 We are calling to order the meeting of the Arlington Select Board for Monday, January 4th, 2021. I know everyone is happy to say 2021 and hope for a much better year this year than we had in the last. As a preliminary matter, this is John Hurd, select board chair. Permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Before I do so, I'll note that select board member Kuro is not feeling well. Tonight, so he will not be joining us. So members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Daya Mohan? Yes, thank you. Steve Corsi? Yes. Len Diggins? Yes. And staff, when they call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Adam Chapterling? Yes. Doug Heim? Yes. And board administrator Ashley Maher is participating remotely. Good evening. This meeting of the Arlington Select Board is being conducted remotely, consistent with Governor Baker's executive order of March 12, 2020 due to the current state of emergency in the Commonwealth given the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. In order to mitigate the transmission of the virus and reduce risk of COVID-19 illness, we have been advised and directed by the Commonwealth to suspend public gatherings. And as such, the governor's order suspends the requirement of the open meeting law to have all meetings in a publicly accessible physical location. Further, all members of public bodies are allowed and encouraged to participate remotely. The order which you can find posted with the agenda materials for this meeting allows public bodies to meet entirely remotely so long as reasonable public access is afforded so that the public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting. Entering public access does not ensure public participation unless such participation is required by law. This meeting will feature public comment, even if members of the public do not provide comment. Participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment and those persons are not required to identify themselves. For this meeting, the Select Board is convening by Zoom as posted on the town's website, identifying how the public may join. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and that some attendees are participating by video conference. Accordingly, please be aware that other folks may be able to see you and take care not to screen share your computer. Anything that you broadcast may be captured by the recording. Please also take care to adjust your screen or device name if you would like to speak. In order for us to recognize speakers appropriately and develop accurate minutes, it is helpful for our participants to see your full first and last name when calling upon you rather than a nickname. All of the meeting materials for this meeting except any executive session materials are available on the Novus Agenda Dashboard. We recommend that members and the public follow the agenda as posted on Novus unless the chair notes otherwise. We are now turning to the first item on our agenda. Before we do so, permit me to cover some ground rules for effective and clear conduct of our business and to ensure accurate meeting minutes. I will introduce each speaker on the agenda after they conclude their remarks. The chair will go down the line of members inviting each by name to provide any comments, questions, or motions. Please hold until your name is called. Further, please remember to mute your phone or computer when you're not speaking. Please remember to speak clearly in a way that helps generate accurate minutes. For any response, please wait until the chair yields the floor to you and state your name before speaking. If members wish to engage in colloquy with other members, please do so through the chair, taking care to identify yourself. This meeting will feature opportunities for the public comment on certain agenda items. For comment on a public comment, after members have spoken, I as the chair will afford public comment opportunities as follows. I will first ask members of the public who wish to speak to identify their names and addresses only. Once the chair has a list of all public commentators, I will call on each by name and afford three minutes for any comments. Please keep in mind that all participants and members of the public must be recognized by the chair before speaking. Finally, each vote taken tonight will be a roll call vote. All right, and that takes us to our consent agenda. We have meeting of minutes December 21, 2020, meeting of minutes September 21, 2020, joint meeting with the Arlington Redevelopment Board, meeting of minutes December 9, 2020, joint meeting with the Arlington Housing Authority, and for approval, Arlington Public Art Youth Banner Initiative on Massachusetts Avenue and Arlington Center, April 1, 2021, to July 1, 2021, Adria Arch-Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture. Mr. Corsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a comment on number five, so I'm going to move approval of items two through four, but I'd ask that number five be removed from the consent agenda. Mr. Mahan. Second. Mr. Dickens, any comments? No comments. Thank you. All right, Attorney Hyde. Mrs. Mahan. Yes, thank you. Mr. Corsi. Yes. Mr. Dickens. Yes. Mr. Herrick. Yes. All right, so that takes us separately to item number five for approval of Arlington Public Art Youth Banner Initiative on Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington Center, April 1, 2020, to July 1, 2021. Mr. Corsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I'm going to move a approval. My concern in this was the timeframe that was listed in the application. It's listed as a request from April through July 1, April 1 through July 1, and I'm concerned about the month of June, both in terms of Pride Month and also last year we hung banners in Arlington Center and throughout the town because of the Arlington High School graduation, and that may be the case again this year. So at least for purposes of this approval, I'm concerned about approving these banners for the month of June. So I'd like to move approval for the period of April through May 31, and we can revisit it later if we need be, but I feel more comfortable with that timeframe. Okay. It doesn't look like we, I don't see Adrian on the list, and I don't know if anyone else was presenting for them. So I will turn to the board, Ms. Mahan. I'd like to second that, and I would just note in the application for the temporary banner for the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture, they indicate that the Youth Banner Initiative event dates are April to May. So I think Mr. Corsi's motion, which I do second, to have the banner from April 1st to May 31st, are there 31 days in May? 30 or 31? I would definitely second that. I'd answer you, but I couldn't be 100% sure. Mr. Dickens. 100% sure. There are 31 days in May, and then I'm fine. I'm fine with this. All right. So we have a motion by Mr. Corsi for approval, seconded by Mr. Mahan with the amended dates through May 31st, 2021. Turn it on. Mrs. Mahan. Yes, thank you. Mr. Dickens. Yes. Mr. Corsi. Yes. Mr. Heard. Yes. All right. That takes us to licenses and permits for approval, food, vendor licensed. Mariuchi. Japanese food in Delhi. 1398 Massachusetts Avenue. Joshua Nakama. Deuce. Let's see Mr. Nakama with us. Sorry. Can you can you hear me? Yes, we can. And I apologize if I mispronounce the name of the business. If you could just introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about your business that you're looking to open. Hi, yeah. My name is Joshua Nakama. I'm the manager with Fujimaru Corporation doing business as Mariuchi Japanese food in Delhi. We're really excited to bring our Japanese grocery store Arlington. We hope it'll be a welcome and pleasant addition to the Arlington community. During our research, we found out that Arlington actually has one of the highest percentages of Japanese populations in Massachusetts outside of the Boston-Somerville area. And so we really think that helping support these immigrant residents and also kind of become a part of the larger community will really be a boon to the Arlington area. Thank you. Welcome. I'll turn to the board for any questions, comments or motions. Mr. Viggins. Hey, I will motion and approve of the license. And yeah, welcome. I think it'll be great to have your establishment in the Heights. Yeah, it's a really good location and the Heights could certainly use your cuisine. Just a curiosity question. Red bean mochi? We will have that. Yeah. Excellent. I'll be there many times. Thank you. Great. Mr. Corsi? Yeah, I'll second the motion and just if I could add, Mr. Chairman, subject to the conditions contained within the reports. And I do note there are a number of conditions here because I think there are a number of things that need to be done, but subject to those conditions, I'd move approval. Second, Mr. Diggins motion rather. Thank you. Ms. Nahn. I want to say welcome to Mr. Nakama. And very good research on your target market as well as other ethnicities. Mr. Corsi touched on my first point I was going to raise subject to conditions and comments regarding from our other town departments. And the other thing I really wanted to kind of give kudos to you on was your maintenance program. That's something that I and my colleagues pay particular attention to, especially where we have businesses and residences, sometimes close together, sometimes not. I don't have a single question for you on your maintenance program of what is missing from there because you have everything in a little more than some. So I am confident that you're going to be a great partner business owner here in Allington. And I wish you nothing but success. And thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. And just thank you for choosing Allington. I live in that side of town. So I'm excited to patronize your business once you get going and get to follow up on what Mrs. Mahan said. We do appreciate the thoroughness of your application. When we get food vendor applications, they're all over the spectrum as to the information provided and you have to take a lot of time on your application. We appreciate that. All right. So we have a motion subject to condition from Mr. Diggins, seconded by Mr. Corsi, Attorney Hyde. This is Mahan. Yes, thank you. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Hurd. Yes. Mr. unanimous vote. