 two minutes early really yeah because that's what the public is I thought you're I think you were acknowledgeably intelligent no make a shirt split got you hear me good okay I'm gonna turn this just a little how's that excuse me I was gonna do the same thing you said okay you good that's in a minute good evening everyone tonight's meeting is the select board's reorganization meeting and until a chair is selected I will conduct tonight's meeting first can you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you our first order of business is to accept nominations from the select board for the position of chair are there any nominations first hand up I would like to nominate Elaine Haney as chair of the select board second from any Cooper are there any other nominations any other nominations for chair hearing none we have a motion of Elaine Haney for chair any second by any Cooper all those in favor I opposed we have Elaine Haney as chair of the select board for this term and the gavel is yours but that's okay just in case the unified manager gets unruly you can you can do so thanks everyone so now we'll take nominations for vice chair Andy I'd like to nominate Max Levy for vice chair is there a second second I opposed okay Max your vice chair and now we need to elect a clerk and generally this is something that is an honor that's placed on the newest member and I was the clerk this past year we have two new members at the moment do either of you want to volunteer or shall we not nominate someone now I'll happily do it unless Annie you feeling up for it so Patrick has nominated himself as clerk is there a second also I can anti-second all in favor all right all right we have a clerk thank you for stepping up to do that we won't make it too difficult sure not that bad just a lot of signatures yeah and some reading out loud I can do that as far as cheating goes it's sometimes often very helpful for the chair to sit next to the manager okay so Evan do we have any agenda additions or changes we do and I'm gonna turn it over to Greg because I can't read his hand the rules and regulations for orderly conduct of business that was in your packet but the file received with missing pages sent out the corrected for the correct version this morning but just a hard copy in front of you in case you didn't have a chance to see it that's for item 5e and secondly we have an item contract that we'd like to discuss this was not on the agenda and being a contract yes that would recommend that it be discussed under executive session if you accept that that would be item 6h and 9b for the executive session piece we don't expect any sort of decision to be just it's just information does anybody have any questions or problems with our agenda additions I also handed out a single page with yes it's a little bit of a complicated change wanted to make sure everybody was able to put eyes on it when I make the suggestion right of 6g right of 6g right of 6g we'll address that when we get to that item so will will someone give a motion to approve the changes to the agenda so moved all in favor hi now we're gonna move on to public to be heard this portion of the meeting is for folks to say something from the audience that is not already on the agenda do we have any visitors who wish to say something that's not on the agenda Irene was not able to take comments on the minutes from the audience because the motions are made and what's a motion is on the table the practice has been not to take input on that item so I'm just wondering when input on this would be taken from the audience thank you normally we don't get a lot of comments on requests for changes to the minutes I would recommend that if you have changes what you've done in the past is marked up a copy and handed it in if you'd like to do that and we can take them under consideration okay anybody else items that are not on the agenda okay let's move on to the first business item which is first-class liquor license renewals this is an opportunity for merchants in the area to renew their liquor licenses and the select board will act as the board of liquor control for this portion of the meeting are is there anybody in the audience today who is from any of the merchants that are on the agenda don't think so okay so select board we have our packet with the license applications and the police department has gone through and given us an update and there's no records regarding any issues with any of these merchants Greg did you want to weigh in on anything or I'm happy to try to answer any questions you have but the applications have been vetted by the police and the clerk you might notice that the t-rex productions doubly is just an outside consumption permit they've been previously approved with a regular permit and we realize they also needed an outside consumption permit that's why that's before you but otherwise it should be pretty straightforward and standard procedure so unless board members Andy I move that the select board approve first-class liquor license renewals for Hornets nest pub LLC doing business as Hornets nest pub with outside consumption permit Stevenson incorporated doing business as Hogi's pizza and pasta and t-rex productions LLC doing business as double e outside consumption you got that okay and that T-rex was just for the outside consumption just for consumption okay all those in favor of approving the first-class liquor what excuse me are there any other comments regarding these particular licenses on the Hornets and you put in there that it's with an outside consumption permit did you say that yes I did okay yeah my only other comment is I just want to say that the clerk's office doing a bang-up job with these they're they're very complete and accurate so I just want to say thank you really appreciate that the select board has moved into more of a consent type atmosphere with these and not having the liquor establishment owners have to come if they have had a clean year without any violations or any issues with the police department we have gone to this format we still do give them the usual admonishment of that we do take our liquor licensing very seriously as we do the enforcement of the liquor laws and with no violations we're happy to to enhance the system to be quicker and not take them away from their place of business and if there is even one violation though they will be asked to come back for their next renewal right excellent even though they're not here they will still be receiving our usual admonition through their notification that their application has been approved yep yes ma'am okay so we have a motion and Pat you seconded the first class so unless there's any other comments all those in favor of approving the first class liquor license renewals please say aye opposed they pass unanimously now we have the second class liquor license renewal there's one merchant Andy I move that the select board approved second-class license renewal for the valley vape company LLC doing business has the valley vape company comments questions everybody's good any do you have a question sure all right well then let's have a vote all those in favor of approving the second-class liquor license renewal of valley vape company signify by saying hi hi all right moving on to section 6c and this closes the portion where we act as the board of liquor control Aaron Martin come on down we're talking about the Dalton Drive waterline replacement yes I'm here before you tonight provide some background information on the Dalton Drive waterline project and to seek recommendation or we're going to recommend for you to approve the bid award the contract to courtland construction they speak see we open bids last month March 14th and had nine bidders so we had a good pack the engineers estimate for this project was on the order of five hundred and twenty thousand dollars and the low bid provided by courtland construction came in at three hundred sixty nine thousand seven hundred and seven dollars and sixty five cents they're a great company I've worked