 Good evening everybody, welcome to the Village Trustees regular meeting for Tuesday, August 27th, 2019. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge of Allegiance. To the life of the United States of America, and as the Republic which stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Are there any agenda additions or changes? One change, business item 5A, we're going to pull. And so, is there a motion to approve the agenda change? I will make that motion to remove agenda item A for another meeting. Private? Private. Is there a second? Second. And any further discussion? Why? The person requesting stabilization had some questions about it at this point and didn't realize. I'm not sure if he realized what it was going to be on, but he called the staff and asked to have it postponed. Is that going to impact tax bill for this year? Don't know. Will it impact it in terms of delaying or a decision on the, to stay with us? How will it impact whether the outcome of the tax stabilization this year versus next year? It would impact it by waiting until the 24th, September 1st. It's not going to impact amounts? If in a worst case scenario what would happen, I'm assuming is the individual would pay the bill and could then be issued a refund for the paid amount. Okay. Any further questions? Okay. So we have a motion and a second. Any further conversation? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay. Thank you. So now we have the agenda that's approved. Now we are on to the public to be heard. So now is the point in time on the meeting where if there are concerns that people would like to talk about on the agenda, now is the time to do so. Yes. I have a comment. I would like to address the fact that Village 1L, the public works department went out and spray painted some wonderful arrows throughout the village, but they did not do the right most guidelines for the roads. They did not do the lines for the bike lanes. In fact, bike lanes are covered in dirt. And I've been out in the town, but that's not your concern until half an hour from now. So my concern as a village resident is that it's very difficult during the day to see these lines. It's even more difficult at night to see these lines. And yes, I have a light in my bike and I'm not proceeding very quickly. And as someone who is also driving a car, I find them, they have disappeared. So my question to you is what's the philosophy behind doing the arrows and not the right turn or left turn. Only why miss the center lanes, the right side guides, why the bike lanes. Kids will be biking starting tomorrow. Okay. That's another hat that I have. And so I'll remind you that the safety, and there's a certain little itty-bitty event going down a mile from here. So we've done safety concerns in the past. The Holy Forest Department has been spot on. And they've stumbled this year and I'd like to know why. From the US, I think two basic, two questions. I see one philosophy and one practice. The philosophy from the board has been to provide the resources necessary to do what you're being asked when it needs to be done. So that in terms of a practice, I'd have to defer to staff. I don't know if anybody here can speak to it or we need to find out from Ricky possibly I don't have an answer tonight. Come back to another meeting or shoot you an email. I don't have an answer on the practice part. Because it's activity central right now here in the village. And safety is the ultimate concern for any resident. And I'm very concerned. A lot of different moments. Thank you for listening. Thank you, Diane. Was there anybody else? Okay. So seeing none, we will go on to a business item that was 5B about considering a motion for continuance. Sorry, I'm not going to get this up. This is an item that we are going to consider later on in a deliberative session, fairly similar to an executive session. So what we are going to do is we will address that a little bit later on in the meeting. And I'm sorry, I'm losing the internet connection. What do you need to? I think I have an help. The petitioner is not here. Okay. Okay. So there we go. So now seeing that we're going to have a deliberative session on this a little bit later on in the meeting, we can go on to agenda items 6A for the consent items. I move that we approve the consent items as presented. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? So there's just a quick correction in the minutes. It's just spelling. It's not a huge deal. But I never see anything. So on page 2, page 2, in section B, FEMA is spelled wrong. I got that one. It's spelled correctly in the next line. But it's F-I-M-A in that sense. That's it. That's all I got. So it's page 2, part B. So does somebody want to amend that motion? Yeah. I'll amend my motion to approve the consent items and with the consent items, we can go on to the next slide. And that's noted by Mr. Chow. And Dan, I think you seconded. Do you accept that? I think you seconded. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. So that's been seconded. Is there any further discussion on the consent agenda? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Thank you. We have the reading file. Any board member comments? One very quick comment. I think we have been closing on six months now down to the planning commission. Charter says we have to appoint a planning commission. It says nothing about how we seek out members to appoint. And so I think the usual route of going front porch form isn't working and I think we're going to really need to look at some other ways. I would urge, I would like to recommend that staff put together a list of people who are on volunteer committees with their contact numbers because some of them might be entrusted in perhaps the trustees could go through the list and start talking to some other people because six months now we're at a point where we're going to handicap the development review process. It's a good point. I know that I've had a conversation with one person who I was anticipating to have submitted