 I'm going to go back to you. Essex town select board meeting to order. Uh, agenda additions or changes from staff. One requested change from staff would like to move up business item. I the calm dev fees if we can move that above G and H. Evan and I will present G and H and so we so and I think Sharon and I will present the changes from staff. Correct anything from select board members. Okay, kind of a motion to amend the agenda to move business item I above G and H motion to amend the agenda to move business item I above G and H. Thanks Patrick. You have a second. Thank you Tracy. Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes. We will move that one up. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to the next item on the agenda, which is the public hearing on the revision is to title seven motor vehicles, traffic and parking. Who is going to be speaking to that? I can speak to that. Lieutenant Kissinger is not here tonight. I believe Chief Huyg is so he can jump in if need be. But basically this is the public hearing at the last select board meeting. The board gave preliminary passage preliminary approval to updates to title seven of the motor vehicles, traffic and parking ordinances. It was largely cleanup correcting some speed speed zones, some parking areas no parking areas. I don't don't need to run through every change. I don't think but happy to try to address some. If there are any questions, but otherwise this is the opportunity for the public hearing on those changes. Depending on the public comment, the board may wish afterwards to approve the revisions and adopt the ordinances to be effective immediately. Or if there are any other recommended changes or proposed changes, we would like to go ahead and have another public hearing before making those final approvals. Okay. Thanks, Greg. Um, any comments to the public? The board has already had discussion about these changes. So go to the public. If you have a comment, please raise your hand or indicate in the chat that you like to speak. Um, or if you're on the phone will will get you an opportunity to hear from the board. Yes. This is Dorothy Bertendahl. Is the meeting started? Yes, the meeting. The meeting has started. We're we're involved in the public hearing around the motor vehicle ordinances at this point, asking for public I signed in and I'm only getting me. Is that normal? I'm not sure we have we have a large number of folks on the call and we can hear you on the computer and Dorothy may be able to unpin yourself or there's a view function. We can see different attendees. If you're the only person you can see it might be that you're you have yourself pinned up as the primary video. No, let me try clicking this thing. Oh, I guess I'm going to have to stay on the phone, huh? I don't see her in the participants list. I don't think she's in this meeting. Dorothy, perhaps you're in the wrong meeting. Okay. Well, this is the Essex select board, isn't it? Yes, it is. And I'm under business items a. Right. Six, which is which will be we have two more. This item and another item to go through before we get to that one. Okay. Any any public comment on the motor vehicle ordinance approved? Andy, just a question regarding procedure. Do we have to open the public hearing officially before we get started? I officially open the public hearing. Sorry. Okay. I guess I should have. I'm sorry. I just didn't know if we needed it. No, I guess I just assumed moving to that part of the agenda. And I guess you right. Probably should say the words. Sorry. Okay. I don't see any hands. Patty. Patty Davis. Yeah, I'm sorry. I just barely got on. I was right in the process of feeding my dogs and trying to sign on. Did I miss did we miss public to be heard completely? Is it all done? No, we're doing the public hearing for the traffic ordinance public to be heard is next on the agenda. No rush. I just, you know, I don't know. Okay. I'm not seeing any hands. I don't see any comments in the chat. Am I missing anything? Anybody else seen any hands? I believe you are good. Okay. Can I have a motion to close the public hearing? Motion to close public hearing regarding changes to title seven motor vehicles, traffic and parking of the municipal city. Okay. Thank you. Patrick and on any further discussion. All those in favor, please say hi. Hi. Okay, we've posed. Okay, motion passes public hearings closed that we will revisit this question later to consider final passage. Okay. Yep. If you can hear me, I sent you an email with a link. I clicked on the link. The one I just sent you. Okay, I will go back and see if I can find that one. Right. I just sent it to you like three minutes ago. Okay. Okay. Thanks. Giving it a whirl. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yep. Thank you, Evan. Okay, moving on to public to be discussed. This is a time for the public to speak to the select board on items that are not on the agenda. The intent here is to bring up things that are town business. Please don't get into discussions about things that are outside of our control or get into discussions with other. Please keep your comments. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Civil. And respectful. Okay. I see Bruce post. It's Mary. We're sharing a computer. I would just like to make a request that salaries for all town employees be published in our annual report. I can find out salaries for state employees. I can find out salaries for UVM employees. I think Burlington list theirs. And I personally don't see any reason why we, you know, the town of Essex couldn't list theirs also. Thank you. Thanks, Mary. This has come up a number of times in recent meetings and you can get that information certainly by Greg Duggan offered to share a discussion about whether to include it in any published documentation yet. So thank you for your comments. Margaret Smith. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay. I've mentioned this before and somebody said they thought they could fix it. But when you go to the website to find the link to the meeting, you have to download the agenda and click on the link in the agenda. And then when you click on the link in the agenda, the agenda goes away. So you have to download it again. I don't know if there's any way of putting the link to the meeting someplace not in the agenda or making the agenda not disappear so you have to, I have to download it twice every time. Thank you. Tracy, I see your hand up. Did you have a comment about that? Yeah, just one thing to try if you have the agenda open in your browser where it says join Microsoft Teams meeting, if you right click on that and say open link in new tab or open link in new window it should leave both of them open for you. So that's something to try. It's certainly worth trying but sometimes if you're in a hurry to get in the meeting, downloading the agenda takes quite a while especially if it's lengthy. But thank you, I will try that. Thanks Tracy. Thank you Margaret. Any other comments from for public to be heard? Patty Davis. Okay. Can you hear me? Am I unmuted? Yes, we can hear you. Okay, so I like to research. I used to research a lot in ophthalmology and so you guys correct me