 Hello everyone. I'm James Milan. Welcome to the debate for Select Board here in Arlington in the 2020 race. That's two positions open and three candidates and those candidates join me right now. In the order in which they appear in the ballot it is Len Lennard-Diggins and then Diane Mahon and then Makaya Healy. Welcome to you all. I also want to just mention at the outset that Len is a colleague of ours at ACMI. I'm just going to quickly go over the format for the debate. The candidates are familiar with it but I will just quickly go over it for our audience. We're going to start with opening statements randomly the order of which will be randomly chosen and we will they will each be one minute. Then we will proceed to the first of several rounds of questions. The first round is just one question and it is going to be the same question asked to all three of the candidates and each of them gets two minutes to respond. We'll then move to the next section which will involve us and me specifically randomly choosing three questions from out of the Mason jar there and then directing those to each of the candidates in turn. The respondent will get two minutes the person asked the question of will get two minutes to respond and then the other two candidates will have one minute for rebuttal time. We will then move into a quick section of yes no questions six of those and then followed by the opportunity that the candidates have to ask questions of each other and I will explain that when we get to that section how that is going to work and finally we will close with closing statements surprise those are also one minute each and again the order for those will have been randomly chosen. So we would like to start I will tell you that as I mentioned before randomly chosen order for the opening statements is Makai Healy followed by Leonard Diggins and then Diane Mahon. So without further ado let's get going one minute for your opening statement Ms. Healy. Thank you my name is Makai Healy I'm very happy to be with you James and the folks at ACMI and my fellow candidates. I am running for select board because I believe I can bring a unique perspective to the leadership in town. I'm a parent of three young children a woman of color or renter I'm eager for the challenge I really want to help lead our community forward on issues that affect us all such as housing the environment sustainability and public trust all through the lens of inclusion equity kindness and respect. Over the ten years I've lived in Arlington I have developed an inexpensive network in the town and I will use my professional training as a pastor mental health counselor and community organizer to lead our community forward. I am a bridge builder for people who don't ordinarily get along. People trust me to share their concerns about town matters and because of that I will bring a fresh perspective to the select board. Thanks very much. Mr. Diggins. Hi my name is Leonard Diggins and I am very happy and honored to be running for a seat on select board. I'm also a proud town meeting member from precinct three. I guess now isn't the time for modesty so if I were to list all of my involvement in the community in respect to the committees and groups it would take way longer than the 60 seconds stat that we have here but what I really want to emphasize is it's the extent to which I have a great working relationship with the current members of the select board the town manager many people on staff and indeed a lot of the town other town meeting members a it is one thing to have connections me and I have plenty of those in town and across the region but more importantly we need to have someone that is able to collaborate a I have my passion which is to make a quick break about more civic engagement but more importantly I want to work on whatever challenge we're gonna have to we're gonna have to finish there Ms. Mahon thanks James and ACMI and I truly want to thank Makaya and Len in this current season running for an election is hard enough but running in the middle of a pandemic you know thank you both for doing that I'm Diane Mahon I'm currently the select board chair I am running for reelection and I'm hoping now at the end of this hour I would have earned one of your two votes for the June 6th local election which will have the voter mail-in option I started out basically in schools with my kids only wanted to be on PTO voted for other people signed their papers then started to get involved when I saw some town decisions that were being made that really didn't reflect things and I have a knack for getting different people together organizing for positive effect positive change and then it's seen it through and I want to continue to do that and my job my role as selectman affords me a better opportunity to go out and dedicate myself to the community and get that job done thank you very much and we're going to move into that first round of questions which is a single question posed to all three candidates the order of response is going to follow the order on the ballot so that is Mr. Diggins will go first then Ms. Mahon and finally Ms. Healy each with two minutes to respond to this we have heard from the public that that there's real interest very deep interest in being able to distinguish between you guys and so in the in light of that what specific accomplishments experience values or priorities distinguish you from the other candidates Mr. Diggins so in my case my my regional I have lots of connections