an application or a letter of interest by now and then I hear there's another one. So while there's some interest, definitely getting more to have a nice call about who is nice. Yeah. Okay. That's a great suggestion to sell. Yeah. I think it's a great suggestion. Staff could do that. That would be great. Good. Kind of coincidentally, I was just going to say that this is not in response to Diane's comments from earlier, but I was happy to see that work was progressing on striping crosswalks and the mid street markers. I think maybe we've added some of those. I think they're tremendously useful and I was really happy with the public works for making some progress. I was wondering if they were going to get finished. But I did want to just kind of say that I thought with everything else going on, they were progressing really well. And again, the mid-rope markers are really helpful. Nice addition. And it would be good in general if there were a schedule in terms of when painting, striping, when that was going to happen. If that is something that could be made public or even, yeah, if that could be made public, that would be helpful. So we would know. So from that, we can go on to agenda item A to A, a deliberative session, so that way we can discuss a legal matter with our legal counsel. Seeing as how we have a few other people in the audience, what we've been doing lately is we can go into the trustees, village staff, our village legal counsel. We will go into the village offices. Those of you in the audience can hang tight and enjoy. We're going to go chat. We'll come back. Thank you. We'll be back in a few minutes. Hi, everybody. Welcome back. Thank you for the, thank you for that brief pause that we have a deliberative session. Based on information from our attorney, we have discovered that there has been a notice issue in the condemnation process and need to make sure that all property owners are properly noticed and able to participate in the hearing, and heard in the hearing process. And as such, I would ask if someone would like to make a motion to rescind the necessity order and cancel Thursday's compensation hearing. So moved. Second. So there's a motion and a second. Is there any further conversation or debate? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Thank you. And as I get back up to the computer, that looks like that is the end of our agenda. So we will take a brief recess while the select board joins until our joint meeting. Let's have a 15. Thank you. Hello everybody. Welcome back to the trustees portion of the meeting. I'll call it back to order. And I will call the Essex Select Board meeting to order. Thank you for joining us. Happy to be here. Are there any agenda additions or changes? There are none. Excellent. So seeing as there are none, there should be no need to approve the agenda changes because there aren't any. Moving right along to agenda 4A or item 4A, public to be heard. So now is the point in time in the meeting in which if somebody has a comment or question from the public that is not on the agenda, now is a great time to do that. Otherwise, agenda items, we can comment on those. You can comment on those as they arise. Is there anything anybody would like to question or comment? Moving along to business item 5A, approval, control panel replacements. Jim Jutris. Thank you very much. I'm here to request your commission to proceed with the sole source purchase of replacement controls for the West Street and Susie Hill's Grove Palm State. I'm asking both boards simultaneously as this is very efficient here to get approval to proceed in this direction. The reason for the request is multilayered. Number one, the purchasing policy used to allow an original draft of the policy allowed us to use a sole source electrician to be more efficient in repairs and application. That didn't make it into the final draft in the final approved version. On top of that, this is kind of a special case. These pump stations were built in the 60s. They've been retrofit multiple times. This is almost a design build with somebody knowledgeable of the system as opposed to a package where you can specify it and have somebody supply a complete unit ready to go and operate. So, I'm here to request to waive the purchasing policy bid requirements and allow us to work with the facility electrician and the town of Essex Pump Station Electrician, Pratt & Smith, to build the panels that will meet the facility operations for both the West Street and Susie Wilson Pump Station. The reason for both boards' involvement, most of the money for this project will come from the town of Essex Capital Funds. There are two funds that will be funding this. All of the Susie Wilson costs are paid under a two-party agreement by the town of Essex because most of the flow for that pump station with rare exception comes from the town of Essex. Most of that flow then goes to the West Street Extension Pump Station where it meets with other village flows. So, we have about 25% of that as the village flow that balances the town of Essex. So, there will be some cost share. The reason for the repair is combination of age, need for reliability and some corrosion just due to the proximity to the road. New equipment will be in stainless steel enclosures and will be significantly smaller than the old carbon steel units just because electronics are getting smaller and smaller all the time. Jim, I have a couple of questions. One, in your narrative you talked about the salt spray hitting the units right now and they corroded. So, what's going to be changed in these new ones to prevent or to mitigate it at least? We're going to do everything we can to set them further back. The units are much smaller, so there will be up on pedestals which will allow air flow. There will be stainless steel instead of carbon steel. And even though they're in the shaded area in both locations, there will be better air flow and that will prevent the standing moisture and condensation. Again, with the newer panels, the UL approved