 we'll get started then. Go right ahead Dave. Okay good morning. Good morning again everyone. We're going to get started. This meeting is of course being recorded and we do want to do a roll call given that we are using a virtual format. Good morning Commissioner O'Brien. Good morning. I'm here. Good morning Commissioner Hill. Good morning President. And good morning Commissioner Skinner. Good morning everyone. I'm here. Commissioner Skinner you're in your office today. I am not in the office today. You have a different background. Oh I thought you would already start to put something up. Well good morning. We'll get started with the call. The order today is April 14th. Tomorrow is tax day for anyone who has adult children who need room. And it is public meeting number 376. And we'll get started with the minutes. Commissioner O'Brien thank you. Certainly Madam Chair. In the packet today are meeting minutes from November 18th 2021. And I would move that this is obviously before Commissioner Skinner's time but I would move that we approve those meeting minutes subject to any needed changes for typographical errors or other non-material matters. Second. All right. Are there any edits that you have? Commissioner Hill? No. Commissioner Skinner I'm not sure if you had a chance to review them but if you wish to abstain you may. I'll take a call. A call vote. Commissioner O'Brien? I. Commissioner Hill? I. Commissioner Skinner? Abstain. Thank you and I vote yes. Four. Three. In favor. One abstention. Thank you. Todd and good morning Todd. Okay. Gonna go straight now to the administrative update. Good morning. I went right to Bruce. I'm sorry executive director. Good morning. I was so excited to see Bruce and his. Oh right. Yeah. And we are going right to Bruce so you were correct. I'm gonna turn over to Bruce for the onsite of Catino updates which is our only agenda item in the administrative update this morning. Well after that big introduction I hope I'm not disappointing. Never disappoint Bruce. Never. Thank you. It's actually a short update today. With Encore they continue their weekly gift giveaways and they've added a 13th poker table this week. As far as PPC they had their opening race day with all four commissioners in attendance and MGM the update is that they continue with the play my way and everything seems to be going smoothly for all the patrons and of course with play my way. Any questions? I'll be glad to answer commissioners. So 13th table. Yes ma'am. Okay. Thank you. All right. Well Bruce. Thank you so much. Karen is that it for today? I did get some information from from crystal on a regulatory review process but I'm gonna save that for next the next Okay. Thank you so much. We'll plan on that. All right. Then we're gonna go right into our research and responsible gaming and our guest speakers today. Mark. Good morning. Good morning. Morning Madam Chair. Good morning commissioners and especially commissioners Skinner. I know it's a very early morning. So today I'm pleased to introduce Dr. Tom P. He's a senior analyst with UMass Donahue Institute and Dr. Rachel Volver who we know well. She's the principal investigator for our Sigma project and she's also with the UMass School of Public Health and Health Sciences. The report that they will present today is the COVID-19 impacts report. Hold on one second. So obviously drawing it back to why are we doing this report chapter 23 K section 71 directs the commission to conduct comprehensive factual studies on the economic impacts of gambling and the commonwealth. Now obviously when when drafting this section of the statute the legislature did not and absolutely could not have anticipated something as devastating as a pandemic. But understanding the effects of COVID on the casino industry is important and in fiscal year 21 the commission identified this particular study the study of the economic impacts of COVID as a top research priority. Specifically the report today will describe the pandemic impacts on the casino business operations, casino work force impacts, business to business spending impacts, as well as government and fiscal impacts. I'm not going to ruin it for you but there's good news and bad news as you probably figured out as you were reviewing this report. Bad news first was it was devastating from the onset when the casinos shut down in March of 2020 and it was felt throughout the casino industry but certainly throughout the industry in Massachusetts and the ripple effect was quite large. The good news is the recovery since that time and once the casinos reopened has been probably better than than what could have been anticipated. Now the details of that are really important and you'll see from Tom Peake today just kind of what what are those details and and perhaps there are lessons to learn from this as well. So with that I'll turn it over to Dr. Volberg and Dr. Peake. Good morning Dr. Volberg. Good morning Madam Chair. Good morning commissioners. As you've heard I am the principal investigator and lead researcher on the study of the social and economic impacts of you know gambling in Massachusetts and my main role here today is to introduce Tom who will be presenting the results of our investigation into the impacts of the pandemic on the Massachusetts casinos. So before Tom's presentation I just want to provide you with a little bit of background. In 2013 the research team that I lead successfully competed for the Sigma project. The team includes faculty and staff from UMass and the University of Lethbridge in Canada, researchers from the Donahue Institute and data collection agencies like NRC at the University of Chicago. In 2019 our team successfully competed for the re-procurement of the Sigma project and one innovation that was introduced with that re-procurement was to include one or two ad hoc reports in our deliverables every year which allowed the research team to be responsive to emerging issues rather than tied to a set of deliverables planned in some cases quite a few years before. So while the report you will hear about today is not our first ad hoc report it is an important illustration of our ability to respond to unanticipated events that affect the Massachusetts casinos and with that I'd like to turn things over to Tom. Thanks everybody. Just one correction I am not a doctor although I've been doing research here long enough that I probably could have earned a PhD so I'd happily accept a honorary doctorate from the commission if you're handing them out. We give them out. We give out any title. Whatever you. Oh super. Great. I would apologize Tom but I do think very highly of you so I'm just gonna leave it there. Great. Thank you. I'm honored that you think that. So yeah um yeah my name is Tom Peek. I've been a I've been working on this casino project since 2014 so it's great to see everybody again. I'll be it remotely. Should I share my slides or is there someone okay great. Somebody can help you if you need help. I think I can pull it off. So I can skip this first slide because basically just saying the things that Rachel just said that we've been doing this project for a while as we're moving into this new phase there's more of an emphasis on ad hoc reports and you know obviously a global pandemic while devastating and heartbreaking offers a really great opportunity for this sort of ad hoc report where we sort of start a new topic to sort of to get down and do some data analysis about what is like how this has affected the casinos. So to just do a sort of a broad summary of the findings here I want to say that for the most part this report leveraged some research methods that we've developed over other operating reports and things like that that we've done for the casinos but we decided to you know with COVID we sort of we modified them a little bit and there was particularly a little bit of an extra emphasis on issues of equity which is something that we had heard from the commission was important. So broadly you could break down the our findings into three groups workforce impacts, visitation and revenue impacts and business and government spending impacts. In the area of workforce impacts we found as we'll come to as no surprise anyone here that the shutdown led to you know major layoffs but many of the workers who were laid off have been rehired in the time I should say that we started this work in the fall of last year and since then it's been going through the review process but the data the study period that we're looking at is the six quarters from the first quarter of calendar year 2020 to the second quarter of calendar year 2021. So basically January 2021 out to June or sorry January 2020 out to June 2021. So since then obviously there's been a lot more developments but as of you know when we analyze the data a lot of the folks who had been laid off have been rehired as the casinos reopened. We did find on from an equity angle that the layoffs fell most heavily on people of color which reflected a broader trend across the Commonwealth that you know when there's a crisis like this it often falls most heavily on folks who are for various socioeconomic reasons a bit more vulnerable and we'll go into a little bit of why we think that happened later on in the presentation. On a visitation and revenue impacts we found that as of the summer of 2021 gross gaming revenue had recovered to the levels that it was at before the before the pandemic it was moving faster than visitation which suggests that there were some shifts in patron behavior after the casinos reopened and in terms of business and government spending impacts one thing that we did find from an equity angle was that throughout the pandemic the casinos had really struggled to to meet the commitments that they had made in their licensing process to women and minority vendors and again we can go a little bit into why that might be. So just to give some context by this is obviously very well known by anyone sitting on the commission but for sort of a broader audience by July 2019 all three of the casinos were open for business in January 2020 which is sort of the beginning of our analysis the casinos brought in over 80 million dollars in gross gaming revenue. They employed about 6,500 workers and paid almost 36 million dollars in wages. So this is a sector that even though it's only three firms it has a pretty substantial economic footprint here on the Commonwealth. COVID-19 arrived in Massachusetts in February of 2020 and by March all three casinos were shut down. Over the next year and a half casinos went through various phases of restrictions and shutdowns and June 2021 was the first month of full capacity operations. I sort of bring this up because well we'll see in a minute we really kind of break out in our graphs we try and break out the graphs to show sort of what phase of operation the casinos were operating at various points. So in terms of workforce impacts just to sort of give a summary young people low-wage workers women people of color bore the brunt of the job losses and reductions in hour. A lot of that was because of the sectors that those people are heavily represented in. Food and beverage gaming recreation hotel departments these are areas with high concentrations of workers of color they were also some of the areas that were most affected by the layoffs. And like I was saying there has been a lot of rehiring at the casinos since those initial layoffs. So here you can see how we've structured all of the sort of charts in the report. Some of you may have had a chance to to review it already but we've sort of put these colored bars or these various grayscale bars across the charts to sort of show where folks were. So in you know in March of 2020 the casinos began to shut down and as you can see what exactly that looked like varied a bit from the casinos. Employment fell very dramatically at MGM and PPC just to be clear also these dates right here at the bottom these are this is payroll employment so there's going to be a small lag between when somebody is laid off and when they receive their last paycheck. So if you're if you're looking at this and thinking oh why is it that it's like a couple weeks later that that's probably why. But Encore actually did keep a lot of their workers on payroll even throughout a good deal of the shutdown so you sort of see while the other two casinos sort of see have their their trough their their lowest point like during the shutdown. Encore sort of has a sort of different trajectory to their their total employment numbers and that's because of some choices they made to retain staff even when there wasn't a lot going on. So you know we have right here we break this out by full-time and part-time with the full-time workers being the bold line or the non-dashed lines and the solid lines and the full-time being the dashed lines. So you can see pretty much all of the part-time workers at two of the casinos and even a huge number of the part-time workers at Encore that was doing a lot to retain their workers. Those workers were gone pretty early. You'll also see that like I said sort of Encore you know we had some of our analysis what we tried to do is figure out like what were they looking at at their peak employment before the pandemic and what was their lowest point their trough and then you know after the shutdown where were they so that we can sort of calculate like how what share of the workers have been recovered and you'll see again that when we are talking about things this way it's important to note that Encore's trough is actually later due to their their retention policies. When it comes to this stuff as I mentioned before you know young people low-wage workers women and people of color bore the brunt of job losses and reductions in hours and we'll I'll get a little bit into more detail about that but you can see that like when the shutdown hits there's definitely a dip in this share of minority versus goal graph although I would note that for most of this period all three of the casinos did actually meet their minority hiring goals even though those numbers did dip and that certainly is true for the share of women employed at the casinos as well that also dipped rather dramatically and this is sort of a busy table but to sort of understand why this happened we're certainly not suggesting any sort of malice on the part of the the casinos but just structurally if you look at the sectors of the like the sub sectors of the casinos where you're seeing a lot of people of color a lot of younger people a lot of lower wage workers being hired food and beverage the gaming floor the hotel these are a lot of the sectors where in a shutdown there's just not a lot for a lot of these workers to do these are jobs that are very contingent on customers being there whereas if you're looking at sort of the administrative side of things where it's a little bit different in terms of sort of the the breakdown by in terms of in terms of race in terms of level of education in terms of income there certainly were some dramatic reductions in administrative staff too but a lot of the folks who were there like during the during the worst of the pandemic a lot of the jobs that were required are they're just a different sort of type of job and the sort of people who have the education who've been able to achieve the education to get those sorts of jobs just in massachusetts due to broader structural inequities it just is a different sort of population and so when you see those things that it's sort of like there there's reasons why these things why these things happen that are structural and and and that you see in many cases like throughout the economy that more vulnerable people are more vulnerable to big disruptions in the economy um here's a bit of good news um so most of the employees who have been hired again this data is from now this like last summer but at that point most of the employees who have been hired since reopening have been previous employees so a lot of the people who were laid off did get their jobs back uh at the so what this chart shows is sort of retention rate uh from beginning of 2020 so basically what we did is we looked at every paycheck uh that was cut in the first pay period of 2020 and then the question is did the is that worker present in these future pay periods so you can see there's a period of time where at two of the casinos you know less than 10 percent of the workers who are there in that first period are still there um but by the end uh the overall number is inching is closing in on on over 50 percent uh if you look at all of the casinos it's around about 50 percent um of the workers who uh were there in the beginning of 2020 were there at the end of June uh 2021 which we think is a positive trend um if we go and we talk about visitation and revenue impacts um I just want to say off the course like one one thing that we got a lot from from the reviewers is uh they were they were talking a lot about I think they were a little bit confused by some of these revenue numbers so before I get into this what we have right here is gross gaming revenue there's been some ongoing conversations with the casinos about uh sharing their non-gaming revenue numbers and there's varying levels of comfort with that but without everyone being able to share it it just didn't seem um like something we should delve too far into so we talk about gross gaming revenues but it's worth noting that non-gaming revenues were obviously pretty like if your hotel is not open that that's a pretty big deal for your non-gaming revenues um but what we saw is that as of last summer visitation levels at the casinos had not returned to pre-pandemic levels but um patrons uh do appear to be spending more on average than pre-pandemic patrons um and as a result uh gross gaming revenues actually have uh increased