 Yes, sorry. Okay. Channel 17, ready? Okay. Welcome to the S Extension trustee meeting. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you all for coming on this snowy night, everybody. So, Pat, do we have any agenda additions? We do not. Okay. So, I will, and do we have, I think we don't have anyone in the audience who has a question or a comment, so we'll skip over that part. Before I bring Charlie up, I just want to say we are going to be meeting with the Select Board at 7, so I'm going to try to move things along, but I think on the other hand we don't, we want to absolutely give the RPC their due. So, Charlie, no, you don't want that to happen. Come on up and join us and we're anxious to hear about this. Thank you. Thank you for coming too. Oh, no, thank you for having me. They start making the time, I think. Yeah. Whatever our due is. Well. So, I think, or I'm hoping that you got our annual report in your packet. Yes. Good. And so, I'm really just, this is my kind of annual customer service check-in with you. I'm not going to read this whole thing to you that you could read yourself, but just for those, for someone watching at home, it's a four or five page report. The first page kind of gives background about the RPC, our board. We work for the municipalities of the county, our funding. Every municipality pays some dues, which we leverage with state and federal funding. Thank you for sending your representative Dan's active participant. And we really appreciate it. And also all the people you have on our different advisory committees. We appreciate that. The next page details some specific things that we did in the village. Not going to review these, but happy to answer any questions you might have on any of them. Some of them eventually make it to your table here, but a lot of them probably are more technical and stay with in staff offices and things. Yep. And so, yeah, those range from sidewalk and path study to emergency management work, stormwater planning, water quality work, GIS mapping, better roads, grants. So happy to answer any questions on those. The third page has the handful of projects that you have in VTrans's capital program, including a stormwater project that you got a grant from recently, from VTrans recently, Crescent Connector, which I'm hoping goes under construction. Yes, yes, yes. Next year? Yeah. You are too. Yes. Good. And a paving project that I think got done, right? Yep. Oh, that's... You got a lot of paving done. I don't interrupt you, but it was awesome and it's fantastic and we're looking at the street lights right here. Yeah. It's very good. You just have to survive the process. Yep. And then the last couple pages list out a bunch of things that we do just region-wide without regard to municipality. We had our legislative breakfast this morning. We updated demographics, working on dispatch, support transportation, demand management, biking, walking, organizations that do those things like locomotion. We're working on our energy plan, building homes together, campaign, clean waterworks. Anyway, I'm not going to read all those, but just touch on it and ask for any feedback that you have good or bad about how we can, how we have served you, how we can serve you better. How, Dan, can you keep me in line? Great, Charlie. I was trying to wait till you answered that. Charlie, first of all, I'm going to say thank you on behalf from all of us. I think you're doing a great job and we appreciate everything that you do for Essex Junction, first of all. I have one question that's really not so much on here, but I'm curious about the Susie Wilson intersection. Is that, where are we with that? Is that something that's on the, I know it's got improvements that are in plan, but where, when are those going to happen and how big a priority are they? Okay, might be two layers of questions in there. So, I do believe it is a priority. I've had some recent conversation with VTrans about really taking a hard look at what can happen there soon. So that's scoping it and figuring out what should be done. That's one layer. The second, I think that is either has started or going to start soon. The next question about when will something be built, that's a harder question. I can't give you an answer. I mean, I could give you an answer, but it might not be right. But I do think that we did hear about the safety concerns there and it's definitely, there's crash issues there and it's a highly congested area. So I do think it's kind of ramping up the priority list. There wasn't a real project there and some things looked at, but I think it's moving up. So it's going in the right direction. Okay. And I think, you know, as we have more information. There's a couple. I don't know specifically what you're referring to, George. Let me say Susie Wilson, because Susie Wilson intersection, there's an intersection with Kellogg Road and that's in the pipeline to be done. On Susie Wilson right where 29. No, I mean, Susie Wilson, he had the intersection with 15. I'm just curious. Yeah. And I think they're probably that it may turn into a bigger project that they're kind of doing the whole stretch of Susie Wilson with multiple intersections. I don't have a good sense yet of what that's going to turn into. Okay. Okay. Just wanted to put that out there. Yeah. And make sure it's on our minds. Yep. Gotcha. Any other questions, guys? Sure. I have a question or two. Can you give just a super brief update on the dispatch study? What's going on with that? Yep. So I think I was here the springtime when that was kind of starting up. Right. And there was the seven or eight municipalities appointed representatives to a joint survey committee, which is the process for Union Municipal District. As I recall, I think you guys are familiar with that process. Yes, we are. Very familiar. And that's in conversation with timing. And so, town appointed Pat, and we do meet tomorrow. And I think that group, and a lot of credit really to Aaron Frank, who's a deputy manager in Colchester, I think really without the amount of effort that he put into it, we wouldn't be where we are now. Not that everybody didn't contribute, but his effort was outsized. And but so there's the draft municipal agreement and a funding MOU that is now being either is in front of or being sent to the very select board and city councils for them to act on it to decide if they're going to put it on ballot for town meetings today. For this upcoming town meeting. Yep. For Marsh. Yep. So that is where we are in the process right now. And you know, I think one of the things is that committee and Pat can take time, but has kind of looked at the issues. And I think past efforts of looking at dispatch. It's not the first time we looked at regionalized dispatch. It's been looked at a couple times, even in the last 15 to 20 years. And the first study was in 1967 or 1968. So it's not a new issue. But I think we tried to take a more kind of stepwise approach and be thoughtful. This first step is about setting up the governance structure and then having an entity that can really work on the operational aspects. I think previous efforts have sometimes tried to figure out the operational details without figuring out the governance structure first and kind of got bogged down in those things. And so I think I think people around the table are fairly pretty hopeful that, you know, this may be an approach that does work. But it is stepwise. So there's going to be some frustrations, I think, articulated. And I wouldn't be surprised, particularly from dispatchers, because we don't know how it will be really operationalized yet. Those things are going to need to happen. And after telling me to vote, if Pat has decided to create the entity, then we can start working on the next step. So I'm sorry, maybe that was... No, that was great. Thank you. Pat, was that pretty close? Perfect. And tomorrow's meeting is going to be to put the fine tuning on the documents that Charlie mentioned, the agreement, the funding mechanism, and then a resolution that each municipality would put forth for the time meeting should they vote to do so. And it is possible to vote for the governance structure and not join everybody. Yeah, so you can kind of be on the governance board but not really commit any money or staff. And that's what I mean by stepwise. So they're kind of creating the organization but it doesn't necessarily commit the town to spending money yet. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. I just have a quick question on the... I think it's on the second page, but the ex-exjunction activity is the real-time traffic information. Yeah. So I'm curious if that has been implemented or if there's a timeline to see what that data shows? I haven't seen data from it yet. It's... I think it mostly did get put in the field so the monitoring devices got put out there, I think, in the last few months. So that's a good question. I haven't seen data yet. You know, really, we're trying to... We were trying to help VTrans. There was a competitive federal grant that we were able to apply for to do that. And hopefully it gets data to VTrans better so they can monitor what's happening and use that to either update traffic signals or get information out to travelers. Yeah. You might want to take a different route. There was a crash or heavy congestion. So I haven't seen the results of it yet, but I think just the equipment just got out there. Okay. Thanks. And I think there's a year built into this grant to monitor and see how it's working. It's needed. Yeah. And make it work as well as it can. Along those lines, is part of that plan for the data to be disseminated to the police department? Especially if speed is going to be part of it? I do not have a good sense of how VTrans shares data with the individual police departments. So we'll need to follow up on that. That's a good question. Thank you. Any other questions for Charlie? Charlie, you have any questions for us? Good. I was going to ask how's it going, but... It seems to go to me. I'm glad to hear you're getting a new manager, so congratulations on making that progress. We think we are. Yep. You're working on it, so... Yes, we will. So no questions for me now. Well, once again, thank you so much for coming, and we do appreciate all the things that the folks do. And coming to our meetings and so forth, we really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Take care. Thanks, Charlie. Okay, so we will move on to new business, and, Pat, we have a bid award for the Greenwood Avenue drainage project. Yes, we do. And the bid award, as you know, is for the drainage project. We went out to bid. We had bids ranging from 48,505 to 91,895. After the analysis that was done, the recommendation is going to the parent little bit or Don Weston estimating in an amount of 48,505. However, if you notice the cost part of the paragraph, it says we have in the Capital Reserve for this project, 41026. So there's a little bit of shortfall, and more importantly, as I was told very recently by