 to Arlington Candidates' Night for the panel election which is on Saturday, April 2, 2022 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Candidates' Night is jointly sponsored by Envision Arlington and the League of Women Voters of Arlington. Today's video program is being broadcast live by Arlington Community Media, ACMI. Folks are encouraged to become writing candidates for a town meeting as we know we have a number of slots that are still open. Your opportunity awaits. For tonight, we would like to thank the staff at ACMI for their wonderful help. Jeff Monroe, Operations Manager, Katie Chang, Production Manager, Jared Sweet, Video Editor, Jason Odette, Engineer and Production Coordinator, and Sean Keane, Government and Programming Coordinator, for broadcasting tonight's event. This program will also be rebroadcast on ACMI's government channels, Comcast Channel 22, RCN Channel 15, RCN's High Definition Channel 614, Verizon Channel 26 and ACMI's Facebook page and YouTube channel. For those watching later, it is now 7.30 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, 2022. This forum is being presented virtually due to, of course, the ongoing pandemic. My name is Patty Muldoon with the League of Women Voters of Arlington, and it is my pleasure to introduce Candidates Night, which presents the candidates for local office. Candidates Night is a nonpartisan service providing information to the voters. We would also like to say that membership in LWVA is open to people of all genders. Throughout our 102-year-old history, the League has built a nationally respected reputation for providing candidate forums and debates for the benefit of voters and for supporting informed participation and understanding of government and major policy issues. Based on grassroots membership input, the League also seeks to influence public policy through education and advocacy. The League of Women Voters takes action on specific issues that we have studied, but we never support or oppose candidates. Tonight's program will include statements from the candidates and a question and answer period. Residents of Arlington have already submitted questions in advance of this evening. The questions were reviewed by a committee of League members and representatives from Envision Arlington to represent the issues of concern to the whole audience. The moderator will present the questions to the candidates, and I would now like to introduce our wonderful guest moderator, Margaret Copy, of the League of Women Voters of Lexington. Welcome, Margaret. Thank you, Patty. Good evening. Thank you for watching. First, I'd like to outline the procedure and rules for this evening. The candidates for town offices will appear in this order this evening, the town moderator, assessor, school committee, and then select board. Each candidate will make an introductory statement with two minutes allowed. The candidates will speak in the order in which they appear on the ballot. After the candidates have finished their statements, we will have questions and answers. As mentioned before, questions have been submitted in advance. All candidates will have the opportunity to answer each question for their office. The candidate with second placement on the ballot will be the first to answer the first question, and we will continue to rotate through the ballot order for each question. Each candidate will have one minute to answer questions. After the question and answers, each candidate may make a one-minute closing statement. The candidates will speak in reverse ballot order for their closing statements. To ensure fairness, a time warning will appear on the screen when 20 seconds remain. The timer will then count down to zero seconds. At that point, the candidate should only finish a short sentence and stop. We ask for the cooperation of all candidates in following these rules so that everyone will have a fair chance. As a reminder, because this program is carried live and will be rebroadcast, we ask the candidates to speak clearly into their computer microphones to be heard. And now we will hear from the candidates for Town Moderator. There is one seat for Town Moderator. For a three-year term, there are two candidates, Greg Cristiana and John D. Leone. The Town Moderator, elected every three years, assists in the formation of the warrant and is the chairperson of Town Meeting, recognizing speakers, calling for motions and votes, announcing the votes, and tallies on all Town Warrant articles, and keeping order at all times while Town Meeting is in session. This person is in charge of the process and keeps the meeting in compliance with the rules of order for item by item discussion of the articles. Following the meeting, the Moderator approves the record of votes prepared by the Town Clerk for submission to the state. In conjunction with the chair of the Finance Committee and the Board of Trust Fund, commissioners, the Moderator appoints the Finance Committee members. The Moderator also appoints the members of the Town Meeting Procedures Committee, the Arlington Recycling Committee, and the Minuteman Regional Vocational School Committee representative, as well as members of several other committees designated by warrant articles adopted by Town Meeting. We will now hear opening statements from the candidates in the order in which they appear on the ballot. The first candidate is Greg Cristiana. Mr. Cristiana, you have two minutes. Great. Thank you, Margaret. I want to start by thanking the League of Women Voters of Arlington and Envision Arlington for hosting this event and for our moderator tonight, Margaret, and the audience watching at home for tuning in. I grew up in a household where I was the youngest of four boys. I learned from an early age that if I wanted to be heard, I had to speak up. It's a lesson that my wife and I have been successful instilling in our daughter and our son, maybe too successful at times, but it's a lesson that'll serve them well. And so it was with that spirit that I banded together with other parents who were concerned about the crowding in our kids' classrooms. That's when I first heard about Town Meeting, this place where people speak and decisions are made, and I wanted to see it for myself. What I saw was pretty amazing. I saw one of the purest forms of representative democracy. 252 elected volunteers spending hours together deliberating and deciding policies as representatives of the 45,000 Arlingtonians not in the room. A year later, I entered that hall as an elected member of Town Meeting. This year, we're seeing an unusually high rate of attrition from Town Meeting. 45 Town Meeting members have decided to not run for reelection. I've spoken with several of them, and there are many reasons why they're not running. It's not one person's fault. But it's clear that there was an atmosphere at Town Meeting that some of this field creates an unequal playing field. We need leadership that can create a welcoming environment that encourages participation by all members. We also need leadership that prioritizes outreach into our community to invite and inspire more people to participate in our civic institutions. If elected Town Moderator, I will bring my innovative spirit and my passion for democracy to this critical Arlington institution. Thank you, Mr. Christian. Thank you, Mr. Christian. We now hear from the second candidate, John D. Leone. Mr. Leone, you have two minutes. I'm John Leone, and I'm seeking reelection as your Town Moderator. I respectfully ask for your vote. I believe that I am uniquely qualified to hold the Moderator's office. Upon being re-elected, I will continue to run a fair, efficient, transparent, and well-balanced Town Meeting. I've been a Town Meeting Member for 27 years, Assistant Moderator for three, Moderator for 14. I have presided over 112 Town Meetings. I planned and ran the 2020 Football Field Meeting, and then moved to Zoom and a voting portal for the 2021 meeting. The responsibility of the Moderator is to manage Town Meetings, make appointment to committees, and to welcome all members into the meeting while skillfully managing the speaking times to give members the opportunity to weigh in on this meeting. A Moderator must have a good knowledge of mass law, town by law, and is not a policy position. A Moderator must maintain impartiality and should never advocate for or against, or take a position on any issue. It is fair to say that our members are now more informed about the warrant articles and motions before the first night than ever before. As Moderator, I have introduced many innovative forms in technology that have helped to make the job of the members easier and made the meeting