uh since the beginning of 2020 despite the decline in visitation so here we have visitation and gross gaming revenues um one note we spoke to on core and um what they said is that they weren't collecting uh visitation data prior to the reopening so if you see that there's only um MGM and PPC on the visitation chart prior to the shutdown that's why um but you can see if you look at those two that the sort of red and the gold line and the visitation graph they they really have not recovered to their levels of visitation from before but then look at those casinos or the overall trend for gross gaming revenue which we we do have for the full time series because the MGC publishes it um and you can see it's uh it really has rebounded at the end of June 2021 um all told the three casinos brought in 84.1 million dollars in um gross gaming revenue for that month versus 80.3 million dollars in um uh in in the beginning of in January 2020 so just to get you an idea like you've got lagging visitation but you have increasing uh you actually have uh GGR numbers that exceed um the uh pre-pandemic numbers um and so if you take this as a calculation you can kind of see where this is going if you take gross gaming revenue per visitor it has shot up pretty dramatically um so there's a number of reasons why that could be it could be that people who are going are spending more on gambling because through a good deal this period there's um like there's less non-gambling things to do at the casino um there could be some problem gambling implications of this that are worth exploring one point that we made in the report is that you know in most casinos the vast majority of uh gambling spending is done by a certain pretty committed group of patrons and those patrons are likely to be the ones back so the fact that it returned quickly even with numbers down isn't too surprising but the fact that it actually increased suggests that there may be some behavioral shifts at the casinos which uh which might be worth taking a look at going forward to see how how people have how things have changed um finally in terms of uh business spending impacts you know the casinos spend a lot of money on business to business um spending and it can have a big impact in the communities and there's they've made a series of uh commitments in terms of you know equity spend uh so that's something we wanted to check in on as obviously the goods and services that a casino purchases uh during a shutdown or during a period of restricted reopening uh are going to be different than the services they purchase uh otherwise if your hotel is not operational or if it is but it's not very many people are there then all the hotel related vendor spending is going to be less um and uh you know if you're not doing as much food and beverage you might not be buying various things from your community as well so that is something that we wanted to uh to take a look at um so one thing that we found is that with these uh you know the casino activities restricted the casinos have struggled to achieve their spending goals on a minority and women-owned businesses um we did find that they uh we were actually I think a little bit positively surprised by the fact that they for the most part did continue to do a good deal of business um with firms in their hosting surrounding communities I think in a lot of our heads a lot of those goods and services we're going to be ones that sort of you know if you've got your local pastry shop and you're not serving pastries then you know that's going to be trouble but we found that those numbers there there's not like a really clear trend of a decline uh there across the casinos so here we have uh the share of expenditure on minority and women business owners versus the goal it's worth noting that in a lot of these cases the actual spend on minority and women business owners did fall um but in terms of the share of total spending um they uh they're the trends are a little less clear but uh generally throughout uh Encore has on for a couple quarters um exceeded uh its minority business owner spending goals and uh there's a couple quarters where it's met or come close to meeting it's women business owner spending goals other than that this has been an area where throughout our study period the casinos struggled to meet those commitments um in terms of the share of uh expenditure on hosts and surrounding communities as you can see uh we didn't really see that much of a clear trend it did seem like as the casinos reopened um there was a like over that first period of reopening there there was actually an increase uh on average for this kind of spending and uh but it's certainly been erratic and that's sort of understandable given the nature of what's going on there um so just as a final uh recap we've been collecting data recently we're almost done with our data collection for calendar year uh 2021 so we'll be able to sort of as time goes on speak more about how these trends are continuing but since uh gross gaming revenue is something that is uh tracked by the MGC uh I did just sort of want to show this to show that okay so while while the uh trends that we are talking about and in June 2021 it it seems like things have been relatively level since then there hasn't been like a really dramatic departure from the trends in terms of gross gaming revenue uh and so if we think about what the relations are between gross gaming revenue and employment or visitation or whatever we you know it's tough to infer too much but I think it's it's good to note that um from what we can see in gross gaming revenue there hasn't been like a really dramatic departure from the trend uh since the end of the study period uh so just to recap uh what we've seen uh when when we're talking workforce impacts it's young people low-wage workers women people of color bore the brunt of job losses and reductions an hour uh in a big part that's because food and beverage gaming and recreation and hotel departments which are areas with high concentrations of uh workers of color were heavily impacted and since then there has been a lot of rehiring um in terms of visitation uh the visitation levels haven't returned as of last summer to pre-pandemic levels but patrons do appear to be spending more on average uh which has led to an increase in gross gaming revenue uh and finally uh in the business side we're seeing uh that it's over that period the casino struggled to meet their uh uh goals when it came to minority and women-owned businesses but there does seem to be they are continuing to do business uh with firms in the host and surrounding communities so thanks so much uh I'm uh happy to answer any questions that anyone might have great tom thank you if um if you wouldn't mind taking down the slide then we couldn't see everyone once again um we've been waiting for this report uh and delighted with your presentation I'll start with my fellow commissioners there's somebody who'd like to go first on questions commissioner bryan sure um thank you um very much the a lot of that um I know that the answers to the you know when and how we can get some of the numbers out particularly on the women's representation and the employees and the vendors is sort of a question beyond this report but in terms of the the year over year the assessment of the ggr I know that month to years but is a good way of doing it I know there's shifts and sort of the the general patterns at gaming establishments you have the summary that goes back to the summer of 19 in your last chart in terms of the ggr and if you don't have it I you know I'm not going to put you on the spot but do you have the actual ggr numbers for june and july of 19 to compare to june and july 21 uh I could definitely pull those up I actually believe that they're on the mgc website but um I definitely have them yeah I just know if you knew the actual numbers just for yeah so sorry go ahead no just for in terms of because I know you had the stat yeah um yeah totally the annuary number so I was just wondering what the actual number is on the summer of 19 right one of the reasons we wanted to talk about january is because on court boston harbour it just opened in right july and so often the the first like gross gaming revenue in those first few months can be pretty strange and erratic so we figured that okay so january is where things what we could say is like the first probably one of the first like normal months the whole thing in terms of all the ppc mgm one do you know what the ppc mgm combined ggr would be I don't have it up right now but I could definitely get that to you okay in general is that is that about the same or flat because I'm just trying to gauge on the chart you have at the end um it looks like it might still be up a little bit I just didn't know what the actual wrong numbers are yeah um I don't have the chart like the spreadsheet's up right now but I could definitely get that to you okay thanks commissioner haley commissioner skinner do you have a question I first of all the report was excellent when I first started reading the report and I was looking at the workforce impacts and I saw the major layoffs and then of course it was heavily of people of color and the minorities and women all all red flags started flying up but then your report gave a very a very good and precise reason why that happened you know it was the industry that they actually worked in and things of that sort so um thank you for all that great information what I had a question about and I my packet number page is different than what you've put up or shared with us but I noticed during the months of and just bear with me please November 20th December 20th January 21 we saw a dip um there in the gross gaming revenues and I'm trying to figure out and I think this goes back to commissioner O'Brien if you go back to January 20th the numbers were a little bit higher um in that in those months but in you look at January 21 there was a considerable dip with all three casinos not just uh you know not one so I was wondering if there was any indication through your data um why that was because it's a considerable drop actually for all of yeah I think I actually have this one um I believe that around that time with that there was a bit of a COVID flare up and they put either some hours or capacity restrictions on the casinos uh and I think that that was a function of that okay I think that's the right period yeah yeah just to when we head into the holidays of that year there was an uptick the governor dialed back some of the reopening and everything constricted again and that flowed into that time period you're talking about so we likewise tightened up as did the licensees voluntarily some of what they were offering oh thank you for that historical um knowledge and then my last it's more of a comment or a statement than it is a question is you know when we start seeing that the gaming revenues you know a lot higher than the visitation I think if we look at every industry even if whether it's casino whether it's restaurants whether it's retail we've seen a lot of increased costs that are now being put to the consumer and I'm wondering if that's happening in the casino industry as well as if the cost have gone up that they're now increasing their cost and that's why we're seeing an increase in revenues that's a great question in terms of the actual sort of uh decisions that they are making in terms of uh you know like like the choices that they're making on setting the uh parameters for their machines and whatnot uh that's something that definitely I think uh at least for slot machines could be analyzed um so I think that's that's a that's a really great idea for something that we could and in fact that we have analyzed that in the past um so it I don't have an answer for you in terms of the extent to which that's the case um obviously it's a very unique industry in in the like just like how that revenue is derived but I would be I think that's a really interesting point about like what sort of decisions that the casinos made themselves that could potentially um have like play a role there that's that's really that's a good that's a good point I also just want to say I have a fellow analyst who uh just looked up um just sent me the answers in terms of uh January 2019 um gross gaming revenues for commissioner O'Brien's answers it was like 12 point oh sorry July 2019 uh we've got about 20.3 million at MGM and about 12.5 million at ppc and 48.6 million or so at ebh if that's helpful commissioner O'Brien do you want to build on from that I'm just trying to go back now I I had scanned down on my power point in the packet away from that page I'm just looking I was going to do a comparison of the total yeah that's fine um in the meantime commissioner scanner do do you have a question at this point thank you no no no questions but I will take the opportunity to thank Dr. Volberg uh honorary doctor Tom Pease and the Donahue Institute for your work um on the study and and echo my fellow commissioner uh Hale's comments about how interest rate excuse me interesting uh the report was very easily digestible not going to say it was fun to read um but it was definitely definitely manageable um so thank you thank you um if you don't mind not while we're waiting for commissioner O'Brien to just process if she has a follow-up um I'll just um ask a couple of questions I want to um I I think I heard correctly that you said you know there's this enormous impact on um particularly those employees who are people of color minorities women and we saw how they were industrially related as commissioner Hale explained but that there has been and I think it was your happy news good news that most have been rehired but I thought I saw another slide where it said it was about 50% is it most like just over 50% because I guess um with the happy news I might have expected it to be higher um or is it just because of the the light and the need to bring more people back right I think that definitely at the period that we were looking at where we were one month into um like full reopening uh I think that that's certainly a lot of the non gaming workers were still like they're they still hadn't fully staffed up everywhere there um I actually think that in those slides there's some language that is a little confusing so I should uh I should clarify um but you're right we are still looking at that endpoint of July don't you love it that just confirming that you're right my apologies for that but 2021 July 2021 so we're not looking at where we are now in those operations non gaming operations are coming back so we almost need like a post scrap to see um what their rehire rate was of those right what I can say is that the vast majority of people I don't have the number up in front of me but it is in the report um the vast majority of people who have been hired since the shutdown were prior uh casino employees who were returning to those jobs gaming gaming uh yes for the most part but also security and operation oh yes i'll relate to yeah gaming but not not the non gaming um I think that yeah I mean I think that uh when it comes to food and beverage and uh hotel I do think that those those areas were were restricted longer than uh the the gaming uh people were so you're seeing like there's slower retake in those areas but I would guess that if you checked today um and we and we have the data now through we just like a couple weeks ago got the data through the end of 2021 I haven't extensively analyzed it yet but my guess is that that's the trend that you continue to see as the hotels reopen as the bars and restaurants reopen and whatnot do you happen to know because you said at in january of 2020 uh of 2020 there were 6,520 workers collectively among the three do you happen to know where we are at year end of 21 uh no I don't have that in front of me all right that's a number that um Mark I think um speaking at least for myself I've got my fellow commissioners too um we'd love to have that that number um sort of updated even to now um next point I wanted to make is um and Commissioner O'Brien you were here during this time um I want to remind folks that when we worked collectively and collaboratively with the the three licensees march 14th of 2020 to suspend gaming operations we we got together in this format with representatives from the three licensees and our members of our team and they at that time to their credit especially when we look back at what happened each licensee agreed to keep all their employees employed for two weeks so when you show that two week lag they actually committed to two weeks of employment which was extremely generous because across the country when these three casinos kind of closed early earlier than other entities and enterprises across the nation across the commonwealth because of the circumstances unique to this industry and unique to our very licensees moment so to their credit they kept everyone on for those two weeks so I wanted to point that out it's a something that all of us can be really proud of in terms of the leadership of our licensees and then the question I have I think maybe it follows up on Commissioner Hill's question is but Eileen did you want to add on that was there anything the the only other thing I would add to that is I believe the ebh and win they actually committed to keeping them on for months there is a part of that stat that was driven by obviously by the corporate side in terms I think ppc drops pretty dramatically at one point and mgm and encore in particular stay up that was corporate driven obviously right and so Tom you know showed how encore stayed higher and it was because they made a nationwide I think maybe it was international decision to keep their employees there you know on the payroll and they did it as long as really