 All right then welcome to the April 30th select word meeting. This meeting is called order at 632. We look uh unusual tonight because not because we're unusual looking because uh we're in a different place. We are at the band room uh at the middle school as our pre-town meeting meeting place. Um in keeping with our town meeting plans we do not do public comment when we're here because our meetings are so brief but we do have several things too so we'll get right started with our 630 item which is our third quarter budget update and we have finance director Sandy Cooler and comptroller Sonia Aldrich here to talk about this with us. Uh for folks who are following along at home the memo from them is in our online web package so welcome. Thank you for coming. Thank you. I also brought paper copies if anybody in the audience wants one. So we are three quarters of the way through the year and uh this is the report that we're getting our expenditures and revenues so far. Um quickly I would say that we're basically on schedule. Uh we've collected 79 percent of our revenue so far today. Um some of that has to do with some timing issues some things uh coming a little early some days a little late but basically we're on schedule. Um I'll just review I won't go through the entire memo but there are two or three things I want to know for the slide board for people at home maybe reading the memo there. Um the first item here is the golf course um we've only collected about a little less than half of our projected revenue but given what their schedule is and the fact that it will collect much revenue over the winter that's to be expected and in fact they had an earlier opening this year and in previous years so they're off to a good start and I think we're feeling pretty good about the operations right there. Um Miss Elenius uh well investment income there's always a timing issue as to when things get booked um and when we get our bank statements always come in after the end of the quarter so you are attracting those you think those are uh on schedule too but it's not reflected in this report again that's just the timing of when those reports come out. Um I'll skip down to motor vehicle excise action that's one of uh a significant source of revenue um we've been looking at the collection so far today they are also on schedule we looked at the average bill from this year compared to average bills from previous years and again uh we're comparable we know um generally there's been an uptick in automobile sales nationwide and um we expect to see that continue to be a strong source of income. The next area I want to highlight is the hotel motel and the meals tax uh hotel motel is that 69% collected the meals tax is that 85% collected um and I think this is a very positive result it shows on the meals tax side that there's been a lot of food and that's why activity is now um on the hotel motel tax um given that this is uh revenue through February and um the Lord Jeff only opened in January uh we expect to see that come back strong after the remainder of the year uh and so I think it's a significant source of income and I don't want people to see the result of what that goes into those local options um pretty much everything else is on target but it's interesting that a penalty of interest income is up next I think because the treasurer's office has been much more systematic about keeping track of um what's due for people and sending unnoticed people in their property taxes when when they qualify as a court so that's why that isn't a schedule. Property taxes are exactly what they should be as the state aid. On the expenditure side um again we've spent slightly less than three quarters of our budget uh three quarters through the way of the year with the year um there are two areas where I think spending is ahead of schedule and may require a reserve fund transfer that ended there are legal services and veteran services um legal services because uh partly because of our activity on the solar project which is something that we haven't had in the past and we won't have the same level again next year so it's like a one time but um and then veterans as you know um it's very hard to predict that um in some ways the fact that we're ahead of schedule is a good thing because it shows that our veterans agent is doing a good job reaching out to people who need these services people are starting to come back from uh the war straw and we've seen an upset in some of the activity there um so we will be tracking that carefully and as I said that may be needed to do an end of year transfer um everything else is been pretty much on schedule with just some prime issues with things like employee benefits because we paid our interest and we returned the court assessment up front this year as we did last year and we got about a two percent discount on that um and um so as I say everything else is pretty much on schedule um we will be uh within the general fund one of the articles that we've taken up tonight which you've already heard about is transferring money out of the general fund into um public safety and community services to fully fund the bargaining agreements that uh you can settle so um that will change some of the spending percentages a little bit but overall purpose of that transfer is just to make the budgets whole in those areas so that we can fully fund the bargaining agreements that we settled on um finally just a word about our four enterprise funds um those are sewer water and solid waste um I think I actually are doing quite