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Cama. I look forward to your business. All right. That brings us to our open forum. Accepting unusual circumstances, any matter presented for consideration of the board shall neither be acted upon nor decision made the night of the presentation and according to the policy under which open forum was established. It should be noted that there's a three-minute time limit to present a concern or a question. So at this time, if you would like to speak at our open forum, if you can use the raise hand function on your Zoom application. Don't believe we have anyone calling in. Mr. Chaplin. There are no hands raised right now, Mr. Chair. All right. And that will close our open forum. So that takes us to traffic rules and order and other business. Item number seven for approval, advance of funds in lieu of borrowing are Treasurer Billus Marshall. I think she's on audio now. Good evening. Good evening. I appreciate your putting me on the agenda for this evening. I submitted these forms for your consideration. They are formed from the Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services. And we are requesting advance of funds in lieu of borrowing. As I noted, we are planning, we're in the process of putting together the bond issue that we will have in February. The sale is planned for February 18th. And I will be back before the select board on the 22nd to have you act on that bond sale. The two projects that are going to be included, two of the projects that were going to be included in that borrowing are the first installment of the Department of Public Works project for renovation and construction. And the amount that is requested in advance of the borrowing is $300,000, which is needed by the Department of Public Works for the OPM costs and some of the bid preparation documents. And those funds will be needed before we receive the money for the bond issue. The money will be received early in March, before the middle of March. But we're looking to use those funds, the $300,000 of the $21.5 million that will be planned for that borrowing and spend those before we're looking for a transfer of those funds this week. And we'll spend them before the bond issue proceeds are received. Once they're received, then we will refund, we will transfer the money back so that it is to the general fund. The second project that we're looking for another $300,000 in advance of the borrowing is for the work that's being done out front of the town hall. All of those parts for making town hall more accessible and safe are expected to be completed shortly. And so we will are looking to use $300,000, which is the total amount that will be included in the bond issue in February. The state requires that if we're going to borrow in advance of the borrowing, if we're going to get in advance before the borrowing, then we need to demonstrate the balances that we have on hand. The unappropriated free cash is $5,416,980. And we only need $600,000. So we're looking for you to sign off on that and approve this, please. All right. Thank you. I will turn to the board for any questions, comments or motions. Mrs. Mahan? First, I'd like to move approval. And I have two questions regarding the following agenda item about opportunity to refinance bond issues as of August 2010. I'm assuming that, or am I correct that this agenda item doesn't fall within our next board agenda item. So that would not be applicable or is it in terms of being able to refinance it? It does not apply. They're separate issues. These are in advance of the borrowing that we have planned. The refunding, which is next, is maybe done at the same time, but it doesn't affect these funds. Okay. Thank you. And my second question would be, these advance funds that are available, I guess, under restricted funds, what exactly is that unrestricted funds? Like if you had to look on, if I asked to eat a Kodi, a Comptroller, where are the restricted funds? Is it free cash or somewhere else? It's unappropriated free cash. So we have some free cash that was appropriated for the budget for this year, which is being used to pay the budgetary costs. And these are not appropriated. Did I answer your question? If you know off the top of your head, how much is the allocation to available unrestricted funds? Is it just the amount of these two projects? Is it close to the amount of these two projects or is it something else? I'm not sure. I understand the question. I'm sorry. I can jump in. All right. So free cash was certified this year at 11,318,368 dollars. Though free cash is from an accounting point of view, not exactly what would be termed undesignated fund balance. From a conceptual point of view, it's close to the same amount. So functionally, functionally, you could think about this as being called an internal borrowing, where these funds exist in the town's coffers. We will be borrowing for them, but before we borrow, we'll take them from the existing coffers, be able to expand them, and then when we borrow the money via a bond, put them right back into the town coffers that they're not impacted at all. Last question, I promise, Mr. Chair, when this funding comes back, does it go to free cash or general fund or the both the same thing? It becomes redeposited in the general fund. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Mr. Chaplain. Mr. Corsi. Yeah, I'll second Mrs. Mahan's motion and thank you, Ms. Mazzal, for the explanation on the two borrowings and clarifying for me what each one was being used for. Thank you. Mr. Diggins. Hi, this all makes perfect sense to me. I'm glad we have the funds that we can do this. It just seems like an exercise in efficiency. So great. Thanks. Happy to approve it. All right. Attorney. Hi, we have a motion for approval by Mrs. Mahan, seconded by Mr. Corsi. Mrs. Mahan. Yes, thank you. Mr. Corsi. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Herd. Yes. Thank you. And that takes us to item number eight on our agenda for discussion, Arlington Refunding Opportunity, our town treasurer again, Mrs. Mazzal. Thank you. This is an opportunity that comes to us on occasion. This was a $7 million, $7,258,000 bond issue in August of 2010. And as you may know, bond issues have a period of time where there is an opportunity to refund or refinance them. And so Piltop, who is our financial advisor, is looking at that analysis and will continue to be reviewing it and investigating it. But what would be eligible for refunding is about 40% of that original issue, so which is about $2,945,000. Those are items that were within that borrowing that have a bond life. Some of them are five more years and three of them have 10 years remaining on them. And so given the current interest rates that we're seeing at this point in time, it appears that we could reduce our debt service over the remaining term of the bond for 10 years in about a range right now of $250,000. So they are looking at the numbers and we'll look at them up until we sell bonds in February to make sure that we will, in fact, save money. And it has to meet a certain threshold. We have to save more than 3% of the debt service that the bonds are currently issued at. And so we are working with Piltop to make sure that all of the legal requirements are met by the town and the tax requirements can be met. So we will review that with Bond Council. And then this will come back to you in February when the planned bond issue for this year comes to you. Thank you. All right, Mr. Diggins. I will move approval of this request. And once again, it makes sense. I mean, I would expect in a good department like ours to be on top of a situation like this. I mean, it's amazing though that coming out of the economic crisis of 2008 with depressed interest rates, we would have an opportunity 10 years later, being at lower rates, being to refinance, being what makes this good opportunity for us is a really bad economy, economic situation. So let's do it. Let's hope things improve for all of us in upcoming years. All right. Hey, Mrs. Monk. I will definitely second Mr. Diggins' motion. My only questions would be the municipal bonds. The actual number that this is based on, is it the $2,900,045 or is it the $7,250,000 approximately? The 60% of the bond has already been paid off. And so some of them had shorter terms, some of them had seven years, some of them had five years, some of them had 10 years. And so in fact, we just paid three of the issues, I mean, three of the items within that issue. So the amount that remains outstanding is the $2,945,000. Okay, thank you. And am I correct by doing my very limited math in terms of five and 10 years that the bonds originally issued in August 2010? I think you said one has five years and or three have 10 years or more. Am I correct that that's the two remaining sell items to calculate? And are those all town municipal bond projects or town and school? And they are town and school. There are... Yeah, I'm just doing the math. So if it was bond issue in 2010, we're in 2020, at least one has five more years. So that would be a 25 year and or three, 10 more years. So that would be a 30 year bond. So we're talking about 25 and 30 year bonds that are left bond issue. They were authorized in 10 and they terminate in 2030. So there are 20 year bonds and 15 year bonds that remain. And there is no exempt debt in here. It's all taxable debt. Well, general fund debt. And thank you for answering my questions. I'm just trying to definitely have my head around it and I understand that we'll also be taking another vote in February. So if I have any other questions, I'll follow up with our treasurer and or our select board member, former Fincom member and get educated that way and not at a meeting. So I appreciate the leadway and allowing me to ask these questions and get the answer. I definitely do appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Corste. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So question, Ms. Macho, on the refunding bonds and they will be at a lower interest rate. But what will the term of those bonds be? I don't know that. I think it's the same term. But that's part of the analysis that they run is to determine what the numbers will look like and over the term for which we will be able to reduce the debt service and the bond holder will stay protected. So they will be running those numbers. And as we get closer to the bond issue, we'll know whether we're the bond issue that's planned for the 18th. We will know whether we can pull the trigger on this or not. Okay, great. And thank you very much. And I appreciate that that will be part of the analysis. I think it's great to reduce interest rates, but at the same time, I'd like to see what the savings are for we're extending term dramatically. I don't think the intent is to extend it. But no, okay. No, thank you. All right. And thank you. Thank you for your explanations. So Attorney Heim, we have a motion for approval by Mr. Diggins, seconded by Mrs. Mahon. Mrs. Mahon. Yes, thank you. Mr. D'Corsi. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Heard. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mrs. Marshall. All right. So item number nine on our agenda is vote, police, civilian advisory board, study committee select board designee. Can put this on our agenda to get following on this. Attorney Heim, I think there were questions that had been posed to me about whether or not this was an action, if they had to be a select board member or a designee that we chose. So the way the vote is articulated, it does allow for a designee as set forth by the select board. It's not really an appointment. It's a slight distinction between an appointment and a designee. So in theory, you could, for example, designate Ms. Krapelka if she was able, because she's been your pro temp in other circumstances when you're electing a new board. But the base idea is clearly to have it be a member of the select board or some designee of the select board who would represent the board itself in this function. Thank you. All right. And just turn right to the board here and Ms. Mahan. I guess I would just note that the proponents of this committee designated the member of the select board or its designee. Town council and the police chief are all ex-officio non voting members. And from, as the chair has noted, from the way that I interpreted the language around this that the select board member or its designee would basically be the administrative person to schedule the first meeting. And at that meeting, the then committee members, which include the three non voting ex-officio members, as well as the remaining voting members, would call a structural meeting to a point who should do that going forward. So I guess, unless I hear anything from one of my colleagues that I would just be concurrent with past practice and appoint Mrs. Kropalka as our designee for the purpose of solely doing the administrative task to set up the first meeting, which as a result of that meeting, the voting members will vote each other in terms of moving forward and either Mrs. Kropalka or someone designated from the select board office will continue on in a very minimalist role with no voting authority as well as no longer after the first meeting any oversight on the administration, functional administration of the meeting. So unless one of my colleagues, I'm going to look to see if anyone raises their hand, wants to be the designee as a non voting member to basically do the administrative stuff to set up the first meeting, my motion would be to nominate Mrs. Kropalka. Mr. Korsi. Yeah, I'll second Mrs. Mohan's motion. Mr. Diggins. Sounds good to me. No comment. No first comment. Thank you. And that works for me. So attorney, we have a motion by Mrs. Mohan, seconded by Mr. Korsi. Mrs. Mohan. Sorry. I was just texting Mrs. Kropalka, my condolences. Yes. Mr. Korsi. Yes. Mr. Diggins. I'll text her back. Congratulations. Yes. Mr. Hurray. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Thank you. All right. So this takes us to item number 10 on our agenda. So this is a presentation by Kalex Peek. Just a little bit for the background on how this agenda item came on. A few months back we had a few presentations regarding our last remaining community host agreements or, you know, we can give as many community host agreements as we want. There's only one special permit available. We did not approve either of the community host agreements in the time, since then we've had, I've had a few conversations with council from Kalex Peek and I know they've done some community outreach and they just wanted an opportunity to come and present to us, you know, what, if any, progress they've made. And then after that, you know, we'll turn to the board to determine what, if any, motion they want to take. We may take no action whatsoever tonight. We may set up a time frame as to what we want to go with the community host agreement process or we can take motion on it. Before I do so, before I promote Kalex Peek, are there any board members that would like to speak on this before we hear from the, from the applicants? Ms. Zaman. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just would state that when we open the process for the community, CHA, I can't think of what the acronym is for, for these establishments, we afforded each applicant over two hours to make their presentation. And my only concern is that by engaging in this process, we're setting a precedent that when we take a vote and it does not go with, for an approval that this could be a way to sort of circumvent the process, also not affording the opportunity for anyone or others that also were not successful to come before the board like this. But I am guided by the chairman's representation that we will hear from Kalex Peek, right? Kalex Peek here tonight, but I really would like to stress that of the over two hour presentation about an hour, usually for each of the applicants, is on the subject matter that they want to present. I do not want to go through another hour. I would appreciate a very brief three minute or less presentation from Kalex Peek. And my intention would be not to vote to reconsider our vote and just, I'm not making this motion, but I just want to let my colleagues know, you know, where my mind is at, that it would just be a motion to receive their information and encourage them at any future date when we open up the process for the one remaining license, which is a privilege. It's not a right to anyone that that's when they should go to present more in depth information. So I'm not sure the conversation Mr. Heard that you've had with them, but I have read the memorandum and 42 page study contained therein. And I just don't want to, I'm hoping this won't be a 15, 20, 30 minute presentation. Thank you. Thank you. Any other additional comments? Mr. Chaplin? Thank you, Mr. Heard. I just wanted to share as the board and those in attendance know Mr. Kuro was unable to join the meeting tonight, but he had asked me and lead up to the meeting to request of the Arlington Police Department any calls for response for congregating at Nora Brown Park, Hattie Sims Park, or Hills Hill. I've not been able to collect those reports yet, but he did want me to state on the record that he had made that request. All right. Thank you. All right. If we can promote Attorney D'Agostino, and I don't see anyone additional. Mr. Chairman. Yes. I think Victoria Ayrton is also from Killicks. Yeah, we can promote her as well. It is not showing up on the attendee list, Peter. I did see his name earlier. He's not there anymore. There are two Victoria Ayrton. Is it possible that he is on under her account? Yeah, he would be under his own. That one just disappeared. That's his picture. Okay. So Adam, is another Victoria Ayrton in the attendees? All right. So Attorney D'Agostino, my thought was if you could just take about five minutes to just update us as to, you know, what it is you wanted to present to the board and what you've done in the past couple of months, and then we'll turn to the board for any questions, and then the board will have a brief discussion after that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and to the board members. I'll do my best to stay within that five minutes. Just for the record, I'm not an attorney. I just want to No, I just so I'm not mislead. That's a good thing. But I appreciate the time and I appreciate the members' comments, so I'll keep it brief. We don't have a lot to expand on. Just given, you know, a five-minute time window, our cover letter covered pretty in-depth what we thought to present to the board tonight. So maybe just by way of where we understand to be in the process and what may be appropriate as, you know, to consider for the board to consider, you know, when we attended both of the meetings, the board gave us feedback as we mentioned in our letter relative to traffic concerns. So we went out and we hired a firm to do the work that we thought the board would need to further consider this matter. So that was really the purpose. I was just in response to some of the comments made by the board during prior meetings. And then additionally, you know, the board wanted to get some insight onto community feedback. I do want to draw one line on the community feedback if I could. The community feedback was incredibly targeted based on people who we were able to determine who have been active in the community do through different initiatives. It was not a broad-based community outreach meeting in the same way you would do it under the CCC regulations. I just want to be clear about that that it wasn't like we posted it in the paper or sent letters to a butters. The main reason for that is under the CCC's administrative order number one, we would need permission from the board before we conducted that scale of a meeting. So under that administrative order, which was enacted due to COVID, we couldn't just go and do it on our own. So I just want to be clear that there was a reason that broad-based outreach wasn't conducted in that same way that we would normally do it for a community outreach meeting and that we limited it in scope to targeted outreach with people who we were able to determine were active in the community. So I just want to put the right point on the community outreach and not overstate what our efforts are there. But where we understand the process is the select board has this matter open. They have two applicants in front of them. I don't remember the board taking the motion to close it. There is another, based on your under the 20% rule, there's another license that ultimately would be issued in our own clinic. It could go to anybody at any time. We all recognize that and I certainly appreciate that. But we thought given the 2000 foot buffer issue, that property wasn't really workable based on the feedback we had heard and based on the feedback, we thought that our property was still workable if we were able to answer some questions. So that was the reason we made the request for reconsideration to the board. We're still hopeful the board would consider that in some way and maybe given the members' comments previously, maybe a middle ground would be the board authorize us to conduct a community outreach meeting. We could do that in accordance with the CCC regulations, administrative order, which would give the board a greater sense of the feedback from the abutters specifically and we would notice it in the paper, so on and so forth. So I can't imagine the town would open this process a third time, but certainly it could. So we were just hopeful that given we've participated in both rounds now and we've had multiple locations based on the zoning requirements. One in the first round was within a 2000 foot buffer, so we couldn't use it. And then this property, which appears to comply with the zoning, we're hopeful to continue the discussion with the board and without expanding on the 44-page memo and being respectful of the members' comments, I thought maybe the board authorizing us to conduct a community outreach meeting would be a middle ground to give the board further information to consider before it made a decision one way or the other. But with that, I hope I stayed within five minutes and I appreciate the time and happy to answer any questions relative to the memo we did submit. I want to turn to the board for any questions. And then once we get through the question portion, the board amongst ourselves will have a discussion about where we go from here. Mr. Diggins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I appreciate you coming back. I appreciate your continuing to work this issue and our conversations. I just have some questions regarding the traffic analysis and these are more curiosity questions. So I understand the traffic counts were conducted on December in the 3rd to 10th this year. So any indication as to whether the traffic patterns were different than they were a year ago, because we are in a pandemic. I know that the other two prime time points were quite a bit in the past, but any sense as to