 Just a reminder to everyone this meeting is being recorded and it's being conducted virtually using remote technology given the relief that the governor issued in an executive order for public bodies like ours so that we can conduct our meetings remotely. And we've been doing this since so since March which is hard to believe. I'll open the meeting call to order. It is public meeting number 329 and we'll begin with the minutes. Commissioner Stephens. Do you want to do a call to order first? Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you so much. Yes. I have to do that given our virtual operations. Commissioner Cameron. Good morning. I'm here. Good morning. Commissioner O'Brien. I am here. Good morning. Good morning. Commissioner Ziniga. Good morning everyone. I'm here. And Commissioner Stephens. Good morning everyone. I'm here. And I'm here so for the record I'll find the present and we can get our business underway. We'll start with the minutes. Thank you so much. Sure. Madam Chair, colleagues in your packet you have three very quick sets of meeting minutes. These were open public meetings prior to going into an executive session. Pretty short but we'll go through these one at a time. First I would move that commission approved the minutes of the August 28th 2020 public meeting. Subject is always to any corrections or geographical errors or any other non-material moments. Second. Thank you. Do we have any questions on on those minutes? Okay we'll go ahead with a roll call vote. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Ziniga. Sorry. Aye. Commissioner Stephens. Aye. I vote yes. 5-0 for sure. Thank you so much. The next set. Sure the next set. The public meeting minutes from the September 3rd 2020 meeting. Again I would move their approval again subject to any corrections for typographical errors or any other non-material matters. Second. Thank you commissioner. Any questions or edits on those? Okay commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Ziniga. Aye. Commissioner Stephens. Aye. And I vote yes. 5-0. And the last set. Sure the last set of meeting minutes are from the November 9th 2020 public meeting. I would move their approval subject to any corrections for typographical errors or any other non-material moments. Second. Thank you. Any questions or edits on this last set? Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Ziniga. Aye. Commissioner Stephens. Aye. I vote yes. 5-0. Thanks. Great work. Shara. Thank you very much. Then Bruce. Thank you. Thank you so much. So now moving on to our next matter. Executive Director Wells. Good morning. Good morning Madam Chair and members of the commission. To start off I'd like to give a staffing update. I have very good news. We have onboarded our new Chief of the Licensing Division, Nikisha Skinner who is on the meeting today. Good morning Nikisha. So we are extremely fortunate to have her coming on board. She has an extremely impressive resume and background. She comes to us with over 20 years of experience in government administration. She's an attorney. She most recently was the general counsel at the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance and before that had been a general counsel at the Boston Public Health Commission and she had been an assistant general counsel there as well. She is a lovely person. We've been so happy to have her come on board. The team is very excited. It was very excited during the interview process to have someone just for her character and just the type of wonderful human being that she is. So we're lucky to have her and like to welcome her on board. I'll give her a chance to say hello to the teams. I know there's a lot of people here from the agency that haven't had a chance to meet her. So give your chance to just say hello but I wanted to just give you a warm welcome and we're very happy to have her. Thank you so much. Good morning everyone. Good morning Madam Chair and commissioners. I just want to say I'm really excited to be on board looking forward to working with the team and the partnership with the casinos. Thank you so much. It's been such a warm welcome from everyone and I just ask for your patience as I feel my way around over these next couple weeks. And doing so virtually an added bonus Nakisha. I think that I've been lucky enough to meet with you and I know many of my colleagues. So again welcome, welcome to your first public meeting and I just wanted you to know that one of your teammates Marianne Bratton gave a shout out on the chat for the whole team and say it's expressing how lucky on the licensing team feels. So I thought I would make that public Marianne just because it's such a special sentiment. Good job Marianne just like we practiced. Perfect. Thank you. I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank Derek Lennon for covering the supervision of the unit as we all know it's very difficult to cover two jobs especially when he has such a big job to begin with and then also such an important position as licensed chief to cover that. So what he did a tremendous job really brought the team together during the transition period. Did some substantive work along the way with the whole team. They're working on policies procedures and Loretta Lilios had developed the whole transition plan for giving the information that Nakisha is going to need over to her in a real comprehensive manner. So tremendous job. No surprise you know anyone working with Derek Calaver before he is but just wanted to say thank you Derek for doing that and congratulations to the team. You had a good interim and I've got a really great opportunity to work with Nakisha going forward. Yes thank you Derek. I didn't know if Derek you popped in if you want to say anything. It's been an ups thank you for the opportunity to work with the team. It's been an absolute pleasure and you know it's with mixed emotions sad to turn over the reins but really happy to have Nakisha here because she's going to do an excellent job with that team. That's what I thought you might convey. So Nakisha that's a great sign when somebody who's as busy as Derek is suggesting that it was hard for him to to let go of that great team. So welcome to Nakisha and again. Thank you Derek. Karen. Okay so now so now I'm going to turn it over to Loretta Lilios and Bruce Vann to give you another regular update on what's going on on site at the casinos. You can do any periodically just because of the COVID situation. Make sure you know what's going on on property and make sure that the procedure that you put in place being followed at the casinos. So why don't I start with Loretta and then we'll jump over to Bruce. Good morning. Thank you Karen. Good morning chair, good morning commissioners. Operations under the COVID requirements and restrictions are continuing to go well including over the Thanksgiving weekend. Tomorrow will be the four week mark of when the 9 30 nightly closing time went into effect and that is being carried out in a safe manner in an orderly manner. Announcements are being made by each property over there, public service announcement systems ahead of closing time, advanced notices are being made at table games and disabling of slot machines at pre-ordering times are happening each evening and all of that has led to an orderly process. At all three properties there are no issues with occupancy even on the busiest nights. They are below the 50% of the reduced capacity level set by the commission. At Encore and MGM the two properties with hotels the hotels do remain closed. Three of Encore's restaurants offered alcoholic beverages with takeout orders for now they've offered beer and wine that's consistent with the emergency COVID related legislation and with the commission's authorization made on the November 25th that went has gone smoothly. As you know the commission has required that each licensee maintain a communications plan to alert patrons and the public to what they can expect at their respective properties vis-a-vis the COVID measures and they are doing so. The posted hours for MGM are 8 a.m. to 9 30 p.m. They recently added two hours in the morning they were at 10 a.m. to 9 30 p.m. They're now at 8 a.m. to 9 30 p.m. Encore's posted hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Plain Ridge 7 a.m. to 9 30 p.m. We were made aware that MGM's Facebook page and Instagram accounts were for a time mistakenly stating that the closing time was 10 p.m. instead of 9 30 p.m. that has been corrected. I do want to note that that was a mistake but that they did always close at the required time. The actual closing time was not affected but these accounts were for a time mistakenly putting out 10 p.m. So once again I can report on the high level of compliance and cooperation and hard work by the licensees and their employees and again with very limited exceptions there's general acceptance and cooperation with the public and patrons with these very significant measures that have been put into place. I would like to invite Bruce at this time to report on anything he's noted and then of course try to answer any questions that you might have. Loretta was so thorough this time and there was really nothing eventful over the past week or so so I have nothing additional to add to that report. Things have been going very smoothly. Any questions for Loretta and Bruce? I have one just sounds like you know this you already spoke to this but perhaps more specifically early on that the exit of Angkor was a bit of a challenge and they were using emergency stairs because of the elevators as well as there was a bit of a bottleneck exiting the parking garage because of its configuration. Is there anything that you can tell us about that particular topic when it comes down to ushering people at closing time? That seems to be going much smoother. They've gotten the wrinkles ironed out with that. As any kind of mass exodus goes there's always a you know a few bottlenecks or anything but they've gotten a little more expertise in that area and it seems to flow much smoother now. Thank you. I want to check in on the same matter. I just want to close this loop, Karen make sure there are no further questions for Bruce and Loretta. Karen I think I'm guessing that you're getting the same messaging. Katrina our chief of IT is indicating that some folks are having audio concerns. I am seeing that I think all the commissioners are not having any problems but I want to make sure our guests are okay. I did get an email from the folks at MGM they were having an issue so I just we sent or I sent the the direct link. I see that Seth Stratton is I can see his name in one of the boxes. Seth can you hear me or can you get on? They don't see a video and I see that PPC is on so I just want to make sure. I've asked him to try to get me get on and see if he can let us know. I'm also wondering if the problem is for folks who are calling in. Let me just check I'm getting another message from okay it's a long message. Let's see maybe it's not related to this so we'll just skip over that. Okay you know what given our agenda starts with MGM given that they're having a problem I'm hoping that they can hear but I'm wondering if we could switch up on the next item and start with PPC if they're prepared. I see North is nodding his head. Does that make sense Karen? If it's our our licensee that's having problems as opposed to our team. Well I just got there's a chat from Jill saying has the meeting started I can't see or hear anything which is weird because there's many people that can. We have 78 attendees 77 oh somebody just dropped off. Yeah so it looks as if they suggest maybe we take a five minute pause let me talk to IT and then I can report back I just think that would be helpful to make sure we do the right thing because I'm seeing some other messages people are putting in the chat that they're having the same issue so let me. And just so that we can put folks on notice the suggestion was that I restart the meeting but if there's a majority of people who are on board I prefer not to have to do a global shutdown because it requires a public posting etc. North this is unusual so the good news is that this is I think it's only happened a couple of times where we've had big glitches so. Well it is 2020 so anything has happened so we're ready for it. And we've got a few more we've got about 20 28 more days so. Right Kathy I did get a message from Seth Stratton that the whole team is on now but no one can hear the audio or see the video so let me let me talk to Katrina and then I'll come up with a proposed solve so we can. Okay everybody just pause. One more minute coffee or take a five minute break we'll at least the group that can hear me we're going to try to reconnect at let's make it 10 10 25 and see if we can figure this out. Does that make sense commissioners. Yeah and to confirm we'll remain with this link open correct for the time being. Yes I'm not shutting this down yet remaining this one open so just if you want to take a quick break from the video I'm going to close out and warm my coffee thanks. And Karen you were just finishing up the the COVID-19 report and I think then you're going to go I think we've got all of our questions asked of Loretta and Bruce and then I think we were going to hear from Dr. Lightbaum who I see so I'm hoping she can hear so. Yes I can. Dr. Lightbaum would you like Karen is that your plan for your. Yes I yeah I think that that makes sense we go to Dr. Lightbaum and then I'm going to Katrina just suggested sending an email to the entire staff to call in so they will know to do that and then if if you could put something on the website letting the public know to call in for this meeting. Yeah but the team doesn't if they're on now they don't have to get off. No it's just if they can't if they can't see or hear then they can participate by phone. Right excellent yeah we'll update it now. Okay okay excellent all right so since Director Lightbaum Dr. Lightbaum is here I will turn that over to her just significantly huge success through the racing season during COVID keeping people safe moving that forward keeping the industry going in these troubling times so I did really want to give a big shout out to Alex for doing that and showing real leadership in that area I'm glad it's over and we did it there if our whole team is safe the property was safe they worked in partnership with PPC so compliments to PPC and the horsemen that worked all together to make this a successful season so that'd be great for Alex just to give a little update on the conclusion of the season. Thanks for that introduction and good morning commissioners. Good morning. First I want to congratulate Steve O'Toole and his racing staff and the horsemen and horsewomen at PPC and our own MDC racing staff. Our goal when we were looking at reopening was to have a safe and sustainable reopening and we were very fortunate through a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck I'm sure to get through the meet so wonderful work with everybody pulling through. I want to thank Chris McElaine again and the horsemen and Steve O'Toole for their efforts in coming up with the COVID plan we worked diligently on this to come up with a good plan and then of course once you have a plan you have to implement it and that was almost as hard as coming up with the plan so again thanks to Steve O'Toole and his staff he also got good support from the gaming side of PPC multiple people chipped in and helped on