 And it's pretty consistent with what we've been recommending in the town has been awarding for the last few years Are there questions for mr. Butterfield? No, I think I do commend the personnel board. They do Pay attention today. They have met with all they offered to me with all non-union Officials who work for the town they had a meeting in here with a number of people who came in and Listened to any issues that came up, but there weren't really many they were Non-union employees were grateful that the personnel board listens to them which this personnel board does a lot and this has been keeping with our guidelines for our financial Projections going forward There aren't Questions mr. Simon. I guess I'm gonna say something right now just covered two different items on the agenda tonight For disclosure purposes, my wife is a part-time employee of the Jones library system working at the North Amherst library and Her Compensation is not affected by the vote this evening. So I Can participate in this part of the meeting I'm not going to repeat this because when we get to the library budget I am going to I may remain at my seat But I am not going to participate in the discussion or vote on the budget for the library because the library budget that we would be recommending to the Town meeting does include funds that cover salary So I just want to get that full disclosure. Thank you very much. Appreciate that So if there aren't any other questions or or comments relative to the the recommendation from the personnel board I would entertain a motion relative to that So if someone would like to offer that it's the first one on our motion sheet, please I Moved to approve the recommendation of the personnel board voted March 21st 2018 that a 2% cost of living increase for eligible regular full-time non-union employees be applied to the non-union salary schedule effective for the fiscal year beginning Sunday July 1 2018 and there's a second is there further discussion? You're none all those in favor, please say aye aye opposed So that's unanimous Thank you very much for coming. I appreciate you Coming in and the work you do for our employees So next up just to again accommodate someone who's who's here for hopefully fairly brief time, but we have under Section 7 licenses public way and meter parking reservations We have charity wine pouring license application from the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst The events on 6-8. So if you'd come forward and tell us a little bit identify yourself at the microphone And then also just tell us a little bit about your event and we will find the appropriate sort of place in our Our motion sheets and that sort of thing but this gives you an opportunity to tell us a little bit much for being so welcoming the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst is having our major fundraiser for the year on June 8th and it will be a charity art auction and it funds a lot of our social justice work and and Our contributions to the needy and the community the intention is to have original art and So we wanted it to be a fairly elegant evening with some piano music and some wine and The wine is not the focus of the evening. The art is the focus. It's by way of ambience and So We're connecting it with the art walk and so forth So that led me on the search for what permits do we need? because being on the planning committee wanted to make sure that we were doing this right and I worked my way up to Ryan Melville in the state office in Boston and He said that we needed both a permit from Amherst and for the one-day Special wine and malt license and we also needed the charity wine pouring license from the state office and So he said you start here and you put all the applications together and bring them here So a little bit complicated because it turns out the applications weren't really designed for a religious group, but he told me exactly what documents and That led me to the Attorney General's office and the Secretary of State or whatever and so I believe we have all the correct documents now to Prove that we are charitable, but in the way that religious groups are non-profit charitables and He said with that we could use donated wine and That's what we'd like to do We're trying to keep the costs down because we're hoping to actually make some money on this So sure great. Thank you are there questions for our applicant at all Do you want to I guess this one that I normally ask of all applicants And so I won't exempt you Do you have plans in place for monitoring to make sure that minors are not served? There probably won't be very many minors because most of them don't have huge art budgets, but Yes, the the wine will I will be in charge of the wine table and There will probably be a couple of people helping me our expectation is probably one glass of wine a Rareer too, but like I said this this is not a major drinking event and Anyone who isn't white haired is we will check their ID Any other questions for our applicant If not, I'd entertain a motion It's on the H3 I moved to approve the application of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst a qualifying Charity for a special Charity wine Licensed to pour at a fundraising event to be held on June 8 2018 At their usual place of business located at 121 North Pleasant Street Amherst and Cone Church member and event co-chair There's a second. There is a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye All right, that's unanimous. Yeah, thank you I do hope you have a lot of fun and success and thank you Well come by and look at the art. There should be some good sir. Thank you all again for being so kind This is this was turned out to be the easiest That's right all the hard part first All right So next up we'll go back into our our action and discussion items and we'll take up our positions and and hearing about the annual town meeting warrant articles and I believe we'll just take them in order which we'll start with article two Which is the transfer of funds on paid bills and then we'll move on from there And I think miss Aldrich is going to answer our questions about several of the first few that we have here Good evening so article two is Annual article that we put on the warrant just in case a bill shows up from a prior year that hasn't been encumbered or Was an RR radar I Expect to have the finance came me will dismiss this at a meeting prior to town meeting Okay, so there's no anticipated to unpaid bills at this point not at all. Okay, not on the school side either Okay, I Think let's just carry on and go to article three, which is acceptance of Optional tax exemptions. I believe if you will you speak to that or yep This article has been part of the consent calendar every year and it must be voted every year Allowing the town to grant higher real estate tax exemptions to qualifying property owners Then the base level set by the state So it's the usual one we deal with with regard to extending optional tax exemptions, correct, right? Any questions from the board? I don't want to zip by things if people have questions, but let's move on to article four, which is fiscal year 2018 budget amendments Article four is also a usual article that goes on every Springtown meeting this article allows us to move any Unspent or excess funds from one functional in an area to another a lot of times We have moved money from functional areas to cover snow and ice Instead of using the reserve fund this year. We're into we anticipate We're going to use all of it to cover the health insurance any surplus to cover the health insurance deficit in fiscal year 18 I Don't have the sums of money yet. I should have them before the motion review The question I have with regard to this is so it it sounds like that That will require a transfer into the general fund, correct Well, the bulk of it is in the general fund because we have our our salary reserve there, so we'll be moving some of that Probably into public safety unless there's sufficient savings from vacancies and public safety Okay, we'll end up moving less of it, but the bulk of it's going to be in general fund already Okay, so we'll probably be moving more of the funds from the other functional areas And then do we have a sense of how snow and ice is shaping up relative to what we budgeted? Well, I looked at my phone just before I got here and it says snow tomorrow Well, so you're saying it's indeterminate, but we had an estimate of 200,000 But a large part of that was encumbered for sand and salt. I think most of that's We're gonna be able to liquidate that in cumberance. So I'm hoping it stays with under a hundred thousand Be able to be covered by the reserve fund the finance committee has control of or savings and the in the public works Department with vacancies, okay doing our best to cover that Are there other And Just for the people at home the reason we have to have this vote is because we vote our Operating budgets by functional area general government public safety community services and so on so because we do that We have to vote to move them out of those functional areas And I think next is retirement assessment No, there's part B. That was part a oh, I'm sorry Then there's part B This article was put on there in case we needed to move any funds more funds into the reserve fund We budget a hundred thousand, but there's been a few years that we've had to Appropriate more money in there to cover a larger snow and ice deficit or this year. We had the North fire station boiler break on us. That was about I Believe 58,000 ended up in the end We're hoping there's going to be savings from other parts of public safety to cover a part of that So we may not need this But I won't know that until as the next week It's not the board of registers is it Who is it that controls the overlay surplus account and declares the surplus board of assessors? Have they met and declared a surplus or are they waiting until we know waiting to see if we need it, okay? Okay, and then part C is Asking the town to appropriate a sum of money from free cash into the health claims trust fund we Cannot by law have a deficit in our health claims trust fund at your end So we are trying to estimate the best we can What that deficit is going to be I can say that our health claims trust fund is still The expenses are still outpacing the revenues So there will be a deficit the amount of that. I Don't have a number right now. We're gonna try our best to estimate that we may end up We may move money in there and still end up with a small deficit. It's just something we can't Project Yes, so what would happen in that case we would transfer money from free cash into the trust fund To make sure the trust fund was balanced, but then over the course of the next two years We have a plan for repaying the town for moving this money and into this trust fund from both Surcharges placed on employees paychecks and charges to the town of Pellum the town of Amherst and the regional school district as well And I just want to comment that we call it a surcharge, but in reality it's premium We are all responsible the employers and the employees for the whole claims trust fund So any deficit we call it a surcharge because it's not permanent Like a premium is so I just wanted to clarify that just one other thing on that So we don't know how much this is going to be so the employees wanted to know a fixed dollar amount How much would the surcharge be and we put that number in and so we know And as soon as that surcharge pays back this amount that surcharge will go away We have tried to budget it within two-year period But the surcharge is also for it's for any deficit and the health claims trust fund at year-end But it's up it also has to cover the run out because we will get our bills for June and July in August So it'll have to cover that too Right any other questions for the Solved rich on one article five four Let's move to article five, which is retirement assessment The town as a member of the Hampshire County retirement system pays an annual assessment that covers benefits to current retirees and funding for future retirees The amount this year is five million five hundred and sixty five thousand four hundred and seventy one dollars This is an increase of four hundred and eight thousand fifty one from last year Questions. Yeah, I guess on this one. I did Because you did also indicated in your memorandum to the board that it's seven point nine percent is the amount of the increase that over the prior year and That's more than the General increase in the budget and I was I I know that it's based upon a number of factors and if you could just give us a little bit of a Rundown as to why the number is higher than the increase Substantially higher really than the increase in the overall budget for the years Well, they they base the assessment on this last September payroll so Sometimes it's lower if someone comes off the payroll the first week in September Higher paid employee that estimate could go down if Someone's leaving and we hired somebody in place It could go up It's it it's just based on the last payroll of September for the for the subsequent year What's ever paid out on payroll? It's also based on a bit of a average over a period of time of the performance of the For language term the trust it's not the health care Retirement system their funds and how they perform also makes a difference correct right it is I just don't know. I'm not into the weeds of it. So I don't know those Answers any other questions on article five on the retirement system. Yes If I remember this Isn't the counter retirement system Trying to reach a certain level at a certain period. So there's There's a kind of accelerated it raises the amount now because they're trying to reach a certain level by 2030 or something so These numbers are pretty high. It doesn't mean that they'll always escalate at that level Believe so I can't so there is a 30-year funding plan to make us whole And there's I think we're in year six of that 30 years a long-term plan But it all communities have to fully fund their obligations going forward, but they give you time to get there So this is part of that process Partly why those numbers are so high. I believe the last date. I heard that we would be fully funded. It was 2033 Also, if we pay this all up front one lump sum then we we save 2% So we do that every year our assessment beginning of the fiscal year, correct? And that gets us a right and early payment discounts, which is pretty significant. So we're fortunate we can do that And so let's move on unless there's another question on retirement assessments. We'll go to regional lock-up assessment The town as a user of the Hampshire County Regional lock-up pays an annual assessment based on population to cover the operating costs of the lock-up our assessment Has been the same the last few years thirty-five thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight so there's been no indication from from the Essentially a sheriff's department that they're in need of a greater amount of funding I presume not that I'm aware of We won't we won't go and call them up and ask I don't need to I can make that cold. No, that's really all right Isn't that Formula set probably by statute. It's not actually but what there was an agreement amongst the communities of the in Concert with the because I was on the finance committee when this came into being because the first few years that there was the regional lock-up It was fully funded by the state and the state said to the communities that are members You've got to carry us a certain part of the share what they came to was an agreement about Basically $1 per capita, right and that's held steady If I might this looks like our Population figure from the last census. So when we get to the next dieniel we can expect that to go up. It was likely Was likely yes So let's go to Oracle seven, please Other posts and point point benefits OPEB trust fund the town Continues to contribute to the trust fund as possible from the general fund increasing the amount to 500 from 400 last year We started off at a hundred. We've worked our way up to 500,000 a year the enterprise funds contributed at a rate recommended for fully funding their obligation The question I have and I think this is maybe more for the manager is So we've gotten to the $500,000 mark in future years Are you looking to continue to increase that by a hundred thousand? Are you looking to hold that steady for the short term? You know do we have a plan to you know the the original plan? We saw when mr. Pooler was here a few years ago was to get up to the 500,000, but that's about as far into the future is as He has sort of laid out the spreadsheet quite frankly I mean it was an arc to get to 500,000. I was just wondering Whether you had any thoughts about future years and where we might go from here right now I think we would hold steady because there are a lot of demands on our budget And we also are trying to increase the amount that we devote to capital Which is probably at this moment in time a higher priority for this But I think if we level off that 500,000 we'd be in pretty good shape to do that questions relative to the OPEB trust fund Okay, so before we get into article eight, which is the operating budget. There are a couple of sections of that And this gets to What mr. Steinberg said earlier about