if I'm wrong but the person that did our town audit was his name, Bill Kaiser. Okay, that's okay. I take notes diligently but you know I could have made a mistake but I wrote down Bill Kaiser and I really listened attentively and took notes and the only reason I'm sharing this is it's awesome and I put stars next to it and I found it and I'm like oh my god I got to share this. So I just found it interesting that he was talking about our fund balance not fun if you win but fund and how much cash we have our balance and blah blah blah for just the town okay and what I liked that he said was that hang on he said you know when we figure out our expenditures for the village and what things are charged for the village, expenditures for the village are charged to the village and expenditures for the town are charged to the town but I want you to know on a monthly basis the finance department and the town outside the village is doing great for the town, the whole town and he just I wrote that down because I just want to give us a little ray of sunshine okay for the select board a little ray of sunshine even though it's 98 degrees the reason I'm talking about the fund balance is the only request I have and I keep saying it over and over and over but I'm not the only one is I would really like us to take some of our fund balance and hire an attorney for just to have you guys have a select board person this has nothing to do with separation I don't care if you bungee cord I don't care what you what you guys want to do I don't care but I want us to have that representation of a town for a town attorney outside the village I do not want an attorney representing the town outside the village and the village that is a conflict of interest and that's the law thanks thank you Patty Irene runner thank you I have two things to say first of all I was a new select board member back in 2007 I got the standard training which I'm guessing our current chair received as well from our former manager one of the many kernels of wisdom we received was that each of us has two ears and one mouth for a reason now conventionally that would mean a person should listen twice as much as they talk given the dichotomy here in town I propose we specifically think about how our two ears could be used in this way what if you lent one of your ears Mr. village trustees as you did on Saturday and then made sure that you lent the other ear to the town outside the village I would suggest that anytime you meet with one or more trustees whether it's a joint meeting or just touching base with the village president please set a timer please make sure that your town outside the village ear gets equal time down the line with folks in the town outside the village who are informed and eager to have you represent the entire town as one can only by hearing all voices my second message speaking of Saturday's retreat I heard several staff say something along the lines of whatever you do please do not amend this list of priorities over the weekend truly I understand how a list of 18 priorities seems long enough but this process is like other exercises in which populations have been marginalized for example if you had all men in a room they would have different priorities than if you had all women in the room and they would have different priorities than if you had equal populations of men and women in the room if you were talking just white people you'd probably get a different sense of priorities than if you were talking to people of mixed races and if you got people in the room in which no town outside the village voices were represented you'd have a very different set of priorities and indeed you did on Saturday than what certain members of the town who live outside the village would propose I generated just a couple of my own your list absolutely needs some revision and expansion and I would suggest perhaps including a priority of making sure there's no annexation of town outside the village property in a separation scenario now I know we heard from the village president recently that oh they couldn't possibly annex anything by November well of course not and so we'll probably see the election put off till March you know or the next November but that's a priority for those of us who live outside the village so that should be I believe on your list of priorities of things to make sure the town outside the village prioritizes another might be no more meetings where the select board sits and negotiates anything with anyone from half of the town without equal members of the other half president are you here with me no more agenda items until the town outside the village has its own attorney its own chair and its own accountant to echo Patty Davis's point we need to have representation from professionals who work only for us not for people whose loyalties are divided thanks very much thank you Irene any other comments from the public Patrick I see your hand up I honestly apologize that I have to do this but I mean I can't continue to let this go this is not the first time this is multiple times that we have heard comparison so this is this is public to be heard I realize this but this is unacceptable we cannot compare racial justice the individuals of oppression and systemic racism to the as some people perceive the uneven representation in a town that is miles by six miles this is not just unacceptable it is a front and a slap to so much of the racial justice and equity training that we are trying to accomplish in this town making that comparison is horrific and I've tried to keep quiet about it because you're right Andy it's the public comment but this is not okay we cannot I release rather I will not raise my hand every single time I hear that come up if there's a comparison made between the hundreds of years of oppression of BIPOC members of our community and the chair needing to get equal time with speaking to someone of the trustees our chair is a member or rather a resident of the TOV so I feel very confident in Andy's ability to talk one-on-one with Andrew Brown the comparison is ludicrous and it cannot continue I will raise my hand every single time it comes up May I have a rebuttal Andy? No I don't think you want to I want to allow a conversation back to between It's to you Let's see If it's brief As a female member of a patriarchal society I have every right to understand what an oppressed class feels like and no white male has no white male should be telling me that I don't understand oppression in whatever class protected or unprotected I find myself Thank you Thanks Irene Betsy Dunn Thank you So the thought process around the attorney but add another piece to it in that if you are in a criminal proceeding in a court and you have two people who are being charged within the court case the judge will always say you need to have a separate attorney because this man cannot effectively argue for both of you and we need an attorney to look at what is being offered to us and they say that it is not binding or it is binding or anything else we need to be smarter than that we need to start looking at for the town to protect itself what do we need to do around the separation to