Lauren, who can jump in at any time, there's some engineering that we have to come for on top of the 48,000, that's our cost. So there's another 6,000. So basically we're going to be in the neighborhood of $14,129 that we have to take from another source. And, Lauren, can you focus out? We have funds in the Capital Fund to cover it. In the Capital Fund, we have funds to cover it. Do we need, as part of the vote, that allocation as well, or are we good with the recommendation and the knowledge that we're going to be taking money from the Capital and budget for this project? Let's be on the safe side. So the new amount for the Greenwood Ave project is going to be 55,155. That's for construction and engineering. So if you want to vote to put that in the FY18, to change that amount in the FY18 Capital Plan, that would be good. Okay. So if you're so inclined, it would be recommended that the trustees for the Greenwood Ave design improvements project to Donald Weston excavating for 48,505. Gotcha. And the balance between that and the $14,129 will come from the Capital Project Fund. Okay. I'll try to... First of all, any questions about this? Let me try to give a shot at a motion. I will move that the trustees award the bid for the Greenwood Ave drainage improvement project to Donald Weston excavating incorporated for 48,505 with additional funds to complete the project transferred from the Capital Improvement Fund. And... Okay, is that good? That works. That's my motion. Second. That's my post. Okay. And did you want me to make an initial motion to transfer? No, exactly. That's good. Okay. Okay, thank you. And so we now are on to... Well, Maury, sorry. Pat, do you want to... Yes, you can call me Shannon. I've got to call you Shannon for the future while. So the issue here is whether or not we're going to be able to do that. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Okay. I've got a second. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. requirements as well as improving the efficiency of our emergency services, okay? So moved. Second. Second. Any further questions about this? All in favor? Aye. Great. Thank you all. The memorial way. Okay, so we are on to the reading file. Board member comments. Any board member comments? Lori, I can, why don't I just give a brief update of the meeting you and I had about Amtrak. So we met, one of the reasons I thanked Charlie was because we had someone from the Christine Ford come and we had a number of other people come to talk about how can we possibly get funding. I won't review the whole meeting but I think that we came away with the idea that we probably want to approach this in a piecemeal way and get funding for the street improvements from one source, building improvements from another source. This is for the Amtrak CCTA station on Railroad Avenue. And Michelle Boomhauer recommended that we might want to work with the RPC because they can help guide us through the grant process, the grant writing process. It can be cumbersome and complex. So I just wanted to say that something we can talk about in a future meeting but I think that's a good idea. We should probably figure out who would do that and have someone work with RPC to begin the process of writing grants and applying for federal funds too. It can't, maybe some other big thing will happen in the meantime and we'll get back to some other source but if we do this now at least we'll be working on it and who knows, something might come through. Lori, did I? Yeah, that was great. I would just say the other thought she gave us which I never thought of was reaching out to non-profit entities who would potentially be willing to give grant money towards the street piece of it which would be for more safety and pedestrian so as George said piecemeal for both the public and private money potentially. So I think having someone work with RPC would be really helpful. We'll try to wrap it up and put it, put something coherent into a future agenda so we can talk about it and organize it a little bit better. Anyone else trustee comments? Good. Thanks for going to that meeting and having everyone on the table. It was good. Yeah, it was a good meeting. Great. It was good. Okay. So, and we're all good with minutes from other meetings and the letter from William Moran exactly in budget day. Do we need to just go over budget day real quick, Pat? Do we discuss this? I think the schedule is pretty self-explanatory. We're starting at what, 8.30, 8.15, 8.30? Yeah. And we'll be marching through the budget, break for lunch and continue on until we're done. Okay. Generally, we get into other discussions as a function of budgets until the department has something to be able to provide you with any and all information you might need. So, I'm confident we're ready. Aren't we? Almost. Almost. Okay. Okay. That's good enough. It's good enough. Just go for it. We're close. Yeah, we're close. We'll get there. Okay. In any last-minute details in terms of lunch and organization, I'll just have Patty contact people for a purpose and so forth. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Let me see. So we're on to the consent agenda and do I hear a motion? We approve the consent agenda. Second. Okay. Any further discussion? All in favor? Opposed? No. Good. All right. So, we're done with that part of the meeting and so why don't we take a short break and recess while we reorganize and so we can welcome the Essex Select Board here. Thank you. Good job. Good job. I'm looking forward to this. Well, yeah, let's see. Thank you, Charlie. Yeah. That's my greeting. Is it like 95 degrees in here? No. It's not that warm, but it's comfortable. It's comfortable. Yeah. It's not a reading machine. Welcome to the other sandwich. Thank you very much. I'm going to keep you. Thank you. Thank you. We're good. It's better. Power. Right. So we're, we're, Channel 17 running. You get, okay. So we're the trustees will just come back into session, but you guys need to. So I'll call the December 12th, 2017 select board meeting to order. Okay. Do we need to do other stuff? All that stuff. You good? Yeah. We just move on to the next item, which is agenda additions and changes. Yep. So you put something. I did. I have, I put a, there was a list of questions and comments after that are derived from a conversation I had with the village attorney this morning. He wanted clarification on some things. And so this would be added on to item C. Actually, I think it would be item D. It'd be item D. So we'll, that's where this would go. So I, I, I will, can I hear a motion on the tree? One more thing. Did you not get one? He said, you know, he's an extra one. Yeah. We've got a couple of them right there. Yeah. I've got two. I've got, I've got two more. I've got more. Okay. I'd like to also, and there's a sign of five E to the agenda. If we could, it's about future dates, but select for joint select for trustees needs. So I think this is the last one that we had identified as a date. Right. Right. So if that I would propose that we, we have a discussion by E on future dates. Okay. We approve the agenda additions for the trustees. Okay. All in favor? Aye. I need a motion for the select board to approve the changes to the agenda. So moved. Mr. Chair. Second. Thank you. All those in favor of the discussion? All those in favor? Second by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Motion passes by zero. Great. Okay. So why don't we swing it back over to Pat? Oh, public to be heard. I think we, did we, is there anyone from the members of the public have a question or comment? It's not on the, but something's not on the agenda tonight. Okay. Good. So we'll move it over to Pat and if we have an approval of an employee resolution. Yes. As you know, most of you should go by now that we have received and accepted with the retirement of our police chief rather than the Rose. His retirement date is effective January the 12th of this upcoming year, 2018. And so in keeping with our recognition past practices, we have as a proposed resolution recognizing him for his dedicated service in many years. And yes, it's police department. He's been here 37 years. And so that is submitted to you for actually submitted to both boards for your consideration and hopeful adoption. What I'd like to do is ask Sue as clerk of the select board to read the resolution and appreciation of Bradley LaRose to the record boards. Sure. Thank you. All right. Resolution and appreciation of Bradley LaRose. As Bradley LaRose was hired as a police officer for the town of Essex on December 15th, 1980. And whereas Brad will be retiring on January 12th, 2018. And whereas Brad has concluded more than 37 years of dedicated service to the Essex community. And whereas Brad has served the Essex police department and the Vermont law enforcement community exceptionally well for decades as an officer, supervisor and chief of police. And whereas Brad supervised and mentored many subordinates fairly and as a first line supervisor, commander and chief of police. And whereas Brad has been a lead instructor for the Vermont police academy certified as an expert in the field of motor vehicle accident investigations where he has trained hundreds of Vermont police officers. And whereas Brad has been the supervisor and or lead investigator in several major criminal investigations, several homicides during his tenure at the Essex police that greatly impacted the safety and welfare of the communities of Essex and citizens of Vermont. Now therefore be it resolved that the select board, board of trustees and municipal manager on behalf of the citizens of the town of Essex hereby extend our gratitude to Brad for as many years of service to the people of Essex. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Yeah, it's a pretty impressive. It was a long career of distinguished service from Brad. It was announced at the select board meeting that we had last week and the whole place gave a standing ovation. It was nice. He was he was present for that. It's going to be sorely missed. We have a good replacement for him. We do. And that's Rick Gary, Captain Rick Gary, and that takes place. Immediately, zero, zero, zero hours on the 13th. So we will not be without keeping for a second. Okay. Okay. Do I hear a motion on the part of the trustees? I move we approve the resolution of appreciation of chief of Essex police. My rose. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Any motion on the select board? I move that we adopt the resolution of appreciation for Bradley the Rose. Thank you. Mike, do I have a second on that? Thank you, Ari. Any further discussion of approving the resolution of appreciation of Bradley the Rose? