 for your understanding, we do need to just shift for this brief one half hour. Thank you. We'll see you all at 1.30. Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Pat Hanley. Is this Professor Mullen? Yes, it is. All right, great. We're just in a holding pattern. So just meet yourself for now and we'll, I think it'll be obvious when the meeting starts, you'll hear the chair will kick the meeting off. You see on video too, she's in. All right, thank you. Okay. Dave, I think we're all set to take down the screen saver. Thank you. All set. I think we're waiting for one commissioner. Right. And we have Karen. Okay. Karen Wells. So Karen Davis, thank you. I was mentioning Karen Wells, our executive director. But good afternoon, Ms. Davis, thank you. Karen, your video is off. There we go. Okay. Sorry, I'm right here. Sorry. Great, thank you so much. Good afternoon all. Today is Monday, November 14th. Thank you for your patience as we convened in a quasi-judicial capacity. This is an adjudicatory hearing before the Massachusetts Gaming Commission relative to the application for a license to conduct a recent racing meeting for calendar year 2023 submitted by Commonwealth, Equine, and Agricultural Center, LLC, which I will refer to as SEAC, C-E-A-C. My name is Kathy Judd-Stein and I'm chair of the Gaming Commission. I am joined today by my fellow colleagues. Thank you to all of you for your great work, commissioner Eileen O'Brien, commissioner Brad Hill, commissioner Nikisha Skinner, and commissioner Jordan Maynard. The entire commission will preside over the hearing and decision on this matter. But before we go into further detail, I wanted to explain that a petition today was filed with a count clerk of Hardwick and it raises certain statutory implications. Our legal counsel is going to go through the statute and those implications and then we will continue. Good afternoon, general counsel Grossman. Thank you, madam chair and good afternoon, everybody. As the chair has indicated, a petition was filed with the town clerk and we have received a copy of that. And so we thought it would be helpful to take a look at general law chapter 128A section 13A which governs the town process relative to the award of a racing license. And there are a couple of provisions that I think will be helpful to take a look at. So with your indulgence, I will share my screen and we'll walk through the statute before we move into any further. This is, if you can all see this, okay, section 13A of chapter 128A. And the highlighted provision is the first part that is important to take a look at. And it says that no license referring to the racing license shall be granted by the commission for a racing meeting in any city or town, except in connection with the state or county fair, which this is not. Unless the location of the racetrack where such meeting is to be held or conducted has been once approved by the mayor and city council or the town council or the selectmen. And in our case, the town of Hardwick has in fact voted by vote of two to one to approve that location that was last week. The next part of the statute though that's important to take a look at is here at the end of section 13A. And it says that the approval of a location by a town council and by the board of selectmen upon petition of 12% of the voters of the town filed with the town clerk protesting against such approval taking effect shall be suspended from taking effect. And the town council or the selectmen as the case may be shall immediately reconsider such approval. And if such approval is not rescinded the question of such approval shall be submitted to the voters of the town at a special election which shall be called by the selectmen or town council as the case may be in which shall be held within 45 days of the submission of said petition. Such approval shall become null and void unless a majority of the voters voting on the same at said election vote in the affirmative. That's section 13A of chapter 128A. And this is the piece of law that is at issue by virtue of the fact that the petition has been filed. I'll take that down. So, Madam Chair and commissioners this is where we stand at the moment. I'm happy to try to answer any questions or turn it back over to you, Madam Chair. Well, I certainly we can entertain questions commissioners at this time or it may make good sense to hear from the applicant to respond to this filing. And I'm assuming Mr. Haley that you would be representing the applicant today on this matter. Thank you. If you would like to respond to the filing today. Sure, thank you Madam Chair and members of the commission. My name is Pat Hanley. I represent the applicant in this matter. I received some information that something was filed with the town clerk today relating to the 13A vote that occurred last week. I don't actually have a copy of it. So I haven't seen it. I don't know if it meets the statutory requirements of 12% of the voters. I don't know how many signatures it is. I don't know. I just haven't seen it. So I'm not in a position to speak about it particularly but I would suggest that the effect of the vote of the Board of Selectment last week it is not null and void until an election happened. I'd suggest that it's not a coincidence that it's 45 days for the election from when it's received by the petition, excuse me, from when ultimately it goes before the Board of Selectment to before reconsideration which is an intermediate step before there's any election. But the 45 days seems to coincide with... From today is November 15th which is the day that the Game Commission... Well, today's the 14th, tomorrow is the 15th. But 15, about 45 days till the end of the year to reconsider such an issue which I think is smart because it wouldn't imperil any racing that would happen with a license should you grant it. The license that we apply for is for 2023. We have selected the dates of September 9th and 10th as the dates that we wish to race in this matter. So I'd suggest that nothing has happened that stops the Board, excuse me, the Commission from doing any of its work. And we anticipated that there would be a