with them quite often in the past they've worked for the town on numerous projects similar scope scale and looking for a recommendation to award it to these folks I think I think we got a great deal and I'm here to answer any questions you may have about the project itself one question I'm not going to get too tiki-taki about line item stuff but I was wondering why we're getting such a great deal as it were that's the this seems dramatically lower than all of the other bids it does and I was just wondering what might be the background behind and the engineer in me my radar goes up when I see yeah a bid like this that comes in that low and we asked him that and both our consultant Aldrich and Elliot Jason Booth he's the PE over there the project manager for this on myself discuss this we couldn't really see any he put a couple there's a couple line items on earthwork that he in the in the trades we call penny the the line item and what that basically amounts to is he won penny for the quantity there but they were for rock excavation boulder excavation ledge it's 40th an Allen and it's sand 14 15 20 feet down so that was one area where I think the unbalanced bid where the way they came in so low other than that he just provided us some really good prices and I was just as shocked as the engineer was that they came in that low and I do have the confidence in this contractor just knowing his past history working with the town on other projects that goes a long way with me when it comes to whether or not it's a it's a good bid thanks actually have the same question that Patrick thank you Aaron will the residents in Dalton Drive notice any changes once this work is done flows will be increased dramatically due to this a lot of a lot of the people in this area right now this whole this whole the southern part of Susie Wilson corridor in this section the eastern section of 40th an Allen they're all serviced by mainly six inch cast iron lines that are nearly a hundred years old we do have a for a Champlain water has a transmission main that runs in the northern part of 40th an Allen and it continues on to Kellogg Road so the Susie Wilson corridor and the four are fed off of this via six inch lines so it just doesn't have the flow needed to address development future development and the needs that are out there we have made some improvements with developers building extra lines like in the Lowes area we've had some extra lines in there this 12 inch line is basically going to make a direct connect almost to that 16 inch just our transmission main which is going to allow the flows we need in that area but yeah they'll still see better fire protection pipes not might not battle as much pressure pressure is going to stay the same but when everybody's taking a shower and doing the laundry all at once you're not going to see any change in so the flows are there to keep up with the man all good changes if they're even noticed very positive yeah all right so we were looking for a recommendation that we award the bid so there's a recommendation at the bottom of our memo I move that this that the Essex Select Board award the Dalton Drive waterline replacement project to Cortland Construction Company of Milton Vermont in the amount of three hundred and sixty nine thousand seven hundred and seven dollars and sixty five cents a second that all those in favor any discussions or comments or questions further questions okay all those in favor of awarding the bid to Cortland Construction Company for the Dalton Drive waterline replacement please say aye opposed okay we're unanimous Aaron thank you very much thank you very much we move it and then we keep discussing okay moving on to 6d Greg will you walk us through the 2019-2020 select board meeting schedule yes I will so I'll run through it it's a just give some background the select board typically meets the first and third Mondays of each month the schedule is based around that with a few changes that I'll touch on it also includes the joint meetings that have been scheduled with the trustees for the first Wednesday of every other month exception there being next Tuesday April 9th after that looking at June and then August October December and the first Wednesdays there's a few holidays that bumped us off the Monday schedule just look through those are about a year from now one is Martin Luther King week Martin Luther King Junior week is typically a Monday so that one being on a Tuesday January 21st also President's Day weekend to President's Day week that's a Tuesday February 18th to accommodate the holiday there January tends to be very busy it's also still looking very busy with budget season this year the board was able to do it with one less meeting than normal didn't have that last meeting in January optimistic that that can happen again this year so that sixth meeting is not shown hopefully we can do it in the five and Monday October 21st it's a regularly scheduled meeting although Evan and I are both planning to be at the ICMA conference so people not be here that week we can talk about whether Sarah tries to cover the assistant manager or if you want to look at changing that one to a different date I know Andy has some thoughts that I will let Andy can present on that one and then sneak preview that looking ahead to next Tuesday staff's going to be presenting some options for joint meetings with the trustees we've been finding that it's just really kind of hard to have you only meet every other month with the trustees in terms of joint business staff giving a couple presentations to both boards as opposed to one for example the trustees saw a presentation last week Sarah may see it was looking at electronic invoicing the select boards going to see it should meeting on April 15th so Sarah's gonna have to give the same presentation twice as opposed to if we could do it at joint meetings the website there's a memo in your package today about the shared website the trustees got a presentation on that last week so it's some of those procedural staff things but also just decision-making sometimes we'll bring something to one board and then have to present it to the next board and hope there's no changes so I can touch on all this stuff again next week but point being basically our recommended option is going to be that you keep the same schedule of the Monday Monday and Friday excuse me every other first and third Mondays and the trustees keep their second and fourth Tuesdays the catch being that one of the select board meetings is one of the trustee meetings is also a joint meeting that's going to be pretty tight with business that's specific to the select board specific to the trustees staff things we can put some more stuff on consent agenda and hopefully you'll trust us with that we can have that conversation again more next week but if that's the way we go it'd probably be helpful to save about half an hour 45 minutes for individual board business and start the joint part of the meeting afterwards after you get through some individual stuff so whether you want to keep the 7 o'clock meeting time that you have now look at a 6 30 start time those are things to consider don't necessarily need to decide it tonight but I did want to bring it up apart from that happy to answer any questions about the schedule that has been proposed 15 works for me staff issues yeah that's not true because actually not true I have something in August so changing the July 8th meeting to July 15th is a suggestion Pat you said the trustees they meet I'm sorry it was the second and fourth Tuesday I just wanted to make sure that it conflict with school board meetings which are the first and third Tuesdays so sounds perfect I would like to talk about September for a moment I know it's been a long-standing practice of the select board to have only one meeting in September and I'm guessing that's because of Labor Day maybe I totally understand why we have only one meeting in July to accommodate people's vacations in the summer but I'm wondering if because of the volume