across the region I've been involved in transit since 2004 when I became a member of the writer oversight committee and I currently am a member of I'm the chair of the regional transportation advisory council which has a seat on the Boston MPO the metropolitan planning organization reprogram $2 billion worth of federal service transportation dollars over a 20 year period I have lots of connections across the region and and I have come to appreciate the extent to which Arlington is seen as a leader in the region and I have the ability to enhance and magnify that that leadership role because that's going to be very important in this situation in this environment in which we find ourselves even before COVID-19 it was important for Arlington to play its leadership role because that's how Arlington gets what it wants being in collaboration with the rest of the region because Arlington he sits inside of a very vibrant vibrant region and in most other places the Arlington would be a neighborhood in the town that is the major town that's five miles away and so we need to be able to play our part in helping the region move along because that's the way that Arlington will grow and become a more vibrant community in this age of COVID-19 or this era where we're dealing with COVID-19 that's even more important so that ability to reach outside of Arlington in order to make Arlington stronger and better is what I bring to the table thank you sir Ms. Baham. Thank you for the question I think what distinguishes me obviously is you know I am incumbent I have been on the board since 1999 I never dreamed I'd be still on the board and still have the same passion and vigor for it with the untimely passing of my colleague and friend Kevin Greeley I'm now the senior member of anyone who knows me or knows of me I always do research I read things and I apply them to Arlington in the way that they need to be done I have experience I have relationships you know with all of our legislators and all the way up to Katherine Clark and Elizabeth Warren and and Markey but the most important relationship and a strength that I think I have is I am devoted to constituent services I'm devoted to helping people to helping out because when I moved here in Arlington and we couldn't afford a house and eventually had to live in the projects which we found out later was called Monotomy Manor it wasn't when I was there getting the block of cheese Arlington has been so good to me in terms of growing out the education it provided for me but also the Arlington family the Arlington community family and I have dedicated a large part of my life to doing that because I want to give back what has been given to me and there's so many other opportunities I hope one of the other questions will let me go into it but my parlay into politics was just recently after its town leaders close for elementary schools they're talking about closing two more Brackett and Pierce and I was astounded by that and then when I found out the reason it didn't make any sense it wasn't a rational reason closing you know schools when families were moving in but more importantly it would have eliminated entirely eliminated the Metco program at Pierce School which I am very much a supporter of it had been from the onset but I got my organizing skills got all these people with energy and knowledge got the information out to people and eventually it went down to no school would be closed and thank goodness we have the Arlington we have today thank you very much and Miss Healy yes so our perspectives make us different candidates our experiences make us different people and therefore our priorities also are different so I there's a couple of things that I'm really excited to be working on and to bring to the board and bring to the Arlington community one of those things is accessibility to the public and it's something you know I call giving the board some fresh air so it's just my way of describing getting the board out into the community more to engage the public where we were they are I already do that as a leader in the diversity task group I have been seen as a coach primarily my coach a lot of leaders through difficult problems but really what I am excited to be doing these days is to have to be out there more to have regular office hours going to places where busy people are you know and and just being more accessible to the to the community you know I grew up here I mean I didn't grow up here but I spent 10 plus years trying to figure out how to or just building relationships with lots of different neighbors and you know in the diversity task group I've been it's just been such a privilege to be able to work on various projects to move our community forward in very specific way like equity ways when I first became the chair we worked on monotomy our colonial day and and we moved that to monotomy day just to reflect more of the perspectives of people who didn't grow up as European Americans in this country you know the culturally sensitive approach approach to the overnight parking I was really excited to be doing that so just bringing more perspectives to the board that's that's that's what I'm excited to do alright thanks very much we're going to move right into the next section of questions and these again will be picked as we go by me out of this little mason jar and the person I direct the question to will have two minutes and then the other two candidates one minute rebuttal time so the first question is directed