well I'm pleased with the revenue we're getting in a solid waste fund now transportation fund as we mentioned is like a review report is a little bit behind some of the others um they've still collected a one percent of their revenue we did see a little bit of lag in ticketing and meter revenue earlier in the year as we were sort of working out some of the kinks on uh the new systemism um but actually our um provider changed uh the internet system that they were using for the handgills that we write tickets they've been a lot of problems those in the past they now work quite well so I'd like to let all the people at home know that we are able to now accurately fully track who's oh the ticket and both you're writing us so please put money in the media with that I just uh again want to thank Sonia and her staff for the excellent job that they do in uh filing this situation and uh giving us easy to understand uh financial records uh there are also uh Andrew and kind of so thank you very much and thank you for the memo which provides a really clear way to track this every quarter um and helps make us all kind of more of uh connected to what's going on and um informed about it so it's excellent thank you I know Mistyne has a question um actually I have two but one is I noticed that um our street lights are costing less I think they were like thirty six or thirty seven percent and I think that's right uh I don't have my I think in front of me but I was wondering if there was some um um um reason for that street lights um and this is the back and then extended right yeah and I just wondered if there were better bulbs or if we were having any solar powered street lights or I think this is more like I wish I could say that would true yeah but it's a tiny thing okay and the other question was um we've heard a lot about the tickets that cost 300 dollars per student for violations of certain bylaws I wondered where that's reflected in the budget um that comes in under uh fines and forfeitures okay all right I just wanted to be sure I knew thank you other questions or comments from the select board about the budget it's Burke just asking for the part where you reassure us that the veterans budget that we're about to be looking at town meaning will probably be sufficient given that we'd expected it to go um that we won't need to increase it yet for right I uh I think it will be um you know to be honest it depends um but we did go over it with the veterans agents and staff again if it does go up we would obviously come back to you for that we will get 75 percent reimbursement for any increase um so um it's our best educated but it still stands for that let's do it thanks thank you other questions or comments on the budget okay would you like to add Mr. just to echo the overall summary we're basically on track there are just a couple of areas we're watching very closely at this point and to the extent there are any shortfalls we expect them to be manageable um so I think that's good news and uh also good work by Sandy Sonia and all of the department's department heads as they manage their budgets over the course of the year thank you and so I would just note that when we talk about sometimes it comes up that we budget a million dollars more than than we end up needing every year um we don't budget that that's the that's the differential um and we're lucky to end up a million dollars more or less to the positive each year it's in these documents that you see how very closely to budget we are tracking on each of these items and uh and so it's a great way for folks to pay attention thank you thank you for the memo again and uh thank you for coming in this evening okay our next item is uh voting and assigning slight forward positions on town meeting warrant articles this is tonight is a continuation of a discussion that we had uh on April 9th was our first discussion I believe and this is about article 29 uh is a petition article about sharing information with federal agencies and at that time we had the petition article in front of us the recommendation to amend it by the petitioners to clarify that it be um not all federal agencies to not be sharing information with but just the the immigration folks um and uh and at that time we had concerns that uh first of all we didn't have an updated opinion from town council that was that was directly responsive to the amendment at that time um as well as from the police chief who had also offered a memo to us on that but was not addressing the um specifically the amended part in the meantime we have gotten and I hope you've received town council's opinion that just came through yesterday and it was on the town website have you folks seen that do we have a hard copy of that I don't have it packed well do you want to just take all these we can share yeah we we still didn't share yeah they're also posted on the meeting packet select tonight's select board meeting pack um miss bluer didn't get a copy a hard copy with her stuff oh I got two of some uh wait a minute John oh you did oh not the top letter but the uh develop packet we're in a funny configuration here tonight everything's a little out of whack but it was some stuff um but not the letter I think I have two I mean I didn't see it you know but okay so that as mr. me say I mentioned that that letter is part of our the web packet online so folks who are following the line home can read that also um in a nutshell the uh the opinion says that um town council is concerned that the uh I guess two things if I can try and some of the