petition. So if this meets the definition of a petition once it's reviewed by the town clerk, it's not, I guess a surprise. We supported a petition that ultimately led the Board of Selectment to approve a vote on the 9th. And in that letter which we supplied to this commission that letter includes a reference to let having the Board approve under 13A so that then there would be a mechanism by which it can be put before the voters of hardware. And so it's not, this is a surprise but this is the kind of thing that I think in fact, we expected and I think this proceeding can go forward. And I would suspect that any license that if the commission would grant us a license would grant would be subject to probably several conditions, including this as a condition that there is a successful vote from our perspective after it's processed through the Board of Selectment and then 45 days from there if they don't reconsider their vote. If they did reconsider their vote that would also change things. But I'd suggest that that is the way the process should proceed. Commissioner's question is for Mr. Hanley. Mr. Hanley, what if the commission decided to wait until the 45 days in the referendum process expired? And I guess I put it back to the commission if you don't mind for a follow-up which is and if it's successful then what? What was the commission vote? Would it extend this deadline of the 15th? I'm saying that we were to say right now the suspended, the statute contemplates that 45 day period, which allows us to wait to make our, go through our auditory hearing for 45 days. What would you say? What would you say? Because certainly this is quite a process to go through. Sure. It would be useful to me if I could just have a moment given this is a significant question. So could I have that moment? Absolutely, we've had moments today too. So yes, absolutely. We can just pause and everybody can just turn off their videos and cameras. And when you come back, just alert us. Okay, Pat, thank you. Thank you. This is Pat Hanley. I just wanted to, no, if I could put it in. We're ready. Thank you. Also. So I see that we're all back. So I hope I was clear enough on my question, Pat. Forgive me if I wasn't. But how would you like to respond? So let me respond sort of with my understanding of it. And then I think I have my response. So my understanding is that, you know, in light of the petition that you received today, and I understand it, it represents 12% of the voters. That's been reported to me during the break. That it's the commission's intent to postpone until either the board of selectmen reverses itself or there's an election. I know there's two steps in 13A for a reconsideration. That it's the commission's desire to wait until that happens. If there's an affirmative vote and the 13A approval stands, let's say following up to an election, this would be postponed. So for now, this hearing would be postponed. And then if a sermon plays all the way up to a vote and it's affirmed, we would have a hearing on our application to race in 2023 and hard work. Is that maybe for both, but an accurate description? Councilor Grossman, that's fair. Correct that that could be a possible route. That was a question. I wasn't necessarily the proposal, but that is a question before Mr. Kinn. Right, that was the question. And I think. So I want to just with that understanding, we would agree to postpone postpone this hearing until such time as this, all the measures for petitioners to challenge the 13A approval are exhausted and the approval stands on its own without further remedies. We would agree to that postpone. Okay, I think then that Councilor Grossman, I think it might make sense for the commission now to meet given that response at this time. Richard, so sorry everyone, but this is how we're going to conduct this because it is very much a positive judicial hearing that we're engaging in. So if you went mine and exercising a little bit more patience, we'll again meet the commissioners and come back shortly. Thank you. Dave, I think we're all set. Thank you so much. Awesome. Thanks, Dave. We've got Karen. Well, again, thank you to everyone for your patience as we wrestled with the development that really came to us today. Really reconvening, again, it's November 14th, 2022. We had convened for an adjudicatory hearing. I wanna make sure that it's clear that on the record it is November 14th. So the Master's Gaming Commission has convened today regarding the Commonwealth Declined and Agricultural Center LLC's application for a license to fold or conduct a new racing meeting pursuant to Chapter 128A, Section 13A. On October 27th, 2022, the Hardwick Board of Selegman initially voted to disapprove the location of the race track where the meeting is to be held or conducted. On November 9th, 2022, the Board of Selegman then reversed their vote and approved the location of the race track. On November 14th, 2022, today, a petition of 12% of the voters of Hardwick was filed with the town clerk protesting against such approval taking effect, also in accordance with Section 13A. Given the filing of the petition and with the agreement of the applicant, the commission will suspend the remainder of this hearing until the 13A process is complete. Commission will mark the petition of the Hardwick voters as a exhibit eight. Is there any objection to this exhibit coming into happens? Mr. Hanley. No, Madam Chair. Commissioners, with that suspension, do we have any other business today? I see no. Councilor Grossman, are we all set then to conclude this meeting? Yes, I believe you are. This decision or this suspension, my apologies will be memorialized in writing. And that's the point in the near future will be made public. Okay, commissioners, thank you to all who joined us today. We know this was a matter of a lot, great deal of public interest. We appreciate your patience as we started this meeting two hours ago. And we look forward to reconvening at a certain point in time. Thank you. And Madam Chair, we appreciate your time and that of all the commissioners and the staff. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you to all.