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Thank you all. Thank you. And especially for as many years of dedicated service. Yes. Okay. I will move us to the next item on the agenda, which is governance. Where we, I won't, I can go back over the notes, but I'm modern. I just cut to the chase. I think our last, at our last meeting, we were talking about governance and talking about the approach that we would take to governance and having a meeting where we begin, would begin the process of discussing what, how we're going to do this and where we're going to go with it and so forth. And we had kind of said, tentatively said that we would try to schedule it in March between the town, Essex town meeting and Essex Junction annual meeting that we would want to have several people that recommended different experts, some from academia, some from BLCT, some from the Secretary of State's office. There was no, it wasn't really clear who we would invite. These are just recommendations. And then we'd also said that maybe we should consider holding it off-site on a Saturday at a place that may be a little bit more comfortable than one of our meeting rooms. We would have, we could have food available and members of the public would be available, but it'd be a more casual setting. So that's kind of where we left it. I think what would be good is that I'd recommend, if I can, just to sort of focus us a little bit, if we could narrow down the date, say, really try to bear down and say, what day would we like to have this on place? Again, maybe we don't have to say specifically exactly, but do we want to follow through on the idea of having it off-site at some kind of a meeting space or do we want to have it at 81 Main Street or here? And then I'd just like to get a sense of maybe narrowing it down to do we definitely want to have a facilitator there and how many government experts do we need to kick this off? I would greatly, with great respect, recommend that we probably don't want to have lots of them. We probably want to narrow it down to one or two. It doesn't mean that other questions that they can't answer won't be answered eventually. But to kind of streamline things a little bit and now focus it, what are some of the thoughts? So I would leave it at that. Yeah, go ahead, Elaine. I'm sorry. No, I'm done. That's pretty much where I am. So go ahead. I agree that we would, I think we should have a facilitator. I'm wondering if right now, right now discussing the quantity of experts and what they might talk about is a little premature. And so perhaps at a subsequent joint meeting between our boards in January or February, we have a meeting talking about this event. And at that meeting we talk about what our agenda would be, what kind of information we want to discuss, and at that time we think about who we could have come speak. Okay. So I'm suggesting a pre-meeting, sorry. Okay. An agenda item for a joint meeting. That's more specific. Okay. Talk about having that on a Saturday? Well, I think the initial concept was that we would have, at the time we had an expert or two come in, it would be on a Saturday so that folks could come and listen. Other thoughts? Irene. I'd like to suggest that we convene a group of five people from outside the village only to help the select board make decisions on behalf of that particular constituency because, as you know, the select board is this sort of awkward position of serving two masters. We serve constituents inside the village and outside the village and for us to be talking about governance on behalf of people who we don't wholly represent in the way that the trustees wholly represent village residents, I think would only be fair. But we're elected to represent the entire population. That's right. And if we choose five that are already elected, that's really not fair to the constituents, right? I mean, they elected us to do that representation for them. I think we ought to find a way to collect that information, but I don't think they should have an equal seat as an elected board. They wouldn't have an equal seat as an elected board. The decisions would still be up to us because we are elected to make decisions, but they would be convened to help us see the world from a purely outside the village perspective, which we, because we're elected by 22,000 people, absolutely cannot. And using your logic, Max, the fact that we represent everyone tells me that we could basically not invite the trustees and say, look, we represent everybody. That's not my point. My point isn't to say who we represent who we don't represent. I want to have an equal playing field because we very often, when we have these inside and outside the village conversations, do not have an equal number of people on each team. And I think it would only be fair if we're going to have the village trustees in the room representing solely village interests. It would be representative equity to have five people from outside the village going along, learning as we learn and contributing in the conversation, just as we do in any of these deliberations. Can I ask a quick question? Yeah. Would you consider the Essex Governance Group process that we went through the last, in the recent past with multiple members of the town outside the village participating and extensively, would that constitute participation? And we have a lot of input from folks in the town outside the village already. That's about a specific issue. I knew there were certain things that they wanted, which was to get rid of town meeting, make it into a hybrid. This is strictly about governance, governing boards, as I understand it. And I think that's a very different issue. Annie. I guess I'm confused by, I didn't think we were talking about appointing any committees. I thought that we were going to open the meeting to anybody who wanted to come. So of course those five people, if you want to invite them, could certainly come and be there. There may be seven or eight other people that aren't from outside the village. I don't think we want to limit the number of people from the village that attend and keep score as to how many people attend all of the meetings. I guess I don't know. I don't see that our plan is to appoint people to come to these meetings. We're going to invite everybody to come. But the people who are weighing in on the decisions, as usual, do not consist of equal numbers of people looking out for certain interests in an equal capacity. And we've seen that with the merger task force. We've seen that with the RGSC. There are just committee after committee after committee historically, where we've seen an imbalance. And I'd like for once, if we're going to talk about governance, to reconcile that imbalance. And if that means the select board has to step back and hear more from people outside the village who normally don't weigh in because they aren't trying to wear two hats, as everyone on my select board does, I think it's critical that those people get the voice that they have not historically had. So how do you see that group of people interacting as we move forward with our meetings? I'm open to suggestions. I just want to make sure that those voices don't get lost as they so often have in the past. And then we're surprised to get the input at the ballot box or whatever. I agree with Andy. I think the invitation should be to everyone. And I'm not in favor of limiting it to just a special chosen five. To my way of thinking, that makes the score 10-5. I just, I don't agree. I just think we make the invitation open to everybody. As elected representatives, isn't it upon us to get the input from those who elected us? So as town representatives, you should get the input from the entire town. As village representatives, we should get the input from the village residents. So to me, that means we should represent the village's interests and the select force represents the entire town, village and town. I think the floor is just open for discussion. You don't have to keep... This is the rule that we try to apply. I'm curious, Mike, as to who those 10 people are that you're talking about. And I'm not saying we exclude anyone from attending the meeting. I'm just saying that five people who apply, as many people have been applying lately for citizen interview panels and all kinds of things, step up and we as a select board, for example, could choose or the new manager, if he or she is there at this time, could pick those five people to represent a constituency that never seems to get appropriate representation because the select board is always tasked with having a foot in both places, which means sometimes our village constituents get our representation, sometimes outside the village constituents get it, but there's never a voice speaking solidly for outside the village and that has caused innumerable problems in the past for those of us who've been here long enough. Then let people that have a strong feeling about the governance issue, because I can name three of them right off the bat on the committee that Elaine and I served on and still are serving on, tell them to gather people up and come to the meeting. I've seen no sense and neither am I going to step back and give up the decision-making role that we were elected to do. I just think that's foolish. I can think of three people that you could just, you could email or you could phone or have coffee with and just say, we're looking to gather up and make sure that the town residents know that we're going to be talking about this issue. I kind of see this as as a select board. I agree with Anne with that. It's up to us to get an input that we need to make the decisions. Why don't we have the discussion of the select board decide how we want to gather that information. Maybe we can have special meetings of gathering input in preparation for this March meeting. I hear what you're saying. You want to get input. Andrew says, yeah, you're supposed to do that. Let's talk about a way that makes sense. So why don't we put that just on a future one and try to get those arranged before this meeting in March so that we do have that voice. Can I make one observation and thank you. I don't mean to interrupt your internal board discussion, but it seems like where I just want to get clear on what we're talking about. I don't even know what we're trying to gather community input for at this point. I think my understanding of this for purpose of this meeting is to define how us as two boards want to approach this and it seems like the opportunity and necessity for acquiring input from various constituencies would come after we've made that decision. Once we start dividing down I could say, well, I know how the people in countryside feel but I'm not sure about the folks in Indian Acres. I want to make sure they're at the table too. Once we start divvying up then we may not even be able to begin to talk about it. I think it's an interesting proposal but I think probably for the trustees, I think we'll let the select board handle this figure this out. I think it's not quite time either. This meeting we're talking about is a learning experience for all of us. What are the options? How are they working? I would actually say we're even a step back from where you were saying George, I think we're at information gathering. We're trying to obtain information so that we can then assess it and make some