 Good morning, Austin. Good morning. We're calling to order commission meeting number 289 of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission on Thursday, February 13th at 10 a.m. at the Massachusetts Gaming Commission offices here at 101 Federal Street in Boston. We'll begin with item number two, Commissioner Stevens. Good morning, Madam Chair. In your packet we have the final draft of the minutes from the December 19, 2019 meeting. I'd move their approval subject to correction for any other remaining typographical errors or any other non-material matters. Second. I just had one comment on this December 19th. Is it made in 19th? Just hold on. Correct? Yeah. And I just picked it up. It's on page three at the top. It's just a spelling issue. Under 1043, the first item, third paragraph, just disparate treatment. Is the word there? Yeah. Okay. We'll make that change. It's just a technical change. The grammar, please. Commissioner Zuniga, do you have any suggested edits? No. Second, the motion from Commissioner Zuniga. I'm sorry, I missed it. Thank you. Any further edits then? Okay. Those in favor? Aye. Opposed? 5-0. Thank you. Moving on to the second set of... Sure. Madam Chair, colleagues, you have in front of you the meeting minutes from the January 23, 2020 full commission meeting. I'd move their approval with the exception of a couple of insertions I would like to suggest in one correction. First, at the 10-18 a.m. time point when we were discussing the draft Regency RFI and requests for public comment, I'd like to insert a paragraph that kind of kicks off that discussion. I know the Chair had some substantial comments that led to that discussion, so I think it's important to point out how that subject matter was kicked off. I would like to include the Chair began the discussion of this topic, stated the commission's sincere interest in being deliberate with respect to considering a license award in Regency and the potential impacts to the Commonwealth. The Chair discussed the importance of seeking professional guidance through the proposed RFI to better assist and inform our deliberations as well as receiving the input of the general public. And then further on, page 8, as we were all discussing the update on the Executive Director's search, I think there was a note after my comments midway down the page, and I would just offer to insert the Chair added that would be helpful to solicit an outside firm to assist the commission with understanding the needed qualifications of the next Executive Director, engage the MGC staff for their feedback and produce a job description that would be useful in attracting candidates. Again, you know, it's been interesting over the last few meetings as we go through a number of topics. I want to make sure that we're not missing out on anybody's explicit comments. We're obviously doing a lot of brainstorming around some of the topics, so I hope anybody will feel free to just visit with me and we can add a note of interest that you want to make sure is included in this. Obviously, every thing is in the transcript, but to make some alignment between kind of the meeting minute record and the transcript, I think, is appropriate. The other change that we just recognized down at the bottom of page 8, at the 12.03 mark, the motion passed 4 to 0, not 4 to 1, with Commissioner Zuniga abstain. I just have one additional technical correction. I believe similar to yours on the middle of page 9. I think that while salary is not necessarily, I think it's determinant and detriment for what the salary will be for the next, is that Commissioner Zuniga, I want to make sure it's accurate. Right above 12.12 on page 9. I think I was talking about determinant. It's my apology. Determinant, rather, yeah. Okay. Just in the same vein of the abstention, it should also say 4-0 at the top of page 9, right, rather than the 4-1. So those are just a couple of technical, the more substantive additions that just reflect a couple points with respect to my remarks. With those amendment, did you have additional? I do have one comment on page 2, halfway through the section of 10.08, which is at the beginning, where it says that I requested that the staff check the software platform for play my way that is in place in Plain Ridge Park Casino. The point that I was trying to make is about configurability, is that staff ensure that the play my way software that is being developed for MGM and WIN have the capability to be configurable, unlike the one currently in place at Plain Ridge Park Casino. So I will let it, not accordingly, but the point is that we would like to have the flexibility of some configuration for what is currently in development, which is something we've made the request before. Do you have a recommended language for the change now? Yeah, I would insert where it says software platform of play my way that is strike in place and insert being developed for MGM and WIN, continue striking the rest of it to ensure that configuration is... You mean EVH and... Yes, EVH, MGM and WIN. EVH, I'm sorry. To ensure that some configuration is part of the software, unlike and then insert back what is currently in place at PPC. Do you have that? I can give you the exact wording. With those edits, do we have a motion? I'll second that motion with those amendments. I'm sorry, I lost track of the original motion was made by Commissioner Stevens with those edits. Okay, any further edits? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Five-zero. Thanks. Okay, moving on to item number three, our interim executive director, Karen Wells. Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the Commission. So for the general update, one thing I'd like to just mention, I think you all may be aware, but to publicly acknowledge, is that it was announced yesterday that Jim Murrin, the CEO of WIN Resorts, is going to be stepping down. What did I say? WIN Resorts. Pardon me, I apologize, of MGM International. One of the things we noticed with Jim, A was his support for the Springfield project and I think we'd like to acknowledge that was a big deal to Massachusetts. He was very supportive and that was very helpful to us in the process going forward. The other thing with respect to Jim is that he did a lot with diversity and diversity in the workplace and that MGM International did a lot with that under his leadership. So that's just something I'd like to publicly acknowledge and he is going to be staying on until a replacement is found. There's going to be a process to find someone's another CEO, but during that time he'll still be there. So it's not as if he's gone as of today. He'll still be there, but just wanted to acknowledge that transition with MGM and just recognize the great work that he did. Yeah, I make it a point to listen to the conference calls, you know, on the parent companies of our licensees and he, like other CEOs, it's been a great leader and very much in command of a lot of the issues that are important for the kind of company that he leads and when people look back at his tenure and some publications already are, they'll see that there's been a tremendous moving forward of such an organization. And I think the support and use of Play My Way company-wide is very noteworthy as well. You mean Game Sense? I'm sorry, Game Sense, yes. Game Sense is really noteworthy too. Well, I know that Mr. Muran had a background in urban design, had studied that in college and when you visit MGM, you see that vision where he, with the help of his entire team, really integrated a very special property into Springfield. So for us, it's a legacy here in Massachusetts that he had that vision and the ability to execute it. I suspect that MGM will continue to be well served by his successor, but a very lovely gentleman and I know a friend to the Commonwealth. So we wish him good luck on whatever steps he's going to take next. So thank you for that, Karen. The other thing I just wanted to mention, as you're aware, I did go to the, as a member of the Agra Board, the International Association of Gaming Regulators. I was there for a board meeting last week. It was my first opportunity to sit in person with the board members and discuss a variety of topics. It was a very long meeting, very productive meeting, but just to highlight for you the most important thing for me was just what an amazing group of people. Like I got to meet these people from all over the world and get different perspectives on gaming regulation and different issues and a really great team. So I want to thank you for allowing me to be part of that and just acknowledge what great work they're doing and, you know, the excitement about coming to Massachusetts for the 2020 conference in September is really there and working very hard on that. And so this all seems to be going very well and I had a very positive experience with that board. So I just wanted to mention and we thank you for stepping up and taking a leadership role on an international basis. In fact, I just got an email from one of your board members recognizing us as a leader in some of our diversity issues. And she was looking for help with how they can implement some of the things that we've done in Norway. Oh, that's great. Excellent. The other piece I'd like to actually turn it over to our CIO. We asked for some sort of more information about what's going on in the office. So we were thinking that on a rotating basis, bring in some of the leadership in the office to give you a firsthand look at some of the things that are that are going on in the office. So Katrina volunteered to be first. And of course, and, you know, you'll be impressed with her presentation. But I wanted to let her tell you not just me reporting, but let her tell you herself what's going on with things in the IT side of the house. Good morning, Madam Chair, commissioners, Executive Director Wells. Thank you for the opportunity to share with you this morning about the activities, projects and changes that have and are occurring in the Information Technology Services Department. First, I'd like to share with a quick update on our current org structure and identify some of our new additions and their roles. As you can see from the org chart, the ITS Department has grown and made some significant changes to our current structure to better leverage the skills and the talent of our team for the benefit of the commissions, its needs, and our mission at large. I will delve into a little bit more detail later about the major divisions and some of their key responsibilities and projects. To start the ITS Department is carved into two major groups, the Corporate Technology Group and the Gaming Technical Compliance. In the Corporate Technology Division, we have Tim Drain, who is our Infrastructure Manager, and he's responsible for the Infrastructure and Client Services team. And I'll explain that a little bit later what that actually means. And his group comprises of a new addition, David Wingshee. He's a Senior Systems Engineer on the infrastructure side. It also includes Ben Bishop, our Senior Service Desk Specialist, Taylor Greenwood, a Service Desk Specialist on a TEMP basis. We do have an open position that has not been posted yet for a new Technical Support Analyst, which was recently vacated. Kevin Gavro is our Senior Converged Engineer, who is responsible for network telecommunications and security. Tamron O'Connor is our IT Operations Coordinator, who is responsible for all the business operations needs of the IT Department, which includes IT purchasing, vendor management, account management, and other administrative functions. We currently have a cloud specialist position that is vacant, but due to immediate project needs, we brought in a cloud consultant by the name of Tahir Zafar to assist in the interim. On the Gaming Technical Compliance Division, we have Scott Hellwig, our Gaming Technical Compliance Manager, who is responsible for the GTC team, as we like to call them, and the Network Operations Center, which we also like to refer to as our NOC. Priya Gendotra, our Technical Compliance Engineer, along with Scott, is responsible for reviewing, testing, and evaluating electronic gaming devices, commonly known as EGDs, assessment of player tracking systems, slot monitoring systems, and accounting systems for interoperability. The major service areas as shown on the following slides provides more details as to what each group does. However, I'll only highlight a few to be time-sensitive. The service desk, which is the Clients Services Division, is the voice and face of ITS. They provide tier one and tier two support, which includes issues like password resets, desktop support, break fix issues, PC troubleshooting, account issues or problems with email. The infrastructure team manages your back end. User accounts and active directory, emails, servers, imaging, storage, and backups. Network and telecom designs and maintains the network backbone and architecture for connectivity, voiceover, IP, and security. The gaming technology team manages the test lab, electronic gaming devices, central monitoring system, our house system here at the Gaming Commission, technical compliance and regulations and day-to-day operations of the knock. Currently, ITS has 15 active projects. I forgot about forwarding my slides here. The ITS Department is currently 15 active projects of which I'll only highlight the following. O365, Azure, Cybersecurity, Grant Management Application, Play My Way, and IGT Advantage Testing. O365 is the new subscription based model of Microsoft's Office suite of enterprise great productivity applications through the cloud and includes collaboration tools and improved security and upgrades. A lot of these upgrades occur on about a 90-day basis. Traditionally, whenever upgrades occurred, the IT department had to physically touch the units for those upgrades to happen. This is all automated at this point. Azure is a collective set of cloud services that allows us to build, manage, and deploy applications and services through a Microsoft Managed Data Center. These two items go hand-in-hand and we're very happy to report that we are on track and plan to have full implementation within three months. More communication regarding timelines and training will be disseminated internally very soon. We will also be launching a new cybersecurity awareness training to the commission. This is slated for April. It will include online on-demand training with a quiz at the end. It will cover the major tenants of security. The new platform also allows for reporting as well as doing iterative training throughout the year through phishing, exercises, and social engineering. And as you remember from our cyber awareness class, phishing is email seeking info using false information and social engineering are devised plans to secure confidential information and give you that sense of urgency. So we're really excited to launch this to the staff in the near future. In conjunction with the Ombudsman's Office, ITS is working on an application solution for grant management to allow better processing, tracking, and reporting. This application will also provide metrics and automation for communication and applicant data. The GTC team is also working on upgrading the lab to Advantage 9.7, which provides the platform necessary to run Play My Way. The lab currently runs both 9.4 and 9.7 for congruent testing of equipment running on their platforms. We had hoped to have the testing environment implemented back in November. Unfortunately, due to the system provider, we had delays in getting their deliverables. The GTC team is currently working on testing Play My Way in the lab for functionality, patron experience, and reporting. Through these efforts, we're able to test the interval alerts based on a player's budgetary settings for their daily, weekly, and monthly limits. In conjunction with the research and responsible gaming team, we are ensuring that reports generated from the system capture the data sets and requirements needed. I have a couple of questions on those initiatives, just broadly. The Play My Way that you described, is that for PPC or EDA and MGM? No, this is specific for the Advantage system, which is the house systems for both MGM and Encore Boston Harbor. Okay. And on the grant management, is that for the community mitigation grants? Correct. I'm not aware of the state of development, but my recommendation would be that we do some of what we've done in the past, especially with the licensing management system in terms of the agile methodology, that we don't go down the path too far in terms of developing without the user knowing and being engaged. And I know you mentioned the Ombudsman's Office. I think there's a need there because the grants are coming more and more, and there is now a need to really evolve from a spreadsheet or paper documents. But I wouldn't want that development process to go so far imagining a future state that might leave us with the need to come back and rethink it sooner or after. Yeah, absolutely, Commissioner Zuniga. We actually have a team that has been comprised of the Ombudsman's Office. It also includes Jill Griffin, members of her team, as well as finance. So we have been evaluating products and we're actually at the phase where they're demoing to us using some of our actual structure and framework to see if that's going to do what it needs to do for us before anything is even implemented or accepted. So absolutely. And that's the right approach, I think, to have multi-perspectives. I've just seen in the past, not here in my prior jobs where a task force like these thinks of, you know, the best-case scenario for everybody's perspective and then very soon the effort turns really big. And, you know, we don't want to risk the collapse of something like that. Well, I think it's very exciting to have your assistance in helping on the projects such as the grant management because, just as Commissioner Zuniga indicates, it has grown and I'm sure that the scale will be, in terms of your solutions, will be proper. But I also suspect that this is all the scope and scale is addressed in the budgeting process on sort of an online basis. Right. Yep. Yeah, so there'll be time, there'll be a chance for us to be reviewing this. But I suspect that our ombudsman and team and will be appreciating whatever tools you create. In terms of cyber security training right now, it's, you're not addressing cyber security from a technological point of view. You're talking about training internally? Correct. Correct. You know, based on some of the classes that I've done internally here, the human element is a huge part of cyber security. And so the better equipped and more knowledge that our staff has on appropriate transactions and what are they're doing with emails? Things to be on the alert for really helps us be better about protecting our environment. So yes, this is, this is focused on training. We are doing the security elements behind architecture and obviously for security reasons, we would not divulge that publicly. But the, the, the program that we're launching in April is focused on user training. Well, I certainly have noticed the upgrade in attention to assisting everyone in this, in this organization with technical needs, with training. It's really noticeable. And you're always inviting us to, you know, train on a new system we may have implicated. So it's, it's, it's really helpful. So thank you for, for that. And your staff is very professional and knowledgeable. Thank you, Commissioner Cameron. Biggest challenge is disrupting your team when they sit down at our, our joint efforts. They all like to be clustered together. You've got a strong group really like to work together. We do, we do. Yeah. So this is very helpful. And I, this is only a snapshot of nine of 15 current projects. Correct. It's great. It's very exciting. Thank you. Good work. Good work. Thank you. Thank you. So if this format is helpful, I can continue to ask senior leadership at the organization to come brief you, you know, different public meetings on, on what's going on in their departments. And you have a little time to interact with them at this level. I think that would be helpful. I think it's very helpful because we hear about word of mouth, you know, what one division is doing, you know, and this is a very helpful to see it, to understand it in an organized format. Thank you. Okay. So I'd like to now move on to item B within the administrative update. Just wanted to give you status report, the Regency RFI and request for public comment as directed by the commission that has been posted. And the responses are due on March 16. And I would like to note that there was a significant, we did receive a significant amount of media coverage. I'd like to compliment our communications team for their efforts on that area, in that area. So they did get a lot of media coverage announcing the open comment period. And I also like to thank the local press for helping us spread the work because that helps with the process. And we continue to promote the request through our social channels on a routine basis. So there's still an ongoing effort to get information out there that we're looking for these responses. So we will circle back with you after those responses are in and provide you with the information that we receive. Any questions on that? Any questions? So the next item on the agenda, I do have two MGM qualifiers, which are on the agenda for your vote for their suitability this morning. So I will start with Ms. Janet Swartz. She is a director, an outside director at MGM Resorts International. The ultimate final investigators on this case were Mike Banks and Fay Zau. Although I have mentioned to you there was delay in a couple of these because they're in part because there had been multiple assignments due to internal issues. But the final investigators were Mike Banks and Fay Zau that completed the investigation. In March of 2018, she took a position as an outside director. As you know, MGM Resorts International is the parent company for blue tarp redevelopment or licensee. And based on that position, she was determined to be an individual qualifier for MGM Springfield. As during the course of the investigation as per our normal course of procedure, we did confirm her identity through various methods. She was educated at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville with a Bachelor of Arts in 1992 for economics. She then continued her education at the Harvard Business School in Boston earning an MBA in 1996. We did confirm both degrees through the National Student Clearing House and contact with the school registrar. As to her employment, she indicated and the investigators spoke with her about working at MX Media from 1999 until 2000 as their chief executive officer. She also worked in a variety of positions at Princess Cruises, vice president of strategy and business development, sales and customer service, executive vice president of sales marketing and customer service. She was eventually named president in 2013. And then from 2016 until president, she's group president of Princess Cruises in Carnival Australia. As a result of her position as an outside director for MGM Resort, she was required to apply following jurisdictions to determine suitability. The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, Michigan Gaming Control Board, Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, the New York State Gaming Commission and the West Virginia Lottery. As the date of the report, she was found qualified in New Jersey, Michigan and New York State and our information, it's still pending in Maryland and West Virginia. She also had in her position with various, with her positions in the cruise line, she had to be licensed for applications for various liquor licenses and she, we confirmed that those licenses were in good standing with no derogatory information. Beyond her directorship at MGM Resorts International, she also serves on the board for cruise line industry association located in Washington, DC. She's been on that board for approximately eight years and that's a non-compensated position. She also stated she serves on several internal boards within the Princess Cruise Line Corporation for internal governance. She was, she was interviewed and had discussion with the investigators regarding her submission on her multi-jurisdictional personal history disclosure form about civil litigation. She's had various litigation through her position as the Princess in Princess Cruises in the ordinary course of business but nothing regarding her individual capacity or anything regarding her individual behavior. We also indicate, we also reviewed criminal history, media coverage, references and did a deep dive into her financial suitability. All in all, there were no significant issues discovered which would negatively impact her suitability and the IEB found that she demonstrated suitability by clear and convincing evidence so we were recommending that the commission find her suitable under our regulations and our law. Yeah, it was a very clean investigation and Madam Chair, I would move that the commission find Janet Schwartz suitable as a qualifier for blue top redevelopment LLC. Second. Excuse me, any questions for Karen? Thank you. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? 5-0. Thank you. Thank you very much. The second qualifier for your consideration is Mr. Craig Jacobs. He is the Vice President of Information Technology Operations at MGM Resorts International. Similar to the other qualifier, this investigation also had numerous investigators but it was the finalization report or the finalization of the report was done by Mr. Kevin Owen and the financial investigator Fay Zau. As suitabilities always ongoing with our licensees, both at the corporate level and at the individual level, we also we decided to take a look at our licensees to see if in addition to what we looked at through our original scope of licensing if there were any other individuals that we should be capturing for suitability. So we undertook that process in 2018 and taking a look, we made the determination under our authority of the regs and under the law that we'd like to capture the Vice President of Information Technology in operations because it has such a significant role with IT that that really is important and we'd like to make sure that that individual was suitable under our standards. So as a result, he was deemed a qualifier. He had been working there since 2014 but this wasn't until later in 2008 or until 2018. Similar to the protocol for the previous qualifier, his identity was confirmed through our normal protocol. He, as for his education, he graduated from College County High School in 2001. Then he attended Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky where he got a bachelor's degree in telecommunication systems management. After graduation in 2005, he continued at Murray State University where he earned a master of business administration in 2006. Both his degrees were confirmed through the National Student Clearinghouse Degree Verification. Prior to working at MGM Results International, he had worked at affinity gaming in Las Vegas and Nevada from 2006 to 2014. And then, as I stated previously, came to work at MGM Resorts International then in 2014. He does hold a gaming-related license in Nevada. Investigators confirmed with the Nevada Game Control Board that he has an active license that revealed no derogatory information. He's never held any offices, trustees, directorships, or fiduciary positions with any firm, corporation, association, or partnership, so there were no issues to just explore in that area. Similar to other qualifiers that you have reviewed, we did a check of civil litigation, his criminal history, media coverage, references, and did a deep dive into his financial suitability and no significant issues were discovered, which would warrant a negative finding of suitability with respect to Mr. Jacobs. So similar to the prior qualifier, the IEB's finding that he demonstrated suitability by clear and convincing evidence and we are recommending that you approve his suitability. Do I have a motion with respect to this qualifying report? Madam Chair, I would move that the commission define Mr. Jacobs suitable to hold a gaming license. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Five-zero, please. Thank you. And that concludes section three of the administrative update. And thank you to your entire team at IEB for very thorough, too thorough reports. Thank you. Moving on to Ombudsman Ziemba, item number four. And you'll be bringing up a team from the Springfield area. Welcome. I hope the roads weren't too bad today. A little slushy out here. Good morning, Madam Chair and commissioners. We have asked MGM Springfield to give the commission as much detail as it can regarding the status of its residential requirement. As you're aware earlier this week, Mayor Sarnow issued a statement regarding some positive news about the status of the project. That statement was followed by a review of the project by Springfield's Casino Oversight Committee. In order to provide the commission further information about this news, today we are joined by Seth Stratton, MGM Springfield Vice President and General Counsel, Tim Sheehan, Springfield's Chief Development Officer, Mark Atia, Assistant Secretary for the Executive Office for Administration and Finance, and Michael O'Brien from the Wynn Companies. We thank them for coming today and recognize all of their work on this matter. Just by way of background, as you're aware, the commission has regularly reviewed at its commission meetings the status of MGM Springfield's commitment to provide 54 units of market rate housing within one half mile of the casino. Last year, the commission authorized an extension to comply with this residential requirement until March of this year. The deadline reflected a date set in Springfield's host community agreement with MGM Springfield for the construction of the units. When the commission extended the deadline, there was a recognition that further action would be required both by the commission and the city council because of the complexities of the project and the time that would be needed to actually build the 54 units. At the time, the commission required that MGM Springfield shall continue to inform the commission of any material event that would significantly alter the potential of MGM Springfield proceeding with the city's plan to rehabilitate 31 Elm Street in Springfield with the assistance provided by MGM Springfield. Further, the commission required that staff shall remain in contact with MGM Springfield and the city of Springfield to monitor the project, its documentation, its schedule and report back to the commission at an appropriate time. We are not asking the commission to take any action regarding the residential requirement at today's meeting. As will be explained by the group, other actions must occur at the local level to move forward with this project. At the appropriate time, as early as the next commission meeting in two weeks, we will come back to the commission to discuss the content of the approvals that would be needed to be considered by the commission. While we contemplate no action today, we know that today will be very informative to the commission and indeed to the public. Even after today, we can continue to work with the parties to answer any questions the commission may have. And with that as a background, let me turn it over to Seth. Thank you, John. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning. Nice to see you again. It's been a little while. I will, John's offer to provide as much detail as we can. I'll resist taking that as a challenge in the interest of everyone. I'll try to be brief. We have some folks here who have much more, I think, interesting input on this project than I do. So you have in your packet a letter where I did provide a lot of detail with respect to the history and MGM Springfields position and some of the details of our involvement in this project. I will say it does feel like somewhat of an auspicious occasion to be here before you with this group, with this project from what we can tell on the one yard line of moving forward. I and maybe some of you here may have doubted whether we'd be here based on the length of time that it's taken, the number of extensions, which we appreciate. But I think what this group in front of you represents is what I've experienced to be unprecedented collaboration at the city, state, and developer level with our involvement as well and certain other parties to move forward a very complex project that has the potential of being transformative in the revitalization of downtown Springfield to the benefit of the city of Springfield and to the benefit of MGM Springfield because as you're well aware, the project is immediately adjacent to our project and essentially separates MGM Springfield from the vibrancy of the business center and effectively the capital of downtown Springfield. So we're excited to move forward. I'll assume your familiarity with the project and a lot of the details provided in my letter. I'll just briefly highlight for you the key elements of MGM Springfields involvement and then I'll turn it over to our partners up with me here today. So effectively MGM Springfield will be working with the city to amend our host community agreement which embodies the original 54 unit housing residential development requirement. We will seek an amendment to that host community agreement which in lieu of developing 54 units ourselves, we will make a $16 million contribution to a development fund which will fund a loan through mass housing which will with certain other funds will provide additional funding to the developer to fund the 31L project. In exchange for that $16 million contribution will effectively have a long-term loan interest in the property. We won't be the lender but we will not have any debt service on that so it's effectively more in line with a grant. At least the original $11 million commitment. We were through discussions with the parties our $11 million commitment grew to we're happy to say we're supporting an even higher level at $16 million. Part of that additional funding will result in a minority ownership interest in the project which we're pleased with and we will also be in connection with this contribution returning to the city an iconic building in downtown Springfield 195 State Street which is about a block and a half from our project the former school department building we purchased and made improvements to we'll return that to the city of Springfield and it's my understanding that the city will seek to have additional potentially residential development in that building as well. So we view it as a win-win for the city for us and for the residents of the area we think it'll really help to turn on the city even further. The mechanics of the amendment to the HCA amendment itself basically substitute our obligation for our compliance with a cooperative funding agreement in which all the parties involved will be signatories to and that lays out our obligations as well as those of others and I think and that's where Mark Atia from A&F who's been instrumental in getting folks together to get this done could I think speak to the mechanics and give you a high level of review of that arrangement. So unless there are further questions for me I'd be happy to turn it over to Mark. Seth, I have one question the minority ownership that hasn't been designated yet publicly or is that going out for a competitive bid or how is that being determined? No, so that will be so effectively once the project is constructed and Michael and Brian could speak to this as well the property will be, it's currently owned by the city it'll ultimately be owned by the developer and LLC, the Win Opal companies. I understand a special purpose LLC to hold interest in the property. We will take a minority ownership interest in that LLC that owns the property. I understand it's a minority. Okay, so you don't have a minority. They're the minority owner. You're the minority, I just heard you're the minority owner but in terms of there's not a diverse partner right now that's been designated. Thank you. A minority ownership. Thank you. Of course I'm only raising probably another issue so thank you. No, it's fine. Thank you and go ahead Mark. Thank you commissioners, it's a pleasure to be here. Nice to see you Mark. Thank you. And you as well. And to echo Seth's comment I too feel it's a fair representation that this is an unprecedented level of partnership with a level of complexity that many of us have not seen. We arrived here today really after six months of weekly engagement with a number of parties. Maybe one of them on the phone now. Sorry. And are very pleased with the progress we made and very proud of the quality of agreement that we have created together with a very clear purpose in mind which is a great deal of alignment of interests, a focus on seeing this project come to fruition on a timeline that we've determined to be appropriate. The agreement that Seth referenced the cooperative funding agreement at this stage is substantially final but still subject to review and therefore there are certain details I cannot discuss including the names of some of the many parties involved I ask for your understanding. But I am happy to give a broad overview of how the framework works and in particular how the structure gives us confidence that should we reach execution of this document and see the project commence a very high degree of confidence given the seasoned and talented operator the nature of the agreement itself that this project will come to fruition. Very simply on the cooperative fund agreement this is an agreement to capitalize a loan in the form of a construction and permanent loan to finance the development of the project. The, in essence that is the heart but multiple funding parties aggregating capital to mass housing a seasoned housing finance agency with many decades of experience providing loans for exactly projects like this in order to administer a loan in accordance with standard procedures that are familiar to the developer here and to win. This agreement upon signature will be subject to several preconditions to reach financial close which includes among others of course authorization support from the city of Springfield and their city council to advance the project the necessary permitting that is required to put a shovel in the ground and as John indicated agreement on the amendment to the host community agreement and any official actions required for the licensing agreement. So we believe we're all aligned to see these things happen but to be sure the funding is contingent on a number of things happening which aren't necessary. So we think that's a good way of framing where we stand today. One question I know that has come up with respect to the loan is what happens if? This is a construction project, they're complex. How do we control for the inevitable uncertainties that come with a complex historic rehabilitation cost overruns and so on. Many of these measures of security and protections for the funders and for mass housing and for the developer are described in some detail in the cooperative funding agreement but ultimately once we reach financial close and we're operating under the traditional loan and financing agreements pursuant to programs under mass housing we're operating in sort of a traditional commercial lending environment. The developer will be required to post performance and completion guarantees ensuring that we have sufficient backstop to make sure that the project gets completed if there are overruns. We've contemplated a surty for mass housing to ensure that the third party funding comes in to capitalize the loan but even at that point the developer throughout the construction project and throughout really the term of the loan will be subject to our regulatory agreement which is ongoing compliance, certain restrictions on refinancing, transfer of assets, covenants that ensure fair housing practices are administered in accordance with what we call a tenant selection plan and of course that the predetermined level of affordability as a necessary condition of lending through mass housing is adhered to throughout the term of the loan. So and finally I should mention our operating agreement and replacement reserve. Mass housing requires that for those projects that they lend, they asset manage these loans with a great deal of professionalism to ensure that the asset is always well capitalized, well maintained, well operated and consistent with a high quality loan which is something mass housing does really with great excellence. So those are some of the broad principles of the cooperative funding agreement. It's the culmination of six months of very hard work and we're quite enthusiastic to see this move forward. I happily take your questions. I have one question. You've mentioned overruns and the concern about that given the complexity of the historic site and the fact that it hasn't been inhabited for over 30 years or decades. What about time frames? We are looking for housing and there's some safeguards contemplated for dealing with extensions on time. Yes, so the cooperative agreement contemplates certain time limitations in order to commence with the construction project. They are quite realistic, I'd say, within 12 months or so that assuming that the agreement is signed and Springfield commences with the necessary approval processes to allow the project to start. The developer must operate by the time you reach financial close in a continuous state of construction, allowing us to hold the developer to performance as we commence with what our partners from Wimbled says, probably an 18 to 24 month project. There are date limitations on funding. There are expectations of when this project will be underway and there's protections to ensure the project cannot be stalled or slowed once we get started. Commissioner, you asked about cost overruns. You seem to address that well, so I'm just not addressing those but in terms of time. Before we continue, I wish to thank you for all the efforts that you've made on this. You and John have worked so well together in the collaboration for all of you here. I'm looking forward to the continued report but to you and your colleagues and my old colleagues, particularly at Mass Housing, thank you for keeping us so well informed and for all the collaborative efforts here. Thank you. More questions for Mark. I agree. This is very encouraging. The one-line, the one-yard line. We haven't heard that before. We're all hoping there are no fumbles but this is a project. We know how important it is to the city of Springfield so it is important that the highest level of government in the Commonwealth got behind this project and I know everyone's been patient but yet diligent to try to get this done so it really is encouraging. Thank you. Thank you. Our pleasure. Yes, some of the materials and history that you articulate are really remarkable to look back to the fact that this property has been vacant for close to 30 years. Is that correct? And I'm going to guess that there have been a number of efforts in the past that have, for whatever, for many reasons, failed. But even when, maybe just when this comes to fruition, I think it would be transformative to the city as it's evidenced by what you describe. And thank you, commissioners. And if I could, one obvious and important step as with any HCA amendment is that the city has to approve it and the city council plays a critical role. We had a meeting this past Tuesday with the city council casino oversight committee which Mr. Sheen and Mr. O'Brien attended as well where we presented. And at least from my perspective, it was almost 180 from some prior communications on this project with the council. They were enthusiastic, supportive, excited, and very positive about this development. And I think that bodes well for the necessary vote which will need to occur before we come back for final approval to this commission. But we anticipate that that will go very well. And I would invite, I think, Mr. O'Brien and Mr. Sheen to make any further comments about the development or about their perception of the city approval process. Madam Chair, commissioners, as the commission is excited to be at this point with this project at the one-yard line, you can imagine how excited the city is to be here. The project, as you know, is a huge asset in terms of its historical significance to the city. It fronts on Court Square. It's a gateway to the casino itself. It's a gateway from the convention center at the heart of the downtown. So its transformation will be a game changer relative to downtown Springfield. To follow up on the Chair's comments with regards to the participation of A&F and Mark in this, Mark has done a fantastic job in terms of saying it's taken six months, six months, as all of you know, in terms of timelines and moving a project of this complexity, in terms of financing, is lightning speed. So Mark and his team are truly to be congratulated on this effort, and we look forward to advancing this and making an announcement soon. Welcome. Thank you so much, Madam Chairman and members of the commission. It's great pride. I'm here with an incredible team of people that have labored over five years to get to this point. MGM and certainly myself. I can tell you that for each of those five years I've invested, I've taken a year off the end of my life because of the nature of the project. But we would not be here without the word partnership. To get some perspective, we talked about the building itself, 30 years vacant. That has unfortunately resulted in a great deal of water damage. Lack of maintenance and asset management have resulted in structural failures, significant. And just a layman's perspective, walking through the building, there's significant holes through the floors. There's absolutely no systems that exist in the building. And that lack of heat through the years and freeze and thaw cycles as well as various animals that have made a 1331 home have got this building at a point now that it would be lost. But for the work that's being done, the stewardship of this commission, the partnership with MGM, the great work of the state, and I compliment Mark Atia right up to the governor and his interest, the city, Mayor Sarno and his team, including Chief Development Officer Sheehan and MGM. And there's other partners, including state agencies, as you've mentioned. Private partners yet to be announced. And obviously our work with National Park Service and Mass Historic Commission. But for that, this building would be lost to the city of Springfield, to the generations going forward that would enjoy, obviously it being such a center point in the city. So I'm thrilled to be part of the partnership. What I will tell you is the endeavors extremely costly because we will replicate, renovate and restore its historic beauty inside and out. Our requirement of historic tax credits, but that's what we specialize in. Wind companies, which I'm an executive vice president, adaptively reuses these types of buildings all over the country and brings it back to that beauty. But along the way, make sure all historic elements are preserved, protected and obviously enhanced for the future as well as making sure there's a right adaptive use. 74 apartments, 15 of them will be middle income. 