to miss mahan and it is how would you characterize the select board's response to the lieutenant padrini incident and specifically in reference to community input um I would say the response to the lieutenant padrini incident was a difficult time and I hope from the get-go that you heard the remarks from the board and the town manager that we spoke out against the vile racist vitriol that lieutenant padrini penned in his writings in no way where they are reflection of the town and I actually felt really embarrassed by the incident I felt sorry for our town employees the woman and men of the police department that this also affected them I also was chair at the time and that's when allington fights racism as well as some other citizens came to the select board meeting where I had three citizens open forums where they came in and aired some things that the town needed to hear that the town needed to listen and process and then the town and the board needed to come up with a way to address this because it really was something that was was and is serious racism does exist sometimes the worst is when people don't realize that that they're out there that there could be systemic racism and then the steps that the town took moving forward hearing from residents as well as members from AFR hiring someone from national league cities as well as we had leaders from AFR help come up with who the person would be that was chosen and we still have more to do and I want to stress that because this is an issue that thankfully AFR brought to the town's attention and it needs to be discussed it needs to be ongoing discussions and again make a positive thank you very much miss haley you have one minute for rebuttal I'm sure I was personally affected by the writings of lieutenant padrini it was I was very disturbed by the statements that he made let's meet violence with violence because that attitude carries with it this fear that it's going to be followed up with action and then that those fears would also are shared among other members of the police department so I sat in dozens of circles in office rooms and living rooms and meeting spaces for the past two years talking about this issue and willing to move to work to understand how to help heal and to restore our community and I think there's a lot of work that still needs to be done and that was mentioned and because of all this work that has been done I've actually gained some of the most deepest relationships with the town department the police department and members of the Arlington fights thank you very much and mr. Diggins your minute sure so the primary question was how did this like board handle it and having watched that play out hey I understood the rationale behind the town manager's actions being and and I understood why this like board supported his actions being and decided to allow for the use of of restorative justice aid aid I support that aid and I understand that there are still challenges that members of the community face with respect to how things are continuing to play out with Lieutenant Adriene and I feel that we do need to continue working on that but I want to work on that from the perspective or from the notion of bringing getting people to know each other better me because I feel that racism is that is another level of another example of people just not getting to know each other well enough I think if we get people sorry to have to cut you off but I do sure and moving on to the next question this is directed to you miss Healy so Arlington faces a number of challenges in the coming years what area or issue would you take a particular leadership role in tackling that's a great question I think the biggest thing that we have coming up is just our fiscal recovery from the crisis so both in terms of the stability of the town's budget shortfalls and people's fears of just being able to live to afford to live here in town people have the basic necessities of a fear of food water and shelter and safety and I think there's going to be more dependency on aid organizations and and I really want to see how our town can continue to work with the community to encourage these aid organizations this is why we care so much about why we fund Arlington Arlington Eats Market and we care for COA and lots of other places and I would just encourage the generosity of town residents to continue to do to to give grants to the homelessness prevention program where there's grants that that keep people within within the homes to pay for their rents they provide those grants I'm very appreciative of the HCA for doing that the housing corporation of Arlington so I prioritize mostly on those who are on fixed incomes and those with disabilities those that have less financial security and cushion that will it'll take a lot harder for them to bounce back from this recovery people have lost their jobs and as much as we can prevent displacement as as much as we possibly can that is where I want to to work and to to support our community and to to lead our community through this crisis and you know as bad as this crisis is for us I believe that through resilience and through this challenge through this challenge we'll develop resilience and that our town will thank you oh thank you thank you very much mr. Diggins one minute yes me well I agree a lot with what Micaiah said and I want to extend that a little more generally to making Arlington more equitable and creating a more more sustainable way of living because as bad