stuff now our tables moving everything's going crazy here um that uh first of all that uh we can't make a local action that would compel the federal government um that there's a a law of supremacy involved there I don't speak the legal language but but he cites that um such that basically we can't compel the federal government we can't kind of compel upwards they can compel downwards but not the other way around um and the other is that he believes that the reference in the petition the specific the specific um code uh the cfr code of federal regulations code of federal regulations is not meaning what the petitioners intended to mean um so he is saying that that that the reference that they make actually refers to a much larger part of the cfr that talks about um the a state's plan to deal with I just need the language I'm sorry um not another hard copy on us I'm sorry uh that the the larger section deals with a state's ability to create a criminal history record information plan and not a local municipality informing the federal government it would be a municipality informing the state's created plan so those are the those are the two main concerns coming from council um and I know that the chief had other concerns related to potential uh uh vulnerabilities that this might create for for the town as far as grant opportunities and other things would you like to speak to that and I just briefly specifically the uh the state grants that we receive a specific language in there in the contracts that mandate that we report arrest information to them so to the state police information network who in turn probably sends that forward to federal agencies so if we were restricted in in and who we could send that information to that would potentially eliminate any state grants we could get over the last five years we've received upwards of $260,000 state funded grants executive office of public safety stuff you know from outlaw enforcement grants um speeding grants you know bike safety type stuff you know a lot of it pretty much anything that relates to the issues of safety we pretty much applied for everything we've usually received some some amount of funding to the state you know the federal grants that we receive I don't know what the potential would be in losing that but there's the concern that we would lose that you know our domestic violence grant uh was one that we had most recently received we did that an initiative with the university every woman center and received a pretty substantial grant and we're in a process of rewriting that grant looking to double the funds in that in other words it's $300,000 so you know that's a concern of mine that we would be tabled if you were to or single out to not receive federal funding if we were to in some way go down that road it's it's been done in the past at a federal level but it's usually involved traffic type stuff if in the past if states didn't abide by the 55 mile power speed line you were in effect um you know not no longer allowed to get funding for that and if you didn't reach a certain percentage of uh people using seatbelt use as you were denied funding for that so you know there is past history although it's very specific to motor vehicle type information or or more funding that they've been denied in the past so I guess that would that would be my concern as far as finances okay and I'll let you rebut all this in a moment um so also um I've had a number of conversations with uh Andy Steinberg who's the chair of the finance committee and former executive director of western mass legal services and he's very concerned about um kind of the exposure that this would give the town as far as having a bylaw that uh that we would have to defend against that it could put us in the position of either needing to sue the federal government in order to make the bylaw take effect or to defend someone who believed that they would not be if a if an illegal immigrant was detained in Amherst that they believed that their information would not be forwarded um that they might sue the town to uh to implement the to implement the bylaw so so we have a lot of information that the bylaw is is potentially unenforceable that it doesn't do what you potentially want it to do um and that it puts us in in some other positions of vulnerability um before I open it up to to comments and questions and rebuttal from you I I think it's I think it's pretty clear that the select board wants to be able to support the concept behind this but we also want to do it responsibly and in a way that is practical um so so given the information that we have at the moment I can't speak to the select board we haven't discussed this yet but I'm finding it difficult to um to balance the desire to support it with all of the problematic information that we have about it so now I'll I'll first I'm sorry I should let select board and town managers are talking then I'll let you folks talk um would you mind if I went miss me sandy speaker I would just uh say very clearly that I share all of those concerns and uh uh you know town council's opinion is helpful uh in that um whatever you think about the merits of the bylaw I quite frankly think secure communities act over reaches uh I share the view that our governor has on this issue that in practice it's not been doing only what it has been described as intended to do that the reality has been a little bit different uh so those concerns are real the question is what's the best approach as a town uh about this and I think the best approach is not adopting a