59 will be pure market. There'll be 12,000 square feet on the first floor. We have active interest from retailers and restaurant tours to take that space. So I think that says a lot about the city of Springfield and the work that's being done by all the leadership I've mentioned. It will be built, obviously, with all ADA standards and will take on all new code to ensure that it's built once, built right, and built for the future as well. So we look forward to it. It'll be built by union. There'll be a PLA on the project and we're active with the unions right now and discussions to get to that project labor agreement and have that in place. And so I look forward to working with this commission and obviously all of our partners. I will tell you this, to that partnership, these guys are tough. All the nine partners are on the table and this agreement is probably as tight as I've ever seen in my professional career with the checks and balances that will be expected in a public-private partnership, ensuring each dollar is spent wisely with the oversight and management of those dollars to ensure that it's done once, done right, and done for that future generation. And it's just, again, a measure of pride to be part of such a project. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I know there's questions about risks and whatnot and overruns, but what about an upside? Let's just assume that everything goes really well and what not. Can you comment on who gets, what kind of benefits does the city derive from, let's say, a project like this? Besides the economic development around it, is there anything tangible in terms of this asset if things go really well, let's say? Well, in terms of the existing state of the building, it's controlled by the Springfield Redevelopment Authority, so there's potential tax benefits associated with that in terms of its return as an income-producing property. There's also, you know, as you've seen as a commission, there is a need to invest in economic development all around the casino area. And this, again, activating this space is the first leg of that ongoing effort for years to come. And it's also a tangible that, you know, you're bringing economic spending power of people that are living in those units back to the downtown, and they will ultimately be frequenting the retail restaurants that are in the downtown. And, you know, that's important to us because the economic health of those businesses requires more than people being there on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. There needs to be an active foot presence in the downtown to economically stimulate both the existing market that's in the downtown and the future market to come. If I could, Madam Chairman, when does this type of work, when companies all over the country and with the project of this significance in its position, I think the Urban Land Institute back in 2006 designated this as the number one economic development project for the city. The results of this project will be catalytic for, obviously, its symbolic realities, but beyond that, of what it will do to create additional activity in and around the Casino, in and around City Hall, and around Court Square. And we've seen it time and again, whether it's in Rochester, New York, or it's in Buffalo, or we're down in the Mid-Atlantic. Every time a project like this comes to bear, great things happen as a result of it, and the reality of the partnership that's been presented, it shows that the city of Springfield is open for business and ready to work on complex things to get things done, and that's a shot around the world. So it'll bring other developers to bear to looking at other opportunities. And the city's vision is amazing, and they're working hard to achieve it, and this will be a check-in-out box that gives other people hope and the inspiration to take on complex projects in Springfield. If I could add one more piece. We neglected to bring a map, and we're assuming familiarity among this commission with its location, but it shouldn't be lost that is directly across the street from the state-owned Mass Mutual Center owned by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, and effectively every window from the Mass Mutual Center looks out directly on Court Square in this building. And so activating this property not only for Court Square and neighboring MGM Springfield, but the neighboring Mass Mutual Center and the activation there will also have that catalytic impact. Yeah, I would like to add and again appreciate the great partnership that's been formed. I remember Seth, to your point, Commissioner McHugh, standing on the second floor of the convention center looking out at downtown saying what a beautiful downtown need to do something there. I think what's encouraging for us is that this one project completes MGM's commitment. Had you not been able to pull this project off, you would have had to continue to split up the other work between 195 State Street and another location to find the remaining unit that you're committed to. So this is a win-win, I feel, in that you're completing your commitment, that property being turned back to the city hopefully for another developer to take that, you know, this... see the opportunity there and turn 195 State Street hopefully into a residential unit as well as I think the best scenario we could have found for the city of Springfield and for MGM to meet their commitment. So congrats to everybody that's been a part of the team and Mark and your colleagues at A&F and Tim and the mayor. Thank you. I think Commissioner Stevens has pointed out that we do have our work to complete and we will be signing off, but I think I probably can fairly speak for all of us here that we are keeping our fingers crossed. I came on a year ago and I learned about... I saw this site and was briefed by Botsman Siamba and I am just right now keeping my excitement very close to my own best but it is truly a testament to what can happen with proper collaboration and imagination and generosity. It's not lost on us that there is an element of generosity here that will be part of this overall project. So we thank you for all your efforts, Mark. You've gotten your kudos. We appreciate all the efforts from everyone and I also would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge the fact that the President, the new President Chris Kelly is here in the back recognizing the import of today's meeting and getting to see us in operation. We will be visiting Springfield at our next meeting, February 27th where I think we'll have a more proper introduction from Mr. Kelly but thank you to Chris for coming out today recognizing this is an exciting moment. We wish you luck on that last yard. I don't know if it's going to be a run or a throw but we just want that touchdown. I suspect keeping our fingers crossed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, John. Thank you so much and thank you, Joe, too. I do, too. Safe travels back to Springfield. Thank you. And we have yet another report that we're looking forward to today. Very much so from our director of workforce supplier and development, Jill Griffin. Welcome, gentlemen, and thank you, Jill. Good morning, Chair Juddstein and commissioners. Good morning. For Black History Month, the commission recognizes through this vendor spotlight what we have learned to be the oldest minority-owned business in New England, Owens Movers. So this 93-year-old Everett Massachusetts company attributes their nine decades of success to company culture. With me here today is father and son team, CEO, Mr. Eddie Owens, and seated to his right is CFO Ed Owens. And I'm going to give a few introductory remarks and then turn it over so you can hear firsthand about this company. But as part of Teamsters Local 25, the company is able to provide its employees with excellent benefits. Starting with a horse-drawn cart in 1927, today Owens Movers has 25 employees, performs commercial moving, trash removal, and industrial warehousing and storage. And I'm sure I've missed some other services. Owens Movers recently worked on Encore Boston Harbor's pre-opening, including moving of table games and restaurant furniture into the casino, along with gaming equipment into the nearby dealer training school. And later, relocating table games and performing multiple on-demand jobs for them. And Encore Boston Harbor's procurement team indicated they're great, they're so responsive, we love the Owens Moving Company. So again, I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Owens and Mr. Owens. Yes. Good morning, Madam Chair. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning. And thank you very much for the nice introduction there. I can't tell you how pleased I am to be here, how proud I am to be here. Not only that, my father started the company with very humble beginnings back in the day, but also my mom lived in Everett. And the thing that got me was when Chief Maisie bought the former CEO out to the site, and he said this is the best location in the country to have a casino. And my son and family kids me because I've been talking about the casino for the last six years. And I just want to say a few things that it was a pleasure seeing Jackie Cormick from the old days, as well as Commissioner Cameron. I could sit here all day and talk about my family and the contribution of workforce development, but my wife and I were there at the casino and spent a weekend. It was an experience that I never thought would ever come to Everett, because my grandmother was from Everett. She worked as an elevator operator downtown. And my mom used to say that it had to put the windows up, closed windows. And when I saw that ad, Monsanto, and you promised to cling up to Haber, my mom died at 63, and it was from cancer. And the beautiful job that you've done and how happy, economically happy everybody in Everett is, and how proud they are and the contribution that you're making, the best decision. So you made Everett proud and you made me proud to be here to invite me and thank you very much, Jill. So on that note, I'd like to hand it over to my son because he's my boss now. I'll just say a few things. I'm the quiet one in the family. Thank you again, Commissioner's director. I also want to thank Bill Curtis for having us here today. Equally as important, I want to thank everyone, Jackie Crom, and everyone from Wynn and Encore for really giving us the opportunity to provide services for the casino. One thing that my dad has always said is that our business will always be based upon relationships. As a moving company, our goal has never been to be the biggest moving company in Boston. We want the relationships. It's really the quality aspect that has really attracted us to Encore. A lot of our employees, we've been very fortunate. We have a great team. A lot of our employees have been with us since I've been a baby. They've put in a lot of work over the past year plus making sure that the execution was up to Wynn's standards. We want to thank everyone from Encore for giving us the opportunity to provide services. We were very excited when Gaming Act went into effect in 2011. In fact, six months later, my dad and I were sending emails, networking, and trying to meet as many folks as we could. It's been a great experience and we're very thankful for the opportunity. I've learned that Wynn's Movers was one of the first companies to be licensed. Bill Curtis mentioned a very low licensing number. They were one of the first, meaning they were anxious and excited about the opportunity. I would love to thank you for coming in today. I was smiling when I saw you on the agenda because we did have the opportunity to meet at a charitable event and spend some time together with the entire family. I'll always remember your comments. You came and spoke to us at a public hearing about what this could do forever. Your comments were inspirational. You were looking at long term, not just for yourself but for the entire city. That made a difference. That was part of our decision making because we had two very competitive projects and comments like that did weigh into our decision to move forward and approve a license in Everett. I'm happy to see the back end of this because we were there on the front end listening and I think your family is inspirational as well the way you contribute to charitable events and you know, you're very proud of everything you do and that is inspirational and thank you. Thank you for being here today. Well, thank you again for those kind words and as I always say to both of my sons and my daughter, to whom much is given, much is expected. I've been blessed that I had two great parents and that provided for us. My father worked six days a week. My mom was a stay at home mom and my grandmother lived with us and the grandmother was the key because I was the baby in the family and I was the one that there was just a C student but I always wanted to go into the moving business because my dad was my hero and it's not a day that goes by I don't think of my father and I make decisions what would dad say? What would mom say? Because you want to make them proud and so I thank you again for my family, my grandchildren because they're all hearing us. Thank you again. Mr. Owens, thank you. Thank you for being here and for your words. The experience that you mentioned about the casino, did you have an opportunity to dine at it? What would you rate it and what can you tell us about it? I'm very biased. Having a problem with it. You can leave it up to us. Okay. You're providing jobs as my father used to always say if you provide someone an occupation to make a living you're already at you're almost halfway there and the thing about us is that we've been teamsters for well over 60 years but the thing about it is we provide pension through the union and we provide healthcare. How could I deny anyone that? I can't because I have to live with myself and that's the way my father always thought. So we've been blessed that it's a partnership and you know the rules and we abide by the rules and service is the key. When my father was coming up we people when we were in the moving business the household moving business what we did was I should say my father did we used to move all the pianos for the pops Tanglewood and would go up there with a gang of guys and move them all around for Leonard Bernstein and everything and my father found a niche the fact that no one wants to move pianos so everyone used to call us and that was our niche. We did that for a long time in fact Commissioner Cameron was saying how's your golf game? I don't have one because of my knees because of all those pianos I moved. You know when I tell folks how many pianos I used to move a day 20 they look at me like hey come on would do a pick and pick up the piano put it on the dolly take it off the dolly put it on the truck and do the absolute reverse before we even get to the store of Baldwin or a symphony hall so actually it's a little bit more than 20 pianos day but the body's not designed for that so but I do it all over again because I did it to provide a living for my family and that's what comes at the end of the day everybody wants the same things they want to take care of their family so I just I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the casino I'm not a gambler so but the restaurants are fabulous the steak was unbelievable and Frank Sinanatra I'm into that I really enjoyed that but the diversity the people from all different countries I was so proud that and I talked to them it was a delightful weekend and I'm gonna be back thank you I wanted to just thank Director Griffin I know she had some help from Bill Curtis giving us the opportunity to recognize not only the amazing history of the company but how you've benefited from the introduction of gaming in Massachusetts we used to have a piano in my house I should have called you because the last firm we hired was Excited until my wife told us the piano was going up on the second floor but I mean I can't think of a finer example of what the gaming law was intended to do was intended to give local small businesses in Massachusetts the opportunity to partner with a nationally and internationally recognized company and the legislation was so specific about that and your company is a great example of how that success for the gaming statutes being realized so thank you for that I suspect that Jackie was very excited when she learned about the expertise that you could provide in moving the gaming tables but I have to add one element you said which is so true we all hope we can share the same goal of providing for our family as the greatest priority imagine how you touched all of the commonwealth never mind areas around by making sure that the music of the pops symphony has been available to all of us so they couldn't do it without that piano and so your knees we're indebted to your knees a remarkable fit that you were in Everett and available to move it's nice to give Bill until credit but I think your history speaks for itself so thank you and thank you for your service thank you very much in closing I just had to tell the commission how I love digging into the history of this company I learned that the pianos delivered included Arthur Fiedler the late Senator Brooke Johnny Mathis and Owens Moving also moved the first microwave oven from Raytheon which was the size of a piano it was not the kind that you would imagine probably a little more difficult it was a macro oven so that with the first casino in greater Boston they have a history of making history there so anyway thank you thank you both well now we're moving on to item number six and we have Mr. Curtis here who's just thanked by both Mr. Owens good morning Bill good morning Jack good morning I was kind of saying it's kind of we started out with two very positive reports and we're looking forward to yours as well so thank you Bill thank you on the court so today I'm joined with representatives from Boston how about Jackie from Senior Vice President General Counsel Bill is your bill gone and now Warren Richard's Executive Director of Food and Beverage we hit before you do to amend the original gaming beverage license application presentation that the commission approved on May 22nd 2019 today for consideration and vote a three separate amendment request to this original application the amendment requests have been submitted on the commission form as prescribed under the 205 CMR 136 0.04 parentheses 2 the applications are required to contain the following information floor plan showing the location of the area within the gaming establishment description of the licensed area including the location of the dispensing areas exits and bottle service description of the manner in which alcoholic beverages are stored and secured description of the business concept, business hours and the identity of the manager upon initial review of these applications by the division of licensing policies were noted and the applications were deemed incomplete as per 205 CMR 136.03 parentheses 2 modifications were then requested to bring the forms into compliance with the above requirements revised applications have been received, reviewed and found to now be in full conformance with 205 CMR 136.04 and MGL Chapter 23K subsection 26 I want to give you a high level of view of each request and then I would ask the representatives from alcohol Boston Haber to explain these amendments further as they present additional information in their PowerPoint presentation. So the first amendment would be additional storage for alcohol. This amendment requests eight additional storage areas for alcoholic beverages. Currently surplus alcohol is stored in four locations the four locations being three on the ground floor would be the wet the warehouse, the liquor pump room and the liquor pantry and on the third floor the liquor pump room. The additional storage will be on the first and second floor with identifiable numbers on the doors of the seven storage areas. The eighth storage area is for Fertely's restaurant a vendor to Encore Boston Haber. The storage area will be located in the back of the house hallway adjacent to Fertely's outer wall. Liquor storage will be in locked liquor cages. The second amendment is for additional alcohol beverage outlet. This amendment requests an additional alcohol beverage outlet location to be called Salon Prevay a VIP lounge located on the second floor in the high-limit area. Access to the lounge will be by COD or by invitation. There will be lounge seating for 30 guests licensed employees will serve alcoholic beverage during the hours of 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. Encore has represented that there will be the lounge at all times. Alcohol storage will either be in will be stored in either excuse me, Salon Prevay locked credentials on the back of the house. In the third and final amendment is change in description of a licensed area. This amendment requests to convert the preparation of alcoholic drinks for the casino beverage service area from bar tenders to easy bar self-service towers. The easy bar self-storage tower will be operated by a cocktail server. This conversion will take place in the casino beverage service areas numbers 1 through 6 and number 8. Casino beverage service in area number 7 will remain the same. Alcoholic drinks will be prepared by the bar attendant. A total of 28 easy bars have slash will be installed with four easy bar towers in each casino beverage service area. At the time of our inspection, I want to at least separate during myself and check out what they were doing. Not all installation was completed at that time. In the hours of the alcoholic beverage service will remain a change from 8 a.m. to 4 a.m. but only actively gaming patrons on the gaming floor will have the service from 2 to 4. I would ask that if the amendments are approved that Encore review their