have anyone on the committee thought about that I think we need to be a lot more careful not a simple thing this is not something that we should sit back and let the village trustees lead the way and we be reactive we need to be proactive in understanding this ourselves by someone who is telling us that is not in a biased role I fiercely believe that and thank you for allowing me to talk and don't ever say that we cannot have an opinion and voice it thank you to respond a little bit to that both Betsy's and Patty's comment we do have a town attorney who was advising us on this and the town is a corporate entity and the town has borders today that may have different borders in the future but the town itself will continue to be the town and so we are representing the town regardless of where its borders are today and where they are in the future the people who live within those borders change on a daily basis people move into out of and within the town into and out of the village I see my first responsibility is representing the town as an entity and then its residents and so the same applies to our attorney that we have we have separate attorneys the town and the village have separate attorneys and we're not participating in the villages legal discussions and they are not participating in ours thank you okay Patty you already spoke any other comments from the public Patty is your hand up on another on a different topic I was just going to say thank you thank you I only wanted this because if any written document even if it's an amicable one is presented to you by the trustees and I know we all want to get along and everybody wants to be happy and all that as long as we have a attorney for the town and discusses it with you before you guys have a vote to sign that makes me very very happy thank you very very much you made my day thanks Patty we will use some judgment with regard to what we ask our attorney to review but we are definitely engaged with with our own attorney Margaret your hands back up again hi I just wanted some clarification on your statement you said we have an attorney that is negotiating for the town or consulting with you for the town does that mean the whole town or is that the town outside the building the town as a the town as a corporate entity so I think so the town as it exists today and the town as it may exist in the future the entire town I think what people are trying to say is that the schools were separate we had a school district for the village because of the town the way statute is written is if a second school district is formed within a town the remaining portion of the all towns are school districts in statute unless another school district is formed within that school district then it's the remaining portion becomes the town school district so there is no document that actually defines the town school district were other than statutes saying it's consistent with the town boundaries or borders and so there there's other factors that generated the existence of the Essex town school district that don't apply to entities the areas of towns that are outside of villages I'm confused Mike Sullivan see your hand up sorry Evan did you want to respond to that before I move on I'll try to do this simple the town of Essex is a corporate entity it is the entirety of the town the select board is your representatives of that corporate entity they have hired a town attorney he has been the town attorney for more than 20 years probably his name is Bill Ellis his job is to protect the corporate entity known as the town of Essex period the village has their own attorney her name is Claudine Safar her job is to protect the interests of the village of Essex Junction so we have representation in the town they have representation in the village it's been that way for years that's not fair so Bill Ellis look at the resolution and agree with what it is and tell you to give you any information as I said we use our own judgment this is not a discussion period this is not our first road no thank you you had your hand up did you want to speak did you want to speak yeah I was going to say because Evan was pretty much right at it I live in the town and whatever attorney represents any town interest represents me that's really quite simple it's a weird situation but it's quite simple thank you thanks Mike any other comments from the public Mike if you could put your hand down that would help let's move on to our first business item interview and potential appointment Dorothy Burgandahl for the energy committee so Dorothy welcome I'm glad to see that you were able to join the meeting I found that work yes so what we'd like to do is offer you the opportunity to introduce yourself tell us a little bit why you want to be on the energy committee any other information you'd like us to hear about your involvement go ahead okay my full name is Dorothy Patricia Burgandahl I live on Taft Street this is the second time I've lived in Essex I also lived on Murray Road from 1970 to 1979 and then my husband and I bought this house in 2011 one of the high school houses and I've been here since 2011 I notice the lack of the opening in the energy committee several months ago with a notice on the window at the Brenna Library and thought to myself hmm that's something I would be interested in doing partially because in the late 80s Central Vermont Public Service which serviced our house in Jericho had a created a customer advisor panel which I volunteered for on the initial panel and spent several years working with them telling them what their customers thought so in the process I was exposed to a lot of information about Vermont power where it comes from and how it is used and distributed so energy has been an interest of mine I've also been interested in saving energy so five years ago we put solar panels on the house eight years ago we bought a Prius two years ago I accepted the offer from Green Mountain Power to put Teslas in my house power walls so that I don't have to have a generator and I can store power in my power walls and use it when they need it I have in the past attended energy meetings in Montpelier for the house and the senate not for quite a while and my impression of those meetings was eight hours of boredom inters first 15 minutes of sheer panic my educational background was I trained as a math teacher but mostly I've been a housewife a mother a caregiver for a sick husband and now a grandmother I've also been a trustee of the Brown Hill Library for more years than I cared account and still am and I would welcome any questions you might have to ask me what I'm doing but I am sort of a perpetual volunteer and this one sounded interesting to me Thanks Dorothy any questions from board members comments the only question was what you just explained so thank you for applying I have one question if you approve of my application how long is the commitment let's see there is a specific term that we would be appointing you to and trying to find the memo that contains that information I just found it okay okay any other select board member comments or questions if not I'll go ahead Dorothy thank you for stepping forward as you