of work we're doing whether we should be having two meetings in September as we do for the rest of the year perhaps we can move the October 21st meeting September so that October 21st would disappear because that's when both Greg and Evan will be out of town and I mean I think it's fine at two meetings of September for me so if we if we did that and we also considered Greg's other idea of having a joint meeting every second meeting we would still need to have a second meeting in October on the joint meeting day so we wouldn't be adding an additional day in October but we would be adding an additional board meeting in October so that works I would like us to just talk about the select board schedule and think about the joint suggestions that Greg made so that we can talk to the trustees also about having the joint schedules I don't want to make any decisions on the joint schedules without the consult consulting with the trustees is there Greg what date in September would you recommend if we did the 9th as the first meeting two weeks after that would be the 23rd if you wanted to stick to your normal the 3rd Monday would be the 16th the 9th is the 2nd Monday is it because of labor day yes I see it makes more sense to have two weeks between the meetings doesn't it can go either way really it's the board's pleasure the 16th of the 23rd I have no problems with the date so 16th is fine for me since the first select board meeting is October 7th in October is October 7th should it be at the midpoint that's right there that's the only there's five Mondays in September so if the first one is the 9th and I'm sorry the second one is the 9th the first meeting the second meeting if it was the 23rd then the first meeting in October would be the 7th and basically about two weeks September 23rd sounds like a good day it's very far away so I have no idea what I'm doing but this is on the calendar first so okay all right so is that the sense of the board that we will add as the 23rd to the September calendar and then we will maintain the October 2nd joint meeting and then we'll have an October 7th meeting but then not the 21st is that what you were proposing Max because Evan and right can't be here right we don't do it on the 21st if they're not going to be here is what I was proposing we want to move the 7th a little further into the month will that be helpful to either of you or to staff in general I can bring this up with the trustees meeting because they what October's has five Tuesdays in it so they're fourth Tuesday is actually the 22nd which will both be gone then as well so we could look at doing the 14th as a holiday but the October 28th 29th if you wanted to keep the two meetings in October I would be more than happy to temporarily hold off on deciding on October until you've had a chance to consult with the trustees and then we can finalize that at the next meeting or at the joint meeting okay so I would like everyone to think about Greg's proposal to have every other meeting so one meeting a month is just the select board and then the next meeting is a joint meeting with the trustees and just think about that and we'll talk about it more when we come together on the 9th with the trustees anybody have any other comments or questions start time I think I heard what is the time to perhaps have a different start that's a good question so Greg I think you were saying that the joint meetings when they are at Lincoln Hall would start at 630 the trustees started 630 other meetings the joint meetings have always been starting at 7 o'clock I was just thinking if the boards do end up doing the proposal of having the four meetings and having joint meetings twice a month on that regular schedule that might be more consistent to have a regular start time for the board members for the public just so it's easier to keep track of of 630 with a 7 o'clock start time for the joint meetings another option is to continue starting at 7 o'clock for the trust 7 o'clock for the select board 630 for the trustees and always start the joint meeting half an hour after that it's not as consistent but still leads a little bit of time so when you're thinking about the public trying to keep track of when we're meeting having a consistent start time for each board meeting of 630 would probably be helpful I would think so and then if a individual board meeting goes a little longer is it okay if it goes longer into the time that's supposed to be scheduled for a joint meeting I think that's the discussion for the joint boards that's one option that's one way to do it another way to do it is to start the joint meeting at whatever time it's scheduled to start and then continue the board specific business afterwards yeah back in the day select board meetings just start at 730 and I reluctantly agreed to go to 7 o'clock going to 630 is going to be even more challenging we want to make sure that we can accommodate everyone's work schedules and family time at any thoughts okay whatever works for everyone okay so that's another question we can discuss on Wednesday with this with the trustees as well but it's sounding like the sense of our regular meetings you would prefer that they continue to start at 7 o'clock okay we have the sense of the board on that any other questions or comments make a motion to the select board approve the meeting schedule for 2019-2020 with the following changes move the July 8 meeting to July 15 add a September 23rd meeting and delete the October 21 meeting second it I thought we said move October 21 to 28 I thought we were going to just check with Greg was going to check with the trustees on the October the second October meeting was that accurate great yeah because they had to ask the village about their meeting the 22nd to the 29th are we just gonna hold both of them off until then if the board wants to commit to the 28th now we can do that or we can discuss it we could suggest it would be fine if we made a the joint meeting for October the late meeting the later date and then determine whether it should be a trustee meeting that the select board is coming to or a select board meeting that the trustees are coming to I just have my I was right in my note so that so if you make the motion that's fine we'll eliminate the 21st yeah so we still need to confirm the 28th or the 29th okay so we have a motion on the table is there a second max given that we went to discussion without a second I think it's seconded by fiat by the discussion just I prefer not just it's just just I guess procedurally we yeah went to discussion before the second all those in favor of the schedule as proposed all right so thank you guys for working out the schedule now we're going to move on to two items that are basically ministerial that we do every year the first is the approval of rules and regulations for orderly conduct of business Greg would you give us a review so these are the rules and regulations for orderly conduct of business it basically speaks to the different types of select board meetings that place and then give some rules and regulations for how to proceed during the meetings responsibilities of the chair how to take motions and votes it's the same thing that was approved last year there were a few changes last year that the board discussed staff is not proposing anything but it's something that the board sees each year at your reorganizational meeting just to take a look at it review it and make any comments and have any and if not to accept it for another year so this is not the kind of document that we we sign every year this is just an existing policy that we all acknowledge that we have read and we'll follow okay does anybody have any questions about this policy Andy a couple of comments I've noted if we make any changes to have noticed that in a couple places this is town manager I don't know if we want to update that if there's a if there's any other reason to update it just making that comment on in the participation section on page two section four talks about agenda we did have a question during