decisions or not even decisions but recommendations. I have a question about the timing of this meeting. I believe the village trustee votes for any seats or whatever would be in April. Do we really want to have these meetings before changing the garden? The garden? I would put that up to the trustees. I'm not up for re-election this year so I don't know how the other trustees feel about it. You know, I think If I'm not at this table I'll be out there. It doesn't matter to me. I'll still come into the meeting. As the other person would be up I'm good for it. I'm fine to have discussion. My comment on that would be that if the boards decide to sort of agree mutually on the process as we agreed on a joint manager having a mutual manager in the interim period where past tenuous for three years boards could make up the boards could change but overall the forward motion and the effort of the board would be in place. So I would guess that's what we would do. Any new person would have to just join it? And again, since it's fact-finding that's easy to get caught up on. I mean, you know, it's new if there's new people they could reach out to any experts we bring in. Good. So maybe we could just narrow it down and just say can we pick out a day in March? Is that possible? And specifically Saturday. Well, I think, well, Saturday good, everyone think. I think we said Saturday. Is that good for everybody? If you want public input it would be the best. If you want people, it would be public to be there and so Saturday... One thing I would recommend is that after winter break, you know, winter break ends. Right. I'm good. Any day. I pick Saturday other than March 17. Not. Why would that matter? The same. My heritage. Get away. Yeah, but we'll be meeting in the morning then. So you have the 10th, the 24th, and the 31st. And the 31st. The 31st is the 31st is the day before Easter so that may not be good. Oh, is it? We'll do the 24th. 24th? Really? How about the 24th? Yep, I can do that. Anyone have any conflicts with the 24th? 24th going once, going twice. We got it. And now the next question I have. Place. Again, do we want to try to have it? We don't have to pick it out right now. It's available, but do we want to have it in one of our meeting rooms? I have no idea how many people would attend. I mean, I think if we anticipate it's going to be a big crowd. This room might not be able to accommodate people. 81 Main Street, do we want to try to figure out in advance? Have they had a different place? A couple months ago, there was that really nice the planning event that you did, Greg, at the Essex. And there was a pretty decent turn out there for the folks to eat. And I think if we're going to be there for quite some time it would be a good idea to have food and also to have a neutral ground. I don't think it should be in this building or that building. Thoughts? The Essex? Sounds right. I can't think of any other space like that. Or maybe it could be the community center at Holy Family or, I mean... Well, that's the nomination. High school gym. Offsite. Offsite, you pick it. Good food. Why don't we just sort of look get... If we say we're going to do it at the Essex or at the high school, we may not be able to get in there. Those places may be taken. So I guess if everyone's decided to be off-site at a place where we can serve food that's good and we can kind of shop it around and come to a specific decision. And if we did the Essex, if it's a place where we had to rent or have food brought in, we split the bill between the town and the village. Good. Just assume that's okay. Would it be getting too deep into the weeds to talk about approximate length of this meeting? I'm not in the slightest. I think that's a great question right there. Go ahead. As much as I'd love to spend all day with all of you, I think historically we're human beings to maintain that level of intensity for that long a period of time. I don't think an all day meeting is a good idea. We're just not going to make it. So what are your thoughts? If we're going to be looking for residents to get there, I would say probably no later than 10. And I would say... Should we narrow down the scope of this meeting? So there was a whole lot of talk we've had before. Everyone gave what they wanted to hear about. Maybe we pick one general... I mean, that's a great... This is not going to happen in one day. So there's going to be a lot of meetings. So pick one topic and start our discussions. What is the most important thing for us to learn about first? Well, are we just learning about something or are we talking about... I think as I recall our discussion we want to have some information so we can ask questions about different governing structures and what's available, what's possible and so forth. That's one thing. But I think what we also wanted to do is say we're going to approach this. What does the next meeting look like in the meeting after that and the meeting after that? Do we want to create a schedule? How fast do we want to go? Do we want to meet every month? So I think that... That's what I meant by the pre-meeting. If we could have a facilitator join us at the pre-meeting to help narrow down the topics and the method and the timing, and then we all convene on that Saturday to have that meeting. With the facilitator in the meeting. Have a pre-meeting before the meeting at which we... Logistics, topics, research etc. And if we have a facilitator for the whole process a whole timeline step that they would recommend. So this is how I as a facilitator cover these topics in this order to get you to a point where you can... What you just said takes place at the meeting at the pre-meeting. So the facilitator has time... We publicize it and people can save the date and all that. So we're going to have a pre-meeting with the facilitator who's going to figure this out with us. And then March 24th is when we have our first... So today what we should decide is how are we going to identify a facilitator? So is that some research that some of us get tasked with? Or do we task staff to find a facilitator? We know it's said somebody suggested Delia Clark for example. Now Delia Clark is a chef who I'd love to have because that would be awesome. But Susan Clark was who we were talking about, right? Oh, yeah. They both facilitator. I think they both did. Because Delia did the TGI. Oh, no way. Wow. I didn't remember her name. Can I just ask a question? I'm not saying no. I'm just curious. What if we had a facilitator who... They may not necessarily... What if we had a facilitator who had more familiarity with governance and governing issues? Would that be a better thing or not a good thing? I mean, is there such a person out there? I think there are pros and cons. Facilitator by nature doesn't need to be an expert. I know, because they don't participate. And oftentimes is better at keeping on task and moving things along if they're not an expert. Our speakers could be the subject matter experts that help us. That's kind of how I understand this. Okay, so how do we... We can't... We don't know who's going to be available right now. We can't say. So how do we decide? We shop or we figure out a couple of names and maybe do some kind of an online poll or something like that. I think there are several of us around the table who are familiar with multiple facilitators. We can make some suggestions and then vet the list and ask them if they're available. Well, the way this luck board is choosing a facilitator for the firearms discharge discussions is... we test Pat and Elmi and Greg to go out to an RFP or something at RFQ and perhaps we could do the same thing, but for this topic. Sure. Are you talking about having this pre-meeting in January? Yes. You're short for time. That's a very narrowly busy month, number one in a short time. But since Greg has already started the recruitment and the selection for the facilitator maybe there's a couple of people in there that Greg shared all the facilitators that he uncovers in this effort. Perhaps you may find you get a two for one with this search for a request for qualifications. But I'm going to put Greg on a spot and see if he's amenable to that and I'm the time table that you sort of thinking about. Well, does the pre-meeting... maybe the pre-meeting could happen in February. It depends on when we schedule our next joint meetings. Right? I mean ideally we want to have it we don't want to convene us all an extra time but perhaps we could make it as a special agenda item on one of our joint meetings. You could piggyback on that. Yeah, I'm going to spot I can circulate some names that I have on the list of facilitators I can see what comes back with the firearms feedback and add those names to the list if there's anyone new or we can just kind of go out to bed and reach out to some facilitators and see what comes back what's a good price and if you trust staff to pursue and hire somebody for you. So I guess the question back at you is do you want staff to just tire somebody or do you want to have a say in choosing that person? What if we define the boundary conditions you know say that they don't need to have experience in you know governance but it's in facilitating. For example, I mean the concepts. Can we reach out to VLCT? Maybe they know someone. More UVM. More UVM extension. Yes we can. Okay, so let me clarify. So what you're reaching out to these to VLCT and or UVM and to identify facilitator and maybe a couple and you're going to have names and those names you're going to do what with those names you're going to just say this is the person we've chosen and you're going to inform us of that or are we going to have to choose do we need a pre-pre-meeting to choose who the facilitator is having? I would say yes. I would say absolutely. What's absolutely yes. You have four facilitators. How are we going to do that? Via email, via an online poll. How do we do that? We can make it better. What are the meetings? Yeah, you could I believe as I remember last year in the meeting spin that I was in that we have a couple of meetings that are back to back in January the regular scheduled trustees meeting like the second Tuesday of January it's usually preceded by a meeting with the select board on budgets that we also carry forward the ability to have business items when they come up. It could be one business item where you have a report from Craig on the results of this process and the select board would make a recommendation subject to approval by the trustees approval by the trustees the trustees would get the same information and they would look at it and the only time it would be a problem if there needs to be a meeting to come up with an acceptable one if both parties choose a different person but I think with the staff recommendation being here's the work we've done have a discussion and make a decision on a certain date we need to step back from it and I think it's very important that you like the facilitator you're going to be working with a little bit in terms of their