more efficient and transparent. Electronic voting, the electronic warrant created my request to better educate the members. The speaking time clock, the consent agenda, the civility pledge that makes it clear that the rule is civil decorum and respect for all. I also run the new member orientation workshop. Why do I do this? Because I believe in participatory democracy and respect all of our members' service. I've worked to focus our time on articles requiring thoughtful debate. My reforms have reduced the pre-pandemic average to six sessions, making their service more manageable, which has encouraged more voters of all diversities to run for seats in our town meeting. John Leone, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Leone. We will now go to the first question and we will be starting with Mr. Leone. What do you think are the key characteristics of a good moderator? Why do you feel that you are a better candidate for this position? Mr. Leone, you have one minute. The key characteristics of a good moderator are to know the bylaws, to know the mass general laws that apply to the issue, to this town meeting. Also, to be able to run a fair and efficient meeting. I have done that in my 14 years of being the moderator. When I first started, their meetings were running 11 to 11 nights. With the reforms I've introduced, I brought that down to an average of six sessions through such things as the consent agenda, more efficient voting with the clickers. And they are able to focus our time and our efforts on the articles that warrant our time and effort to debate them. The moderator must be impartial and be able to recognize both sides of the debate during the debate and make sure we get good speakers on all issues from all of the diverse backgrounds of our town meeting members. Thank you, Mr. Leone. Mr. Christiana, do you need me to repeat the question? No, I think I've got it, Margaret. Thank you. You have 100. Thank you. I think the qualities that are most important for the moderator are a dedication to transparency in the role that the moderator is operating from the same information that everyone has access to in the meeting. This creates more inclusive, more welcoming environments. And as mentioned about Massachusetts General Law, I have the town meeting time, which is the handbook here for the moderator's role. I'll just quote from it. A word of caution, however, is in order. The secure moderator is one who regulates the proceedings of town meeting in conformity with accepted parliamentary procedures and leaves questions of law to town council. So it's clear that the lane for the moderator is the procedures outlined in this book and the town bylaws, of course, which define the role across the 289 pages of the town bylaws and 45 mentions of the town moderator in the town bylaws. But Massachusetts General Law doesn't really figure into the role. So I certainly don't think that being a lawyer makes someone any less fit to be a moderator, but I don't think it makes anyone more fit either. And I've spoken to a number of moderators throughout Massachusetts who are not lawyers, and they do not see that as any issue or liability. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Christiani. The next question, we will start with you, Mr. Christiani. Explain how you would hold participants to time limits and try to keep them from straying off the topic of the questions being raised in the debate. Well, one minute. Thank you. So we do have a timer at town meeting that we've had in effect. Mr. Leone, I put that into effect and he deserves credit for that. In the virtual format, we similarly have the timer and the user interface is different. It's in a window on someone's computer instead. And so when someone's running short on time, I would remind the speaker that they're running short on time and we respectfully have to cut them off because those are the rules that we've all agreed to in our town bylaws that have been voted on by town meeting members. So we relate to respect everyone's time by keeping to that. And we, as far as scope, scope is, I think we can probably be a little bit more aggressive, I think, than we have been in recent years about keeping to scope because comments often can stray outside of that and we have to be respectful of everyone's time. Because every minute that passes in the meeting, when you multiply it by all the people who are there, it's actually hours of time that's being consumed from people's schedules. And we need to be respectful of that as well as the individual. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Christiani. Mr. Leone, do you need me to repeat the question? No, ma'am. Okay. So I'm glad Mr. Christiani recognizes one of my many renovations. The time clock prior to my moderatorship, the timing was not enforced at all. That's an innovation that I brought and the meeting loves it. So how do I do it? I turn the timer clock on and when it gets down to the close to the seven-minute mark, I remind the people, when it gets to the seven minutes, the clock goes off, a little red light. And that tells the people time is up. The town meeting members have generally learned to respect the time clock because they know that they're going to get a reminder from me at about 10 seconds on. And as far as scope goes, the scope is a very amorphous thing. You have to keep it within the bounds of the article, but sometimes you have to let a member vary a little bit because they are going to come around to their point, which may not be directly on point, but they're off scope a little bit to make their point. And that's a good thing to let them do. Thank you, Mr. Leone. The next question will be starting with you. How would you make the process of selecting town meeting members to speak as equitable and transparent as possible? Mr. Leone, you have one minute. Well, it seems to be one of my opponent's big questions. He wants to make a transparent list. The way it's done now is I will look up and we will write down the names between myself and the clerk, write down the names of the speakers who want a list on a handwritten list. How one would get that projected up onto a computer screen? I don't know. I have worked with the clicker people to see if we can use the electronic clickers to do that. Last time I worked with them, they weren't able to do it. Perhaps now after two or three years, they've rewritten their software. So the way I have viewed it is it is a list of people who wish to speak, not a list of order that the speakers will come. Just because someone is quick at raising their hand or quick at pushing the buttons could lead you with a very unfair debate. One side could stack the deck and have everybody click in the button or putting their hands up before the moderator starts taking time and that would not be a fair debate. Thank you, Mr. Leone. Mr. Christiana, one minute. Great. Thanks, Margaret. Mr. Leone, I think has covered, well, the reasons why it's important for the moderator to be able to exercise discretion in order to have a fair, equitable speaking to you where we're hearing from a diversity of voices. So I won't belabor that point. I think Mr. Leone and I agree on that point. Where I disagree is I feel it's very important when given that the moderator is exercising discretion, I think that discretion has to be coupled with transparency and openness. Mr. Leone said he wasn't sure how you'd be able to do that through technology. I am familiar with how you do that through technology. I'm a software engineer. I work with technology every day and have for a couple of decades and actually three decades now. And I've reviewed the OTI contract that the town has. OTI is the vendor through which we have the voting clickers that Mr. Leone referred to. The software should have these capabilities to do things like selecting speakers. And even short of that, if there were problems, like for instance, if the service contract was not available to the town, we would have to look at the cost. And that might need to be negotiated and we have to look at the cost. There are other low-tech, very inexpensive means of doing that for identifying speakers and be able to make that list public. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Christiana. We'll start with you on the next question. How will you ensure that new and returning town meeting members are familiar with how town meeting is run? One minute. How do we both change them? And so for new members or returning members, if they've been away from town meeting for some time, I would very strongly encourage and work with, as town moderator, I would very closely work with town meeting members to create a notion of, for instance, like study groups to help new members on board. A lot of folks have been around for a while. Not everyone, but there are plenty of folks who are interested in sharing their knowledge. So I would help facilitate those efforts. I would take a proactive role in very strongly encouraging town meeting members to participate with their long-time member to be on the knowledge-sharing end of it where they're disseminating that knowledge of, for instance, the town by-laws, the procedures, and just what to, like the softer aspects of town meeting, what to expect as far as the atmosphere in the room and then decor models like that. And so I would build on the orientation that we already have, but just kind of round it out with a pairing between more experienced and newer members to share that knowledge and also socialize across those. Thank you, Mr. Christiani. Mr. Leone. Thank you for the question. I instituted the new member orientation workshop and run that in conjunction with the Arlington League of Women Voters. We have done that for many years. It is an in-person evening when we get together and I go over what all the different materials are, the warrant, the motions, the reports, how they interact with each other. So I already do this. I already give them a good understanding of that. Plus I give them the materials that would explain all of this as well as ensure they have those reports. And I give them all my telephone number and my email address and tell them if they have any questions please call me. And believe it or not, I do get a lot of calls and I do get a lot of emails from new members on how best to present their articles on what they can expect the first night of the meeting. So this isn't an ethereal question that I'm going to come up with. The only thing I'm going to come up with now is I'm going to work out a buddy system for these new members to join up with experienced members. Thank you, Mr. Leone. This will be the last question and we'll start with statements. And we will be starting with Mr. Leone. When and how should town meeting return to an in-person format? I would like to do it this year. We had a zoom town meeting last year and the year before that we had that football field meeting. The zoom town meeting went for 16 nights between the special and the regular town meeting. We utilized 808 hours of town staff to do that. And I've only heard one person who actually enjoyed the zoom town meeting. So with the blessing of the Board of Health I would like to get us back into the hall this year. And every town meeting member I've spoken to save the one is of the same opinion. We've all been very well vaccinated. Arlington I believe is 77 plus percent vaccinated. So barring another surge of B2A then we should be back in this year. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be. Thank you Mr. Christiana. Thanks Margaret. I'm inclined to agree with Mr. Leone on this. Like you said I think the responsible thing as he suggested is checking with the Board of Health to make sure that it's actually a safe, healthy, responsible thing to do. And obviously the situation in the pandemic could change any week as Mr. Leone has suggested and so I think we see very much eye to eye on that. I would add that in the coming years so there's a remote participation study group that's looking and town meeting just to be clear is out of scope for that study group because of the size and scale and complexity of town meeting compared to pretty much any other like committee meetings for instance that we have in Arlington. And so I'd be looking closely at the findings of the remote participation study group and work with them to see what we can learn to adapt to future town meetings. Obviously there's not time this year but in future town meetings we should look at hybrid options and make sure that the one caveat about that we can certainly advocate for it and we can be a pioneer in this space and push that at the state level. Thank you Mr. Christiana. We will now hear closing statements from the candidate and moderator in reverse ballot order. You each have one minute to speak and we will be starting with Mr. Leone. Thank you to the League, moderator copy and my opponent for this chance to speak to you the voters of Arlington. When I was elected moderator 14 years ago I had a primary goal conduct our business efficiently and in less time without sacrificing balance in the quality of debate. I would say that we have achieved that goal through a series of innovative advances. Having said that improvements are always desired. The goal as always is to have a better town meeting better engagement with better results. The learning is never done. I'm always open to hearing concerns and incorporating these improvements into our meeting. I'm an attorney with 37 years legal experience. That experience my service is your moderator for 112 town meetings my deep understanding of mass law town by law and the way our town functions makes me the right choice for moderator. If you would like more information visit my website leonemoderator.com I ask for your vote for me on Saturday, April 2nd I'm John Leone. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Leone and Mr. Christian. Great thanks Marguerite. Thank you Marguerite our host and and League voters again and also Mr. Leone for participating in this debate. Of course the candidates don't have to participate in these and I know it's not easy to go against it like you know a challenge like this and I appreciate him taking the time and showing that respect. So town meeting is built on timeless principles representative democracy and open dialogue and these principles need to be coupled with periodic examination of what's working and what can be improved I'll bring energy and new ideas not just my ideas but a diversity of voices and perspectives from both newer and longer time members of town meeting. I will dedicate myself to making sure that everyone's voice is heard and town meeting is central to how we govern Arlington and make important decisions about our future. You can find more about my priorities for improving transparency, responsiveness and inclusion on my website at gregformoderator.com As town moderator I will continue to work to increase civic engagement in town to uplift voices that have not always been in our town government and to ensure the smooth operation of town meeting conducted with fairness and respect for all its members. I ask for your vote for town moderator on Saturday, April 2nd. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Christiana and Mr. Leone. Our next candidates tonight are for Board of Assessors. There is one seat open for a three-year term and one seat open for a two-year term to fill a vacancy. The candidate for the three-year term is Gordon Andrew Jamison Jr. The Board of Assessors is composed of three members. The mission of the Board of Assessors is to assess all property in the town of Arlington in a fair and equitable and consistent manner in accordance with the laws, rules and regulations of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the requirements and guidelines of the Department of Revenue. The Board of Assessors holds hearings for residents on questions of property valuations, personal property, motor vehicle, excise taxes and exemptions for aged or handicapped residents and veterans. When the inspector of buildings grants a permit for new property, additions or alterations, the assessors then make an individual inspection to determine the assessment. At the close of town meeting, the assessors determine the tax rate subject to approval by the commissioner. We will now hear opening statements from the candidates beginning with the candidate for the three-year term William Zagata. Mr. Zagata, you have two minutes. Thank you, Margaret. Thank you to the lead women voters and Envision Arlington. My name is Bill Zagata and I'm running for a three-year seat on the Board of Assessors in Arlington. I've been a member of the Board of Assessors since August 2021 in the Department of the Board. I've been a licensed certified general real estate appraiser in Massachusetts since 2008 and I'm a professional real estate consultant. I believe that my experience and background as a real estate professional makes me well suited for a seat on the Arlington Board of Assessors. The Board of Assessors has an important function in town as it is directly involved with evaluation of real estate and personal property for tax purposes. The Board of Assessors is an apolitical body that also reviews applications for real estate exemptions for seniors, veterans and other eligible groups in Arlington as well as