bylaw but having town meeting express an opinion in the form of a resolution uh we can join a growing number of voices from communities across the nation expressing concerns which will help influence future policy and legislative discussion at the federal level going forward so the question is how to translate a petition crafted in the form of a bylaw that we think is unenforceable and creates all these other issues that unintended um in a way that is helpful and so I know we have examples from the petitioners and others about some resolutions that have been adopted elsewhere including Northampton but I think there are pieces of those that could be incorporated into a into a substitute motion possibly uh first miss brood then mr. Hayden I wonder if the town manager would also speak to a brief exchange I had with him by email regarding some uh proposals perhaps on the uh town meeting and discussion we were talking about the possibility that one could interpret the bylaw to mean that it was simply requiring the town manager to send a letter and so what was the big deal and um he had a response to that but I don't know and now I'm going to it's been a great year I'm going to quickly call it from my memory um yeah um town council uh earlier on has offered an opinion about uh the authority of town meeting and how it applies to giving instruction to the town manager and um that it doesn't doesn't do that in that the the uh town government act makes clear the authority on uh policy setting um trying to get the right phrase out of here I will find it and come back to it in general it can't it town meeting can't compel you to do something either town meeting doesn't have authority over you what it could do is request that you do something but it can't um yes it can't according to the town government act that's not something right correct and again along those lines to follow up on that but then uh thus expecting what the next comment will be which is uh further than be it resolved that the select word direct the emmerstown manager to do that and again that's not the way we write bylaws we don't write bylaws that say the select court will tell the town manager to do this one thing one time that just doesn't seem to me to fit in the spirit of the rest of the way which ran over written over many many different years and have different types of language on them but it doesn't sound like the others right and and also as far as the chain of command goes town meeting can't direct the select board so right everybody can request that people do things okay Mr. Aiden um I just just a more general um set of plots have been sort of turning around in my mind since this petition was first brought to my attention um it seems that there are two objects to it um the the grander object of course is to uh stand up on the the national political stage and say this is not right this rule is not right the the the it's the results of its enforcement are not right we have some suspicion about the reason it came into being and they're not right um that's and that's one set of things the other other set of issues that come to mind is whether or not um people in emmerstown don't look like me feel comfortable when a policeman is around and um so in the first case um as we're about to find out a little bit later in this town meeting session getting the t's crossed the i started correctly are the only way that anything like this could be effective so there's some fundamental problems with this just as far as that's concerned but also even if that was all correct um I'm not sure that going directly as a town meeting or even as a select board to the governor wouldn't be a more effective or our representatives wouldn't be a more effective way of standing out on the on the national political stage although emmerstown meetings seems to do that just anyway as far as the local side um the um the enforcement by um our local constabulary is exemplary in its even heinous I don't think I have heard one complaint on that um and um goodness knows there's really plenty of potential for it so um I you know I'd like to get up in front of town meeting and take this opportunity to say look you know this is not a problem in emmerst this may be a problem in the country but our our um the bravest and emmerst are doing a good job of making everybody welcome even students uh but that's another matter I don't know of anybody I sat in the hall because I was banished from the previous meeting um with the very passionate folks who are in support of this and had had a good chat with them and that was never an issue that was what that was never an issue that emmerst somehow is discriminating um against people who don't look like mr wall here um so um this doesn't quite quite get to either of those issues successfully so for me so can I ask the petitioners to respond uh or select board done maybe mr chief livings should say a little bit more about emmerst philosophy and enforcement first yeah I would just add that um we have a pretty in depth policy and I think that's the opportunity to see that policy and procedure that we were pretty proud of um it is neither the desire of the emmerst police to enforce federal law it's not our job um you know the resources the desire the finances I think the the petition the way it's written is is is well written and probably wouldn't change the way we do business in emmerst at all um I have concerns about it being in a my law format certainly um some of those have been expressed here but I just think it's important that top that I say