noted the seat has been available open for a little while so the question I typically ask is whether you feel you have anything unique that you bring to the committee well I don't know that anybody else on the committee ever was in the power dam up on James Bay I was ever walked around the inside of Vermont Yankee I have and um yeah because of the public Vermont public service with CVPS I got to see all kinds of things the insides of all kinds of things involved with electrical power I'd like to see those things well it's really wild when they take you in the dam in a full-size city bus and you could fit the entire Essex High School on each level of the spill dam runway the place is huge and they also took us out to the dump to watch the bears all right thank you Dorothy um any other comments from select board members questions so Dorothy our normal our procedure here is uh well we we'll have a short discussion here to determine whether we want to go into go ahead and appoint you right here so I don't know if select board members would refer to have a discussion later you want to appoint in uh let's go ahead and open session here I'm fine appointing in the session Don I see your hand up I'm fine doing it right now she's a keeper we better hang on to her quick all right then is there a motion I move we appoint Dorothy Bergendahl to the energy commission the Essex town energy committee yeah commission sounds pretty sorry about that thanks thanks Vince thanks Don any further discussion okay all those in favor please say aye aye opposed okay congratulations Dorothy you're our newest uh energy member um thanks for thanks for stepping forward thank you very much everyone I will do my best all right okay so moving on to the next business item interview and potential appointment Tom Yandos zoning board of adjustment so Tom you're uh read your documentation um I'm going to give you the opportunity to introduce yourself with your own with with uh with your voice and uh tell us why you want to be on the uh the zba and um go ahead so uh I've been a resident of Essex since uh 99 and uh I have been thoroughly enjoyed it uh I used to meet a lot with a family friend uh Paul Brousseau who was on the zoning board heard many stories of of what he entailed and told me later on in life that with my construction background that uh I probably should should apply and be on the be on the board I've done a couple things with Sharon throughout the years um I uh with my construction background I've uh construction consulting background um there's been uh many times where I've uh written and interpreted specs uh written and interpreted codes so um and uh one of the very first things that I did moving back was uh I helped uh at that time rewrite the zoning laws when they came out at that time so uh seeing that a spot came up and I'm starting to find that I have more time in my life now that uh seeing that there was a seat open I decided that I'd like to run and and uh share my wisdom with the community all right thanks Tom any uh comments questions from the uh select board I do have one uh Tom given your do you still work for Yanda Associate's that company is pretty much gone okay my question is regarding potential conflicts of interest and if you felt confident you know distinguishing between the two roles but no I have I have a full time and I'll disclose as well that I'm the town and village facility manager uh so uh the the shingle of Yanda Associate's is well hung up now or should I say taken down um and and uh conflict of interest that you know any meeting that there is something that goes on that uh I will fully disclose and excuse myself from voting or giving my opinion thank you so much any other select board members okay and uh along the lines of full disclosure Tom and I have known each other for a very long time our boys were in uh scouts together so uh we've been uh um I guess extended friends of the family for a long time myself also right right Don right so uh Tom thanks for stepping forward I was gonna you know I typically ask the question what unique thing do you bring to the board but you pretty well laid that out in your documentation I think all your experiences definitely contributes toward toward this role and uh so I guess there's no more select board member comments do we want to go forward with uh a motion or do we want to have a discussion later in the meeting I see some nods just somebody willing to make the motion I move with the select board appoint Thomas Yandao for the Essex Zoning Board of Adjustment to a term ending on June 30th 2022 thanks Tracy do a second second thank you Vince any further discussion all those in favor please say aye aye aye opposed okay motion passes congratulations Tom and welcome to the ZVA thank you thank you looking forward towards it great okay moving on to the next agenda item consider approval of first class liquor license first Republic Brewing Company LLC doing business as first Republic Brewing Company LLC Greg is there anything we need to go through here one of our local breweries first Republic has applied for their first class liquor license they had been operating I believe under a fourth class liquor license before which allowed them to do samples this will give them more of that first class rights to serve beer and alcohol that they have and sorry not alcohol that's a third class but beer and cider and I think wine so that is the application before you the police have reviewed it and the clerk's office has reviewed it and are comfortable with the select board giving approval any select board comments or questions quiet bunch tonight good okay if there's no comments or questions we want to make the motion I got it I recommend that's sx select board approved the first class liquor license for first Republic Brewing Company LLC so you said recommend I think you mean move oh sorry move yes thank you thank you move a second second thanks Vince for the discussion all those in favor please say hi hi opposed okay motion passes five zero moving on to the next one consider renewal of first and third class liquor license Fong LLC doing business business as choice is noodle house anything Greg this is a renewal as opposed to the first time applicant that you just saw with first Republic beyond that police have reviewed it clerk's office has reviewed it and recommend approval of the renewal okay any comments or questions from select board anybody want to make a motion I move the select board approved the renewal of a first and third class liquor license for Fong LLC DBA choices noodle house thank you Don any further discussion all those in favor please say hi hi opposed okay motion passes five zero all right moving on to the next business item discussion and potential action on request to invite Secretary of State or Vermont League of Cities and Towns to an upcoming select board meeting to discuss open meeting laws and public records act Greg any comments on this one or the staff received a letter that was addressed to to the chair of the select board Mr. Watts it was request to have the Vermont Secretary of State Jim condos attend an upcoming select board meeting to engage the staff board engage a