the racing side as well and again for the horsemen for their cooperation in getting through this. We had a safe meet as far as regular racing issues go we didn't have any catastrophic injuries with the horses there were a couple of accidents with the horsemen but I'm pleased to report they're either recovered or recovering and it just reminds us that it can be very dangerous working with horses. We had very few medication issues this year and again that's a compliments to the horsemen for following all the multiple guidelines we have for that. We ended up giving out about seven million in purses so that's a significant amount of money that will help the horsemen winter over and get ready for next year and in addition to that there was about 1.3 million dollars given out in the sire steaks program in purses so this was significant and obviously numerous people the horsemen the folks at PPC and our own staff all were able to be employed. They had more recently the Wicked High Five that the commission approved a few years ago it had gotten up to 47,000 and they held it until the last day and that's a program with USTA so they got a matching matching money with that and guaranteed it to 75,000 there was quite a bit of interest in that pot so it grew to just under 147,000 and it ended up paying out $245 for a 20 cent wager so that was some excitement at the end of the meeting. Steve O'Toole and his racing secretary Paul Verratt also increased the purses for the last several days so that was like a nice Christmas bonus for the horsemen as they head towards the winter. There is an estimate that there will be a carryover in purse money going forward into next year and as you probably remember that worked out being very fortunate at the beginning of this season that there was a carryover from the couple of years before so it allowed the track to offer purses that were at a very good decent level so if hopefully the casinos can stay open over the winter but if there is a temporary shutdown there is a little bit of a cushion built in there which hopefully will make everybody feel more comfortable going forward and once again I just want to thank everybody for their cooperation and also the everybody with the MDC staff the racing division can't function alone we get a great great support from all the other divisions and the commissioners so I want to thank you all as well. Are there any questions? Commissioner Cameron. Dr. Leipam if I'm not mistaken once there are a couple of records set this year at the track. Yes they several stakes records were broken and they were able to get the spirit of mass and the Claire Barton races in there two signature races which again Kudos to Plain Ridge for doing that they could have easily said that with the COVID and all they just weren't going to try to do something as complicated as that but they dug right in and that was done just a few weeks after they had reopened. In those two races there were records broken and also in the sire stakes the mass spread races there were numerous records broken then which shows just how well that program is doing and how the courses are getting better every year. Yeah great thank you. Other questions or comments for Dr. Leipam. Sure Madam Chair I just want to chime in I know Alex thanked a lot of people at PPC and the harness horsemen in our team at MGC down there that do all the testing work and licensing work but also just want to extend a thanks to Alex for helping out in the great season everything from walking around the barn area reminding people to pull up their masks some of the menial stuff that we just kind of think it's done automatically but it's important and it helped I think certainly help PPC and the horsemen get through this unusual year so a special thanks to Alex that she's thanking everybody else but certainly thank you. Yeah I think Alex demonstrated that you know the leadership that was necessary at that particular time you really were first on the front line from our team to serve during COVID-19 and North you weren't here but the folks the horse racing community had really to be educated and Alex and Steve and Chris really worked hard to not only comply with all the guidelines but to really educate about compliance in the horse community responded and so you know we're really lucky to have that safety board that you gave us today and you know we've all been we've all had Alex and team and everybody who's involved in horse racing on our minds and we're happy that it was a really successful season so so thank you and one thing we you didn't mention was the success of every day in terms of what was really an innovation to create COVID safety access for bedding for those who weren't going to go and and and be at the casino or at the horse racing venue but they wanted to place a bet so we had drive-in bedding which brings all kinds of visions in mind but it was safe and it was smart and it was innovative and it was secure so Alex you are all part of that so thank you thank you I love I love that solution that was a great idea of PPC to come up with that solution and it worked very well yes it really did and it took the whole it took the extra police officers on duty and the town supporting it so again takes a village and and it was successful and showed that during this time people were really smart I have a quick question and a comment as well Alex thank you for that update it's great remind us when are we slated for them for the opening next year is it still around April 15th again provided that everything goes according to plan changes but what is the opening season next yes it's very similar right now I can't think of it's the April 12th or 13th it's the the Monday of that week and so it'll be a very similar times season that we would normally have other than COVID and then it'll run till right after Thanksgiving right and so it's 110 days and so you know we're looking forward to that and hopefully they won't be delayed this year not not done would but but the April opening get through the winter and by that time maybe vaccines will be out enough and all and we won't be delayed with the opening and we may even be able to release some of the COVID protocols that we've had to do depending on what the situation is well that was going to be precisely my point and comment and even if we if we have to open with some protocols we know them and we've you know operated under those circumstances but there's a good indication from what's being developed all around us that we will be in a different situation come next April one that might be looking like a lot more like normalcy and we we do look forward to that exactly yep everybody is knocking on wood and crossing their fingers on me okay any other questions or comments other than all of our sincere congratulations Alex and thank you all right thanks so much Karen anything else from your administrative nothing more on the administrative update I will say for item number four as I mentioned to you last night Jill Delaney unexpectedly is unavailable so I'll be covering that along with Jill Griffin and Mary Fluff right right so we'll get started on the on item item number four okay all right oh I'll start with that just that introduction because MGM is going to present on that my understanding I'm hearing that people are now the tech issue might be at least solving if not solved in that some people are able to get on so even better yeah so that that seemed to have worked out I know our IT team had many people on the phone with the service provider simultaneously so I think we put the pressure on to get that result so I'm going to turn it over patience is a virtue right yeah so that seemed to work so I'll turn it over to Seth to do his introduction of his team and then Seth if you need any help with the presentation I know that that was sent to Mary so she can share it Mary are you all set with that I'm just want to check that Mary's on and available so that's Mary I'm ready and you know if they want me to do the PowerPoint I'm ready to do it thank you so much Mary okay so Seth let us know what works for you sure thank you very much I'm going to turn it over to Dan Miller in a minute it's interesting this is like my father because we decided to turn this process over and you know thought it'd be a good opportunity for several of our directors Dan Miller a director Arlen Karbala our director of finance Jason Randall our director of HR to to own this process and walk through it with you so this is their first time he has a group so it's it's an interesting first first experience presenting to the MGC in this in this way but so that's the team we have here today I'll I'll be available for questions and give an update at the end on summer development but I'll turn it over to Dan Miller and hopefully Dan you'll be able to run with it from here yes can everybody hear me and hopefully maybe see me now you can see you and hear you excellent okay thank you very much and then Mary yes if you are able to share the slides we will begin with just the very first one and I'd like to do just a small introduction if I could so and then I already was going to ask for your patience given this being the first time I had led such a meeting for MGM but now I'm going to ask more patients considering we're doing under these unusual circumstances before usually our first few slides would be highlights of our celebrations and and fun events outside and of course sadly those those couldn't happen but the one event I did or one highlight I wanted to bring to the forefront was our reopening thanks to the collaboration of you the commission with Seth the other licensees and then mainly very hard work of all of my MGM colleagues we were able to reopen to the public safely on July 13th since then even despite continued tumultuous situations they have every day brought what we call the show to our Western patrons and so for that I would just very much like to thank all of my MGM Springfield team members for their steadfast positive attitudes and their hearty New England stamina from there I would then begin the actual next page with Arlen our new director of finance who will go over both our revenue and lottery Arlen are you there and can you take over everybody hear me we can and I said that we are not able to see you though yeah I'm I'm able to join through video okay um so good morning everybody good morning good morning our gaming revenues and taxes for the third quarter of 2020 where us follows July which was our partial month we generated 10.7 million in gaming revenue and 2.7 million in taxes in august we generated 18.5 million in gaming revenue and 4.6 million in gaming taxes in september we generated 17.6 million in gaming revenue and 4.4 million in gaming taxes for the three months and in september 2020 our total gaming revenue was 46 million and total taxes were 11.7 million and the next slide you will see our lottery sales by month um for the third quarter our total lottery sales were 288 000 a decline um year a year about 50 for both august and september Dan you would have the next slide I I do before I continue any questions from the commission so there are any questions on the revenue side commissioners I can't see you so you'll have to chime in okay thank you seems seems like I know um so hopefully you can all now see this compliance slide um which I have presented previously regarding the number of under age persons being able to either make it onto the floor game or you know consume alcohol what I think is is wonderful about this slide is just how many zeros there are on it um if you are all able to see the picture on the left hand side I recently updated it to show that since reopening in july we have a one in and one out new entrance way to the gaming floor we where we were always such a very open plan gaming floor now through a security checkpoint it is the only way to get on and off the the gaming floor and that in of itself um with some other measures seems to have done what is false uh the number of uh minors gain accessible for any questions for Dan on this slide um are we frozen no I don't believe so okay uh just a comment about chair yes just the comment is that those numbers are excellent they've come way down this was an area of concern for us as a commission um since opening frankly their their numbers in this area were somewhat somewhat higher than they are now so those measures are working and you know sounds like the team has really worked to bring this down so that's uh that's a really good thing thank you for that what I would just add is that with this new system that the the great ability is the number of those attempting to gain access with either false or fake IDs that we're able to just stop in their tracks turn away or turn over to the GEU so that's worked a lot better too sure and I think that word will get around for those uh contemplating coming in with uh with a false ID or underage um that that these measures are in place so good good work thank you ma'am other questions on this slide commissioners okay thank you Daniel thank you I I now turn back to Arlen and and she will go over our local and vendor spends hello I'll start with our slide on diversity spend um our total bidder will spend for the third quarter was 4.5 million and of that 11% went to diversity supplier um we did see a decline in their women owned business and their minority owned business compared to the prior quarters however our veteran owned business uh remained flat to prior quarters any questions um Arlen this is uh commissioner Stebbins I think everyone's expectations reduced operations reduced capacity would see some of these numbers uh kind of down even compared to previous quarters are you getting any sense as you reach out to vendors that you've done business with in the past uh one are they you know still in operation and preparing to come back or you know you're doing a somewhat less volume of business with them but you know you get a sense of how some of your vendors are faring out there um yes so unfortunately during the third quarter I wasn't over our procurement um department um but in talking to the team and kind of reviewing over the last couple months I haven't heard um or any of our vendors not um continuing or not doing business um so while yes we are purchasing less um I think they're in the same boat as any business out there right now thank you any questions again I can't see everyone so I can't help you're leaning in I guess I I think it's interesting that you had uh looks like you had at least one good contract with the VBE is that the explanation for the um the growth in that category so that's positive was it was it one vendor or I would uh how can I research that and um yeah that's okay I just I just wonder because I know that that's a category that we all work to you know to make sure they find opportunities so if it's just of interest to me I know that one good contract could probably skew this to to increase it to that in that percentage but that's excellent news something positive to to look at I'll move on to this next slide if there are not is there any more questions um our total local spend and I apologize we'll have to resend this slide um our total spend was 10 million for the quarter our percentages um for the commonwealth is incorrect it was not 28.7 it's closer to 8 percent um our spend with Springfield was 27.63 percent our spend with communities that made up 7.65 percent and our spend with western Massachusetts