his relationship relative to libraries I being an employee of the schools There are two parts of this budget the regional school assessment appropriation in the elementary school budgets You know that that influence you know effect me and so during that portion of that of that conversation I'll again recuse myself from any conversation in that regard, but if you want to take us through the operating budget, please Yeah, I believe I'm just reporting on this article as being the operating budget for the town I believe your your meeting with the schools next week on it and The library is here for tonight So article a is the fiscal year 2019 operating budget and this is where all of our budgets are voted including the schools the library debt service and enterprise funds The towns the town's portion on your sheets is highlighted gray Is the 23 million eight hundred and forty four four seventy? That's what you will see in on the projection sheets That is a town's portion Covers general government public safety public works conservation and development and community services And that's basically the municipal part Then we have debt service, which is a separate separate vote and this includes CPA debt So there will be a funding source from taxation again CPA of three twenty eight forty three And then this the enterprise funds, which are all voted separately and I don't know what else to say about those I'll just ask this quick question regarding the Enterprise funds we as the water and sewer commissioners did a rate increase and so that is factored into those budgets as well Correct. It is. Yes. Yes Make that clear So since we're gonna skip the library for a second let his Aldrich continue on if that's all right And so if you go to article nine and the reserve fund will back to the library services budget in a minute This is another annual appropriation for the town to appropriate a hundred thousand dollars for the reserve fund Transfer and this is under the control of the finance committee for Extraordinary and unforeseen expenses that may occur like snow and ice in a boiler Frashing middle of the year. I realize this is for fiscal year 19 I realize that we are probably where we are gonna be a charter Halfway through the year. This is the budget going forward for 2019 for at least half the year and then there's a group of us meeting for all the Charter changes and we'll figure it out from there Yeah, I actually think corresponded a little bit with Ms. Aldrich about this There's two separate statutes that are very close to each other in the mass general laws that cover reserve funds for Towns and for cities and they're fairly similar They set a cap on the amount which is not an issue for us Is we're well under the cap as to the amount that can be contributed and the amount That is put into a fund is within the control of the finance committee for a town It's in the control of the commission Excuse me the council for a city so that part way through The fiscal year for which we're appropriating the power to make the decision on expending the funds will shift But since the motion that are the Actually the I'm assuming that Motion will be in terms of the article the article just sets aside money Into reserve fund It's so generally stated that I think that the reserve fund is likely to just transfer to the new form of government and So the only amendment it really is an explanation amendment as opposed to a need for change of any other kind and Any other questions regarding the reserve fund? it's not Please continue to article 11 article 11 is a general by-law This was an article that comes up every year. It was for reauthorizing our revolving fund for the after-school program And With the Municipal Modernization Act it is now required that we have a we put a by-law in place and this requires That we establish a by-law for authorization that specifies Which The amount being spent the source of funds going into the revolving fund the department authorized to expend the funds and They are maxing the maximum amount you can spend Once this by-law is in place, we will no longer have to have it voted every year Unless we want to change any of the thresholds unless we want to change from the 400 to more or less Then we'd have to amend the by-law or if we wanted to add any more Revolving funds of this type you would have to amend the by-law so this is Again, we're sort of because we're straddling two different forms of government nonetheless This is required by my massive by that recent municipal modernization Act If we were continuing to tell me this would save us time every spring And I guess it'll save the council time in the future because they won't have to take this up every year when They do their budget as well exactly and Article 25 for cash Well, I'll just do 25 and 26 together These are these are put on here every year and are used to balance the budget as a source of appropriations For those town meeting votes that are added that have appropriations Just as a quick reminder for Folks that aren't familiar with this Free credit free cash requires majority free cash requires a simple majority to appropriate funds Whereas the stabilization fund requires a two-thirds to appropriate And free cash isn't free, and it's not free We hope it earns a little interest sometimes, but it's not cash Any other questions? Are there any other questions just in general for for Miss Aldrich on these articles? If not, then we'll thank you for your time tonight Shake that Would the board like to take positions on those or do we want to kind of keep going and then come back to positions later? I'm up. I'm seeing I'm not Presupposed to even how many people are waiting for me one more All right, that's kind of what I was That's what I was thinking as well So I believe now we're on to we're back to article 8 and we're gonna talk specifically about the library services budget So if our library director, please join us and take us through I believe tonight on our desks. We got it Hey Copy of the proposed fiscal 19 budget for the library So I presume this is colored cover document. You're gonna take us through. Yeah. Okay, great Hey, thank you for having me I'm gonna start by introducing our new the library's new business manager. This is John Shannon For the past five years. He's been self-employed as the director of Tara consulting in Amherst Prior to this he worked as a manager at Bering's asset management in Springfield His bookkeeping accounting marketing human resources skills have already made a wonderful addition to our library system So I just wanted you all to put a name to a face Thank you. Thank you. Welcome So in a nutshell just as is the case for all the other town departments health insurance is killing us By the end of this fiscal year all our reserves will have been spent and for next year The trustees have increased the endowment draw rate to four from four to five percent It will result in an increased contribution to our budget of seventy four thousand dollars So five percent is a responsible draw draw rate, but it is by no means ideal This is especially true if as we expect returns on investments will be substantially lower in the future as they have been in the very recent past For FY 19, we will be relying exponentially on fundraising to close our budget gap Here's my shameless plug plug. I encourage all of you to go and buy tickets to the Sammys So tonight when you go home and you're in your bunny slippers go on to our website and buy buy ticket This year's budget request packet is a bit larger than previous years for three reasons The first one there was confusion during last year's Town meeting and so we wanted to clarify any misunderstandings about the library's budget Our budget is a little complicated because we rely on many different sources of income And we pay our bills through both the town's accounting department and our own corporation Number two more and more we are seeing more new faces on many of the town's budget process committees such as BCG JCPC and finance and because Massachusetts public libraries have to follow so many different laws and regulations Which most normal people are unfamiliar with we wanted to give an overview of the complexity of the library state aid requirements And number three health insurance increases combined with the increases to minimum wage, which is a great thing Have put the library in a really tough spot So the additional information in this packet is just help to help you see the larger library picture so within in the packet you're going to see our income trends and Since FY 13 our reliance on the endowment draw rate has decreased by 24 percent and this is Smart financial planning and our reliance on fundraising and the Sammys has increased by 81 percent our expense trends From FY 14 through FY 17 salaries have increased 7.5 percent in total Operations have increased nine point two percent in total and our utilities expenses have decreased by 15 percent So we're happy about all of those things Breakdown of our donations we would be lost without our donors and the friends of the Jones library system I genuinely wish that I could include hugs in all of my thank you letters to the donors All of our donations go towards materials and programming. It's it's not going to pay the utilities last year 676 people from 61 different towns donated over $81,000 to the library and 45 different businesses donated over $14,000 and we're really very thankful and happy about this And then there's our endowment and FY09 the economy was scary for all of us at that time Our endowment was at six million twenty four thousand six hundred and fifty seven dollars That was as of March 31st in oh nine as of February 28th of this year The value is back up to eight million eighty nine thousand six hundred and forty five dollars You'll see in the packets that an FY 10 was when our woodbury donation came in And then in FY 11 we the trustees separated out the woodbury front from the rest of The endowment and then an FY 15 and 16 after a lot of research the trustees switched to passive management of the endowment In order to save on those management fees The trustees work really well together and because of their investment experience. They're doing an excellent job of overseeing the endowment So what I want to focus on in your packets are pages 24 and 25, which is the library's budget summary It's starting on page for 24 That's the format that the library and most other town departments use have used historically Where expenses equal revenue? It's this is the document that will go to town meeting for approval So an above in the above portion it's showing for FY 19 two million six hundred and eighty three thousand sixty nine dollars worth of expenses and Below it's showing which accounts. We're going to use to pay for those two point six million dollars worth of expenses I have also added this year in FY 18 adjusted budget column For two reasons so mid-year The trustees and I we were able to increase our part-time employees from level three to level four To better reflect their work skills and responsibilities Also mid-year, we were notified of an increase to our benefits expense line for health insurance So I really wanted the percentage change Column to be more accurate, which is why I put in that adjusted column So under FY 19 budget Expenses for salaries were showing a three point five percent increase Benefits is a twenty three percent increase Materials is showing a two point eight two percent decrease and the reason is It's a formula so the more money we spend on benefits the less money we have to spend on circulating materials We are also for FY 19 gonna be going to be cutting programming in half so we can help fund the health insurance increases Down below under FY 19 the income we're showing the three point five percent increase to town appropriation Which is what you all had recommended? The five percent endowment draw rate We are budgeting for a 31 percent increase to gifts annual fund and sammies and a 42 percent Decrease to state aid because as of this year all our state aid reserves will be spent Also under positions down at the bottom of this chart. You'll see In order to help balance the budget there are three part-time positions that we won't be filling Now if you flip over to page 25 So the only difference between pages 24 and 25 is the actual income So in the row titled kind of two-thirds down Where it says surplus and deficit and it's in green and red as you go across the page and FY 13 You'll see that we ran with a 1245 dollar deficit We relied on state aid reserves from previous years to fill that gap So at that time our state aid reserves were pretty high and FY 14 that was the first year that the trustees dropped the endowment draw rate From five point four percent to five percent and their goal was to hit four percent in three years So in FY 14 the deficit increased To almost twenty three thousand dollars again with state aid reserves used to fill the gap and FY 15 the draw rate decreased again to four and a half percent. So the deficit increased to 256 five and FY 16 the draw rate hit rock bottom. Yay the four percent And so that gave us a deficit that year of eighty six thousand almost eighty seven thousand dollars Again with state aid reserves being able to cover that deficit with no problem and FY 17 We maintained that four percent draw rate and the deficit decreased a little bit to seventy two thousand seventy two six seventy And then in FY 18 this fiscal year We were able to maintain a four percent draw rate and we're projecting about a sixty seven sixty eight thousand dollar deficit So the good point that I want to make about this is the deficit or the gaps that we've That we've had going over these past few years has have really been quite fine And if it weren't for the health insurance issues, we could have continued on this path Because we have been able to use prior years state aid to fill the current year's budget gap It's better than taking additional money out of the endowment when it's the money that sits in state aid is not earning any interest whatsoever So Yeah, so that's why what the trustees did has made complete sense The trustees have used as little of the endowment as possible so that the principal could continue to grow but because of the Astronomical increases to health insurance our good times have temporarily come to an end and we don't have any more state aid to fill the gap So the final point this is all leading to this the town's appropriation to the library has not kept up with health insurance and minimum wage increases The recent increases to minimum wage have greatly affected the library's budget out of our 57 employees Half of them are just above minimum wage Once the minimum wage increases to $15 an hour It will affect all of the library positions as well all the library union positions as well Which make up almost the rest of the staff. I imagine that the entire SEIU wage chart will probably be affected and will have to be upgraded also from FY 14 to FY 19 the library's personnel and Benefits expenses have risen 22 percent That's with a few retirements of long-standing long-term staff members with high longevity as And no increases to staffing so they've gone up 22 percent But we're not we're not adding more staff But during that same time period the town's appropriation to the library has only increased 14.4 percent So based on what little I know about the historical relationship between the town and the library I understand that the town's appropriation to the library has always been just considered Here's a lump sum appropriation and that increases to the library's town appropriation Was never meant to cover rising costs of personnel or health care instead those increases that we got they were just lumps The town's appropriation has never covered 100 percent of the library's personnel costs Every year we turn over to the town an additional 40 50 or $60,000 to cover personnel and benefits And that's been totally fine and reasonable as long as we can cover operations costs The Jones library is very much a town department Library employees are town employees library maintenance and capital is town maintenance and maintenance and capital And the only difference is that the trustees determine how the library money is spent rather than the select board So what are our options? We could spend down the endowment, but that will just leave the town having to fully fund us at some point Or we could try to mitigate the long-term cost to the town by preserving the endowment Going much above the 5% raw rate threatens the long-term viability of the endowment There are additional cuts we could institute We have already hit all of the low-hanging fruit and even think not so low-hanging fruit We have cut programming materials office supplies maintenance staff development personnel There's really nothing left to cut without hurting a lot. We could lay off staff We could further cut night and weekend hours. We could eliminate more programming by fewer books Close the branches or some combination thereof but all of these items could lead to De-certification and based on what we've all seen regarding the town's love of library services It doesn't seem to be much of an appetite for these extreme cuts Fundraising so I'd love to be able to raise an additional $36,000 night next year on top of the 116 that we're