they could and so there was a final dip right before the reopening occurred great great deal of gratitude from all their their employees the only the my my final question was I and I suspect maybe this is something that you would be digging at rather than that you've already dug at is when you say that there doesn't seem to be the same visitation a drop in visitation but more spent by patrons and I heard Brad you know ask about almost like inflation issues I wondered if there's also was it a fact if you were able to detect a factor of pent up demand or was there more dispensable income I think that those are both potential factors I mean I'm not much of a casino patron myself but I know that like when I started feeling when I'm you know got vaccinated and started feeling comfortable visiting my local you know restaurants and bars again I certainly was probably I was exuberant about being out in the public and I probably spent a little bit more than I maybe would have in the the period before just because it was exciting to be there and I think that that's very that's likely a result and also yeah I mean for a lot of folks who were receiving some benefits or who just the things they would normally spend a lot of money on were not available to them for a period of time I can say that too like you know not having sort of a lot of my recreational activities available to me for a lot of period of time I found myself with you know a bit more money in my checking account than I'm I'm used to having so I think that that probably was the case for a lot of people and and so I think that in a way like you actually you might see similar things across other sectors where just the data isn't as rich as what we can get from from the casinos because there's a lot of incredible data that we collect for this report that on most private sector entities just doesn't exist so it's tough to like find the comparable thing um but I mean I think that it's I think that like I don't think anyone's surprised that spend per visitor went up after reopening but it is dramatic enough that I just won't I just sort of felt the need to to tell you know my my colleagues on the social side and whatnot like this might be something sort of worth looking into because it seems kind of like dramatic Madam chair if I may chime in on that that really stuck out to me too when you see increased revenue decreased visitors I think um and as Tom that doctor uh pointed out um you know perhaps there is there is a change in gambling behavior what is driving that change and I think it's something that we want to continue to explore further what are the responsible gaming ramifications how how could we adjust our strategies on that side of it in order to respond to this new information and I look forward to um we are wrapping up right now the follow-up general population survey which extensively explores gambling behavior amongst the general population of adults in in massachusetts and um that should shed some light not only how gambling behavior changed since 2013-14 when the baseline was done but how has it changed in um following the pandemic because that's the report the the reporting period um I think we really should pay attention to that whether that means that we pay more attention to um you know pre-commitment tracking tracking the amount spent personal responsibility gambling literacy any of these things we can adjust kind of where where we go based on really valuable information so mark our madam chair just to follow up on that one of the other things that I was looking at too is in addition to reopening in the summer of 20 there was a slow ratcheting up in terms of expansion in terms of you know we did not allow poker we did not allow craps we you know and so to overlay on these stats and these charts when we started to expand the seats at a blackjack table did that have any impact when we open craps what kind of uptick did you get one poker like there's a way to take some of that and maybe dig down deeper and figure out behavioral patterns in terms of that whether that's going to change anything in terms of for spend or visitation or that um something else about in terms of using the data that they put out in this um and just to circle back to the numbers um there's a mgm's pretty flat when you go year over year 19 to 21 they go down 0.1 million ppc has a more um you know still robust but more significant drop down 1.2 million so it looks like the the gain over where they were pre pandemic when you look back seems to be evh primarily so maybe something else to look at in terms of the behaviors and the offerings at the different places did that impact it or was it just a creature of the market also settling out where evh was going to be pulling up more numbers and some of that revenue disappeared from the other two yeah and that's something that we uh definitely you know as a casino just the size of evh sort of emerges into the market there's certainly going to be some shift uh in patron behavior so that's that's something that we we are certainly aware of right so be curious to see if they do really go past their 2019 numbers down a ppc and mgm or whether it was a like a market correction well it feels like both history and also really still very present with us these impacts of covid and and i think this will be one of many many studies dr valberg that will emerge out of the pandemic correct tom and dr valberg yeah so um we've as as mark mentioned we've got the follow-up general population survey that just came out of the field we have an online panel survey that also just came out of the field and a patron survey at encore that finished up on monday so we have a lot of analytic work in front of us for the next probably fiscal year but we do have a series of reports planned on on each of those uh pieces of data collection and i think those will be very informative in terms of patron and population behavior so i don't have any numbers to offer you now but just sort of you know watch this space we'll have some interesting stuff and for tom and you for such a long period out there'll always be a sort of snapshot that you have to digest in a way that probably never anticipated when you started this work no i you know um it was a worldwide historical event that we happened to have been on the ground since 2013 um you know for for reasons having to do with the statute itself uh so um you know it was definitely a huge opportunity to be able to continue with um you know looking at at these operators and this industry in a very granular way i will say that there's a fair amount of research findings that are coming out of other jurisdictions internationally but none of them really have the granularity of the work that that we've been able to do primarily because of the way that we've been able to work with the operators to share their data and and to be able to to really look at you know what the actual numbers are rather than to sort of infer from what people tell us in surveys or whatever yeah and i would just say like as someone's been working in like economic and public policy for quite some time uh i always have to whenever i come here say thanks for just um you know facilitating this sort of work because it's very very rare in the world of economic policy for somebody to do something and then study how it's going usually they bring in economists to say what do you think the impact of this will be it's very rare for people to say what has the impact of this been how is this going um and uh it's so funny because the longer i've worked on the study the more obvious it seems that that that's like a really important thing to do did he freeze yeah i think i think tom froze not me okay thanks very your tom you froze briefly oh no um that's okay we all wondered if it was ourselves and so um it's just a brief reason okay all right any further questions or comments um could i just say one thing building on what tom said it it is extraordinary that we have operators that are that are willing to share this data and i think it's it's the combination of the three it's a really talented research team it's operators that are cooperative and wanting um understand that what our mandate is to do economic studies like this and it's certainly um the gaming commission and calling out marie claire for working really hard with our operators to make sure that we collect the data and that for that that data is is gathered and delivered to um to the um astana institute so well thank you mark and thank you dr velberg and uh honorary dr peak um i'll borrow uh commissioner skinner's good idea um we uh look forward to any follow-ups that you end up providing but this was a very as uh everybody commented a very enjoyable read and uh one that we had been very much looking forward to and we were actually imagining it being done in while we were living and operating through the pandemic in real time we knew that this was going to amount to important research so thank you so much thank you so much for having me great thank you okay enjoy uh spring dr velberg out there okay thank you thank you um before we continue with the next item i just wanted to um bring up a uh procedural matter that i should have led with is that uh i am i'm i've had a couple of days where i haven't been able to keep up with everything in the way that i wanted to and i had some questions that i needed to explore on the um a couple of items um and one was uh uh the item number one under commissioner update and item number two uh with respect to the appointment of our treasurer and then with respect to our budget um i spoke with crystal today and i i feel comfortable that we're in okay shape if she leads with derrick's help the discussion on the budget but if you will indulge me i would like to um wait on the matter of the appointment of the treasurer because i want to make sure that i have the statutory language and everything in front of us so we can have the um make the uh appropriate action in process only okay um i i am sorry that i didn't get that to each of you in some form in advance of today's meeting all right is that does anybody object to that i don't object to that mr skinner uh no objection at all okay commissioner brian no objection all right and um we'll we'll go forward on those uh commissioner items at the end of the agenda consistent with the enumeration all right but now we have horse racing um good morning dr lightbound and i see chad good morning um it's nice to see you both i've got some business to attend to commissioner light down good morning thank you uh yeah i'll turn the uh first item over to chad work um the local aid for the quarterly local aid payments thanks to thanks good morning madam chair and commissioners uh so as alex mentioned today i have the first quarter local aid which is payable to each city and town where racing activities are conducted the amount of aid is determined at a rate of 0.35 percent of the handle from the quarter that ended six months prior to the payable date uh so today's request is for the quarter ending march 31st of 2022 and it is using handles um from july august and september of 2021 so with that said the city of boston would receive 153,513 dollars and 21 cents the town of plainville would receive 44,608 dollars and 26 cents the town of random would receive 19,411 dollars and 21 cents and the city of revere would receive 76,755 dollars and 48 cents for a grand total of 294,288 dollars and 16 cents there is a detailed breakdown of the amounts and the calculation which is included in your packet and this does ask for a vote excellent report as always um chad thank you so much and dr light bound do we have questions on on these quarterly payments commissioner hill commissioner hill i saw you leaning you saw me leaning and getting ready to make a motion when you were ready madam chair i am ready if there are no questions um that is the benefit of of uh virtual you see that little yellow square go up and it's a great sign um in real life it's to the side don't always get it right um if commission is going to this is your first this time first time um with respect to um these quarterly payments you may be familiar from your earlier position do you have any questions for chad or you probably got some good help from dr light bound yeah little questions at all okay excellent all right commissioner hill do you have a motion i move that the commission authorized the quarterly local age payments for the first quarter of calendar year 2022 to the city of boston the town of plainville town of ranum and city of revere in the specific amounts reflected in the memorandum in the commissioner's packet totaling 294 thousand uh 294 thousand 288 and 16 cents second okay i'll set commissioner brian hi commissioner hill hi and commissioner skinner and i vote yes so four zero and we thank chat for his excellent work and uh critically important when you see the benefits it goes to these localities so thank you dr light bound we're going to follow up this news uh with this work with some other good news yes we had a wonderful opening day of plain ridge on monday and um as you all know um the chair came down as well as the other commissioners and executive director well so it was great to have them all there in attendance um plain ridge park casino recognized two of their longtime employees stevo tool and dominick longabody for their years of service we had about 20 drivers participate that day 35 trainers and 60 horses and then between plain ridge and um ourselves the mbc staff there were about 30 other employees so um once again this is a you know economic driver and does support positions jobs um over the three days of racing this week we'll have about 27 races um giving out over a hundred thousand dollars in purses average a day um about 200 horses will have raced and our licensing team has been very busy as they always are this time of the year um 150 people were licensed about um 15 were new who had not been here um recently so that's always encouraging um total number of uh people licensed is actually more than the 150 because we do offer um a choice of a one two or three year license so um folks who had already been licensed for uh two or three years may have just come in for that um and uh i'd like to thank our hr team and the legal team for um onboarding and training everybody our staff and um the it team has been very busy uh supporting us as well um so looking forward to a great season well any questions if the weather was any indicator you will have a superb season um and it was a great first day uh commissioners you were all there commissioner skinner i'll start with you you had um a pretty special day that day yeah it was it was a very um a fun afternoon uh you know the weather was a lot cooler than i would have liked um but it was a great great afternoon i got a chance to actually in alec you have to help me with what this this truck is called but i got to actually ride in with rick um on that that that truck what does that call yes it's in the in the starting truck a starting basis yes yeah so that was a great experience commissioner hill i encourage you when you have a chance take another visit it was just you know exhilarating to be honest with you something you never thought that you'd be doing in in your lifetime right so um thanks for the invitation uh and i plan to make that my annual trip oh by the way horse racing for the very first time that was my very first experience with live horse racing so another another check on the buck off the bucket list oh it's an exciting day commissioner um oh brian um yeah so i when my my start of truck was more like a starter car that you had to contort yourself to get into the back of so um once commissioner hill has had the opportunity to go down as well i intend to go back and see do a compare contrast with the truck compared to the car um because it is magnificent to be that close to those horses it's not something you could normally do um so anyone that has the opportunity it's fantastic uh day was great i thought the barn i thought everything looked great uh it was great to see everybody um and hopefully they they have a good year again this year and i know they had a tough go at covid i know they weren't really part of that impact report on their own but um um hopefully they continue to do well and i know they did better last year and hopefully they have a great year this year too commissioner hill always an enjoyable day and always a great visit uh you know for the public who only sees the racing that takes place there's a lot that happens behind the scenes and commissioner skinner and commissioner o brian met with director and dr lightbaum uh in the i still call it a barn but i know it's stables and things of that sort and to see what goes on there before during and after the races is just incredible the staff is excellent uh but more importantly you talked about the economic development of the horse racing and it's all happening right in the those stables and uh it was great to see everybody the last time i think we all visited it was a little rainy so it was a little muddy so when we saw all the drivers they were all muddy after their their particular races and this time around it was nice and sunny and they were all dressed in their beautiful um uniforms for driving so it was just a great day and congratulations to our two very long-standing employees who just do a phenomenal job down there yeah it was nice to see um uh it's director stevell tool it's correct um receive the uh recognition of those 20 years um because we also know how many years you know he's had in in advance of that so uh the wonderful thing about the community that dr lightbaum um has worked with and and supervised and managed and overseen for so many years is that they are so committed to it and for that um you