board staff in the public under months open meeting laws and public records act the authors of the letter of the letter of the secretary of state opposed and Ms. Dunn are here so I don't know if you want to hear more from them the letters included in your packet and open for discussion yeah sure Bruce or Betsy you want to say more about the letter you sent I'll raise my hand well I having been on the select board and having I don't know enough about the open meetings law public records act why they're important and their legal basis this letter was generated by the controversy over texting during the recent select board meeting in March and not only did it what whether it violated policy but whether it violated state law members of the public would question why my wife sent in a public request for information and that it was what justified that what gave her the right to do that I think it's very useful for select board members particularly new ones for staff and the public and also any of the commissions to have a good grounded understanding of the law and I don't think there's anyone better in the state to do it than Jim condos who regularly holds a transparency tour they're particularly well attended but I thought in this case and giving recent circumstances it would be useful to have such a meeting and also a chance for public to ask questions for instance going into executive session to discuss legal issues regarding separation is anytime you meet with attorney is that justified going into executive session I don't know the answer to that question I also saw attempts when I was on the board to violate the open meeting law to violate the public records act I don't know if that goes on here but I had to learn about the law before I could make intelligent objections to those attempts to violate the laws that's why Betsy and I got together as a former state representative I'm speaking as a citizen and a former select board member thanks Bruce yeah and for me I think that we've had a pretty egregious two situations that I've watched in this last six months happen that I believe violated the law and I think we need to have clarity I think that there's been an end run around the open meeting law by the trustees and the select board in developing the resolution that you came up with the other people on the board were not aware that it was happening because you only had two and two this meant you didn't need to have a meeting and I think it did and I think that that is a potential conflict and I think when we had the March 25 meeting and Elaine was texting on her phone to Patrick and to Vince they were basically having a meeting within the meeting and I think that that's not allowed and I don't care how many times someone apologizes for it there's got to be a repercussion that that alone but the tone that they used about myself and other people is not okay and I've never received an apology at all thank you Bruce I see your hand back up again I mean the point of my letter is not to deal with that particular incident not to say I was offended by it or anything but it illustrates a need to have a good solid understanding of the law open meetings and public records and the Constitution because it finds its basis in the Constitution and the primary officers of the state happen to be the citizens and that's the citizens need some protection in knowing what's going on I sent something to Andy last night to do it on the anniversary of the 9th anniversary of the June 6 2012 meeting of the trustees and the select board that initiated all these merger discussions and they never took a vote to establish this joint study of shared services a vote was never taken a meeting occurred of representatives of the board and the trustees that was never warned minutes were never taken very fundamental issues that I think got off illegally and I think it's important for people to know this stuff that's why I'd like to have Jim condos and it's it's I don't think it's meant for repercussions or anything I think education is important I think it's a perfect time in the life of this town or community to have this kind of opportunity if the board wants to do it and if Jim condos would agree to do it thanks thanks Bruce any board member comments do you want to say any questions about the letter or comments I think it's a good idea to do the training I'm fine with the training I think it's a good idea yeah and we could probably get some questions answered we could ask some very specific questions that might relate to things that have transpired or may transpire in the future Patrick what's our schedule looking like we just got out of a retreat we were struggling to fit in a massive amount of projects that we know we need to complete over the next six months let alone 12 with all respect to the citizens who have said that this is not in regards to one specific incident that was countered by Betsy who said that there were been no repercussions that she wants to see regarding that incident and with respect to Mr. Post his wife during our last meeting also said that she would continue to bring the subject up until there was some movement on it so I wonder because these trainings are made regular by the Vermont League of Cities and Towns I attended one in fact I attended one when I first came on board the select board and I attended another during my second year term that was remote because of COVID no instances that I'm aware of Betsy I believe spoke to too and I certainly would like clarification about the second if she would provide it but our town attorney reviews those requests and at no point have they found a violation of open meeting law so I question whether or not we have the capacity to pull this up and I also question the frankly motives of those putting this in is just an issue that they would like to continue to bring up Patrick the training is not just for us it's also for the public and I think there are some cases where I think it's best that we both understand the same things in the same way and yeah it certainly is dependent on Jim Kondos's schedule and our town and staff's capability capacity to get it scheduled so yeah I mean we as an example we only have one meeting in July right do we want to spend this that meeting doing this or an hour of it doing this or do we want to push it off till August or September right we'll have to figure that out so Tracy go ahead I don't see this as a repercussion I don't see this as any harm being done or rectified I see this as best practice as we found out recently regarding one body joining a quorum warrants meeting of another body that had changed since the last time I went through open meeting law these are living documents and I am in favor of finding the time to do it I don't see a downside to informing ourselves and being able to ask questions and getting the right answers thanks Tracy Don any comments I agree with Tracy that was going to be exactly almost what I was going to say so thank you okay so we then do we now want to open this up to public comment I will make it clear to the public that the topic is the discussion of whether to have the training it's not to continue further continue any