the past year about who is able to suggest items or place items on the agenda and it's not necessarily clear it says any person is the phrase that it's used in here I'm just wondering if we would like to clarify that so that it's not not on obvious do you have a three-page document or the five-page document this is the this is the document that agenda number four agenda number four if you go the end of the third line that starts with any with any person so it says any person may request a new business and be placed on a regular meeting agenda and we we had an issue we had a discussion about that during the year just want to bring up the question of whether we want to clarify that phrase for those we did look into this the word is may request they make a request to the unified manager it is up to the manager to decide whether it fits on it on the next agenda or any agenda for that matter but we certainly can try to clear up that language this would be an appropriate time is there a difference between the phrase any person and a board member there's a lot of difference in the case of this because I read this to you I interpret this to say any resident any person can come to you Evan and say can we talk about this whereas if Andy has an agenda item he might come to you and to the chair or we may decide at a meeting to add something to the agenda there's another sentence later on in that paragraph explicitly says that select board members can answer can request that something so select board members hand it separately in a question in the paragraph this any person thing could be you know any person could walk in I don't have any language to suggest to you but I don't know if we want to leave it the way it is or whether we want to update it make it clear I'd like to clarify it well I guess maybe we should have the discussion about who is able to or I guess any person may is still is still okay right isn't anybody could walk in and ask you to talk about something you don't have been apparently or we are interpreting it to say we don't have to accept that request especially if it has been discussed previous I guess I'm just letting the chair know that you know I can't recognize you please go ahead could I get some clarification on what happened to prompt and the suggestion I mean it clearly at some point in the last year there was a procedural issue so I just to get a better idea for what we might be looking for some some reverent or some individuals who are interested in having the select board take a position on the nurses union discussion came to us and it was a question about and I raised the question as well it says anybody can put something on the agenda what's interpreting that okay thank you and but isn't it true that it would have to go through channels and be agreed upon I apologize about my voice this evening it would it doesn't just get to be so because somebody presented right I would I the way I interpret this is that Evan if he receives a request from a person he's gonna weigh is it relevant to what we're doing is the agenda already overflowing is it something that we're gonna talk about in three weeks and so we'll wait for three weeks but he will also check with the board to find out you know are we going to want to talk about this so Max yeah I was thinking that maybe if it said any resident may request but the fact that it says any person may request that that may request and it has to go through that gate check anyway I'm fine with it the way it is I think I'm gonna back off on this question because of the fact that we've also had you know folks from South Burlington come in and ask us to talk about you know the airport question and that so they're not residents the other thing is this document is not going to present prevent anybody from walking in this meeting and saying something so I think it now that I'm thinking about it and we've had this discussion is pretty ludicrous for us to specify specific language in there that somebody will have never read before coming into this meeting so I would draw my request to that paragraph when we can leave it alone if we don't want to change anything else it's still an excellent discussion definitely we have frequent visitors who are not residents like CCRPC or you know okay good discussion anyway yes and on the next page in section five under conductive meetings there's a sentence here that says side conversations will not be allowed at the table or from the audience I just wanted to bring that up and highlight it because I've noticed over the in the not too far distant past conversations between select board members you know people talking back and whispering to each other and our policy says that's inappropriate I just want to bring that up as a reminder that we shouldn't be doing that at the table that all discussion needs to be public and in the motions and votes section for this one I want to highlight because it's one that I missed previously says absent abstentions shall be made only in cases of conflict of interest and the reason therefore shall be stated I had at a couple times abstained from voting on approving minutes because I wasn't at the meeting and according to the policy that's not a valid reason so just wanted to bring that up to remind folks of that our policy and I had missed it so yes just because you weren't at the meeting does not mean that you are not allowed to approve the minutes so okay pat any max any questions about the policy I would move that the select board approve the rules and regulations for orderly conductive business as presented second all in favor hi hi okay the second policy we need to review is the town of Essex conflict of interest policy item 6 F Greg would you give us a rundown well I'm just pulling it up for the audience similar concepts to the rules and regulations is something that the select board adopts or accepts again every single year no proposed changes from staff this year but it just lays out the different possibilities of conflict of interest or perception of and how to handle that at the board level rinse and repeat any questions or comments from the board andy this might get a little sticky article 5 prohibited conduct on on page 2 section B and I hope I don't offend anybody here but that it it it comments about it's it's difficult language to read through but it comments to say that select board members can't represent on behalf or or negotiate appear for us to represent a peer for or negotiate on behalf of another person or organization and only I'm bringing I'm bringing it up because we have members on the board who are members also members of other boards and I just want to I don't know if we need to have a discussion about where the line is drawn I mean it's okay you know for you know being on the on this on the school board it's it's I think it's perfectly fine to bring forward information but the advocate on the behalf I think is is is in violation of this policy and I just I think it is but I don't know what however the others feel it's not just my say but I don't know if it's worth having a conversation you know you're on the trustees and the school board whether we need to to try to draw a brighter line there or whether we just catch it in the moment and say hey you know this information is fine but not I don't I think I made my point you have made your point and it's a really excellent point to bring up Patrick do you want to address in terms of the select school board how you feel in that situation I mean I agree with Andy I think it's a an excellent point I don't believe that they would ever necessarily I can't say that for sure if there is ever an instance where you know it would come upward it would appear that I'm advocating on behalf of EWSD for any reason then I would absolutely welcome anyone to bring it to my attention you know part of my desire to run was to you know see an increased flow of communication between the two boards but you know the that it was largely informative on my part which I think we all agree is is probably fine but