made up point 81 percent would commissioners like to have those numbers just one more time so we can catch up do you mind yeah thanks during the third quarter our spend with the commonwealth made up eight percent within Springfield it made up 27.63 percent of the total surrounding communities 7.65 percent and western Massachusetts point 81 percent so it's just the the commonwealth spend that needed correction correct okay got it thank you and were there other corrections on the others on any other numbers um yeah the total spend is stated as 12.5 million but it was 10 million okay any questions and you'll just substitute that mary um thorough i'm sure you'll coordinate that with with mgm okay yeah thank you any other questions for erlan okay thanks ganya thank you um i'll hand it over to jason hey good afternoon commission i'm sure if my video is showing or not but hopefully you can hear me um happy to share our q3 employment numbers so we are on employment number slide at the top level you can see we ended q3 with 911 total employees of which 839 were full time in 72 part time on the lower section of the pay of the slide here you can see the rolling four quarters of our active employee numbers um with the goal breakdown for minority veteran women's Springfield residents western mass residents in massachusetts residents um as well so um of highlight no large shift in percentages towards our goal with the largest being a decrease in the percentage of women employees um here and um unfortunately i think as we called back employees and we brought back in the seniority order you know our efforts to bring women into the workplace here they um came in with less seniority um so hadn't been recalled as of yet and then if we advance to the next slide here we have a graphic showcasing our progress on hiring goals um as well just to share those percentage on one page i have a quick question jason i'm hearing you say that it really was an impact of the seniority um return did you also hear that women were also challenged because of um needing to be at home for child care yeah absolutely um you know we've had those difficult conversations with um employees who wanted to return and were eligible to return but couldn't for for a variety of reasons um really mainly the the home uh care reason for sure yeah yeah so it's an extra challenge the number of women who have been displaced it's been astronomical it'll be hard to get them back in so any questions so so far for jason i'm sorry to have interrupted but uh jason this is uh commissioner stevens is again we kind of go through this period you know are you maintaining outreach and communications um with some of the impact employees who uh had to be for load or let go obviously and i hope at some point maybe that they have an opportunity to come back on board yeah absolutely our management team has been really great at maintaining their communications with employees you know during the closure and and continuing even after opening with those employees that haven't been able to return we have heard of employees who are securing employment elsewhere and you know we'll still knock on their door when it's um time for us to bring them back and see if they have interest in returning but um we do know that um there is a good number of of employees who who are moving on to either in other industries or other companies at this time okay thank you commissioners thank you do you want to continue jason thank you yeah thank you um i'll actually hand it over to sess stratton here to talk about community thanks jason um so we've despite the the challenges that we've experienced one of the priorities of our management including in particular our president ceo chris kelly has been to continue to be engaged in the community and find ways that we can support the community both to achieve our philanthropic and corporate social responsibility goals but also to boost employee morale because our employees almost universally enjoy partaking in these types of activities been creative in finding ways that we can do that um and we've been proud of what we've been able to accomplish um you know since covid hit uh in the photos you see in this slide are some of the activities during the third quarter which was you know some of the other months and one of the one of the things we've done you see um both the water and then the far right the backpack photos you know the revenue challenges we've had it's it's tougher to to be philanthropic because you have less money coming in and so what we've done is we really look creatively at what we had in stock at our warehouses giveaways things that we had available that we could use and water was one of them during the hotter months we there were some cooling centers we have a lot of m life water that we delivered throughout the city you see that photo with the mayor who's very appreciative of support of the city cooling centers you see on the far right the children holding up backpacks those are actual actually backpacks that we had done as giveaways to our customers and we had some stock left that we found in our warehouse and we said well that'd be great with school starting to be able to use these backpacks for some of our local students and then we we acquired some office supplies that we had on site and ordered score through our vendors to fill those backpacks so that the a lot of the students who were even though they were homeschooling they could have their their school items you know all in one place so that and then you see in the middle we participated in a great partnership that we continue to have with links to libraries where we were able to get some books in the hands of sprinkled school children the focus of this book giveaway was books that really were focused on diversity focused on characters with diverse backgrounds so that the folks that the children who read them could see themselves reflected in in the stories we thought that was really critical during this time with some of the issues that were going on throughout the countries that were well received as well so we continue to do our best to be engaged in the community during this time and find creative ways to do it despite some of the challenges any questions there questions commissioners for the staff no that's a great it's a great couple of really inspiring stories said thank you for that being resourceful and keeping to your to your commitments it's really great to hear thank you if we can move on to the development slide future impact and the development update so that to you know there's not a whole lot of activity right now obviously given the circumstances but during this quarter we made we're making finishing touches on the wall burgers site that is now complete complete and ready as I believe has been as I believe the commission's aware and we've we've discussed originally we were planning for a fall opening with wall burgers given some of the restrictions in the current environment the wall burgers team collaboratively with us as we determined that that it made sense to await the spring for an opening so we are continue to be collaborating with the wall burgers team on making sure this the space which is which is complete is ready and available they're prepared for for an opening we want them to have the opportunity to open into a a successful environment and I think that will be mutually beneficial for them and for for the property and then the the good news is on the 31 Elm project right adjacent to our property the city has has not taken their foot off the pedal on the remediation of that property to prepare it for the the rehab and utilize the time during the summer and fall to to complete that my office actually when I'm in my office looks out over this property and throughout these months I was able to see cranes and markers making solid progress so it's on track it was you know the financial clothes was delayed by a few months it was anticipated the financial clothes to occur this fall it's now expected at some point in early 2021 if you recall the city was currently holds the property was going to do their work complete their work prior to financial clothes and transfer the property to the developer for them to do the remainder of the work so that is still on schedule from what I understand we're still planning to make our financial contribution and we look forward to that beautiful property being brought back to his former glory in terms of the armory really that the space has unfortunately been dark during this period the nature of the activation in the armory is its larger crowds which had them restricted so we look forward to hopefully in the near future an opportunity to engage the and I'll stop there any questions just a small question said is that second picture picture from the inside of you know from left picture from the inside of 31 Elm or yes it is yeah yeah the first two pictures started from the left are the interior of 31 Elm and a post remediation and cleanup that the city has done so they they removed a lot of material cleaned it and prepared it for their renovation work and that's what those two photos represent great it's going to be a great view as I'm sure it was I think the camera's already picked out her unit that she wants right there the old the old first church oh I'm sorry but I said exactly the same thing to set the moment he sent that photograph to me for the presentation was was that was going to be your view oh that's it that's the view that's the view I thought you were going to tell me Daniel that you wanted it so then we'd have a bidding war yeah yeah um if everybody is noting the picture on the left the hallway it is that narrow and I I that can't be salvaged it's it's of course historically very interesting but that doesn't meet ADA standards so will they be having they're going to be widening that and therefore narrowing commissioner Cameron's unit that's my understanding unfortunately yeah it's really interesting because it's historically so you know you can imagine folks walking down with their but for those of you who did do the tour which I think is at one point or another all of you on the commission and the number of the staff you can just tell from these two photos as much clean you can yeah the debris and other material that was was in there it was was significant and that's now all gone right that's why it looks so nice we wish you could preserve it but it won't be able to be preserved that hallway exactly great work and it's nice that it could continue during this time great work for for folks to have thank you you're welcome and unless there are any further questions that completes our presentation so thank you any any further questions and of course the revenue slide covered July August and September so we'll know next quarter of course the impact of the most recent restrictions correct yes thank you any further questions commissioner O'Brien I can't see you right now are you all set no I'm all set thanks okay excellent thank you okay so the next presentation is going to be by the ppc casino we've got north ground so and Dana Fortney and Kathy Lucas scheduled to present to you and then I'll just ask north would you like Mary to do the same thing and put up the power point on the screen and just a big thank you to MGM yeah any other complications but I do have it available if needed okay and I just want to find out a very big thank you to the MGM team for your patience today and then the excellent presentation that just didn't get a chance to properly thank you and your team so thank you okay all right so I'll turn it over to north to go ahead with plainish park casinos quarterly report good morning north morning commissioners good morning madam chair thank you plain rich park is pleased to present our q3 2020 update to you this morning I'm going to share some of the highlights of our presentation and then pass it off to Dana and Kathy who can provide you with more detail on the financial side the continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted gaming revenue horse racing revenue and lottery sales total taxes were down for the quarter approximately 4.1 million or 23 the prior year q3 results were also negatively impacted by a partial month of operation in july of 2020 as we look at the end state spend we are pleased to report that fully two-thirds of our qualified spend remain within the commonwealth with regards to our supplier diversity goals we are happy to report we met or exceeded our goals for diverse spend in all three categories with a large increase in the women's business uh a we when we look at the workforce diversity we're pleased to report that we met or exceeded each of our goals for minority women and veterans participation post community and local representation was slightly below our goal and Kathy will provide you some more context around the reason for the shortfall on the compliance side we had zero incidences of underage casino access gambling or alcohol service so that's the high level overview of our update with that i'm going to pass off to Dana and Kathy who will provide you with a little bit more detail Dana thank you north good morning madam chair and commissioners can everyone hear me yep yes great thank you uh so i'll begin with slide two uh gaming revenue and taxes we have a lot of information here uh on this slide for comparison purposes so i'll draw your eyes to the bottom third of the chart for q3 2020 plane rich generated 27.9 million in flat revenue and taxes paid to the commonwealth came in at 13.6 million the year-over-year decline of revenue of 8.3 million from the third quarter is attributable to the pandemic moving on to lottery sales looking at the middle of the table lottery sales came in at 260 thousand for the third quarter of 2020 lottery sales were down year-over-year by 597 thousand or 70 volume increased after reopening the property in july we reopened our retail shop in late august this is a basic location for sales of tickets like mega millions and powerball so since that time we've steadily seen our lottery sales increase the next slide is our spend by state for the third quarter in state spend was 368 thousand or 67 up from 110 thousand from q2 in state spend of 258 thousand the remaining spend for the quarters split amongst the states on the right our overall qualified spend was 551 thousand in q3 consistent with the second quarter's 568 thousand should we pause here um yes just to see if there are questions on either the spend or the revenues well we have questions commissioners thank you okay we'll move on to local spend local spend for the third quarter our in-state versus local spend shows a modest increase from the second quarter of five percent the second quarter was just around 19 500 our driver in mansfield as a reminder is a vendor that provides us our disposable paper products next is our diversity goals as north mentioned ppc metter exceeded all of its diverse goals for the third quarter we ended q3 at 37 of qualified spend going to diverse vendors and then i'll go into a little bit more detail on that on the next slide what finally diverse spend this shows the breakout detail of the previous slide in q3 207 thousand was spent amongst diverse vendors representing 37 percent of qualified spend the uptick and weavey spend is due in part to two women owned in state vendors the first was relating to a capital purchase and the other relates to a vendor that provides cleaning products tana do