discussion of any potential issues that may or may not have happened or may happen in the future it's it's solely about the training so anyway we okay with opening to the public see some thumbs up some nods so okay I see Patty Davis I'm sorry I'm talking a lot I missed a lot of meetings I just want to say that Jim condos is a really nice guy and he is very clear on so many issues I mean election is freedom our elections are so important and he will tell you anything you want to know legally and he is just I want to thank him and thank him again that July 2019 he put law into place that we can get public records any citizen anywhere in the state of Vermont you have 24 hour period none of this four month wait time I mean he's great I you can even talk to him personally as a citizen I just want you to know it's the best thing you guys have decided on getting him to come thank you thanks Patty Mike Sullivan yes Andy thank you I would also like to support the idea of bringing Jim condos not for the education of the select board I believe they probably have a pretty good idea of what the situations are and the laws are but for the public I think it would be good for I think it would be good for the public to hear the situation here to hear the open meeting laws and all the stuff that regulates our meetings thank you any other comments from the public okay so sounds like consensus of the board is that we try to find some time to schedule some training our request was to have Jim condos come but depending on availability of him or his staff we may also consider the of cities and towns they also have excellent training on these topics any any other board member comments or concerns or questions everybody's still on mute so I assume no are no hands so Evan you okay with the consensus to go forward to find some time on our schedule calendar in the coming months tomorrow or the next day I will reach out to secretary condos' office try to set up a time to talk and see if we can get our schedules lined up if not I will for some time in August or September and if not I will turn to the VLCT Vermont, Vegas cities and towns thank you Evan and what and I guess when you're doing that it would be good to get a sense for how much time they would expect it to be so that we and maybe maybe we could do something where we start a little bit early and do that before the meeting so that we're not taking up an hour of interfering with business time yep and I'm guessing we could also do it virtually so I saw his presentation virtually okay we need I do thank you Bruce you're welcome thank you okay moving on to the next business item consider approval of final passage or revisions of title 7 motor vehicles parking and traffic Greg who's got this one you have had the public hearing there were no comments I don't want to presume anything but I'm here and chief is here if you have any additional questions board members have any other comments or questions about the traffic ordinances seeing none somebody want to make a motion go ahead Patrick or did you have a question I will make a motion and also I extend compliments to Rob and the chief for putting this together feels like we've been talking about them since what literally December yeah November so long road but they were getting there so I move that we approve the final passage of the revised provisions to title 7 motor vehicles traffic and parking of the town of Essex municipal ordinance effective immediately second thanks Patrick thanks Don discussion seeing none all those in favor please say aye aye opposed okay motion passes 5-0 thank you very much thank you thank you all well done Ron thank you I really appreciate it moving on to the next item we moved aye up next item is presentation discussion and potential action to update community development fees who's got this one we so Makuku our comm dev director and Sharon Kelly our zoning administrator are here to present the specifics I can kick it off with just a little introduction this is something that the select board and trustees have both been talking about and looking for to take a review of the comm dev fees see if they're due for an update it's been a long time in the town since that has happened so we so and Robin Pierce in the village I've worked with their teams to take a look at our neighboring communities and what's in place in Essex and what potentially could change and their expertise okay so we so Sharon hi yes actually we thought that you would have questions for us after reading through this document I mean um it's pretty straightforward we're proposing an increase to fees which has to fees which haven't been updated substantially in 20 years and this would sort of align them with what people are charging for in other towns for the same permits and frankly again I think part of this goes back to what we're doing what the intention of collecting the fees is because I see a lot of staff time going into through a view of permits multiple meetings often multiple meetings with the applicants and it's definitely not covering the fees that we're charging especially the cap on commercial development are they're not consistent with the amount of time that we're actually putting into these projects and this includes my time Sharon's time Sharon Kelly's time Darren Shibbler's time and our administrative assistance time and so I think that that's probably the best argument for raising the fees or making them consistent with other towns I guess we feel pretty strongly that people who are not reaping the benefits of the development that's being proposed are carrying the cost of the permit review process and that to me is the strongest reason to raise the fees it doesn't have to be a one to one it just needs to be again a little bit more consistent with neighboring communities and within the scope of what we're actually doing on these projects so that's the reason of the fees I guess is one layer another layer would be We saw I don't really mean to interrupt you here but I'm looking at the package and I don't see a memo I don't see this I need to make a major apology to OISO and the select board because we had the memo in the fee schedule and I am not sure how it did not get into the packet but I will take full responsibility for that but we so had a great introduction and unfortunately there's not the supporting material for it so I can I was feeling bad that I was feeling bad that I somehow missed it and didn't read it so how would everybody feel if I pull up the memo in the fee schedule and we will not look for any action tonight but at least it's a chance for OISO while she's here to run through the work that she and her team have done that works again my apologies I will also apologize our pockets 171 pages this time it somehow slipped through the cracks OISO and Sharon I'm really sorry maybe you could go point by point I'm just kidding but I think the intent is the same the town has not reviewed its fees for quite a long time and I want to commend Robin, OISO, Sharon Terry over in the village for going through some of these things and seeing which ones really did need some attention so so I guess there are two more layers to what you'll be reading