panels, there are heaters to prevent condensation and other things that can also lead to the corrosion, whether it's the wires or the external cabinet. So, what happens if these fail? What would the result be? So, if we went with somebody that isn't as familiar with these and they built something and it failed, what would the consequence be? The Susie Wilson pump station receives flow from 40 to an hour. We can store flow for about three or four hours at those locations and that's about it. The West Street extension pump station relies on a generator's backup. There's very little line storage and the control system that we have allows us to automatically shut down the Susie Wilson Road pump station to prevent overflows. It's automated, built into the facility and into the operational controls. And needless to say, if there's an alignment of West Street, we respond very quickly. So, reliability is a real important feature to these boxes? It is. And that's part of the reason we're requesting this upgrade in the control cabinets. The drives are typically cycle five years. We're into the 15 to 20 year range on some of these. So, they've done this service. We want to make sure they continue. Thank you, Jim. And going forward, Jim, should the systems need more attention, Pratt and Smith will be able to, like in the future, if we need to do an upgrade again, would you still be wanting to go with Pratt and Smith or are they going to do something so that more than one company might be familiar with what they're doing? I think in the future, a lot of the pump stations are a little more canned with existing drawings. These, they've been retrofit as part of multiple upgrades over the past year. I think there have been four upgrades to those control cabinets, plus repairs and retrofits. So, the drawings are a little sketchy compared to what we have for all the other pump stations. And the same goes for the town. Some of them were turned over from developers and well-documented. Others were before the time where that was a requirement. So, we're getting more consistent in how we apply the standards so we should be able to avoid this kind of request down the road. Got it. Does anybody have any other questions from the trustees like to make a motion? Sure. I'll make a motion that the trustees waive the bid process and allow staff to proceed with purchase and installation of the Suzy Wilson Road and West Street Extension Pump Station custom control panels with Pratt and Smith Electric. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Thank you. Would anyone on the Select Board like to make a similar motion? Andy? I move that the Select Board waive the bid process and allow staff to proceed with purchase and installation of the Suzy Wilson Road and West Street Extension Pump Station custom control panels with Pratt and Smith Electric. Thank you, Andy. Is there a second? I'll second it. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Jim, thank you very much. Thank you all. Thanks, Chairman. You're welcome. Yeah. Take care. Okay, next item on the agenda. It's five bid. Update from the governance subcommittee. And since George and Max are both here, I'm going to let you duke it out as to who's going to speak. I'm prepared, but I'm always happy to have Max speak. Please, George, you proceed. Okay, so we, as you know, we had the results from the focus groups in the meeting, and we're going to get the results focus groups slash listening sessions from KSV we heard Dave Kreston came in last week and presented the results and Dave did it a very excellent and thorough description of what happened and it's in your packets for I'm not going to review it but he summarized it gave a very good executive summary so I'm going to just do a quick summary of the executive summary and then just tell you where we are right now first of all Dave said generally speaking the tone for all six sessions people were generally positive about merger generally positive about the concept some doubts some concerns some lots of questions but not a lot of negativity generally generally people have positive comments the same one of the consistent questions that kept coming up was why are we doing this exactly why does why did they keep doing this why now and well wait a second I thought we rejected this back in 2007 and why do they keep bringing this up and I think we we batted that around a little bit and and it wasn't really clear it's not clear if the message that we're putting out about why we're doing it isn't getting through or if it's getting through but people are hearing it but they're still not it's still not explaining what we're telling them what they want to hear so that's a challenge going forward one of the other things they said that that came up just in a bunch of things was a that in in our discussion about merger and why we're doing this please make sure that we're not promotional that we are factual we're objective we don't just partake of happy talk and positive talk we give substantive talk so again that's a challenge going forward so one of the other highlights was people generally felt positive about phasing in tax increases but there's not a lot of certainty about how we're going to do it people weren't sure what special districts meant and what do you mean phasing in and how is that going to work so generally speaking phasing in tax increases is it not a bad idea but there's confusion about how we would do it one of the other issues that came up not not not all the time but you know enough to take for date to take note was people are connecting development and I'm assuming you know controversial development in the Essex Town Center and in the Village Center there's somehow connecting that with merger it's it's very when given an opportunity to speak and open public sessions and discuss local government it's something that comes up in their minds so that's something that we'll be needing to talk about exactly what does consolidation mean for development and really how is it related and how is how is