any instance where you know I would necessarily be advocating for something that EWSD desires you know I would be happy to defer to the judgment of the rest of the board if they feel that I should recuse myself from a discussion or have you then I'm more than happy to do so but otherwise you know if we don't feel the need to make it more formal than that then I'm happy to just take any suggestion you know comment as it comes up and weigh it when it does so I want to remind everyone that in this policy under article six we have the requirement to share with the board when we believe there's a conflict of interest and that why we believe we are able to act in a matter fairly objectively and in the public interest so the conflict of interest is very specific in terms of personal benefit or financial benefit so there's also the issue of perception and so I understand where you're going with that and so Pat thank you for clarifying that from the school district's perspective that you sit on their board that has been a very murky conversation in regards to me in my situation so I'm going to take the opportunity right now to share something that I was planning to share on Wednesday at the village's annual meeting and let everyone know that I will be stepping down from the board of trustees effective today because you have done me the honor of selecting me as chair I don't want to have any more of these questions about which board is appropriate to be referring to and the position of chair is a higher level of commitment and focus than being a general board member and so I plan effective right now and unfortunately president Tyler's not here anymore but he is aware of my decision and I was planning to share that with the village voters on Wednesday at their annual meeting so I just want to make sure that perception does not exist when it comes to me so there's that anything else in regards to this policy one one personal note is that I have signed a code of conduct with my employer that will occasionally forced me to recuse myself there are topics that could be perceived as benefiting benefiting my employer so I'm just going to make everybody aware of that that comes up occasionally maybe been with them three and a half years I think it's come up maybe five times five or six times I've had to recuse myself but that will happen occasionally can I keep going another thing okay last item I promise is we don't have our communications policy here tonight we also haven't closed the social media policy yet or haven't approved one and I just have I just have question about a select board member moderating a Facebook page with the title as it's just I you know I I have concerns about that you're asking this question in regards to the code of conduct in regards to the code of conduct right is there a conflict of interest the perception of a conflict of interest the thing that one of the things that concerns me and I just realized it's inappropriate for me to ask any a question I should be talking to you I'm sorry I valued it our own when there are another policy so I'll defer my comments here but the I don't want the select board to be in a position of having a member be a of our board be accused of censoring something that's put up on that Facebook page if something's put up that criticizes the select board and uses inappropriate language that should be taken down I'm concerned about the perception that a select board member is removing moving that content and so that's that's that's an example of where I think a problem could occur and maybe maybe it's not appropriate for this policy but we don't I don't we don't have the communications policy in front of us tonight so maybe the discussion needs to be deferred but I didn't want to leave it too long well if I might just have a quick response and Annie I want you to respond keeping in mind that I think that communications policy is separate but it does touch on conduct so I get why you're bringing it up but again the acting fairly objectively and in the public interest we are all aware of Annie's involvement in the Facebook page so in terms of the policy I think we're okay but Annie I would like you to address Annie's concerns and we don't have to iron this out today we can have this conversation subsequently and work things out first of all I think it's I understand why you turned to me I think you were making sure that I was feeling respected I'm 100% confident in serving my role here and also serving my role as the s1 Facebook page it is first of all not any any official governmental page it is a page designed to help all people who live in s extension NSX town all of and or both so that there can be a friendly confident comfortable social place to be and my moderation is wildly transparent I remove almost nothing anything I do remove is very apparent and we went through some symbols in the beginning about what that should look like and I feel a million percent comfortable with any discussion I have on there publicly being respectful to my role here are there specific criteria that you have to follow regarding what is what might need to come down if it's if something's posted on the page do you have rules that you follow yes there's a there's I don't want to start saying them offhand there's a written set of rules established by Brendan Guinea that I have not changed basically you may not attack businesses people families personal people you must be polite and respectful and use appropriate language for a social setting this is a private Facebook page it has nothing to do with some run or sanctioned by no it's over and so I would never tell any or Patrick or Andy what they can and can't do on their own Facebook page I kind of feel like that's what this one it's a little bit more public than that but it's not sanctioned by the municipality so I have no control over what they do I max the way max phrase that gave me a thought yeah it would be like asking me how I'm going to conduct myself if I'm at the nests or I'm supervising an activity in a another setting it's it's what I'm doing as a private citizen in a way that is hopefully exemplary for conduct so in the absence of a finalized communications policy I don't know that we can continue the conversation because social media does belong in that policy let's all continue to think about it I I agree with Max that there's this personal aspect of it and that the Facebook page is not sanctioned by the town of Essex so there is there is that's a bright line in my opinion but that's all I'll say Annie did you have one more thing I did I I decided the day I decided that I would get a petition to run for the Essex Select Board I made a decision that absolutely I would not even mention that I was going to run for this seat because I felt that that was not appropriate for me to have that conversation a matter of fact it was Irene who told Essex Vermont that I was running and so I just graciously thanked Irene for letting people know and I allowed that to pan out I'm very grateful Irene that you chose to join me in my choice that was really great and it seems Patrick did too and we had I could tell you both for a very gracious respectful process and I think that that could speak very well to what in his concern is that I made a decision that I never put what I do here at risk there through language or action or communication I think that Annie's moderation of that page has been extremely transparent and fair the only thing I do want to bring up and this may be something that if we as we develop a policy for social media or you know active on social media it does bear mention that very recently court judgment for President Trump and his Twitter page which arguably is a private you know it's his Twitter but it has been ruled that as a public official that he can't choose to block individuals on it and he can't choose to you know the lead posts on it I'm not saying that's that this parallels in any way whatsoever but there may be you know because of Vermont's public meeting laws and because of how that