you want to mention who those wbe's are if you can i can um the first is kit ridge for equipment and then uh secondarily is millhench industrial supply okay i think i think we had heard previously that that was a wbe that had kind of pivoted their their business uh to provide a service during this covid related period uh if i'm not mistaken but um it's it's great to hear and great that you picked up some work for them definitely millhench has been a long-standing vendor with us so if there aren't any questions relating to diverse spend then i will pass it on to kathy to go over compliance and employment can we just go back to that slide on just the minority spend so there was a decline of 50 about 53 percent i guess maybe my question is similar to what commissioner stephens asked of mgm is there an explanation not a um it's not uh an enterprise that went under during this time or anything like that just uh the change in operational needs yes we have we don't have any knowledge right now of any of our vendors that have closed business due to the pandemic so it's just a change in what the property is in need of right now okay thank you thank you dana good morning madam commissioner and commissioners um i'll share uh the updates in regards to compliance and employment so after opening in july with the single entry point in id restrictions we prevented 864 from entering the casino of that seven reminders and 17 were under aged during the quarter no minors were underage made it on the gaming floor gamble that slot machines were consumed alcoholic beverages we turned away 840 people with appropriate with inappropriate ids as a result of reviewing all identification of patrons which um when we look back at q1 was a significant increase we uh turned away only 224 so the single entry point and also id for all of patrons was uh led to that increase next slide so turning to employment this exhibit shows that we exceeded our goals at the property level for minority women and veterans with a slightly lower than the goal and the local team member employment during the quarter most of our team members were inactive due to furloughs and processes to ensure career opportunities for women's veterans diversity and local candidates were on hold due to the covid restrictions um because of that we were unable to attend the mass hire job fairs and the full river the recruit military job fairs the boston veterans job fair at gelat because they were all canceled although we were not recruiting for positions because of the furlough and the covid restrictions we did do career branding with some of our diversity partners like the boston pearl foundation and africa balsa sorority we exceeded our women's goal target of 50 percent and we remain focused on attracting women by partnering with organizations still like the women's ink women's link and also with uh the sororities and other organizations that are local to us in q3 we also had team members um from a veteran standpoint uh we were able to continue to uh with them via electronic or um uh tribal job fairs we had 620 team members 67 percent of them being full-time and 31 percent being part-time and when we did open in july we opened with 207 of those 420 team members any questions um kathy this commissioner stevens um and and obviously due to the the breath of operations in your facility i was curious i went back and looked at your third quarter 2019 and you had an employee account of 454 so to you know not to put too positive a spin on it but to to be down 34 people from your county a year ago uh despite reduced operations and hours uh i i think is uh is a welcome sign so thank you for all your good work and your continued outreach yeah thank you and commissioner stevens um we are still um hopeful that we are going to be able to return uh members that are available to come back to us once we open a couple of the areas of our business that are still closed like our restaurants and also our um banquets and uh entertainment areas where where we're still restricted thank you kathy this is commissioner cameron if i may just comment on your compliance um since the beginning i've always been impressed with the job you have done in this area but these numbers are just you know you have all zeros and in this case that's a very good thing um but really excellent that you've kept up uh your diligence as a company can this matter so seriously and it's uh you to be commended for those numbers they're tremendous thank you thank you and our our security team along with the partnership with um um the local police and also g you we we just really do a great job and i think the community is aware because we've been doing it for um you know the five years or better that it's it's going to be hard to get onto the property without the right identification great thank you go to the last slide so guided by our values of course we are committed to being a great employer and developing better leaders over the years we've created training programs recruitment processes to ensure career opportunities for women veterans diversity candidates and team members at all levels this exhibit shows that we exceeded the overall team member goals because we don't have segmented goals for supervisors and above at the property level for minority women and veterans uh we have programs such as women leading in pen partnerships and recruitment with community organizations focused on women's leadership to help us close the gap with women's leadership roles at the property um we hope to um you know in january restart women leading in pen and also our uh lead program to continue the success we've had with these programs in the past uh developing leaders for the next generation of our business entertain any questions and if there are no questions i'll turn it back to you questions commissioners excellent campy thank you okay thank you madam chair and commissioners this concludes our presentation and we're now available for any questions that you may have on any of the slides we presented questions or comments commissioner commissioner zeneca yeah thank you um no no um no questions may perhaps a comment to summarize both presentations um or my impression of both presentations these applies also to the one we heard from ancor um last meeting uh but mr miller i think characterized it well from the team uh from the mgm team that uh there's this hardy new england spirit coming coming through in in um in what we are seeing even if there's decreased revenues there's very much the idea of continuing to do the work that that team has been committed to and and that is worth noting i've said before i've thought before that this year 2020 has felt like a snow year not a snow day but but there's no days here characterized that hardy spirit um people get to work in the face of adversity and even those of us that are new and not so new to new england it's really great to see that that spirit is prevailing here and it's worth noting commissioner o'brien are you all set the only thing i would add is also the um i appreciate the breakdown of the underage minor i know i had asked for that i'm just glad to see it and glad to see it brings the clarity that i thought it was going to bring so thank you for that excellent thank you commissioner stevens comes your camera all said great report thank you yeah all said great reports by both of our licensees i i think we all expected some revenue fall off between a combination of uh hardy new englanders as commissioner zuniga pointed out even at reduced operating capacity uh i'm still pretty impressed with the numbers so north thank you your first your first uh quarterly report we're looking forward to um this occurring in in person but today it went very well virtually despite our early start so thank you so much appreciate it very thorough absolutely thank you so much for the opportunity great okay karen um item number four we now have the community mitigation reserve grant and workforce modification request correct so we have two requests i'm going to turn it over to mary thorough to do the first item which is the melrose reserve grant request thanks so much for covering your okay thank you uh chair and commissioners today where we're viewing two community mitigation funds for your consideration the first is for the use of reserve funding by the city of melrose the second is a reconsideration of a portion of the 2020 workforce development application for mass higher metro north workforce board and the city of boston this application is based on the deferred action agreed to at the june 25th meeting the commission agreed that funding could be used if mass higher identified a critical need for technical training this is going to be presented by jill and crystal first let me provide you with a little bit of background um an overview of this reserve request as you may recall communities may apply for the use of reserves on a rolling basis once needs are identified a reserve may be used for planning either to determine how to achieve further benefits from a facility or to avoid or minimize any adverse effects the city of melrose currently has a neighboring community agreement with the on core boston harbor however the city does not receive any annual funding through this agreement the application before you today is a continuation of melrose's 2016 reserve the community expended its initial disbursement for a study which identified the most critical infrastructure improvements needed in anticipation of increased pedestrian and vehicle use to the area as a result of the casino melrose is now requesting funds to be used to implement those recommendations that resulted from the study through these funds melrose anticipates better access to oak grove better public safety for pedestrian crossings and encourages the use of alternate modes of transportation um and so that's the presentation uh we do need a motion on this and i'm open to any questions questions for mary today very thorough mary as expected uh amike yeah thank you well that was just going to make a comment that um thank you for all the documentation it's such a reminder that um all the due diligence of the city some towns go through even for seemingly small numbers but very important projects for the for the city it's um it's worth noting as included in the packet other comments yeah madam chair i chime in and also come in the city of melrose this is an appropriate kind of next step to what their early reserve grant was looking at it's going to be some actual hard asset improvements as a result of their study we've been encouraging some other communities as we all know in this round of community mitigation fund grants to use up their reserves so we appreciate and commend the city of melrose for undertaking the initial set of work and now following up and using the balance of the reserve to get some of these needed proof and stuff and i certainly agree with the team's recommendation that this is an appropriate use of these funds and this is this is an excellent project and one that will really add value i i feel the same way and just wonder mary um if this might be again an example that could be used in your workshops for exactly okay good thank you okay i'm your you're ahead of me um excellent uh if there aren't any further questions for mary we do need um to have a vote on this in order for mary to proceed yeah um that oh come on commissioner stevens no commissioner or brian go ahead uh i moved at the commission approved the city of melrose's request to use the balance of its reserve for the purposes outlined in the application and execute a grant agreement with the city of melrose is included in the commissioner's packet and discussed here today second thank you any further questions or edits recommended edits on them on the motion okay commissioner karen hi commissioner brian hi commissioner zunica hi mr stevens hi my vote yes five zero thank you thank you mary great now we can turn it over to uh crystal howard and jill griffin for the mass hire thank you mary um good morning madam chair commissioners as mary alluded to on june 25th the commission approved a community mitigation fund workforce grant to mass hire metro north for 172 thousand dollars to fund adult basic education as you remember the labor market had collapsed due to the covet 19 pandemic the commission deferred funding of occupational training programs such as hospitality and culinary skills training um mass hire metro north's original application included a proposal for best hospitality um a sub grantee to run both hospitality focused training and um english for speakers of other languages classes um esol classes each program's budget was not itemized in the revised proposal submitted in the supplemental application as a result um mgc staff did not recommend at the time funding um the best line item um we are here today to request that the commission consider an amendment to mass hire metro north's original 2020 community mitigation workforce grant um to fund sub grantee best hospitality for english classes i'm going to just turn it over to crystal to talk a little bit more in detail about the proposal crystal howard good morning am i having any sound issues because i was earlier no you're not crystal fabulous i think uh jill answered uh or addressed most of what we are bringing to you today i would just add that um as she alluded to there was um a specific programming subset for english language training included in mass hires um intent for the original best dollars although that was not provided in the budget for us to actually make an award determination on so they have come back officially to clarify the original intent of that programming which we've reviewed and found to be entirely in line with our original parameters and they're requesting 60 000 of that for the english training which will be provided by best but it is um language classes so um i just think it's worth noting that the funding is also available given that the original proposal came in for 450 000 which was amended to 400 000 and if this were to be approved by the commission it will be a total award of could you just say the last number please again crystal sure the original award was uh 270 i believe and this is 60 so please to be 130 yeah are there any other questions questions for crystal and gel uh madam chair just to comment i had a chance to to chat with director griffin and crystal yesterday about this um you know we agreed back in june not to take any action on kind of the balance of the request that was around more technical training uh obviously uh this kind of fits into a lot of the skill based um i'm sorry kind of basic training skill development uh that we had awarded uh in both regions so i certainly agree with their recommendation it's all training that can be done virtually and i think even anecdotally there's actually been a request for this program on some folks that were continuing their training or have found themselves uh laid off from the hospitality industry so uh it's encouraging to see folks still want to keep their training going uh despite the tough employment climate other questions or comments just go ahead please no i was just i'm sure i was just in agreement that this is um certainly um something we should award and i'm glad that they were able to clarify and the team was able to take a second because probably needed now more than ever so good work and i was going to say just that and agree that with the recommendation um