it not related I think it's probably more important and then one of the other ideas that that he was surprised that came up not in a lot of the groups that I guess in a couple of the groups for a little while was people had some questions about a mayor should we have a mayor they had questions about what what what does a mayor do so I'll just summarize again what Dave said what is the major benefit of merger people are asking at the focus groups what's our overall vision they want us to be specific they also it came up frequently what are the cons are there bad things that happen if we merge it's it can all be good is there something bad that's going to happen maybe we discuss that a little bit he also said that generally a lot of people said they just felt exhausted by the subject either way next equalizing taxes generally some people said it would make us all if there was just one tax rate across the whole community it would make us all feel more unified phasing in tax increases preferable to all at once I and maintaining quality of services they basically keeping service levels where they are is crucial and we need to be communicating now so I think those were my takeaways from it and so I'll now defer to Raj and Andy and Max if I left anything out anything anything that struck you a question about what status quo really means right I think needs to be clearly needs to be clarified and then the hearing that they want some of the details but they don't want to be really buried into the weeds with it but just enough so that they can understand what I wanted to have good points and the representation was a big thing right awards was a desire it seemed across the board for some kind of war representation so we're discussing what how to probe that and how to define what that means for the community is what are they looking for how they break down how fine a district you want that's right yeah the other the other piece of that was the the acceptance of tax increase as long as it came with representation sure you know so there was there was you know I remember it is coming from project primarily you know folks outside the village you know saying okay I'm okay with you know if you spread the taxes out so that I have to absorb some of it as long as I have representation immediately yeah they were okay with phasing in the tax increase but they wanted the representation up front not as and I guess there was some talk about whether it should be temporary or yeah so I mean it was it we're giving a very abbreviated thing and you can see it was he spoke for almost two hours and it was well you know it was really well done and we've gotten a little bit of echo from people who participated in the focus groups and they said they were well done they thought they did a very good job they were they were operated very professionally so I will say we can talk about any quite if any of you have questions about the focus groups yeah one thing I was at the meeting as well one of the things they said is seem like a thing that the things that brought us together they were for and things that they thought divided or kept us apart they they didn't want that you know so like if you if you think of like whatever the representation model will be they don't want the us versus them they want to be more of thought of as we're doing you know together not just separated by departments or you know but together we're doing this you know governance together and we're one community together right that I don't know how to say that as well as you guys have been able to do it but that was one of the themes they did want the taxation to be you know equal and however you know they'd like it to be done sooner rather you know but in general they didn't want to see things that pushed us apart so so the rates of the the wards for instance if there's gonna be more representation they didn't want to broken down by the current lines right so that was sort of a no-go you know don't that doesn't get us any hard I just I I I didn't get the impression that was a hard thing I think it was just a constant consideration and consider it that the things that bring us together versus things that keep us village us downtown versus us that's but otherwise everybody else's comments were bad on my two things that struck me reading the results were the overall sense that a gradual change in taxation would have to take time but a three to five year window was what people were looking at as opposed to a seven to ten which I thought was a very interesting and the other thing that I really appreciated hearing and I had not thought of this before and shame on my for not thinking of this before is that the the slide that says rural town outside the village residents want others to know they still have high costs despite their different tax rate so we septic systems and water lines and such there's there's costs with not being part of the municipal our municipality or excuse me the village municipality so that's a really important realization for people in the village here and I appreciate how with the presentation one of things that came out was those key takeaways which was gonna lead me right into my my question of so I know that we have a one more survey to go around it looks like the subcommittees meeting again on September 5th right and that you'd like some input from yeah those of us around the table yeah let me let me get to that end I so be the schedule in it we can continue talking about the focus groups in a second but let me get get in the second way into that so the the next phase and the final phase is and so we you know questions of all the way to second how meaningful was this and someone heard a comment but is that how everyone feels or focus groups aren't going to tell you that so much so and and the qualitative survey that happened where people could write comments gave a general sense of trends but now we're going to do this quantitative survey these will be questions and they'll be yes no true false multiple choice kind of