already going to be raising But this is a very ambitious goal if we do not attain this goal some very hard choices will have to be made So this leaves the town appropriation We are committed to working with and through BCG I believe that within the next couple of years the town should consider funding a larger portion of the library's personnel costs But to be clear, we're not looking to sit on mountains of reserve funds. We're not looking to increase services We're not looking to add open hours additional staff We just don't want to further reduce library services without an increase in what the town provides We may be forced to do so That's it Thank you questions are there are there questions for the library director I'll start with one you're talking about sort of the Number of options you have you know as far as reducing the sort of expense side of your of your ledger Have you and the and the Trustees had conversations about how you might prioritize those or how you're Thinking about those Not to say that well You know Because the town doesn't really necessarily have a lot of resources to sort of give to you in some respects I mean it's going to be a combination at best to sort of get to where we all need to be so I'm just sort of curious about what your process is at this point as far as thinking about those and how do you evaluate the different options that you have and and Where you are at this point as far as making evaluations and determinations Great question. Thank you. Yeah, so this year was really hard for the trustees and the staff Because we knew there was going to be a huge budget gap for FY 19 and we're still not not out of the woods quite yet for FY 18 So there were there were a lot of meetings between me in the library department heads and me and the trustees Doing just that prioritizing and our number one goal is to not be decertified because I that's kind of like That would be the end of the world for the library. We don't want to be a standalone library. So we played around with What items we could cut that would not affect Certification so for example programming that that's the biggest thing the friends fund The vast majority of our programming But we do not have to have programs in order to be certified on the flip side of that is our programming numbers are through the roof People love it are asking for more and so that's one of the things that will hit the public the most So that's another aspect of our our decision-making is what will hurt the public the last the least amount So programming would hurt the most, but it doesn't affect certification open hours We could close earlier on Tuesdays and Thursday nights without affecting certification But there are a lot of people who's there the only time they can get to the library is on nights and weekends. So So that's painful Hours at the branches that that was all analyzed We could reduce those hours, but as you guys have seen this town loves the branches So that would hurt the That would hurt the public Programming materials expenditures fundraising Cutting and then and then it comes down to the layoff. So really those are the those are the remaining That's the remaining low-hanging fruit that doesn't affect Certification The next big junk jump is staff if you want to close a thirty six thousand dollar budget gap You're really talking about staff and We have had discussions. I have lots of Spreadshards and sheets of paper and things like that. So we've been thinking about it So regarding the certification, what are the component pieces? You don't have to go into the gory detail of it but sort of what are the sort of primary things that the The mass library boards looking at for you to maintain your certification one of the sort of Critical factors for them So one of the biggies is the Municipal appropriation Requirement the MA are which the town meets. I don't have that figure in front of me because the town meets it we have to spend a certain amount of money on circulating materials and For us for next year that figure is That's the two hundred and seven thousand dollar mark Which we're budgeting for we have to be open a certain number of hours and That is where we have wiggle room. We are open 64 hours a week and I think in order to be certified we Have to be open at least 59 So so there's that's one of the reasons that we were looking at open hours Those are the biggies Thank you So all thank you very much for that detailed presentation I really appreciate the way you've tried to lay out what you've been cutting here and why it's helpful to have that that level of detail Just one historical footnote There was a case for the library actually faced the certification about cheese something like ten years ago This was when the economic downturn took place and the town had to cut budgets across across the board And that include the library budget would which would have brought you into the certification I mean not you you weren't here, but the library into the certification and and This was an Equal cut that everyone suffered and a few members of the library trustees Let us say we're not team players and tried to do some underhanded things back then But I remember at the same time I had a conversation with the head of the Masters this board of library commissioners and you made the point that the D certification is basically a matter of honor or pride But it doesn't have Practical consequences in the short run at least for D certification. Yes As he presented it. No, and it actually More occasions and you would think Not really want to get there, but I think this is a danger forward over dramatizing perhaps what the consequence of D certification are for So so there's two what so D certification I feel like is is genuinely the end of the world It would mean your Jones library embers card is only good in Amherst. It won't be good anywhere else You won't be able to use interlibrary loan You won't be able to have access to the databases. So it turns us into a standalone library But where the MVLC comes into play is what they say is you are towns are absolutely Allowed to cut the library as long as all the other town departments are cut equally So I'm hoping that's what it meant. Yeah So I have this kind of More a thought it's not so specific. It's more general, but I've often thought about the situation we have where that we have a library trustees who are in charge of the library and The library building the Jones library that building is owned by the trustees or by the library and then the town supports the library operation and some of the capital and repair of the building and so As much as I appreciate in Sort of honor you being the cheerleader for all things library That the town has every time we spend money on something that's really great and worthwhile It potentially takes money away from something else great and worthwhile and a different part of the ledger so if the I'm wondering like if the trustees are making the decisions and spending priorities for the library And I'm sure they're doing a great job. How do we enter in that conversation since we're the we the town as a whole Is sort of managing the budget? So it's great to say well the township of its appropriation because we don't want to lose all these things that people really value, but How do how do we have a conversation that? looks at all of that In in some way because I mean I understand the autonomy there But then but when it doesn't work out you come over to this side of the ledger and From my perspective This is what makes BCG so great So I've worked in seven other municipalities and genuinely there is no other town as amazing as this town Because the budget process starts in September and it does not end until June. There are constant conversations So I you know I meet monthly with Paul. I'm constantly meeting with the trustees We meet with BCG starting in October. I feel like there's constant discussion. I don't know what this change Charter process will change will bring but there will obviously be changes there and Coming back to You mentioned autonomy and I I just don't think that we have that without the town. We're nothing We can't run the library with four percent on the endowment the the endowment just isn't large enough I totally get it and So it's it's similar to the schools, you know, you have a school committee that's separate and they do but I don't believe It doesn't happen that way in Amherst though so legally the trustees have authority over how the money is spent but just The relationship that we have here is spectacular and I don't expect that to change anytime soon So I I believe the trustees are genuinely, you know I put the speech together with their help and the trustees are they're not looking to storm the castle That's not what we're doing here And that's why I wanted to make it very clear that we're not looking to sit on all of our state aid And you guys just and the rest of the town, you know be in pain because like you said The bottom line is what it is and if you give us more money, it means somebody else gets less We totally get that what we we are looking for a conversation That's all it is to find that happy medium so that we can stick to that between four and five percent endowment draw Thank you for your comments Yes, so thank you, mr. Chair, so the library is a gem It's you know as you've been in other towns you you know There aren't many libraries that are like the Jones library and the services that we provide not just to the town of Amherst But also to the region we are regional library and that's not unusual for our services in the town of Amherst But it comes at a cost because we have a lot of we serve a broader region the Library as you described it is truly a complicated animal with the town in the library are intertwined at multiple levels You don't control your health insurance budget, but you control other things and you know I think the relationship has been pretty strong between the town in the libraries and I think there's been an attempt to treat all the different departments schools libraries town departments pretty equally that You know if everything's going up to present everything's going up to percent your trustees have different hats on they They look at it from what's in the best interests of the library Which is a unique situation and you have eight million dollars in the bank that you can look at Whereas other departments don't have that as a as a cushion So it's just a it's a complicated conversation I think the town does a really excellent job of having that conversation as you mentioned several times the BCG Where all the relevant boards get together and have those conversations on a regular basis It's really Almost every department would come in and say we need more money from the town and the town doesn't have a limitless Pot of money. It's what we have and we share all the information pretty clearly and transparently And if there's a different way to do it, I think we're always everybody's interested in hearing it We're all conflicted on this because we want services. We have rising costs. We have limited funds and It's a conversation. We have pretty much daily and You know an hour ago Sonia was up. We're talking about what do we do about this that and the other thing We're trying to figure it out. So I mean I've always liked, you know, you always bring great compassion and the trustees are really really good advocates for the library and I think what's the important thing is that we're all working together as a team on this entire thing Other questions for the director If not, thank you very much. We appreciate you coming in and sharing your budget with us and in detail and painting a picture of where we're at and Where we're headed so next on our agenda is the The request for letter of support slash non-opposition relative to medical marijuana the herbology group and Incorporated 422 Amity Street. So if you folks will come to the microphone feel free to gather around We do have a number of additional materials. I think on our desk tonight Yeah It's this one that says four C I think substantial packet of Multiple Who that came today there was a cover letter did that get printed Listed Yeah, this here, right, this is yeah, I think that's it Yeah, it's the second page of this big packet, I believe that's the last week's Oh, did it change you did change oh just a hard copy this no, there's there are two letters Eight data April 4th and one day to April 7th Yeah, I was on your desk tonight and on your desk correct is a status report on all the fall for Marijuana so we'll need just a moment to find these loose sheets of paper that we just got So the status report was on my desk I'm having trouble finding the one page. There's a letter from Herbology data April 7 saw it And then there's this one Okay, that's it So we had just two extra sheets beside the packet materials, right? So once we get caught up Yeah, I'm sorry So I think Unless you or Mr. Kravitz are gonna introduce them then I'll or introduce anything if not, I'll have them just introduce yourselves and Tulsa about our knowledge group Thank you very much for having us tonight. My name is Frank Perulo, and I represent the herbology group Let me introduce Jane homin the CEO and Anna Gray the COO Hi, thank you for the opportunity to speak before you this evening. I'm Jane homin I'm the founder and chief executive officer of herbology group We are a minority owned women owned and a veteran owned business It's our passion to enhance the quality of life of so many living in pain Which is the foundation of our nonprofit group in addition to serving as the president and CEO of herbology I currently work in information technology as a quality assurance analyst for the Nasdaq stock exchange I've served in the Air Force as a jet engine mechanic and have extensive background in the healthcare sector Specializing in non-pharmaceutical management of pain Sports injuries detox addiction and women's health. I'm a graduate of the med grow program Which is a trade school specific to the medical marijuana industry and we are eager to work with the town of Amherst as a trusted community partner Hi there, my name is Anna Gray, and I'm the chief communications officer of herbology group Which just means that I like to talk the most out of everybody and In addition to being the CCO of Rology group I have worked 15 years in the public and private health sector with the geriatric community as well as the veterans With veterans at the VA hospital there. I was the Hispanic emphasis Pro and the span Hispanic employment special emphasis program manager where I did a lot of community outreach programs And I was also a big sister for the big brother big sister program And I was also a veteran in the I'm also a veteran of the Air Force That's where I met Jane her and I were a jet engine mechanics together, and we really appreciate you guys having us here today Thank you. Thank you very much before I get into the presentation, I would like to address The fact that we're going for a medical license as well as a recreational license, and I think Tonight we're here to address the medical side of it which requires us to be in front of you for a letter of non-opposition of support The recreational side does not require that it does require us to enter into a host community agreement with The town which we you know I'd love to talk about after We are holding a community meeting the this week on Wednesday evening That was noticed in the local paper It was also mailed and certified. I do want to note I did hear a conversation that happened at the last meeting Where I think it was felt that it might have been rushed While we did meet the requirements, I would also offer that we will be holding another open house In about four weeks. We will do the same noticing same ads You know, frankly, we like to talk about this we have no Issues being as transparent as possible, so we will be holding that other meeting and we'll be going down the licensing of both Medical and recreational in parallel. The state has this bifurcated process for now It will come together at some point, but for now we are going through both a lot of people have asked why do both just Recreational medical is at the core of what we offer So we're going to continue doing both at a great expense to the urology group If there's any questions specifically on that, can I take them now or do you want to? No, I just have one request that is if you show Diagrams of the building which you did in your prior Could you show us how the two aspects of the business fit together in the same building? Sure as you go to that point. Yeah, I'll do that tonight actually as we go through the presentation for sure So again another point where I think we will be maybe changing this or bulge group is a nonprofit corporation We are not We're not forced to be a nonprofit under the recreational act We will be doing a conversion to a for-profit entity that will be over the coming months and with Department of Public Health Health's approval along with the cannabis control Commission But for now and for the foreseeable future we are a licensed nonprofit now This property is owned by our management team and we'll be paying all property taxes on the property Forward to the team You met chain you met Anna we also have Brad Baker who unfortunately could not be here He had a child two days ago