have enormous fans and the four of us um with that said we remain rigorous regulators so um we appreciate the fact that the the track was in superb condition you know uh we know that you prioritize through your team and and all of the employees the integrity of the gaming and as well as of course is the health and safety of the um athletes both the humans and the horses so um for that alex we um are very appreciative of having your expertise there and like commissioner brian said all of us are you know are um hoping for a very successful season and a very safe season ahead so i think there's probably going to be some good races ahead for us come down and visit watch oh yes definitely one thing i did forget and i don't want to um leave this off uh dave susan did come down and took some wonderful pictures and they're actually on the mgc twitter um if anybody is interested i highly encourage everyone to go and and see those pictures of the day it was wonderful yeah commissioner skinner and i actually walked off with a couple of copies that were given to us by the um the uh properties photographer too so it it was it it showed how it was a colorful day just like um commissioner hill observed right nikisha i thought that those pictures that caught me it was a great day um it shows the excitement so thank you um oh she's looking now commissioner brian's looking at the pictures now i think i saw the expression i love crystal saying save it for the annual report i didn't see that yes crystal yes um and which reminds us crystal be looking for those um earlier than sooner than later right so thank you anything else for um dr lifan and chad for other big thank yous no thank you all okay all right well thank you we'll move um well it is i think crystal you anticipated a break right about now do commissioners want to take a quick break or do you want to continue i'll set i don't think the next issue is going to be that long so i'm okay going to the next uh the next one okay okay all righty um then we will move on to um chief delaney good morning good morning uh madam chair and commissioners um so today we have before you an amendment to one of our 2021 workforce grants this was the metro boston regional gaming and hospitality consortium um you know since that rolls off the tongue so nicely we we try to shorten it up we usually just call this the mass hire grant even though it is a uh a joint venture between mass hire metro north workforce board and the city of boston's office of workforce development just a quick background we awarded them uh four hundred thousand dollars last year for various workforce efforts um and one of those efforts one of the partners in this is um action for boston community development which we just call abcd um and the intent was so uh mass hire runs um three career centers that are located in cambridge woovern and chelsea the thought was here that abcd also runs a facility that is um excuse me that is uh that is in malden and the thought was that um abcd could hire a career services person to work in that malden office and uh 56 000 was set aside to fund that program coordinator position uh in the interim since the uh the grant has been awarded they've been unable to fill that position in that location uh you know i guess everybody's having difficulty uh you know filling filling jobs so um you know the the the mass hire folks came back to us and said hey is there a way that we could use this money at our other existing facilities uh as i said that i mentioned that are in cambridge woovern and chelsea um and we you know the the way they would do that is by they have some part-time staff and they would probably fund some overtime with that to help those particular residents um from malden to to avail themselves of services and we agree that that that seemed to be appropriate um as long as they are you know sort of providing that extra staff level for that anticipated additional um level of service that they would need to provide they also did indicate that they would set aside a portion of those funds to provide some transportation assistance to those folks um obviously if you're dealing with folks in malden and it was in downtown malden they would have to get themselves to chelsea uh or or cambridge or woovern potentially to to um access some of these services so um they agreed to set aside a portion of those funds you know as necessary they'll see and have to see how it goes um to help offset those costs that some of these folks might have so given that um we are recommending that these uh 56 000 dollars be reallocated uh as we identified earlier questions for uh joe and mary is now present as well good morning mary commissioner skinner um joe um just wanted to clarify or i guess confirm that um even though the mass higher career centers are located in cambridge and woovern um the beneficiaries of the employment outreach are residents of malden correct um we had a long conversation with these folks who explained to us basically how this entire system works which is really uh pretty in-depth on how you know if someone gets laid off from a job how they actually go through this process which is something that I never really understood and uh you know when when a person if someone from malden were laid off from a job they would they need to go to one of these centers to to try to to to get to get work so in these cases those folks from malden would be directed to one of these career centers rather than the thought was initially hey if we can provide a real local source that would be great um but it doesn't mean that um these folks won't be serviced by these other facilities it's just that there'd be an sort of an increased burden on them a little bit right thank you other questions for for joe i just lost uh commissioner brian there you are uh no i was just gonna make a motion and you're ready for it ma'am chair it seems as though we're all set thank you that's a credit to the reporting thank you so much commissioner brian madam chair i moved that the commission approved the reaction of $56,000 of funds previously granted to the metro boston regional gaming and hospitality consortium to existing full service mass hire metro north career centers located in cambridge woovern and chelsea for the reasons outlined in the memo and included in the commissioner's packet and as discussed here today and further that commission staff be authorized to execute an amendment to the grant instrument commemorating his decision in accordance with 205 cmr 153.04 do i have a second thank you commissioner okay um if there are no further questions or edits commissioner brian i commissioner hill hi and commissioner skinner and i vote yes four zero thanks uh joe and mary and lily you're good work thank you very much all right all right then next on our list is licensing um and directly else you're covering for for a vacancy hi can we hear good morning i'm sorry i was multitasking and uh but i'm but i'm ready to go and good morning but good to see you this morning director lily else were we ahead of on uh uh your schedule were we actually you are about 15 minutes ahead of my schedule which is um always a good thing for everybody right yes i think so too there we go now i'm sorry to interrupt you um so uncor has a couple of requests i'm sorry i think did you get i think i'm sorry thinner has something she wants to address before yeah sorry i'm so sorry i think it's a good time to address this matter i was waiting i was going to wait until the uh commissioner updates but i think in light of our agenda item i think it makes sense to go now um excuse me just uh given my former role as chief of licensing in my administrative involvement in matters that may now come before me as commissioner i thought it important for me to file a disclosure with my appointing authority treasurer goldberg and with my fellow commissioners to dispel any appearance of a conflict of interest confident no conflicts exist but just to be hyper vigilant of any perception i've taken that step and commissioners you all have a copy of the disclosure and so if you have any questions i'm happy to answer them otherwise i think um loretta you are good to go okay great so this matter is one minute are there any questions from the commissioners the only question that i had is um i know we had some discussion on i'm assuming that particularly the one that's in front of us because it's so close to your appointment that you didn't have any involvement in this or that it was purely ministerial is that right purely ministerial and um and i can tell you exactly what the nature of the communication was um it was just you know logistics trying to ascertain when we'd be able to get the item on the uh commission's agenda i did not review the request itself um made no determination as to whether or not um it would be right for presentation uh for review and approval by the commission great thanks thank you now um thank you can uh commissioner skinner i think now director lilios we will interrupt you again but just quickly and again i'm so sorry commissioner skinner i was concentrating on um looking at the report and loretta thank you okay thanks thanks caffeine so on core has requested that the commission allow exemptions for two new positions at the uncle boston harvard gaming establishment the request is being made under the statutory provision enacted in 2017 that authorizes the commission to exempt certain job positions from the 23 k registration requirements and the commission previously set up criteria for reviewing exemption requests you have documents in your packet starting at page 94 on this item uh the first position is called the valet lead position and in summary the responsibilities of this position are to work towards efficiently operating the valet operation greeting guests making decisions about lane designations around busy times signage issues issues overall traffic control and parking vehicles when when things are busy and that person would have to step into actually parking vehicle vehicles the submission from on core indicates that there would be no traditional supervisory responsibility over personnel and i do want to note that the commission previously exempted valet drivers from the registration uh requirement the second position i think we i i'd recommend you take these together the two positions are intended to work collaboratively with one another the second position is a lead door person position uh that position is greeting guests providing them information about the property helping with luggage concentrating it's mostly concentrating on the hotel side again no supervisory responsibilities over personnel apart from that little asterisk on the supervisory piece because they are making some decisions about what to do in busy busy times on court answered in the negative on all of the other criteria that you've set out for evaluating these requests indicating no impact on gaming operations i did check with the g e u and lieutenant o brian uh at on core also coordinated with the gaming agents division with assistant director band and with louis lazano and none of those indicated any concerns about allowing these requests uh so i'm happy to try to answer any questions uh that you may have but in summary uh those those are the requests before you questions for direct villain alias lara i just had one which is are these new positions or are these positions that exist that they're asking us to reclassify their new positions okay and they don't go on the gaming floor that's correct and no no access to any uh secure areas without uh without a secure um you know uh somebody with them without being escorted commissioner hillard commissioner skinner do you have questions for director lilios as usual she was very precise thanks for that's my job um then do i have a motion because i believe you um you're saying consider them together i'm not sure how we move they are two different positions so you i presented them together but you need to vote on each of them that's what i wanted to make sure okay thank you so much that commissioner brian are you leaning in there we go certainly madam chair i moved that the commission exempt the positions of valet lead and lead door person at on core boston harbour from the commission's registration requirements in accordance with 205 cmr 134.03 sub 1b for the reasons discussed here today and described in the commissioner's target second thank you okay no further questions commissioner brian i commissioner hill hi thank commissioner skinner okay so i vote yes 40 there todd thank you commissioner brian do you how i want to move on the thank you i put the votes i just i did one of the both titles in it oh i'm sorry i missed that i thought we i i'm sorry i missed that uh so we did just do a combined motion right there didn't seem to be any issues with the position so i put both yeah i was poor listening on my part i just voted without clarity okay so i thought i only heard the first position my apologies okay so we're all set and um with that clarification i'm still comfortable with my affirmative vote great thank you very much thank you levana thank you so much okay so it is now 11 36 do we need to take any kind of a quick break before we can just have five minutes actually if i could have five minutes that'd be great thank you i was going to ask for it good we're all we're all in that need thank you so much on karen are we all set in terms of anything that your team we're all we're all good thank you yeah because we'd be moving into commissioner updates and before we moved off i wanted to make sure there wasn't any other business that we've missed okay all right so um it is 11 40 let's say um how about if we return um it's 11 50 too late no all right thank you 11 50 will be um we'll resume this public meeting thank you so much everyone all great work hi dave i think we can probably take down the screen now also okay and we are resuming um our public meeting but i'll take a roll call of my fellow commissioners commissioner brian i am here commissioner hill president commissioner skinner i'm here we're all set then to um resume and start with our commissioner update and as i mentioned we'll go directly to crystal howard and i darik i know you're available good morning darik i get yeah still good morning um we will go ahead with respect to the budget thank you crystal for your your guidance here oh and there we have um a sighting of agnes um filial so nice to see you and there's john scully thank you and noelle lone so thank you um lots of assistance as we navigate this today good morning everyone thank you crystal yeah good uh almost afternoon it seems you have the pros here so i that could just step aside but um i'll just give you a quick overview at the reason we're um presenting this to you today is for you to have the ability to get any clarification or answers that you're looking for on the budget as we develop the um f y 23 process the next steps are essentially we're in still in the beginning steps where we will plan and put forth some recommendation on how to fit the budget for the 23 budget year and in your packet for your reference we have just delineated several items that have come up in conversations over the last few weeks just to make clarification and to guide some uh general understanding for you to determine whether to lift the budget that is in place or um in some cases you may choose to um decrease the budget so do you uh i guess i should put forth to the commissioners whether you want me to guide you through each segment here or you would prefer to have open conversation i personally would like you to walk us through the considerations and then we'll just go through the um the line items with maybe Derek's team um so that we can sign off um or augment or decrease or add new items in so commissioners i want you to actively be engaged in what you think might be helpful as we think about the year ahead in terms of the resources we as a commission of at some point five um will be okay thanks thank you before i start going through each section uh Derek do you or your team have anything to add to the process um so what we would normally do is um i think on page 113 of the packet um you would see what your current year budget is all the items and we would walk down with that um what's included in those items so you'll see that there are two appropriations you're funded out of the racing appropriation as well as the gaming control fund appropriation um the payroll is split based on the total funding levels um that each each area makes up so racing is approximate a little less than 10 percent of our total funding level so that's why we split off your salaries um to to that amount um one thing for consideration the commissioners salaries the five commissioners salaries are in here um it does not include the salary of the executive assistant that used to be in that division as well as um crystals position historically those had been funded uh so when janice was in the position and jamie was in the position those are funded out of the executive director's budget um we can look at moving those back um sorry i just want to clarify for the record that um janice um you're referring to janice riley that right that was a different position i just correct it was a different position completely different position but i'm just saying why the history of so jamie reported to janice so that's why that position was under there um obviously this year moving forward we'll move crystal into that position and into the commissioner's budget and we will most likely move the executive assistant over there so you would see a jump in the payroll of figures right and i'm based on that right so if there's actually a moment of discussion for the anticipated ea commissioners i think given that the um we anticipate