skills and abilities Can I make a suggestion? Can we suspend this conversation temporarily and change the agenda to talk about the meeting schedule and then I think we narrow this down and we can just figure it out when we get there if we understand what we're going to do when our meeting schedule will be in January February I understand what you're talking about I think we can probably make recommendations make recommendations that we will then they will come to us at our separate board meetings in January and see if the select board and the trustees can't just independently of a joint meeting arrive at the same decision is that kind of what you're saying? Really yes, not so much specific recommendations on whom to choose but who has the skill set that you're looking for based upon what work has been done and the recommendation that you do make a decision but that's as far as Take a chance and get that and assume that the facilitator probably isn't going to bring a whole lot of pro-village anti-town bias with them into the or vice versa, that it's just going to be a facilitator Exactly Does that sound good? I want to go back to who pays, we're all town residents I'm not sure why the town budget isn't picking up the whole bill for all of this Would you like that to happen? I personally would, I don't think it's fair for the village residents to pay twice for this I think if the town takes us, everybody's paying it fully raising everything else I'm amenable to that We're on board with that Okay, I thought everybody agreed to something different so I don't want to pursue the issue Just doesn't constitute ownership of the process Just want to make sure that's clear That's never happened I just want to make that clear I don't see any problem with the town I thought it was going to be a big bill Exactly Have we said, right? Is there a line? I'm not going to make any predictions Yeah Okay The work will determine it Okay folks, did we nail this down? Sorry, I have a couple other questions on this topic The material that we were given I don't know if the trustees got the same material But there is a list from October 30 Is it October 30, meaning? October 24 Sorry, October 24, meaning there was a similar list in the November 8 meeting I wasn't at the October 24 one So my input isn't in the content that was handed out that was included in this agenda packet at least one that came to the select board I just don't want to make sure that we don't lose the additional items that were further down in the November 8 minutes that weren't actually included here Okay There's the awkward situation that the select board hasn't approved those minutes too, but so I don't know if I wasn't sure if that was why they weren't included here or where we don't know what to say about that I think it must have been my oversight so it was further down in the minutes there was a bulleted list without the names No, it's not in there there's a bulleted list there but it's about a different topic it starts with a member from George Tyler dated 1030 That's not the that's the discussion about Oh, you know what Is it there? My apologies My apologies Okay Can I ask my other question? The social studies teacher at ADL sent us all an email asking us to participate in a survey on this topic Anybody have any concerns or objections to us answering those questions and potentially having content out there that could color future discussions I already responded Yeah, I did I'm looking forward to seeing what the 8th graders have to say about the timing The thing is though is that they were able to identify whose comments, which comments came from which board and they could state a position of one of our two boards present in this room that on a topic that we have not yet fully discussed and so that's the thing that I'm just asking whether or not it's a concern or an issue From our perspective the cat's already out of the bag I mean it's anonymous but you do identify what board you're on We have all these things about being biased and making sure that we're communicating right and we've got communication policies and the measures in them and things like that that I don't want to inadvertently fire like that I think the panel if you're talking about sitting on the panel and evaluating and discussing the recommendations that are made by 8th graders to the panel I think your focus of the topic is what you've thought about their recommendations not necessarily you putting yourself in their position and you know you could I don't know what the questions are They asked us like 8 or 9 questions about governance and what we think What is our opinion about what the future of governance should look like if there's a it combines There was 4 questions and they gave an A and B option each one each has a do you prefer this or this then why You can say based upon the knowledge that you have before you write this very minute this is your recommendation but it could be something to change based upon different information Absolutely I'm looking forward to this thing in March to be enlightened I'm going to learn things that I never knew You can invite them to sit in one of those maybe that's all maybe somebody needs to just reach out and provide that caveat to the instructor that we haven't yet had a discussion we're still learning and this is our points of view based on what we know at this point According to our communications policy we need to make it very clear that it is our own opinion and not that of the board I'll tell you what I'm saying I'm working with that instructor so I'd be happy to send a disclaimer of that kind if you want to send me language or trust me to say it properly that's up to you and I'll be that Friday too because it's our individual opinion it's not the representation of the board So if you're free to recommend a benevolent dictator at any time, I'm not the culpable for that Good question that I answered I was just excited they were doing it So today's the deadline that they've asked for so if those who I haven't done it yet because I wanted to have this conversation tonight So it's the line you work with Well not as a job this will be the third year that I've done a governance project with the students She went away for a while and came back and so it's been a couple years but Lori works at her she's been in her classroom Dan and I, two or three years ago we did a group Hiawatha ADL civics project together where we created our ideal village Amanda is now a standing educator and we are really lucky to have her and she has very high standards for students So you can carry that message forward to her Absolutely I guess the only other piece is that we're acquiring information so we don't know what we don't know yet Great Thank you I just have one little just creep back very quickly and say in terms of the timing of the the meeting that we're planning the 24th offsite we said we should thinking we're going to start at 10 in the morning I think it's just if we're going to try to reserve a place we probably want to work on that now I think beyond 2 would probably be a long a painful day Okay That's all I had Are we good for that? Well I really do think we're getting closer to figuring it out Yeah, I think we're making some progress Okay, so let's move on to the manager recruitment conclusion and I'm going to say that items C and D there's a lot of overlap between the two that's unavoidable I don't think there's a clear line between them I wanted to before I get into this I met with Dave Barra this morning and his recommendation among other things he had some questions and we're going to get to that in a minute but he said he would strongly urge us not to disclose the new manager's name any personal information, even gender until we have the contract completely wrapped up he would strongly advise we follow that rule and so we had planned on disclosing it tonight but I think that that's something I would recommend that we do that if everyone's okay with that and I would also recommend that in the discussion we're about to have if anyone feels that we can't address some of these questions that I'm going to talk about at any point in the discussion you can't answer or we can't respond without getting into the specifics of the new manager then we can continue the discussion in executive session this is a personnel issue and it's a contract issue so it pushes two big buttons that allow us to go into executive session if necessary I know it wasn't warned but every step we take on hiring a new manager jointly by two boards is a new ground for both of us so I think we it would be okay if necessary but hopefully we won't need to do that but if anyone at any time feels you want to go into executive session to get the discussion going then to continue the discussion then let me know and we can take it from there it's really not a discussion per se about the contract itself but how the trustees and select board will work together because of the contract and I did check with the town attorney and he was with us having that discussion open if it's about how we're going to be working together and it's not about the details really of the contract the contract is there it's not signed yet there's some things that we're waiting for but it's really about how we're going to work together to make decisions so in terms of the recruitment conclusion we basically concluded working with MRI Max and I as we were allowed to do by the motion of the two boards we worked with MRI to hammer out an agreement in principle with the new manager it involved us talking to MRI talking to the new manager new manager to MRI back to Max and I Max and I back to fourth and to MRI and we thought we had crossed over the mountain and we came to an agreement on salary, benefits and other things that might be considered benefits and some other details and then we discovered we were at the foot of another mountain which we'll get into in a second but at that point I left the conversation and I think you have all seen the results of that you've all seen we sent out but we didn't get into a discussion we just sent out the substantive agreement that we hammered out and that's so we are bound to that that is the offer that we've extended to the manager and the new manager has accepted that so that's locked in place but now it's a question getting that agreement and putting it into the legalese contract employment agreement and so forth that suits everybody's needs and satisfies language in both our charters and policies and so forth and that's really what we're working on right now and that's why we didn't come to you with a finished contract right now and I throw it open at this point and see if I can imagine if anyone has a question about this about everyone good where we are and so one of the final detail that MRI is now taking care of is it was in their contract that they would carry out the background checks of the new manager and I don't know how long it's going to take and again that is something that Dave Barra recommended and I think Bill