Congratulations Brad and Adam fine from Vicente Cedarburg is our illegal compliance in April homin also could not be here as well But a very well-rounded team Brad is a security consultant with FTG technologies. They are Actually the security consultant to the cannabis control Commission as well and Adam fine is You know always talked about in Legal circles as the preeminent cannabis attorney in the Commonwealth Second here about our management team we are in partnership with a management team see hunter therapeutics Scantor therapeutics is a management team that offers capital intellectual property property and operational expertise They have Relocated a team of experts from around the country to Massachusetts to help operate our facilities and that includes packaging extraction cultivation and Their real estate acquisitions as well our proposed sites. I think this site is familiar to you Having appeared Another operator having appeared before you for a letter quite some time ago 422 Amity Street It's a standalone building ideally suited for security and patient access There are dozens of parking spots probably between 30 and 40 in our immediate area as well as a shared parking lot Adjacent We have front Ada entrance and a secure back entrance for standalone for staff and deliveries. We meet all local and state regulations the current site as It is now and a rendering of what it will look like We our signage is again state regulation we're not allowed to Advertise we're not allowed to have anything but the license holders name out front interior Floor plan is included here You will notice that To your if you're looking at either screen to your right-hand side is a Front entrance with a vestibule So it's a secure door with a trap meaning you can't get in To the dispensary floor without showing your ID to one of the security individuals Once you're passed through there in the front door the front door to the exterior is locked You are allowed into the dispensary floor Where there are? POS terminals and patient access now when it comes to recreational the state has allowed the use of temporary Hard to say a temporary either ropes and chains as well as sort of a privacy curtain Something like you would see at a CVS or a Walgreens where you go and have your Conversation with your pharmacists, so they're allowing one POS terminal or two whatever you'd like to stand as the medical terminal And the recreational or adult use will be at others we plan on having Two to three for medical so either one of the counters that you see on either the far left or the right For medical only which again will offer the types of privacy that the patients require. There'll also be a consultation room That we're working into that plan because I think we do want a private consultation room. Oh Sure. Well, thank you very much Just hit the green button there. Yeah So right here is where we're thinking for medical and here For recreational sales Security is here Trap for exit is here one door these doors cannot open without this door here being closed I think again worth noting since this location was in front of you before With happy Valley Ventures the site plan that they had drawn up. We had two It was a they were trying to do a development So two buildings on the parcel we are standing We are just redoing the existing building on the site to maintain the Existing parking we'll be re-striping a lot and working on some of the exterior But other than that the site will remain fairly unchanged The dispensary will be open between the hours of eight and eight The average patient patient visit is around ten minutes of all that lowers once you're in operation To four to six depending on How long you're open and is it whether it's their first time? We will adhere to strict access protocols and we will not be as long as we're medical only Again, this was for a medical presentation. We'll not allow anyone but patients in the door We did we did perform a traffic study by Hayes engineering that I Believe we have sent to you right correct. Yes, and that has As no traffic impacts this the dispensary will have none the Dispensary will be monitored by a live security firm the cameras will Be placed on the exterior Of the site in coordination with your local law enforcement You will have your local law enforcement will have access to those camera feeds live as they See fit and the interior feeds are made available to them when they feel the need to have them Or when DPH requests them or the cannabis control commission at the time that they take over products are all Stored in vaults under video surveillance They are delivered at random times two or three times a week again under video surveillance and they are delivered to the store Individually packaged not in bulk Patients will be absolutely educated on their first visit to the site and They are absolutely not prohibited to use any products anywhere near the sites So we do anticipate Assigning a host community agreement with the town There is a this is another instance where we're sort of You know, there's two different ways we could do this We would love to sign one agreement that covers us for recreational or adult use and medical Or we could negotiate one for medical now and one for host for recreational later But either way there is a local option tax that you all I believe have accepted and then the additional 3% that goes towards the town We will be hiring 25 20 to 25 is what I should say full-time Well-paying jobs these include benefits and 401k programs We have already started the community outreach program with our open house this Wednesday We'll perform another open house within four weeks, and we are also committing to a walk of our neighbors a Business walk any neighbor that's within Probably a quarter mile or more we have to go expansive on one side as the rest of it is Not inhabited so we will be absolutely reaching out to all the neighbors to let them know that what our plans and our intentions are for the project And at this point I think Turn over to questions all right, so I Know I have a few questions. I don't know if my colleagues also a question So I have a couple of I'm hoping fairly straightforward questions around some of the So first off the the entrance will be The medical and and adult use will not be segregated as far as entrance is concerned at this point correct No, and so you'll triage that once people come in Yes, exactly. So state law doesn't require us to have separate rooms in other states There actually is a requirement for separate rooms in Colorado for instance But Massachusetts just wants there to be privacy for the patients Which means we can set up and and frankly that hasn't been sort of the regulations are in draft form They're out, but they're not fully yet So they've released them, but there's still work to be done on that so the other the other question I have is is Relative to some of the video feeds and and making things available to the local law enforcement And the particular question I have is is related to Those secure vaults and video feeds of those which are interior to your building you indicated in your in your documentation here That the exterior would be available to the police I would hope that that part which is you know under Your in your control only as far as in patients aren't going back there Consumers aren't going back there that that also would be a video feed you'd make available to us Just because again, although it's interior the building might be sensitive to patient confidentiality and that sort of thing That that that our local law enforcement would be Available to see that video as well or or it could be set up in such a way that that could be the case Yeah, no for sure. I think what I'm meaning to say is that the exterior views I believe they can get on an as-needed basis in the interior. They just have to request whatever state regulation is we will absolutely abide by and They have access to that. I believe whenever they want whenever they wish to see that for sure So we will have foot patrol We'll have to security when we are open and they will do sweeps of the building to ensure the patients aren't using the medicine Outside the building for sure. Yes The other question I would ask just broadly Have you reached out to the manager or maybe the manager can answer this one relative to the host community agreement have you started that conversation yet or and if so Any progress being made We spoke briefly about the host community grant agreement in general at our last meeting I think we wanted to get here and we're happy to have that conversation as soon as he's able to for sure I Think you better go ahead There's a little surprise when you said the regulations weren't final coming. Well, they're my Because they are they haven't been signed by the Secretary of State regulations around No, the regulations are on the privacy screening what they said was you can have sort of stanchions But they haven't told us exactly what they're looking for by that. Okay, so the regulations sure are out But that part is they make mention. I would believe Separate area that's it. So actually one of my questions was since I believe you and you say That you're very concerned about the medical aspect of this business But I was surprised in that case that you hadn't done more in your design to create the separate facility although you may meet the minimum requirement with the screening and the curtain but as we know that doesn't really give you some sound separation and Some of the models I've seen will have separate areas for medical and for recreational I don't I I totally understand that a medical facility would also have recreational because I think that's worth the bulk of the Volume activity is so that's that's not the problem, but given how seriously You are committed to medical. I was surprised to see one Well sales room, let me let me I should clarify. This is our medical room. That's how we design this this these plans were sent and presented to I think Jeff and months ago three or four months ago before the implementation of the recreational law So our plan is now to go back to the drawing board and just add like I mentioned a room a consultation room As well as some enhanced privacy for the patients So you might especially with some encouragement from the town you design. I get these these plans. Oh, yeah These are you could redesign to have that. Oh a hundred percent separation. Yes in the sales as well as the consultancy So that was just one. Yes, and that's a fair point. That's a fair point So we believe if you are a patient of ours or coming our facility you're coming for Well, I understand but if someone's coming in as an adult user and I'm coming in With the particular medical need I may not want anyone to hear about that. Yeah, it's a it's a point. Well taken and again It's it's the the plans are strictly medical. We now have to pivot. So that's just some feedback on my view I was really interested when I read the traffic study That is for a restaurant So I'm guessing there aren't really any comprables around by our traffic this traffic engineer that Looked at this, but when I'm thinking of full-service eating establishment in the turnover time, they don't I'm not suggesting there is a traffic problem, but I found this kind of amusing because it wasn't a Standard that totally made sense to me. So that's just It's a traffic study for medical which again would be different than recreational Okay, so then we're just for our record. Yep establish that some of this isn't really Applicable as you've changed your plan. So that's exactly and it many plans have changed because we now have the adult user So yeah, I don't have any problem with the co-locating but this may be not so germane discussion So I'm only up. I think two more. So this is the first Application we've seen that had a woman owned at a minority owned operator and I commend you for that because The state cannabis control commission and I think our town also want to make sure that this business is accessible for a variety of people and so I think We're seeing that diversity. Oh, that's Commend you for that but I'm wondering Since We're looking at a number of applicants. How would This add to what is being provided to residents of Amherst in the region So if there's already a couple of other Operators in the pipeline, what do you bring to this that's different or an additional value or Service that would give our board a reason to want to have yet another Adult use Pre-enterprise market and we're advocates and come both creating that competition here and You know, we want to bring morality equality and compassion to this industry and we really believe as parents and minorities and women veterans we can really You know connect with the connect with the community more than some of the other dispensaries that are going to be coming here and also after speaking with the After hearing her with you know about the library that money that's going to come in We're no longer going to have to have these conversations about deficits, you know and underfunded programs But we're actually going to be able to talk about funding these programs Especially programs that help people get away from real addictions what we consider and we're super excited about that And also see thunder therapeutics has a great product line a high quality product line with lots of medical research And they we think that we're going to offer the most Variety of non euphoric cannabis products and CBD products because we feel there's a lack of that right now in the industry And a lot of people switch to recreation or adult use and then they don't offer that Yeah, they forget about the medical side and we're really passionate about it So I know in the regulations the states requiring 35% of the product to be set aside Could you just for people who here who might not know our viewers? If you could answer the what you mean when you say non euphoric non euphoric cannabis is Cannabis which is a CBD form without the THC, which is the form that tends to Get you high, you know and you know there would be different levels of that too within the products lower levels THC and there's different forms of the products in different strains that can like indica's and sativas that will help people more with pain or More you know somnia, so there's different forms of cannabis, but yeah one of our main focuses is definitely providing some non euphoric Options cannabis through transdermal patches, you know slobs Pills, you know also There is an opportunity for children that have debilitating conditions to also take this We want to make sure that you know we can provide a product for them, too We feel like there's definitely a lack of that Yeah, we strongly believe this to be a public safety and health issue and with the regulation and with good policy we can really benefit the community. I Also think it's worth noting that Herbalogy group is citing three dispensaries all in Western Mass. They're making a commitment you know West and Moving here and moving their families here And creating the jobs in this region. Did you mention the three communities? Sure East Hampton Greenfield and Amherst so to follow on your your Medical marijuana and and your Commitment to that Can you talk a little bit about your staffing you sort of mentioned in general how many jobs would be involved? You know, are you expecting to have a pharmacist on duty sort of what do you see as far as your sort of medical director or pharmacist or sort of what is your Current vision of what you think the staff would look like at the facility and sort of When those folks would be there relative to the total hours you're open that sort of thing sure The site is large enough to hold a couple of executive offices For here. We are considering our security and our extractions Head the extra so when we talk about extractions, that's actually what we're talking about necessarily The way to get medicine properly Scantra therapeutics and along with our Balgi have made a commitment to No added fillers distillates and hydrocarbons. So this is a product. That is a hundred percent pure Cannabis This is the safest most effective way to deliver medicine and that extraction chief will be on site here Also our head of security for her Balgi group will also be here on site Unclear on how many offices we can get based on again the drawings But we do think two to three C level staff Will be here on site for sure C hunter therapeutics has a Medical program overseen by it's not a doctor, but it's someone who has long extensive history studying cannabinoids and Their product lines and medical efficacy is I think it's the highest in the industry and we'll be cultivating out of East Hampton and That's where the cultivation Expertise will be To give you a little sense of where people will be located Just time bird Yeah, several things one is to pick up on the question mr. Slaughter asked a moment ago again about pharmacist somebody who Feels that they need and had been advised by a physician that they would benefit from Medical marijuana, but they've had no experience before Back to the pharmacist question who is on staff and what expertise do you now have? to assure that the person Understands the options available to them and makes an appropriate determination We're going to have a staff of trained bud tenders and patient advocates, and they will be