that that would be um a position that reports to us um that it would fall under our budget is that so just to clarify that one is that helpful okay i think we're all nodding our heads steric if that's helpful right now okay that's very helpful um under the travel line in f y 22 you are funded at approximately 75 percent of the f y 20 funding levels um and this is mainly for travel reimbursement out of pocket expenses um when you look here now that being said we've moved most people back to f y 20 funding levels assuming that we'll do a lot more in-state travel a lot more trips out to casinos um i think the commissioners will probably follow suit with that but we now have to look at going higher than the f y 20 funding levels because the state just increased the travel reimbursement rate from 45 cents up to 58 and a half cent per mile um so you know we will look at actually making a recommendation for you above the f y 20 um reimbursement rate the other in-state travel rate that you had uh pensions and payroll taxes are a percentage of um the the payroll so the rate that they're proposing this year is actually up to 40 percent for fringe the control is is and a 1.89 percent tax rate so you see the fringe rate going up by over 2 percent and the tax rate going down by 0.08 percent or a basis point so uh it's not not a huge um it's actually more than the 2 percent increase there so you'll see that go up um in this year's fixed costs um under the e we have some general printing expenses subscriptions which i know crystal has reviewed in in detail and pulled out for you um parking historically we had paid we had seven spots um so the two pool cars used to reside in in federal street they no longer reside in federal street so um we are actually only need three spots so this item will actually could go down because the lease comes with two paid for spots um and then there are only three three commissioners spots that will be needed um so this item could actually come down a little bit in future years can i just ask um you're going through this but i i i would like to have a little bit of a discussion on the items with us because you just talked kind of about parking in a conclusionary fashion and i think it might be helpful if we understand that better um so i guess i'm going back up to the memo um we look at some of those areas travel like parking um i think uh the memo starts with salaries which i think we've addressed um that in the fringe the parking and meetings uh the memo um explains how much each cost two spots are included in the lease um i think we'll jump to C um i'm not sure what our parking needs are Derek and so i see i think you may need no things that i don't know and so i i would like to understand um what we i want to make sure everyone's parking is addressed so we make assumption that all five commissioners will want a parking spot a parking spot is five hundred and twenty dollars per month which equals out to a little over six thousand dollars a year if two of those spaces are included in the lease we'll only have to pay for three of those so that'll be a little bit over eighteen thousand dollars a year yeah so that'll be a little over eighteen thousand before we were we had seven spots so we were paying for five a year um because there are only two were included in the lease so we'll have five spots two or three two are included in the lease we'll pay for three of them so it'll be a little bit over eighteen thousand right now we have twenty eight thousand included in our budget um which was just rolling forward from previous years i think one consideration that may guide the conversation at least to start um i haven't heard an update but commissioner skinner i know that you had been parking at arch street and that you were considering whether you were going to continue parking there so um commissioner skin is it one on one yeah she made it okay so then we don't have to even review that okay great so and i just missed that though i'm so sorry because i can't quite stand in my apologies this is why i wanted to have the conversation so commissioner skinner do you do you want to weigh in because i couldn't hear you thanks no i was just stating that i'm i'm i have a spot at federal street so she's all set you're actually you are 101 federal there yes excellent okay none of those rates change or have anything it's exactly okay and so all four of us have and then if a fifth commissioner comes in there's no question if they want to park it 101 federal we're budgeting for that is that what i'm hearing great okay thank you um and and that and that's not an issue so we take that approach in case the commissioner decides they want to use a um tea reimbursement so then at that point we would just switch over to the teapass for that monthly reimbursement and we would move the money from the e-line up to the b-line which would be a travel reimbursement line but unless they live all the way out on the furthest line it's not going to exceed the $520 per month okay i was actually going to ask that question thank you Derek not a problem um um the next line e-22 uh so i'm not following the memo i'm following the um attachment in the in the packet the next line e-22 is an area where the commission we will be looking for input if you're looking to have some public meetings in remote locations there is an additional cost because we have we don't get to use our own um our own meeting software or um live stream from the conference room we would actually have to hire a service to come in and live stream for us and that has cost anywhere between 2500 and 5000 depending on whether we go with translation services at the same time um with those with those meetings could we pause on that um for our newer commissioners um and and i have been there where i had the benefit of the ones with greater experience could give some history i give history only for perspective and we don't have to do this but commissioner brian and i have gone to um onsite meetings um at mass mutual so that we could be out in springfield and and not necessarily addressing springfield related matters but probably we were pretty strategic about our agenda items for the time um and maybe doing some kind of a special tour at the same time but incorporating meetings out there they don't have easy space for us to use um and so we use mass mutual which did requires this as derrick alluded to bringing in um um some kind of communication uh resources so that we could do what we're doing here um only it'd be live that we could um stream to those who in the public want to participate um derrick i don't know if we if we could talk about mgm in a second ppc we've also been down there they have the town halls and and commissioner brian you remember being down there it's actually a state of the art it's wonderful and where we should have a tour for commissioner hillan commissioner skinner um and i know that joe delaney would probably be interested in heading that up because it's um really a product of the community mitigation and uh host community agreement um so that might have been at a different cost if i recall correctly we've done public hearings there as well for the horse racing application right commissioner brian um but that was going to be my question for the future yes yes we might have public hearings that come up but i also want if you wouldn't if i would like for you to consider that we also get out to our um our other uh locations of our other licensees as almost a courtesy um right we might have about once a quarter maybe three times a year minimum three times a year but it was about once a quarter we would go out to springfield and hold a meeting and we would try to have it mgm heavy you know to save people the travel if haven't come to boston but not exclusively yeah and then also um when they were interested parties from perhaps the city who could present to us and they certainly love to come and meet with us so and with respect to playing for the same the uh a chance for us to meet the town leaders so and go out and see the other things i know there were some um architectural restoration projects um that some of the monkeys had gone into the project that's right in the square um is really fascinating to watch as that develops so gives you the opportunity to be out there and check in on those things too yeah so for instance uh joe me uh chief delaney may want to bring us for an update on um 31 l right that's the number but there are projects going on as well as and that we are um supporting too with community mitigation grants we we've we've been the benefit really great to see firsthand yeah and you know what um i think probably there's a little pent up demand and commissioner brian and me at least um because we couldn't do that for the last couple of years so with that said darik i know that means you're thinking darik is thinking dollars um what do you think uh darik and and and commissioner skinner i don't know if you have any uh thoughts about this at all no i agree and i had heard that at one point um we were hosting meetings out at the licensees facility so i think that's a great idea uh looking forward to bringing that back i think um the travel and conferences budget is spread out over a couple of different line items um and i you know darik i i deferred it darik to walk us through each of those but i i want to say i i feel like those each of those line items is um adequately funded right the combination of those um we'll get us through i think f y 23 but i deferred it darik could we um just before we jump to travel do you mind if we just kind of finish up on the meeting do we need any further input on that we're on i thought we were on travel no no no i don't know oh no no no um i i'm just being very linear um so i don't know if he i i sounds like we all are in agreement that we would like to address that particular cost commissioner hill so yes madame chaired so i'm i'm seeing a zero there so is there a number in your head that we would uh put in that particular line item like what do you think the cost would be i think i heard commissioner o'Brien say at least three times out in another area of the commonwealth and i you know again we may be getting some um applications that might take us away from boston and into local communities so let's say two or three of those may be to add for meeting space um consideration so do you have a number in in mind you're thinking of yes so we would we would budget the six meetings um at about 2000 space for meeting space um and then we would pull in streaming for three or four of those meetings at another um four to five thousand i think is what the contract is right now correct agnes four to five thousand per per meeting to stream yes that's correct that's with the charles river contract right yes okay very expensive um i just think of how simple when brad we were in malibu and we went to the um the rollout of that paper and what did we see we saw the attachment of an iphone yeah a tripod and they were streaming um they were streaming it on on facebook if i'm not mistaken or youtube one of the two yeah so we do have those simple options we have we have discussed that but the quality suffers quite a bit from what people are used to from the public meetings um and we had this discussion when we were looking at outfitting our own public meeting space so we can go that option katrina does have all cameras we can bring out and hook up just like this um we do have the option of bringing a um logitech camera that does something similar to what you're talking about an iphone hooked up um to this and then but you suffer you suffer the quality of what the audience sees being able to see the participants as well as all the commissioners at one time i'm not recommending what i'm about to say but it's food but it's food for thought so you know locally when you have um your local access uh tv sometimes they can't get somebody to do the control live and they actually tape it and then the next day they throw it on for people to see now again i'm not recommending that because i would think people want to see everything live of what we're doing but has it ever been considered we would tape it and then put it out there on our social media after the meeting i know there's there's pros and cons to doing that but it's not as expensive as what's being proposed just a thought and again not that i'm pushing it just that's what some communities do when they can't get somebody to film it live well like i think then um if we thought about a savings that way that would be only with respect to our public meetings but if we had public hearings we'd have to have them live correct yes so um i'm what i'm hearing from derrick is that um given that uh some of these meetings you know for instance i know plainville for the horse racing application um that license consideration that would be requires a public hearing and requires um you know the proper technology they have to have it in house that's a good savings right derrick i think that we've been the beneficiary of that so um you know i think i'm i think what maybe it makes sense derrick it's for us to to have a budget that anticipates the cost that agnes just cited and if there's a savings we always seek you know we would always do that but i'm hearing you on the quality um and in terms of translation i don't know if we've always we don't translate now correct that's correct but in in the past we had a transcription service that occurred as the meetings were being held and it was closed captioned when we were streaming live and so that that became the transcript of the meeting instantaneously there is a transcription line item here um so we might as well address that as well um and then we'll get to the meetings and conferences uh commissioner skinner um um we record and and does that recording actually todd get really records word by word by word pardon me no i don't think it does that although we do have a new service that produces a transcript for us so uh if everyone wants a transcript we do have the ability to do that and it was not a lot of money but currently we don't produce a transcript um but our recording is a recording of every word our audio it's recording a meeting correct yeah and we're looking into but we've we haven't confirmed we've confirmed there is closed captioning ability once the video is set we're just not sure how accurate it is so that's something we are internally discussing for the videos but that doesn't it doesn't happen as you're talking now so your live stream is not closed captioned or ADA accessible in terms of um any requirement with respect to illegal requirement we need to meet that um and i'm not sure how that's accomplished so with respect to the ADA requirement i'd like to explore that with legal crystal and then if we if we need to do that um i mean i i always want to make sure where we are accessible i just don't know what what our technology offers currently exactly yeah we are in beginning conversations about that and of course with the new hybrid technology we have looked into that and what would be included and how it would work um we don't that's coming in FY 23 as well so that's certainly been part of the consideration and like i said we are now investigating what option we have with our closed captioning and youtube does have closed captioning and updates on here somewhere somewhere and that's how we live stream at this point um it's uh just a we want to make sure it's accurate and that that's uh fully capable and whether we can do it while we're streaming or it's just the video afterwards so those are all pieces we've started investigating this i want to hear from each of you in terms of well the um just the cost associated with streaming and then the cost of the issue around ADA compliance who just who was just to go first just chime right in no i mean my memory of the closed captioning in the past my first god here is a lot of the technologies are not accurate in terms of cadence of speech accents that sort of thing i mean i don't know how much they've progressed since then so i think it was the best we could do it's not a perfect transcript you'd still need someone to go through and clean it up probably if that's what you're looking to do um so i don't know that's probably an added cost above and beyond sounds like we are ADA compliant in terms of we're streaming with youtube so there is some level of closed captioning going on at the time and i'm soon if you go in historically to pull the link are you getting that or is that only when it's live streaming i think it's the opposite um i don't know Dave or mills are on here and can offer that but um as far as i'm concerned at this point when you're watching right now you're not seeing the closed captioning but if you went to the video there's a button right you can see the button you click again it will start captioning it for you mills has just joined us just to say that as expected crystal is completely correct okay not exactly but thank you yeah i um i think it is as you've said commissioner o brian it's it's word smithing is if we were to go back through and make sure the accuracy was there we could certainly do that but of course when you're in that um if you are someone who needs to be reading the closed captioning the words are not necessarily always accurate the transcription there so right right should i help commissioner skinner i don't have anything to add on the ADA compliance issue but i i'm hearing that we we think that that line should be uh funded again and i'm are we still talking about the uh meeting space a meeting space line the j-33 commissioner skinner i was going to say with with some additional if we're talking about that meeting that p-22 the line that's zero um right now with with some additional funding for the stenographer transcription