would recommend too we don't announce the candidate's name that we consider that part of the contract until that T is crossed we still don't have a completely perfect agreement and I don't know how long it's going to take the background checks could take another week it could take two weeks I don't know how long it's going to take so that's where we are with MRI and so now if I can we'll go on to the contract gratification and Max jump in if you don't mind me I'll just ramble on a little bit more I handed out one of these as I said I met with Dave Barra this morning he had a lot of questions and if I could summarize step back and summarize where we are he basically said he and Bill can hammer out and make sure all of the language in the contract in the employment agreement works but he needs to know what exactly our intentions are and the most important question he had actually was number two which is in terms of termination and severance is it our intention that if one board let's say six months from now eight months from now wherever the contract we're into if one board or the majority of one board says this is not working for us we want out of this agreement we want out of the contract we don't want this person to be here what happens and I think we've talked about this already but Dave thought it would be a good idea for us to talk about it again and really make sure he understands and we understand what happens if for example the select board says we don't like this we don't want this person as manager anymore the trustee say we love this person we want to keep this person as manager what happens under that circumstance if one party to the contract does not like it does that mean the contract is now null and void and that triggers the opt out language and so forth in the contract or because we signed the contract too bad you've signed a three year contract you're locked into it the aspects of evaluation and so forth but we're locked into this contract and we can't we can't break it he needs to make sure that we know if we're faced with that circumstance what the answer is going to be can you remind us what the current MOU with PAT says the current MOU with PAT says that if either party can terminate the MOU with 90 days known or something like that so if the trustee decided it wasn't working right now with PAT we could say 90 days known as boom we're out of here and the select board doesn't have a choice and vice versa but what Dave is saying is that PAT represented a slightly different situation than the situation we're getting into and that was something we probably we should have I think we thought it through but we probably because again we're doing this as a novel we didn't really understand it PAT is a town employee who gets benefits from the town the trustees hired him as a consultant for the village to be our manager that's okay and that worked for us but this is a different situation where we have a person who's coming in who is not an employee of either the village or the town so it represents a slightly different situation and so the MOU language needs to be different but if we want to keep the concept that we have that either party can terminate the contract if they want to that's fine but we need to make that clear everyone has to understand that that's what we want and that is a different question I'm asking this question that is a different question than if one of the parties wants to cancel the MOU so can one of the parties get out of the agreement that we have a unified manager is there a language in the MOU for that now? so what is that language? I don't know the exact it's around somewhere but it says with 90 days notice one party can terminate the MOU and if either party terminates the MOU that would terminate the contract right Andy so just to be clear to try to understand there's two things that the select board can opt out of they can opt out of the MOU that gives you services but we can also fire pat independent of your position at this point that's a good question I know what you're asking and I don't have a because those are two different things I think that was what you were trying to get to but we can choose to opt out of the MOU that's a lot less I mean that's painful for you it's less painful for us but if we choose the fire pat that's real painful for you because you may like him I don't know why I think you can still keep the MOU the way it is now and still fire the town manager because then you would replace the town manager theoretically with the town manager and that agreement would still be replaced true the only thing that I think was really changed on the extension of the three years was the number of days that you have to notify the other party and from a manager's standpoint if I get an agreement with the town and the village says here's my 90 days notice then I have 90 days to start looking for another job if I want to negotiate my position with my current employer if for some reason the benefits and the salary were greater because of the roles than would be individually with one employer that is assuming that the main employer, I mean the town was happy if the village is unhappy to the degree that they're going to exercise a 90 day provision then the select was going to be unhappy equally I'm sure because the person doesn't work in a vacuum, I mean it's only less than a half a mile between the buildings right I think that we have to understand that what Dave is saying is that he's doing due diligence to cover every potential he's trying to do the greatest extent possible to anticipate all the things that could go wrong and what's the answer if one of these things happens not that we think this is going to be very clear not that we think, obviously we're not going to do this if we think it's going to be a disaster but this is the point he's asking, what happens Dan, did you have a I had a question, I already asked my question somewhat but basically just the whole thing Pat brought up I don't see why that individual whoever is manager can't renegotiate the contract whatever but the other thing is what happens to us or to them or whatever I don't know what your question is the question before us it's really in a way and I know it gets lost in the land it's really very simple absolutely if the trustees decided we don't like it so we can cancel the contract then the select board can just renegotiate a new contract but the contract that we sign is a contract a free party contract and if the trustees decided we don't want this manager anymore the select board wants the manager then we're out of the the trustees are out of the contract the select board can then would have to then they would not continue they would never renegotiate we have the option to renegotiate that's fine it's like veto it's just to make sure we understand that that's what we want or are we saying that too bad if you sign if it's a three year contract and here's all the process it's laid out and you sign it and the other one does then you're locked in I hear what you're saying but the other thing is I mean brought it up earlier in our meeting depending on who's sitting in the seat she was saying something about with the elections who knows what the design of the board will be I understand so Dave really can't there's a certain amount he can't build into this to have an answer for every possible scenario and I think we just go with what I don't think it's that big of a deal but maybe it is it's got to be territory that's been traveled before by other municipalities other entities I'm not sure I think there has to be an out because we're stepping into an unknown we did due diligence but we don't really know until we know when the new manager starts and when we have a chance to see whether it works or not so I think to enter into that locked in for three years that that could potentially not be good for the community so you're saying either party could opt out and then it's no simple question that we want to make sure we all know that either party can say for whatever reasons there's no need to open that up just say for whatever reasons this is no longer working for us then the contract is no longer void in other words from the trustees perspective the select board is not happy then we're not happy and vice versa is that the understanding the goal here is to have a manager okay that's what I thought was correct but I just Dave really wanted to make sure we understood that and I would hope that if that starting to happen for whatever reason that there's a required for us to try to talk absolutely absolutely one other now one other piece here and this is a little less dramatic than that but he the village charter and policy says that the trustee shall negotiate with the manager about benefits and salary it doesn't say the trustee shall negotiate with the Essex town select board about the manager's salary so Dave the first draft of the contract that came through that was drawn up by bill had it talked about the manager as a town employee and the board that would be overseeing the new manager would be the town select board and Dave felt that we need he can work this out with bill it's not a problem but he just wants to alert us to the fact that there needs to be language in the charter that makes it clear that the manager is an employee of the village and the town and is doing work for the village and the town and is not so much a contractor that we're borrowing from the town in the charter or in the contract in the contract because he's a little concerned that there's a little bit of a misalignment between what the charter is saying and what the contract is as it's drafted now and again he felt that it's perfectly fine for him to bill and Dave can work this out but he wanted us to understand that they're already trying to the other questions that we had I have to do with the existing MOU and I think these are fairly obvious but one of them these were just things that Dave highlighted are we still calling this a trial period we're not, are we saying are we committed, what do we want to say is this a trial period? what is it that we're talking about? the shared manager thing there's language in the MOU that says in order to try, this is a trial period to see if the shared manager works do we want to change that language? until governance is resolved I don't think it's really a shared set thing because the governance has to be we still don't the governance is going to be resolved first the governance itself it's just the, yeah so with the 3-way contract is there still an MOU or is it it would now be called an employment agreement so there'd be two things, there'd be a contract and an employment agreement and they have matching language so where would this trial language be in the employment agreement with the three parties what we're calling an MOU is technically really an employment agreement so that again, that was a complexity because I was talking and Dave was saying what do you mean an MOU and where's the MOU what are you talking about