trained in basically depending on what the doctor's prescription is and and what they're to Meet with the patient and review everything that if they have used before or if they're new to this and try to get Understanding of what's the best use for them and what's the safest use for them and also educate the patient how to safely store Store the medicine and how often they would have to come back when that goes back to see hundred therapeutics Management team our management team That's where they bring in that operational expertise of people from Colorado and all around the nation that have been in this industry for Years that know and they're going to train our staff Perfectly into helping patients get what they need the exact strain and stuff like that If you want to I But that actually is a segue to what I was thinking is my next area of inquiry which is I Gather from your location So that you've identified in the material you've provided that You are currently not a provider in any other states. This is a new business to you and Which is a little different from some of the other companies that have come in before so I was going to ask and you started to answer the question a little bit about what where you are turning to gain the expertise that an experienced operator who's been Doing this in other jurisdictions Was bringing to the table Yeah, I think that's exactly why the herbology group reached out to see enter therapeutics for a partnership the medical and recreational bills both allow for Applicants women veteran minority owned businesses, but when they reach a certain point They do need to reach out for expertise and capital and that's what herbology did and they were successful in creating a partnership with see enter therapeutics who again moved and Located over 20 C-level executives from Colorado and in various places Who've been running medical or recreational operations in the country? They are currently In operation in other states. I can get you that detailed information about where they operate and where they help manage Locations, but that's exactly the partnership here. So we have people who are passionate about the product who come from background Treating people with serious pain and drug addiction Who reached out found capital found expertise to partner and and create this type of experience for patients? So you have a partner who has been an Active operator in other jurisdictions is which you're yeah, correct And under the met again I'm going to stick to medical under the medical act They're nonprofit entities that the license holders and that's herbology group and then there's often times If not all the time there's a management company and that management company provides a lot of the expertise and or capital needed So that's exactly what we have here is that we have a nonprofit Entity that holds the license that's the herbology group and before you and a management company that services the license with them to provide that expertise and as you've consulted with Um What have they advised you as to the challenges of co-locating both an adult use and medical Establishment within the same facility and What lessons have you taken away into the operation of your three Locations including the one in Amherst Maintaining medical I think is is often a challenge 3% of the population in mature markets Have medical patients so Colorado, Oregon the rule of thumb is 3% and then recreational adult use market is much larger So a lot of times the medical market will will go away or the medical The the importance of medical doesn't exist anymore And that's something that see hunter has again approving commitment making the best products and we have a proven commitment We will be proving in a commitment to making sure we always provide those products I would guess that is one of the biggest challenge and Talking to regulators around the country. They they tell you that the medical program oftentimes doesn't have a use when the the patients can get Medicine that is available without registering with a government entity Having to keep that registration up. I believe it's a small cost per year, but it is a cost per year and The dosage on medical is is essentially what is is different In Massachusetts the law states that every portion or every whatever it is that they're doing can be five milligrams In medical that is much higher and people who are dealing with severe pain debilitating Diseases they need large amounts To manage those things so the medical programs are absolutely necessary Sometimes it's hard to make that economics work But that's why I think a well-funded experience group with high medical efficacy products make sense. That's why we're here A lot of people do do not want to get a medical car because they're registered in the system Security number and they would could possibly get fired from their jobs So they tend to go to the adult use market, but what's great about this state is medical I think they're tax-free right when they come by products. That's awesome It's not like that in every state. So yeah, I think medical will stick around in Massachusetts for sure I guess the last question I'll ask and then I think This is Krueger had a follow-up shoes, but I'll let her ask it directly You mentioned the hours of operation projected is 8 a.m. to 8 p.m I assume since we're principally talking about the medical aspect that that's what the references to Generally, would you expect both parts of the business to operate in the same hours or would you see it as They're being possible differential there There if if the town so wanted it under a Condition of a special permit we'd be happy to do that I do think what we were trying to achieve is not be open too late Not be open too early allow people before work and after work Get what they need So certainly open to changing those. I'm not sure and I forgive me I don't remember if you have specific instructions in your zoning ordinances for hours of operation Sometimes do some cities do I don't believe you do So so therefore I think we chose 8 to 8 to be an hour before and a couple hours after work But open to that discussion in some communities. It's 9 to 7 some it's 9 to 8 We're open to that discussion. I think that's something that we can discuss during the special permit process The 8 to 8 was for medical it applies for medical for sure. Yes. Yeah So to very disparate, so I'm trying to figure out and I know you introduced yourselves Can you explain who you are in a relationship to the The group the biology so sure I missed when you said like your position was or I'm just kind of missing that sure My name is Frank Perullo. I Run a company called the Novus group and we do public and community affairs and cannabis consulting Okay, so you're the consultant I am correct and you're answering most of the questions. Okay, so when I look at that good I would that would be good So on our team of experts. Yes, I'm wondering Sister that looks just okay. It's not your daughter And that's and you're very shy because you're the you're the ghost picture here Okay, so So you're the principles. He's a consultant Okay, and then my other question is really different So I'm looking at the rendering of the outside of the building, you know, and then you show rafters with a keen owner, you know It looks nice, but that building is pretty old run down And I'm wondering what level of improvement capital you're going to put into that building Given its age and condition. It's an opportunity to prove There is there is enough area there to put other Development or buildings which in my mind is not a bad thing. You're in a key corner location in a really important part of town in a commercial area You would have the closest proximity to the University of Massachusetts of any of the applicants that we've had under consideration So like to hear a little bit more about what you're going to do with that building Not yet. We don't have that with us Our plan right now is to invest Between 500 and 700 thousand dollars within the building So we're talking about a significant investment in infrastructure and the exterior and the interior We're purchasing the building There's going to be around a three million dollar investment into the town that is enough for now in terms of what we can I think make the economics work along with, you know, host Community agreement payments, etc. Before we get up and running In the future, would we be open to a development on the site We probably would be but at this point we have enough in our hands just to take the building and and make it up to the Standards that we we wish Mr. Slatter, I have a question for mr. Bachman or maybe for mr. Kravitz We have issued a letter of support for the site to the prior owner And we've talked a little bit about this, but how do we manage? Logistically a request for a letter on a site where we already have issued a letter So that was one of the questions That we had a conversation about we would want them to I would think this board was interested in having four letters of support Or non-opposition out there versus adding a fifth. They were in discussions between Happy Valley and which holds the current letter and Herbology, do you want to talk about where the status is of that? Sure. So we received a letter and forwarded it to manager Backelman and What I can say is that it states They would be happy to rescind their requests But they want to make sure you know that they may come back if this sale falls through and They want to make sure they reserve the right not to just totally rescind it It was sort of legal speak for yeah We want you to be successful because we're making a sale to you and that sale is completely contingent on you getting a letter for Medical, but we want to make sure that we have the right if you're sale if the sale falls through to come back to the town Is that inaccurate? I think that was accurate. So is it can we operate that way? It's a good question that Don't know I mean it is something that you could choose to offer us a letter and tell them that their letter is then Voided again our sale doesn't go through and it's contingent upon that is contingent upon us being successful We've never avoided a letter. So right understood You've raised a key issue and the relationship between Happy Valley and why I think an important thing for you to talk about What is the relationship between you and Happy Valley which has which I believe still owns the site? And so what's going on with that fair question great question. We have signed a purchase and sale agreement Our purchase closing is contingent on receiving this letter and a special permit Most cannabis sales of real estate are all contingent upon permitting local permitting not state And that's where the exit most things in life are correct So we are hoping to receive the letter move on to special permit and be successful and then close on the transaction We have paid a considerable amount thus far and either option or holding fees as well as the down payment and the purchase and sale agreement so you said your product was going to be produced in East Hampton It is and then you talk a lot about sea hunter therapeutics, and I guess it's important for the board to know What is the relationship between? Herbalogy and sea hunter, and are they providing product or they and what is the exact relationship there? Yeah, so they're providing expertise and The product is again, I'm going to speak just from medical the medical market is vertically integrated So we have to grow what we want to sell So we will be growing they will be providing the cultivation expertise and the capital to build that cultivation facility as well as the extraction Machinery and all the other things necessary to provide the patients with what we need So that's where they come in with the capital and the expertise And the ownership structure of herbology or to see hunter have any ownership stake in herbology. No herbology group is the License holder non-profit entity that will be I'm sure converting to our for-profit entity The other question was if you are a big Cash only business or if you'll be accepting payments by credit or debit cards But we have exactly yeah, sorry, I'll add to that. We are lucky enough to receive the banking with Century Bank and Century Bank allows the debit cards Century Bank has cut off all clients from now on at least that's where they're telling people And so we are set up with an accounted century Which means we will take debit cards and they will be if there is cash They will be picking it up again random times throughout the week and arm secure vehicles, but we do think that the The fact that we can take debit cards is a is is a great a good thing so to answer miss Krueger's question how we manage the Letter of non-opposition or support if that's what if you choose that you want to provide that and how the contingent language That happy valley is seeking because they have certain property rights that they want to respect as well Sort of like buying a house that all this stuff has to happen at the same time. I think But there are some legal contingencies that we if you choose that you want to Provide such a letter we would start working on what that would look like I think for me just to that point I think A little bit chicken and egg problem here in some respects. I think For me some confidence that we could Create an arrangement Would be necessary to provide all to to be fully confident in voting for a letter of support and on opposition There may be other there probably are could be other factors for me as far as that's concerned But that's certainly one of them And so I think we may need to have some Do diligence by yourself mr. Kravitz on on that point or our town council to to see what we could Either include in that letter or what are the guarantees we could have because I think that Learned what our options are as far as that's concerned how much Control we could exert and therefore what comfort level we have December yeah, I am I think we should Try and get that clarified though I Believe that We would probably be restricted and this is another question to ask Through council or maybe mr. Kravitz or mr. Bacchaman already know the answer that we couldn't issue to for the same location anyway, so that a Second one would almost have to be contingent upon the withdrawal of the first to be effective because of the Distance requirements that are built into DPH regulations Well, I think we're all I mean thanks to my colleagues also for a lot of all the questions I would have asked it in particular about no No, no, you're the experts of two of you about the facility But just to clarify so happy valley won't rescind the letter without a quid pro quo from us Because they could they're free to apply whenever they want they can do it ever They after they give up their letter they can they can always apply for something else They can't make the sale without giving it right right I think they they see the letter as a Item of value to them and if this sale fails for whatever reason then they would not They would own a building without a letter support or subordinate opposition from the town is so they're hesitant to go forward with it That's a chicken-egg thing again. Exactly. And I'm sure there's ways to think that work through this But I mean mr. Steinberg did hit the nail on the head when he said you can't we can't have two letters on the same location out So how do we resolve that through town council or it's a doctor? Yeah So if I may I mean would it be something that we could Vote on contingent upon a conversation you have with town council Therefore at least the vote happens and if the town council agrees with whatever approach you take at least we can expedite the process that's Mr. Wall I'm just gonna ask what the legal phrase for is contingent upon contingent upon You also could vote to withdraw the letter of support for the applicant that is selling us the property and Authorize the letter for us all in one probably vote Be a very self-serving opinion, but I also do want to note that the so and Jeff you may I guess I'm gonna just give my opinion on this from the year when you get asked to the Operating and procedures phase two of the process you have and then you can you get through that and you get deciding Once you go deciding you have one year to put your application in so foreseeably that year whenever it lapses for Happy Valley, they will have to go through a whole entire application process and that letter will not be valid anymore So that is that's Department of Public Health Public regulation I don't know when you offered that letter But one year to the date of them in not not you giving that letter But then putting in the citing profile to the state is when that expires You might actually know that requested April 29th word acted June 20th So again close So if I might so what I'd like I'd like mr. Boggleman to give us some advice or maybe mr. Kravitz I'm wondering why such a rush when we meet pretty regularly I know you had to wait a while to come in and see us and I'm Sorry about that, but I'd rather cover some of these bases first I do appreciate that you've made an investment and you have a business plan and of course you'd like to seal the deal and not insensitive to that but You would have to give me a pretty stunning reason why you have to have it tonight because we it's