internal controls for alcoholic beverages so any changes are reflected in their internal controls. Any of these amendments if they're approved. So I would ask Jackie just to run through the Encore presentation. I'm actually going to turn it over to Warren who's the expert on this. So as you can imagine we essentially have seven months of data and information about the flow of patrons through the building and that led us to make these adjustments based on the demands of the various areas. One of the things that we learned very quickly in the first two weeks of opening was just how busy the facility was on the weekends and essentially storage areas which we had outlined in the design of the building on for instance Friday and Saturday night especially and that was causing us a huge amount of difficulty in running the operation and pulls from the warehouse after hours times which were very inconvenient to everyone involved and it was slowing down our service to the guests. So a lot of the storage area changes that are reflected here to do with that exactly. In this first instance, Sinatra Sinatra actually is an area that is not accessible through back-of-house areas. You actually have to cross a guest Esplanade to get to Sinatra so this was definitely one of the areas where we probably undervalued storage in the original design and the area that is the area that's identified there is actually an area which is just across that hallway and we've installed cages there and just allows us the extra capacity to store wine and some spirits in that area. All of the areas that you see here either have or will have installed 24-hour surveillance and RFID access to these spaces. This space is an example of one that is completed and both are installed and the only people with access to this space would be through RFID. The next space is a Bar Porter support room. Originally something that we intended purely to store paper goods and supplies in. We realized again would be a nice place to add additional alphal storage. This is actually quite close to Pump From One and the warehouse on the first floor so again from a logistics perspective it made a lot of sense for us to use this underutilized space and stored cups and mops and towels and things like that. This space here again a space which was on the original master plan used for retail storage. The retail footprint at that point included the spaces that are currently inhabited by restaurants. This storage space was never absorbed in those designs. It was retained by retail and we would again use this opportunity to add a storage area much closer to the restaurants Sinatra, Oyster Bar, Red 8 and Waterfront. Those are the four restaurants that would be immediately impacted by this as with the steakhouse. And this is the back corridor for Telly. So this is the main back of house area just up from the warehouse. For Telly and the original master plan was a restaurant that was actually going to be owned and operated by Encore. This was a date, an outlet that then went to a third party frankly Pasquale and Nick Verano. Because it was originally designed to be our outlet we did not build back of house storage for this outlet that would be proportionate to the space assuming that we would have daily drops coming from our warehouse. Now that it is a third party operated they do not requisition it from our warehouse and so they have drops coming that are of size as any independent restaurant would have. And so this has been the main reason for their challenges with storage. Basically we did not build a restaurant with storage. The storage was the warehouse. So there is nowhere other than that space delineated for them to store products. This is not just alcohol, it is paper goods, cooking oil all of those larger size items that need to come in on a truck once or twice a week for them. This space is high from the warehouse and is under plenty of surveillance with a number of things that are happening in that part of the building. Do you have any pictures of what those cages are? Are they attached to the wall? Do they have wheels? That is the one I am having trouble with. I don't believe there is one in the slide show but it is a hard metal wire cage on wheels that is typically six feet on wheels and they are essentially a six foot by three foot area with one or two shelves within. They are wire so that everyone can see the contents of what is inside so there can be no ambiguity as to what is being stored in there and they all have padlock security on the outside which only the operators of the venue would have access to. But they are movable? They are movable, yes. You have got ramps that take you to what? It seems like those are far too readily movable to give me confidence in storage. Absolutely. They can be attached. One of the reasons they are not attached at the moment is for the ease of cleaning the area so those can be moved out of the way but they can be fixed in place and that could be an easy adjustment for us to make immediately. Does that cause any issues in terms of fire code or egress or anything like that? The width of this corridor it is not an issue with fire and egress. So if they were fixed in place it would still comply with all the requirements? That is correct. Bill, you did make this was the one that also caught my attention. You noted that this is considered an open location whereas the remaining requested locations are behind closed doors so the difference here is that for even the mini storage nobody would actually know alcohol is stored behind those doors unless they had the information that is made public now. Correct. For these seven I did ask Jackie if she could just affix numbers to the outside door instead of putting a sign that said liquor storage Good idea. Less problems could occur. Right. Only probably upper management actually knows what is behind those doors. Now to Brian's concern and what I am hearing you because we want to be practical is that if you fix those you wouldn't be able to clean as easily. That is why they are on those doors. Is there a reason why I guess I am wondering is there a reason why you have just been build storage with closed doors? Why not just build out the hallway? Why not build the hallway out? Why the cages and why is it just because it is so much dense and it is clean? I think this has up to this point been a little bit of a moving target as to everyone normalizing their business. This was originally done as a potentially interim or short-term solution. Now we have a better idea of the long-term demands they have. We can investigate a more permanent solution here but the current storage that has been back there doesn't fill that entire green space. They have a time stored additional chairs from their private dining room for instance in that space as well. So there has been a little bit of flux as to what is stored in the space, what isn't stored in the space. They essentially use it for any back of house staging currently. That can be anything from liquor stored in a metal cage to furniture to a pallet of cooking supplies that may not have arrived. So they are already storing liquor in cages. But not liquor, right? That would be what we would be. I thought you said that on occasion they would have already done this. So this space out here is it has been quite flexible in terms of how we would imagine them using it and with it being a third party operator we haven't yet suggested a permanent solution. Is the next slide. Notice from the diagram it appears you have a liquor storage kind of on the other side of the hallway is that sufficient for the two of you to share obviously with keys to your own cages but access. That would be not impossible at all to investigate. That is where the pump room and all of the on-course supplies go. We have not wanted to share that space with a third party. Given that they are not our employees our preference would be to maintain separate access points. I probably echo my colleagues this is the one part of the request that concerns me the most just in terms of all the people you have moving up and down that service corridor. Somebody from County County doesn't have enough it's not an octopus can't relock the door before they go back in just don't want to pose a risk of somebody just having to be passing by grabbing a couple extra bottles out of the cage. You did point out that it's all under surveillance too. It's one of the most heavily trafficked back of house passages. It's one of the things that I think is from our perspective a positive about this location while not ideal if this was on the third floor for instance and it was outside of IT and it therefore would have very little traffic from 5 p.m. through 9 a.m. on Monday morning, 5 p.m. on Friday through 9 a.m. on Monday morning but this is a high traffic area seven days a week almost 24 seven. I think we've cuddled into one. The proposed first floor waterfront oyster storage refers to what was in the original plan a trash room for many of the Esplanade retail and restaurants. We have abandoned said plan for trash because it wasn't really logistical trash now goes all the way to the back of the building making this space available for storage. We actually intend this to be a dual use space to allow us additional prep space for the oyster bar so we can maybe expand the menu offerings some hot items as well as for waterfront additional prep space for those two restaurants again those were originally retail spaces so kitchens are tight and this will get us more flexibility the long-term plan of course if this is approved we would add potentially wine racks in here and this would be an RFID and surveillance driven area for us to use. The second floor beverage storage again for the continuation of the same theme a proxy location for additional beverage storage this space is right next to the stewarding warehouse and is already an RFID door and under surveillance. We had been using this for glassware recovery as we try to reunite glassware with its rightful owner in the building again we don't think that that's necessarily the most important use of this space or at least splitting this space again gives us more flexibility and similarly this is a space that is on the third floor above sorry on the second floor above the steakhouse steakhouse and the brew coffee shop again find themselves geographically quite a long way from the warehouse so again from an operational perspective and our ability to react especially after hours during the dinner only restaurant period this space here would give us that additional flexibility currently again storage for dry goods and this is a proposed future storage area that is just behind the guarding cafe and in room dining room kitchen again similar theme to everything that we've been saying bringing products closer for a proxy storage to the back of an outlet such as guarding cafe that concludes all of the additional storage areas this is the request for the conversion of what is existing a gaming salon so the map here indicates two gaming tables and some residential furniture we believe that following the launch of our tier card for the gaming guests that our top tier of players should have somewhere to relax and take time out this space in the high limit area lended itself very well this salon does not have a balcony view or anything of the casino so it was quite underutilized and essentially the proposition is to remove those tables add some lounge furniture and have a licensed employee provide beverage service for the rest of those guests during the approved hours again combination of small bites croissant cup of coffee a glass of wine beer or cocktail but this is really a lounge for a small amount of guests of the time 10 to 15 people just relaxing briefly this is not a public venue and loud music or anything like that it's literally a VIP lounge just for those small subset of guests currently I believe we have no more than 200 guests that are actually qualified for this lounge we anticipate that group growing over time but as you can imagine the qualified guests that are on property at the exact same time is never going to be a huge number and this space would be run when it is open with an employee always in the room because that caliber of guests again we would provide that service to them so there's no self-serve element there other than the food items if they wanted something to eat how would how would somebody access that when it's open you see card aid or I'm just curious currently there is a host desk I don't know if you have that previous map so I guess moving south on the map where the corridor begins for the gaming area there's currently a control point right there where we have a rope and stanchion and signage stating essentially black card guests only and there's typically a red card attendant sorry they win rewards there is usually a representative from our tier card program that's there or a host at the desk itself so there's very little traffic through there that is not approved Warren could you use that job a little bit on the bottle service too please sure bottle service this mirrors there's been no change here whatsoever to our original proposal just thought a good opportunity to revisit it so we do not anticipate bottle service being a regular occurrence in that space if so we would follow the bottle service requirements it would be under the control of a licensed employee at all times the guests would never be permitted to serve themselves and the bottle would never be unattended with the guests so that would leave with the employee that boarded if there was a necessity for them to step away from the table but just to be clear we don't actually intend to sell bottles no we do not intend to sell bottles I added that to this area as we did for some of the other areas in the instance that we had a private event for instance for instance we added bottle service to many other areas in the original application it was just for that one purpose it's not part of our regular programming this is a glass of wine bottle of beer venue which would be complimentary to the guest yes you quickly mentioned by invitation I'm assuming those are guests you're hoping to attract to no actually it's a guest that have qualified already to be in the highest tier of our newly implemented tiered program okay that's correct so this slide and the ones following refer to casino beverage service we have just as a recap eight casino service bars that service the casino floor these are all behind the scenes service bars nothing guest facing there are six on the lower floor which is on the left and there are two upstairs one is in high limit which is service bar number seven and the other is service bar eight that's over in the poker room area the next slides and we can stay on this one just for a second are closer looks at the inside of each of the bars we built bars in the traditional format here so typically one service well to accommodate one bartender there are two bars on property which are built with two service wells but the bulk of the casino floor bars downstairs only have one service well with one bartender one speed rack etc etc one ice well so if you're looking at service bar one would be an example the space in the bottom left corner that's actually where the bartender would be standing and the cocktail service would approach from the other side we have had fairly noticeable feedback from our guests from day one about the speed of beverage service on the casino floor being one of our largest complaints I have had plenty of opportunities to look at this process for the last six months and what we realized it actually wasn't a lack of cocktail service which is the usual suspicion it was actually the bottleneck that was happening in the service bars after they had taken the order so on a busy night you can imagine service bar one here having eight to ten cocktail servers working from it in the existing and old model that is eight to twelve people approaching one bartender and so what that was doing was no matter how many cocktail servers we had the snake waiting for the bartender was just getting longer and longer and longer as the bartender had to execute those drinks so adopting the self serve easy bar technology we actually are able to add four locations this is the self service tower we replace the bottleneck with four different places that someone can approach so now you're taking eight and spreading them across four instead of eight and all going to one so our hope and we believe this will be demonstrated quickly is that this will as much as four times improve the speed of service going out to the casino floor now this is not because I'm trying to serve any faster than we originally had intended but it means the hour wait for a drink which I have been told has often been the case on peak will shrink down to 40 minutes 30 minutes 20 minutes which was our original target which we proposed which was a guest we offered beverage every 20 minutes if they so desired the terminal itself is not that dissimilar to I think a maybe easy to visualize example here is if you've been to a quick serve restaurant where they have the very nice Coca Cola or Pepsi touch screen soda fountain which have kind of taken the place of the the old ones the only difference here is this digital screen will allow you to pour whatever we program into it so that can be a glass of wine it can be beer it can be a vodka soda it can be a whiskey it's quite easy to navigate everything is categorized and organized the nice thing for the servers is we're able to add logos of brands and all the recipes are pre-programmed into the machine it pulls from the pump rooms in the exact same way that what it replaced which is in the bottom right hand corner the gun that the bartender would previously press so perhaps one of the misperceptions about the old bar service is that the bartender was essentially ordering the drink through the gun so we did not have these bars filled with you know 100 different bottles and he wasn't pre-pouring through jigger into a glass actually that much at all it was pre-programmed buttons that were in in this case a gun that now moves to a digital screen and the drink comes out dispensed from the screen itself and in this case the beverage server has his or her list comes in and touches the button and gets the cups and puts them on the tray and continues to to go about doing the job so it's actually a two step process the beverage server would come in run their card through our system the same way that they were doing before a different system than the easy bar but they had to run a card through before correct so it sort of opens up essentially the easy bar they then move to the easy bar like a fountain machine these are all pre-measured pours so they push the button a pre-measured pour comes out and it would only correspond to what they've programmed in to the original order but they're now grabbing the glass they're taking the pouring and they're putting on their trays and going back out correct and can you just explain I'm sorry because I know there's so many questions in terms of the towers the one bartender and all the cocktail servers come up to the one bartender essentially each cocktail server will have their own easy bar so they will have their own more or less so there are four there instead of one so they would come up run their card to move over to the easy bar and be able to do those drinks so a tower is like one tower per and then you have about four cocktail servers coming up four is the original install here for each bar so that's the 28 count that was referenced previously because we're only converting seven of the eight bars high limit which has a wider selection including some premium spirits that made this not really an applicable thing for service bar seven so the other seven bars will have four towers so again that lane of really let's say if you use the example of eight you now have no more than two cocktail servers approaching one tower so it's four to one versus an eight to one sorry I said that wrong it's a two to one ratio per terminal whereas before essentially it was eight to one have you had a chance to look at the comments here with regard to two different issues one would be of this you will have more intoxicated patrons because they will get their drinks so rapidly and the other comment really was about you know not using bar tenders and I know that when we talked about this initially that was not the case with bar tenders but those two issues were brought up again so the the speed of service is no different to our original application what has happened is a gross amount of inefficiency in our original plan so we have not we wouldn't we do not intend to add any more cocktail service to the floor what we're trying to do is time them correctly based on our original plan in the original process we intentionally spaced and trained to a speed of no more than three drinks per person per hour so once every 20 minutes was our target and that remains the same there is no change the poor size that we're attempting here and one of the ways that we're pacing that along with the training of the ladies is the routes and the size of the sections that they're working so essentially the process of covering an area that would be a typical section for a slot someone working in the slot section they don't have the opportunity to get back any faster than they already were and what was happening currently in the current system is they would make their rounds take their orders and then essentially stand in a traffic jam at the bar and so that's the inefficiency that we're looking to eradicate we're not looking to speed up in any way from our original proposal this is just to remove that inefficiency and the common comment that we're getting and literally this morning I got the social media report, I got the credit adjustment reports that we get every single day which are logging complaints from our casino guests that are on the gaming floor and when it's busy they're continually reporting about an hour as a typical time that they're not seeing somebody come to offer them a drink so that's where we're trying to improve that guest experience the other comment the other comment the loss of jobs so fewer than 40 employees were actually impacted by this change can you just say that again please fewer than 40 fewer than 40 yes and we have in a very active process been looking to make sure that each and every one of those had the opportunity to find an opportunity I so as of this morning I can report that 30 of the what I show as 40 basically had been placed in other positions in the beverage department on property so that means they took open positions that existed at the burger bar, waterfront steakhouse, wherever else it may be one of the main areas where the four placement was actually in the exact same department they were already in, which was actually in the service bar as you can imagine when you switch over this process it doesn't mean you still don't need to stock the bars so a lot of them actually moved into a higher hourly rate position stocking the bars with all of the product which is now