and we were talking about the same document I think we should take it out not to counter UDM but I think it's not a trial anymore and I think we're we're doing it again we're committed to that doesn't mean that we neither party couldn't back out at some point but I mean I think that we're signing up a new document with a new manager we're beyond the trial period even if governance doesn't get the two boards together we still have a very functional we've got a system we've pretty much bought into it and we just discuss like if one of us isn't happy if governance moves forward faster than the contract or the renewed contract stays the same in renewed we're going to have to change the contract language because it's not going to be current with the existing governance so that's what I'm just saying that that's where I see a conflict what does the select board think what do you think are we still in a trial period guys or what do you think I don't think we are okay I don't think we are either I think we could get to a point where we've gone as far as we can go and continue on as we are with one employee the reason I asked what was it is because I think that there needs to be some sort of trial period with the new manager but I think in terms of the arrangement it's not a trial so like a probationary period for the rest of the employee especially what the three year contract is Dan do you want to have a vote on this or you no I'm fine with that I just voice in my concerns or my feelings on this I support it I don't have a problem with it being solidified in the language there that's fine but just expressing that concern okay so we're beyond the trial period the trial period got us to the point where now we're now committing to doing this other language in the employment agreement we need to say something that the village and town will co-employ the manager and not that the village is going to appoint the current town manager again to go back to the charter piece is that okay with everybody understand there was a question about the termination but it's the same I think we just discussed that we'll beat that one to death and name them good other one that he noted was the current there was a draft agreement the term would go from July 1st 2018 to June 30th 2021 that's obviously wrong I just wanted to point out that we're starting in February and we're not so that was going fiscal year to fiscal year so I just want to point out that that's going to be changed if anyone has seen that do we just need to have some sort of an addendum to cover the period February to July yes and then lastly the question is how do we want to proceed in terms of finishing up the this paperwork with the contract and the employment agreement do you want to continue the arrangement we have now where Max and I not really negotiation but work with the lawyers with Bill and Dave and probably staff to bring the thing home is that okay is that the best way to do it or do you want to have come up with some other arrangement I can't think of one off hand but if anyone can but that we probably you know we had you guys made the motion that we were going to work with MRI to come up with an agreement in principle I'm thinking we're kind of beyond that now when we're now into working out the fine details of the contract and finishing this up so that probably wouldn't be covered under that motion so we probably it might be a good idea for you to make another motion I'll do respect and authorize Max and I if you so desire unless you want some other folks to do it or you want some other arrangement I would feel comfortable with the two of you working with the lawyers to figure out the details of a contract but I think that the actual signing of the final contract and review of the final contract should happen by each and every one of us okay I agree with Andrew I think as long as you keep us in the loop at points where our feedback could have a bearing on what next step you take as long as you keep us in the loop I think that's I'm perfectly happy with the two of you bringing it home and we wouldn't sign it we would just get to the point where it's ready to come back and say here it is I think it's going to move a lot more quickly if the two of you work with the MRI and just make sure that you keep us in the loop yeah well we'd be working with Lloyd with David Bill and David Bill the candidates and the candidates lawyer yeah I anticipate that that's again I don't know how long because there might be some pieces that technical pieces that just take a long time but we try to wrap this up how does the background checks fit in with that was part of the contract with MRI well I know but time-wise how does we don't have a real date? I don't know so I guess in the process where do you have the pause if you have to wait because the background check hasn't that's a good point so we could finish up our piece by the end of this week and then we're just waiting for the background check to get done and I couldn't tell you how long that would be um I don't know how I don't know what the hold up is Dan any thoughts about? well I just know that it depends on you know whatever background checks I know for clearances in the government it should take weeks I mean months I mean when I had background checks my background took months you guys took months? months look and keep the boards updated I mean I'm assuming that MRI has been through this before and understands that we can't be waiting six months for a background check okay so the answer to the question is we don't have an answer I was more from a logistics perspective you don't want to send something and then find out yeah there's a stop there's a point where stop get all the information right and our good friends in the local media are just chomping at the bit to find out who this is so we have to try to be respectful of that I think so if we could have a I would recommend that we have a record for me to make this recommendation but maybe we might be a good idea if someone made a motion I'll make a motion I make a motion that the do I just do us trustees authorize their chair I'm going to start over I make a motion that the trustees authorize our president to execute a contact with the new municipal manager once he is satisfied with the results of the background check okay any further discussion is it really executed that's what I was going to say by executing amend that to finalize for review finalize for trustee review managers contract okay for trustee gratification you want to read that back just so we all know what it is that the board of trustees authorize the village president to finalize the review once the background check is satisfied okay essentially what was on here but you placed execute with finalized exactly is it finalized or is it drafted we said for trustee review for trustee yeah I mean I don't think we can be changes to it correct that's not being done finalize you're changing finalize they want finalize I'll second that and you guys going to make the thing but let's have a little point of discussion here so you've got to understand that we need to be clear if max and I are going to work with the lawyers and the new managers lawyer and go back and forth and wrap it up what we can't then do is say okay everyone's happy the three parties are happy now we're going to go to the boards and they're going to get in and add their two sentences and take it apart and add stuff we can't do that if the boards want to do that that's a different process I think what we're saying is we want to see it before we ratify and the details have been we have the details this is the legalese party but nevertheless you may not be happy with it that was going to be what I was going to say how different is the contract going to be from what you've already just to make sure it's consistent with the charters in substance it's not going to be different in substance you've seen you've basically seen the substance of what we're doing so everybody's had a chance to weigh in on substance okay so trustees all in favor aye opposed great thank you I have a motion from the select board to authorize the chair I don't know what is it okay? are you going to use the same motion? well if that's what they'd like I'll move that subject to the word chair for president and select board for trustees if it's in there I have a second on that a second motion all those in favor say aye opposed passes 5-0 I appreciate your patience through the rambling discussion here guys I appreciate it I think it was important for us to get all these things aired out though so it takes us through C-N then we're on to 5-E and that's what we added to say let's pick at least one or two future dates dates for joint meetings you got the old not in January we already have a ton of meetings so are we talking February then? February don't we need to have a few meetings in January? no not necessarily but then early February well our select board meetings in February on the 5th and the 26th remember the 6th and the 23th now with the 13th and the 23th so would the 19th or 20th work? one school break break is the 26th the week of the 26th February 20th 19th is the president's day February 20th February 20th how about the 3rd? the trustees have a media is there a 3rd? 2nd and 4th? no 13th and we can do what we're doing now and have a joint meeting again I thought that was what we were doing looking for existing meetings to oh the select board we tried to have these board meetings outside of our regular meetings we could do you have a lot on our agenda on the 13th do you know? February let me hear it let's make it the term meeting that will determine it exactly it would be better for me I can do any of them I'm only going to say I think the 13th you're talking about having a pre-meeting to discuss set up the meeting that's going to be taking place within a few weeks after the well in the 24th of March so it seemed like you'd want to have that as early as possible that's what I was thinking so it's the 13th earlier? I think that should be good everybody okay? okay do we dare try to find a second one? what time? when it was relatively painless Mr. Chair I'd say let's go for it 7 o'clock on the 13th? what would you propose that? do a half hour again that's 7 okay we want to be on cadence of once a month or that wouldn't hurt particularly having a manager on board it's probably really important to meet at least monthly I don't think we want to do more than monthly so do we meet after the governance? yeah that's my question is that you're going to have a big meeting already in March do we now want to meet shortly after the candidate would start though to discuss goals when does the candidate start? the candidate we're aiming for the 26th okay I'm kind of with Andrew on this I don't think there's any voodoo about having a meeting before our meeting on the 24th I mean your 10 days your 10 days prior to that I don't think that would be the worst thing to be honest with you yeah that's fine so what's the recommendation? yeah I