presumably the next meeting give Ms. Mahon, you know chance to consult with Council on that And the only other thing that I just reiterate that I think we discussed the last time around this is As you move into the some of the other governance issues on the handbook It might be helpful if one of the next sections that was looked at was Just the process by which this handbook would be reviewed and or amended in the future And that might allay some of the concerns. Yeah So with that I will Apologize because I misinterpreted I would have had these conversations I was on the phone with the town manager today about five specific things But the way I read the wording was we were going to vote a draft And that's why because I don't want to be disrespectful of the chairman's time and Mr. Greeley and Town councils if I had realized that more of a step was being asked then I would have had the phone calls to say I have these concerns that valid I have these concerns that well if they're not valid I don't bring them up So I just want to make sure that there's no disrespect meant by that and I apologize I should have maybe paid a little more attention Okay, so we have a motion a second Further, I just want to say I'm delighted to take the time to get it right I'm not a person I I'm sure there's some yeah, I'm glad we're taking the time. Is there any further discussion on this? I know Everyone in the audience. This is more of an internal policy issue, but thank you for bearing with us it is critically important and The only other thing I will say is that I am I do envision the These you know being very, you know high-level, you know in-depth discussions and I hope that we can have those You know moving forward So with a motion a second all those in favor, please say aye oppose Thank you Moving forward Number nine we have an addendum request from from the Arlington International Film Festival for A few different things the placement of sandwich board signs The suspension of mated parking in Arlington Center the relocation of a bus stop in front of the region theater and The permission to park a fish car in front of region theater not something I thought I would be saying in the microphone, but That being said April, please come forward Good evening and me bro rank representing the Arlington International Film Festival The three locations that we would like to place the sandwich boards Would be at Mass Ave and Route 16 in the median strip Mass Ave and Route 60 median strip and Mass Ave and Park Avenue Their white sandwich boards they have our poster on both sides and they're neatly done and not tacky So as many sandwich boards are I just wanted to put that out there This would be just during the festival up until the 20th of October the festival runs October 15 through 19 The suspension of mated parking in Arlington Center when we originally requested that we didn't have the Program complete it would only affect the programming for Saturday will be starting Saturday at four o'clock Other nights will be it'll be seven o'clock, and then Sunday. It's it's not relevant And the last thing well, not the last thing I respect the fact that you all are discussing long-term solutions with regard to the bus stop in front of the Regent it's a little Disconcerting when people are coming in to the theater and you've got puffs of black smoke and And them revving their engines and people are asking, you know Is it upstairs or downstairs or questions and it's it's just not a very welcoming Environment to enter the theater So I don't know if anything could be done temporarily While you're thinking about a permanent solution, but I just wanted to request The other is the fish car the fish car has been parked in at the shell station in Arlington Heights for a period of time. We have an Arlington resident William Turville that is an Artist and he had offered to park the car in front of the Regent for opening night and put lights on it as kind of this artistic Welcoming to the the people that are going into the theater for opening night So I believe that that pretty much summarizes And I appreciate the time to speak to you verbally about these requests. Thank you very much Questions discussion from the board Yes, Joe. Yeah, it sounds like we have really three Request maybe four requests here before us the first I think is It comes about as a result of our discussions last Week what we had talked about the other Ted if you could just wait until Afterward done discussing then I'll call you up. It was about this item. Yeah No, we're gonna we're discussing this item right now monks the board and then I'll open it up I'll open it up to discussion afterwards Thanks Okay, I think that this this parking meter request came about as a result of our discussion last week we we had done this for the The Madden America Festival. What's happening this this coming week? Although did I understand this rank that that the Saturday hours just begin at four? So really we're only talking two hours Suspending the meter so Can I just ask it so it's not two weeks free parking. It's just two Saturdays. It's one Saturday It's one set it's two hours on one Saturday So in effect really it's a three-hour limit on those meters. So it doesn't even actually impact Impact you I don't know my understanding was that there was an issue last year with the volunteers for the festival Okay, I don't know if you could address that That's true and the programming also was much earlier on Saturday we started at 1130 so it was really an issue for all-day Saturday. Yeah So What time do you anticipate your volunteers reporting when I were early so it'd be three three o'clock on Saturday So could I suggest it could I suggest that we suspend the meter