automated so that was something that allowed us to place 30 affected people four people have accepted a transfer to other departments in the building that could be hotels, surveillance security, ballet any of the above, again any openings that were available were made available to the entire group there is one person who is undecided and eight have made the decision to seek other opportunities outside of the building if those eight had chosen to stay you would have worked to place them as well they were presented with opportunities as diverse as the open opportunities we had in the building they were presented with the entire set and as I'm sure you're all aware there are plenty of other attractive opportunities in the city that we're competing against for talent so we saw some of the new openings here in the city Davios just opened in the seat port a big 300 seat restaurant I believe and so that's just one example of ongoing opportunities that are in the city that people have in some cases taken everybody that is choosing to leave is very much eligible to return if they decide that there is an opportunity for them to come back or if they left and something wasn't to their liking and they wanted to return everyone is leaving as far as I'm concerned great terms and if they want to have a future with on-call we'd be happy to have them and just one more clarification on the bartenders and the cocktail servers the change from bartenders to cocktail servers all of those employees are certified in terms of the tips training so they all have that same certification and did the servers whose positions are being eliminated in addition to the hourly rate did they also get tips so were they moving into a non-tip job when they the bartenders that were the casino service bartenders that were even as it were affected would receive a tip from the cocktail service so that was part of their the economics of their decision moving into a bar quarter position which is the stocker they are paid a higher hourly rate because it's a non-tip position but still the discretion of the cocktail service in the same way it was as the bartender they all had the opportunity to apply for positions both tipped and non-tipped that were open building so I almost 100% sure that one of the bartenders is going to be a guest facing bartender now at on-deck burger bar up on the balcony so that would be a tip position and hopefully a great and lucrative position because the on-deck is very busy always so that would be just one example I think we've gone through just to clarify the service between 2 and 4am remains unchanged it's just the process behind the service if you just want to rewind 2 steps there 1 more so this was the original submitted process and the 2 highlighted bullet points just separate what was 1 previously so this just differentiates service that's happening in the 7 of 8 bars and then the 8th bar which is in high limit which is service bar 7 that's actually the terminology from the original application in terms of control which I'm sure is an important point just to revisit here this is technology driven access to the towers to open it up unlock it is only done through employee swipe and we have the ability to shut down these towers for categories of product alcohol in this case electronically so at 4 o'clock in the morning if you attempt to order beer or wine it essentially locks you out as just the unavailable item the towers remain at that point open for Coca-Cola sprite non-alcoholic beverage so the towers do remain on but the categories of alcohol are all locked down and unavailable for use and we can't change that locally we can't ever ride that locally and that's what we've done through the programmer all through Las Vegas our programmer in Las Vegas Monday through Friday 9 to 5 she is responsible for that programming and that's not someone locally here in Massachusetts I thought that was an interesting control you know you have to wait somebody up in Las Vegas any further questions Bill Jackie Warren going back to Portellis what are they doing now in terms of their storage their alcohol storage alcohol storage it's untidy back there we have that backhaul is a daily struggle for us to get them to receive the product into the venue and put it away correctly so this is a daily struggle for us to be honest with all things both alcohol and non alcohol that is a high traffic area and we are looking for a sustainable solution that we can implement ASAP so if a recommendation were to come from here that the cages be affixed and say a six month period of review where you continue to look for other options is that something that addresses the immediate issue that you're having with Portellis not taking delivery into the secure space in the restaurant you're referring to another space somewhere else on property or building out that hallway Portellis looking at their seating design to say if we want to continue this and it's got to come in house maybe they have to reconfigure some of the seating that sort of thing absolutely we would continue to look for a different solution potentially an area that's not in the hall there aren't a lot of spaces left in the building that are unassigned space but we'll absolutely look to continue to look for a solution and as far as fixing them that can be done this week I think that was more your point the fixing wasn't it I still have concerns about open cages being in a high traffic area that close to egress points outside that still makes me uncomfortable the fixing is my most immediate objection where there's no way I would say that's okay that to me resolves what was my immediate concern I still am a little uncomfortable with the solution which is why what I'm proposing is a fix them and have the approval go for a six month period with the understanding you're going to come back and look licensing and enforcement can also talk about have there been any issues or is it fine to have it fixed and it's sufficiently secure that's sort of where I'm leaning right now is the concern the cages or if it was a more built-in structure would that give you more comfort? that would give me less pause yes you're supposed to labeling them and now you have cages in a high traffic area with two egress points is that what you just said Jack to have built-in cabinets if it was a more built-in structure so that the alcohol wouldn't be visible from the outside right it's not movable is that the only place where the alcohol is visible or is that a common is that a practice where they use cages Bill have you seen that I've seen them being used at MGM but that's just to take the stock off of the shelves in the bar load it onto the lock into the cage and then bring it to the back room wheel it onto the back room so transportation correct I see we do use quite a bit of cages for lock up but they're usually in an enclosed space they're in an enclosed space so I understand but they're movable for a reason so that's why you have them for instance in pump room one there are cages like this inside that which house our premium stock so even though that's a controlled room we want that added level of control for access to anything over $100 for instance and that was space that was designated as part of the license for yes yes this is something I learned until today so they for tellies as a vendor they bring in their own supplies including alcohol and all their supplies and food and beverage everything is they contract, they delivery that's correct we didn't want to give as Jackie kind of referenced we wanted to make sure that their employees were handling their product and would have no reason to be in our warehouse for instance especially not in our alcohol areas so this was just the cleanest way to do it we wanted to make their own deals with Martinetti and Horizon and all of our beverage suppliers it's very separate to ours and that's the same for Memoir and Mystique as well that is correct we knew they were going to be outside vendors to begin with so the space was designed differently legally the license is through you but then through an agency or some kind of arrangement they have to comply with all of our rules to understand that better it pretty much runs from the ABCC correct they can't purchase alcohol and give it to someone else because it's invoiced to Encore so Encore has to sell it Fatelli in order for them to get their first delivery they had to send a copy over of their license and what the like Martinetti would do is they jot down their information and the billing is directed to Fatelli as well as the payment which runs Memoir and Mystique it's a state law that they only can deliver to an active license I think just to clarify so the Portelli license is an ABCC license no so it derives from the license that comes from us but in terms of the execution it's delivered and billed directly to them to deal with ABCC's rights they're a jointly responsible party just to clarify ABCC at all it all runs through us there's one what they call a gaming beverage license under chapter 23K which the commission issues we have a provision in the regs that we refer to as a jointly responsible party the gaming licensee is ultimately responsible for all of the alcoholic beverage service in the building but they're allowed to have someone else run one restaurant or bar or what have you but it has to be done the ABCC reference comes to the fact that those regs overlay us there's no way to not allow to then sell directly the ABCC has nothing to do with this at all except for the fact that a distributor right can't go has to deliver to a licensed entity essentially but we we have a regulation that requires all alcoholic beverages to be received from a licensed distributor under chapter 138 but otherwise the gaming commission controls all the alcoholic beverage service in the casino and they understand that you hold the license and they have to comply with your internal policies yes we send them notices quite frequently about not just that well with that said we want to make sure that this is all nice and secure well to address Commissioner O'Brien's concern it sounds like the easy way to move forward is to fix the fix the cages fix the cages with the understanding that this is a six month review is there something even more secure I mean your point about not labeling alcohol behind the door and that even your premium liquor is sort of devil protective with cages within closed spaces so that you don't have this visible area in a high traffic area near egress points I do think as a short-term solution it helps what is already an issue for you guys but I do think it should be continued to be looked at to say this should be more secure and not visible to people and potentially with the approval of the other storage areas we'll be able to look at encore storage as a whole and potentially there would be a space that would reveal itself for Fratelli obviously logistically we want them to be as close to their restaurant as possible going back to the original design from one if we had been running Fratelli this whole time it would have been a whole different story it would have been right there it's actually the reason that alcohol storage wasn't sufficient because we anticipated them well us using our own storage area it only became a challenge with the fact it became a third party and we want to make sure not to handicap Fratelli we want them to be successful here you know so the mother in me is concerned about cleaning under those cages that's why walls also solves that problem too I think the cages are slightly off the floor so we can't get under there feeling better already they're on wheels as a dad I don't care about cleaning but I do appreciate the recommendation to try out a fixing the cages and see if we can come up with a better solution so with that said why don't we why don't we tackle first the request around the easy bar self-service are there any more questions with respect to that license that's a license amendment as well yeah so they're all licensed I just had a general question by removing a person who's back there full time what safeguards do you have to make sure people aren't just wandering in off the floor give me an idea of how that wouldn't happen well even if they did wander in off the floor they wouldn't be able to access any alcohol so they'd have to slide their employee bar through and then the easy bar doesn't open until they've gone through that process there's nothing else back there that somebody would want a rifle through yeah so actually an interesting point in the old model with the guns I would say that 85% probably of all drinks was through the gun but there was still a speed rack that would have those one-off things for the person that wanted something with blue curacao or peach schnapps or something that wouldn't go through the gun in this new tower those items now actually live locked and they are all running through because we had to replace the bartender so there's nothing now that doesn't go through the tower itself so there is actually no bottles loose anywhere that are not locked up it's all coming from behind the scenes or locked in cabinet now so that's a big positive plus we anticipate having the bar quarter in the bar at all times cleaning, restocking glassware ice and all the maintenance of the bar, cleanliness, all of the above so we believe the bar is actually going to be attended by an employee at all times and to Jackie's point there's actually nothing that's accessible to them other than non-alcoholic beverage even if they were to find their way in there so there's a bar porter who does the cleaning and the stocking of non-alcoholic of everything that's in the bar they are also authorized to go to the additional storage areas and get exactly, whatever they need for it exactly, yes, that person that's the same person and that's the job that I think I heard, did I hear only one person took that elevated job no, there's one undecided there was just one person undecided, still decided is this the first time for the company to use these easy bar self-service towers, I know other casinos do use them, but is this the first for your company? so we actually had a couple of them installed since the opening for non-alcoholic beverage services and experiment only so the technology is not actually brand new to us we have had them and the intention there was that on the overnight shift and we're not serving any alcoholic beverage essentially the need for a bartender was potentially redundant because they would just be standing there, so that's why we had installed them, we've never used them at win resorts until hopefully now, but we researched very heavily other casino companies, both in Las Vegas and outside of Las Vegas and we took great feedback from those operators and I think honestly they felt that it had the positive impacts that we described earlier and they were happy from a control perspective but also accuracy of poor and taking the human error element out has been I think a widely accepted plus side to the system and that's also what MGM and PPC have I realized that but I just didn't know if that company from the company any further questions on the easy bar self-service amendment proposal with that said, do I have a motion? Madam chair, I will move that the commission approve Winmass LLC request to use the easy bar self-service tower in their service bar numbers 1 through 6 and number 8 with the terms and conditions discussed here today. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? 5-0 Now moving on perhaps to the Salon Freeway I think one clarification for me was that you will probably not have the bottle will not be a practice to have the bottle service any further questions for Mr. Warren on Mr. Richards on this matter do I have a motion? Madam chair, I move that the commission approve Winmass LLC's request to add a new licensed area referred to as Salon Freeway as described on slide number 14 in the submitted power point presentation in accordance with the terms and conditions discussed here today. Looks like it might be 13 and 14 correct? I'll amend that to slide number 13 and 14 in the power point presentation. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? 5-0 Now moving on to the additional storage So what I would before we go to making formal motions what I would be inclined to recommend is a motion that looks at approval for the seven of the eight requested but specifically as to number four that it be approved for a six month period with the condition that the cages be locked and that prior to the end of that six month period both IEB and relicensing whoever has looked at that and the licensee come back for just a review of whether that can be improved in terms of the visibility in the egress in that hallway. I think they're already locked but they would be fixed. Mr. Grossman is there any issue with respect to the condition would be we'd like them fixed now and then we would issue the certificate rather than conditioning the certificate. They'd have to be fixed first. We'd have to go out and we'd issue the license. And then a six month review and firing any big issues we won't need to have it come front of us, correct? Or you'd have an update in your... I would still like a discussion about the visibility and maybe it's something that's resolved even prior to six months where they come back and say this is how it is now and there's no issues for a reason. My goal is that after these approvals and we can essentially move into our new homes is that on-core and approved space that the store is currently using I will vacate and they will move into a will hopefully be an approved and surveilled and RFID access door just for them to use. The one which, again I don't want to be over promising but one of these storage areas that is just around the corner from this space if I can absorb into other areas that's the one that I would like to probably investigate first but we will do a very diligent search immediately after locking these cages to the wall today and we should be able to report back positive news while in advance of six months but I think Jackie would agree with me I should probably take your generous offer of six months. Thank you for being responsible. Mr. Richards has his tool chest right behind him with the drill. So maybe we just split the motion. Two motions. And then for You could do one through three and five through eight. So I'll move that the commission approve Winmass LLC request to add seven new alcoholic beverage storage areas as depicted on slide number four and labeled one through three and five through eight submitted in the PowerPoint presentation in accordance with the terms discussed here today. Second. Any further questions? All those in favor? Opposed? Five zero. You want to make the motion on number four? And finally I move the commission approve subject to confirmation of the cages being locked. You mean fixed? Okay. The storage beverage area that is referenced on slide four of the PowerPoint today bulleted as number four outside Fratelli's with the further understanding that honor before six months from today's date that review will be done in terms of the visibility and the storage of that location. Second. Any further questions? All those in favor? Opposed? Five zero. Excellent. Thank you so much for your patience with all our questions. We appreciate it. Thank you Bill for an excellent job. Thank you. Do lunch before John. Before we advance on our agenda Mr. Sianba are you available if we were to have our lunch now? Would you be available this afternoon? We have a meeting of one half hour. And we'll return at one o'clock. Good afternoon. We're reconvening meeting 289 of the messages gaming commission on Budsman Sianba. Item number seven please. Good afternoon Madam Chair commissioners. For the afternoon matters I'm joined by Director Griffin and construction project oversight manager Joe Delaney. The first item up for consideration is the development of a new template format for the quarterly reports. Some time ago the commission requested staff to take another look at our quarterly reports that each licensees are required to make. It's been a good number of years since we established the format of the quarterly reports when Plain Ridge Park first opened. We've been utilizing that as basically the roadmap for all of the subsequent MGM Springfield reports and then most recently now that Encore has at least one operational report under its belt for Encore as well. So in order to try to determine what we should think about for the quarterly reports staff met together a few different times. We met individually with commissioners and we had some conversations as well with our licensees. So what you have before you is some overall goals of the quarterly reports and some recommendations but I think overall what our recommendation is is that once commission has time to discuss some of these more amorphous general goals that then staff can go back to our licensees with the nuts and the bolts and actually crafting a very concrete template form a report that would come to the commission quarter after quarter. So with that let me just dive into some of the goals that we heard in all of these conversations. One of the goals was just a general consistency of reporting data between and among our licensees. Now they are all different of course but for the most part some of these statistics can just be pretty much across the board we can require a more consistent format on how things are reported. One of the other goals is more precise information on the achievement of diversity requirements. I'll get into that in a little bit. Clear comparisons between current quarter statistics and historical statistics. Clear display of statistics versus relevant goals. More information showing the development impacts that are occurring in the gaming licensees communities. Continued focus not only on the prior quarter but also current period issues. Refinement of reporting to help the commission achieve its mission while reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens on staff and licensees. The use of quarterly reporting as a method to ensure compliance and then more definition differentiating information that is part of a presentation versus part of a PowerPoint. At the center of the recommendations what we are recommending is that we would like to go back to where we used to be. During the construction period we used to have a system where we had a report and then we had a companion PowerPoint. All of the relevant statistics were included in this report. What we think we should do is that we should go back to the way that it used to be done so that everything in all the more concrete finite detail can be in this report and then when the commissioners the licensees report to the commission their PowerPoints the PowerPoints can be a little bit they'll include all of the relevant topical stuff of the day. They'll try to include most of the material matters that we're accustomed to in seeing from the Plain Ridge report on but there can be a lot more detail included in these templates that will look the same licensee by licensee One of the other