as this COVID situation is we the climate climate change is even bigger and we weren't maybe aware what was going that a pandemic was was probable but we do know that climate change is happening and we need to work with the region and the rest of the world but really get our house in order with respect to doing what we can to make living more sustainable and we need to do that in a way that fosters equity made and and makes opportunities available to everyone so they're not simply surviving they're thriving thank you very much and Ms. Mohan your minute thank you very much um what I want to do is what I think is one of my attributes is continue to be a leader in leading Arlington um through the coronavirus and the effects and a lot of it is the unknown and I've been working with the town manager with non-profit groups about how can we get money to people who know what five dines and ten nickels means so to that end uh and we have money through CDBG cares act I champion that very strongly to make it just for low income we also have the COVID-19 relief fund that Arlington has started and I spoke with the town manager and we decided whatever grant you apply for it applies to the other one so people on bog down with which one did I apply we have relief for small businesses in Arlington that we vitally need they're part of the community as well as the economic community um and I also want to work on making sure people feel safe about their housing because there's been some stories out there and there are protections for people so I want to lead and get that information out thank you and the third and final question this round uh surprise goes to you Mr. Diggins and it is uh current select board member Joe Currow made a recent public plea for civility what do you think is the best way to deal with inconsiderate words or actions and with public disagreement well you know civility it's it's it's an issue not only in Arlington it's all over the place and I think the key to it really is once again we to get people to know each other better because it's easy to be uncivil towards someone that you see as the other but if we get people more connected so that they get to see that they have more in common and then there are differences and then I think it it will foster a more civility because you don't really behave badly towards someone that you get to know and and usually when you get to know someone you get to like them because you see the similarities in them so I want to work and as I have done to try to get people interacting with each other more I mean I've done that in conjunction with Envision Arlington by getting the precinct meetings going and that really is a guys me forgetting the community be more connected we I do it around the rubric or we organize around the rubric of the warrants or the articles in a warrant but it's really a way of getting people in the room together and also it'd be good to try to practice democracy in a way that doesn't really exacerbates the differences I mean I know we have a race and it's all about saying well how is this candidate different from the other and it's like yeah there are differences we want you to choose amongst us but also just realize that we're all trying to work together towards making the community better so perhaps the suggestions in these races should be more about how would you work together me to solve the problems that we have so it's more a matter of of our approaches things and also language being so we may have things that we want to work on but instead of maybe saying that we're fighting an issue it's like how is it that we are working towards solving that issue so language and bringing people together thank you we are going to go to you miss behind for one minute yes I'm having having the unique position of actually being shared this past year I can say in all my years in Arlington I've really never seen the level of public public discourse to this extreme to that end I will have an agenda item on May 18th following up on what Joe Kiro spoke about in his new business and asked him to bring those ideas back from the MMA I have spoken with leaders of the group that have appeared before before us because I've worked on charge neighborhood environmental issues but I've always said to the people that are in the group especially who are going to speak on behalf of the group please be mindful please be respectful respectful of the process even if things don't go that way sometimes you have to accept that even when people say you know we offer an apology we did that wrong we're trying to make it better you need to accept that on face value and and I we need to find out how we get back to that and then not make it that some people can't even watch select board meetings anymore which is sad thank you very much miss Healy one minute important to distinguish between civility and agreement we have a diverse town and we're going to have varying opinions and we're going to have lots of disagreements so my definition of civility is being able to discuss those strong differences in a way that is respectful of others so that even when I disagree with you I can still respect you at the end of the conversation so it's when that respect starts to wane that civility dwindles and that's when you see more personal attacks aimed at people rather than a position that you're holding one thing I learned as a counselor is that I can't control what others do or they say and the other thing that I learned is that when someone