how reliable or indicative those numbers are of what we might have if we return somewhat to normal? That's a great question. I appreciate it. One, the traffic count data was based on the historical data and the engineers said the data was within what is considered an acceptable timeframe to still use. So the onsite assessment, the reason we took that other step is board members had specifically raised the concern about queuing at the traffic light. And the traffic engineer said, well, the only way for us to figure that out is we have to go stand there and watch and see what happens. So you see the full assessment where they literally counted every car. That data was used solely to assess the queuing. And to your point, Mr. Diggins, yes, it could queue more maybe at a busier time or less at a slower time. So certainly we would need to consider that. But the traffic study data was based on the historical data. So two data points used for two different purposes. And the reason we had the engineers go onsite and do the queuing was in direct response to a members question about how the queuing of that light may affect the site. And that's why we included in our memo that they recommended, they being the traffic engineers, recommended we make the east entrance entry only and the west entrance exit only. And that, in their mind, would alleviate any of the queuing concerns because the traffic never backed up so much as to block that sent second exit. So that would allow people to come out and turn left and get in line at the light. So two different data points used for different things. Hopefully that clears that up. Well, I guess the question, Mr. Chair, is that we do think the, I guess I have to get my directions, think through my directions. Having not really thought through the directions in the east west, do you think the queuing would be more of a problem if the traffic were heavier? Mr. Chair, through you if I could. Based on the historical traffic counts, they thought the queuing was representative of what they would normally expect to see. But we all have to acknowledge the fact that it is COVID, there could be less people traveling. So we're just being respectful of that. But they felt the data they collected was a good sample size for us, for them to determine whether or not the west entrance gets blocked. And as you're looking at the site, Mr. Degans, it's the one to the left so that they exit further from the light. And so the entire time they were there, I believe that that entrance never was blocked. And we would have to look back to the report. But from my memory, I don't think it was ever blocked during that time. So even if you added a few cars, most likely it wouldn't be blocked. And even at that, it would only impact people coming out of there and turning left. If in fact it, by creating an entrance exit, people coming out and turning left would be the people having to wait. It wouldn't affect people coming in and getting off of the street. And I'll just make one more comment. This is maybe somewhat educational to my colleagues and anyone else that watches this. So I have been becoming a bit more enlightened as to the work that IT does, the Institute for Traffic Transportation Engineers. And it was interesting looking back at some of their older data, that the amount of traffic that they predicted did not emerge. And it seems to be a bit of an issue with certain kinds of locations, certain places with certain kinds of density. And I think where we're looking at in Arlington might be one of those sorts of places. And also, one of the reasons for a lot of times the car traffic not materialized as they expected is that they don't take into account properly other modes being like walking, bicycling and whatever. So I just point that out. And for them, if you drive a lot, I pretty much do transportation, public transportation and walking. To what extent is Q&A even a problem? So it's like, let's say it does back up. Does it really make it hard for people to insert themselves into traffic? I used to drive and it was like, well, you might have to wait and have someone let you in. But that's about the extent of it. Is there anything more serious? Does it increase the chances of accidents or something else negative? Mr. Chairman, if I could, through you. The concern on queuing Mr. Diggins was we didn't want anybody backed up onto the road. So if for some reason somebody couldn't get out, that may prevent somebody else from getting in. And that would create a traffic concern. And so with the proposal of creating an entrance only and an exit only, that would mean no one leaving would be blocking somebody from entering. So anybody queuing on would be on site and not on the road. So we've now moved to your point, if somebody couldn't get out for some reason, all that means is they'd be stuck in our parking lot. The purpose of having the entrance and exit was to keep everybody coming in off of the road, not having any backup. But I also agree that as these facilities have opened across the state, they're not quite seeing the traffic issues that they anticipated. But nonetheless, that was the reason for that approach. And of course, we'd work through that with the planning board, you know, should this be forward. I appreciate that. Thanks for the three, four answers. I'm done. Thank you, Mr. Janet. Is there a question? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Degasino, for the presentation. I don't have any questions on what was being presented. And I'm going to reserve comments for our reconsideration or our discussion after questions are made. Thank you, Mr. Han. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Mr. Degasino, and I am certainly representing Calyx Peak as diligently and above and beyond as possible. But I just want to point out that the board held hearings on the HCA. And when we made a decision, it was an up or down decision. It wasn't, we need more information from you. The point that you're raising here tonight was one of the points that was raised for, that was taken into consideration for our denial of your request. Traffic queuing wasn't the only tantamount issue. There were other issues that came into play as well as the request by our colleague, Mr. Carroll, for more information that really doesn't play into the traffic queuing issue. And again, while I understand going through this exercise and the board and the chair affording you the opportunity to present this information, again, I am inclined to not have a mini HCA host community agreement. There it is. It came to me. Host community agreement meeting after we've already made a decision. What I would encourage you to do is to keep this information perhaps, study traffic queuing when we get back to the new normal. And the traffic issue is something that's able to be studied more appropriately to a post COVID maintaining world, but that any future board, if and when they decide that the host community agreement application process is open again, which it is not right now. We made a decision that that would be the time that you provide this information as well as I understand you're saying you can't have the extensive community outreach portion of it unless this board asks you to. I would disagree. You can do whatever you want. So again, I myself will not be making a motion to reconsider. I think this just should be if I'm allowed unless some of my colleagues have a different motion. Again, I'm not going to make it right now until the chair has his remarks and questions answered. My motion would be to move receipt and encourage you to do whatever you think is appropriate due diligence up to the time that this board or a future board opens up the last of the remaining three applications for host community agreement. And I just don't agree with this circumvention that I interpret as this being right now. So thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. Thank you, Mr. D'Agostino. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity and the time tonight by the board to hear us out. Thank you. Mr. Chapterlain, you're going to just make it so we just have the board on the webinar function now. So the board is going to have a discussion now. I don't want the proper chair to be there. I don't want to say demote. I apologize. I thought when you said that we were already in the executive session and I'm like, did I fall asleep for 20 minutes? What happened? All right. So I'm going to open up to the board now just for where do we go from here? Again, this wasn't set up to restart the process. We just said because we had had a number of conversations with the applicant and they wanted to give us an update. I did want to at least give them the opportunity to do so. Attorney Heim can certainly jump in on this, but we have the ability to approve as many community-host agreements as we feel. We have the ability to not approve any community-host agreements and then we've had that process. So we can either move receipt. We can come up with a plan for the future or take any similar motions therefrom. So I will go to Mr. Degans. So I totally understand me where my colleague, Mrs. Mahan, is coming from on this. I'll say for myself, what I struggle with as a member of the select board is the rapidity at which we often need to make weighty decisions. I generally like to be taking information, listening to what people say and then go back and think about it for a while and then come back and make a decision. I think I had the opportunity to sleep on it. I would have voted me to allow Calix, especially after pondered some of the comments that were made, particularly by you and Mr. Corsi during the discussion as I was, well, as I thought about it later on, I was kind of caught up in and pretty much not so much that I felt that East Arlington would be a better location, but that I thought that the 2,000 feet was close enough. I understood your argument or the argument that was posed was that the previous location was next because it was within 2,000 feet. By the way, we measured. I appreciated the fact that they went back in an attempt to deal with our concerns. I am not going to move for reconsideration out of respect and an understanding of what Mrs. Mahan has said, but I will say that if we did vote on it, I would vote positively for it. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Mr. Corsi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was one of the 2 votes in favor of Calix Peak and I think if there is going to be a motion for reconsideration, I think 2 things. One, if there is something that has changed in other members' minds that the motion should come from one of the members who was in the majority, but two, if there is going to be reconsideration, I think out of fairness, the other applicant that was heard that evening should be notified that there is a reconsideration if there is anything else that they want to present to the board. I voted in favor of Calix Peak on the second of the 1 week and the 1 week had the vote, but I think in the minority my vote remains the same, but I don't think it is one of the 2 votes on the side that wasn't successful. I don't think I place to move for consideration. Ms. Mahan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First I would like to make a motion to move receipt. No further action. I just would add to that that we have one remaining HCA available. It doesn't mean we have to give it out with this current board or this current board in the following year. Like my colleagues, I'm all about process and protocol and for us to begin that process to giving the last HCA means opening the application process again, as Mr. Decorsi stated, giving everybody noticed this applicant, the other applicant that wasn't successful, and any other applicants that may be considering it. So that's the reason why I don't think I'm not making a motion to reconsider. I'm making the motion to move receipt and I encourage Calix Peak as well as the other applicant that we did not grant a license to because as Mr. Diggins spoke to the proximity to the other East Allington establishment, we did vote for that they wait until either this current board or a future board takes a vote, makes a decision and takes a vote to open the HCA application and everyone should follow the same process. So again, I would make a motion to move receipt and no further action. Mr. Diggins, do you have a second on the motion? I'll second it for debate, but I have a question and maybe this is to you, Mr. Heard. What would be, I guess I would like to have Mr. Kuro in on this discussion before we made any decision, especially a decision that's just going to essentially end the process here. Since he was one of the three of us in the negative on this. So would, at what point should I ask that we wait for him to be present with us? So if you're seconding Mr. Heard's motion, then we'd be waiting till a new, a different meeting to make take any action on a community close agreement anyways, if that makes sense? Right, right, but I guess my question is if we do vote positively for Ms. Mahan's motion, does that end the process here or could we still bring it up at the next meeting have a discussion that includes Mr. Kuro and then decide, you know. Well, there is no process for community close agreements, but what I'm just trying to do here is get thoughts on the board and where we want to go move forward on this last remaining item. We had an applicant that kept in touch with us. So if we want to open a whole new process, that's fine. We don't have to do anything with it. We can just say we're not going to take any votes on community close agreements for whatever period of time and Attorney Ham could correct me if I'm wrong on that. But we also have gone through the process a few times. And I think what has been crystal clear to me is that with the current owned bylaws as we have it, there are very few locations. And every time we do go through the process, I think there is a huge administrative burden on particularly Attorney Ham's office as far as taking applicants. But if it's the will of the board to just move receipt and leave it at that, then we're free to do so. I could, Mr. Chair. Just to Mr. Diggins points that he raised, if that's okay. Yep. Mr. Diggins, what I'm trying to say is the town through the ballot initiative has up to three HCA applications that we could put out. We've done that a couple of times. We've granted two. There's one remaining. There is no requirement that we have to, this current board, give out that third remaining. We had a vote by the board. That was three to two. The other ones that have gone through, I'm pretty sure were unanimous. And I'm all about process protocol. To me, this is circumventing the process. We opened up the HCA applications. We heard from two applicants. We indicated by our vote that we didn't approve either one of them. We raised various points with each of the applicants. With Kalix Peak, it wasn't just the traffic queuing that they've done the study during the pandemic. We also indicated Mr. Cureau, our colleague indicated the neighborhoods, sentiments around that. And I understand that the Kalix Peak applicant is falling back on because their interpretation of the process that they can't do a community outreach meeting without a direction from the board, meaning make a motion to reconsider and approve it. I strongly disagree. That should have been their due diligence. To me, with all due respect, that's a cop out. You could say, well, it's not until we get into a certain point in the process that we're required to have neighborhood outreach and community meetings. I agree with that. But to me, a good applicant does that on their own, not because they're directed to. And to me, that goes to the veracity of the application. And again, I'm really uncomfortable that we're, we open the HCA applications. We voted. My preference would be there's no decision on Kalix Peak or anybody else who might want to come in and say, I would like a motion for consideration. I hadn't applied. But since you're circumventing the process that you laid out, I'd like a motion for consideration for mine. Again, I would like to get back to, we're setting precedent here. And I want to get back to a process that we don't consider Kalix Peak, the other applicant that wasn't successful, and or any future applicants that might apply until this current board or a future board says we are now opening the HCA applications for the third and last remaining valid initiative approved marijuana establishment. So I just don't like this. It's not leaving a good taste in my mouth. I'm not kind of like you play by the rules. Select board opens the HCA application process. Everybody applies. It's a yay or nay. That's it. You don't find a way to circumvent the HCA application process that pretty much the board is establishing right now because the ballot initiative went through and each select board or city council had established their process. I'd really like to stick to the process and not have this sort of back door thing. So that would be my comments on that. You know, it's an interest of fair play. I just don't think this is fair. I think if the other applicant that was denied was told this and the board will capitulate and you can come in and ask for a motion to reconsider and totally ignore waiting for the HCA application process to reopen, I think they would have done the same as well as I think it opens the Pandora's box of a company or companies that didn't even apply that says well I want to come in for consideration outside of your HCA application process and protocol that you've outlined. So I apologize for talking to you. Any additional comments? I understand the point to me. My question was just whether or not we wanted to wait until Mr. Kurok away in person. I mean that was it. So I would like for that to happen but I'm not adamant about it. I mean I understand Mr. Mahan's arguments. I mean I certainly understand yours too Mr. Heard about me. It's just being a process. I mean that does take resources but you know resources. We have the resources to use them. So if I had to be I am a process person too. I am wary of precedents but I think I've said a holiday to say on this. So I just don't have anything new to add to it. So we have the motion. I have seconded it so I'll stop talking and turn these back over to you to chair. Mr. Kursi anything to describe? Yeah thank you Mr. Chairman and just a couple comments and I think part of the I understand Mrs. Mahan's concerns. I think part of the issue here too is there isn't a clear appeal process or a process to go forward here and right now we did take our action when back a while back when we didn't vote to grant either move forward with an HCA or with either company. I think to me and I'd offer this as amendment to strike no further action just move receipt because that's really all that's before us that they came in this evening to make a presentation and we're moving receipt. I don't hear any other members who were in the majority moving reconsideration and as I said earlier if we did go to that stage I ought to that for fairness for me is if we did go to that stage the other applicant who was in the same round should be notified but I think for purposes of what's before us tonight it's really a receipt of a report rather than any further action for me. So I offer that as an amendment but I don't offer any further action this evening. And Mr. Chair I would accept that as a friendly amendment that my motion is solely to move receipt. Okay. Mr. Chairman do you have anything to add? No Mr. Chair unless there's specific questions from the board. All right so we have a motion to receive by Mrs. Mahan seconded by Mr. Diggins. Turniheim. Mrs. Mahan. Yes thank you. Mr. D'Corsi. Yes. Mr. Diggins. Yes. Mr. Herd. Yes. That takes us to item number 11 on the agenda for discussion and approval black lives matter banner display. We have Mr. Currow who's not with us tonight and Mr. D'Corsi who had worked on this presentation for us. So with that I will turn to Mr. D'Corsi. Thank you Mr. Chairman and unfortunately Mr. Currow couldn't be with us this evening and he was instrumental in putting together the memorandum that's in your agenda packet this evening and this follows from discussions that we've had since June but I go back to July where there were discussions about the board whether it was to the town manager whether it was to the board developing a plan for the display of banners at town hall specifically in the black lives matter banner. We also had a discussion in September at the time we voted to remove the black lives matter banner at the end of September and we talked about developing a plan and really didn't put any specifics to it. Since we had the resolution warrant article hearing prior to the special time meeting Mr. Currow and I had gotten together and had attempted to come up with recommendations to the board going forward and things for the board to think about and those are laid out in the memo. I don't want to read the memo verbatim but there was four items that we were recommending to the board and I will go through each one of those and then we can open it up for discussion. The four items that we were recommending for the board's consideration was one development of a policy incorporating the long-standing precedent of displaying banners and other symbols in adornments on town hall in a temporary recurring manner in conjunction with specific observances or town initiatives in a way that respects the shared nature of public space. The second recommendation for the board's consideration is to consider the customization of any black lives matter banner with the seal of the town and any additional language clarifying this as a statement of values rather than an endorsement of a particular organization. Third and this goes to the timing. Mr. Currow couldn't be here tonight. This recommendation actually would call for action between now and our next meeting. We're recommending the prioritization of the annual display of a newly customized black lives matter banner from a date in January preceding the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. birthday observance and continuing through the February observance of Black History Month and the fourth recommendation