not only is this an important long lean long lead item um like like we talked about in the community medication fund um but also addresses in a in a small but important way um some of the communities that have been most impacted during this period so um do a little bit um to further that mission um madam chair i'd move that the commission approved the mass higher metro north's request to receive funding toward best english language training program in the amount of sixty thousand dollars is included in the commissioners practice discussed here second thank you any further questions or edits to the motion all right commissioner cameron i commissioner brian i commissioner um zuniga hi and commissioner stevens hi and i vote yes and that's five zero thank you excellent work and um as uh zuniga uh mentioned that um the thoroughness is so appreciated and exemplifies the complexities of that program so thank you i have received a request um for just a little bit of a break uh before we continue with um the next item and i see kary popping in and out so we'll return to legal some presentation we'll ten minutes do uh 12 10 return okay excellent thank you so much we'll be assuming at 12 10 um and i'm just going to do a quick roll call again commissioner uh cameron i'm here commissioner brian uh i am here all the full disclosure uh at 12 30 i'm going to need to disappear for about 15 minutes we all can't even begin to be in your shoes but appreciate all the flexibility that you that you need right now um commissioner stephen and i'm here here as well okay so five minutes to press on let's get started then so that we can keep commissioner brian um involved in the next session which is the does require two votes so we'll get started with uh uh general counsel grossman and interim director of ieb the red on the leo's and kary are you actually in taking the lead on this i am yes okay great thank you kary teresy thank you good afternoon madam chair and commissioner um we have two regulations for you today so let me um pull one up and share that all right i think we've got it right and i know bruce band is also there to support you on this so thank you uh it says my screen sharing is paused can you see the regs yes with subsection four subsection four from the date operations are getting a little um error message here oh oh here we go resume share okay there we go you could see it but i couldn't oh okay i think we're good now all right so um there are two regs on the agenda today um 205 cmr 134.01 related to key gaming employee licensees and 205 cmr 134.02 related to gaming employee licensees the changes to these are virtually identical so i'm going to run through the changes for both together um these changes are being proposed as a result of the current pandemic to ensure that the licensees can stay fully staffed in key positions like surveillance in the event employees become sick and or need to quarantine as you may recall the commission recently amended the regulation related to gaming service employees to allow the licensees to temporarily permit employees from sister properties to work at the licensees property without requiring licensure um so these draft regulations track those changes and create that same allowance specifically for a period of 60 days after a period of suspension or during an emergency situation a gaming licensee may temporarily allow with approval from the i e b employees from sister properties to work at the licensees property without requiring licensure uh that term emergency situation is defined in the recently promulgated regulation outlining the commission's authority to act in an emergency and includes things like a state of emergency declared by the governor a public health emergency or a natural disaster and that regulation is cited here in these two regulations i do want to note that um these two regulations govern licensing of key gaming employees and gaming employees which are um you know with those positions require a high level of expertise in the area so these are really positions that couldn't be filled easily or as quickly as may be needed by hiring additional Massachusetts residents and that's why we'd be looking allowing the licensees to look to sister properties um so in order to bring employees from sister properties there'd be a few requirements the licensees would be required to provide certain information to the bureau such as where the employee is coming from the reason they're needed the services they'll be performing uh and how long they would be here they'd also be required to have any of those employees wear a badge that would distinguish them from any of their licensed employees that's Massachusetts licensed employees they would be to supply an attestation that those individuals are in good standing in the jurisdiction in which they're employed and they would require that those temporary employees be accompanied by a licensed employee anytime they're in a restricted area so the initial time period would be that 60 day time period um but there's a provision here at the end uh that would allow the commission to extend these positions for up to six months following a period of suspension or for the duration of the emergency situation upon a demonstration of need from the licensee and a recommendation from the IEB and the licensing division um so uh we're hoping to promulgate these by emergency to get them into effect right away I know that director lilios and director band are here as well if there are any questions any questions for Carrie I know that most of us have had the benefit of a briefing and we are familiar with this on the earlier rag okay so um it's in no way indicative of the fact that we um we're asking no questions we it's because you've been so thorough in our briefing Carrie um you do need a motion I think we should take them separately yep and there's also uh the motions on the small business impact statements which are in your packet and this and and these are prom your your alert they are emergency related and needing to go through the emergency process correct that's right uh madam chair I can make the first motion for 13401 um I move that the commission approved the small business impact statement for 205 cmr 134.01 key gaming employees as included in the commissioner's packet second thank you any questions on the um on the impact okay commissioner Cameron I commissioner Brian hi commissioner Zunica hi and commissioner stephens hi I feel yes five zero thank you and do we need a frank yep uh I further move that the commission adopt the amendments to 205 cmr 134.01 gaming key gaming employees on the emergency basis as included in the commissioner's packet and authorized staff to take all steps necessary to begin the regulation prom legation process second any questions on that okay commissioner Cameron hi commissioner Brian hi commissioner Zunica hi and commissioner stephens hi I vote yes five zero excellent and then with respect to the uh the second rag on gaming employee licenses a small business impact statement I'm happy to move on that one as well wait um wait oh I'm sorry it was the last one the key the last one was key gaming last one was key yeah this is okay and then this one's okay I wanted to make sure I didn't make a mistake okay thank you so I move that the commission approved the small business impact statement for 205 cmr 134.02 gaming employee licenses as included in the commissioner's packet okay any questions on the small business impact statement all right I'll second thank you I'm sorry I thought I heard a second thank you no questions commissioner Cameron hi commissioner Brian hi commissioner Zunica hi commissioner stephens hi and I vote yes five zero thank you I further move that the commission adopt the amendments to 205 cmr 134.02 gaming employee licenses on an emergency basis as included in the commissioner's packet and authorize the staff to take all steps necessary to begin the regulation promulgation process second thank you commissioner Brian all right any further questions on this matter thank you commissioner Cameron hi commissioner Brian hi commissioner Zunica hi commissioner stephens hi and I vote yes five zero excellent um so that concludes this portion of the legal presentation commissioner Brian is this where you need to part company do you have a few more no I have about 10 or 15 minutes and then I'll be gone for about okay then excellent we'll go ahead then with item number six general counsel Grussman please thank you good afternoon madam chair commissioners and everybody we thought I just wanted to take this opportunity to review the commission's legislative initiatives uh Jill Griffin and Crystal Howard are alongside for this one ordinarily they be seated up front here and here they come um they will be integral to the future of the commission's legislative program so they join me here today the chart in your meeting packet outlines the three existing legislative initiatives that the commission has before it notably the chart does not include any initiatives that have been concluded for example the effort to amend the legal requirements uh governing the registration of certain individuals working in the gaming establishment that one has been concluded so it's not on the chart nor does the chart include any legislative matters that are not the commission's direct initiatives things like sports wagering for example so that's also not on the chart so I thought we could just start to work our way through the chart and then you know chart a path forward with our legislative program so if I may I just start with the first item which pertains to essentially charitable gaming and the oversight of bazaar so you'll of course recall that bazaars are Las Vegas or Monte Carlo night type events and that they are described in chapter 23k in section 4 paragraph 41 where the commission is afforded the power to regulate and enforce section 7a of chapter 271 relating to bazaars these activities have historically been overseen in different contexts by the attorney general's office in the state lottery and the activities continue to be overseen by those entities so section 103 of the gaming act itself directed the commission to analyze the laws relative to charitable gaming and report findings and recommendations to the legislature and so in furtherance of that mandate in 2012 we began discussions with colleagues at the attorney general's office and the state lottery commission including an attorney by the name of Kathy Jetstein at the time who helped us work through some of the issues and we were able to develop a proposal to update chapter 271 section 7a and we forwarded that proposal over to the legislature included things in addition to bazaars but also a number of other provisions that the group thought could benefit from some refreshing including like the definitions of what a raffle is and what a bazaar itself actually is and by letter dated January 13th 2013 from chair Crosby to legislative leadership the commission submitted these proposed amendments to the laws to charitable gaming that became a house bill 301 which was sponsored by representative Wagner in the 1516 legislative session there was a hearing before the joint committee on economic development and emerging technologies at which commissioner Zuniga actually tested the bill was actually reported favorably to house ways and means where no further action had been reported and then again it was refiled in the 1718 session where it was again referred to house ways and means and no further action was taken that was the last activity on that particular initiative so we can I can keep going through the chart or we can pause there if there's interest in discussing that initiative question talk we said you see I take it it's not a live bill at this point then I know at this bill at this point the bill is not live there's nothing to charitable gaming that I'm aware of that is my instinct is that it's worth us revisiting this because right do you feel the same way commissioner recommendation oh I think two things one the fact that there was sort of we're given the power to do this that we came it gave that recommendation in terms of the graph legislation to me it's worth revisiting it to see if it needs to be resubmitted it wasn't in the 1920 legislative session so I think it's probably right for this compilation of the five of us to look at it again and the if I recall correctly Todd it the responsibilities and authorities it's quite convoluted in terms of statutes and I think the lottery might even be doing some things you know almost out of service then um then responsibility so I do think revisiting this and probably with our uh commissioner Zunica do you agree with our the attorney general's office and the lottery and and and seeing if we're still in mind absolutely and I think you're going to characterize it well that the prior charitable gaming laws are sort of broken maybe broken it's not the right word they're they're reside on their different jurisdictions and and this effort was to try to consolidate it actually on the the lottery there's there's certain things that the attorney general is is responsible for enforcement comes to the citizen towns the lottery has a portion not on bazaars so there was and by the way there are a couple of the important stakeholders out there in the state notably the Red Sox organization for example who have provided important feedback has to you know these these type of activity because they do run a large charitable gaming operation during their during their um a raffle the 50-50 raffle during their games so but I think it's worth it's it's worth mentioning whether that some of those assumptions still hold true whether they're still a desire to recommend completing the under the lottery for example so I think it's worthwhile mentioning I I am skeptical that the legislature might not view these as as a big for the top priority but it's nonetheless in statute and I think work for this thing misha stephens yeah I I would agree um you know we think representative Wagner because he was co-chair of this committee when he filed the legislation he's obviously moved down to a different position of leadership he had new leadership of the committee and might be worthwhile to sit down and revisit these amendments but them as a as a new legislative session is about to start mission camera I agree as well makes perfect sense so we'll put that down as an early review and probably need to reach out to the other stakeholders and see what they think thank you tongue on that you want to move forward then on racing and simulcasting yes very good uh the so the second item on the chart pertains to horse racing and simulcasting as you well know these activities are primarily primarily governed by chapter 128a and 128c but there are provisions contained in both chapter 23k and elsewhere to be mindful of as well when it comes to the oversight of these activities so section 104 of the gaming act itself you may recall directed the commission to analyze the efficacy of the laws relative to paramutual and simulcast wagering and report those findings and recommendations to the legislature the commission did just that on april 10 2013 and submitted a report to the legislature including a proposal for a new body of law to be entitled chapter 128d as described in the chart the commission submitted refresh proposals to update the racing laws in both 2016 and 2018 these efforts were taken up in the legislative