recommendations is when we were thinking about this as a tool for compliance when indeed it is appearing before the commission and explaining how the statistics are going between one period and another in versus goals it is a way to help achieve compliance with a good number of things. Now when you take a look at the reports as they were developed there was an initial focus on minors in the gaming floor for Plain Ridge Park and then as we moved on to MGM Springfield that continued to be a concern and then indeed as we're looking at the encore data it continues to be something that we want to take a look at but obviously that is just only one compliance item. So we were trying to figure out what we should do that is one important compliance item and we imagine that that would probably appear before the commission for the foreseeable future but there's a great many other compliance items that could be reviewed by the commission. And so what we're recommending is instead of trying to put every compliance item or every matter in all of our various departments in these reports that we would have to develop a more concrete system to flag issues that are of concern that might become problems or might become problems in the future or just items where our licensees and that we would bring individual items to the commission at different quarterly reports but it wouldn't be a laundry list of every particular compliance item because that would become a little too unwieldy and it may not serve the purpose of focusing the commission on some of these other items. Now that involves a good deal of communications between commission meetings but with an overall focus that we're trying to achieve on compliance with the cooperation between and among all of the various divisions I think that that probably will grow to be one of the most valuable parts of this endeavor. We want to include the so in the power point as I mentioned it will be a little bit of a looser construct. The template report we want to make sure that the template can show statistics in the prior quarters. We still have to determine how many prior quarters we would recommend for that template but right now depending on the month or the report sometimes you just may only have current data and you have to leaf back to your quarterly report that you received in the prior quarter and another in your files to say how you're doing across quarters but we think that that kind of detail that could show up in this new template report and then the licensees diversions from trends in their power points and of course the commissioners would have those templates so that they would be able to see them on their own and question our licensees but we would ask our licensees to continue to try to bring up significant material events in their power points themselves but in general when we looked at the power points they do currently capture most of the important stuff that we really value. They include all the detail on how we've been doing on a quarter from revenues what have we been doing on employment there I think when we first came up with them we hit it pretty close to correct on some of the important matters and I think that's sort of served as well. One thing we would also like to do in addition to just quarter to quarter statistics and historical statistics that we could also have the goals directly right there with the statistics sometimes it's not as easy as we think to find what the goals are and we'd have to make sure that we work with our licensees to make sure that they agree that the goals are the goals and that they agree to those goals when they put together their RFA 2s and when we issue the licenses. On more specific matters the commission has asked for more detail on lottery information we think that we can definitely do that but we know information regarding purchases of tickets we think that that could go in the new template reports I will let me turn it over to Director Griffin just really quickly but in general what I wanted to say regarding vendor and employee information and diversity information I think that you're all aware that Jill and Crystal have a lot of time to try to update some of those formats and I think we're pretty close to finalizing with the licensees we'll probably have one more round Director Griffin and Jill have put together basically the templates that will be the example for the rest of the report but I think we're looking pretty good there and hopefully in very short order we can have those updates. Um but Zyamba so the we've been actually in conversations I think since I remember good weather so maybe the summer back and forth with licensees and have back and forth conversations and different versions and really refining the templates regarding workforce and supplier diversity one of the changes that we are recommending is we'd like to have a snapshot of diversity by management level so how are employees doing in terms of getting managerial or supervisor jobs and so that is going to be one new recommendation that you'll hear more about but other changes that we've talked about with John are formatting clarity for example being more inclusive as he mentioned about including the prior quarters data so you can more easily compare the spend or the employee level that sort of thing and just some of these changes came about as we were preparing for our annual report comparing and noticing that the information wasn't quite apples to apples and so that's what we're looking in terms of for example a chart regarding vendor spend and diversity would also include the total biddable spend that quarter so it's easier to compare and check but I think I think that is the general progress that we're interested in and I think our licensees do very well at sharing whenever possible success stories both the human element in terms of their employees and also the vendors as well and combined with that we'd like them to include plans for remediation should they not reach a goal moving on to the next recommendation to go from the more precise to a little bit more of the global one of our first meetings we spent a good time with Elaine on what are some of the big goals that we want to achieve with these quarterly reports and I think that part of the the usefulness of the quarterly reports can be conveying the message of what is happening not only within the walls of the facilities themselves but what impacts are being felt in the communities and we've talked about different measures such as hotel restaurant taxes that we can definitely capture in the templates but what we want to do is we want to continue to work with our licensees to figure out whether they're quarter to quarter some of the greater impacts on the communities themselves and I think in general perhaps there's maybe there's some way that we can work with our researchers because even though our researchers they get out the reports when they can when everything becomes statistically correct etc maybe there's some way that we can work with our researchers to get relevant statistics work with their licensees so that you can get some more up-to-date information on the impacts that are being felt in the communities themselves but that's something I think that bears a lot more thinking on how and what statistics and what types of things can we include in these quarterly reports we think that we should include some of our capital spending requirements in the reports how are they doing versus the capital requirements and then we will continue to work with our licensees on a lot of the financial reporting the financial reporting bites necessity it doesn't really come into the commission discussion because these are sort of detailed financial statistics that can't be made public for various reasons so we're going to try to continue to figure out how we get the best information at the property level over burdening our licensees we certainly have the availability of SEC public reports but there's different levels of reporting that go on for each of our properties in those more rolled up quarterly reports or annual SEC reports of the parent companies that they each have different numbers of properties that are in their portfolio but this is one particular aspect I think I mentioned that all staff most of the departments are working together to try to figure out how do we make this work and we've had some good conversations with our licensees on how to do that as well and one final recommendation and I think we've heard about this from Mark is that even though we probably wouldn't require our licensees to do the reports on game sense and others that really should be a companion piece by Mark we would encourage our licensees to incorporate relevant information regarding responsible gaming activities in their reports or in their power points but that the game sense updates that is probably more appropriate for not our licensees but Mark when he comes quarterly before the commission we welcome any thoughts this is great that we're we've started this thought process of looking at holistically and from different perspectives as to what we really need to see in the reports going forward and that many things will probably stay but others might change I just want to pick up on one of the aspects that you mentioned and that is a notion that a lot of these helps in terms of compliance with not only what they're required to do under conditions of the license or what have you but our own compliance and this is something that we've been giving it quite a bit of thought and there's also and there are I'll also mention this there are some of those requirements that are annual and others that are perhaps really lend themselves to being on an ongoing quarterly basis so perhaps as we think about this new format we can also think of the fourth quarter or the annual version of the quarter to include certain elements that are in addition to or that do not need to be reported quarterly but will accept on an annual basis because they're changing enough or not enough that they don't merit quarterly reporting but it's really appropriate not just for a period but for compliance purposes that they be reported annually. I wouldn't want to create a fifth report and I'm thinking maybe the fourth quarter report could be a compilation of a few things that are not necessarily reported all the time not only would that help us with our own annual reports but it could also really help with the comparison as you with the statistics that you mentioned. If we're looking at quarter over quarter on a quarterly historical I think it also may be relevant to come to the annual anniversary to look at the prior years wherever those may be and make an annual comparison for that fourth quarter but I like the principles that you've outlined here I know the intention is not to make a lot more work that already is happening it's really trying to be creative on what we want to see and when we want to see it that also helps us on our own purposes. One thing I mentioned is one of the goals is this regulatory reform and one of the questions that we asked we didn't get too much input as of yet but we did say are there things that are particularly vexing that maybe you don't think are worth pulling together and we can evaluate what those things may be and when we take a look at reporting there are things that we require every month there's things that we require every couple months there are things that we require quarterly there are things that we require annually and you know maybe we can take a look at what data do we need on the basis as we start to think about it and we may be able to have tools to help on that exercise too as you pursue the regulatory reform so that we assist the licensees through a proper form to prompt that review and without causing a lot of work to streamline the process a little bit so that's something to think about again providing some consistency for you know guidance on that he has his blue book I have my blue book the blue book is for the she knows my system so if there are no further questions what we can do is that we can take this to the next level more fully engage our licensees more pen to paper on what these things will look like sometimes it's difficult to talk about things in general but we have the specifics it's a little bit easier to do I think we have a few more questions Commissioner Stebbins sorry John just a couple of points and I thought the memo was well put together by you and your colleagues and you know I always thought our licensee Plain Ridge Park did a great job I know that's why you've included it as kind of a model of how we've successfully extract an information quarter to quarter you know I think it's important to remember that quarterly reports are a snapshot they're meant to you know spot issues with our licensees if there are any they're not meant to be you know put our licensees in a position of some type of gotcha moment but it's good information to tell a good story it's good information to help us understand what the challenges are as well as you know for the folks that put this legislation together there's a lot of information we collect that reflects back into what the priorities of the gaming statute were you know no negative impact on the lottery jobs business opportunities so collecting that information is key I think I know some of the stuff that Jill has already had a chance to talk about is critically important I would like us to think about not only capturing the current quarter the most recently passed quarter and maybe one or two before that but trying to look at that same quarter the previous year if you agree with the argument that there is some seasonality to the gaming industry in Massachusetts it would be interesting to look at that year previous and I like commissioner Zuniga's point so maybe there are some things we can capture at the end of the year it might be more on the job front number of promotions that our licensees have given out that reflects a good story as to the opportunities the number of people that we've helped catch on behalf of our friends at DOR so I like the idea of maybe having some kind of rollups at the end of the year some of the other critical compliance or enforcement categories as well I like that idea as well I think it's a good one it's really apparent that you thought this through where do we get more value for these quarterly reports and I liked a lot of the ideas I don't know how happy they'll be to go diversity all the way up Jill but it's a it's a point that I've asked about several times so I think it's important because when you know you have to report on something you just pay more attention right exactly we've had lots of conversations about this and our licensees if there are anything are very cooperative any further questions for John, Joe and Jill an excellent report thorough in terms of Director Wells I think that today's meeting all of the reports have been so detailed and thorough and really helpful to me I'm sure my fellow commissioners agree and this is just another great example so thanks in the best outcome so I know how to say template that's right so thank you and John you're staying on now I don't see Mary Mary is out today and we all want to wish you her a happy birthday yesterday was two days ago it was yesterday so yesterday yesterday as well yesterday was her birthday but she's out for other reasons for today in a couple days so I wish her a happy birthday happy birthday Mary Thurlow great job on this report as well all right so the good news commissioners is that I am not going to go into every one of the applications that we received that is never the purpose of the intake meeting no it's ready to develop the red I think there's another fire I have to say it's exciting yes there may be a lot of them and it may have been torturous but it's exciting news so what we usually do in this first intake meeting is we just remind everybody of the process that we utilize to review the applications give it sort of a general overview of what we received and then we start moving forward with the actual review in regard to timetable what we've been trying to do is get all of these awards done by the early part of June if not May I'm not sure we've really hit that in prior years because one thing or another really seems to surface we're going to redouble our efforts in that regard this year because it's helpful for communities and others to plan for their next fiscal year if they get earlier decisions so we're going to try to do that but I don't have a specific timeline here but that's what we're aiming to do as you mentioned we received a lot of applications this year we received 36 applications totaling $13.4 million which is the most that we have ever received it is far greater than the number of applications and the dollar value that we received last year which was about 5.1 and then the previous high was $7.9 million in 2018 but that involved a one-time expense of state police costs so that's what helped add to that number that year so we added a new category of grants this year which is transportation construction grants and we did receive a number of applications in that regard but in general I think that one thing that the number of applications is testament to is that all the work that we do all of us do every fall and in the spring to make sure the communities know what these grants are for that they can get ready, they can prepare to try to figure out what will be in their applications and it's quite clear that people are paying attention so we'll take a look at those so as for our review process I think you're aware that we have a very highly interactive review process so what we do is we assemble as a review team and this year's review team will include at least the following members, Commissioner Stevens thank you once again myself Joe, Mary Mary Thurlow Director Griffin Crystal Howard Carrie Teresa Kate Moxie Hartigan and Teresa Fiori so that review team, we assemble pretty routinely to go over the applications what we're going to do is we're going to try to assign various applications and ask for different members to take the lead on assembling the paperwork this year so what we do, the paperwork is pretty intense so what we have is a very detailed summary of all the grants and the issues and we weigh those grants against the criteria that we put into the guidelines and then we put together a summary memo which is usually about 40 pages so it's not much of a summary but it is it compares into the thousands of pages of materials that we review and that goes to the commission by May or June for us all the review including whatever conditions there may be we always post our applications on our website thanks to Elaine and Austin those are already posted on our website and fairly soon we will issue a request for comments and those comments are all distributed to the commissioners and they are reviewed by the review team we do really value those comments that we receive so in addition we also solicit comments from our licensees from regional planning agencies and very specifically from MASTOT on all transportation related matters that have been invaluable to us in previous years and specifically now that we are moving into the construction function I think they'll be even more valuable we've already done the outreach to them and hopefully we'll have a conversation with them soon about the applications and what do we do next one thing while we're talking about transportation is that as a companion piece to this year's grant applications we're going to issue a request for statements of interest so our transportation construction grants for this year they're designed to be one-year grants they're not designed for these rather large transportation projects that may have a need for many years worth of funding because we could never fund a big transportation construction project through the revenues that we would have in any one year but we will try to issue this statement of interest hopefully by the first half of this year and so that we will be in a good place when we take another look at our guidelines this fall for final review coming up in December and so we'll know the universe of some of those bigger projects, what they're going to cost what types of other financing is available we'll gain some familiarity with it so even though we won't award based on this statement of interest we will get a lot of very detailed information that we can utilize in developing our guidelines so one thing I will mention is that we did receive that 13 plus million dollars worth of applications our program goal has been 11.5 million dollars that we set we still think that that is a reasonable goal but I just caution because even though you may think of it the 13 million versus the 11 5 we've set regional targets based on the amount of revenues that we're receiving from each casino whereby MGM dollars would be staying in western mass and Encore dollars would be staying in eastern mass it's not as close a match for example we received approximately 9.2 million dollars in applications for Region A and that compares to a 6 million dollar funding target and we received about 9 million dollars in applications for Region B versus a 5 million dollar target so we'll have to continue to take a look at that and when we come back to the commission either sort of a mid-term update or when we get closer to the time of making our recommendations we'll take a look at both the overall amounts and funding amounts between and among all of the different categories of grants so take any questions I can just speak to that and I think that was a very helpful highlight of what dynamics are going to start to emerge in between the regions which I know you anticipated and there's something in the works relative to after a three-year period some kind of reversion back if there's unused monies that they revert back to the fund if you will for future targets without precluding any one region re-applying to something that emerges and that's something that will continue but just back on the target, the overall target versus the application and I'm really just glad I read the summary descriptions of the applications as a whole it occurs to me that the target was appropriate and is doable with a caveat of the regions that we're standing because unlike in previous years there's people that tend to make some requests that are less associated with the casino as others and as you go through the review process like I know you've done really diligently in the past it is quite possible that we might end up with very close to that target again notwithstanding the differences between the regions and just for reference do you have or can you come back in the next time like you've done in the past sort of like a status of the overall fund as a whole that can look back to how much we've awarded what is spending and therefore with the projection that we anticipate for this coming year where do we end up with the overall target maybe for next time the review committee has its work cut out to meet those target goals there it's certainly the committee is up to the task they've demonstrated that in