feels validated that's more important than agreeing with them when I facilitate meetings at the in the diversity task group we don't always agree most of that learning that happens though in DTG is when we're able to hear concerns and ask questions of one another lean into presumptions and then thank you very much thank you very much okay we're going to now move into the next section questions which are going to be a series of yes and no questions I want to preface this by acknowledging that these are not easy for the candidates to answer I'm sure there will be a temptation and a frustration around not being able to explain yourself further but we want to cover a number of different topics at least a little bit and so we'd appreciate we appreciate your indulgence around our requirement that you answer yes or no and not something else you also have a short time to deliberate for yourselves you know five to ten seconds but then we're going to be looking for an answer okay and it's going to move pretty quickly and we'll just you'll get used to the rhythm of how that goes we're going to start with the first question is going to go to Ms. Mahon first and then Ms. Healy and then Mr. Diggins and we will carry on in rotating order from there so the first question is is potential flooding at the Mugar development in East Arlington a solvable problem yes no development Ms. Healy yes no development uh yeah I agree no development okay thank you very much and uh the next question goes to you Ms. Healy then Mr. Diggins then Ms. Mahon uh do you support all four points of the platform being advanced by Arlington fights racism uh no not entirely uh no especially the fourth one okay no thank you and moving on to the next question uh order will be Mr. Diggins Ms. Mahon and Ms. Healy and so it will go should Arlington consider reversing its current ban on overnight parking yes do you hear that yes yes yes I'm sorry did so after that Ms. Mahon yes and Ms. Healy yes okay next question is is going to you but we're back to the where we were at the beginning Ms. Mahon Ms. Healy and then Mr. Diggins do you support zoning bylaw changes to facilitate new business in Arlington such as for example the proposed hotel Lexington on Mass Ave Ms. Mahon um yes export and Ms. Healy yes I'm for that yes I'd like to see biotech all right and next question is to you to Ms. Healy then Mr. Diggins then Ms. Mahon and it is would you agree to pursue the regionalization of certain services in order to save money for the town yes it depends though okay qualified yes and Mr. Diggins yes yes I like to jump up and down and Ms. Mahon ah yes explore it okay thank you very much and uh you'll probably be happy to note uh that the last question um is um and I'm sorry um the order for uh this last question just to refresh your memories uh will be Mr. Diggins Ms. Mahon and Ms. Healy and the question itself is do you support zoning policies that would promote increased population density in Arlington yes and me oh yes and Ms. Healy yes qualified yes it depends thank you very much again we appreciate your patience with that um we're going on to the fourth and final section questions um and these uh here's where we invite you to ask questions of each other so uh just a reminder you get 30 seconds to ask the question so no speeches just a question please and then each of the two respondents will get two minutes and the person who asked the question will get one minute to respond to those so we will start with you Ms. Healy and uh the order of uh of response will be Mr. Diggins and then Ms. Mahon can you tell us a little bit about your perspective about the civilian review board um uh and the chief advisory board sure and so i i am fine with the notion of exploring whether a civilian review board me should be established a i don't what i don't support in the current article is the notion that it will be studied with the intention upsetting it up and i'm sort of person that likes to explore possibilities and in the process maybe change my mind about the what is what conclusion comes about um the police advisory committee i love that concept because i want that to happen regardless made of what we do with respect to civilian review board because i would like to see such an entity have broad powers or broad a broad agenda so that we get people to know the police more and the police get to know the community more because it isn't simply a slogan when i talk about me making connections i think that's vital means everything and the more we can do to get people to know each other and understand each other just the more vibrant and resilient community would be will be so i'm all for that police advisory group or whatever you want to call it okay are you finished or i'm finished okay thank you Ms. Mahon two minutes yes and thank you Makaya for the question and i understand you're pausing because the past three weeks i keep thinking what question can i ask i don't want to ask a mean question i don't want to ask a you know try to trip you up a question kind of a thing um so but but thank you for your question um we do have a warrant article hearing which i was not in favor of the language that was contained in the warrant article hearing but one of the things i love about being on the select board and having these warrant article hearings sometimes we find a way to do something that everybody wants but it's a different way and uh i've been working with our police chief julie julie flaherty uh when she came up with