process as agency filed bills those efforts however did not result in the passage of the proposed legislation as you know the most recent activity involved house bill 13 that was before the joint committee on consumer protection and professional licensure where it was ultimately reported as ought not to pass on july 7 2020 so there was recent activity on the latest iteration of the bill the commission has uh recently and over the years expressed its support for this legislation specifically and generally on a number of different occasions that's a broad overview of the racing and simulcasting proposal i'll pause there for comment keep it you know again perhaps bringing a little of my memory of of the arc of this of this bill or of this you know this this topic i i happen to believe that it's something that a lot of stakeholders and remember a lot of stakeholders wanted to be addressed it's something that the legislature has chose to continue what has been doing for a number of years just addressing these one year at a time but given the state of the of the industry we've heard quite a bit from stakeholders that the need for knowing what the industry is in for would be very important for the industry so um i i think uh uh it's it's one of the um one of the things that in my opinion um continue to bring uncertainty to the horse racing industry um with its legacy of very many moving pieces and what this bill or with this submission attempted to do was to streamline a number of those those topics the takeouts the premiums the any number of percentages and including the use of the racehorse development fund it might be worthwhile revisiting just like last last uh the last topic um you know if nothing else to refresh our collective memories but um there was a lot of thought that went in it and um and again unfortunately um for whatever reasons and they have many among me very busy and doing other things the legislature has not acted on this i think we spoke about the fact that um our two newer commissioners the chair and commissioner brian have not really had an opportunity to understand this in detail and and probably that's needed at this point before a decision is made about moving forward my apologies for moving in the middle but i i could tell that i was having a connectivity issue um i appreciate that commissioner cameron and commissioner brian maybe you want to chime in i would agree i mean i agree with both um what i'm thinking gail said namely um i do think i'd like to be able to do a deeper dive but i also think um that this topic because of its import to our regulatory responsibilities and the racing industry is also something that merits us staying on top of it and so i think that for both reasons we should do the deep dive so we can then as a commission vote on what we want to do moving forward and they may be in the not so distant future i guess one of the things that i'm not updated on um todd is hb 13 is was distinctly different from the earlier filing but to accomplish the same goal because it looks like if i'm that the legislature actually acted on that one or are they too separate that's well it's a great question that um so the last two versions of it house bill nine and house bill 13 so that's from the 18 uh from the past two sessions were fairly similar there has been a different version that um senator boncor proposed which is you know based on the model we propose but slightly different it is worthy of note though that the initial version that was proposed back in the initial version that was sent over though it was entitled 128d is slightly different from the one that became commission's proposal in 2016 um so they're all slightly different and i think as described yeah an hb 13 is that filing that latest filing that's the most recent okay all right so interestingly it looks as though there was actually you noted this action on that yes okay sure was um and the commission has been active um on uh on that front as well so i agree but we should re re-examine it and i appreciate commissioner cameron's point that you know we think commissure o'brien and i would really benefit sort of a more extensive detailed understanding of of the original filings and the original thinking of the commission and then the other um filings here that you reference is of course the ongoing communications that we have with the legislature when we've come against the the the deadline um for the extension of the racing commissioner cameron is that correct that is correct yeah and so the next deadline it's actually is it july rather than january if i remember correctly yes that's correct yeah so that's i mean the deadline part is a manifestation of you know kind of the ongoing right efforts to adjust the racing laws in general um so we're just helpful in that reminder because it's one of those things that can you know become overlooked accidentally so we'll be mindful of it but we it's not january this year it's july all right any questions um on that commissioner stephens commissioner zuniga i just echo commissioner zuniga's comments you know we'd love to offer some level of confidence and consistency to the racing industry um and find a find a solution that can be a little more long-lasting but certainly appreciate madam chair and commissioner brian needing some time to take a deeper dive but i think it'd be great if somewhere after the first of the year is the new legislature convenes that we could begin that outreach again and and have a h and c file bill hopefully to hopefully this would be the year and and a reminder on the um and that you may have said this earlier i think i was in transit of the filing uh uh deadline for the agency i i i didn't i didn't you know i'm not i'm not a hundred percent certain okay we'll just be yeah you have to look at that okay excellent you know on on that note um and perhaps something that we can now do um a little bit more lead time um my my take is that um and because this was the case for me that there's not a great understanding of the legislature of all the moving pieces of um of the racing industry specifically with the race horse development fund and and and how that is supposed to work with um with a number of other things that have been left unresolved and so we've seen um efforts that have been unsuccessful for example but very important to note about trying to take um money that comes to the race horse development fund and and put it into other um you know other areas which would be of course the the privilege of the legislature um but i i suspect that um some of it might be we would do well by trying to inform as as as many legislatures and for their staff as as they would want to listen about what has been um some of the history the context and and the uh and the topics at hand so um rather than trying to um have um uh you know an audience let's say um or or or somebody to listen to us a few days before the expiration of the you know next next July or whatever that is if we could try to um to do some of those efforts earlier than that this time around we might be in a better position to do that so we'll take a look at the proposed language um and make sure that we restart our review of where we are with that and bring it before the commission so you can take a closer look at some of the proposals we could figure out whether they're still fresh um and and chart a path forward with the person in San Lucas you know and on that note i'm sorry just um on that note um i remember um a a chart a comparative chart um that we saw it would be a matter of kind of like picking up on on our records um that that gave um a comparison of what other states have done or have done in certain areas the amount of premium for example um or takeouts that's reasonable and sometimes in our case prescribed by statute and whatnot that gave way to you know um the position of the wheel under 120 80 um and i should note that a lot of what 128 d did was to bring the the authority to to to make certain decisions into the commission um or it currently doesn't reside so that that kind of prior documentation that we've done and work that we've done would go a long way towards both informing the newer commissioners refreshing the memory of those of us that have been here uh longer and then hopefully also um educating the legislature want to be um educated on that's great okay let's move on then to the charitable uh on to the ethics issue please okay sure the the third item on the chart pertains to the application of the state conflict of interest law to members of the commission subcommittees this matter relates to a provision of chapter 268 section four which governs the concept of divided loyalties uh where the subcommittees are considered state agencies and its members are special state employees for purposes of the conflict of interest law this section applies to them the law provides essentially that a state employee may not receive compensation from anyone other than the commonwealth in relation to a matter in which the commonwealth is a party or has a direct and substantial interest and that person may not act as an agent or attorney for anyone other than the commonwealth in connection with that type of matter uh community mitigation is essentially considered a particular matter in which commonwealth has a direct and substantial interest under the conflict of interest law so this has posed the challenge uh for the commission subcommittees and having members seated in those statutory positions we did discuss this matter with colleagues at the state ethics commission who were able to prepare a proposal for an amendment to the law that would essentially exempt the subcommittee members from section four so that they may fully participate in such matters that are before the subcommittees pertaining to mitigation the general theory is that as government employees the concern that someone would be engaged in furthering private or personal interest by sitting on both sides of the table uh relative to the same issue are largely muted in this context as it applies to municipal employees so as described on the chart the proposal was submitted to the legislature in both 2016 and 2018 the efforts were taken up uh in the legislative process as agency file bills the latest version was a house bill 14 that was reported favorably by the joint committee on economic development and emerging technologies and that certainly sounds positive but that was the last entry available on that particular bill so that's where we stand with this conflict of interest related legislation if there are comments or thoughts on that one I actually have one um question maybe you know with your background you might know Madam chair or or if anybody sort of cares to venture I guess but I wonder if if there has been other examples of exemptions to the ethics I think that um Todd would say that I think the cannabis commission actually the the statue incorporates this provision was that Todd did you mention that to me or did I hear that from someone else no I that was me um I I believe I didn't I apologize I didn't uh have a chance to go check the cannabis legislation but I do believe there's a specific exemption in the cannabis control statute that allows their subcommittee members to participate regardless of the divided loyalties provision at least as it applies to municipal employees not to every subcommittee member um but because of the shared government interest that's really the theory behind it so now that I know that there's been some action I'm happy to follow up um perhaps with um folks um at the legislature on the status of this at this time um this is and there's still some life in in this one in that it's quite finite and if in fact it is incorporated into the cannabis commission statute there may be some thinking that that that could be um something it could act on so Todd and and Jill and Crystal and Karen we can do some follow-up on that one I was unaware that of the um says this is why it's so this is so helpful today Todd to get this legislative update and Karen if we could keep this as a recurring matter you know Jill will be following um with Crystal's help um the status because legal can't keep track of all of that but legal will be working hand in hand with Jill's and her team to keep track of these legislative matters but I think um having it on maybe a quarterly basis there may be there is no update but um if it's not on exactly our filings on matters that that might be of interest to us Jill we talked about that the other day it may not be always a matter of public meeting but even um Jill um being able to report out to us on the status absolutely Madam Chair I think I think that's a great idea I think that the updates also allow us the opportunity to communicate to stakeholders yes obviously on the racing bill there are lots of stakeholders that we interact with so they can see what we're doing right on this last note I would want um each commissioner if you have an idea the one thing I'd ask is if you could coordinate with me and Jill because the one thing we want to do is to have a process so that we aren't undoing each other's steps or being inconsistent in many ways so Jill will be the the point person for our outreach so that we have a coordinated message I think Karen if that's what you want to elaborate yeah yeah I think that that's the plan going forward so that that we're all on the same page and we have a consistent message with our external stakeholders Patricia Steadins I don't need to cut you off no no no that's fine and just to note on this last item and and Councillor Grossman said it's been somewhat of a challenge because we do have a number of municipal officials who have been selected to sit on our committees you know that it was reported favorably by the Joint Committee on Economic Development and they did that about a month before we fell into this current crisis so it certainly shows that it was making some traction before the world changed yeah well I'm especially encouraged as you as you say Madam Chair that Canada's Commission has this specific extension and there's a lot of parallels to you know the way in which we operate here I just realized that today well I think Todd wants to confirm but I feel like I had that memory as well but I might be wrong so we'll confirm it so those are the there Todd you just shifted on my screen I've been sitting here the whole time those are the existing initiatives as we talked about there of course others there's the tribal the federal tribal legislation pertaining to the Mashpee Wampanoag track that we will make sure gets on a list there's sports wagering and online gaming things of that nature those of course are not our direct initiatives or at least haven't been that's something that's really of course up to the commissioners the role of playing things like that but so that's why they weren't discussed here today but things that we will monitor well I I say that I'm of the opinion that we should monitor even those those that pertain to gaming or licensees potentially and I recall there's a statute there's a section in the statute that directs us to monitor so getting those updates periodically will be very helpful I'm particularly thinking of on the most recent effort that I think over the summer what's happened maybe over the course of a day or two about sports betting which failed which is fine this is the way you know these things happen on occasion but we were asked to give some you