don't know what specific day would that be? well town meeting is March 5th March 13th we actually already have a meeting on February 26th should we invite the trustees to the meeting on the slack line meeting on February 26th kind of a quick turnaround for starting the meeting that would be the very first day seems like kind of a loss for them to get their feet like first that's just before town meeting we're getting ready for town meeting but it's when the new manager is supposed to start it might not be a bad idea actually to do nothing like starting off the first day and hearing from your bosses what they want you to do I'm not going to do that I would suggest if we did that we'd keep it light for that we'd keep it real light we wouldn't go to the goal setting at that point yeah I think goal setting would be nothing more than a ceremonial hi we're all here I'd lean towards that I was just thinking more from the perspective of having them included in a meeting where we're all there for the first sounds good 26th can I just ask the very first day they're going to build in a 12 hour day welcome classics this is what it's like I just really I think that's a little much I think we should give them two weeks to get their feet wet and then have them come to a meeting well I was going to the Canada is going to be well if the candidate is going to start on the 26th that means the candidate is officially the manager and that person is going to have to be by charter at your meeting the person is going to be there at your meeting and this person is not going to just arrive that day let's hope we don't know this person is going to be here before that directly so I would vote only because of all the meetings we have to attend that we're going to have a joint meeting it's for a productive reason obviously it's very productive to meet the town manager we can do that on our own time I would prefer to have it in March and have it set agenda not bombarding the first day the person is there okay trustee well if this person is going to be going to your meeting that night anyway I didn't realize I missed that part so is it just a meet and greet we can just all be in the audience and say hey there's going to be work to do work for the select so a joint meeting I don't think is very effective that night it might be a lot to tack on if the select board is going to regular select board business I kind of see that if I may I think the 13th works better only because you've got a meeting on the 24th that arguably is one of the more critical meetings that we're going to have right and I just I think the 26th is going to be a little bit too much I mean the trustee is going to head the select board meeting and say hi town meeting under his belt yeah I don't know what do you say no go ahead weigh in we want to hear what you say speaking as a new manager you're going to be introduced to a lot of different people in a lot of different places and you're going to say hi my name is so-and-so I'm the new manager you're going to try to remember crazy who are the people you're meeting including your staffs so to have a little time breathing room I think would be very good and during the course of those meetings the individual may pick up some valuable information to share so it could be a productive meeting from there okay can I just make one more comment I'm sorry so I love the idea March 13th I just want to throw out the question to the trustees that will have been the third meeting in three months that is that we don't have a full meeting so are we neglecting any business that we need you know we're supposed to be able to come in and talk to us I mean there's things that I think are on our agenda I know I don't know just throw it out there okay why don't we go with the 13th and if necessary we can make some changes as we get closer we feel that we're neglecting something something comes up at our next maybe at our next real trustee meeting not that this one isn't real that'd be great to have an agenda like Alyssa thinks we want to tackle soon so my comment was around when we were first all discussing how we go through this process one of the things that I threw out that I thought was probably one of the most important things that has to happen is a transition plan and we're talking about somebody starting on a day and then giving them a couple weeks to feel comfortable having started new positions it's really important that somebody knows what's expected of them and have some sort of a plan for those early days otherwise they're like okay I'm here exactly so I'm all for if everybody thinks it's too much if we have a meeting and in the very beginning and let's ease them in but I do think there needs to be some sort of a very clear transition plan whether it's the first 30 days first 60 days, first 90 days whatever to make sure that they get what they need from that and from everybody else that they're going to need to be working with well since we're going to be meeting on the 13th jointly why don't we put that as agenda item number one which 13th? February we're going to meet jointly we agreed to meet jointly on February the 13th and so we could say because that's two weeks before the person would start is that enough time to draw up a detailed transition plan? I don't know I don't know how are your thoughts on that? I think the transition plan that you're speaking to was sitting out there in the audience from the person of Greg Greg has been at all the meetings he's intimately with the priorities of the administration right now I can certainly weigh in obviously but again speaking of somebody who's going to be a manager I think I always viewed it as guillotining the past with the entry of the new manager in some areas and then listening to you now Ten as to the direction that you wish to do and keeping that part of the past that you want to keep and moving forward with the agenda I don't know that I would be a value add personally beyond the generic things and then also the interaction with the state managers group and VLCT or any of those other things rotary all those other things that you want someone to immerse themselves in to become part of the community at large you're going to be hiring somebody that is skilled in local government so the questions that they'll ask will be pointed in quick and easily understood and probably have some great ideas for changes right off the bat being fresh eyes and a fresh mind to this place so transition might sound a lot like oh this is how we do it here which is never a good thing to say yeah I wasn't thinking of how I was thinking of what very clear defining what it is well we had talked about this briefly in the course of our discussions about contracts and everything and I think that as soon as the new manager we can't have two managers and yet I think it's a good idea if there's overlap for at least a week and I would think that we would also want and we definitely need my recommendation this gentleman to be at your annual meeting I don't think you want to throw the new manager right into the lion's den at your annual meeting I think you're going to want this person to be there but in order to have that happen that's going to be a little tricky we talked about that the body would have to approve at the annual meeting but we would have to work it out so that Pat continues basically being employed here for five days while the new person is here and so there's different ways of making that happen but I don't know how it works I don't know if that well one way to do it is to start the individual earlier than the 26th right but I think that's part of the discussions that you need to have and get a sense of what the new individual would be most comfortable with doing what we want and what they want should blend and that's what you're going through this lending phase and whether I'm employed or not I'm not that far away and if the manager wishes to talk to me about managerial stuff in general or anything I'm certainly available to discuss that if the individual arrives here early and needs me to maybe parse out a days or two of activities and things to then that's certainly that's doable but the end of the month is the end of the month so you're done on the 25th 8th 28th of February if this hire goes through the house has said that it wasn't going to leave you an alert what standard practice in the industry do lots of time managers have such an overlap or do most people vacate and let the new person start fresh most people vacate I can speak from my personal experience but also the surrounding areas where they've had managers the old guy is usually got a new job heading south of Florida new person comes in and everything starts fresh particularly with the relationship with the hiring authority and department personnel are very adaptable and flexible to go back to my point though I think that you with respect I would urge you to consider how you're going to operate annual meeting because your new person is not going to have the answers if someone asks a technical institutional question so I'm not saying you have to explain it to me it's not my problem but I would just make that as an observation we have to do the same thing we've got Slack you guys not so much I for one agree I was hoping that there was going to be some kind of a procedure that we would be able to put in place to have the introduction at town meeting and then it deferred to Pat to present and to be available for questions Pat I've had this discussion the body since Pat won't be employed by the town but he could still be there if the body allows you to consider putting an article out there that it says it once as opposed to having to get permission to get something to speak and make sure that everybody is okay with it in the house and if so then when things get down to the weeds you can address those and I was also thinking that at town meeting where we stole this practice from the village at dinner maybe even a little earlier I think we've been doing 6.30 and that could be a public meet and greet with the new manager and then we go into at 7 Pat will be there at the appropriate time we'll embarrass Pat so probably be a pretty good turn out there and so for us to consider putting an article out there that says the body approves having that speak to answer questions whatever that legal step needs to be I would Pat I've definitely had that conversation he's been very gracious to say he's happy to do that we just need to find a way to make that work okay so did we decide on the 13th? did we decide on the 13th? good, everyone good on that? so we have the 13th and the 13th and we started 7 on the 13th and we started 7 on the 13th on the 13th of March as well so we need a motion for both board we need nothing more that's good we just okay okay I think that does that have any consent items? nope any other I'll move we adjourn second that any further discussion? all in favor? aye okay second I we're adjourned but don't leave without signing the resolution I'll pass it down to my left