service then we have that available to sort of shift around in that j-33 line that are just referenced in that line used to be more right so we would get we would fund it at about 65 to 70 000 because we would have approximately 26 public meetings plus we'd have some one-off public meetings so we'd have we'd budget about 2000 for um stenography services so that we would at least have the transcript after the work afterwards that we would post up at the same time with the relief from the public meeting um that was granted we cut that way back because you didn't necessarily have to have all those um issues you could do just a phone call in um during during those during that time period so that's why you see it funded um at last right now right now it's funded at 20 000 yeah it's funded at 20 000 right now but that brings up the point of do we need to continue to do that in the future and that's more of a policy discussion which i think is why we have check with Todd down there um and that's why Todd is here checking with the with the right now so um because that's 20 000 of what i don't i when we haven't been creating transcripts and i'm not sure if we've missed that we have not so that would be something that gets reverted at the end of each year um but it's sitting there in case it is needed for anything so my point is Todd um maybe it would be helpful have has your team missed having a stenographer or transcript and and i and i do think we have to think about the fact that it was you know operating completely remotely versus hybrid versus live um any can those cost shift to a different use all together i think if we had some kind of an adjudicatory hearing of sorts where we would need to hire a stenographer um we've seen that we could could do that but it it isn't necessarily something that would need to be done regularly right i believe if i could just interject again i'm just asking Todd sorry christine oh sorry i was gonna okay i'm sorry so a couple things i'm gonna have to kind of circle back on that a we actually as of the past couple weeks do get transcripts we've started paying for a service which is only like i don't know 20 a month or something that transcribes everything that's said for us and we use that to prepare at the meeting minutes um and the reports are that it's really accurate um and does not suffer from the same typos and other difficulties transcribing names and what have you as other things do so we do have that i don't know exactly how contemporaneous it comes out with the meeting if it's kind of an instant gratification thing or just oh here's kary she could probably speak more intelligently to this than i can so maybe you want to hear from her not me yeah hi everyone um so we did get a service actually only eight dollars a month um called otter um and the the one that we're using is um it's not real time though they do have an option for real time that's a little bit more each month if this was something we wanted to use but um i actually just started using it this morning to see how it looked but essentially you you can upload a reporting to this site and it creates a transcript um of the meeting for you and it's going to help us a lot with minutes as todd said um but i'm i haven't used it for any real time transcription though i know that you can if that were something we wanted to try and i think that one is about excuse me i think that one is about 20 dollars a month if you want the real time transcription so way less than 20 000 so it does there is the possibility that we could accomplish that in real time if for a reasonable amount speaking as one commissioner sounds to me like a no brainer so i'm not sure why we wouldn't do that let's consider adding that but what line item of that beyond are we still talking e 22 or j 33 33 at that point again j 30 there would be an e line it would move up to a subscription line um but we would just pull it out of the j so we decrease the funding from the j from 20 000 down to 240 or Todd and Carrie wanted like we could even double that to 480 to make sure they could get the premium one and they're still saving 19 500 dollars so i guess you try it too just to make sure i mean i agree the bread is a no brainer unless we find out that it's not as effective as the sort of upload the video version i can't imagine it's essentially different but i do just want to add that it doesn't identify speakers by name it as it as it creates the transcript it will identify voices so it will say speaker one and then when it hears that voice again it will say speaker one again um and there are um you know transcription errors so if we wanted a perfectly clean transcript it would need to be cleaned up um but if we're just looking for something that someone could read and get a sense of what had happened then it is um accurate enough in that sense Carrie can i ask maybe we should explore what their offerings are because i'm wondering if once the voice is recognized whether there's anything in where you give a sample and they we identify the commissioners to eat you know some of the repeat players and so whether those populate and then you just get speaker one from whoever the public speaker is on that topic they don't recognize maybe that right that's like dollars that seems it's worth it yeah it might do that um we can take a look at what all of its capabilities are um and see if that's an option and then i i would just want to check with um probably um those are dave on how right now it's uh um you know just an online platform and it creates the transcript in there so in terms of pulling it out and if we want to put it somewhere or save it somewhere how we would want to handle that right another question for Carrie and maybe Todd is if we're we're receiving that service now who's funding it is that the legal division's budget or yeah i you know what commissioner skinner that i was going to be that's like Todd are you dipping into our budget oh no no i'm sure we're paying for it on our own but it's not a substantial cost so it was an easy decision to make and it it's very helpful to us in preparing minutes so that was the initial reason for it um michelle it's gonna do you recommend that it come into our budget then that is kind of you know what i think the discussion should be um because i mean after all we're discussing the commissioner's budget so you know if if Todd is recommending that that shift out of the legal division's budget and into into this budget i mean you know we won't use the entire $20,000 but at least the funding is there so we have it um and i think as uh commissioner O'Brien was suggesting if there's a more robust service offered by this company then i think we need to explore that and again the funding is there unless we decide to decrease it and that's one of the things right but you're right there's a placeholder for $20,000 um commissioner hell i don't know if you're going to lean in but i didn't want to forget crystal because um crystal you had a point and i just wanted to get through the legal is it okay it basically took care of itself i was only interjecting to say that i believe that Todd has services but also that in legal they have some of their own stenography for their own hearings and things of that so i wasn't sure where that came across but i knew i knew that had been um asked in one of the sessions with one of the commissioners and i had found some information so i was just going to have Todd say hey what are you guys doing and um whether that process over at all and like mill said um you anticipated absolutely accurately so my apologies for cutting you off um only because i thought i had given Todd the floor so sorry hazards of virtual um all right so uh we're now still we're we've taken care of space i think you've gotten guidance Derek on that one in terms of transcript services stenographer services do you feel like you've gotten adequate guidance with that discussion i do we will continue to follow up with Todd and his team to see how much of this 20 000 they would like us to keep um and we will still leave a little buffer there um and then yeah and then streaming services on top of it and streaming services would come with right into the meeting correct so the streaming services we would build in um i think i'm hearing at least three possibly four for the streaming services and then we would build in meeting space for all six meetings and it's all in e22 correct okay so that one is going to commissioners again it's going to go from zero to something um so uh you know in terms of that 20 000 if we can shift it up that's where we find some some dollars right correct okay so that was for me when i looked at the budget that this was a a very important piece because we were at zero so am i right now that we could if we go back to the guidance of crystal and Derek's memo do we shift now um from item b we've covered a b and c now are we ready to go to travel crystal in in conferences and the four line items that commissioners can point out i think so a lot of that follows under the ee administrative expenses which Derek was lining up for you so i think that would logical okay so um i'm a little bit harder for me to follow all right of it you have covered in the sense that greater travel as far as these meetings and any town meetings and site visits but i think one of the bigger pieces of this is considering considering the travel for conferences and registration fees which are embedded in here um it's just a matter of how much travel was being done in 2020 and there was we did get a little bit of a list of which commissioners were traveling but i think there is an interest in traveling more than that was happening at 20 before we jump into that can i just ask did we the credit card the allowable credit card purchases line the 7500 what is that so that's looked into travel got it that's looked into travel so some of the rooms will be charged to credit card some of the if if our travel agent can't get a airline one of their airlines and we have to do it independently and we can reserve it for the employee we'll use our credit card um so that's so if you look at those lines credit cards out of state travel and conference training and registration fees those are basically those are basically all travel there may be a thousand to two thousand set aside on the credit card for food that um if you're out of if you're out of a spot where we can't get a statewide vendor for food um then we'll we'll put some of that but that's very small and you know it's usually for larger meetings where you don't have time to take a lunch break and if you did take a lunch break it would cost more in staff time than it would for the cost of the actual of the actual so just so might just getting everybody up to speed too is when we were in springfield because we would take such a short break um we were bringing food in uh that was basic but that some of that does go to those meetings yeah um sandwich and and coffee um waters um and just a reminder that it's it's my understanding Derek that no commissioner it's matter of a policy we don't get P cards you do not know right okay and we could change that but the policy has been let the staff out yeah no i'm not even gonna be consistent with um so our auditor our auditor likes that policy they do like it a lot okay it simplifies a lot as well so yeah um so for travel um how should we go through this um in terms of um I turn to all the experts of Agnes, John, Derek, and Crystal if we add those up and and divide it up how how do we think about traveling conferences and memberships and all of that the one thing I don't truly understand in that eclipse in the capacity it's just something that I I don't understand how that's navigated in terms of travel um whether it's an individual's membership um and how we've done that in the past or if we're simply because the gaming commission is and has a membership we get discounts or something I'd love to understand that a little bit better I don't know if anyone else has any questions on that I had a sub question I'd raised with Crystal before about professional memberships for us um that we can kind of get to after we talk about that's actually all to policy but I think Derek do you want to talk about the level of how it was funded in the past and how we kind of got to that I think we're still in the ballpark we've always been prepared for if you would travel but um I know that uh Derek has more details on it yes so so the e30 through ee2 line right now is about 75 percent of where it was in fy20 so we would want to bump that up a little bit for fy uh 23 we're recommending that for all agencies so at least get back to where you are in all divisions so at least get back to where you were in fy20 and previously what we had a had budgeted for was approximately three trips per commissioner per year and agnes would take a look at what previous years trips look like add about a one percent or two percent inflation rate to it um and then say this is where we where we're getting to for you know 15 trips for for total for the commissioners um um that is the historical assumptions we can always go up down sideways wherever you'd like to from there um but you know the fy20 level would take a look at what the fy19 costs were plus a small increase um for fy20 now fuel costs a way up right so travel costs are up if you're taking a plane flight right now you may get somewhat of a discount on hotels because there's not as much of a demand for hotels right now um but you know so fy20 plus a little bit would probably be a good number you know a three percent escalator or four percent escalator would probably be a good number to look at for funding three three trips per commissioner if you want to go up from there we'd go up and to uh cover with the membership piece so for uh example one of the conference or one of the memberships is the iagr the international association of payment regulators those memberships like the greater boston business chamber which is our pace setters component as well and then the national council on problem gaming they're organizational memberships and so the perks vary between organization for memberships certainly there is a discount related when conference time does come but there are also um back end usual log it usually log in based membership perks where you can get resource components or there might be little workshops throughout the year where you get the information sent uh we don't have many of those memberships that as far as i can tell and i do know that throughout the agency there are memberships um based on the particular work that is being done but for the commissioners we only have the three it there might be there was a fourth i believe but um not in past years so um whether you we have to keep the chamber because we have pace setters but um you know we can we can look into what the reason we have those memberships is i think being a national leader in in where in our regulatory stance is is part of why we're some on a membership level with a lot of these i know um aga is one of them that you know sometimes invites different commissioners and or the commission themselves to be involved as a member but that isn't a personal membership and it's not directly correlated to the conferences i think if you plan on attending those conferences it can be beneficial if several of our commissioners are going to go the membership pays for itself um i don't know if that's helpful but i think um we don't have many of them at this point could we consider if you thought you wanted another one certainly but there are three right now i think um i'm not doubting personally everyone just really want the um the value of the memberships as long as um if they're that we all get the the benefit of it so that it might take some coordination to make sure that every commissioner is getting um if you know it's an aga do does everybody get um the the um the same of course i think sometimes i'm i might be a sole beneficiary and i'm not sure um sometimes i don't i haven't heard of something and others have so um i just don't know and i and i think at one point it was commissioner um Cameron who said well don't you get this and i said never heard it right so i had a lot of conversations with gail over the years like that where she was like well of course it was in such and such and i'm like yeah i i'm not in that distribution list so one thing that would be helpful for me is these sorts of things and quite frankly hearing from Karen Loretta, Bruceburg are there other things out there that they they like they think maybe they're surprised we don't know about something in terms of what they are and then making sure we do have the ability to get it you know because a lot of times those memberships come with either unlimited access or a certain number of logins to be able to go in and get stuff that's pushed out and i it's been catch just catch can and very individually based i think um commissioner Cameron's experience in new jersey i think she probably had more than some of the other commissioners in terms of what she was affiliated with or what she knew about but this even goes so far as to stay statehouse news boston globe like i think we as commissioners you know um should know what does the organization get in terms of that because you know to have to pdf an article out of the globe or the herald rather than being able to click on what's a maybe a subscription from this office right i was going to add to that so a lot of the memberships and subscriptions that are media related are in the communication budget not in our budget and they have a general login and that's where the news clips come from but we don't subscribe to every media outlet um we can even knowing that those are i can say from that i've been here four years and no one even