format with you where there will be an adding up of the scores the adding up of the answers and we'll get here's how many think this and here's how many think that so we can think that representation in a certain way really important then we get back on the only actually only 10% of the people who took the survey think it's important and everyone else so that's what we're looking for with the quantitative survey so the schedule for that is that Dave is we are going to meet with Dave next week on the fifth he is we the four boss are supposed to have spent sent him or are going to be sending him what we think you know individually our questions that we think should be on that survey but Dave also felt confident enough at this point that he's been through this that he can create sort of a backbone survey that he thinks reflects all the questions we've been asking over and over again with the other stuff so he's going to develop that he's going to look at the things we send and then we're going to get together with him on the fifth and we're going to revise it and work on it and see see where we are and then we have scheduled another meeting a week later on the 12th tentatively if we need it we may not in case we need to finalize anything some lingering issue over language or anything like that and we and then he agreed that he could be available a week after that on the 19th we're hoping that's not going to be necessary talk about exhaustion but there it is so but he he said he indicated that he would be he could be available for the 19th if that was absolutely necessary so what I would like to say is that when we on next week on the fifth when we get through our session and we have a pretty good handle on what what's going to go into the survey I will have staff send out copies to the rest of you so that you can look at it and make sure that there are no incredibly glaring you know mistakes or burning questions that you think should be on there that we omitted so that you can get in touch individually with staff and put them in there and then if we have to if we meet with Dave again on the 12th we'll finalize it to make sure those goes go in there hopefully that won't happen hopefully we'll be comprehensive we'll have covered all the basis of thought of every possible thing that could be in there but it's also important as Dave pointed out you want it you don't want you want people's online experience taking a survey to be about 10 minutes 12 minutes or something like that you don't want to give them a three hour comprehensive examination that's they didn't sign on for that they're not going to do it so it's a contest between you know trying to be comprehensive on the one hand and and brief on the other so we all have to keep that in mind so with that that's the that's the idea we asked him so he the initial schedule we had was that this was going to go out by the end of September and then he was going to be getting results back and report those findings to us on the 17th of October we asked him to push it back a week so it'll be later in October give us more time if necessary to put to develop the survey gives us an extra week because he had he had an initially schedule we were going to put this have the survey finished next week which that's not going to happen and so we would it gives us an extra week to work on it and since it is quantitative it'll be pretty fast to tag away it so we will get the results by the end I can't remember if he gave us a specific day by the end it sound like it really was going to move that date out two hours is very far yeah we should be but we should be getting it by the end of October yeah yeah well yeah less than than a week that we had pushed that yeah because he thought he could absorb it because as you said it's a quantitative right so then so then we're so that'll be that'll be that'll then KSV will be done and that'll be our job to take all of this information and fashion it into some kind of a coherent plan of merger or what next steps are going to be I know I really appreciate it the work that you all have done on the government subcommittee as well as just the quality of work to from KSV and also the fact that they've been this outside entity yeah the ten of us trying to figure out what are the right questions what's the right process to really have them right take the lead on this and since none of them live in the community right so that much more needs that much less bias right it gives us some legitimate well worth the investment certainly yeah George can you so well the survey have the same requirements or for statistical significance as the first survey or we're looking for more like last survey was like 357 people responses was the statistical significant yeah but then we double it with the number of responses yeah well I'm assuming that same number would carry forward to this survey I would assume so I don't we haven't given them any specific we didn't say we want to see a certain number but he I think we just assumed I think he mentioned it several times he's kind of feeling that you know he took it he took it down and people were still taking the survey well so okay so the I think the idea is that we probably leave it up for a good three weeks you know we get it up by the end of September and leave it up you know a week going into 1st of October in two weeks into October leave it up a good long time and then as he said I think he told all of you he was very impressed and grateful for the our promotion of the survey whatever we did he said it was really good because that was a really terrific response he got so I assume we'll be doing the same thing again and maybe more so so hopefully we might even get get even more responses this time yeah yeah so any I but any other questions about the focus groups or any of that stuff that we can answer at this point I mean there was just a question I spoke a couple people here earlier questions that I would pose maybe to people outside the village if it just a simple by a question of do you