starting at three o'clock on that on that day? So let me make that as a motion because I think we've got some very different items here So I'll move that We haven't in a second Is anyone here to discuss strictly the The suspension of parking in the lot from three to six on Saturday Yeah, special Yes The hearing is all work. It's over so my name is Ted Paluso and Nobody asked me to come here believe it or not I came here when I saw it on the addendum and I want to just make two points point number one Anything you can do to help promote the only the international film festival is good for this town It's good for this town because they've been all kinds of studies to show that the arts Generate a lot of economic activity whether it's Restaurant activity retail activity and I'm telling you for my long history that I know that's true. Okay So anything you can do for these folks to help Them make it a big success for the town is good for the town. That's number one and number two I want to point out something that I think is very important I'm here talking as myself not as a member of the ATED committee but I will tell you that There's almost an extra member on the ATED committee for the last six months and that's albedo guzman He has been as involved in the success Hopefully of the visitor center To a great extent much greater beyond than beyond his own interest in the Argentine International Film Festival It was his idea for the video. We did it, but it was his idea. I Sat there by myself at the feast of the east And he sat there with me and talked to everybody about why Arlington is a wonderful place When ATED took a tent He's been in that booth Almost as much as I've been and Angela Ozuski and rolling also So what I'm saying is if you can do anything That makes sense it makes sense for the town and quite honestly they've earned it. It's that simple Thank you very much said. Is anyone else here to discuss the suspension of parking? Seeing none. We have a motion on the table. All those in favor, please say aye. Opposed So on Saturday from three to six the parking lot will be free It's a week from the center. Yeah, a week from the center. Sorry Moving on now would you like me to continue? The next request concerns the MBT bus and I really don't know. I'm not sure what we are able to do about that I mean my understanding is I'd notice that the manager has something to say about this So I did check with planning today who checked with the MBTA the MBTA Did notify us that it should the board vote to temporarily move the bus stop They would comply and treat it just like it was a construction project We would need to figure out exactly where that location move is too But it is within the board's powers to take such a vote tonight if it chose to Did planning have any thoughts about where that that might be moved to? I Frankly did not get into that Level of detail because we sort of just seen this for the first time Today, but I think this stop has been moved temporarily in the past. I could be wrong So we could take a look at what's been done before Fidelity house across the same Agnes, sir We even move this during Arlington alive or only these we've not we've moved the other bus stop during Arlington alive And so if they were, you know willing to to move it around to the place that we use then it's over by the Veterans Memorial But but folks might not be able to find it very easily that we're out. This is the problem with this so So I'm not sure I'm not sure on this this request and I think I explained in some communications with Mr. Guzman is a rank that this this one's a little bit problematic It's been problematic for a long time and I think we recall our board discussed this You know a permanent solution this and then we pull back because we realized some of the issues They are so I Frankly, I'm not feeling comfortable unless unless I hear you know confidence that there's a way to reasonably accommodate the request So so what I I think is that I agree with you that this might be a little tricky and I Think that if we had you know a few more weeks we probably could have arranged this I think that it's really too last-minute to kind of try to maneuver You know there's a lot of moving parts here And I think that raining everyone in and within the next week or so is Could be a bit of a big task and I wouldn't want to you know Approve this and say have something you know come up between now and then and have to you know revert back I'm so and you know when you think about precedence, I think that you know moving forward We have to consider the time it takes between a request and how we can actually implement it So so for those reasons, I think that it's probably in our in my opinion It's in our best interest to not move forward with that request right now So that was that one that was my inclination not to put a motion out As far as the next request regarding that mr. Turville and the fish car I think we've all enjoyed the the fish car. It actually is a it's Become increasingly associated with our art scene here in Arlington if the board Feel so inclined. I'd be prepared to move that we do allow the placement of that vehicle in the Parking spot immediately in front of the bus stop So that's Worry I think it's it's by worry and by but no, it's actually by the book rack by the book Right for opening night. Are you looking just for opening night? Yeah That sounds good to me So we have a motion in a second is anyone here to discuss this item or would like to talk about it Seeing none all those in favor, please say aye. I then the last item that we were asked about words sandwich boards, you know, I discuss this with counsel that this This really doesn't isn't within the board's purview to