very typical to have people Come back after we resolved our questions, and we hadn't really heard from you before so We may need a little more time understood understood it would be I guess a dereliction of my duty not to request is With some emphasis But happy to come back at another time So this is not a simple Transaction because you're not just they're not issuing a you're not they're not requesting to issue a letter on a site That does not have anything that meets all the other legal requirements They have not gone through the zoning board of appeals at this point in time And also I think this transaction is especially complicated We have not had a initial conversation. We had a substantive conversation about the host community agreement on the medical or the Adult use side and I think this is a complicated one because of the churn in the industry that there are things that are still the for adult use things are still being decided and the applicant has been pretty clear that they in Hope to be Co-locating these two facilities without knowing what the rules are so I think it's unreasonable For the you know, it's not unreasonable for the board to say we need to think and see what's how this develops over time Because that's what your responsibility is So I'm thinking if we send them away to come back I would want updated plans that reflect the code the idea of co-location and Some resolution on our side may be working with the applicant on some of the outstanding legal questions and honestly, Miss Brewers put a lot of time into the marijuana issue and I think She doesn't miss very many meetings and would be good to have her Included in that final decision. She may be shouting at her television Yeah, I do think that's case did you know actually to that point I want to ask mr Mr. Barman she suggested an email that we post a meeting and select board in case of quorum of a show-up Wednesday night I didn't know if you had an opportunity to do that today or not We did not have the opportunity to do that and it's not something we typically would do Usually because you're not going to be I hope you're not going to be Deliberating on this because I'd be an odd thing to do was an abundance of caution I think on her part to suggest some did you have something you want to add? Yes, you do have to come up As the viewers may know mr. Kravitz has taken the lead on the staff level on all things marijuana much to his Yeah, I just wanted to Clarify that I think the letter of support that that the select four gave to happy valley was specific to 422 Amity Street I think that any letter of support if one were to be given to herbology would be specific to that location I don't think the Zoting Board of Appeals would issue two special permits I don't think the cannabis control commission would issue two licenses at the same location So I think that if there's a general concern about having more than four letters of support out there We can certainly deal with that, but I think it's a practical matter I don't think there's a concern about having two licensed entities at the same location So I just wanted to make sure that that was clear Not a concern. Okay. That's what you're saying to us. It's not a concern to have two out on the same site Right. I usually just saying one supplants the other two for two reasons at a bare minimum the Zoning Board of Appeals is not allowed to issue It's not allowed to locate two marijuana facilities owned by two different operators within 300 feet of each other So they could not issue two special permits at the same location for local permitting and I would imagine that we could issue two letters though for the same location, but right and not have the concern that Only one can get a permit. Okay, and I can confirm that with the building commissioner That would be helpful or talk to counsel about Something that seems maybe more complicated I still have other Any other comments from my colleagues on this? I'm I think that Given the amount of time that Ms. Brewer has spent on this general issue of marijuana laws and regulations It's unfortunate that she had the flu this evening, but I'm glad since she has the flu that she's not here the But I would very much like to have her as a part of this discussion and for that reason And to give us time to get answers to the questions. I would prefer that we Not have a motion tonight. Okay. I'm just to concur with my colleagues. I'm feeling the same way. I personally want to sort of Perk let this percolate a little bit and think about it a little bit. It's not I have no Positive or negative feelings per se. I want to but I do want to think about it in context of we know a lot more now than we did a year ago when we were doing these and we're thinking about it differently in the The the component of recreational and its intersection with the medical is is a much different circumstance and what we were experiencing and in the previous Time frame so so that's I Personally want to give a little more thought to and I know that I appreciate Ms. Brewer's thinking about those kind of things because she's definitely spent a lot of time thinking about those things Mr. Waldo. Do you have anything to add or are you sort of of the same mindset? so I think we're gonna not take any action tonight, but we appreciate you coming in and sharing with us where you are and and We We've had a long-standing support for medical marijuana in in both in the vote of the town and and also this board has been aware of its potential to help people who are suffering with different kinds of things and so you know we do Take these things seriously and want them to be successful if they do come to our community So thank you for your time tonight And I'm sure that will will be in touch And Thank you, and I you all received invitation to the Meeting on Wednesday evening Okay, great. So we hope to see as many of you just can without breaking any open meeting laws Thank you for having us Shate that we need a break. Are we okay? All right, why don't we take a quick recess for a couple of minutes and let me stretch their legs and then we'll come back to our agenda Can we even take those articles off? Everybody's back and Hopefully ready to go. All right. So next on our agenda is the town manager performance goals update and review Mr. Bachman, would you like to take us through your memo to share? I don't plan on going through in detail, but I did want to note that As we talk as we spoke last time At the two-month review that we wanted to have a six-month review as well Keep a short leash. I think is the term But mostly because it was timely in the sense of Noting that there was going to be the election about the charter and was it time and to Look at what was on the plate and what we had to accomplish over the next few months before August So I haven't didn't really a start to address that it's something that we really do need time Perhaps at the retreat or something to talk about how the board wants to approach The its activities on the retreat, but I basically updated the report I gave you in November. I think it was And I'm not gonna go through the whole thing if you have specific questions much of this I think has been reported on the town managers report Previously, but it is nice to have a compendium of all the accomplishments that we as a town and efforts the town is making I think it's pretty impressive list and There's always a lot going on in town and you've got incredible staff who are working on lots of different issues And we were just talking during the break about mr. Kravitz's efforts along with miss Krueger and miss Brewer on medical marijuana plus, you know miss Federman and miss breast strip and you know building inspector all kinds of people who are contributing towards Really paving new ground because we are you know the I know the MMA tells people to come to our website to look at it And that's where we want to be because we have such great information And people put a lot of time to educating themselves in this so if you have specific questions, I'm not gonna walk through everybody with this There's not my intention at least You can always bring it up let's see Well, continue it's continually updating on health insurance This see The ambulances with Hadley there's an article on paper, which I didn't send to you independently But it was in the paper. They they are discussing that A lot of I did change a fair amount, but Yeah Oh in terms of new that you don't know about I don't think there shouldn't be So I'm gonna actually ask one I saw here not because it's necessarily good or bad You know, it's like I'm looking under on page five under number two under long-range Planning number two Sustainability and green initiatives the second bullet says at least two additional solar installations are under consideration on private land The town would seek a pilot payment as used in previous projects any news on those at this point in time They're both in North Amherst They're not in the development phase. There was one that we have a pilot payment. I Forget the street. It's on but it's it's company called next amp It's but it's on a farm and I Think on the Sunderland border don't exactly location, but they're moving forward and we have executed a pilot agreement with them That's identical to the one or similar using the same format as previous Wasn't the part you were on but I was like there's no five Do you see that anyway? This is more to your general comment, Mr. Backelman about the You know this transition that we're in moving from On representative time meeting former government to a town council former government sort of it's it's a big deal and a lot of new territories, so We had Many months ago before we knew the outcome of the vote said that we would devote our next Border retreat to dealing with that's not until the 28th, but And it makes me wonder What kind of planning process we might have Probably looking to you in in large part to structure The kind of topics we have about three and a half four hours together because there's really a lot to do and as we discovered last Monday lots of questions and they're still kind of out there And I just have been in a number of conversations with people who have given different interpretations of their opinions of what it means now that We've passed this change of government and I'm trying to be cautious and tell people we don't actually have those answers yet that it's an evolving picture So I just wanted to just to say that because I don't know where else it'll fit in I mean, it's not our agenda to talk about in any depth, but there's a lot of speculation Based on what we started talking about about the transition rules and It's not really known yet So I think there's there's three major things that have some urgency first is how do we interpret the transition provisions of the Charter and those are coming up in terms of town meeting, but also just actions that the board is taking Can you issue a letter of non opposition to a medical marijuana facility? You know it can range and and we need and I think the board needs some guidance from counsel and Really pushing to get that guidance to you or maybe a conversation with counsel about how to interpret it And who makes that final determination because it identifies three the charter identifies the town manager the town meeting and the select board is all Needing to qualify their actions as to whether it complies with the charter or not So that's the first one the second one is that the charter does call on you to create within 30 days of the election a committee to look at the Changes that have to happen And this doesn't have to be the sole committee But it can be it's this a committee that sort of looks at the legal underpinnings of the government and what has to happen when the council takes office You've the the third one The clock is ticking the third one you already did Which was you put the question on the ballot and on the ballot on the special town meeting warrant and that is will move forward Expeditiously and then the fourth one is sort of are all the other things that we need to think about from you know structured to make sure that Town is ready to welcome a new council and the council is ready to take action once it Assembles and that's a longer-term process It means I think it means visiting a lot of other communities and helping to think about that we're not the first town to have done this Initially reaching out to lots of communities and to other organizations and to the state for support and to see if we can get more professional help Through funding from other places to say are you available to help us with this process because I think having Being able to guide that through a staff and elected board committee would be or or separate committees However, you think best to run this I think it's a it's gonna be a pretty time intensive period of time for the next six months or so How are we gonna get that committee? Appointed within 30 days and do we know? We'll have to be on your agenda either next week or the week after okay So I think that one the one that is prescribed by the the Charter in the 30 days is is very it's an error We have to get it done. It may be a very small group. That's not that Everybody help us think through how we're gonna do this. That's a different about it's essentially a by-law kind of review Right, right. I believe so. Oh, we have to do it if you envision two different groups doing that. That's the question so So that will be on the agenda because we don't have agenda setting So we might need to decide that now It's like link to be on So your next near next meeting is until next Wednesday a week from Wednesday So we have an agenda setting, but I won't be here tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure if you're gonna be back I would be back by four we moved it to four, but you're not gonna be back I won't be back in time for that, but you could still go ahead with agenda setting Mr. Zomek and miss Papua here We should maybe should give it a shot and know that we have to do that I mean half the agenda is already set because of the warrant so maybe we can knock it up But let's remind we have to deal with that right so we can confirm that you have agenda setting tomorrow Okay, I'll be back Mr. Steinberg, you know one more thing that I just wanted to point out. I mean I very much appreciate your memo Because of my travels this weekend and Activities this afternoon have not had time to spend doing more than glance at it But I appreciate that I have to look at and Did it very much? Reinforces our goal to look at the performance goals is an ongoing Enterprise not something that's set in stone at one point in time at the beginning of the year and never subject to change as So we only add to it. We never subtract In that we're scarred as there's one other change that's very significant and that is that there are three very important positions within Town Hall where we either have had a resignation or We'll have a retirement in the next couple of months There are people you rely on very closely any town manager would rely on people in those positions The time to fill those positions is fairly significant. So the amount of time That might be lost to that Set of circumstances that I just described does need to be Factored into all of our collective thinking about what we can reasonably expect during their the balance of this year that we're talking about I appreciate that just so you maybe that's a new thing that those the position of Assistant to the town manager and the town clerk have both been advertised their search communities that have been established for those two Internal you know to the interview committees I guess what there really are and then those those those processes in place because we want that those We didn't want to advertise until we knew what the Charter was doing both of those positions are really important They derive much of their work depending on the form of government we have so those two positions are moving forward Treasure collector we're holding on at this moment in time mainly because of capacity issues with our HR because In addition to doing these two searches. We're also doing a major the health insurance is a takes up an enormous amount of time We have 22 information meetings scheduled with employees, and that's all the same people doing the same work So at their request that we've got really good people filling in on the treasure site and the collector side But we're very confident in that at this moment in time You know we're gonna put that one off a bit As we examine our operations on the first floor in general Great. Thank you, Mr. Wall I'm gonna ask a tiny question, but why not because you mentioned I saw you did talk about staffing on page five and six And the things that we're just asked about here But when you talked at the end about committees and communication and you mentioned you might look into a staff person to assist with minutes Will that be something that we possibly for the assist the town manager or would be a new Given all our budgetary pressures and yeah All the budgetary pressures are important we There two things one is Who was going to manage the council and right now that position is an appointment of the council But we're putting that in the town clerk's job description. Is that a duty of the town clerk? But what that I