and this follows from the discussion of town meeting was continuing your public comment about what other steps Allen could take to reflect the spirit of these actions. So those are the four recommendations. There are a number of considerations that we incorporated into the memorandum which include the relative impact on regularly recurring displays versus a perpetual display. The shared nature of public space such as town hall and significantly if there is going to be a banner on town hall the requirement that we clearly distinguish any messaging as government speech. So I'm going to offer the four recommendations as votes before the board and open it up for discussion through you Mr. Chair. All right and thank you and I should have mentioned this before. I did want to just apologize and I take responsibility for this as the chair to the board and the public. You know this is a discussion that this issue I think took on a life of its own because of the vote that we took in September. This is a discussion that we should have had parallel with the vote that we took in September and we just you know I never got around to doing that in our September meeting when we took the vote to remove the banner. It was always the our intention that we'd have the banner up and then have a plan in place when we took the vote in September just for a number of reasons didn't happen and I think it would be a much easier process if we had done that. So I just do want to mention that. With that I will look to the board for any comments Mr. Viggins. Yes well I mean I appreciate your apology but I think it's unwarranted because I mean because it's to figure out what to do next is going to take a while you know figuring out how we want to display whatever we want to display I mean it's going to take a while you know and interestingly when I was doing some research on behalf of the Rainbow Coalition I was going through the websites for all of the towns and municipalities in Massachusetts and there are a couple that had like side committees and one that actually had a banner committee you know I don't have the I don't have that title marked down yet but but I mean I think I mean it may require me something on that level you know to figure out what we're going to do being about banners of any type being and how we use public property you know for display of them you know and so there is a little ambiguity I think I mean on the third one at the third point let me go back over to that window so for the display of the banner me from MLK day you know through February through you Mr. Chair where are we planning on putting that well that's certainly a discussion that we're here to have okay of course did you have a I did for that so for the period between Martin Luther King day and the end of February the recommendation is to display the banner town hall you know but again it's open to discussion before the board but that was what Mr. Currow and I had to have discussed but it opened it up for a full board discussion you know and so may I continue Mr. Chair yes you know so I be by position on that hasn't changed you know and and so and and I think there is no reason to think me that we won't find ourselves in a situation similar to where we were in in the last year I mean in in the September because one of the things that happened is that events going on outside of the town it would coincide with the date that we had decided to bring the banner down and it then looked like we were conceding me to these other events being and not by by taking the banner down to clarify that point when we vote on the policy we will not have to take it another vote to put it up and put it down so our vote that we take to solidify when and where the banner would hang would be enough guidance for the town manager to know when to display it so there wouldn't be a subsequent vote in February or in January regarding the banner so so then question to you Mr. Chair is then how does that differ from what was deterred was was um voted on last time because we we didn't have a policy in place in the town manager or attorney hind correct me if I'm wrong but but we are trying we're essentially taking the votes that we took last June and the vote votes that we took last September and consolidating them into one vote that we take right now and it stays in perpetuity until the board takes another vote to change that policy attorney hind so I mean I think there's a couple different facets of the policy of what's being proposed one facet is when and where uh a specific banner black lives matter banner will be displayed in harlington that's a representative of the select board's um government speech the second piece of it is uh I think a call to uh revise and Mr. DeCorsi can correct me correct me if I'm wrong but revise the overall um current banner policies so that to my I guess my anticipation we're distinguishing between the town's traditional use of banners uh to advertise a specific event or cultural you know occurrence uh with contrast to that with something that is more of a government speech function on behalf of the select board representing the values of the town of marlington I don't want to speak for Mr. cure or Mr. DeCorsi but that's what I anticipate uh would come out of at least two of the points that Mr. DeCorsi discussed right that that's right and I think but what I think the the answer to your question is and again correct me if I'm wrong but we take a vote we can take a vote right now that says that we the select board of the town of marlington vote to display and I think what Mr. Corsi is saying is that the date that we actually put it up before martin luther king when mr curl comes back we'll come back and we'll does a specific date but we'll take a vote to display the Black Lives Matter banner on town hall from this date to this date each year until we vote otherwise so with that we don't need to go into an agenda in a January meeting each year to vote to put the sign up and we don't need to vote to take the sign down at the end of February this is we're giving the town manager guidance as to when and where to put it up each year and when and where to put to take the sign down and I'll just make one point and a follow-up and then stop and let someone else have the floor um so uh me you know I'm still not in favor of town hall me and I prefer some other location me but my concern about this notion that we're setting a policy and that's how it's going to be is that we can change things when we want me and my understanding was that we had a up and down date we determined before me and there was pressure to extend things and we did you know and I have no confidence me that that uh it won't happen again you know and so uh that would on top of my just not wanting anything on town hall you know I just had no confidence to me that that we would stick to it you know because the pressures will come back you know so that's it thank you all right this is man thank you mr chair and I agree with mr diggins um up until this most current conversation the only banners displayed at town hall were uh announcing town day so sort of informative community event um display as well as the I'm not going to remember it right I'm thinking the strawberry festival that the high school music department puts on and that was it and I also want to state that um I do when we started this last April the town manager um represented the human rights commission to put up the black lives matter banner on the heels of George Floyd and many other black men and women who have been killed uh to put that on town hall and the original presentation to this board was that human rights commission was asking us just for the month of April which normally we would put pride banners up and down mass af as well as that's another thing that's a third entity that we would put on the town hall so um we didn't put up the pride banner we put up black lives matter banner and the human rights commission through the town manager indicated that in May they would come back with um a recommendation of where and in what way to display the black lives matter banner that was on town hall somewhere else in Arlington it may not be the banner it may be something else then they capitulated on that and said we need more time can you give us till June so we waited till June and then June came and then a petition started and then Human Rights Commission changed to say no now we want to say keep it up there um keep it up at least until we have the August hearing with with the police issue um for the community forum discussion and I agree with Mr. Diggins I don't know why we keep going back to this I have no problem with um up and down mass av not just in the center why not in East Allington the Heights black lives matter and other um displays but um again you know we're setting a a process we're setting a precedent in terms of that uh to me banners at town hall aren't something that town hall should have a banner 12 months out of the year and I'm not diminishing the message of black lives matter um I would ask so I'm not in favor of uh the second part of uh the motion the initial one regarding a black lives matter banner at town hall um definitely it displayed throughout the town not just the center um on the uh banners that we have to go up and down mass av but if I could and again I really am upset about the fact that the way this was initially presented um by the town manager but basically by the Human Rights Commission uh totally took the 180 on this and and got us down there um I would want to ask uh Mr. DeCorsi on the second part of the four considerations that you have before us um would you be amenable to uh customization of any black lives matter banner with the steel of the town and or any additional language clarifying this as a statement of values rather than an endorsement of particular of a particular organization and I say that so that my and Mr. Diggins um feelings regarding a banner that it's an and or uh because I know that um the town has adopted including myself and others that we um have issued a statement that uh we send out on our town communication that says allington values equity diversity and inclusion we are committed to building a community where everyone has heard respected and protected um so um I just would ask for the and or in there and uh because I I would need to have more uh input regarding changing our town seal to recognize black liars matter because you know with all due respect just coming from my own personal um family um issues um if we're going to open up the town seal I certainly want to open it open it up to uh disabled severely autistic and other individuals who I feel for many many years um have been overlooked so I I guess as a friendly amendment to Mr. Corsi clarify and or so I I don't think the recommendation is to amend the town seal it's it's a brainstorm as to what a new banner would look like and it would be a banner with the town seal with a statement of value and you know I I think a number of times we've got conversations with someone with uh I've had conversations with a few people where it would be something along the lines of