to take up this. I don't want to put words in your mouth Sure If you'd like me to thank you, mr. Vice chairman the board can take a vote to Express this endorsement of The use of these sandwich board signs, but it wouldn't obviate the applicants from having to Undergo the process to comply with the zoning bylaw, which is a separate process that involves a different authority That summary is adequate. If there's anything else you guys would like to discuss about that. I'm happy to do it So if you'd like to say a vote of support Okay, and I would I would move to endorse the read that the the request as presented to us for promotional boards for the islander International Film Festival provided that subject to all conditions I said That sounds reasonable Do we have a second? Second I see they see uneasiness with the way that's worded in so Sandwich boards are a problem Like for us because we it's a correct me if I'm wrong because we're figuring out that some of our past practice is Not consistent with what the bylaws actually said it's not the first time the you know practice and bylaws have diverged But is that a fair description of where we are right now a fair description of where we are right now is the zoning bylaw Yeah controls signage in the town of Arlington. There's some There's a portion of the town bylaws that discusses the selectments authority over what's really billboard Oriented signs and different than the type of signage the applicants are talking about So at best all I'm saying that the board can do is both their general endorsement of the use of these signs But that would not again be satisfactory for the purposes of town zoning which has to go to different authority Mr. Chairman if I can keep going yes, please sir. Is there Do you have In your list of things that you're working on and items that are coming forward to us Is there a discussion about how we might change these bylaws that are coming or do you feel like we're in a fairly stable place? So part of it in the reason I'm asking is Some should we just continue to act? Accord and according to past practice and know that we're going to come forward and revisit the bylaw the Some near future or is there this isn't particularly on your cue and we should just bite the bullet and start acting with The new rules now. I think unfortunately, it's particularly in the queue We've been working on with different town authorities and trying to help develop a more robust special permanent process for this type of temporary signage Yeah, but it's really not something that the board should be necessarily Granting some sort of authority that's not conferred upon the board explicitly So who would be the point who would be the authority that would do that permitting? So the zoning? The zoning basically boards would be responsible for Hearing a special permit application with regards to temporary signage Wow So signage is covered in your zoning bylaws right now. There's been discussion Within town government about whether or not there can at some point be a movement towards Moving signage out of zoning bylaws. That's quite an undertaking. And so I don't want to make any false promises that that issue will be resolved Soon because that would require a vote at town meeting but I can't Instruct the board to assume an authority that it doesn't really have over the zoning piece of it. It's the best way I can articulate it Yes, miss Kara. I'm not gonna be able to support your motion Yeah, I'm feeling in car with that this that explanation feeling uncomfortable myself, and I'm gonna withdraw it We have to fix this though we we have to fix this This is one of the most frequent questions that I get from people is Is about signs promotional signs? Can I do this can't I do this and So much of it it doesn't fall under the board I do know that we we have to let some slip in the past through and It was probably a mistake So, yeah Unfortunately, I think we're not gonna be able to take action on this so so I am I Really think that this is a it's a pertinent time to have a discussion with the master plan coming up I know that there's CDVG. We did just allocate some money to rewrite the zoning regulations and pulling Signage out of that would be probably be well worth the effort when that comes up So I'm sure we can discuss it at that time But until then we're I guess our hands are kind of tied. So I'm really sorry. I wish we could help out a little more But please enjoy your free parking from But thank you very much and best of luck. Thank you So Well, did they did you want to look give them a chance to pitch the actual times and when do you want to promote it? the actual With thousands watching Thousands watching I'm not going to miss this opportunity Wednesday, October the 15th at the Regent Theatre is opening night and we'll be showing both. So the teacher from Tivoli It's a gentleman that was What he moved here from the Republic of Georgia after his father had been executed under the Stalin regime and he's a very talented man. He's become a Great teacher a musical teacher to many very well known Musicians. He's also a sculptor and A philosopher. He's an amazing man. We're having the The producer and writer the editor as well as the director with us that night and we will be Going to monotony grill For the after-party Thursday night it will you know I would suggest that anyone that really wants to see the entire program go to the Regent website and And look at the program and purchase tickets and festival passes are available for $65. So, thank you. Thank you very much. Good luck Moving on Correspondents receive we have a stop sign At Prospect and Hillside avenues from Richard Turcott and Howard and use the co-chairs of tack We have