know some some some comments on on a draft language and there was very little you know certainly no time to come back and discuss at a commission meeting the staff did do a great job in providing comments and again the fake you know that effort that effort failed it also takes me back to the times where there was a lot of activity really around daily fantasy sports there was a you know a lot of consultation with a statutory commission and a lot of a lot of feedback that we provided to that to that effort and ultimately a white paper that you know that was again a good effort and etc I see some parallels that and of course commissioners commissioners and a guy just want to I don't mean to interrupt but I just want to just let you know that of course we've been quite public with the legislature that our team has been staying apprised of all the developments on sports wagering and has made great efforts and being prepared for that in the event that we are asked to be the regulator and and and so well there haven't been necessarily public reports on that that work has been ongoing and has been ongoing really certainly since I have been here for the last two years and the legislature has heard from the commission on on that both informally and even in testimony so I just want to make sure that there's not an impression that we haven't been working on this as as an enterprise simply that you know we have been in a position of of of listening and being prepared and and unlike the other initiatives where there were you know there was a really a requirement for us to do a filing in this instance we are we are listening to our legislative colleagues and and and and being prepared for them and informing them as as requested and that's where I think you saw that Executive Director Wells did respond to a request for comment and that's very very normal when there's legislation for agencies to be requested you know to be asked on any bill that's pending absolutely and thank you for that clarification I didn't mean to create the impression that we have not been on top of any of these I was picking more from a personal perspective of you know would like liking would like to weigh in to the extent that that I can as a commissioner in some of those some of that comments that that we are as unfortunately somewhat sometimes it happens on a very quick turnaround time like it did last summer and that's not entirely possible for at least for this commissioner the notion is or my only point here is and perhaps it's a very small one is to continue to talk about it in these you know periodic reports to the extent that we that we can to offer feedback where we feel is needed on whatever draft language may be out there and I'm specifically thinking of something that's seen you know in later for all this afternoon I guess the annual report had that very topic on a recommendation to address the online gaming whether it's on sports betting or fantasy sports and in a holistic way it is now off of that that annual report but I think that recommendation which was done which came from the white paper it's still relevant as whether the the legislature decides to move on on on this or not and that's the only point I'm making because we have not talked about it amongst ourselves as a commission it's not clear that we have that as a position okay so does that conclude your legislative update unless there's other questions from the other commissioners commissioner Cameron are you all set all set no questions thank you commissioner brian welcome back I don't know what you heard I came in at the end the only thing I would say is I think there are a couple sort of ministerial things to add into the chart I think that we talked about the other day talked about and maybe you talked about this already some of the things that dealt with the exemptions for certain employees etc that way the commission proposed and went through and so sort of keeping this as a document that has those in it as well just to keep that complete so what you're referencing are the the efforts that were accomplished and he did lead with those so you're just going to update that you're going to update that filing that's excellent might as well keep it as a record of of the the pluses and the pendants and the ones right that go by the wayside sure right and then I think I'm jumping in when commissioners and you guys comment just now I think you know we can sort of talk about where we want to go when we look at the revised annual in terms of what if anything do we want in terms of a more in-depth update by legal on other bills that are out there of interest to the commission that might not be something we've been statutorily obligated to put out as a draft but nonetheless something that could impact us and so maybe we want to keep prized of what's out there but I think we can table that for the annual topic number eight okay commissioner stephens anything further I'm all set okay all right Karen did you have anything to add on this because it's relatively a new update but I think one that will keep going yeah I think just the the feedback that this is beneficial and that this is something that should be recurring was very helpful so the staff will maintain that going all right so thank you and it will take a whole team effort because there's so much crossover but thank you for Jill and Crystal for being our our lead contacts and then of course with the great assistance of the legal team so thank you you all right I've had to shift my my situation here so the next is Derek am I right on our our budget update and I'm going to shift the lighting here do we see oh there you are Derek everybody is on a different line today and for some reason and I see Agnes at the top of my head like you're moving around you know yeah for some reason I was not all you all froze and then I realized it was me and not you so I had to do a quick change so thank you for your patience as I shifted okay and we have Doug now Derek so good afternoon madam chair and commissioners thank you Doug and Agnes as you pointed out and today we present to you the first quarterly fiscal year 2021 budget update of of large importance is this is Agnes's first public meeting since retiring that she's actually partaking in she's she's been to quite a few of them but back on camera so if you have any questions now's the time to get them in um but for the report the Massachusetts gaming commission approved a fiscal year 21 budget for the gaming control fund of 32.42 million which required an initial assessment of 29.67 million on licensees as reported in the FY 20 closeout update um FY 20 revenue exceeded FY 20 expenses by 1.06 million in the time of reimbursements for the independent monitor of one million dollars for FY 20 expenses did not happen until fiscal year 21 which results the initial FY 21 assessment for the gaming control fund being reduced by 2.06 million from 29.67 million to 27.61 million I'll refer people back to the June in the September memo if we want to get into that but I you know that was a rather in-depth process of explaining modified cash basis of accounting for the Commonwealth and timing of revenues and receipts and our delays and making billings for the assessment for the independent monitor when the commission approved the initial FY 21 budget there were a few known exposures once again we budgeted the bare minimum for our litigation budget um MSP overtime was funded at the same level as FY 20 and if you recall in FY 20 which we can't forget because we're still living it um the casinos were closed for three months so that that funding for FY 21 really only took into consideration nine months of activity and we tried to carry that same level into FY 21 as we discussed earlier the independent monitor was not budgeted for this year it's a revenue neutral item so as expenses come in we're billing pretty much the same day we make the payment now so we increase revenue at the same time expenses come in and you see that on attachment a we've increased by I think around 195,000 for the expenses that we've seen paid out this year and we received almost all of that revenue to date Doug can elaborate on that a little later and for the first time the commission included a projection for turnover savings of 250,000 this year please report that as a you know the first quarter we've already realized over half of that and if you look at through November we've we've actually realized about 177,000 of that of that turnover savings for the first time in any fiscal year since we began tracking the game and control fund licensing fees may actually not meet projections so every year we've exceeded projections this year we may not actually meet them in the one area we're keeping a close eye on is employee licensing you know that makes sense we were seeing between 30 and 40 turnover at the casinos when we were estimating 20 so fees were just coming in much higher since COVID related closures have happened we haven't seen much turnover at all for the people that have the jobs and we haven't seen much new hiring so you know that's something we need to keep an eye on may have to make some expenditure reductions in the future to meet that or go back to the licensees for assessment which none of us really want to do so we're going to keep an eye on trying to reduce some expenses in another area not much more to report really you know due to the uncertainty of this fiscal year the numerous potential areas of exposure we're tracking right now as well as this report only covering the first three months of the fiscal year we're not recommending any changes right now to the current assessment other than reducing the assessment which we you already voted to do in September for the carry forward of FY 20 surplus revenue and increasing both the expenses and the revenues by the 195,000 that's happened to date for the for the independent monitor if you have any questions Doug and Agnes Doug Agnes and I are available right now like I said you only get Agnes two days a week so hit her now and Doug can kind of walk through our improved timing for the billing of the independent monitor expenses so that we don't get into a scenario like we're in the end of last year Doug you want to give a quick walk through of that hello okay hi Doug yeah last hello there last year we did have a few issues with the monitoring fee getting it out on a timely manner but at this point working with EVH there you know prior to us even sending it out they are fully aware of it when it's coming in and they have been paying that on a very timely manner it's you know within a couple days when they get it it's submitted and it's paid and with that being said billing for all the casinos are well within their threshold since the beginning of the year they're all paying close to 100% of the timing so they get a bill and it's paid the following day they have worked with us this year they have really been terrific in all of our assessments public health trust funds slot fees all of those have been paid you reduced it to pay on a monthly basis on billing on a monthly basis during the situation the COVID situation and they have all been up to date as soon as they get a bill it's paid out so it's you know it's been working very well and they've been they've been right on top of it with us it's certainly good well we're not chasing anybody to get money they are paying what's due and on a timely manner and we have an open lines of communication with them so it's really been good we're happy with the casinos that's a great testament to your relationship Derek Derek and team and Karen that's so important and we know particularly during these times so great I mean it's not just process it's a lot to do with the relationship so thank you commissioners questions on for for Doug on that point and then for Derek on the overall report and for Agnes while we have no just thank you and this is a great update thank you for all the work you do as chairs as relies on the on the relationships and day-to-day of keeping track of all the multiple moving pieces I do agree with the recommendation of not needing to move or change much the next few months may bring a couple of different you know dynamics and that's that's fine we'll react and we'll have plenty of time within the fiscal year to to make adjustments if we need to this what what is now going to be effectively a different hours of operations for the casino so that may have some impact in some of the costs like overtime with state police but also in some of the collection of revenues and whatnot so thank you thank you for the update and thank you commissioners and I got for your your work in your treasure capacity very closely with this team commissioner Cameron do you have any questions or I know that you've done work with the on the the overtime um yeah do you want to comment yes well I would have to speak to captain Connors to know where we are right now but he's keenly aware of those hours and you know made a you know excellent effort to really monitor and make sure any hours provided are are warranted and I want to thank Derek and his team because under very trying times thank you for the good work and yeah I agree that we're we're doing the best we can with this so thank you Derek did you want to elaborate I think there's been some successful meetings with the licensees and captain Connors Karen good meetings and you know we've seen a little bit you know each month we've seen a little bit over the target of 150 000 they hit the 1.8 million until until October where we actually came in at 149 which is excellent I mean hey it's a hard number to hit right I mean 150 is what we were averaging for a nine-month period I mean more than you know that's a 12-month period we hit 1.8 over nine months last year so Brian and his team are working very hard um at getting these numbers I think the collaboration with the casinos and with commissioner Cameron has been excellent um Karen's been really pushing that back to home too but you know I just received a report from Brian too that they've actually lost over a hundred in 10 000 in straight time savings because they've had a hard time backfilling positions and those straight time savings more than offset the overage and over time so you know it's it's really you look at it as one budget the straight time and the overtime and overall they're under for that for that time period commissioner Brian commissioner Stebbins questions for Derek and team I'm all set great do you need action from us today Derek no action that's what I thought okay wanted to make sure I didn't miss something excellent great report thorough and a big thank you thank you thanks I think then we are now moving on to commissioner updates and of course that's the annual report Karen is that correct yes that's right okay thank you Patricia Ziniga you want to take the lead sure um thank you um in the packet uh colleagues um there is a revised version of the annual report presented last meeting in in revision mode of the changes that commissioner Brian and I worked on as a result of the conversation from that last meeting I can take them one at a time or pause there and and see if anybody has any idea in any preference around as to how to and whether to discuss some of these some of these changes well I did wonder about the process here because of course we got the the the update on you know Tuesday or whatever because we couldn't have access to the SharePoint and this is where