the past there's always a thoughtful review I think you both hit upon a big point we've allocated a big amount of dollars for these grants and if you're looking at the applications from the outside oh great there's plenty of money but in reality we have the statutory responsibility that our funds can only be utilized for things that are related to the casino and that every single year of us being able to make that determination so in good conscience we can make that recommendation to you that is the hardest thing but Joe's in charge of that you know there are you know nobody blames the local officials from trying to advocate for their communities but there clearly is a concentric circles effect here in which the relationship to the casino begins to fade as you as you know in some of these topics John you touched briefly on the potential for the multi-year fine I know at one point you mentioned that that could be a challenge for the recipients because of implications on finance and I know that's down the road on your guidelines I just wondered if you had any sense to maybe seek out any guidance from external experts on that so that when you do turn to that down the road maybe closer in the fall you'd have guidance or are you already doing that one thing that we benefit from we have a lot of experts that sit on our various committees one of them being the subcommittee on community mitigation and we started going to some of the difficulties multi-year financing how municipal financing works you might have to engage bond council to discuss some of these and we had some very good recommendations for people that we should talk to from one of our members so we can engage them now well before the fall excellent thank you any further questions for our community mitigation experts the only other point which is good to see as we look back I think there's an emerging trend clearly about who is applying for these is proactively looking for things there's other available monies that are part of the equation here for example what is part of a host community or surrounding community agreement that's right and I think the process that you really put together here in terms of the guidelines, the consultation with the local advisory committees and what not I think is working out very well and I think that's good I think Katrina mentioned it this morning but it's a pretty burdensome process it's staff intensive Mary happy birthday but she does a lot of work on a lot of different matters and we're going to try to make sure that we keep our workload within reason and so one of the ways to do that is to maybe utilize some software but I'm very mindful I think most of you know me as being fairly cheap I really don't want to spend almost any dollars on this but to the extent that we can and it would help us all I think that might make sense but of course we would come to a recommendation to the commission before we move forward with anything I've said it before it's a system that others around the state might be interested in replicating and Director Griffin understands the implications of that with respect to her other work so using some technology to create those efficiencies could allow perhaps another group to replicate and scale it accordingly and or there may be some solutions out there that are already also potentially available to us because they have done something similar we're really looking it off the shelf rather than building it around any further questions no action needed no action needed thank you so much moving on to item number 8 this is Director so the there's a memorandum in your packet describing the process that is suggested for the commission's approval I'm going to turn it over to Attorney I'm going to turn it over to Attorney Grossman to review that with you see if you have any questions and I believe that the commissioners will expect to have some comments as well good afternoon we can jump right in I just remind everyone of course that the license that was awarded to Plainville Gaming and Redevelopment LLC is set to expire on June 24th of this year that's their five-year date from the commencement of their operations section 20F of chapter 23K says that the commission shall establish procedures for renewal so we're here today to establish those procedures and commemorate them in writing it's important of course that we do this so that everyone is clear as to what the process will be A that the commission is has been fair to the licensee and we put them on notice as to what will be expected of them but also to help guide our efforts we're all on the same page as far as what type of information the commission will be looking to obtain that said the draft you have before you is simply a draft and we can and should make any modifications here today that would accurately reflect the commission's intention as to how the process will unfold of a specific note there are a number of instances where we use the commission may do this the commission may do that if there is consensus here today we can change some of those maze into shells and then what the intention would be if this makes sense would be to take the commission's decision relative to the process and commemorate it in a written letter to the licensee outlining all of the procedures and in earnest kick off the renewal procedure renewal process so that's the master plan I'd be happy to now walk through the proposal as outlined in the memo if that would be helpful and if so we can start with section one which talks about the application itself there is legal significance to an actual application and though we don't have an application form it's important that an application be submitted in this case the application would be comprised of all the documents and other information that is submitted by the licensee for the commission's review the significance in part is that under chapter 30a section 13 once a licensee has submitted a timely and sufficient application for renewal the license doesn't expire essentially until the agency makes the final decision on that application so though we should certainly aim to have a decision made by June 24th if they have timely submitted an application it does afford us a little latitude on that particular date so we want to make sure that a timely and sufficient application is made to the commission with all the documents that you would like to see to that end in section one we've identified a variety of documents that we believe is very broad and inclusive and you can see right in here at the introductory sentence before the bullet points we say that such items may include the following if you're so inclined we could change that to shall include the following unless we want to you know keep the door open to not requiring some of these particular documents but these are all things that we've had a look at and we believe would be helpful to you to really gain an understanding as to where the licensee stands at present the first one relates to the first bullet point that is relates to the suitability you've discussed that at a prior meeting a letter has been issued from the division of licensing that's attached to this particular memo it outlines all of the individuals and documents that would be necessary for submission in order to refresh the existing qualifiers and the suitability for the entities as part of this renewal process so that's the first set of documents that would be required as part of this the second there are a series of attested to statements that we'd recommend the significance in the purpose of an attested statement is multifaceted but one of the things I think it does and the reason why it's useful is that it puts someone in a position of authority someone with knowledge of a particular matter on record as telling us a fact either exists or doesn't exist or that there is a certain compliance that's been achieved or it hasn't been achieved and while certainly we should check this information ourselves and we I assume fully intend to I think it's helpful to put the licensee on the record itself with an attested statement so you'll see there are a number of areas here where we recommend that we obtain an attested to statement by either the first one is from their CFO or someone else with knowledge or anyone else who's able to attest to a certain set of facts that's the purpose of the attested to statements I don't know if you'd want to go through each one but you can see the second one is a fairly comprehensive list of agreements and other compliance obligations that the licensee is under a present obligation to satisfy so as part of the renewal process we would make sure that that is in fact the case and much of this of course we do on an ongoing basis anyway so this is just an opportunity to take a look holistically at their compliance program and make sure we're satisfied the third bullet down talks about the status of a number of goals including gaming revenue lottery sales and taxes vendor spend, vendor diversity, things like that it's an opportunity to have a look at what the goals were whether they're accurate whether they should be recalibrated things of that nature so we're asking for them to attest to their compliance with those whether they've met goals whether they haven't met goals and it's an opportunity to have a fresh look at regulation as well the next bullet down talks about the conditions of licensure and as you'll recall each of the licensees including of this one has a comprehensive set of conditions that's attached to their license at the time that this license was awarded we didn't even have a full set of regulations at the time so there are certainly some elements in there that may not be wholly applicable at the present moment so we should take a look at their conditions not that they're problematic just that we may have a regulation that governs the condition which would render it duplicative in some respects so it's a good opportunity to have a fresh look at their conditions the recommendation here is that we ask the licensee in the first instance to submit a proposed set of conditions with the understanding that if they are to remove any of the existing conditions that they note why that is that they're doing so and why it is and that the commission can then make a determination as to what the final set of conditions should be two more bullets down we talk about horse racing that's obviously an important component to the PPC operation we ask that they provide a statement relative to their future plans for horse racing at PPC and then their overall compliance with the existing laws, regulations etc we get into in the footnote the law that governs the racing requirements and the mandate that they offer racing at the facility it will at some point need to either become a condition that they continue racing or not there is language in section 20 paragraph C that talks about that the requirement that the licensee maintain and complete an annual live racing season under chapter 128a we need not decide that today but at some point we'll need to have a look at that language and see exactly make a determination as to its applicability moving forward as well and the same is true of section 24 where it talks about the number of racing days and things like that so again not something that needs to be decided here today but racing is obviously an important component to the renewal process in general as you'll see as we work through we talk about responsible gaming compliance with the play my way game sense the next bullet down we talk about the renewal fee which we'll get into in a moment the one item that we don't mention on this list that's obviously important as well is any future plans that the licensee may have for the facility for the next five years and we didn't include that specifically otherwise only because a number of these goals and plans that have already been submitted including the capital expenditure plan date beyond the expiration of the initial license so in some respects they have already told us what their future plans are we can obviously and should have a fresh look at those to make sure that they're still meaningful and are moving the facility in the right direction but we could certainly add some additional language if the commission is interested in receiving a summary or some type of other submission relative to the future plans for the facility we can come back to that the next section section 2 talks about the renewal fee we quote the statute here at section 20f of chapter 23k it says that the renewal fee has to be based on the cost of fees associated with the evaluation of the licensee provided however that the cost of renewal shall not be less than a hundred thousand dollars the projection that was put together is that the the cost associated with the evaluation the suitability evaluations and what have you would come to approximately sixty seven thousand dollars if you factor in some of the other components that could go into it a cost to host the public hearing which we'll talk about things like that it appears as though we're under or around a hundred thousand dollar threshold we could certainly do a more comprehensive analysis on that but I think we'd be safe to set the renewal fee at a hundred thousand dollars which is the statutory minimum that amount as we discuss in the memo goes into the gaming revenue fund which essentially then goes right into the gaming local aid fund so these are not amounts that we retain but it is certainly an important and meaningful fee that contributes to local aid that's the the scenario on the fee that's about the suitability process I know the commission has addressed this in the past that of course suitability will be an important component to the renewal review the commission has offered guidance to the division of licensing and the IEB in the past and we've attempted to capture that here and again it's I believe consistent with the letter that was sent by the division of licensing we just kind of run through here how that process would work it's consistent and similar to the process that the commission has used in the past to review the suitability of individuals and entities it would conclude essentially with a report to be or memo issued by the IEB relative to the overall suitability of the licensee and all associated qualifiers including not just the individual and entity suitability but regulatory compliance things like litigation and financial stability things of that nature would also fall under those auspices section 4 talks about a site visit we say that the commission may elect to conduct a site visit that might be something you change to shall that you will and do intend to conduct a site visit to review things from the physical condition of the property to inspect any capital improvements that have been made in accordance with their capital expenditure plan to review any documents that you might want to take a look at and things of that nature section 5 talks about the public hearings or a public hearing again this is a may this might be something you elect to adjust to a shall bless you we talk about a public hearing possibly being convened in or around Plainville the host community to the property there are a number of bullet points which reflect how that process would likely unfold again very consistent with the way it's been done in the past I think successfully so that people would have an opportunity to come make a presentation to speak to submit comments in advance things of that nature number 6 is obviously an important part we talk about the final review procedure and how once the commission has gathered all of this information and taken a look at any documentation spoken to any individuals how it will actually review and consider the documents again I think this is very similar to the RFA 2 process that the commission engaged in when it came to the initial awards of the licenses in fact much of this was copied right out of that regulation it's designed to afford the commission great flexibility to ensure that you can obtain whatever information that you might need to make the decision to ask any questions that need to get asked but at the same time again to put the license on notice as to what types of issues that you will be interested in and you will be considering and this list is intended to be very similar to the list we reviewed up above we include here at the last bullet point that we will include a review of the business ability to operate a successful gaming establishment that comes out of the suitability a review that's obviously an important component of an ongoing suitability review and in consideration for renewal the following parts just talk about how the commission internally might go about handling and processing the information that is gathered section seven talks about just the final adjudication of the matter that you will gather at a public meeting discuss all of this out and open as you did once before and issue a final decision as to whether to renew the license or not that the license would be for a term of five years from the date of the expiration of the previous license or from the date of the renewal decision whichever one happens to be later number eight is just a reminder to the licensee of its obligation to cooperate with the investigation that's a statutory requirement and then part nine is a proposed timeline that we've come up with in an effort to establish expectations as to when the commission will be reviewing certain documents taking certain action and when the licensee will be expected to provide certain information so that's certainly a part we should take a look at as well that is all of the components in the memo I think if we capture all of this in some form with whatever modifications that you will then have a comprehensive set of renewal procedures that will allow us to move forward towards renewal so just to clarify today Todd would be looking for a motion from us to adopt this memorandum subject to proposed amendments so okay would you like to go first go ahead again very comprehensive memo well thought out I was trying to think of things as I read that I would add or subtract but I really think it's very well done I agree that the shells could be maize I think all of those steps that are now listed as maize are appropriate for this process including site visit of course a public hearing oh so you're saying may become a shell yes I'm thinking from what I read I see that as an appropriate step here all of the items you have listed are certainly appropriate for our review in this application all of them important many of them required by statute so I mean I just I think it's very well done an appropriate review after five years I don't see any issues that I would change in the timelines very helpful which it lends me to think okay we need to move this because it's a tight timeline but that's really helpful which are step-ins I think you're next for competing for airtime again I think this is great staff work by you counselor and Loretta and John and the rest of the team just to go through I think some of those shells should be maze the licensee may submit a proposed set of license conditions I think we're just trying to cut down on the back and forth do I need to can I let's try to streamline the process for them well maybe we should be more precise then yeah does that not interrupt you commissioner Stevens but yeah there are a couple maze that you probably need to make that point yeah is this a good time to pause on that yeah my first suggestion is the bullet at the top of page three where it says the licensee may be asked to submit a proposed set of license conditions I would give them that choice if they so choose to do it so they may submit but we're not going to force them if they don't want to you don't think they'll have any maybe huh well just it stays in me but I would just scratch be asked to just say you may submit may submit yeah may be asked to let's just clarify that we give them the go ahead if they want to do that excuse me take out the intent then may so to the extent the gaming license does not include a condition that was required then have them explain so take out the intent to yep yep I don't know if we need to talk about the six hundred dollars per machine but my recommendation would be that be taken out and addressed in a separate through a separate process absolutely that's not in the letter that would go to the licensee that was just included for the reference more tool of art at our disposal more than it is because it's a five year trigger right it's a five year trigger it's a tool in the tool shed it's not directly relevant to the renewal necessarily but just something to bear in mind so we could put that in the parking lot and take it out of this memo great thank you um again under site visit at the bottom of page five I agree with commissioner can we shell conduct a site visit we did site visits part of the due diligence originally we all agree with that okay um under the public hearing uh I would say the licensee will have at least one individual available for a public hearing well should we change that first May at the very top to show are we are we going to commit yeah okay and then where were you commissioner that first bullet I would say the licensee will have may be required to have a whole team now at least one person at least one um the licensee will make a presentation the second bullet I think that gets to the point that I've talked with commissioner Grossman about I would like to encourage our licensees to congratulations I'm sorry counselor commissioner uh so you like will better than shell I do will make a presentation and I would like to offer some language presentation be kind of it can be not only what we've done in the first five years of our operation but what some of our goals are for the next five years look back in um so far just I'm just trying to build a consensus here around these edits everybody in agreement okay good uh the next bullet representatives of the host community surrounding communities impacted ILEVS will be permitted to attend may make a presentation again kind of leaving it up to them and be available to respond to questions from the commission sounds good okay um thinking if I had one more I don't think I will be permitted to attend may make a presentation and be available to respond I mean that's leaving it up to the organizations as to what they want not requiring them to make a presentation they can if they choose to everything else looks good the only thing that just kind of caught my eye on the proposed time is uh everything else looks good the only thing that caught my eye on the proposed timeline is we have a March 31 licensee submission of draft initial compliance materials to commission staff but I'm wondering if there's another date that requires the final submission of information or is that included in one of the other dates you know I was I was going to speak to this um and I think we may have touched on a prior conversation and I think there's um there's an operating assumption here which is that we will begin to have a number of uh elements to this um application really