support murder yes or no if no do you support separating the total separating municipalities separating from you know the village separating from the town and becoming you know no more you know a village within the town separate cities okay it just to see what the answer would be and then you know because you gotta look at that you know he said I can only tell you that he said the tone of the if you recall this he said that it did it did come up the idea of separating the village in the town did come up a little bit but there was not a lot of support for them the focus there was not a lot of thought it was not like an enthusiastic discussion of it it came up and generally people weren't that interested in even talking about it but that's again it's focus groups we don't know I maybe should put it this way if you if you have questions like that that you really want to know the thing is I don't I don't want to say everybody think of some questions and send it to us because he Dave's pretty good and he's coming up with a lot of good questions so I hate to say you know let's duplicate everybody's work I'd rather probably say why don't you wait to see what Dave comes up with and then we'll send it out staff will send it out you guys can take a look and see you know maybe it doesn't ask a question like that directly Dan but maybe it'll say something similar that fills the bill you know what I mean just just to clarify the reasoning behind why somebody may not be for merging with me and I mean that you want to have a yes or no definitive not narrative answers but then it would pose the question of then why why why not allow if you don't want merger why not merge and explain your reasoning why and then they need we obviously need the facts you know but then if you you don't you oppose splitting the communities of why why do you oppose that then at least you know you're not gonna get it but I don't know if you'll give you haven't have give people an opportunity to write comments yeah you know I think that we kind of did that with the first one but you know he might he it's very possible and if we wanted to he could include that he could say if you you know at the end of the survey anything we left out or anything you want to add and give people an opportunity to write right comments where they could say something like that I don't know you feel if everyone felt strongly about that he'd do it but putting the open and well put not an open end but just say at the end of the survey give everybody a space to say anything you know any other any original comments that we didn't touch upon here do you want to elaborate on any your answers or something like that so if someone wants to fill it in if they take a 15-minute survey they probably go yeah no I'm done but but based on the focus groups there's no reason to put the separation on there plus that's not even an option yeah I it's not an option and I think that some of the questions might get at it like if you ask a question up I you know if there's if there's no if there's no change in taxes or no you know why I don't I don't favor any form of government you know there might be some other way another way that people answer that that doesn't yeah well it just seems like you if there's two while there's pretty much two options it's status quo or its merger right and I'm just saying imposing that that third alternative of splitting you know separating the community and finding out why if they didn't you know I think it'd be enlightening in some ways to succeed but I mean go ahead there was dissatisfaction with the status quo in both surveys so I think I think in some ways the transit station on some result that doesn't include separation so it just that's my sense from both of them I could it could be getting a different you know from the three of you I don't know what you think but it just seems like that's yeah yeah I don't know I don't know that we'd get anywhere with that but what I understood was they weren't clear what status quo meant yeah yeah that's right being against it yeah we haven't we said we've said status quo is is the is what happens if you don't vote for merger but then what does that mean and I think it was a pie into there were a lot of comments about well there were quite a few comments of well the community said no to merger in 2007 and you guys get you guys keep doing it anyway so what you know what are you really up to and what does status quo really mean when you guys keep changing of the playing field anyway so that's a something again we're gonna have to talk about not in the survey but we're gonna have to be a little more clear transparent about I think we're pretty transparent but probably not as succinct as you know if he's going to follow up on this the observations in the focus group about a mayoral form of government is there gonna be a question I think that in the survey I think a couple of maybe just a couple of questions like what you know are you interested do you want more information about this so yeah I think so yeah one of the things that would be interested in as well is and it was brought up earlier at one of our joint meetings with regards to representation having that decision be reviewed on a regular basis in terms of something similar to what other states are doing with having a representation almost reapportionment process if you will and having an independent body look at that as compared to elected officials determining voting wards how prevent gerrymandering and those things that we've seen other states right and be curious about that type of a process and some types of thoughts on that yeah I mean I think we just we when we because we talked a lot about you know warrants districts voting representation and so I think we've asked that question enough that staff has felt that they they should talk to Dan Richardson about it and I think they have a lot of background information about it that that when we start putting things together they can tell us about and they've gotten I think they looked