works that we may need to just consult with legal to know whether or not it's something appropriate whether you know so I believe the Secretary of State's office may have issued some guidance on this topic so can I ask staff to look into that and then bring the communications policy and whatever research you have to a future agenda so we can continue the conversation thank you will that do for everyone for the moment okay did you have any other comments about the policy did anyone else have any comments of the policy Irene well I'm gonna let the public have some input on this conversation Irene what would you like to say I remember the conversation on SXVT a little differently than Annie does but first I'll say that SXVT by virtue of its name sounds as if it is a town wide platform and therefore I think we need to be very careful about who moderates in what they say I remember seeing a posting by Annie Cooper on the Monday which I believe was January 28th announcing that she was going to get a petition and try to get signatures before the deadline that night so it wasn't my idea for her to run she announced it on that page that she was going to get signatures thank you my second comment was I have a great concern about Annie Cooper having worked for with alongside the SX junction rec department for many years having been a mouthpiece for them especially during the special taxing district conversation and I think that going forward as we talk about relocation and other activities between the town recreation department and the village recreation department for which I believe she is still teaching classes this summer in swimming I want to raise that also as a potential conflict of interest that audience members will be watching thank you thank you Irene all right so board members can we go ahead and make I'd like to hear a motion on accepting the conductive conflict of interest policy I don't know that select board approved the town of SX conflict of interest policy second all in favor all opposed hey thank you very much and now we're going to get on to the minutes did I skip something so we have a couple edits so we have four sets of minutes and some of us have already sent our editorial comments into Kathy and Darby thank you for doing that in advance everyone let's go one at a time through each set of minutes real quickly if that's okay oh sorry great if I could just chime in for process for the new members what Elaine was referencing if you if you haven't heard is basically their spelling corrections or commas or grammatical mistakes rather than spending board time discussing that and going through the corrections feel free to send them to myself and I'll make sure something to me I'll make sure that Kathy gets them and taking it updated that way if there's a change to any minutes that you that you feel changes the meaning of the minutes like a name correction would be a basic example or you feel that your words were misrepresented in the minutes that would be substantive and we would want to talk about that at the table so will anyone move the minutes to February 6th Andy I move approval of the trustee and select board special meeting minutes from February 6th 2019 with select board member seconded are there any select board member comments on those minutes I thought we were just we just had your written ones but you might have that's only for one of those one of the clarification we used to go through page by page it's fine if we're not going to do that I just want to make clear that understand what the what how you want to do it in the interest of respecting everyone's time I would prefer to go through each set of minutes just as a set of minutes and if you have questions or comments we can just call out the line number and pay attention to that line number excuse me so if no one has any corrections or edits or comments on the minutes of February 6th we'll have a vote all those in favor of approving the February 6th minutes please say aye aye opposed okay February 6th is approved February 21st minutes may have a motion to approve the February 21st minutes Andy I move the select board approved minutes of the February 21st 2019 with select board member corrections second any comments corrections and as I said I've already handed in my edits so I'm good any other questions all right all those in favor of approving the minutes from February 21st please say aye aye opposed okay unanimous the next set of minutes March 4th can I have a motion please Andy I move approval of the annual town meeting select board minutes from March 4th 2019 with select board member corrections second comments changes corrections none all right it's hearing none all those in favor of approving the March 4th annual meeting minutes please signify by saying aye aye opposed and our last batch of minutes of the evening March 18th I understand we do have changes I have a motion to open the discussion Andy I move the select board approve meeting minutes from March 18 2019 with select board member corrections second that one as well comments or changes to the minutes Max we have said in the past that our minutes are not transcripts and it's just gives you an idea of the discussion the things that we read into the minutes have been most often and typically the resolutions that have been presented in our packet to the board to to consider but what we have in the minutes of March 18th from line 295 to 340 our word-for-word transcript of comments from board member what I would propose for the board to consider is that we strike lines 295 to 340 and change 293 instead to read Mrs. Renner Ms. Renner read a farewell poem she wrote for Mr. Plagman and a general farewell statement period is what I would propose yes thank you we have a motion to strike lines 295 to 340 from the minutes of March 18th Andy you had changes on lines 143 to 149 do you want to review those okay we're gonna do generally we approve all the changes let's see a couple things sorry in the line 59 the the comments from public to be during public to be heard several a number of people spoke including myself but my comments aren't in here and I would like to add line a line 59 that mr. Watts said Ms. Renner's work was an inspiration and he appreciated it I would like to have my words included there please Kathy have a record of what you want to give her copy of that other thing next thing is online 127 the sentence starts with all members of this and it says all members of the select board strongly encouraged the GMT I'm concerned about having the word all there I'd like to strike word all because this kind of implies that we took a position and we we did not sorry line 127 the first word is all I'd like to strike that word all just capitalize members just capitalize members and then line 143 through 149 I think didn't quite catch the what was discussed and given that it also it says mr. Watts mr. Levy and miss miss Haney I'm gonna need to understand whether you had a different memory of this than I did and whether you were saying other things than I was I you know the the what I was talking about was the assessment not the route changes you know the assessments are associated with the route changes so I'd like to change the I handed out the marked up copy of those lines and my intent in and again max any lane you may have different and have had different intent for that so it may not you may not agree with these words but anyway so so the way the way I'd prefer the paragraph to read is mr. Watts mr. Levy and miss Haney expressed concern at GMT's proposed route changes no sorry that GMT's proposed route changes will decrease the minute municipalities service hours by 26.4 hours without changing its assessment period for some reason that came out as a apostrophe instead GMT's charter states GMT's not going GMT's charter states any change in the fixed route formula would require a vote at the municipality level mr. mr. Moore said the GMT was planning to freeze the impact of the municipalities for fiscal year 20 and conduct a regional rebalancing