applications for real estate tax abatements. As a professional real estate appraiser I have a deep understanding of the appraisal process and comprehensive experience in the valuation of commercial and residential properties in the greater Boston area. In my professional practice I've experienced serving in capacity to cities and towns which have atypical properties that require valuation expertise and also supporting municipalities when property owners can test the value of their property. Conversely, I've also represented and assisted numerous private property owners throughout eastern Massachusetts and their applications for real estate tax abatements. As a real estate appraiser is incumbent upon me to act in an unbiased way and this is a quality that I will continue to bring to the Board of Assessors. As a member of the Board, it is very important that we make sure that the data we use as a foundation for our townwide valuation is accurate and reliable. To this end, I will continue to be an advocate for improving the quality of appraisals in Arlington and ensuring that the department is responsive to our community. Thank you for your support. Thank you Mr. Sagata. Candidate for the two-year term is Gordon Andrew Jamison Jr. Mr. Jamison, you have two minutes. Thank you Margaret. Good evening and thanks for tuning in and thanks to the league and Envision Arlington for putting this together. I am running for the Board of Assessors to implement resident focus change to the Board, the Assessors Office and their interactions with Arlington residents. I've been a homeowner and resident of Arlington for 20 years and I'm currently in my sixth term as a member of our town meeting. I'm a graduate of Middlebury College. I received my doctorate from Duke and MBA from the University of Cincinnati. Before returning home to England in 2002 I was an assistant professor at a Midwest Medical Center and had my own biotechnology consulting firm. Currently I run a cancer drug development company. So as you might imagine I am well versed in dealing with complex data sets and assistive analysis such as the Assessors database is. Something that I feel is lacking in the current Board's membership. For 12 years as co-chair of the Arlington Recycling Committee, now Zero Waste Arlington where we work for the town and residents to reduce the amount of trash we incinerate by 30% thereby saving the town millions upon millions of dollars. I currently serve as the co-chair of Envision Arlington's physical resource task group which among other things has taken a special interest in the assessment process. Through the physical resource task group I've been involved in developing and publishing a series of Citizens Corners articles in the Advocate something that we have compiled into a governmental primer that can be found on the town's website. As member of the Board of Assessors I would work to make the Assessor's Office and its website more user friendly, more transparent and to enact procedures that enhance the internal review of assessment data to help ensure that accuracy of each property, the accuracy of each property's assessment. These changes will help to ensure that each of us can pave our property taxes confident they are based upon a fair and accurate assessment. And so I present myself as an experienced, knowledgeable and capable candidate for the Office of Board of Assessors. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Jamison. Well the first question we will start with Mr. Jamison. There has been discussion of changing R0 and R1 districts to allow for two family houses by right. How does this affect the department? How would this proposal affect property values? Mr. Jamison you have one minute. Okay. So what this would allow for is for people to build two family homes in lots that are currently zoned single family. I'm given that there are, I have mixed thoughts about this and I'm very much looking forward to the debate at the floor of town meeting where we can all learn more about the pluses and minuses. The pluses are from a new growth perspective which is something that is helpful for financial stability and sustainability of the town is we would get more growth in town. The downside of that is higher density and we have to weigh those different opportunities to the town. And then the other thing is that there are already over 600 properties in the R2 zone that only have single family homes. It could be developed already in two family homes. So this will be a great thing to discuss in the floor of town meeting. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Jamison. Mr. Zagata do you want me to repeat the question? Yes, please. There has been discussion of changing R0 and R1 districts to allow for two family houses by right. How does this affect the department? How would this proposal affect property values? You have one minute. Thank you. Well, I would agree that possibility of increasing new growth is definitely possible with the introduction of a change in zoning. However, in terms of changing property values I rather say it depends. It depends on a lot of things. In some situations you may find land values increasing and that really depends on the highest misuse of the property. However, without looking at a full survey and study of this policy being implemented it's difficult for me to give a definitive answer as to how this might affect property values. Thank you. We will be starting with Mr. Zagata for the next question. In 2021 Mr. Zagata signed into law a measure that would permit apartment construction within 0.5 miles of an MBTA station. How should Arlington be responding to this measure? How would this measure affect property values? Mr. Zagata. Well, Arlington doesn't have an MBTA station and I can't say it's within 0.5 miles of Arlington. But it's a complicated issue because theoretically it's going to increase density close to these stations and as we know there is a housing crisis in Massachusetts where there just aren't the supply of available homes and apartments are just not meeting the demand. So you know in order to accommodate growth in Massachusetts we need to reconsider and rezoning areas proximate to MBTA stations to allow higher density is certainly a good way to start doing that. Thank you Mr. Zagata. Mr. Jamison would you like me to repeat the question? Sure. That would be good. In 2021 we signed into law a measure that would permit apartment construction within 0.5 miles of an MBTA station. How should Arlington be responding to this measure? How would this measure affect property values? Thank you Margaret. As I understand it we have two points in town that are considered MBTA rapid transit that's the Arlington Heights bus turn around and alewife and so we do have to comply with this legislation. It's a complex thing but the first move will be done by the Arlington redevelopment board and the planning department. They'll have to come up with an article that we presented before town meeting that addresses this need. This is another move and I think that the zoning changes would be primary along our business corridors which provide smart growth where there's transit available. Again there's opportunity for new growth and there's also opportunity for higher density as Bill mentioned. This again the earlier question is going to be a contentious discussion about town meeting. Probably not this year maybe a special town meeting next year or next year's meeting. Thank you. Thank you. The next question will be started with you Mr. Jameson. What improvements, if any, do you feel are needed in the board of assessors procedure? For instance, do you feel the current level of outreach and public communication from the board is sufficient? Margaret, you've read one of my pre-prepared answers. As I noted in my introduction I hope to make the assessor's office more transparent and part of that it will be through the addition of detailed public and online presentations about the assessment process. I think some people see the process and whatever shows up in the mail with their tax bill sort of as a black box and these presentations would hopefully explain clearly how your land and structures are valued in the rationale. The neighborhood the grade, the condition, the finished square footage, buildable lot, etc. upon which those values are determined and this would help every resident to better understand the process and procedures that lead to the value of personal properties. I would also I'll just leave it at that. I think outreach that way and better transparency on the website, more helpful information there that lead people to information they can use for understanding their assessment or understanding certain exemptions they can apply for. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Zagata, do you want me to repeat the question? No, that's okay Margaret. Thank you. I think that that the assessor's website could be updated to reflect more thorough explanation of some of the issues involved with the assessment of properties. I think that as it stands now there have been a lot of improvements made over the last several years in terms of allowing property owners to look at their records online integration with GIS services. So I think that you know the assessing department working within the confines of the town budget has been able to do a good job improving some of the processes. Of course it's the outward facing group and calling the assessing department with a question we're always happy to answer best to accommodate any resident who has a question about their assessment or the assessing process. Thank you Mr. Zagata. We'll start with you with the next question. What are the best ways to assure the public that the assessment of Arlington properties occurs in the fairest way possible? Mr. Zagata, one minute. Well the I mean the assessing process is overlooked by the DOR of Massachusetts and we are responsible to maintain a high quality of data that goes into the models for mass appraisal. As a resident of the town citizens have the right to file for an abatement if they feel that they were being over assessed and that will be addressed by the board and it's important to know that's within any property owner's right to file an abatement if they feel that as I said they're being over assessed. So I think that oversight by the state which the town has complied with and done an excellent job with annually that is a very tangible example of how the board of assessors and the board are making sure that assessments are fair and equitable. Thank you. Mr. Jameson, would you like me to repeat the question? No I think I'm good but thank you Margaret. Well first off I would work to increase the level of internal data review and QAQC analysis and and what the hope there would be that using simple looking the GIS system and looking at land values and variations in different neighborhoods and finished square footage values and variations in different neighborhoods that the staff could find properties that are out of line with the average in that neighborhood. I filed an abatement request a couple years ago now and I had the highest square footage value on the street and I did get an abatement but there was a house down the street that was the square footage of the finished area was valued at half in the town where the spreadsheet was invented we can do better than that. Thank you. This will be the last question before we go to closing statements and we will be starting with Mr. Jameson What changes if any are needed to improve for filing for tax abatements? You have one minute. The first thing I would say there is when I did that I was disappointed to learn and it may have changed I did not check that the form you use is not a PDF fillable form and I think most of the other forms are not PDF fillable forms that would be the first thing I would do for the abatement process but as I noted earlier if the process is done correctly the board members and the assessors will tell you every time you can file an abatement but my position is it shouldn't have to I want to make a quick comment about how I think when Stanley O'Connor, Mr. Zageta and I will each have different strengths Mary and legal bill and extensive commercial and property assessments and mind and understanding large data sets I think we will make a great new team with the board of assessors and I look forward to working with them in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Zageta One minute. Thank you. I think as the way the system is set up now you can print out a form and drop it off or mail it in those are the two methods so really the only third method of filing an abatement would be to fill out a form online and submit it that way so I agree that that would be really the next step for the assessing department because beyond that every possible method of filing an abatement is covered by the town. Thank you. We will now go to closing statements of the board of assessors. Beginning with the candidate for the two-year term you have one minute and we will start with Mr. Jamison. Thank you Margaret. I hope that you have enjoyed tonight's debate and many thanks again to the League of Women Voters and Vision Arlington and their moderator for their time and effort arranging tonight's event. I feel that there are several by ways by which the assessment process and the board of assessors interactions can be used to determine assessment value on the property. These changes will ensure that each of us can pay our property taxes confident that they are based upon a fair and accurate assessment and so I present myself as an experienced, knowledgeable and capable candidate for the two-year term. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I now present myself as an experienced, knowledgeable and capable candidate for the Office of Board of assessors and I respectfully ask for your vote on April 2nd. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Jamison and Mr. Sagata. We will now listen here from the candidates for school committee. There are two candidates. Mr. Sagata gets his final statement. I am so sorry. You know. got accepted. No worries. We need some humor in this thing, right? So appraisal is pretty dry, so thank you. But thank you very much. It's the League of Women Voters and Vision Arlington for inviting me to present tonight and asking those thoughtful questions that were very interesting. Again, no, my professional background is as a professional appraisal real estate consultant, and I think that the skills that I bring to the board of assessors through that profession are definitely important to making sure that the town continues to provide fair and equitable real estate valuations. I enjoy working with the board as I have for the last seven months, and I look forward to continuing my work with them for the next three years. And being able to contribute to the town of Arlington. I look forward to seeing you at the polls on April 2nd, and thank you very much for your time. Have a good night. Thank you, and again, my apologies. Now we will go on to the school committee. Our next candidates tonight are for school committee. There are two candidates for two seats each for a three-year term. The candidates are Kierce C. Allison Ampey and Leonard J. Cardin. The seven members of the school committee serve three-year overlapping terms. They set policies for Arlington's public school system and appoint staff to implement these under the state laws and the policies of the state department of elementary and secondary education. The committee appoints a superintendent as chief administrator of the school department to make recommendations on personnel and programs. The school committee is responsible for the school department's annual budget and represents the town in collective bargaining with the teachers. We will now hear opening statements from the candidates in the order in which they appear on the ballot. The first candidate is Kierce C. Allison Ampey. Ms. Allison Ampey, you have two minutes. Thank you, Margaret. Hi, I'm Kierce Allison Ampey. I'm a mom with two daughters. I was first elected to the Arlington school committee back in 2010. My background training as a physician and researcher has given me skills to tackle some of the big issues that have come up since then, including increasing funding for our schools, making teacher pay more equitable, and addressing our rising enrollment. I've served on the high school building committee, the long-range planning committee, superintendent's search committee, and have chaired the budget subcommittee for many years. I'm also a town meeting member. In the past 12 years, I've been on school committee. Many things have changed. Enrollment has grown. We've rebuilt two elementary schools, opened the gibbs, and are now rebuilding the high school. We've persevered through COVID and have seen significant shifts in education because of the pandemic. But there have also been several constants. The care for our students, the support for our staff, the involvement of our family, of our families. Since July, our new superintendent, Dr. Elizabeth Homan, has taken a fresh look at the Arlington public schools. She identified areas of strength plus areas of growth, including student achievement, pay equity, and improving communications with families. There is also repair work to