gave me a sheet or a clue as to where you were supposed to go so i would i would have to seek out and say well i want to get this and back it down so i'm also just thinking about onboarding in terms of new commissioners i think he's just got the benefit of having been on staff so she probably knows a bunch of this stuff having been here but you know we'll have a new commissioner starting to hopefully sometime shortly so it'd be nice to add this to the list of things yes i want to echo commissioners o bryan and and cheer justine um i i think it was it was very helpful crystal you circulated a list of mgc related conferences so if we could get something like that with respect to publications you know studies that are you know taking place anything that is helpful to us as commissioners you know that i think that'd be good it's educational for me for sure i do know we have an internal list for the publications so we can definitely i'll work with melz and david to see how we can get you guys that information but we do have that finally compiled it didn't use to exist and chrisley you've done a great job and in terms of conferences and i want to go to the commissioner you know conferences and publications memberships memberships include publications so that's why i'm pumping them together they're not separate they don't necessarily fall under um melz they they might fall under memberships um and so whoever is in charge of deciding who gets memberships karen i'm going to put you this is on you um you own this because members of your team have these access to memberships and and resources uh we may want to to have that same access i can't imagine that we wouldn't in addition with respect to the communications we may want to have additional resources whatever our team is looking at it may not include what perhaps commissioner hill commissioner brian commissioner skinner i want to look at as we prepare for the next a couple of years um and i say that as we think about us what's betting and other issues that are live and also those we might be anticipating individually in our own mind so now brad with that said i saw you again so it was one of my concerns like so you belong to one of you're a member to one of these uh folks but like i used like for example i was a member of the mma as a member of the legislature so i would get an mma catalog every month giving me updates on what's going on with mass municipal association something like that and since i've been here i haven't received anything like that and as we're starting to look at possibly expanding our roles in in other gaming worlds it would be nice to get a nice education on what's going on in other jurisdictions and you would only get that by getting the magazines or those monthly updates that people put out so i haven't gotten any of those to be quite frank however with that said our crew here in our staff is so good that they will forward us newspaper articles which have been very very helpful but the the magazines that i think we maybe should be getting we're not getting and i think they would be helpful for us moving forward being one horse racing being another things of that sort exactly and i think karen with with both larrata and bruce and legal and work with crystal to come up with you know what art what should our commissioners have to be at the sort of you know very informed about what's happening not only nationally but internationally it's going to put us in a better position because i do a lot of googling a lot of googling to try to get to assess this myself it's it and i know it's it's probably not right and so this is this is why this was a really important discussion today it's budgetary but it's also really a chance for us together to say what resources do we need to do our job well so on memberships publications travel conferences before we get to travel and conferences because i think there's some real budgetary and some optics issues right i feel less concerned about that with respect to publications and and those kinds of resources how can what guidance do you need from us on that darryk in terms of budgetary matters darryk's uh internet drop i think he's trying to get back on but he missed i see agnes noelle and i think i can speak for darryk as far as the publications and and that goes to just clarify previously we had hard copy subscriptions in the office to most of the publications so when we were not remote when we were in the office everybody had access to everything they were usually downstairs in the lobby quite honestly um where all of the the herald and the blow came in daily and all of that stuff so those things needless to say dropped off when we went remote i think that he would probably need a little bit more of an individual access and if it's a hard copy electronic version now agnes so right but that's that's where we were previously and and that's how that all worked before covid um and as far as the others we can certainly you know the travel and and conferences we can get um i know that as the person who has registered most people for many of the conferences i automatically get all the notices of this conference coming up that conference coming up um i just got notice of iagra and melbourne australia yesterday so so you know i can certainly forward those all to you as a group when they come in um you know and we can do that on our end and and the same can hold true for for um the the communications division as far as when they get notices of things in their subscription database you know and we i was gonna say that's how it's in the past that's just that's how it worked which it didn't quite work right because we're just forwarding emails that where they're coming from everywhere so i think that's helpful but probably what will be more process beneficial would be at some point when we have the executive assistant back on we can create some sort of monthly newsletter where we put all these links that person's receiving all the information all these links go in there here's the information and then that person can send it out so we what we intend to get to that point i think just the way we get our any our daily news clippings right we should have something a little more monthly to know what else is going on in the organization we intend to get there um so but that's exactly at agris is whoever signs up or whoever's email is attached that's the person getting all the information and i think part of the problem is is that those organizations don't have the bandwidth these days either to have multiple people on their lists they just send it to the one or two that they have like gail i know was it and gail and todd were the contacts for the internationals of master's gaming law and so that that's you know was very specific it's a it's a very cheap quite honestly um subscription it's very inexpensive but so that those two would always get everything on that and when i registered everybody for a conference then they got my email so that they don't they don't expand their worlds very much either as far as as the associations themselves well can i just um i want to keep this flowing because we're getting late karen i'm asking you with this um is that there everyone with crystal will make sure this is commissioner centric i'm going to be selfish here um you know you just heard that we have a membership in imgl um that todd and gail had pointed in and that means that two people were getting that information um and uh you know i know commissioner skinner you're going to an imgl conference um you know we um which i i'm not sure about you know we haven't had information about that so again um you know commissioner skinner will go at the end of the the month to an imgl conference we all need to be informed about that about those i'm glad i'm glad that makisha it was informed you know um uh but anyway that's one imgl i don't know if there are other memberships where we would be getting particularly information around technology particularly information around um sports wagering as we do continue to prepare in the event the team says to us commissioners we need you to convene because we've got stuff to do now the law has been passed and we have been designated regulator all those you know things that we wonder whether they will happen um but we just need resources so can i just to add to that Kathy sorry chair i am gl also now has and i don't think it did five years ago but it does now have an organizational membership so that is one where we might consider centralizing that but in any case when we have these organizational memberships generally the email is agnes or whoever um from procurement or um mass you know our generic mass gaming email because you sign up with one login which is also how our subscriptions for media it are but we would be able to have that central login and a password and have these distribution i'm gonna i'm gonna pause i want karen to work with you to make it as seamless and easy and lots of just where it comes to us organically so that we're not having to think oh am i missing this issue or that i mean i've been a lawyer you know active lawyer most of my career and all of the resources that would were necessary for me to stay abreast where we're just sort of you know organically provided to me Todd is quite quite aware of that eileen karen we've all experienced as lawyers we just want the those same resources to be available i but the bottom line is i don't know for Derek's purposes what number gets plugged in here um so um i'm just gonna have to work on that working over here right not slowing us down okay so are we all good on publications and membership okay no so the membership question that i had raised being a jd and there's three of us here historically i remember when i first got here the question of is my jd is my body's reversible or not and so question of well was and i was initially told no the first year then i was told yes you know and so that's just something that if if people have we as commissioners also have sort of these professional licenses that go to our credentials to be here my question is does that fall into the membership category like where does that fall in this line or is that a catchall that's not the commissioner's budget historically um those no no we lost them again we lost them again historically those have been reimbursed yes we um i believe we do one membership per per per jurisdiction kind of thing for people okay yeah so when i in historically and i was you know we don't need the jds for these jobs but i've been in other agencies where your bar dues were paid and then it was one or two other bar associations were also paid um for our attorney and so i don't know and this is a broader question i do you know going to tods people um i certainly hope we do that if we don't i'd like to see something like that happening for the attorneys as well yeah but we cover all of our bar dues in the legal department but also like mba bba wba um whether those associations are also covered is something i think for consideration yep i mean someone wanted to be a member we could certainly cover that right with the commissioners mm-hmm that's never been offered and i and i i honestly line lapsed because of that and we went into COVID i line lapsed too yeah for that reason so that's why i bring it up they're not painlessly expensive but it is not something that i have absorbed personally when i hope it was not reimbursed at all yeah and i've paid i believe i do my own my bar all along too um right so this is where we need clarification um for particularly as we onboard commissioner skinner commissioner hill um uh has the lucky title of former legislate legislator they may have that might be of interest to you because i do know that there is this group um the national gaining legislators and they're coming to town um so that's another area we want to be aware of commissioner skinner just coming out of her um her past jobs she's you know interested in continuing technology we want to make sure that we have these resources available with that said we also know we have budgetary um restriction so it would be really helpful if we could see what these numbers look like right because we all want to be reasonable um you know um that right am i is that fair so even though we're we're giving this prohibitively expensive memberships but i do think professional courtesy is to me it's something i think when you when you add up five of us you know it might be it's not significant but it's certainly i think should be noted somewhere and also to your points that people are aware that it is very personal well that's right so um and and whether or not we opt in or not so um commissioner skinner are you um adding in or no i couldn't tell no i was just gonna agree with commissioner ryan just a professional courtesy it would be you know a great benefit commissioner hill fine with me okay so again uh again this is just a really helpful conversation so everybody understands um what we really haven't known um and um moving on then to back to just the traveling conferences i think that you said um not taught excuse me darryk oh he's he's off um perhaps he doesn't want the video and preserving his line darryk you had said that i think you were um sort of assuming three three conferences a year per um or maybe it was crystal per commissioner is that where the number sort of comes up the original funding for the budget kind of came together looking at at what conferences have been in the past years based on uh enrollment based wealth agnes is great talent in making sure we get our conferences paid because sometimes not that simple um but yeah so that is where we have developed that level of the budget if and this is why i circulated the document that i'm sorry it was very late last night when i did circulate uh just to give you an idea of what there is for the most part out there at that is really related to casino regulation gaming and even i added um some of the bigger ones that's worth betting in there um just so that you can see what might be coming in the next several months to make sure we have a conversation about who has interest for what which would really help in making sure we have that item funded at the appropriate level so that's correct and i have my camera off because i'm working off of a hot spot right now my internet in the west foot area is out so um so i'm working off a hot spot so that's why i have my camera off that's okay we understand completely but you're you feel like that's accurate commissioners how do you feel about um about the level of funding for the conferences themselves enough if p let's see average that you're so it's three per and Derek had already noted that we would be bumping that up a little bit to align with some of the cost inflation and inflation so um right now that entire line item for administrative expenses is at about fifty thousand a little over um which does cover also the subscriptions and licensing and some of the printing um supplies but that those are very small so you know take that about so we we'd normally look at thirty five to four thousand dollars uh a trap because you've got reimbursements going in there too for food that's not charged to a credit card um because sometimes other places they're charged a credit card so you know if you're looking at thirty five hundred times fifteen trips you're you know around forty five um anywhere forty five to fifty or up at the four thousand times fifteen trips you're at six uh sixty thousand um that we'd have bumped that number too you take the three per commissioners it does come out to right around that level it's about three trips it's about ten thousand so how do you feel about that? I sadly in the four years I've been here I other than attending the Boston Conference in the fall I've never attended a conference since I've been here so it's hard for me to gauge in terms of I'll take you guys's experience in terms of the cost um and a placeholder um obviously international travel is way different than domestic and in-state so I like it as a placeholder for budget purposes you know although it's hard to say you know attending something in Boston is very different than raising a hand to say I want to go to Australia well that's exactly that's exactly right and and the I can give my experience which is also very limited I um I went to Las Vegas for a GGE but it was also very heavily um attended by our IT group who who worked with me to give me a tour of the lab so it was very very helpful to understand really our operations and then I also had a tour from one of our licensees of a particular surveillance system so that stood out as in addition to attending the conferences at GGE it was very it was very directed in in terms of focus so I believe that was one that was funded I believe I funded my own one time to go to a out in Las Vegas again to a regulatory regulators round table that I was invited to so and I took care of that on my own um so I I too don't have any experience other than Las Vegas which is relatively inexpensive so we'll we'll need to think about um you know what we're what we're doing um and I think we think about that as a group for a conference travel moving forward um and go ahead Brad so I think looking at some of the conventions that we were sent a lot thankfully a lot of them in New England or in and around here so it's not going to be as expensive but there are some very very important ones coming up in regards to horse racing what's going on federally with horse racing sports betting of course and the responsible gaming that we all care so deeply about so I mean this is going to be a very important year for us to get as much information as we can to do our jobs and and just because we haven't traveled doesn't mean we don't think it's a great idea we but you know in terms