about and it doesn't hurt to have the background for you go through it but we are currently reviewing projects on a cost per square foot basis sorry at a cost per thousand dollars of estimated construction cost basis and at one point we were comparing what the town was doing with what the village was calculating fees and the village calculates these fees on a cost per square foot and so there's that debate in there which is something that you can read about and think about whether or not it's reinventing reinventing the wheel or what's that expression if it ain't broke don't fix it and then the last layer is sort of more of a theoretical at this point a theoretical consideration of waivers for desired features in buildings in Essex whether we want to consider waivers for whether it's for affordable units whether it's for energy efficiency or any of the multitude of things that one could consider when things that we might view as a reflection of the values of Essex in our ordinance and I would suggest that maybe you take really good notes on that section and think about things that you might like to see in the ordinance because those are things that we hope to be taking up with the planning commission at some point and would love to get your input and feedback and I think Sharon has some comments I'd excuse me I just wanted to add we so tag along that it's more staff as well as than what she named for example public works is involved with reviewing curb cuts they're also involved with reviewing planning and zoning applications we've got the so we've got the utilities engineer we've got Dan Gregoire out checking curb cuts before a permit is issued and before a certificate of occupancy is issued finances involved in all these because we have to get the money to all these people so I've just been trying to load on the point to validate an increase which I think is a respectful increase in so many years thank you Sharon and we really do get input from all of the from all other town departments when we were reviewing projects because again this doesn't just happen these projects don't just happen in a vacuum they happen in our community and parks is affected public works is affected we're affected and we're all spending a lot of time on these projects and so it's just something to take into consideration yeah sorry go ahead Robin yeah it is slightly different in the village obviously because the village engineer is a consultant and the applicants pay them directly for his early cost also you know we do the cost per square foot because there's less wiggle room in my experience for someone who has to give us the number another another part of this was when Amber Tebow brought up the idea of getting some more money she came up with $3,000 and so we all worked together and we looked and Darren had done a study to look at what other communities in Chittenden County charge and so we're basically numbers we came up with and even just doing that alone in the village Terry and I picked five charges and we came up with $13,900 just by changing you know zoning applications review applications that's even over and above an application coming in for a new project that was just very small things which are the things that happen most often so they're the ones we looked at to see how much we could guard from you know certificates of occupancy zoning compliance which most people need if they're refinancing or they're buying house and we came up with that basically in 10 minutes but what we still basically worked in memo one is a much more comprehensive review of that fees so whatever the way the system set up the minute would be different from the village because the engineering review and staff cost in the time but it's a consultant cost to the applicant in the village okay thank you for the introduction I guess we'll look forward to seeing this in a future meeting agenda any board members want to make any other comments or Evan I see your hand up I was going to ask the same thing maybe if there's any impressions from the select board they haven't seen it but any questions or thoughts leading into the next time if they could send me an email or if they have anything tonight it would be great to know some of that in advance now that you've seen the document and we could have this back on in say two weeks can you can you go ahead and send it out now I mean since it's available send it to us now and we can get those questions earlier rather than later sooner yeah I'll be happy to do that and again my apologies for this thanks Greg yeah yeah we're asking you to do a lot you're forgetting you're the one I worried about I was worried about Sharon thank you tough crowd okay any other make sure I'm not cutting anybody off okay moving on to the next agenda item consider approval of COVID true up bonuses for employees okay this one's Greg and I so a little bit of background of geez February March of a year ago when COVID was starting to become known we were in some discussions with our unions about their next contract and we asked them and worked out where they would take a lower amount one year in a one year contract one of our main concerns was we were not exactly sure what the economic impacts of COVID would be on the town in terms of property tax revenue and other revenues they were gracious enough to work with us and as you guys have probably heard throughout the year as we've done our our updates we did not see the property tax collections diminish over the year thank you to our citizens they bait us their property taxes our unemployment rate did go up but it did come back down so in essence the town through the state and the federal government as well basically was made whole for all of our normal expenses so when we when we were negotiating the three year extension new contract the union had asked us to consider going back and saying would we have done that change if not for this and we said we would at least consider it so what you're seeing in front of you is that consideration I believe you'll see that we have already budgeted that money we just didn't spend it and our I think at least from my perspective our employees performed extremely well during this period they worked remotely they worked in person at times they were diligent in keeping the operations of the town functioning during COVID they did their best they did a great job in the winter doing what they could with the circumstances so what you have before you is a request for that true okay thanks Evan any questions comments from the select board right not seeing any so Vince go ahead you do have your hand up I just want to say thank you to all our town employees you really knocked it out of the park with COVID over the last year it's been stressful with everything going on you folks have done a great job pat yourselves on the back except for Evan I'll pat them on the back Evan you go buy yourself a stiff drink thank you and thank you for the kind words it's important to hear that thanks Vince Tracy yeah thanks I just popped into my brain and this may be more of a question for Travis but will this be taxed as a bonus or will it be taxed as regular income because from my understanding