a request for a four-way stop at Gray in Oakland we have The letter regarding the American Legion We have a letter regarding traffic around the Thompson School and also Regarding a dangerous intersection at Henderson Street in We have a motion and I know in a second I know that there are people that are you know been waiting with beta breath and I appreciate your hanging with us When I'll be call you up right in two seconds. Did you have something to say? Please keep going? Oh, yeah, I went up. Oh, so Do you have a particular order you wanted to tackle these? You know, I think that it would be best to give our audience an opportunity to speak okay, then we'll talk about it after All right, sounds good. Okay, please Come forward whoever wants to go first And if you could just introduce yourself and I would I would also appreciate You know not being repetitive as to the person right in front of you, but please Thanks, I'm Dana Scolney from 12 pond And I would like what this is the first introduction you've heard of the issues there So thank you for taking our questions. I would like the meeting minutes to request that there are 10 of us here Which underscores the importance of the issues we think Very did a wonderful job describing the damage That's been done, but I do want to state that the noise is a real problem that it We can hear entire conversations and it does prevent people from sleeping so I actually have a question if you don't mind How is this very recent or you know, how long has this been ongoing? I think we've been tolerating it for a long time Okay, it's just it's Just come to a point that we need to do something Thank you next so I'm Demetri Barla's a resident at 12 pond Lane and I've been living there for eight years now and Then a fortunate victim of the noise that's been taking place there My balcony is overlooking the American Legion and it's a constant issue with drunk people outside Fighting shouting two o'clock in the morning beeping their cars. I have to sleep with earplugs I've gone ear infections because of the earplugs that I constantly have to keep in my ear and even with the windows closed and A noise machine and all of the everything that you could possibly imagine that you try to do you still get woken up And it's very very disturbing. I mean they have lawn chairs outside smoking and drinking and there's nothing that's been done about it So it's unbearable at this point and I love the Arlington community. I'm a Girl Scout leader here I absolutely love living in Arlington, but living on 12 pond Lane is a nightmare It really is there's just it never gets better no matter how many times we complain So we really need your assistance here. So we really would request that you Support us in this to have the noise issue addressed along with all the other items that we've been dealing It's just completely unbearable at this point. So I've started looking to move outside of the area Because of this issue. I have a mortgage. I pay taxes and I just I can't even sleep in my own bedroom anymore It's just really unbearable So thank you. Thank you very much anyone else here to discuss the This item Well, I'm seeing none Being that it is, you know, not an agenda item You know, we haven't really had the appropriate amount of time to really delve into this at this point So I'm sorry that you know, we kept you waiting if you're hoping to you know, really get a response tonight on What we can do to take action against it because I don't think we're all right in my opinion We're not ready to offer one. There's quite some work that will be have to done, but I do appreciate you bring it to our attention It's You know, Dan, I was just saying so I'd like us to figure out who Who the right person or people is to try to get I mean obviously the first thing to do is to talk some to What dialogue we can Get to improve it. I'm not sure who the right person is. Is it a member of our board? Is it Designee of the town manager or is there because and I also I think that this is at least To me, there's two different chunks of this that I can think of one is the drainage and the issue and frankly I know the least about that stuff in terms of the liquor license if the behavior of patrons is causing problems Then that is something that would be coming under our jurisdiction would be appropriate for us I mean that one for me is clearly appropriate for us to be looking into but of course with all these things my first step was You know, I want to have a conversation and see what we learn Before we go, but I don't have a specific recommendation, but I Like that general direction. Yes, miss mine. Would it be appropriate if through the chair? We refer this to the town manager because I anticipate I'm thinking of three possibly four department heads That I would look to for information and recourse as well as town council. Would that be appropriate Adam? I I think that's right on the money right off the bat. I think in terms of the noise I'd want to talk to the police chief to see what we could do in terms of the flood issues It sounds like it's a private property issue, but I think we could talk to engineering So they could take a look and see if there is any help that could be a grant data If there's any bylaws that are already in place that could help out so if you refer it to me I will take action immediately and then report back to the board on what can be done Second we have a motion a second and that sounds to me and I would just I recommend all Correspondents will go through their attorney who is here tonight. Yeah, I think that sounds fair Okay, thank you. So with the motion a second all those in favor, please say aye. I opposed seeing none Thank you very much for bring this