that you know as it's written I certainly understand uh so we're going with this and it shouldn't or well walk changing where we're just in the town from the perspective of the police department you know some of these things to be straight down you know what format it will be in thank you okay so you've heard our concerns um so so please respond to those and also think about are there ways that we can turn this into something that we all can support and please introduce yourself for folks at home well I'm the both uh please say thank you and I'm the petitioner uh but I'm very well supported by Jeff from the AFSC and um he understands the mission that I do uh I just wondered first of all in the town council's description here uh he says if the town loses to or not the bylaw I would recommend adding in the words except as maybe required by law or by a court of a competent jurisdiction would that change things if that really would add to it we still can't order to do anything so I think that it needs a little more work and I'm thinking that maybe it could be cleaned up and put forward in the special town meeting for May 14th I don't know if there's enough time it's closed it's closed we signed that warrant already okay so we would need to have a special special uh right a possibility would be to call another special town meeting to consider a different warrant article or it could be brought forward in the fall and it's also possible that maybe minimal changes could be approved that I I don't know what Harrison Greg the town moderator would consider would goodness go through the article it seems to me though that it has to be more changed and it's not because we don't support this but it's just that the way it got put together doesn't seem to fit quite right are you saying then I think it would and you know the devils in the details about the actual wording and would need to be reviewed by the moderator as well to make sure that whatever the resolution is within the scope of the original petition that it would take away some concerns yes take my of mine a bylaw is a very um um a formal thing to do and as you know from the zoning articles we are going to pour over every every letter every comma word and every intent and whether things have unintended consequences and whether things were were responsibly and comprehensively put together and considered all the possible unintended consequences I don't think that as a bylaw this meets that currently and I think we really need to be holding all our bylaws to kind of the same standards we can't say that you know we like the intention of this bylaw it has it has good good intent behind it but it it doesn't it's kind it needs a lot of work as far as the wording and the specifics to make it be a bylaw to make it be um enforceable the bylaw is just not the appropriate way to do it really it's a resolution Mr and then Mr and I'm sorry I don't want to cut into your time I know we have very limited time here but um building up what the time manager said has there been discussion at all with the moderator as to is it theoretically possible to craft with the town moderator yes with the resolution that would still fit so that it would count you know I'm not yet because I'm awaiting a draft language for consideration that would be shared with the petitioner and others and the moderator it is theoretically possible yes right so we can't we can't hijack their petition right this would have to be something that there was something right that they were interested rather than just saying no we are about number 29 it's probably not going to not kill at least the end of the day probably doing right oh I don't think town meeting will go that long I would I would think that this would come up um they're uh two probably two weeks from tonight maybe maybe the the next time Wednesday you guys make 24 and putting but we may not have formed I think we have to go subscribe yeah so I just wanted to go down the list I mean issue of whether this I think that there are lawyers from the ACLU that helped craft us that would actually challenge or robot some of the things that are in the opinion but I can't say that now I think that will be an issue to town meeting but on the the things that I heard regarding the state police and restricting however that might be problematic this bylaw doesn't actually restrict anything that's meant to the state police so if we're not restricting the state for state police at all it's simply if it turns out to be accurate using the at the home and security FBI's home regulation to limit itself so it's not I mean if the if the regulation is accurate legally in the town council might be an accurate um then what we were doing is not actually limiting what goes to the state police um what the state police do with with it um we're doing is we're saying that the FBI can't do what they say they potentially can't do with it um so that I think is shouldn't be a concern um the problem with the resolution that doesn't do anything the problem with the resolution is that you will still have folks being picked up or I should say detained for eyes so resolutions are fine things um but the CFR doesn't say to repeat your resolution this will work um so a resolution is symbolic and it's nice um but it won't actually make a difference for people in the town of Amherst the issue of going to reps and senators about this issue we have a lot of people are um big problem secure communities it isn't a piece of legislation it's a program from the executive branch that was started by the