editing by committee becomes as I think Sarah magazine said you know it's it's complicated so um I did have some additional thoughts mainly of course to my own letter um that's included in here and one of the things I think that was noted and I and I would like to include it commissioner Ziniga would be the convening of the equity and inclusion subcommittee and hopefully not impacting the length of the the um the letter because I know you probably have a you know a configuration in mind must we make it very tiny tiny tiny font um so I don't know how to be efficient about changes that I had I had a few other um you know kind of knit stuff but so if there were any motion that we were making I assume we might be working by consensus would be of course you know little typos and everything will be addressed um anything like that um I don't I don't really have a great suggestion as to how to proceed commissioner brian made some great edits I know it was to strengthen a couple of items particularly around the relicensure that I think it was commissioner Stevens who thought we should do that as well as just um really the great work that not only we did as a commission and of course the team did but also our licensees did during those roundtable discussions on producing guidelines that were adopted by the governor as the industry standard so you know those were the two items I think uh commissioner brian she did other work of course too on it but that that was from our last discussion so um how would you like to proceed commissioner Ziniga do you want to hear those or I'm not even sure what the rules are with respect to open meeting law in terms of how um do I have to read these edits into the record however however you want um I think um I'm sure that whatever you thought of for the letter from the chair I will I would agree um what you know especially in the notion of what I think is relevant to putting relative to that equity and equity and inclusion working group just on so I'm fine if you want to you know speak about them in summary or in detail but just understand that I I'm sure it'll be fine from my perspective the other part of that is that you know we can clearly work with the format it doesn't you know we should not limit ourselves to to one page it was just you know something in terms you know that I mentioned last time um so if you know one page sounds right to me too so yeah for a letter I guess but uh you know and we can easily just you know lead edit edit down whatever else needs to be and that would be also fine maybe I should have mentioned earlier that I think the bulk of the last discussion the last meeting and discussion was really relative to those recommendations for legislative action and um and you know you did mention some of the uh language from commissioner brian um in in the earlier parts but but that's where she provided also the bulk of of the comments we are each are in page uh page seven it's really not page seven of the packet it's page seven of the of the report and we have if I can you know if I can summarize what what what the intention was of hers to just reference prior efforts and like like you did in the first paragraph and then speak to in detail what we did this last year last fiscal year and that's memorializing the this new edits relative to horse racing that that is being the bulk of the rewrite you'll notice that two other recommendations have been at least for now deleted but one one thing that I think it's important for us to whether it's part of this report or more importantly a future discussion as I was saying earlier one of these topics might be the notion of anything that that happens to the gaming industry that happens to be online and that is something that again at this moment we're styling on in the annual report but it's something that in my opinion merits future discussion if I could add to that I madam chair first of all that's your letter and I think we do not have to hold this up to edit that we talked about what you'd like to add and that's entirely inappropriate so I don't think there's any need to hold this because of that I think the edits that were made or make the document stronger and to speak about the last point which is online and I just think because we haven't spoken about these issues with this current commission that it's that it's appropriate not to have it in this report but I agree with you commissioners unique of that having that talking about those things it as a commission is appropriate in the near future and if I could follow up the conversation that I'm really can and I had and I had when we were doing the edits um dovetails with Todd's presentation earlier which is what are the topics that we should probably be updated on on a more regular basis as a commission and this area of online gaming sports betting is definitely one of them because it has been imminent several times and then not happened we don't know if we're going to be asked to regulate or not we may and so to to be in a position where we're as important as we can be akin to the white paper that was done under different circumstances that that is something that we should probably add in to the agenda setting list in terms of something that should be a topic that we circle back to either two by twos or you know even some sort of update in terms of the various legislations that have been put before the general court in the commonwealth on this topic so that we as a commission can get a gauge um on what's out there and maybe other areas that we thought about um I think not having it in this report because it does not speak to what was done in this fiscal year is appropriate but I do think that we need to put it on the radar screen I know we're getting another council into the general council's group you know we used to have it an attorney who specialized in just this area someone probably will take on that responsibility once we're getting up to more fully staffed so this is a really good time I think to think about how we want to make sure we're all well informed on this issue yeah well said part of this was um it's also a reflection of the department of at least justin for example who used to do a great job at keeping the price of the price of this and we've been a little lean on the legal department for other reasons but just keeping it on the radar yeah and again I want to make sure to not um anyway understate the efforts that have gone on by the rest of the team during this justin just so everybody knows justin did do an update of the white paper and I think that was distributed widely before he left I hope that everybody has that on the current state and that's probably pretty up to up today but um I think that we've established that for legislation outside of even sports wagering or online gaming something that could impact us including maybe the budget updates just so we're aware as good stewards of government to understand that um you know I know for instance even some might be interested in the police reform bill that's pending so Jill um we'll be um monitoring this with crystal and in keeping track of of legislative developments that might be of interest even if not necessarily exactly on point so we have been we have been asking for this and Karen came up with a really good solution on exactly these legislative updates Todd knew that I wanted it on the agenda and thank you for today's report he had to go back and get updated so this work has been underway for the last several months as well as we were really lucky to have recently a great meeting with the state of Indiana on on their work in sports wagering of course the commission you are aware that you know went down to New Jersey right before COVID-19 to get informed a good team our IT team went back to New Jersey so there's been a lot of work and I just want to make sure that there's no messaging that this commission is not staying vitally up to date on these important issues but I am hearing you say you want reporting and I think now we have the mechanism in place to do that and it will be you know how it gets reported I think Commissioner O'Brien you mentioned it could be in a variety of fashions and I think you know whether we do it on a monthly basis internally and then maybe a quarterly basis through a public meeting you know we can think about that but I'm going to leave that to Karen and team to figure out how best to make sure all the commissioners are well informed on these efforts and and and emulated and so the other thing I would ask affirmatively is if you see something that you want to get more information something that we're not mentioning but you know we certainly get a lot of news in terms of both federal and state initiatives and I suppose even some local commissioner stubborn you might be thinking about that as well you know we have a team who can help us be informed and I also said to Jill she's going to see it and Crystal they're going to see it they're going to need the legal team to help understand it and to be able to translate it to us so I think my my response today is I feel really good about the fact that we have a team in place now to make sure that this is this is happening these efforts are that we receive proper information that we're informed on a continuing basis and if you don't feel informed you know now you know that we have an internal resources to to reach out to so that makes sense commissioner Zuniga and commercial Brian yes thank you yeah I do I do think that this area in particular because they're different you know they're all virtual now given the world that we're in but because it's so fast moving and changing it's something that probably should be at the front of the list oh yeah maybe a top on its own aside from sort of the general legislative update that would be my my two cents yeah I mean I have to say that you know the legislature is really busy right now thinking about this and so I think that our being good listeners right now is also really important too so all right excellent Karen that was that's great I feel good about the fact that we've got the team in place I see Jill with a smile I know Jill and Chris are excited about this opportunity so we appreciate their their teamwork so in terms of the annual report if I may can I just assume that we take your suggested edits madam chair and and get on with trying to move these reports further so those were I haven't made any edits those are commissioner Brian and your great work I want to make sure that I should actually yeah I should actually distinguish both can we assume that there is no objections to the current edits in revision mode and then as commissioner Cameron mentioned that you make whatever edits you see fit in the letter of the chair and then proceed with the final draft of this document commissioner Stebbins and do you have additional edits because you too haven't had the opportunity to chime in it's if we could all use SharePoint commissioners and then make that a public right you know but we can't because we'd be responding to each other outside of your public arena so no I I I think the strong version in the in the edits that commission was in again commissioner Brian it may look great you know my one point was to to elevate the profile of the relicensing of PPC because that is that's a first for this agency as well in its life so and I'm happy to see how that was how that was managed in the new version so I'm I'm comfortable with it and certainly Madam Chair it's your letter whatever changes you want to make to it I'm sure appropriate and you know let's let's move this ahead to a final version and produce it but thanks to my colleagues for all their great work and the teams for all their great work to put all the pieces together so I think I've heard we've heard from everyone on the report thank you Commissioner O'Brien it's always always great to have somebody come in after you've done your first strong draft and Commissioner Zuniga accomplished that and then to have some extra sense of eyes and thoughts in your edits for superb so thank you and so do we have a consensus do we need a vote on this Commissioner Zuniga you'd like that correct we we haven't done it in the past and I and I seem to be hearing a consensus so yeah and and I think in terms of I on the legislative update I think keeping a record of the history as part of our internal documents it's really important and then having the fiscal report fiscal year report indicate exactly what we've done is probably the best practice so I'm in agreement with that for for this so I do I think I'm hearing a consensus okay yes and now the next steps um Sarah um and you will coordinate and perhaps we we leave maybe Sarah I think Elaine had done this in the past just if there's those little edits that um for cleanup Commissioner Zuniga is that how absolutely they they give it a you know and by the way I should mention Sarah has already provided a lot of really good feedback on on the versions you're seeing here but yeah they do um you know and we can this will be a first time for her but but I'm sure you know she's the public she has seen in many other aspects of dealing with our and coordinating with our vendor Jack Rabbit who has a really has done a really good job in the past about pulling graphics as well as nice glossy pictures you know that are the theme of of of casino or gambling or host racing you know and that will be up to final production excellent okay consensus achieved great work thank you and um other commissioner updates commissioner O'Brien do you want to give us a puppy update other than to say the reason I had to leave in the afternoon is I was given a reprieve from puppy duty for this morning so the work in progress um and the dog is already twice the size or she's about 60 percent bigger than when we got her about three weeks ago yeah she's gonna be big wow yeah bell so we'll see the dog appearing in the camera shot too at some point yeah you'll see a cat she wants to play with the orange cat the black cat she's no interested in so they kind of reached simpatico but um there's there's a war to be had that is yet to come I'm sure I will tell you all about it because man goes not so keen on he's not backing down no no no all right I was I was observing my cat the other day and I came to the conclusion it hit me that he's thriving during this pandemic it's been great for him yeah yeah yeah yeah um it will be an adjustment uh they could only truly understand English as much as we do speak in full sentences to our animals um they could understand that we um we might have an exit strategy hopefully next year all right uh Karen anything else that we need to address no man okay then um first off to the entire team it's been a long but full productive meeting thank you for staying on we have 47 team members who have stayed on and and other interested parties so thank you as always um I think we're going to be convening at the end of tomorrow um with a wonderful guest speaker uh at the town hall which we can report on at our December 17th meeting so for those of you who we're seeing today we look forward to seeing you tomorrow um commissioners do you have anything else you'd like to add just move to adjourn thank you second thank you commissioner Cameron hi commissioner O'Brien hi commissioner Zunica hi thank you everyone and commissioner Stemmins hi great work everyone thank you have a great rest of the day appreciate everyone's attendance thank you five zero I vote yes