here tonight. Yes, and Fran Could you please through the chair make sure that the American Legion gets all the correspondence on this issue? Thank you Thank you very much For the other items under correspondence received Happy to take recommendations Yes, I want to make mention on one on the the four-way stop at Gray in Oakland Ave That intersection is the the recent beneficiary of a complete redesign with some work still to be done I know tack put a lot of effort into studying that intersection as well as the engineering division And spoke with Mike Rodemacher just to check today There's still some final crosswalks to be painted and some signage pointing out to where those crosswalks are to be installed But at no point any of that analysis was a four-way stop part of any proposal So I would urge no further reference be done Okay in that regard. Yeah, I Appreciate that and I would like to thank you for your correspondence regarding Henderson and route 16 as well I think miss Tallinn is here as well for that. Are you here to? Yes, are you would you like to discuss this item? I'm sorry Yes, please come forward Excuse me. Sorry I'm Cynthia Tallinn 50 Fairmont Street, Arlington. I've been in town for over 30 years I wrote an email to the board of select men and first I want to say thank you to Adam for very quick action on clearing out some debris of weeds and Trees that were blocking the meridian strip at Mass Ave and route 16 Adam got on that very very quickly. I noticed I Got in touch with him. I think the middle of last week and Saturday morning it when I went out I could see that this area had been cleared. So I want to say thank you very much for taking care of that so quickly I'm very concerned about an intersection at Henderson Street that Goes into Mass Ave. It goes into route 16 Henderson Street is one of the last Streets in East Arlington. It comes off of Mass Ave and goes over a little Brooke the our wife Brooke and Heads into route 16, which is our wife Brooke Parkway. I Was nearly killed about a week ago because I you have no Ability to see the oncoming traffic and the photographs that I took and that you're looking at now Show you that there are three barriers to being able to see the oncoming traffic If you're on Henderson Street in your car and you look left towards Medford There is a huge concrete pillar That probably is an old pillar there are some somewhat horizontal slats in a fence that takes you into the bikeway and There's vegetation that was planted behind the slats. So you have no way to see the traffic Coming at you until you go into the intersection and I had inched into the intersection last week trying to clear that area and a car barrel Broadside within inches of me and I that would have been a fatality For me for sure and possibly for the other driver This is a terrible situation and this is why I was I had mentioned it to the Arlington police I think over the summer and of course nothing happened. So When that near accident happened, I felt I had to do something immediately Which is why I wrote to you when I went to Adam's office and wrote to him and I had also mentioned this Lack of visibility at Mass av at Route 16 and Adam did take care of that if you go down and you see that you'll see that The the median strip that has been cut back. So you there again, you could not see the traffic coming in from Somerville If you can imagine Route 16 is these two lanes and this is Henderson Street the way it's configured now You have to cross You have to go into the intersection. You have to cross traffic going this way and then cross over into traffic going the other way It makes no sense. It's not rocket science. It's common sense that road should be First I'd like you to keep the road open because it's like a pressure valve that takes some pressure off of mass av and route 16 It's very close to that and it eases some of that But the way it is now you have to go into an oncoming traffic lane from the left and then cross over one on the right and You can't see the way it is now Unless you come out into the road It's extremely dangerous and my concern is it is anybody Monitoring these things. I mean is anybody paying attention because this is really dangerous the way It would work best would be if you're coming from Medford and you're going west on route 16 towards our whitebrook To turn right over the bridge Because you're not having to cross two lanes of traffic to do that the way you have it now is You're coming into the intersection You can't see the oncoming traffic and you have to cross that lane of the oncoming traffic And then you have to cross another lane of traffic going the other way It's just absurd and a light was put in and a light means nothing if you have no visibility So I urge you to go out and look at it yourself and see what I'm talking about. Yeah, you have the photographs Yes, we'd look at them. Thank you very much for bringing those. Yeah, and I think Adam said that this was Mass dot that was responsible. Yeah, maybe we'll let Adam respond Thank you. Yeah, so it's kind of an interesting area. So that the Arlington line is Right at the brook. So the bridge that Ms. Tolan is describing the bridge belongs to mass DOT the actual intersection is in Somerville and The area with the boards that you saw in the shrubbery is DCR's Department of Conservation and Recreation is part of the new alewife Greenway. I actually happened to be In that exact intersection two weeks ago myself and chairman of the finance committee were going to an event together and he lives down in that neighborhood, so I Picked him up and we did just that and experienced the same sort of difficulty. I Will say I'm concerned that raising Attention to this it needs