push executive administration executive branch of the push ministry um so uh we're going you can go but it's the executive branch in this domain not legislatures um and I hear um I hear folks talking about the exemplary police procedure um I think that the policy that's on the Amherst police department's website is great um I think it it's good it's really solid it's really good um the problem is that uh secure communities is going to violate it it won't be uh enforceable anymore the the bylaw furthermore the bylaw regarding human rights and Amherst will be violated by secure communities so you could certainly argue that this is sort of getting ahead of the ball before we have that problem and I suspect that when we have that problem we will you know slightly less amical position about in terms of what's happening in the town um this is sort of a way to get ahead of the ball before it before it happens so um it's a good policy um the big question is um when the federal government as they did two months ago in New Jersey and as they did last month in Connecticut began to stipulate that the Amherst police department starts to tame people so that immigration can come by and pick folks up from the town of Amherst um uh it it's just going to beat the policy um and so uh we can talk about how to deal with that now we can talk about who could be able to defend but at some point we're gonna have to deal with it we're gonna have to deal with the violation of the the policy so my concern is that on the one hand we want to make a statement we clearly all want to be able to make a statement about the uh about the problems with secure communities we could go in some uncharted route this kind of potential resolution route that would make a big statement or we could go this bylaw route that um might not be enforceable might be kind of technically inaccurate and um uh found to be unviable either by the attorney general or by the FBI the FBI might look at it even if it passes the attorney general and they say sure you can have whatever bylaw you want we don't care what it says you know that's that's good enough um but if the FBI looks at it and says actually you've completely misunderstood this and you can't you can't compel us to do anything then the thing gets dismissed on technicalities multiple layers of technicalities and then we haven't made any statement at all the statement that we've made is that we couldn't put our our statement together in a way that that had any teeth whereas if town meeting made a resounding statement of some kind that was essentially you know bulletproof it did not have vulnerabilities that people couldn't dismiss and say you know technicality this technicality that then we've actually made a strong statement so i'm afraid we kind of you think that this is stronger but i think that if we go down this path it's ultimately weaker because then in the end we're left with nothing i would say that if it actually passes the attorney general purview uh and it convinces the people there's a majority of town meeting um and i would say that is a much stronger and it's a statement that would actually compel the federal government to back off folks that are suspected of being undocumented in this town and even if we lose that fight it's a fight that's worth fighting and far more valuable than a small resolution which won't actually have any teeth okay so what's in front of us oh i'm sorry mr wall i didn't mean please go right in i just wonder what what the options were i mean do we have to vote because we're all saying we expressed straw as far as i read it strong support for the intentions behind this but i'm hearing reservations about the form and technicalities do we have any options besides voting up down or neutral on this i mean are we able to take other action or to encourage alternative approaches um i think the only kind of official actions available to us are the ones that you said we can either recommend support not recommend support or take no position we could also defer this and see if our you're having heard our concerns if you talk about it and want to come back with something else um i think what you're hearing from us is you're not going to get majority support for the bylaw recommendation as it stands and yet we really want to be able to support this i think personally at town meeting i would have to speak pretty forcefully about this not being a bylaw and i hope that um i hope that that would convince enough of town meeting to not make it pass because i think that like i said i think we have to hold our bylaws to very high standards and and this does not meet the standards as written i don't want to have to speak forcefully against that and i can you know i can support a resolution something that's just having amherst say you know yes we we are joining the the chorus of so many around the state and around the country and opposing this um but we can't kind of let our bylaws be um subject to just good intentions bylaws have to be tighter than that other questions or comments from select board miss bruce at the risk of this coming in all wrong usually means it's better left on set um i'm hearing it's worth the fight and what that says to me is that if we pass the bylaw bylaws found to be adequate in some fashion say by the attorney general but the fbi doesn't agree with it which it surely will not um we are then going to be in the position of legally defending this bylaw and i'm not willing to go down road defending this bylaw and i i'm not willing to put us in that position because