think what you're referencing is we're we have a backlog of minutes and We haven't really explored that explicitly it's Because because Our goal it was going to be to fix the backlog and I think with Miss Pupple retirement her retirement She is eager to take on some of these tasks or will they're willing that she's maybe not eager No But and it and you need someone who knows what they're doing and she certainly knows what she's doing So she's if she has more free time after June Where she I think we're looking at some opportunities for like that So are there other Questions relative to the to the manager's performance goals update review that we want to Mention at this point in time If not, then I think what we can do is we can move on to our our consent calendar for the evening if someone would like to make a motion or separate those out of if That be the case We also need to take positions on oh, yeah I mean do you want to go out of order? I think well what I was thinking is that we would do the consent calendar And then we come back to that other and kind of grind through those because they're going to be Think straightforward, but okay We have already moved and passed part a concern calendar I Move to approve the items listed on Part B of the consent calendar for April 9 2018 Agenda as presented Motion in a second for the discussion hearing none all those in favor, please say aye aye Post and we're you know, so no, so thank you for that And so at this point we can probably I think the likely thing to do is is revert toward the beginning of our our motion sheet because I have feeling that we have the opportunity to cover several of the articles covered tonight and offer motions and Take our actions as necessary, so If someone would be so kind as to begin Well, I do have a question for you Lump together several of the ones that were presented Miss Aldrich. I have no problem with that and the ones that I was thinking of Initially, it might be articles two three four five Six We could even do seven yes Because they're all fairly Routine as far as things that have been done in prior years with the one exception of this the structure of the Option no, I don't even think That's not even in this group Revolving funds actually a separate one So I before offering that motion or having somebody else offered I just wanted to see if there's a point where anybody wanted to pull any of those out for separate consideration. I Don't see a reason to and personally For simplicity sake I could take those as articles. I would speak to at town meeting Some of which are all in a consent counter, so that's But I'm happy to take those on because they're mostly for straightforward unless unless there are some that that some other people would Like has the moderator indicated? What is the consent calendar that he intends to propose? He has don't know if I have that here though He worked on the warrant that we had in our thing tonight Okay, well I move to recommend To the April 30 2018 annual town meeting Article 2 transfer of funds unpaid bills Article 3 acceptance of optional tax exemptions article 4 2018 budget amendments Article 5 retirement assessment article 6 regional lock-up assessment in article 7 other post-employment benefits trust second and Mr. Slaughter to speak on behalf of the board At town meeting So I remember from past years and I think it's happened more than once the OPEB trust has been pulled out by Somebody at the meeting, so I just think we need to be it's fine The motion is fine But whoever is speaking be prepared to address that in more detail because it may get pulled I'm okay to speak to that as well. It's the advantage of having been on the finance committee way back when In the monitoring moderator intends to put it in the consent calendar still right it has been pulled out a couple times All right, so we have a motion in a second for Articles 2 through 7 Is there further discussion on those hearing none all those in favor, please say aye Aye, and so that's unanimous Person absent Okay, so I got it through 2 through 7 so now we have article 8 which is the 2019 budget which has there's a couple different pieces to that for this evening And I think again on on article 8 Obviously we talked in detail about the library services. I don't know if we want to take up It's on a motion right I believe it does so I didn't know whether we wanted to take up The general fund budget which is general government public safety public works conservation development community services sewer fund water funds always fund Transportation fund and debt service. Oh, I don't think I thought that service was its own article, but maybe not Right here. We didn't have a presentation on it Now we did not be typical anyway, I don't know Who would we ask questions to? Well, those have really been presented to us through the town manager's budget, which was given to us in January and We have had the opportunity if we've had questions about it to ask questions all along. I don't think that Any of us have posed questions on it It's here So on that basis so on that basis I would feel comfortable If we decided to go ahead this evening and feel comfortable if we decided to postpone it one night and I'd also Be willing to have my name listed not that I would intend to speak to anything other than I Indicate support since it will be motions of the finance committee and to answer questions To the extent that I'm able to do so as they arise again, like Mr. Slaughter having Served on finance committee Not familiarity with the structure of how this is done and content and how to Read the budget that's presented to us which I have done to the extent that I could So in that case the motion on our motion sheet includes the Does not include the school's budgets, which makes it easier for me It doesn't include the library budget makes it easier for mr. Seinberg So we could take that motion up tonight if we were so inclined so if someone would like to make that motion I would entertain it Make it since oh the one for the general fund I move to recommend To the April 30th 2018 annual town meeting article 8 Fy 2019 general fund budget which includes general government public safety public works conservation and development community services sewer fund water fund solid waste fund transportation fund and debt service and Mr. Steinberg to speak to that on behalf Motion a second except for the discussion Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye. I And so that's unanimous with one absent Be willing to make make the next one as a motion that we can discuss it. Please go right ahead. I move to recommend to the April 30th 2018 annual town meeting article 8 FY 2019 library operating budget in the amount of two million six hundred and eighty three thousand sixty nine dollars with town tax with town tax support of one million nine hundred and ninety three dollars Ninety one million nine hundred and ninety three thousand four hundred and sixty six dollars We decided later news to speak to that I mean, I guess I could take that one or mr. Wilde. Wilde's a friend of the library, so I'm happy to give All to speak So is there further discussion on that one Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye. Aye, and we have an abstention And an absence and no, no, no, no That was a 3-1-1 Okay, so now we have Bliv next is article 11 Which is general bylaw 9. Oh 9. I'm sorry. I skipped one the reserve fund so we can Take a motion on that one if Client I recommend To the April 30 2018 annual town meeting article 9 reserve funds This Steinberg to speak on behalf of the article on behalf of the select board of town meeting Thank you, sir for the discussion hearing none all those in favor, please say aye. Hi She knew this was one absent that one may also get lumped into the consent calendar. I'm not sure That may be also there. All right, so now we'll do article 11 If someone would like to make a motion on that one and this is a little more involved I think this year as far as explaining it The effect is the same as every other year. We've done this But I think that because of the I think he's putting this in the consent calendar even though this has a different form They can't remember that positive really sort of makes Makes things permanent And while there's some hesitation by council relative to the new charter and bylaw changes this is required by State law, so we kind of have to Also would note that Future council could reverse it. I think that there's nothing that keeps the town from reversing under this provision. Yeah, so that It hasn't taken away from the future council if they decided that they didn't want to see this revolving fund continue the ability to Make that determination at a future date. That's correct. I Would move to recommend To the April 30 annual town meeting article 11 General by-law revolving fund authorization. Mr. Steinberg to speak Second Is it for the discussion? Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye. Hi, and that's unanimous with one absent So I think what we typically do on 25 and 26 is defer our decision in town meeting because We don't know if there's going to be any dollars in there or not So we'll hold off on those. I think for now Controversial, but right Okay, so that takes care of things under the actual items under action discussion for the warrant for this evening Don't we have a whole bunch of holdovers? That could be we have that on our Now sounds like a perfect time to me and we might want to defer on something Correct So if if people would like to make Motions relative to those I will say this, you know just speaking of sort of taking ownership of some of these things Reports boards committees. I'm happy to speak to that one. Not that it takes more than about two seconds But I also think you know the easements There's a few on those So let's see article 19 right declaration of use article 20 is that in 21 is an easement in 22 Are you going to be presenting those at warrant review because they had your name down? Yes, I will I know graph park is different, but I wonder if One one of us whoever could do 19, 20 21 and 22 I think I could do those because again, I think most of these are really straightforward. So as far as you know You'll have already had to present something for Exactly so between now and tomorrow evening Fully prep I believe I'm gonna have some time tomorrow, but that's a whole different thing So and for that purpose we could probably actually much like we did earlier. We could probably Make the recommendation Is one motion instead of like five of these I remember it I think Recision and bond authorization 18 goes with coal right so it doesn't say this on here Isn't that that it's correct? So that can be that I can be in there as well. Yeah, I got it And I'm happy to speak to that as well. Yeah, okay, so those we've clumped these or lumped these I Mean can I read them all? Yeah, that's what I was hoping to see if I can figure that I moved to recommend to the April 30th 2018 annual town meeting I'm gonna read them all article 18 recision of bond authorization article 19 acquisition of easement coal property Article 20 dedication of use grove Park article 21 acquisition of easements multiple ways Article 22 acquisition of land or easements Harlow Drive and rolling Ridge Road type on the motion sheet. Not a big deal Okay, that's it. Mr. Slaughter speak to that. Is there a second? Is it for the discussion? Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye I We could take my motion and add article 23 as well Seconder object by True I thought I heard you said 23 already she stopped at 22 I meant to say 23 and I 18 just to get the records 18 19 20 21 22 23 mr. Slaughter to speak. Yes Do we generally take a position on article one just Or do we leave that one? It's the moderators. This is just something we always do I don't know we need to but So I think tells me 26 isn't the right number for this than the East Street school. Let's find out Because 26 just a minute ago was It's 27 that's what I thought 26 is stabilization fund Solution that's not I think So the authorization to transfer a property streets cool Again, I think I will take that one because I'm on the trust so I will take that as a as an article And I may have to actually stop taking This one actually has a Just just to get in the record. I moved to recommend to the April 30th 2018 annual town meeting article 27 Authorizing transfer of property East Street school to the Amherst affordable housing trust for affordable housing and then Once we have a second like hoping we can have a minute to talk about this one And so you had a comment or a couple things Before we vote We talked about this last time because it came off it was back on I think the language we have now is different than what we saw last time We at one point I think via some emails there was something from mr. Bucklman about whether this would be sponsored by the trust or the select board it is Still the select board article that didn't change. I thought it might Know the trust will want to speak to this but they're The language change from what we saw before so we did to just before we take a vote I think we should be aware of the content a little bit No, but we had an issue in the word counsels advice And we authorize mr. Bucklman to act on our behalf to resolve that Is different so the key sentence was Was the last sentence where it says provided however that the town shall not convey that said property to the Amherst affordable housing Trust until the town council Determined town council meaning the elected body Determines that a feasible project meaning the above objectives has been identified Finance and commitments have been obtained and key permits have been secured that is language That was recommended by our town attorney, which is how we've been learning to say that from now I Should note that I had discussed this with mr. Hornick prior to that he was not Supportive of this language, but my feeling was this is the language the town our town attorney had given us and He acquiesced Understanding that he was happy to have it on the warrant, but I think There is still a bit of conversation we had with you and the town attorney about exactly what the moat main motion will be They wanted you to be aware mr. Slaughter and we had said last time You know, let's get a placeholder and try to get it where we think at least our attorney is comfortable For now and if we have to do the series of discussions and amendment Later that's always a possibility that we you know, loathe to do that if we don't have to so I just wanted I Had been made aware of the change I looked for this and then I had talked to mr. Hornick briefly because he reached out to me, but just wanted us to know going forward. This was the change up to address attorneys concern last time and It brings up some questions for trust members Or are we well that then given that it has some slight changes from what we last saw do we Want to take a position tonight? Do we want to think about it some way so we can hear them? I'm leaning a little bit toward maybe waiting. Yeah Yeah, and I just wanted so we can we can hold off on on that. Do you actually make the motion yet? There's a motion on the floor Or we can rescind the seconders Okay Okay All right, I think we've figured that out Discussed before he moves, but I moved and then discuss all right so 20 Egg commission is actually 28 right so changes to the ag commission is 28 This one I will also take because I am the liaison tonight But I've been working with my groups Downtown parking working group that you just don't mean anything comes to town meeting No big deal But I'm open to a motion with regard to this since I just Mucked up the last one recommend To the April 30 2018 annual time meeting article 28 Amend vote establishing the agricultural commission. Mr. Slaughter to speak on behalf of The select board at town meeting The motion second is a further discussion Hearing none all those in favor, please say aye. All right That's unanimous with one absent So this this last one I will discuss before moving and I think this is one that we understood Must be on the warrant because it's a petition article, but would be disqualified from action This may follow it was shared. Yes, please may fall into that Let's get better clarity from town council bucket of items. So yeah, I mean that would fall until let's wait, right Right, I think that I think as we get a greater clarity about What cannot be acted on I think then then that'll be its own classification of of action that we take instead of recommend Not recommend recommend deferral dismissal. It may be its own sort of flavor As you heard before this is another item right In that regard The dissolution of the recycling refuse management committee has been removed all together now Believe so yes, it is on the motion sheet. It should not be on the motion sheet, right? I think she just stapled the one It's not in the war right? Yeah, I I was just clarifying Do we have motions for the Well, we don't So in our in our packet we had the special town meeting which is at 6.59. I'm sure it'll only take a moment One minute exactly And there are two articles on that we do not have Motions on our motion sheets night. I'm not sure it's expressly in our in our In our agenda, but I wanted to make you aware that it's there and that we will probably do that next week