the citizens advisory board we're both so excited about that because you know i like to take something and see the opportunity in it because i think that's the way you take something and make it less charged and make it work for everybody and um looking forward to the schedule and having the citizen advisory board because i really would like to use it to get out all the good work that the women and men of the allington police department have been doing from 911 dispatch all the way up and if something does come along as we experienced um last year with lieutenant bandrini we have a committee set up that's meeting with the chief that had built trust and respect um but i want to do this as everything else that i do in allington when there's an issue a problem something lacking somebody needs something that we sort of galvanize around it and say let's you know let's make positive change out of this let's not see this as punitive or you know everything is wrong but that i think this is a great opportunity and our honest to goodness the police chief and i are so excited about it because we are going to make sure the citizen advisory committee is so in mesh not only with the allington police department but sort of as stewards to the community and they could be stewards when there are things like like racism that need to be discussed they'll sort of be people out there um doing what we do here in allington which is come together and take care of each other thank you very much and miss healy you have one minute to respond okay thank you um so i looked at the chief's advisory board um which is very in in line with the way that um i think that our chief runs it's very sacrificial and very full of servitude i think it focuses the department um it focuses on how the department can improve and places a lot of the responsibility um of rebuilding public trust within the department itself and also on the advisors of the advocates um that are part of that board um the citizens advisory board i think focuses a lot on the citizens and how they might examine public issues and conduct research and development recommendations um and i think both models provide our community with what we need actually so i would recommend a formal um way of having our an independent mechanism where citizens can bring their complaints outside the department um and also um also provide recommendations to the the chief which is what um she's desiring as well thank you next question uh is posed by mr diggins and the response will be miss mahan and then sure well mine was easy because as i've stated repeatedly i'm really into connecting the community and so in the spirit of collaboration i'm interested in your ideas me about what you what you think more we could do me to get more civic involvement uh and and create just more bonds more relationships with the community mahan um i think what we can well pre march 12th corona virus um certainly build on and continue on what the board has been doing certainly for myself you would be hot press to find anyone who said they didn't have an opportunity to meet with me talk to me on the phone sometimes really long on the phone um i always made myself available in in coffee shops i'm known for constituent services and i mine when i first got on the board i remember my then colleague saying oh that person that appeared before us and asked for some help they don't vote they're not registered and my thing was having come from a family like that um well make it your job to go out there and help these people and when they see them one time they had a positive result with their town government then they say hey jeez i didn't know this went on and i've seen those people go on to become involved in the community to be great participants into making arlington better and i think um what i want to do is continue on with what i've been doing um since 1999 i can't believe i'm that old is really listening to people respecting them helping them just to help you know there's nothing worse that when you ask for some help and then you see it you know in discussed at a meeting that you know you needed help with rent or fuel oil assistance um i'd like to just do everything quietly a lot of people have said to me you know you really should let people know everything that you're doing well i do and i tell them doing my best job um in my role as selectman which affords me the opportunity to get my job done better which is getting people help whether it's information whether it's something because of family circumstances station in life a town employee uh i i really thrive on i think i've for me developed to make myself as open as possible and one of my negatives and positive is i'll always tell you what i think i'm not going to tell you what i think you want to hear i'll make to make you go away and that's sometimes played against me but um i i just can't not tell you silly um yeah so this is a very big concern for me um a very big priority for me um and uh i am really interested in also just being present in the community um i think accessibility um is a big piece of a lot of what we're talking about like within the boardroom i think um we lose um stability within the boardroom because people don't feel like they're known by their board members and so i am very interested in having regular office hours like i think i've mentioned and uh carrying up with you know the human rights commission they do these regularly the school committee um has these our state delegates have