attention, but I'm concerned that raising the attention will lead to a recommendation that it be closed Because I'm not sure I'm not sure how it's solved That's my that's my non engineering. So I think that um perhaps it seems like you we've we can take some steps to Bring it up to DOT and see what they can do and perhaps if we forward this to you you can look into that Yeah, I've already forwarded to DCR and DOT and the next thing I want to do is talk to the Traffic folks in Somerville and see what they can do That sounds great at any rate the way it is now. It's just a death trap. It's somebody's going to get killed Yeah, we certainly understand that is not viable the way it is, but you also need to Get whoever's responsible for that vegetation and that fence and it's if you look at the photographs You can see it's it's visual litter that you're looking at if you're trying to look you see horizontal slats You see vegetation. You're seeing a big Concrete well, you just can't see any we will we certainly understand What you're saying and we'll do everything we can to you know make that area safer And I'm very grateful that you brought this to our attention. I I hope that you can do something about it I think going Right on that road if you're coming from Medford and going right over the bridge to the other way might work Okay, thank you very much refill, but the way it is now It's not working. It's something's got to happen. Well. Thank you very much for coming tonight. All right. Bye. Thank you So we have the intersection at Henderson and route 16 Adams are to take care of it, so we're good with that And yes, so I would move receipt on the stop sign prospect and hillside move receipt on the Four-way stop at Gray Street open with the understanding that it's already gotten a lot of tech attention recently And move receipt on the dangerous intersection because the town manager is already on it Yes, do we have a second second? We have a motion a second Any further discussion seeing none all those in favor, please say aye opposed? Yes, I think that still leaves the Thompson school traffic one. Oh, yes, I am So I Was reading this and I was thinking that I Don't want to send it to tack right yet. I'd like to think about it for a little while So if that's okay, I was not going to say I completely agree So I was actually going to also send this one because to me when I read that one particular one in particular We're talks about right away and stuff like that that to me seemed like perhaps there's an enforcement Response that was appropriate and I was going to suggest to we send that to Adam either And if it turns out that enforcement is not the appropriate response, then he can come back and tell us, you know Otherwise that works for me. It's fine. Do we have a second? Second, we have a motion in a second all those in favor, please say aye. I opposed New business Friend do you have any new business? Thank you for joining us tonight Doug No new business. I don't the only piece of new business. I have I know the board is already aware of this, but I just wanted to Publicly announce that we're losing a really excellent department head and Ryan liver good He's relocating with his family to take a job at the Warren Newport library district in Illinois He's really only been here a short time But anybody who's had a chance to meet him and work with him knows that he is just he's top-notch Excellent as a great job for the library and a great job for Arlington. So very very sad to see him go He'll be here about the next month helping with the transition, but Big loss, but wish him well in his future endeavors That's all. Thank you I'll tell you just in the interest of time and I believe this is going to be on a future agenda I don't know if the town manager could give us just a quick four or five sentence or whatever you feel appropriate Regarding the cemetery. I know the chairman and the town manager have been working on The issues raised to tell meeting as well as the infrastructure and I where it's going to be on a future agenda I'm not looking for anything in depth. Okay, you know that that's fine. So You're absolutely right cemetery parking and infrastructure is a big discussion of town meeting. So Chairman Bern and I talked about it several weeks ago with a goal of getting it on The second meeting in October's agenda. I met with DPW director of my crown of marker and the police chief last week We are going to start doing some of the traffic counts We talked about a town meeting to determine the best place to try to impact cut-through traffic in the cemetery we also plan on having Some recommendations in terms of parking to bring to the board at that October meeting In terms of the infrastructure at the water system water system improvements are under underway right now There's a two hundred and thirty thousand dollar capital appropriation in this year's budget for roadway improvements But to achieve the full scale of the improvements we talked about a town meeting We need some additional funding in the FY 16 budget that's built into the capital request right now Should that be approved in the spring? We'll roll out Something in the spring to undertake a large roadway and sort of surface improvement in the cemetery So we are moving forward on a number of the items we talked about. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Dunn I just want to say that this has been a really good agenda with a lot of Forward progress being driven by the town manager's office, and I really want to thank you very much for the stuff that's here Welcome. Thank you. Hey, man Joe. No new business Nor do I Do we have a second second all those in favor? Please say aye. Aye Thank you very much everyone