Right Okay, so I think we've taken action known as many as we can correct So I think next up on our agenda is the town manager report. Is there anything? Everything's yes. I want to alert The members that Screwger and mr. Steinberg and I will be presenting at the zero net energy building advisory council tomorrow in Boston this is a committee of The most advanced thinkers on zero net energy for buildings in Massachusetts have set up Several years ago. It meets. It's a large group that meets twice a year And we've been allocated an entire hour on their agenda to talk about the bylaw that's been passed by by the town Meeting and by the changes that we've been working on in the time since town meeting So it's an exciting opportunity. It's an opportunity for to hear from a lot of experts about how we've approached it and The changes we're making to the bylaw. It'll be an interesting session I think so and we have a large crew from mothers out front and from the people on Select board members and the chair of the DPW fire Station advisory committee going in the superintendent public work going going as well So it should be a really good meeting. So I want to mention that Great presentation going out Reminder that we have the Amherst economic development forum on Wednesday, April 25th, Wednesday Is it Wednesday? Yeah, from six to eight in the town room. This is one of our first public session on Economic development being led by mr. Kravitz, but also the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission who received the contract to do The study on economic development. It's one of our important studies that we're moving forward on The the town has in your in your packet area on your desk. There were Some information we have been going We had three today going out to the as I told you before we're meeting with At every work site. So today we're at the north fire station at 7 a.m. We were at town hall at 11 p.m. And at Fort River at 3 30 to do presentations to employees and retirees about the changes being done to the health insurance plan we had 50 at 50 people mostly employees at Fort River and So this is these are we're doing two or three a day and we have 22 scheduled in total The sessions people are very actively interested in the changes It's the most important benefit that we provide to them And so I put just put out at your desk some of the information we're handing out So you get a sense of the types of information that people are getting as we talk this through You know that I think it's mostly the people who are attending some have concerns about the change at all But for the most part they just want to understand what's it mean to me? And I think we have a large number of staff from Blue Cross from town staff and from Maya Who is are going to be our new provider there to answer individual questions? In groups or at one-on-one sessions, so those are going well Also wanted to let you know that a couple weeks ago I attended a Meeting that included hosted by Mayor Monarkowitz in Northampton to talk about the community choice Aggregation which was not the normal I talked about this a little bit earlier But it's not the normal aggregation it was to decide if there were three communities Pellum Amherst and Northampton who were interested in pursuing this the Makeup of the committee Would be the three energy staff from the three communities a designee from from each community either From the select board and from the mayor And Then a number of other people the UMass CEE staff and then three members from the the sort of advocates who brought this forward and the purpose of this would be to See if there's a if there's interest in this plan and what the path going forward would be and they'd be responsible for seeing if there were funds out there or not so It's something they're they're starting to ramp up on and we'll talk some more about this a little more coherent way and Next your next meeting Mayor Narcos was supposed to get advice on whether this group that was as constitute it would be subject to the open meeting law and And if it is then they will comply with that and that's This makes this as well as the only items I have for you tonight Questions for the manager relative to those things seeing none We'll move on to member reports. I have a rather extensive one to give tonight So I may wait on that if others have things they want to Offer as member reports I think for mr. Wall Yeah, I Yeah, I think that the thing that was I wanted to expand a little bit on Where we are with zero energy and the question that has arisen That was referenced earlier about a possible Item not considered 48 hours prior to the meeting We have had one final meeting with the group for mothers out front We being this Grigger myself, mr. Bacchum Yeah, and We were talking about the process between now and the presentation at town meeting including the mailing of the one-page summary and The question that Came up was Who should be the sponsors of the one-page summary? It should it be co-sponsored Co-listed by the select board and mothers out front Certainly the group that was working on the bylaws not any not legally constituted group We were working on behalf of two different groups And so we were just trying to get clarity about whether it would be appropriate since it is a town It is a select for motion an article at town meeting whether the summary Can show that it is presented to in the mailing that will go out would be in the second mailing as as coming From the select board as well as from the mothers out front group And then we got to we don't have permission We're representing this group, but we didn't want to put select board on that Document and we could either talk about it tonight or wait till the meeting on the 18th because there'd still be time for the second mailing, but I Guess I was kind of hoping if we got that answer We might finalize that document might be able to use it to refer to it tomorrow night or whatever just Similarly an opportunity to make that decision now if it's appropriate under the strictures over agenda, right? So I think that could fall under topics not recently anticipated Because it does require a certain time on this because if we wait Then you won't be here So that meeting happened Friday morning, so that wouldn't have been that would have been less than right that would certainly fall within 48 hours before our current meeting so it is I think appropriate to to discuss this evening I Guess the question I have is given your two of your closeness to it is do you have a comfort level with it being a Cosponsored information page or would you prefer a different arrangement? I mean what's your? Current level of Comfort discomfort Since the process has involved a group that included the four that I made and for people who Represented mothers out front and we were very collaboratively to move from by law that was passed by town meeting to Proposal to substitute this new by-law in its place to town meeting I think that we're very comfortable with it the key section is that it identifies in Seven Points from the original by-law that are modified and how they are modified with the new by-law which are the major points of change It is all on a single page, so That's the bulk of what is present a little bit of explanation of the process that got us there But I think it's fairly straightforward factual explanation Without throwing any value judgments from anybody into the document Right, and I agree and just to explain the process a little so at the meeting prior to the Friday last Friday morning I had offered to draft something and I did a first draft and I sent it to everybody and That was discussed at the Friday morning meeting. I couldn't be there and Rudy Perkins from the mother-at-front group took it and wanted to do some changes and then sent it around this weekend and Because the way we've taken to working no one finalizes any documents without everybody seeing it and weighing in and making changes so there were Rudy had come up with this comparison chart as a replacement for some of the descriptive of what we did and I thought that that was fine, but then we got into I had drafted it with select board mothers out front and he had a different idea was like The working group whatever we still have to resolve that but I I think at that point We realized we had to come and ask the select board if we could put select board on this Just but I don't have any problem with the content And it's I think to do the to send out the warrant and in the packet and not have some Way to talk about what it is ahead of time before we get to the floor town meeting would be a mistake So that attempt was to introduce to people what it was Why were we doing this and what had we done and what were we doing now that was different? So the urgency on this is that the material for the second packet or do is do the 17th Because of the holiday on the 16th. You're not meeting to the 18th So that's and we didn't know about this in advance. So if in a question it is Right now is going to have the working group which two members of the board will be signing on to Do you want to have the select board approves also just just that's basically what you're asking, right? It's wrong in the offer. Well, I would I have a somewhat different idea to you so It's our motion. I mean our I mean is there a reason so are we Your preference now is to have the name of this working group, which has no official status on it I don't really think that the memo to town meeting should come from a working group That was a working title for us that isn't actually an entity. It's it has it's a group that with representatives The I mean, I mean we could say it's just ours But I think that defeats the purpose of the collaboration that we worked on and since it mothers out front Got the first version past There's a sense that they need to play a key role in representing why they are agreeing to change it Well, I guess my question is if the select board motion, is there anything wrong with having a select board statement? That indicates the origins of the article and the collaborative process. I mean is it a question of who's having more than one name on it or No The question is if the select board's name on it is on it Do we have authorization to represent the select board on this summary document along with mothers out front? And I'm sorry, but you and you don't have it so you're authorizing something you don't have So it's a little dicey, but we could certainly send it out, but it's not done yet Right, I agree and I think that you know the the you done a sort of brass tax It's we would like the changes made to the bylaw to make it functional and so if this helps that along and Again, give them what mr. Walz said we trust your judgment as far as content and that sort of thing I'm certainly fine with with that Representing the this is from the board and right, right because we've seen the Article so we know what's in that and so and we're comfortable with that So I think I don't know if we need to take a formal motion on that or not I would if someone to offer one, but I I don't think we necessarily have to week the record can show that we agree to that And since the sir or whatever Are there other? member reports So I just have one, but it's a it will be a little involved PVTA advisory board met today at 2 o'clock. We took up a number of issues relative to the upcoming fiscal year As you are aware of in March mostly there were a couple of things brought before the public and public hearing process One of which was a change in the fairs charged and the other was reductions in services to Try to balance the fiscal 19 budget based on the governor's budget, which was reverting back to Essentially a fiscal year 15 a funding level for the regional transit authorities The full you know process has been gone through and so what the board voted today was to have a 20% Increase in fairs Which is significant, but it also there's some logic to it because a we haven't had a change in fairs in more than a decade and B it makes the dollar amounts go from a dollar and a half to a dollar 75 Is that correct? Let me make sure I can tell you the right number so but it makes the The amounts more useful for for writers one of the complaints in the in the hearing process was You know going to a dollar 60, which would have been a 25% increase, which is what we'd gone out To the public with was an unwieldy amount I'm sorry the current fair is a dollar dollar and a quarter the proposed amount would be a dollar 50 25% Not nearly as bad sorry Current fairs are dollar 25 The proposed amount would be a dollar 50 And there are a number of other changes of that similar sort throughout the entirety of the different types of They called it fair media because you can buy 31-day passes or week passes and that sort of thing But the idea was to try to stay as much as possible with fairly round numbers that worked with quarters quite frankly because that was a lot of feedback is The way the fairs work when you're actually on the bus is What you put into the the fare box stays in the fare box. It doesn't offer change back to you So having quarters a little easier for people So the board did vote to raise fares Effective July 1st The other action was taken was Relative to reduction in service and on that front we The the advisory board took a more nuanced approach. I guess the best way to say it So after going through the public hearing process, they take that feedback They modify the actual proposal to the to the board to try to mitigate disproportionate impacts Dispirit and disproportionate there's definitions of all that And so the the other piece that people have we've realized in doing this is that there are Timing issues with how roots get bid by drivers so that they Essentially it creates effective dates But one of the issues would be is if we made the new changes effective They would take effects mark May 13th in our region June 23rd in in the southern part of the PVTA we realized that if the Legislature and the governor, you know fund the RTAs at a higher level then we'd be reversing the process potentially for September And we'd have to go through the whole analysis process and public hearing process again So what the board did today was made a recommendation of changes to service Not quite as severe as what was originally proposed the idea being to try to More riders were inconvenienced, but fewer riders were left without an option So that was two of the sort of critical things when they when they made the modifications was to try to Reduce the number of people who can't get there from here. They may they can now get there from here It just may take longer. So that's that's really this sort of Simplistic way of describing it, but we made it effective September 1st pending or contingent upon how the funding plays out with the state So if the state funding comes into play, there's a prioritization of those those changes And so if the state funding comes in and can you know, we can keep service at where it's at We'll keep service where it's at if it's less than that then there's a prioritized list which will be in effect But the rate change to fears will be in effect regardless But the other will likely take effect in September So I want to make people aware of that and the PVTA website and and I can get materials For our website as well relative to those changes and when they'll be effective So I wanted to mention that in Somewhat probably excruciating details just because it's it's a pretty big change and there's a number roots a number roots in Our area that that are affected The the lion's share of effects are things like Saturday's take on Sunday or Sunday schedules to some extent they've modified that a little bit But it's a reduction in service not as many late running shifts longer time spans between shifts or roots those kinds of things and so Depending on how the the budget plays out in the next few months None of it may take effect, which would be in some ways the best Because the service would stay intact, but if not some of it will will be taking effect It's always a difficult process I'd go into a legislative the the Marta, which is Massachusetts Regional Transit Authority Association who is a central for all the RTAs working with the legislature on things had a luncheon a little over a week ago I think I reported on that a little bit You know, there's they're still working to to try to promote Funding for the RTAs because of you know, all of them are affected negatively by a funding level the governor proposed And all of them are going through similar sort of processes of how do we have a budget that that works and when can we change our? our roots and and still comply with the the regulation around around route changes and that sort of thing so We'll keep an eye on it as as time proceeds and as the budgets play out, but Hopefully Funding levels will come up a little bit, and it won't be as much of a change to the to the PVTA service So that's that and that was really the only Report I had but I did want to go into some detail on it for you folks And so I'm glancing at our there are no other member reports. I don't see anything else on our agenda Did you have anything? Since last week. All right, so if that's the case, then I would certainly entertain a motion to adjourn And so we're junior 931 thank you embers media