Arlington affirms that black lives matter it has a way to different to to make it clear that it's a statement of value on behalf of the town rather than any association with any specific group but I'll let Mr. Corsi correct me no that's right and and you know two things one again this and we've been discussing this for a long time this is an attempt on Mr. Cura's part of my part to bring something back before the board because frankly as Mr. Hurd said nothing has been brought back in terms of what our plan is and when I say nothing we haven't developed a plan so this is in response to the discussions that took place over the summer the discussions that took place in the fall and and the uh the warrant article hearing on the resolution and the actual vote of of town meeting um and and it is not a proposal for a permanent sign at Town Hall and that's one thing that within the memo itself there is this discussion about the impact of recurring displays versus perpetual displays and and my feeling is that that's at a certain point in time and here between the Martin Luther King junior birthday and the end of February that would be the time if we are going to put up the banner that would be the time to do it and the time to reflect what actions we've taken as a community um over the past year where we still need to go as a community and and to move forward so I just want to be clear it's not and this is again it's for discussion before the full board so I'm not going to I but it's not something that there is a proposal to to do something um permanently as to the friendly amendment we had a discussion whether the Town Seal or additional language in addition to the Town Seal I note that there are two other communities that have a Black Lives Matter banner on their city halls both of them have their city seals that's the precedent the precedent for the additional language is the Black Lives Matter banner or the two of them that are in front of Arlington High School let's say we believe Black Lives Matter um I don't have a problem with the end door but it's it's Mr. Hurd said this isn't an attempt to change the Town Seal it's just distinguished this as as government speech and we had heard from Attorney Hyme previously on that in terms of what is government speech and and what the implications of that are so I just want to try to be clear on on those two points okay and through you Mr. Chair to that I'm just looking at if we vote if we vote to move receipt of this correspondence from our colleagues Mr. Curell, Mr. D'Corsi I'm fine with that but if we vote the four um recommendations that we're being asked to consider someone could hold us to that language that says you say in here uh about changing the Town Seal about having a Black Lives Matter banner on Town Hall for two months starting at the first week of January to the end of February so um if um we're going to move to receive this and and continue on either through Mr. D'Corsi, Mr. Curell or two other board members to make some suggestions in the future I'm just thinking of the role that we got down here if we out now vote these four um bulleted items that are under consideration we are committing to some of the things that I'm hearing we're saying no we're not committing to that in terms of changing the Town Seal having a banner on Town Hall whether for uh two days or two months um so I guess I would ask Mr. D'Corsi um and or any of my other colleagues what is your preference on the vote that should go before us if it's move receipt I'm fine with that but if it's something else I'd like to hear that I Mr. Chairman if I could just respond just to the seal idea and again I want to reiterate there is no recommendation change the Town Seal and and and what that language was and you know maybe it's not clear enough is is that if we do have a new if we do have a banner regardless of where it is in town that the Town of Wellington Seal is on it it's not incorporating that as as the official seal taking our existing seal as far as I mean this is a lot to put before the board this evening not all of us are here tonight and and I think given given the comments I think um you know maybe maybe receipt is is is all all that um that that we should be doing this evening because I I don't think um you know without without all five members without further time to maybe take a look at this it's it's that that's um the best way for us to go for purposes of tonight I would second that so yeah I I'm not making it as a motion but okay you know if you want to move move I'll move receipt so I just want to I'll step in and just clarify what I feel we are doing here what we should be doing here is you know we've had many many discussions on this we've had a ton of public input we've had the town and around the fall it became time to come up with a permanent plan for the banner in response to the consistent public input that we've had we at that time I think made a decision that we wanted to go through our special town meeting let them weigh in on the subject then we would consider the vote of town meeting it's certainly you know this is within the purview of the select board but we consider that vote among a number of other competing aspects of the the situation that we had to consider um and I think it's incumbent upon us now to come up with a plan and I agree that without mr without mr curl here it may be wise to push this to another to the next meeting but I I don't think this isn't certainly isn't something that I would like to particularly with the time frames and where we are in the year that I would like to push out in perpetuity I think we this is something that we would come up with and resolve at our next meeting if not tonight and you know I again we've had a lot of public input we've had a lot of vocal public input at our meetings people that wanted the banner to remain we've had I know everyone has had public input from people that have called them privately and said that they don't want the banner on town hall for various reasons some people disagree with the message of the banner some people just again don't like to see banners on town hall as mr diggins has said many times but but we have had I think enough between the town meeting and the input that we've received enough to come to a consensus that there are a lot of residents in town that would like to see us take action and have a some sort of a permanent policy where we could display the banner and come if not on town hall then come up with another way that we could that we could push for the statement of Black Lives Matter and you know I think this is something that we do need to take up and we need to resolve and so we can move forward and we can continue with the community conversations and all the work that we've done in the past few years um so I personally I am fine with the recommendations I am fine with with the time frame that has been suggested by mr courtesy and mr curl and I think we can come up with a sign that accomplishes all of our goals and supports the policy statement that we have all five of us and the town staff have reiterated many times over the the the past few years that we're reviewing racial injustice in institutional structural personal race in individual racism that still exists in town and it's something that we need to keep working at and that that's you know what we're trying to do here um so I I had as a I mean I don't know if it's right now for whether the the discussions are going but you know I think that the the limited period suggested by mr decorcy mr curl is fine I did want to just put before the book board for thought now I'm going to attempt to screen share so hopefully I don't have any embarrassing private information that's about to go public but you don't have it anyway so we don't have to worry about that you know just show us your let me see if I just want to make sure that this is up just something for consideration this is and can you see this can you see the photo mm-hmm so you're appropriately yeah so this is a flagpole that's in the Winchester town common so just for consideration as we move forward with the decision if we did want to have a you know statement of values somewhere in town we do have a flagpole pole at Uncle Sam Plaza so it is something to consider what are that our neighboring town is doing so it's the flag there's a black lives matter sign and then there's a rainbow flag right below it that I assume they they're flying indefinitely so I just wanted again you know we're not doesn't look like we're gonna have a motion on the on this at this particular meeting but just as we consider where we go and how we can best you solidify our values regarding these issues to residents in the public that passed through allington I think this is one idea that we could take a look at Mr. Mr. Chair may I offer something yes I'm mindful the fact that it's not my place to weigh in on the substantive debate but there's one thing that I want to note with respect to this question about the town seal and maybe this is mostly for public education rather than for the board's edification the under the law for a long time if you had a process like the board had where you put up a sign or a banner or a flag the idea was that this is sort of neutral space and anybody who's applying gets to put it up and it created this tension where it's like if we allow any types of flags for banners or signs then we have to allow all of them right if we put up a sign you know you know in the city of Boston case the short left case the question became somewhat similar to the picture you just showed Mr. Heard the city of Boston flies the city of Boston flag the United States flag and then it has a third flag pole in city hall plaza that sometimes it swaps out for various different things sometimes it raises flags of other nations to celebrate cultural and culture and heritage of specific folks sometimes it raises flags that like a rainbow flag sometimes it raises flags that have a more distinct and discreet message and the plaintiffs in that case wanted the city of Boston to raise basically a flag affirming Christian values and they did this under the pretense that you were applying to put our flag up too and you can't say no because you put all these other flags up and what the first circuit decided and this was only relatively recently in 2019 was that the government gets to engage in speech and the government gets to say that we have some messages as a government because if we allow all messages then we have no message as elected leaders and without advocating a position as to what the board should do the idea behind having the town seal or some other imprimatur of the board's authority is to make a distinction between saying here's something that the board is just saying you know somebody applied to put up this event sign we're you know find it meets our criteria and we're advertising the Arlington Arts Festival or the Feast of the East versus this is something that the select board is saying is a statement on behalf of the select board and it has the town seal or some other form of making it clear that this is distinguished from the speech that somebody