i don't think we understand all the possibilities with the fbi and i don't think that the acl real attorneys deal either i don't want to be the test case for it so i'm not there's no way to make this into a bylaw that i can possibly conceive other questions or comments from select board all right any closing up sorry miss thank you well i guess i don't think of it as a bylaw that's where i am having trouble with because it doesn't seem to be like any other bylaw we have if you go through our bylaws this is resolved for one specific thing and and doesn't have this kind of applicability that a bylaw does and i want very much to support it so i am struggling enormously if i'd support something that doesn't seem like a bylaw even though my heart and soul is in this so i that's where i'm standing i i can't think of another bylaw having read quite a few of them that stated the way this was and that that has actual kind of technical errors in it for how chain of command even works within town the things we talked about directing the town manager whatever um okay mr i mean one approach for the board to consider would be to defer a final recommendation on the article but ask me to come back uh asap with some draft uh suggested language for an amended substitute motion and i would make outreach in more detail asking the board to have me come back with some suggestions and in the course of doing that have some more substantive discussions with the petitioners but if it was in the form of a resolution what form might it take that ideally would garner the support of the petitioners so this wouldn't be a this wouldn't be a dueling motion this would basically be um if you could create something that the select board could support and that the petitioners would support instead right because really we can't be introducing essentially a dueling motion from the select board which is why i think we should not defer i think we should take a vote on the motion to the best of our knowledge as it currently stands and we should vote on that and given new information that's going to be a resolution it's not going to be the same it's simply not it's not going to be a vital that's a whole that's it's so different that hopefully it fits within the warrant but i don't see any point in pretending that we're going to vote because there's he's not going to bring us back with that okay so one thing that would do is kind of put a very fine point on where we are on article 29 at all and that might be a stronger message than we want to send at the moment it might be i think more kind of cooperative to say we know what we're still working with them to try and turn this into something that we can support as opposed to kind of going on record very earliest saying no forget it we reject it um i think that is the sense of the body i would certainly be much happier voting to defer and see if we can straighten out the kinks because this is something i feel very strongly about what's in there it's just i'm not sure that this is the best format so i'd like to see it revised we would defer our position on this until we until we go a little further down this road until mr misanti were to come up with draft language and see if that was acceptable to you as opposed to taking a position pro or con right now other select board thoughts on this yeah that's good yeah i like the idea of kind of deferring proactive yeah so so so continuing down this path seeing what this turns into yeah okay i think i must insist on not being just as not being considered that's not proactive i absolutely want us to look at a resolution we are not looking at a bylaw that's been made perfectly clear so we're talking about trying to seem more cooperative when the reality is we're not going to vote for a bylaw we are hoping very much to vote for a resolution so why on earth do we need to defer it to make it clear that we're nice we're not it's not about being nice and cooperative we are still going to ask for the motion this time you may still come up as an article 29 therefore i don't want to let me that i'm voting against it till i see what it is so you know that's why i will say defer so um we already it's not unusual for us to to consider even with this article that the the thing that we're considering at the moment and even though i understand we're not supporting it is uh an amended motion so we're basically we're basically saying yes we expect them to amend and if it if it were in this this format as presented to us as amended our position would be x i think this what is going to be amended is still evolving so if we could come to a place and and i don't even know if it's possible to take something that is this complicated and reward it in a way that the that the moderator is going to think is is acceptable at town meeting i don't know um but if it is then we would again be sort of dealing with this amended the amended motion that might be put forward for article 29 so um i don't think there's really harm i understand what you're saying i don't think there's harm though in putting off the decision one way or the other about that and that does seem to be kind of the opinion of the body um are you folks good with that we're going to defer our decision i don't think we need a motion on that i think it's by consensus unless you'd like to be on record that we could vote i think i am all right yes i see that i just need i just need i i like things to be definitive from the standpoint that's not going to work let's move on to the next step therefore we need to make sure that