there is a difference I don't know exactly Travis said we could call him but one of the things somewhat sideways of that is we did not want to do it as part of their salary because then we had to start doing things like overtime and some other things so this is what was agreed upon and this is something we wouldn't want to change okay sounds good any other questions okay so Evan you're looking for a motion from us I will move that the select board authorize bonuses to all employees defined as full-time part-time or regular part-time in the town personnel guidelines who received a COVID-19 related reduced pay raise in fiscal year 2021 in an amount equal to one half of 1% of their annual base rate to be paid in the last paycheck in July 2021 second thank you Tracy thank you Don any further discussion all those in favor please say aye aye opposed motion this might be a day late and a dollar short but should we have received public input on this I decided not to oh no worries okay motion passes 5-0 moving on to the next agenda item consider approval of revisions for the town of Essex personnel guidelines also Greg and I covering for Travis tonight as you see in your packet every time we do a union contract it is then time to update the personnel rules and regulations but not everything in here is verbatim to the contract there are other reasons why we update it and there are some changes we administer currently we administer three separate contracts police AFSCME the village association we administer also the villages personnel rules and regulations in the towns so over the last several years we have tried to align as much of those contract things as we could to date and then inside of this there are the changes from the AFSCME contract there's reasons why we have other language in there that is not AFSCME contract which is really if it's it's we have several employees who are not unionized so this covers them as well and if it's not in their contract in the AFSCME contract or the police contract and it's in the personnel rules it also applies and so Greg do you have anything to add I know we can talk about some of the main ones no nothing to add if there's questions happy to explain them otherwise Evan hit all the high notes that I would have mentioned any select board member comments or questions so this is to some extent there's some language changes in there from town to unified manager then there's also aligning with contract and then there's also covering items that contract employees don't align things with non-contract employees as well so that's essentially what we're doing we do this periodically every time or somebody changes or a lot of changes or a holiday name changes we did that we updated indigenous people's day and you know we value our relationship with our unions but also our non-union employees as well and we recruit and hope to retain and we do a pretty good job but we have competition and labor our competition is our local municipalities and a little bit further out we use most of our local communities except for Burlington so when we do recruit and look to retain those types of benefits and those types of benefits and time-off, vacation, sick time, etc that's what helps us in this arena thanks Evan given that a lot of what's in there is covered by contract and I don't think I'm going to go to public comment on it because we're likely not going to change anything there because we can't twiddle contracts around at this point unless member board members have any objections do you think we should go for public comment here let it roll in all right any other comments or questions from board members anybody want to go with motion I move that the select board adopt the proposed revisions to the town of Essex personnel guidelines thank you Patrick second thanks Vince any further discussion thank you okay all those in favor please say aye aye opposed okay motion passed it is 5-0 thank you let's see yeah you're welcome next thing on the agenda we will have a short hopefully short executive session later to talk about separation so moving on to consent agenda anyone want to move approval of the consent agenda I move to approve the consent agenda second thank you Tracy thank you Don any comments on any items in the consent comments for questions okay seeing none all those in favor do you signify by saying aye aye opposed consent agenda is approved moving on to reading file any board member comments Patrick good to know I unfortunately am at work that Saturday but the Essex Juneteenth celebration and the Brown out library will be coming up I think where we meet again and they are looking for volunteers so encourage anyone who would like to participate to email I believe there's a notice up on the town website if you are looking to be involved you can shoot an email and they can get back to you with some more specific information but that will be June 19th 11-1 oh thank you Evan 1pm at 5 corners okay thanks for this comment Patrick thank you for highlighting the need for volunteers I actually wasn't aware of that I will go take a look at that that's great Don prior to that there's the DAR presentation at the Essex Town Cemetery that we received a notice on yep great thanks Don for pointing that out any other comments one thing I wanted to note in the upcoming meeting schedule we had been talking about having the schedule for our next joint meeting it was originally scheduled on the 29th it has been moved to the 15th it's my understanding that the 15th is a replacement for the 29th it's not in addition to although they're both listed in our schedule a new schedule is coming out it is the 15th not the 29th and a new schedule will be posted okay great thanks for that confirmation okay any other board member comments okay so then we should circle back to um the executive session about legal discussion someone can find the appropriate motion or motions I've got them right here okay go ahead I move that this left board make the specific finding that general public knowledge of confidential attorney client communication made for the purpose of providing professional legal services to the body would place the town at a substantial disadvantage okay thanks Tracy do you have a second seconded thank you Vince any further discussion all those in favor please say aye hi are you ready for the next one go ahead Tracy motion passes yes sorry go ahead Tracy I moved that the select board enter into executive session to discuss confidential attorney client communications made for the purpose of providing professional legal services to the body pursuant to 1VSA 313A1F to include the unified manager and deputy manager thanks Tracy thank you Don any further discussion all those in favor please say aye hi opposed okay so we will Evan I see your hand up just waiting for you to see if you're going to say the same thing I was going to say we're unlike we're not going to come back to this meeting right yes so we will we will we will close we will have the executive session close the executive session and then adjourn we don't have no no action coming from from this discussion today so members of the public we won't be coming back to this one