else may be trying to engage in on government property and I just want to make that clear for the public because that's sort of what we're talking about whether the town seal is the right idea or not the right idea the idea is is to make it clear that this is when the government is speaking this is when the select board is speaking as opposed to this is when the select board said okay you checked all the boxes we get to put up you know the you know a 5k run for for different cause you know banners throughout town so I hope that's somewhat helpful in terms of setting the table for future discussions even if it's just help for the public's understanding thank you thank you Mr. Diggins thank you thank you Mr. Chair and thank you Mr. Hyde that was helpful you know and and and I understand it and I support it and I just want to prepare as though that when we do that a we're going to have some explaining to do a because I think for a lot of people that subtlety is going to be missed me and it's going to be interpreted in ways that we aren't going to find favorable I'm fine with doing it but just be prepared me that we're going to have to do some explaining to people and and hopefully it'll get through to those who have open ears me that's just back there'll be those who don't have open ears and we'll just never get through but that's okay you know I would like it that when we deal with them that we break these break these up in the four and maybe have four votes you know I'm easily in favor of one and four and I also want to encourage us you know to to be willing to spend some time uh dealing with one you know four is is is a long going process as well it should be you know but with one it means sometimes when we're trying to meet come up with policy we we try to do it fast me and because we just want to get it done but let's be prepared to spend some time with it and engage the community on it I'd like your idea of Mr. Hurd being on with respect to the flag I mean I'm glad to see us thinking kind of more prominent places because one of my ideas was to maybe have you know black light similarly to the way that we do the pride of stripes being a crosswalk in front of Tahoe we could do maybe black lives matter in in the crosswalk I mean a little bolder for me and maybe even a conjunction was to take the banner and maybe string it in across the major intersection of Pleasant Street and and Mass Ave just something really bold really big out there so that more people will see it so uh but so he's let's spend some time on these things we um and and we should get us to just that maybe we separate them up and float on this long road but I think it'll allow us to maybe make our points a little more clearly amongst each other and to the public thank you and that's certainly fine I mean I don't know that there's much other than vote to commit to number four um number one I think we can separate out as a separate agenda item and just discuss what the process would be and then two and three I think are really one item that you could consolidate once we come back to try to figure out what we're going to do on those two items thank you Mr. Chair any additional comments we have a motion to receive by mrs. Mahan seconded by mr. Degans yes that's all right yeah I don't know if I did but I will second so mr. Chair you ready yes mrs. Mahan yes thank you mr. Decorsi yes mr. Degans yes mr. Hart yes it's unanimous vote thank you so before we go into executive session we have new business so attorney I'm thank you mr. Chair I do I do have one brief bit of new business um I received a terrific news from uh representative garbally today he called him let me know that the uh well if other folks are going to speak to this I'll just be quiet no okay uh he called him let me know that the uh senior uh means tested in tax relief had passed through the house and he's keeping a close eye on the senate but it's uh expected to pass because if it doesn't it's it's got to come back again next session so um that's great news uh for uh seen through what started with this board's initiative to provide uh seniors in our linkedin um with uh some means tested tax relief grateful to obviously our legislative delegation but also their staff who alongside with senate and house council have worked on some tweaks to the legislation that were necessary from the department of revenue standpoint thank you thank you mr. chaplain thank you mr. chair I just have one piece I'll share um and it's very good news our local health department has partnered with the health departments in Lexington Belmont and Watertown to collectively be able to distribute vaccine to first responders so starting next week with Arlington as the lead we will be setting up clinics and we'll start providing vaccines to our police officers firefighters and public safety dispatchers so collectively uh over that week's time uh we'll hopefully be vaccinating uh 580 employees across all four of those towns uh so I know it's been long awaited but uh officially next week we will begin start uh starting to vaccinate our tier water our phase one employees so I think that's very positive news for the community excellent that is good news all right mrs. mahan um I just want to thank town council for bringing up the means tested senior citizen property tax exemption from what attorney heim said said I'm hearing the same thing in terms of the house and senate I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the governor signs it um I would have one question on the town manager um regarding his new business is this um regional uh vaccination program with Arlington and other communities is that something that we're doing within our own framework or is that something we're doing in concert with the um state department of public health that provides a program as long as you're vaccinating at least 200 employees and more they can give you some resources it's that program that you just mentioned in coordination with the dph so the reason that we are partnering is to get to that qualifying level where they will provide you with vaccine okay and I definitely want to commend our town manager mr. chaplain and christine conley our um director of health and human services for um getting that up and running really with very little notice let alone a designated matrix or framework to do that and I just would look forward to I might be too ambitious at the next meeting but um the second part of the governor's press conference today spoke to um mass sites where the next tier of individuals um could go uh to be vaccinated so um I'm glad we have this inroad with the state program that is provided for our first responders um who are willing to take it none of this is mandatory um so I definitely feel comfortable that um Arlington is also uh placing itself to take advantage of the second launch um which will be I think I miss it by a year or two um I'm a little too old and I'm too a little too young to get into senior hours I'm stuck in that 55 to 60 range but um um I really am appreciative of the fact that um our town officials starting with the town manager are really staying on top of um what the state is providing through the department of public health through the command center through MIS and all the other acronyms um and just finding a way to take advantage of that not only state but but federal funding and my last new business would be to ask attorney hind when one of us makes a motion to go into executive session tonight to conduct strategy with respect to a pending litigation the second half of that motion I'm asking is would it be and when the board comes out of an executive session it will be to adjourn or when the board comes out of an executive session it will be to take a vote and then adjourn you can thank you mrs anon it's good question we can adjourn in executive session so as long as it's it's broadcast that we're not coming back in open session um we can that should be part of the entry motion thank you attorney hind thank you mr chair i just my head was a figuring out where to go there no no no further new business thank you mr diggins i'm two quickies you know i i took a walk down um sunny side avenue um yesterday deep down the street and all of it was on the sidewalk you know which is the first time i've done that usually i have to walk in the street a bit because it didn't have a good sidewalk they did a good job you know so thanks to dbw on that and this is legit new business uh that is for next meeting um i would like to um have on the agenda discussion about uh a desire on my part to put in uh articles uh to create a committee to study how we go about creating a youth and young adult advisory committee me so um please please um do that for me okay thanks morning with attorney hind for that thanks this is of course yeah thank you mr chairman just very briefly and just something is actually since covid i mean we one of my walking paths takes me through monotony rocks park and um hills pond and i saw something yesterday that while nothing um nothing bad happened it was a little bit scary that there's some people out in the ice um there and it's it's a real danger right now and the police department tweeted about that yesterday um and hills hill might be the hills pond might be the only pond that has some ice on it right now it doesn't have it near the edges but if you see somebody out there please warn them because it has not been cold enough to support to support that type use and i appreciate the police department putting that that warning out to people because it's just that you know a few few days with slightly below freezing temperatures when it goes above freezing um it's it's not a good situation so um just just uh something that we saw by the time we came around the pond the people were off but it was it just is um it's that time of year where the ice may look like it's it's good it isn't and please stay off it it's all I have it's just something that really struck me yesterday and is glad nothing happened well I learned to skate so fast on spy pond when you skate and all of a sudden you get the ice crack below you not not to make make light of a serious situation all right no new business for me um so with that so for our next the next item on our agenda we have an executive session for the purpose of conducting a strategy session with respect to impending litigation a public discussion of which would be detrimental to the town's position before we entertain a motion to such effect I note that upon the advice of council providing detail on the subject of this executive session would be itself detrimental to the board's discussion of its posture and the town's ultimate position and further that unless otherwise moved by a member of the board we will adjourn this meeting from our executive session and shall not return to open session with that is there a motion to enter exact executive session on such terms into adjourn the meeting from executive session mrs mahan so moved mr gorsi second all right any comments mr diggins no comments thank you and with that attorney hon this is mahan yes thank you mr decorsi yes mr diggins yes mr herd yes thank you