into some examples for example and then you know as a just another example we've looked into a special taxing district Bennington has one is it's fresh it's relatively new so we have information about that so we we're getting good information from Dan Richardson about a lot of these questions that once we start trying to put something something together we should be able to pull a lot of that out general question for both boards now that we're two-thirds of the way through our engagement with KSB do you feel like you're getting the information that you need or do you feel like they're providing you with useful information that's helping you make decisions on your mind and start thinking about the future is it valuable to you and I really like to hear your thoughts not not a judgment on KSB but whether the work that's being done is is helpful to you as we go through this process I think it's enlightening I think it's nice to get that input ultimately getting something that we can put out to the community as a whole that's based on fact so it's not misinterpreted and it's not in the US it's very succinct and you know simple in terms it's great and I think that we're gonna accomplish anything with one way or another it's you know gonna be factual and simple and easy to understand because as we all know it's been very confusing just this whole process getting people to understand what's going on the history because we keep referring to the last vote in 07 and how things went on there a lot of new people in our community that weren't around in 07 so it's you know it's important I'm very happy about this I had hoped for a higher volume of participants and but I think that the volume has been steady and great and also it has been far reaching I think we have a nice whole that has satisfied that that feeling I had that we needed I feel like we did somehow reach enough specific population that we seem to have gotten a really satisfying set of answers so I do feel good about that okay so that's that's where we are and next week when we get we're you have a pretty good draft survey that we've worked on we'll have Dave connect with staff and then staff send it out to the rest of you for any additional input that you really feel we left out okay yeah job thank you to the governance of committee doing it enormous I want to caution you about doing policy by survey survey is not the same as a vote very important to make that distinction the thing about surveys that's dangerous as you can interpret them for example in the July survey seven out of ten Essex residents favorite merger I hear that constantly but what you don't say is that six out of ten and get up straight six out of ten are not very familiar with past merger efforts so of those seven four point two don't know what you're talking about very very important to consider everything and not cherry pick which you seem to be doing important to understand that a survey has no public notice like a vote does there's no restrictions on who can take an online survey I took the online survey for the focus group I could have been from China I wasn't aware of the July survey I don't know if there was any public notice about it or not so I really want to caution you about the way you're working with this survey information it's critical that you don't cherry pick Casey case of not KFC they're doing a very good job I was in the focus group I was impressed it was difficult it was like her and cats and they did a great job but if you ask somebody would you like a free ice cream cone that they don't know that it's gonna cost them their pinky they're gonna say yes thanks okay thank you thank you so it looks like we can go on to agenda item 5c of the elevator speech about the potential merger I don't know about Max or do you want to do that out again we did spend time reviewing what the what we're calling an elevator species really just sort of trying to be succinct and describing what it is we're trying to do with heading towards merger and you can read I don't want to read it to you you can read it before you and we realize there's going to be a lot of input that will probably come from the folks outside the subcommittee so we were we're open to editing this further if needed but we tried to be succinct without being without trying to say sell it but rather really just try to explain what it's about so we're open to your comments on anything else George I think that's good that's good Andy or Raj did you have anything that you wanted to say about the speech just only that I think it'll be fleshed out as this process moving on I think you know I consider it something that can be built upon great the way it is but as we as we learn more as we learn more we can add to this I don't know that our reasons would change but outcomes may be more specific and helpful for people so if if you're feeling doubtful about it now I think it will build as we learn more about what's coming what I like about it too is it is very much in line with where we are now philosophically yes we agree that this is where we want to go towards and we just don't have specifics because we don't know the model we're working towards yet so I greatly appreciate you know that feel the same with you Raja this really is something that can grow and evolve as as our understanding does as well yeah I mean I think this just there's sort of a gap in our communication of saying why are you doing this and we need something to fill it that touches a lot of bases and but it's also going to be a work in progress as Raj said we can revise it as we get more specific of what we're doing so is there going to be like a contest to see who can memorize it first yes everybody's required to memorize that's I forgot that and if you have all but you only an elevator can you say presented at the fair so I either I just want to wait elevator there's a building with an elevator in it right there in the village well maybe what anyone no there's one in the library there's actually a lot of room I don't need a big like