office hours so um just being uh carrying up with with that possibly um and also exploring new places like publicly trafficked places like um the library and arlington housing authority living rooms and just being a presence is is really important i know it's not all up to one board to be able to do that um but i think government should be accessible and um and people should know that um if they have any issues that they can what they what their representatives look like um so i'm really also i i find leaders all the time um i mentioned that i'm a coach and that i i look for leaders all the time um and and so i'm i'm interested in and bringing along the new generation of people to fill in these committee seats and these commissions and the board does um points a lot um of new members to these boards and so um yeah people there is like newcomers their students that um connected to that arlington high school that want to be involved there's um seniors who want to be engaged more and so they can be they can participate as well and so um figuring out those ways to let them know how government works mr dickens one minute sure sure uh well i very much like the office ours idea you know i would like to do that myself hopefully we'll get to back to the point where we can go out because i would like to visit various coffee shops um and have my office hours there and i'm very much into getting the next generation involved and one of the things i mentioned on my profile is that i'd like to explore and maybe just do create a youth and young adult advisory uh committee meet and they i have ideas for how they would be selected but they would be a committee that has some real heft me some and the comment be committed to them and get them educated in the way the town works me so that maybe they could propose their own articles for the warrant because i think it's important that we get the next generation involved in local politics so that they understand how things work because we people my age are making policies for people who are going to be living a lot longer than we are and we need to get their buy-in and the way to get their buy-in is to get their involvement to get their input and sorry got to cut you off um and so to the final question of this section and in fact of the debate and it will be posed by Ms. Mahon and answered in order by Ms. Keeley and then Mr. Diggs Ms. Mahon. Okay like Micaiah this is the one that I was like hey why are you guys doing this um but but in the spirit of um I really want to highlight to the voters what are the differences and in the candidates uh if if you are successful on June 6 and you're elected um could you just let the voters of Allenton know what what you would accomplish in the first four weeks as being a member of the board? The first four weeks that's June um well I think uh what we would be doing is uh hopefully being part of town meeting and uh and so there's a lot of people that um there's 200 and some odd people that I would love to thank personally for their uh their encouragement and um and I think just you know breathe in fresh air and uh you know my postcard is out there um I think the pandemic will still be going on and so I I just want to kind of reassure people too I think people will just be more wanting to connect and uh and so I think it's it's kind of that time to both buckle down and to um to reprioritize like what we uh care about like in terms of people's financial securities and the things that they're concerned about to just like really meet people one on face to face um and uh but also it'll be a form of connection too so yeah if it's June to July there's going to be a lot of work that needs to happen um I know there's a humongous manual that I will be reading um and studying and continue to study um but uh yeah the summer is usually kind of more relaxed I think um in terms of board priorities so it'll be a bit of learning a bit of a leisure and a bit of a bit of connection to others thank you and mr. Diggins two minutes first four weeks I mean that's a little time so it's like well I mean well we will have an abbreviated town meeting I hope and so we'll be talking budget issues I will certainly be getting myself more familiar with the hopefully background material on the articles that were not heard yet because we will be in a rather unusual position where a new uh the new a new or two new uh select board members will be hearing articles coming up for the upcoming um town meeting normally those are already heard by the select board so uh look forward to reading that material in fact that's one of the reasons I really want to be a member of the select board because covering um the select board meetings I just loved the detail that went into uh those meetings when it came to the hearings and I knew there was more uh so that was only here seeing the tip of the iceberg at the hearings it's like I know there's more material and I want to read that material so I want to I really want to be able to delve into the articles more by getting access to that material so so that would be it and of course having um um talks with the town manager uh Adam and I already have a great relationship and so I know there's a lot more to um understand about the town and and um getting up to nearly the speed that you are um Ms. Mahon. Okay and one minute rebuttal for you Ms. Mahon. Can I get the leftover time they didn't use and I can have two? To me one day is like a year so four weeks sounds like you know in this