do, addressing the after effects of years of COVID and its tools in education and on mental health. The next step is to create a strategic plan for the public schools, collaborative projects, listening input from the entire community to help formulate a vision for the future. This is really important work and I want to be involved. I especially want to ensure that less represented voices and concerns are heard, hearing from families of color, LGBTQ plus families, as well as those speaking on half of our special education students and English language learners. My proven abilities, including budget experience, strong communication skills, and analytical and database approach will all be used to make this the best possible plan for Arlington. I hope you'll agree and I respectfully request one of your two votes for school committee on Saturday April 2nd. Thank you, Ms. Allison Ampey. The next candidate is Leonard J. Cardin. Mr. Cardin, you have two minutes for opening statement. Thank you. I want to thank the League of Women Voters in Vision Arlington for hosting this forum, Margaret Copey for moderating once again, and ACMI for broadcasting it. And thank you also to the viewers who are still tuning in to hear from these candidates for uncontested positions. I'm running for a third term of the school committee to continue the work we have done over the last six years to strengthen our school system and plan for the future. I'm excited to continue to work with our new superintendent, Dr. Elizabeth Holman, who has already implemented improvements in communication and internal procedures. She's undertaking a formal strategic planning process for the first time in memory for the district, which was one of my original goals when I first ran six years ago. The past two years have been focused mainly on getting through the pandemic and managing the superintendent transition. We continue to pursue the initiatives outlined in our five-year budget plan, which we issued three years ago, to address enrollment growth, close the achievement gap, improve instruction for students, ensure safe and supportive schools and attract and develop talented staff. We worked hard to win support for funding for the plan, and I am pleased that the override passed in 2019 included some funding to address some of these items. Unfortunately, due to the restrictions of Proposition 2.5, the town of Arlington is again facing a budget deficit in the next few years, and funding for future improvements is likely to be severely constrained. We will need to work closely with the town to design a new financial plan, including another override to secure the funds we need to successfully run our schools. We need to continue to recover from the disruptions caused by the pandemic, paying particularly close attention to the increasing social and emotional needs of our students and teachers. We need to build a comprehensive strategic plan through a rigorous process, which is something Dr. Holman has started to work on, and the process will accelerate this spring. I'm looking forward to answering your questions and look forward to continuing to serve Arlington. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cardiff. We will now start with the questions, and we will be starting with you, Mr. Cardin. What are the school population projections and implications for school capacity? Mr. Cardin, you have one minute. Thank you. Due to the pandemic, we did have a decline in enrollment. We've gotten some of that back, and we're still seeing some of that continue to trickle back. Separate from the pandemic hit in enrollment, we were also getting to the point where our incoming kindergarten classes were leveling off. For a long time, the size of our kindergarten cohorts were going up from about 350 to over close to 500. That has leveled off. The last few classes have been in 480, 475, whatever. We're leveling off at the entry level, and that's where our growth was. We don't know for sure whether that will continue or not. We do have some private project, some consultant projections that do show leveling off, but we'll have to wait and see. We are very tight at the elementary level. Our new high school will give us some space at the high school level, but we'll have to watch closely to make sure that we maintain space for everyone. Thank you. Ms. Allison Ampe. Thank you. Mr. Cardin explained it well. The new projection that we have was from power school and was presented to us about two months ago, and currently shows that we are plateauing at a lower level than we had anticipated following the decline that we saw because of COVID. A lot of analysis was done by the business office to learn why people were leaving the schools during that time, and it was a combination of people moving away entirely. Some people moving to private schools, some going to home schools, and some of those students have come back, but not all. Right now it looks like our capacity is in good shape. I hope that we will also be looking to make sure that we aren't having additional students from immigration which have not yet been counted by either the projection or our normal forecasting. Thank you. The next question we will be starting with you, Ms. Allison Ampe. Do you feel that the current configuration of the schools, elementary, sixth grade, seventh slash eighth grade high school have been successful? What are the changes you would like to make? Give one minute. If we're talking about the configuration of the schools, I really like the current configuration in terms of having the sixth grade only school, and then the students going on to the middle school. We went through a really rigorous procedure to come up with that option when we were looking at the enrollment growth over the past few years, and the ideas of having six schools that go up to sixth grade or something don't work well in our town given our current physical plant and inability to just add buildings willy nilly. The benefits of having the sixth grade only is it brings all the kids from the elementary schools in together, and they meet each other, and they start getting used to being middle schools, and then they go on to the oddison which is not as friendly a physical plant, and then they go on to the high school, and I think it starts a good thing which continues rolling forward. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Cardin, would you like me to repeat the question? No, that's okay. Thank you. So yes, Dr. Allison Ampe presented the basic answer. First, we're basically stuck with what we have because of our physical plant. It just would not be affordable to change things around, and there's really no reason to. I mean, I had supported the possibility of having two middle schools, a small one at Gibbs and a larger one at oddison, but the administration had researched it and came up with a great plan for a sixth grade school, and really it's shown by the numbers who continue in sixth grade. We used to have a significant out migration between the fifth grade and the sixth grade, and that's disappeared. It sort of moved a little bit to the sixth to the seventh grade, but even there it's not as as much as it was before, and what we've created at Gibbs is sort of a step. The step from elementary school to middle school is huge, and we've created a separate step in between in a smaller building where everybody from across down comes together in a more supportive environment, and they used to get going straight to oddison. So it's working out quite well. Thank you. Thank you. We'll start with you, Mr. Cardin, with the next question. What are the policy changes you feel are needed to support students' social, emotional, and academic learning because of the pandemic? Mr. Cardin, you have one minute. So, you know, our policies generally are very high level. The only thing that I'm aware of that, I mean, obviously we have some policies we put in place for the pandemic about mask wearing and the ability of the superintendent to do certain things and wave certain policies because of the pandemic, and we will be taking a look at that policy to revise it. The only thing that I'm aware of that I would like to look at is our attendance policy, which is actually in our handbooks. It's not a school committee policy, but it's in the district handbooks. You know, we shouldn't, you know, Dr. Gottlieb said yesterday, we have to move away from our culture that encourages people to go to work or to school when they're ill. And I'm afraid that some of our policies, particularly at the high school, do still do that. So that's one thing I'd like to look at. And again, the other only other area is discipline things, and that's been addressed through Dr. Janger's work at the high school in collaborative problem solving. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Allison Ampe. Thank you. Mr. Cardin brought up good points about the attendance policy and the the discipline policy. And I agree with what he said. The thing that I feel would do the most help isn't policy that we can affect on our own. It's more at the state level. I would like us to be able to have more time spent for kids, not just in academics, so more time outside and on the playground or more time doing non-academic work, because I think that these things will actually help the kids learn better. So I don't think we'd actually end up with poorer learning outcomes. Things like choir and more musical things, dancing, group sports, I think all of these things would help their social emotional health, but they're not policies that we can put into place. Thank you. The next question we will be starting with Ms. Allison Ampe. What should the district be doing to address the recurring problem of racist graffiti at Otterson or other schools? Ms. Allison Ampe, you have one minute. So this is something I've done a little research and I haven't found information. I wonder, so first, I find the idea of having racist graffiti and symbols that will be upsetting to people appalling, but it's happening at the middle school where kids are going through a lot of changes and have behavior where sometimes acting out is what, you know, they want attention, they want to show that they have power. And I am concerned, but do not know if my concerns are valid, that sometimes our responses of making a very big deal out of these things is the right response. But again, it's something that I would like to learn more about, you know, what is the right response. Thank you, Mr. Cardin. Thank you. So I don't have a good answer to that. I don't have a solution. I mean, we've consulted with experts. We've done a great deal of work to create a culture that is welcoming. We've appointed a new director of diversity equity inclusion to help our staff address these issues and create the right environment. So I'm welcome to hearing more ideas, but I agree with Dr. Allison Ampey that sometimes these recurring episodes, they keep happening and they're not necessarily reflective of the culture of the school or the culture of even the perpetrators. They're just acting out because they're in middle school to some extent. And it's unacceptable. I don't want to indicate that we should accept it and move on. We have to continue to fight and educate our students about why it's unacceptable and why it's hurtful. And I'm certainly open to other suggestions, you know, short of putting security cameras in the bathroom, which I don't think is acceptable. No. Okay, this is the last question before we go to closing statements. How concerned, and we will start with Mr. Cardin, how concerned are you about the issue of vaping at the Arlington High School? Do you feel the Arlington Public Schools are doing enough to properly educate students about the risks of vaping? What more should be done? Mr. Cardin, you have one minute. Thank you. So prior to the pandemic, you know, not three years ago, you know, there was a huge issue with vaping at the high school. They did a lot of education and outreach. And I think society as well has sort of hit the wall at one point with the vaping getting out of control. It's, you know, now much harder to find supplies and it's less acceptable to go around vaping and public in general. And I think that's helped with the high school students as well. But it continues to be a problem again with the bathrooms and the monitoring. It's a difficult situation. My understanding, though, is that the problem is not as severe as it used to be, partly because society is no longer making it as acceptable to do as it used to be. Thank you. Ms. Allison Ampe? I'm not sure. I agree with what Mr. Cardin has said and that it still goes on. It's less so now. I think the fact that there's been more information about how kids' lungs are affected and the influence, the effects on their ability to participate in sports. I mean, just their lung capacity, they're not able to breathe as well. So they can't perform as well is a contributor. I think this isn't a direct education thing, but I think one thing that we're looking at for the new budget is to eliminate athletic fees, which will allow even more students to participate. And part of the requirements of athletes is to not do drugs and or illegal substances during that time. And I think that will also help decrease the number of kids vaping. Thank you. We'll now go to the closing statements and we will begin with Mr. Cardin. You have one minute, Mr. Cardin. Thank you. I want to again thank Margaret Copey, the League of Women Voters, Envision Arlington, ACMI, and all of those who have tuned in. Even though this race is uncontested, I'm grateful for the opportunity to discuss some of the issues facing our schools. The school committee holds a series of committee chats, currently virtually, usually on Saturdays, but occasionally during the week, if there are any concerns you'd like to raise with the committee. Please feel free to reach out to me directly as well. Thank you and have a good evening. Thank you. Ms. Allison Ampe. Thank you. I also want to thank the League of Women Voters, Envision Arlington, ACMI, and Ms. Copey for giving us this opportunity to discuss the issues around their schools and also Len to have this interesting conversation since it is an uncontested race and especially to our audience who I hope are at home listening to us. So I've tried to show some of my answers. I've tried to give ideas of how I'm thinking about things and how I'll be thinking about things going forward. I am very interested in working on this strategic plan and I look to ensure that we are hearing from all parts of our community, especially those who are less represented. I think I have a lot of skills which will be helpful and I hope you'll allow me to continue working on behalf of our students, teachers, and schools for three more years and I respectfully request one of your two votes on Saturday April 2nd. Thank you to both of the school committee candidates. We will now move to the candidate for select board. There is one seat open for a three-year term and there's one candidate, Stephen W. DeCorsi. The five members of the select board serve three-year overlapping terms. They act as the town's executive branch to formulate town policy, ensure compliance with state laws, and administer many town meeting decisions. The board appoints the town manager to be the professional manager of town services and departments except for the schools. The select board members also serve as the board of public works and the board of survey, compile the warrant, grant licenses and permits, appoint election officers, review budgets, and settle claims against the town. The members announce all elections, attend hearings, and other town functions and deal with traffic and safety matters. We will now have an opening statement from the candidate, Mr. DeCorsi. You have two minutes. Thank you Margaret. I also want to thank the League of Women Voters in Vision Allenton and ACMI for hosting the debate this evening. I'm Steve DeCorsi and I'm running for reelection to the select board. It has been an honor to serve since 2019 as one of your select board members. I respectfully ask for your vote on April 2nd to return me to the board for a second term. Notwithstanding the many challenges we have faced these past three years, particularly those that arose since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, we have accomplished a great number of things working together as a community. I have been proud to be a part of the leadership during this period. Going forward, there remains much to be done. Later this spring, we will begin the process of hiring a new town manager to replace Adam Chapter Lane who will be stepping down on June 17th. In the next year, we will need to continue to manage our budgetary issues while also recognizing that it will be necessary to ask voters to support a future operating override, most likely in the spring of 2023. We will also see the further completion of Arlington High School, the opening of our community center, and the construction of a new DPW facility. In addition, as I saw during my first term, there will be many other issues that arise that are unknown at this time. They will require our attention to address needs and identify opportunities. If reelected, I will continue to listen to Arlington residents, take your concerns into account and offer solutions and provide leadership to our town. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dacorsi. The first question, what selection criteria would you use in hiring a new town manager? You have one minute. Thank you, Margaret. So that's again up until a few months ago, that wouldn't have been a question that we would have received tonight, but the town manager has announced that he will be leaving the town after 10 years. And what I looked at, and we're going to be discussing how we, the procedures that we follow to hire a new town manager, but I'm going to look for someone who's collaborative. I'm going to look for somebody with input from the community, with input from department heads and from those in town, or if you can work and lead the day-to-day operations of the town. And we haven't had to go through a hiring process for a new town manager. There's only one member for the last 10 years. There's only one member of our board who has gone through that. So we're going to have to work with the community, work with each other and try to find somebody who we think is a good fit for Arlington and hopefully will lead our day-to-day operations for a long time going forward. Thank you. Next question. What is the status of the town clerk's study committee that is considering whether the clerk should be elected or appointed? Again, you have one minute. Okay, thank you. Yeah, that's a good question. I can't tell you that I know what the status is of it right now. It was a committee that was from the last time meeting that we put together to study this issue, but it's not something that I'm familiar with where things stand on that study. Nothing has come back to us regarding that yet. So I would reach out to the clerk and also look ahead to see what's happening with that. Thank you. Next question. What would be your top priorities for improving life in Arlington? For example, how would you address the issue of empty storefronts and safety at traffic intersections? You have one minute. Thank you, Margaret. Yeah, so as far as empty storefronts, and this has been a problem that has gotten worse since the start of the pandemic and when I ran three years ago it was still an issue and we can see as we go down Mass Avenue, there are a number of empty storefronts and we have tried to provide incentives to or assistance to businesses that have been hurt as a result of the pandemic. There were some zoning changes that have been proposed for mixed uses that you were designed, hopefully, to spurs some development that hasn't taken place with some properties. So I think we need to continue to work with businesses, work with our chamber, listen to the community in terms of what they're looking for, but really try to find a way to create value or help create value in different parts of town so that we can see full storefronts or more full storefronts. Some of the things that we're doing that may help our improvements to Townalington Center, for example, that we're going to see take place very shortly with the redesign of Broadway Plaza. Yeah, that's the end. It's only me tonight, Margaret, but I didn't get to the traffic issues. Well, I was going to ask if you would address the traffic issues since we do have a little bit of time. Everybody's been very respectful of the time, so what would you say about the traffic issues? Yeah, so last year we endorsed a sustainable Arlington transportation plan, and that is a roadmap for improvements within the community, traffic-wise, and it takes into account pedestrians, bikers and automobiles, but there clearly are a number of things that we need to work on in the short term. We're hoping to improve the intersection of Mass Ave and Appleton Street, which is there are short term improvements that have been made, but the long term fixes is required. We're also going to be moving forward on improvements to Mystic Street and Chestnut Street, which again has been a dangerous area. So we have to continue to look at that, but the transportation plan does give us some guidelines on that, and we will continue to move forward with various funding sources, but the two projects I mentioned will be priorities in the short term. Thank you. Okay, now go on to the next question. What criteria should the select board apply in deciding what signage and banners should be displayed at Town Hall and for how long? Yeah, so this has been an issue that has come up. We created a subcommittee on the board. Len Diggins and John Hurd are our subcommittee for that. We've had lengthy discussions going back to last January. Joe Perot was a former member of the board, along with myself, that had proposed some sign criteria. The board didn't adopt them at the time. I think we're going to have some discussions later this year. I can't say when that will happen, but the other thing that had come up earlier this year is we're awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court of the United States on sign policy and government speech, which is really what would be behind anything that we put on Town Hall. We expected a decision from the Supreme Court before June 30th. That's going to guide us in terms of what limitations there are and what we do going forward. So I would expect that we'll have some discussion later in the year on that. Thank you. And this will be the last question before we go to your closing statement. How might the federal ARPA and infrastructure funding affect the town's need for an override to fund expenditures in the coming years? Yeah. So through the ARPA funding, which was the American Rescue Plan Act, we received $35 million. Of the $35 million, $10 million we could airmark to lost revenues. And that has actually allowed us to push out by a year, a year ago, we were projecting a deficit beginning in fiscal 24. That is no longer the case. Fiscal 25, unfortunately, we are projecting a deficit. So those ARPA funds have allowed us to spread out by one year our current plan. And so it's $10 million that has been used to assist just general operating expenditures. It's given us the year, but it hasn't allowed us to overcome our structural deficit, which is going to create issues beginning in fiscal 25. Thank you very much. We will now have your closing statement. Okay. Thank you, Margaret. Well, it's awfully fast when there's only one person. It's only a minute per question. So I feel like I just gave my opening. So I want to thank the voters of Arlington for electing or for choosing me back in 2019. It has been an honor to serve as one of your select board members. I want to thank my fellow board members for selecting me as the chair of the select board this past year. It's been an honor to serve in that. Going forward, I ask respectfully for your vote on April 2nd. And again, if I am reelected, I will listen to Arlington residents. I'll take your concerns into account and I'll try to provide solutions and provide strong leadership for the town. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. D'Corsi. This brings us to the end of our candidates tonight. I would like to thank all of them for running for office. I applaud them because I think it's a big step for them to take and for adhering to the timing schedule and format, which they were all very good about. And I also would like to thank the Arlington League for inviting me once again to moderate this event. And now, Patty Muldoon will close the program. Patty? Thank you, Margaret. And I also would like to thank you, Margaret Copey, for being our moderator again. And a gracious thank you to all the candidates for participating and to our viewing audience and to Arlington Community Media Inc. for broadcasting this forum. So thank you, everybody. If you're interested in the activities of either Envision Arlington or the League of Women Voters of Arlington, information is available on our respective websites. In addition, a government primer previously compiled based upon six Citizens' Corners articles that were mentioned earlier in this debate that were published in the Arlington Advocate, that's available through the town's website. Candidates night has been broadcast live virtually starting at 7.30 on March 23rd. Please visit ACMI.TV for rebroadcast information. And again, a little reminder that if you are interested in getting involved in the town that we are looking for more town meeting member folks to do write-in campaigns to all our voters tonight and throughout the town. Remember to vote Saturday, April 2nd. Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thank you so much for coming tonight and for watching. This forum has been sponsored by Envision Arlington and the League of Women Voters of Arlington. Good night.