of our budget we just want to figure out you know if it turns out that it's in Kentucky for horse racing we just want to make sure is a reasonable to sort of average three three thousand that's what I'm hearing Derek um per trip I know that's too much right because you would think three thousand per commissioner no that's per trip I think that's the part between three and four thousand and if we went to four thousand we'd be up at sixty thousand assuming three trips per commissioner fifteen trips total if we were at you know three thousand we'd be at forty five thousand for travel um and if we're at the thirty five hundred you're between there right you're at fifty two something fifty two five um so you know I I don't see I don't see a huge issue with the sixty thousand um and you know we have over a thirty three million dollar budget so if it ended up being sixteen or twenty trips we would obviously find that money and take and cut back and spending in another area throughout the agency if the commissioners need to travel somewhere I hate to be a Debbie Downer but I am currently trying to book a trip out to Idaho to see my daughter in July and the cost of the plane alone is over a thousand bucks so the cost I think we need to dial it it's gonna be a little higher than than we think it is unfortunately unfortunately because again I think it's so important for what we need to do coming up in the next year or two uh but judging by and again we get discounts I'm sure when it's a convention maybe but the cost to fly even down to Florida is big big money right now and I don't see that going down too soon I hope I'm wrong which is why the three thousand per trip is is not super high but you're also like you said a lot of these coming up luckily are more local so it's an average certainly if you have to travel further out it's going to cost several of you a little bit more but some of these being local ones in Maine right once several are in Boston we're actually really lucky this coming here um will will be helpful of course uh you know lodging in Boston but we many of us are right here so I think um like with with Derek's plans to inflate that a little bit you're probably still looking right where you're considering I just wanted to distribute that to make sure if five of you are interested in all five of the same conferences we we we have the ability to have that conversation and understanding so we can plan around it but you're certainly not out of the ballpark and what you've all been considering and stating to me so and so Chris was noting something that was really important to me that I feel strongly that any commissioner can take advantage of these these opportunities whenever they wish you know as long as we have kind of our travel policy in our budget matters our structures in place that are being responsible government employees but I also think all five could go to the same one too because I think that there might be actually a lot of advantage in all of us hearing the same thing it doesn't have to be divide and conquer um with that said it can be divide and conquer I just feel that we are all in you know individual um making the very best judgments and we have our own um um idea of how we want to prepare for this job so um I think the budget piece is the main piece and then I think um I think I mentioned for uh the travel policy I've asked Karen for a little guidance on that and Derek it's basically if we have the budget discussion where we're being really reasonable and supportive then it's easy for us to sign off on on proposed trips going forward right um so with that said how's I think I know that Brad is being very realistic I'm really going to try to be a hopeful um I felt like the other day uh Commissioner Skinner when we had to think about flight change it wasn't escalated I think you and I were kind of surprised that it was um it was good so um you know knock on wood um I wonder let's just see how it goes but I do know that everyone's talking that the consumer is going to be at the brunt of these inflationary costs so um but I'm hearing crystal three to four thousand and we could rely on Derek and team's recommendation I think they're all in agreement with those numbers yeah so um commissioners how do you feel Commissioner Skinner? Yeah I think the assumptions are spot on and uh if that's the case then I think the those line items the combination of them uh adequately funded and that's where you led and I wanted to get back to that remember um that was her lead so we just needed to digest it and understand what we're coming from and we've dealt with memberships that might be you know addressed somehow with additional publication costs we what do you think Eileen? Commissioner Bryant? No sounds reasonable to me obviously you know we can revisit if everything escalates prohibitively if you if you're leaving sort of driving to a conference but hopefully that won't happen and Commissioner Hill you feel the same way? I'm saying yeah okay all right then we can move on from that one um very very helpful discussion um and I think it just allows us all to be informed at the same time um so is that all of subsection D uh C and D uh I feel we've kept that all covered now in your memo that's kind of my guideline at crystal office supplies and furnishings uh Derek um yeah we set aside we set aside a $5,000 catch y'all um just in case there is something crystal has identified some needs already for this year that would eat into that $5,000 um so you know a chair is anywhere from you know $1,000 to $600 um depending on whether it's ergonomic whether you want to in a you know faux leather type um or if you just go with our basic one that has the breathable and is um the long lasting durable type that that's closer to the six to $650. I just think the new commissioner should have one that doesn't automatically shrink them which is what I was stuck with yeah we want to make sure they have a chair exactly but um I do know can you look at our massage one as well okay what did you say say can you check in for a massage one as well oh yeah yeah no kidding I'm right now I could use what I'll tell you um um I think um there crystal there is a need an immediate need for one with the new commissioner's office and I love that um you know commissioner Brian um did the the great tactic that every office mate does you know when they are yeah that was you know I I love that so it's not an immediate issue it was just in broad daylight that's a broad daylight yeah it's fair game commissioner Brian's seat was going down down down to when the um commissioner commissioner uh Brian went right in and got her chair I thought was very resourceful so that's what it was like a prank that was happening every day someone was just shrinking my seat well I have a confession I took commissioner Cameron's table it's a lot bigger oh I swapped it I swapped mine out for her you're saying our new commissioner may also need yeah got it noted um sounds like we need to do a just a check yeah yeah but for right now can we hold as a placeholder um the five thousand dollars um and if you know what I know that when I moved in probably Agnes thought oh gosh who is this but you were so wonderful because I had the the couch in the in a chair and I couldn't really sit in it if I was wearing a skirt and I didn't have a table that was could really work for a group and now I got that conference table and Agnes it has served us well thank you so much um but you and Janice were very I said I don't want to spend a lot of money and you guys were really very very very good we got a good table for a good cause everybody needs to figure out how they work best in their life in their office so going shrinking down each time not a good way to work so there we go um so and that couch can be found in the hallway outside of McHugh right yes we we re-purposed and that's nice with a little danger um if you're wearing a skirt this may be hard to navigate a little low a little it was a little low right yeah um there was a lot of me arrangements um so um are we good with that then Derek you're hearing that we need to make sure each commissioner has at least um adequate resources and I know IT needs have already been dealt with Karen is there anything that you're hearing that we need on that front you're good okay Crystal you've been keeping track of it um you know we also want to accommodate somebody who needs to first stand up desk or whatever um all right and then um item at this stenography which we already dealt with okay so now back to Derek and his line item analysis did we skip over anything we did not the only item that's in the line item analysis that we didn't cover here is the direct reimbursable cost of the um independent monitor and you'll see those added each time as an amendment to the budget every time I go in front of you with a quarterly update and then revenue was added to the budget so that's a that's a neutral item we zeroed that out okay and what about the age items the program consultants that's all the independent monitor okay that is it okay thank you that's so oh there it is yeah sorry um I was looking looking for independent monitors for your screen and then at the same time consultant so that is and that's why it's such a big figure that's our inner budget because it's reimbursed okay correct so we have to capture all the spending as we go out go through the year and as a reminder and I'm sure you all know this but that was pursuant to a decision of the commissioners and so that's why that has stayed in it was in the judiciary process where we deliberated and the deliberations are you know can be in private among the commissioners themselves often with a legal staff and so when that was a condition to the license that's how it ended up with us fair fair Derek and Todd right yes and Commissioner O'Brien um can remind us that the contractor Todd that the contract is actually um with again the commissioners so uh just so that you know what the process is maybe you've heard me as I say is that we get monthly invoices and I've asked Commissioner O'Brien and Commissioner Grossman a Commissioner Grossman see there we go Council Grossman we're handing out those titles everywhere um Council Grossman to um be um to help me evaluate whether those invoices are aligned with the contract that we we executed uh about three years ago now just short of three years ago so that's the process on that and then it goes to Derek and his team so there's a lot of checks and balances on that invoicing okay Derek do you want to add on that no you covered that well um once it gets to us we pay it and then bill um on court right away yeah and just to remind it to the three of us that the timeliness helps right Derek yes because there is a discount piece for it um if we pay within a certain number of days and on court likes to see that happen because the bill goes down a little bit but one thing we say is we don't sacrifice thoroughness of review to just get a um a a discount yeah I can put that exclamation point I never do that um on anything uh but if that's helpful Eileen and Todd let me know all right so um this has been more extensive but you know what we've never done this in in the um three years that I've been chair um and I honestly have a hard time recalling exactly how we did accept um kind of probably individual discussions Derek and which is always helpful today we got a chance to hear from everyone um so commissioners do you have any questions for Derek and team crystal on any of this no that's very helpful thank you commissioner Skinner I'll set okay Brad I'll set okay all right um yeah commissioner Brian helpful to you yeah okay good all right so um do we then just finalize the numbers when it comes to us and the budgetary matters that we're working out Derek um in the full full budget yes so the next step is um Agnes John Noel and I will plug in these estimates we'll um give them to Crystal so that she can say yes she agrees or doesn't agree with how they look and then comes the meeting between um us Karen and the treasurer to sit down and review the whole agency then that review will go to the licensees and then finally we'll come back to you with all the input from our internal team and the licensees for a recommended spending level at which point we'll go into details over ups and downs there um between each across each division and spending category excellent all right okay update when we have it okay guys um I um I know it's late it's 116 we do um anticipate now a um um going into an executive session uh oh and by the way to the whole team of um Derek your finance team thank you for not only showing up today but being there from really important guidance and important history John Scully welcome aboard um again you know this is we've we've been working with you but this is you know really the first budget and Noel it's so great to have seen you and Agnes a treat a treat thank you so if I could I want to echo your your thanks to the team um over the past several weeks I've had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with them um and they really are experts at what they do so thanks for navigating us through uh this discussion today appreciate it thank you thank you and anybody else want to chime in while I just look at for something like I've always said I'm very lucky um my team makes me look good um I don't have the um the attention to detail that they have at all times so I am very lucky um to have them here too um to to make me look good and as you saw it went smoothly as the uh as my internet cut out so yeah they are experts in the areas yeah and Derek I like that you always make sure to add that piece you know it's very genuine and and I think um we want to give a nod too to Crystal because she's starting you know really is looking through our lens and and that's very very helpful um you know we'll keep us um keep us doing our job the best we can can do it all right then um if everybody is very lucky commissioner to have crystal she's been doing this with us for a while on the diversity side so she picked this up um and has um brought attention to your line item that maybe wasn't there always in the in the past yeah that's good right um that's like that's excellent and uh and I like that you get crystal credit I think all of us um have recognized recognized that um she had that going on before and now we're with the beneficiaries of it so um a check-in thank you thank you again um a check-in now on our next item um it is 119 uh thanks John nice to see you um do we um have the stamina to continue if we are to if we end up voting into an executive session um or do we need a break right now I need lunch okay um so we would need we could vote to go in and then you know go in after some period of time we have lunch could I ask this um if we forward to go into an executive session we really haven't eaten lunch in the virtual setting before but could we have a working lunch meeting for this particular topic yeah I just we could but I'm just saying I being in the office I am going to need time to leave the building to get something to eat so I'm going to need a good 20 minutes probably to get something and I'm happy to kill my video or eat in front of you guys but I would need the time to go get something okay um all right then um what we will do is move ahead on um to see if we will in fact go into executive session and then um before we close out we'll talk about um timing okay so right now and and again um under the open meeting law I'm required to read this language and um that Todd has helped us with of course um on the matter of the office lease update that uh executive director Wells intends to sort of bring us up to date on and have discussions the commission would anticipate anticipates that it will meet in executive session in accordance with GL chapter 30a section 21a 6 to consider the lease of real property specifically the commission's office space at 101 federal street in Boston as discussion at an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position on the commission so um do I have a motion for moving into executive session madam chair I move that we go into executive session for the reasons you just stated on the record do I have thank you all right then are there any questions on this um this motion okay commissioner brian hi commissioner hill hi commissioner skinner hi and I vote yes for zero um now uh just to be clear to the public um the we do not the commission does not anticipate reconvening in a public setting at the conclusion of the executive session so um I will I can leave this virtual room all together correct counsel grossman and then we would enter into our virtual room for the executive session and what time do we want to do that it is 122 say 145 does that work for you commissioner skinner yes how's that how's that work for you commissioner hill I'm going to actually ask for 150 all right then okay you saw my 145 and you raised me five minutes I like it and I'm I'm just going to fold honestly could do that right now um so Karen how does that work for you and your team it's a little bit later did you pretty much do you you're all set actually Todd are you in the executive session Todd yeah I have thank you for making sure 150 150 and Karen will make sure that the team is also at crystal how's that work you're good all right um thank you and I and I really appreciate the budget discussion everyone that was really very very helpful for me I feel like we're a little bit better organized as we move into this this new era okay thank you so much um I will I can leave I'm always nervous about this can we some this room and we will see you in the the next virtual room everyone thanks so much thanks everybody anybody else want to say anything thanks to the entire team appreciate it so much