uh coming in on a rolling basis um so that we're not constrained to a date certain of when we begin the review in fact we already have begun the suitability review in in many of these qualifiers there should there should be and that's part of your point commissioner one date when we make a determination that everything that has come in in the past on a rolling basis is complete so that we comply with uh with the principle that you articulated uh before um but I wouldn't want uh to be constrained by the notion that everything needs to be assembled before the review process only to begin at that time and that goes for the side visit maybe they're assembling information they're preparing the statements and that's all great that's the beginning but as we go to the side visit we may ask for other documents and whatnot and they can continue to submit those um there should be uh and this this is again maybe not something that we need to resolve today especially because that the application is complete prior to June 24th uh we'll be in good shape um but there should be that milestone where we say everybody's comfortable that we've gotten everything that we wanted we go I just want to revisit and I don't I'm not you know I'm not usually the uh wordsmith and the group here but I think most of our regulations all say shall so I'm just I just I guess I'm thinking about um being consistent a big differentiation that I like to make in terms of regulations is what we require of people and what we require of us we I like to have as much flexibility as we can but so all the maize that come to the commission I will retain them really it's it's it's it's an important principle when it comes to regulations um what we require of the licensee is critical and and you know and it's important to say whether it's may or shall and that's that's part of what we've done here but for example I was going to say I think you were just saying will versus shall right not the choices themselves I was just thinking most of the work we do we always do shall so uh will is just not just will versus shall right right right oh yeah that's that's all I just that's fine it just seemed to me that that was fine that's fine yeah that's fine and I and on the site visit are we on agreement that's going to be a mandate yes yes yeah the only other shall and this would be on us they need to get written notice in six we're talking about final review procedures uh it's that second sentence written notice should be provided I just think it says the commission shall provide written notice to them detailing the scope I just think I'm sorry where were you um six page six section six final review procedures you have once all materials have been submitted next sentence was written notice should be provided to the licensee I do think that should say the commission shall provide written notice to the licensee detail that is a place yeah shall on us yes I was I was particularly thinking of um all these other language that follows which gives us the flexibility to hire consultants or not and which it should remain a flexibility right and a man and you can come to that so you're talking about so you know um the the licensee uh you know the where are you what page seven seven okay retain authorized the executive director to retain for example at licensee expense you know consultants and whatnot that was important flexibility that we exercise early on at the very top it says may yes before those and that's that's what I would retain we're not obligated we're not obligated depending on what happens we'll see what happens but I wouldn't want anybody to say well you didn't retain anybody the flexibility where we say shall we really do want to see that from the licensee or we mandate ourselves I guess the other I'm sorry the other question just uh are we in common agreement that uh the renewal fee will remain at the hundred dollar that was one question we wanted I think we should set it now in in this document because I think we've done enough to diligence on the expenses that we think it's not likely to go much further north in the hundred thousand so I would I would just make the argument that you know when the legislation is given us the opportunity to set uh whether it was the initial application whether it was the license fee you know we've kept it at the minimum hoping that more resources would be poured back into the facility as opposed to just paying for a license so I mean my suggestion would be to give them some assurance that a hundred thousand dollars is where we would like to keep I agree with that I mean I thought we had um talked about that in a prior and but but it's important as we are now approving this to make that clear um and it's especially because uh the statute talks about in this particular case to be tied to the cost of investigations which we then um are projecting that it's going to be perhaps less than the minimum to simply just go with these hundred thousand minimum and and leave it at that no disagreement on that I have a couple of um did you have some more? no no I think I made it when it came up okay I think that you mentioned the idea whether or not we suggest that the licensee could include future plans that we might as well have that trigger right but not mandate that they may that they yeah I said I suppose that would be of interest to us um but I am I thought on that one that we when we talked about the licensee's presentation commuter that was going to be but he would say yeah he happened to mention also in terms of page three that's when you mentioned it but as long as the licensee is put on notice that that's something that would be of interest if it is I mean it's kind of an it's an unusual request because we're issuing a license I guess if they if it's firm enough like uh future plans correct? the first was all future plans right you're not doing anything right so like so the prior discussion had it on page six uh paragraph five the second bullet there was conversation about the licensee shall make a presentation and there was some language about looking back forward is that sufficient for this concern to just put it here do you want that's only at the public hearing though and I wondered if we wanted in earlier on something in writing outlining like a summary of any future plans or what I feel like it is a relevant part of our review so so we could put it in the application piece yeah under number one as another bullet that says a statement relative to future plans yeah and did I miss it was it somewhere else I thought it was already in here somewhere oh it is there oh no but it's only there for horse racing oh well maybe it should be broader okay so we would add that to the application as one of those bullet points adding a statement relative to future plans for the property and also specifically as to the horse racing yeah it's the same language as the last bullet one but not exclusive to horse racing and then the other clarification I would like on the timeline and I appreciate what Commissioner Zinnega was saying about the rolling basis and how we're going to get information coming in from the license on an ongoing basis but I'm also cognizant of a mid-April public hearing which I do feel like that's the right timing for a public hearing will the public be adequately informed at that time to be able to be responsive in other words we don't have anything about the conditions that might be when would they have to let us know that they're not going to meet a condition or if they have some new future plan that is unanticipated should should we have should there be some kind of enough for the public to be informed I think that depends on what the commission wants to do what's the purpose of the public hearings on that in that mid-day if it is sort of that public response to the casino and it's been in operation and it's been in their community and how they feel about it that would be sufficient if it's public comment about the application that's a whole different ball game that's very helpful because it made me actually think if it made me think then at the very least we should offer some public comment period near the end as the renewal application becomes really would the application be a public document at some point during this process because if you want a public comment about the application the public would need to see the application so otherwise we need to invite a comment about the application did you do that in the RFA 1 and RFA 2 it was not tied to the application there was a number of things that were not a public record on the RFA 1 part but only temporarily as well as the RFA 2 also only temporarily there were different levels of protection materials that were what's the word we use the materials that are confidential to the public that does not become public but the public hearings that we did have there had been so much groundwork laid by the licenseeering they had to go for the host community vote the renderings of the building job commitments all that was in the public domain before we had the hearing so they did have time to come in and talk specifically about the application but we did not make the application it wasn't necessarily public it wasn't opining on the application so much as giving reactions to what was out in the public I mean you could do something I defer to Ombudsman Ziemba but for example you could put out some documents such as their quarterly reports or something like that so there is some information for the public to review and commenting about how the casino is doing it's clear to have them review the public they're going to be doing a presentation at the mid-April meeting they want to have something to react to so they'll do a presentation or do we have that go in advance I don't know how you want to do that have that be submitted in advance and available before they make it or you hold it until the meeting so I think that's a good suggestion if you do have them do a presentation at the April hearing we could weigh those in the presentation that would work I just want to just issue a word of caution I would imagine if I were in the licensee shoes that when I'm putting together my forward-looking plans I would be very cautious about what I included in those forward-looking plans otherwise if they're just thoughts the public or others might think that they're being held to that when they're just that was why I said it's a little bit of a tricky process it's not like we're going to build the casino and there was a known fact so I guess it would be only if they had a future plan that was firm I am wondering about that especially since some of their future plans may include legislative approval or private negotiations that they don't want to reveal yet I mean my point in this was we gave them a license based on what they were going to do in five years I'm not necessarily looking for something that I'm going to hold them hard and fast to for all the purposes we've talked about showing your hand to your competition or whatever but some aspirational effort as to where they see themselves in the next five years for lots of reasons you look at the original legislative intent even the legislature didn't want these facilities to become stagnant it's why we have a capital improvement plan it's why all these other goals were set forward so it's really to give them a chance to show where they could be in the next five years but I'm not going to necessarily I myself I'm not going to necessarily hold them hard and fast to a lot of detail and when are you going to have that done in all likelihood have potential conditions because we'll be taking a look at the range of their plans such as their tourism plan that they may need to update some of their other plans and they might get baked into our review process so even in and of itself even without the forward-looking statements they'll be back and forth on a range of different things so I guess that is just something that we would have to flesh out further with the licensee what should be included in this forward-looking yeah I think it's a let's see what we have it may very well be that their plans are to continue as much as they have been doing and we will have to see what they present in terms of their outlook I think that we exhausted our suggested edits I just want to confirm for my own edification my understanding on page 1 under application that you want to change that first paragraph the application itself then shall consist of certain documents and other pieces of information submitted to commission such items shall include the following does everyone agree that's what you want to do where was that page 1 that first paragraph of the word application yes because they're all you're all good with all those shall require all the bullets below yes because they're all a statement there's presumably a lot of information there that we can review but it's straightforward for them to say in a statement I have one other item in light of what commissioners have mentioned regarding the maze and the shalls we put in a proposed timeline and we met that as really the potential timeline but because we're including in this document we didn't include any caveats maybe one might need to say had proposed timeline subject to amendment by the commission in parentheses it was really meant as a guide rather than something that requires us to do something on a specific date could you say anticipated as opposed to proposed yeah one thing I'll say on the timeline it doesn't have to be here but I anticipate that the site visit would happen would happen somewhere in the March or April timeframe and of course it made me more than one time so that it's you know doesn't have to be only one group going out there you know there may be a financial investigation piece there may be another group but I would buy it kind of like in close proximity to being submitted in case there needs to be additional documentation reviewed or not and then we can go on to the review process well done so do we have a motion in light of these suggested edits Madam chair I move that the commission approve the procedures for the renewal of a category two gaming license as outlined in the memorandum included in the commissioners packet and as further discussed at the hearing any further thoughts all those in favor opposed 5-0 Madam chair I further move the commission to authorize staff to serve a letter on the gaming licensee commemorating the approved renewal procedures and to take steps to facilitate the renewal process consistent with the discussion today and the timeline in the memorandum that is included in the commissioners packet all those in favor opposed 5-0 thank you thanks very much good work thank you for your efforts on it and councillor Grossman thank you and everybody excellent and I know Loretta thank you okay now we're moving on and I just want to know for Mary Ann's purposes we are at 233 and once again we're ahead of schedule wow we love that we're never behind never behind moving on to item number nine I know exactly so in terms item number 9a I believe that we last let this matter for action by commissioners Zuniga to convene a procurement management team to develop an RFP to further the executive director's search process and do you have an update? yes I do Derek will help me where I omit any kind of details that are necessary but we have drafted an RFR for an executive search firm or consultant to help in the search of an executive director we have posted an intention to post an RFR that happened last week if I remember correctly to advise potential respondents and bidders of this upcoming RFR that actually helps in the duration of our internal process so that people know to expect the RFR while we're working on it but we're very close to a final draft of that RFR we have assembled a team the procurement management team like in the past it includes people from the RFR to help in this procurement finance, legal diversity jail and jail are also part of the team and again the RFR is ongoing and we'll be issuing it shortly it generally based on the discussions from last time around it generally stipulates two items of in the approach and that is to conduct an initial assessment do I need to stay clear of some of the details because of the RFR? what we did is we went and reviewed the commission meeting and looked at the items that were discussed in the commission meeting which were for the public record an internal evaluation of some of the agency needs and the next executive director different ways to go about that whether it be meetings whether it be focus groups whether it be surveys all of that was discussed in public drafting job description doing outreach and recruiting helping with scoring and setting up meetings and then kind of setting that up as a menu all or some that is all contained in the scope of services how it's laid out we'll see what responses we get we anticipate that some people might respond different from others and that's usually what happens in this kind of procurement just like we looked at feasibilities which you had requested of the 10,000 threshold which would be an incidental which would only require three quotes or even less than that looking at statewide contracts or procurement then the team thinks that the procurement is really the best way to go yeah so I can answer any questions if there are any but I think you know we're progressing as we intended to and I think I probably have questions but I'm going to honor I think the system which is that we need to allow the PMT to forge ahead yeah so we have a timeline developed we do we had sent out the notice of intent notice of intent to post even though we really didn't have to but we just wanted to give people because it didn't hit the world trade threshold the world trade organization threshold we have our criteria developed already so really all we're waiting for is kind of the okay to go ahead and post and we put in we'll have language in there that identifies what the commission wanted for all areas of this as the menu but you know we support partnering that will all be covered in the in the language and the areas that we sent it out to all the vendors on statewide contract for management consultants got the notice of intent as well as any vendors that had human resources or recruiting in one of their areas of expertise even though they might not be on a statewide contract we sent they may have done business with someone else in the Commonwealth they're set up as a vendor they all got the notice so you know at this point it's just really putting it into finalizing it putting it into the RFR and then you know the timeline is what it is I mean it's it's not as short as somewhat like but we are being very aggressive and we did signal we did signal in our language our expectations for timing from the vendors to make sure that expediency is a preference and is acknowledged that this is something that we're looking for here so we tried to really go back and look at the commission meeting a couple meetings and hit on every topic and cover it in there now once again once it gets posted or if you guys want to see it before it gets posted there is a way to get use that you're a non-voting member because in our commission we've already identified who are the voting members and who are the non-voting members so if you want to see it right before it gets posted there will be non-voting members in case you have any discussion or want to go to you know one of us and say hey we really like this clarified can you as the procurement team go back and think about it we can do that or you can wait until it gets posted it's a public document and then we can always amend it you know that we have both of those options Todd on the earlier version we didn't run against the open meeting law the first version we looked at it as a non-voting member you'd give your comments back to the procurement team it's the status of our lives alright perhaps that could work but your point is in the event there was some kind of an issue that seemed you know critical enough if we could amend and that would be acceptable alrighty excellent good and we are going to post in the with the gaming we're members of a couple of prominent ones you know IMGL and I agar lots of people in this industry look to those for postings so we'll work with Elaine like we've done in the past once we once we're ready to post this to get it notified just like we do with the RFI we'll work with Elaine to make sure we get as much coverage as we possibly can in the areas that we should be hitting on to make sure that I actually received two inquiries for other searches and I said sorry we've got our hands full here so that is a good point everybody knows that there's different resources available so thank you anything else thank you thank you thank you so much I just get to take the credit as usual most of the work gets done by others quite the contrary and then we have eight and nine B as folks know when we issued our decision on the when resorts matter at the end of April last year in addition to the several conditions were imposed and one was to requiring us to appoint an independent monitor an independent monitor was selected through a competitive procurement process and decided here in a public hearing part of the requirements of the independent monitor is to produce a six month baseline study and we just to set the stage the rules if you will where our hope was that the independent monitor and the licensee would be able to just work together there have been a few calls and questions raised they continue to work together however the independent monitor is requesting a very straightforward extension in order to complete the baseline in the fashion that they need so they've asked for an extension from March 5th to a later date in March so it's not a long extension not a long extension I think they anticipate a few weeks probably the week of the 23rd right we don't want to hold them to a particular date at this time so but in terms of that process we anticipate that report being presented Commissioner O'Brien has provided support to me only because I'm the contract point but I think we anticipate that that will be presented in public with an invitation to the licensee to also be here we'll have to figure out exactly that process I think that you know we know if it's public hearing versus something else you'll give us those directions Todd I suspect that sometime near the end of March or beginning of April I think the anticipation is the hearing or the report the hearing sounds appropriate sounds very it seemed very reasonable the independent monitor has been nothing but professional with us and of course independent and that's the key so this is a fair request I have a motion Madam Chair I move that the commission grant the independent monitors request for an extension for the submission of the six month baseline the deadline currently set for March 5th be extended to a date prior to the end of March second any further questions all those in favor and opposed 5-0 okay any other business commissioners motion new adjourned do I have a second all those in favor aye 5-0 thank you