we get this resolution worked on fairly quickly since some of us like to imagine we're not going to be in town meeting in june so um in addition to all the other things that have to be done this is now a new thing on the plate that has to be done correct this is the optimist that town meeting will be over sometime in may she's agreeing that not approaching please six yes okay so let me restate what i think we're doing right now is we're not taking a position on this right now um mr musanti is going to try and come up with draft language for a resolution and um that would be that the chief that town council and that the petitioners having heard all of this that they can all support um if we can do that then we will come back and have this conversation again um and that's going to happen as soon as possible um did i miss anything mr can we just ask for an update for like next monday yeah yeah so then we'll have the next monday how quickly town council can work on it how quickly they can look at it okay thank you thank you do you folks have any other questions or comments for us about this well i'm certainly want to say that i appreciate the strong sentiment that's been frustrated the about the direction of this and um this is our concern obviously and it's certainly better to have a deferment than to have a vote against it which i gathered was the alternative so in that sense fine but then i hope that the town manager will be able to have some time to work on this because i don't want to defer this to fall town meeting i don't i i think it's so um if you have you will be in touch with us yes thank you very much thank you for coming in again to kind of hash this out with us and moving forward okay so we are supposed to adjourn uh now but we'll take like three more minutes if we possibly can i think the most important thing we need to do is um yeah we do have a couple motions all right first we'll do those and then we'll we just have a couple information updates we have to deal with um let's actually so the dumpster request let's talk about this for a moment before we do the motion so we've had a request from the hope church for temporary dumpster on gay lords street but we have a recommendation from the fire chief to uh reject this because it's not safe um i've had some further discussion with uh the fire chief um he does have concerns about the narrow street um but as a last resort he thinks this could work out we're still working with the contractor their preferred approach is to try to make arrangements with the butters one of the butters off of the uh street uh i have not heard definitive word yet uh whether that could work but my recommendation is you you pass the motion allowing the dumpster but we'll continue to work with the contractor to um see if the butter land can be used and if not have the street location be uh as short a period as possible should we say uh should we add language that says pending approval by the fire chief for of the plans or something like that uh sure yep so that way sure okay i move that the select board approved the request of bowery and schnitzel incorporated on behalf of hope community church to allow placement of a 30-yard dumpster within on straight on street parking on the south side of the townway directly in front of the hope community church 16 gay lords street amherst m a beginning may 1st 2012 through june 30th 2012 as pending approval from the fire chief second for the discussion they were saying i oh i'm sorry mr. waltz did you want to just briefly to note that i mean these are this is complicated i'm glad that the fire chief is on top of it but we have also through the community preservation act been attempting to help the church to uh repair and modernize and preserve its structure so it's nice that we can cooperate and try to make that help this this work out thank you for adding that uh all in favor say hi hi hi and that's unanimous okay taxi i move that the select board approved the application of a jeep for levered m a for it for transfer of his license to drive taxi slash chauffeur on behalf of ambassador taxi to gotta go taxi second for the discussion all in favor say hi hi it's unanimous special liquor license i move that the select board approved three applications for wine and malt special licenses from brenda brian newton director of catering on behalf of the university of massachusetts for receptions to be held at the isenberg school of management atrium on May 2nd 2012 from 230 to 6 p.m and at derpy gardens on may 11th 2012 from 12 to 4 p.m and on may 12th 2012 from 330 to 17 second from discussion restrained uh 230 to 630 on the second 30 for the document is what the chief approved the application says great thank you thank you that would be 630 you'd hate to cut them off early except for enough money all in favor say hi hi hi that's unanimous okay um so we need to adjourn um that there's information in the packet about the special town meeting that will be held on may 14th you can't talk about it because we don't have time but the memo uh is in the packet it's very explained for you everything you need to know for the select board and people at home um additionally my expectation is we don't want to meet wednesday unless something happens tonight such that we need to so i will be canceling the wednesday meeting unless something happens tonight at town meeting that changes that we're all good with that all right then we will meet here again uh at 6 30 on monday may 7th and this meeting is adjourned without objection at 7 25 thank you very much