for fiscal year ending 21 to be approved by the GMT board and again I'd like to say members felt that with only rather than saying the select board because that I think saying the select board implies that we take a position again so members felt that with only one representative on the GMT board this would not allow the select as a select board to have an adequate say in the changes of the assessment so the fact that they're not changing the assessment although they're changing the routes so I'm saying more than I actually wrote on here but I agree with the spirit of your edits yeah that's fine okay were there any other changes to the minutes of March 18th that anyone wants to make okay so we have a motion on the table to approve the minutes of March 18th with select board member comments and we have a second those in favor more discussion certainly I'm I'm strongly against taking out the lines that Max has to take out I guess could I get some clarity just because the with the Ms. Renner mentioning that she asked specifically to have those read-in what is the I guess I don't know what is the official stance is that accurate or inaccurate I don't think we really have a policy oops our Max I don't believe we have an official policy that states that but in past discussions talking about trying to trim the minutes to really to be more than what this secretary of state says they need to be which is almost nothing to just compromise from having it be sort of a transcript almost word for word they never really were but they were very verbose to trimming them to get the feel of the conversation and we've had a discussion in the past about not wanting to read put things in verbatim even if you request them to be that's fine you can request them but whether they make it into the minutes after they're reviewed and approved is another question so I think in the spirit of the direction we've been going with minutes that I felt it was appropriate to strike the word-for-word transcripts from the minutes and put that line that says what was read you know in general how long are the meetings available online for channel 17 so my feelings are that every word that gets spoken at a meeting is has opportunity to be viewed verbatim 24-7 yes that is true it's just a thought not a so while I understand the desire intensely felt on my part to keep the minutes succinct oh Andy can I just finish and then I'll in a similar vein that when we are at annual meeting and the voters ask us to reduce the budget by X and then they say we want you to we want you to add a hundred thousand dollars to the budget for roads the voters have the authority to ask us to add that hundred thousand dollars but we technically don't have to put it where they ask us to but we always do I feel in the same vein that when someone specifically says a board member specifically says I have something I want to read into the record even though it's not a resolution passed by the board which is pretty much the only other time we read something into the record I feel as a courtesy to an elected board member their words need to be put into the minutes they're not always they're generally often personal feelings versus related to specific board business and we don't always agree with them but it's their right to have them right into the record and repeated there if that's their request so I guess what I would say is going forward that unless we have something exceedingly important to say that we refrain from reading things into the record so that we can avoid the transcript aspect but also that if we have personal comments regarding dissatisfaction with the way business is being done that we should talk to our peers about it personally rather than take up board business doing it so you know I get it but I don't support striking those lines either so does anyone else have any comments on March 18th minutes all right so Andy I'm sorry you had your hand up so I'm I'm confused because we're doing an all-or-nothing thing here is the only way to allow these to be in here to not approve them because if you don't approve them the draft is what stays up there right or side conversation here not allowed by our policy so I don't I don't know how you know can we ask Max to withdraw his request or what's the what is there any I mean I think after 12 years of service on this board we should you know we're spending way too much time talking about I'm gonna vote against what's worked in the past when we do minutes is is that when we do ask for a correction we kind of get a sense of the board here and a and it's it's still open you could do that with this one and say how do you feel about this one and if they don't like striking it then now's a good time to say don't and then when we you know people can approve it with corrections that everybody's comfortable with and the minority you know has to go away uncomfortable that's okay that is a fine practice and it's one we've done before in fact we've done all along and this is a change from that practice so I am we have two significant changes to the minutes the ones that Andy presented lines 143 to 149 is everyone comfortable with those changes Andy also had a change to line 59 and a line 127 that seemed fairly minor are those okay okay and then we have Max's request to strike 295 to 340 how do we feel about that I'm not in favor Andy's not in favor I have I don't have feelings about it either I mean in general I would prefer that meetings be you know very trim concise you know again as Max stated not you know a full transcript of the entirety of someone's speech or whatever but I think that in this particular instance as long as it's not something that we're going to do going forward and that people aren't going to abuse the process of it then I'm happy to keep these ones in particular in here knowing that in the future I will probably not be nearly as lenient as I am now thank you I do think this simulates discussion about the fact that all words verbatim are available to us on channel 17 and that maybe there can be some procedural discussions or policy discussions about what if we're going to take this much time to talk about this right now I would like to move forward by creating a policy that states what can be on the record or what cannot so that that we can maintain that succinct idea that you've got what we also respect what we've said about now because it's all available and if we are looking for a more effective and efficient process I'd like to choose that moving forward and always remember that channel see channel 17 is available to us thank you by the way sounds like a potential update to the code of contact we just that's what I'm thinking all right while we're on the topic of the March 18th minutes I have three members who are not wanting to uphold the striking of lines 295 to 340 so that's the majority of us so we're not going to take those out they're going to stay in so now Andy your motion stands to approve the minutes with select board comments corrections all those in favor of approving the March 18th minutes as corrected signify by saying aye aye opposed nay okay one the minutes are approved okay and I hesitate to say this in light of the conversation we just had but Greg and Evan I would like to request in the interest of keeping our business agenda open for non wrote things I would like to move the minutes to the consent agenda and if you wouldn't mind doing that in future packets moving all of our minutes to the consent agenda and well I'm getting there so the consent agenda for the benefit of our audience and for our new members it's an aggregation of business items that don't necessarily need discussion but do need approval of the board and the purpose of the consent agenda is to get all that stuff done at once and move along to other business that needs more discussion in most boards I've been involved with the minutes are always in the consent agenda you are never limited by seeing items bundled together from talking about any individual item so if there's a consent agenda