groundhog new normal kind of day um if I am fortunate enough that the voters return me back to uh to select board um what I would do is continue my work on the town meeting that we're planning to have at the high school field but also have some remote capabilities for our town meeting members who do not feel safe who are vulnerable um but still allow them to participate I'm also going to where we are doing the budgets that we need to do month by month I know the state house uh spoken with uh senate president Karen Spilke about what they'll be coming out with um to address do we continue going on budgets on a month to month basis or not and also continuing getting all my um efforts out for all the different forms of relief that are out there there are so many and in this time where people we can't just depend on who has a laptop and who can pay the internet we got to get the word out all right thank you all that remain are closing statements and as I mentioned earlier uh the order for both the opening and closing statements were randomly chosen um this has happened before in this season in fact but it is unusual we had the exact same order uh for uh the close and that will be Ms. Healy and then Mr. Diggins and then Ms. Mohan one minute each to you Ms. Healy. Thank you special thanks to the ACMI staff and to all the viewers who are tuning in um my fellow candidates uh your viewership demonstrates that you deeply care as do I about who is leading um our town you care about our characters you care about um our values in which we make our decisions um and so just to reiterate things that I'm excited about I'm excited to bring you a fresh perspective um that to round out the perspectives that you hear on the board on a regular basis I'm excited about increasing accessibility to um to our residents and to building up um more leaders I'm excited about office hours and just getting to know um board members and community in a deeper way um so I'm interested in increasing communication and stability um and I do hope that you um uh I asked for one of your two votes um on or before June 6 I need your help um this is an ongoing relationship thank you very much thank you thank you yes so I also want to thank ACMI and since you are my colleagues I know so much of what goes on behind the scenes and so I especially want to thank Jeff Katie and Sean for their work I also uh I enjoyed this mean and so I really appreciated the the exchange of ideas and and feelings and thoughts and with my other two um candidates here uh you know you get inspiration from unexpected places at times and in my case it was last Saturday when I met with the kids uh at Sunrise Arlington it was online of course and they are a group that is focused on climate change and after asking them to join the efforts of Arlington Help to create these hyperlocal networking groups one of the kids said I'm so happy you joined us I'm so excited about your campaign and he's too young to vote for me but it's that energy that I love seeing in someone that young who now knows about local politics I want to take that sorry one last time I have to cut you off sure Ms. Mohan your minute uh thank you says I'm unmuted sorry oh thank you to uh ACMI to my colleagues who are also running for this to the voters out there first I respectfully request one of your two votes on June 6 hopefully a lot of you most of you will use the voter mail in um postcard and vote by mail um but of course those who want to come out and come to the A polling locations I'm working on everything I can to keep you safe to keep our work safe and to make sure you can exercise that right um the the cards from the town the official cards um will be in the mailboxes tomorrow please if you um you can go on the website but if you're someone who needs another way to connect you can always call the select board office ask from me or any one of my colleagues at 7813163020 um out there and all types if you can't find me ask a neighbor they'll tell you a way to get to me there's lots of help up there I want to give it to you so please re-elect me and just like that we are done um the candidates said it very very well themselves and we appreciate it but we have some thanks of our own so um we want to give thanks first of all to the three of you to the candidates uh thank you for participating for your patience and adaptability with the various things that can happen in this zoom and COVID-19 world um and thanks to my colleagues our ACMI crew who are working behind the scenes quite prodigiously to pull all of this off time after time and finally we also want to thank you for tuning in for taking the time to do so to inform yourselves and in advance of the election that is scheduled on June 6th and looks like it will be happening in fact you can access by the way this current debate and the debates for other offices that will take place over the coming weeks as well as candidate profiles and candidate conversations upcoming in any of several ways they will be airing and they are airing regularly on our government channel they will continue to do so you could also access them at your own convenience at our website at ACMI.tv slash elections lastly you can also find some more useful information about the various candidates in the voters guide on the Arlington League of Women Voters website at www.lwva.com with one last thanks to our candidates you've been watching the 2020 debate before the select board here in Arlington I'm James Milan thanks for joining us