item then when we could get to that part of the agenda we can say I'd like to pull out item B for further discussion and we would set it aside we'd vote on the rest of the consent agenda and then pick up that item that wants to be discussed so there's never going to be a time where we're just going to stuff something in the consent agenda and no one gets to talk about it so I just want to be really clear that that's how consent agenda works so that said I will take a motion to approve the consent agenda Andy approval of the consent agenda with select board member comment second and let us discuss so I think it was just said that proclamations are read into the record yet we have a proclamation in the consent agenda should it be in the regular agenda or I recall reading that proclamation out loud last year so would you like to make a motion to pull the proclamation out of the consent agenda I'd like to make a motion to pull the proclamation out so that we can have it read into the record so it's verbatim in our minutes okay Andy Andy has moved to pull item a exactly Andy has moved to pull item a out can we have a second second and all those in favor of pulling out proclamation item number a and have the clerk and have the clerk read it aloud into the record okay let's vote on the rest of the consent agenda and then we'll return to item a Andy sorry I just had a we added a 6h but we skipped over it when we when we got there when we get to the consent agenda I guess what's it go about in second it's for executive session so I understand what you're saying my apologies we do have an item 6h which is going to require us to enter executive session because it is a discussion of contracts so that falls under executive session privilege but we normally just we normally do mention that and bring it up and cover it and but that's fine if we we can circle back to it I guess okay so and would you like to move to approve the rest of the consent agenda that has not been pulled out okay all those in favor of approving items B and C from the consent agenda signify by saying aye aye opposed okay now proclamation for kids to parks day 2019 all right a proclamation kids to parks day Saturday May 18 2019 whereas May 18 2019 is the seventh kids to parks day organized and launched by the National Park Trust and whereas kids to parks day empowers kids and encourages families to get outdoors and visit America's parks and whereas it is important to introduce a new generation to our nation's parks because of the decline in park attendance over the last decades and whereas we should encourage children to lead a more active lifestyle to combat the issues of childhood obesity diabetes mellitus hypertension and hyper cholesterol omia and whereas kids to parks day is open to all children and adults across the country to encourage a large and diverse group of participants and whereas kids to parks day will broaden children's appreciation for nature and the outdoors now therefore be it resolved that the select board of the town of Essex hereby proclaim to participate in kids to parks day we urge residents of the town of Essex to make time May 18 2019 to take the children in their lives to a neighborhood state thank you for reading that into the record my pleasure all those in favor of the proclamation motion oh but you moved to that was to pull it out okay can I have a motion to approve the proclamation I move approval of the proclamation for kids to parks day 2019 second please all those in favor thank you posed okay okay and here we are at the reading file well I circled back briefly as we as we move the consent agenda item as Andy reminded me that I'd skipped over it so now that we've had that attention on that item I'd like to go to the reading file and then we'll circle back to six again for this the new select board members benefit and for the folks in the audience the reading file is for your information there's nothing in here that we're going to act on there won't be anything voted on but it's information that you should know and sometimes it will contain information that we will discuss at another meeting down the road so it's to prep you for things and then there's an opportunity for select board members to make comments on whatever might happen to be on your mind so with that in mind does anybody have any comments max yes under select board comments I just want to welcome Patrick Murray and Annie Cooper to the select board and we're gonna have a great year thanks research anybody else Andy with the resignation from the Memorial Hall Committee I think it's you know three members out of I think seven spots now they don't even have a quorum to help hold the meeting I've raised this question before about whether it would be appropriate to just continue that committee I don't know if we it's not not a decision we would make tonight just want to raise the question can we talk about it at some point yeah that has come up and I've reached out to the board members are the committee members who are still there including Karen I believe it was who just resigned the board members are all pretty much generally of the consensus that the Memorial Hall Committee doesn't necessarily need to continue they do think that there's some value to having some public oversight of the Memorial Hall Committee that's about where it's at right now I haven't had a chance to sit down with other staff have some follow-up conversations with the board members to see what that public oversight might look like I'd like to present the select board with some options before just disbanding it this is my radar I can I can try to put it closer to the to the work list top the work list and try to get it to you within the next meeting or two for some ideas yeah I think I would love to talk to a member or two of the committee before we decide to disband it just to hear from them about what they've been doing and what their hopes were not much in terms of what they've been doing their hopes might be greater than that I'm sure their hopes are great we can get will anything else I just wanted I had a couple things on the reading file regarding the water rates it mentioned in the in the file that eventually we're switching to quarterly billing and I was just wondering when that might occur do you have a timeline for that I do not but I can check with Dennis and Aaron and then regarding the item about the website item D staff presented that same memo to the trustees last week and the trustees are still discussing the extent of the village websites involvement in the whole package they had some questions and concerns so that's not a final decision on the trustees part although it is on our part and finally I also just wanted to make sure that we got into the minutes of a big thank you to Karen hammer Williamson for being on the Memorial Day Memorial Hall Committee and thanking her for her service just just a comment I did send her asked if she would participate in the exit interview process she agreed to so I sent her okay and one more going once going twice for select board comments okay so all that remains on the agenda is to return back to 6h which is an executive session say what at least what the topic is for public consumption I mean what the Greg would you be able to give us a quick explanation sure there's a contract issue that came up that nothing's finalized yet and you would be making decisions we'd like to inform you about it we'll need two motions Andy I move that the select board make the specific finding that premature general public knowledge of the town's position concerning the proposed contract discussion would place the town at a substantial disadvantage second all in favor I there's no discussion because Greg explained to the best of his ability without getting into details second motion Andy I move that the select board enter into executive session to discuss contracts pursuant to 1vsa 313 a 1 a to include the unified manager and deputy town manager all in favor okay we have no business afterwards and we'll have no business