I'm really sorry we started having a side conversation about the spelling of the word for me or the spelling of like a national leader so I but I do apologize because I meant to just briefly and then we took and then we can probably fix that I think that they can be spelled either way but I didn't know who was I was just the words did not mean I'm raising my hands oh you did okay so you repeat the question were there any other comments or questions you know just this colleague from here any of the more yes by the way this is great I really it brings true and comfortable and it's great it's well obviously a lot of work went in I wonder if we should take the word am I being so I feel great about everything my the only thing I'm thinking besides the is whether or not overcome challenges might be better than overcome the challenges because when I read that I was like oh where are my specific challenges I think we're talking about ones that we will and do face so maybe they were not coming out but anyway that's a great edit I agree and the fact that I'm picking on those two things and then I'm done I'm really quite that's good stuff because I would go for it I feel this is great yeah it's a really minor quibble but I'm wondering if it might be worth just talking or saying it out loud in my head so I'm you know sort of verbalizing it because we know that the issue of ego representation is a very sensitive one and in the second paragraph the second sentence we are still figuring out how to best provide representation to the entire Essex community etc that seems like that's a statement that you know these boards alone are going to be deciding that because in the next sentence we then say we're looking for feedback about what they seek in the merchant community it just the way that that's kind of set up I'm just wondering if people are gonna look at that and say oh you know it's just you board guys who are deciding the representation issue and then you're asking us to provide feedback about other things that we want you know it's just you know again like in my head I'm just like wondering whether or not that's significant enough to justify maybe we you know we're asking for people about equal representation as well and it may like that I fully admit it could be so minor that maybe I'm just overblowing it in my head but just kind of a way that it you know it's one of those of the statement and the other is immediately followed up by a request for information just might not sit well with some people do you have a thought as to what a change maybe no I don't put the hard question out that's right you know only only language-wise to help Patrick's concept I I don't have a strong feeling about it at this moment while I'm still working on what Patrick said but could the sentences come together in some fashion that are more useful like while while work continues while while while our work continues for how best to provide we seek to so that it's married exploring a merger including figuring out I mean ultimately I think that some of the thought behind this was we have a proposal has to be presented that's final right but totally get what you're saying it could be simply pull out representation and make it an overall governance proposal or some wording like that you know pull out you know overall while we're still crafting our proposal for what emerged community would look and how it would look in function or whatever we can only do that with input from yeah from the community well we could say something we could say something like we are still figuring out the best representation model to propose to the community for representation I'm sorry the best represent the best model to propose the models to propose a community for representation and for taxing everyone equitably for a municipal services about that to do that we need your input or receive the input of to accomplish that we just kind of proposing models that's that's what I think okay yeah I wonder if work the work instead of we can we are figuring out that is to call it work in that we share the community but I'm picking back never mind I think I'm picking back down what you just put back up okay I'm gonna skip what I'm saying okay okay how about the word researching we are still researching how to best provide representation something to that effect I think we want to say the model we're gonna put in front of the community we're still working on the model we want to put in front of the community representation and taxation for you because that is said for you to vote on while our final model is not yet all right because we're using the survey to help kind of flesh out those details right so I kind of hear what Patrick saying yeah I think the important thing would be to put in here that part of providing this representation is that we are relying on the feedback right that people give us and I'm not sure exactly how to add that work Smith it yet but I mean maybe it could be something that you know we're still figuring out how to best provide representation and we ask for your feedback in doing so I mean something along those lines I you know again I apologize I know that it seems minor it's just that I know that there are going to be people who are to look at that statement of fact and presume immediately that only the select board of the trustees are looking at the model of equal representation and we already know that it's a sensitive issue that seven of us are village members and yeah but that's why we're doing the survey so yeah right and I think that right I'll just stating that part of you know the survey we're looking for that feedback we're not just doing it and so while it's a statement of fact that yes the we would be figuring it out Evan's accurate that there is research going on now and so in that line would it be wrong to just replace figuring out with we are still soliciting feedback on how to provide the best reputation yeah I think that would get back that's a statement that you know we're we're looking for feedback on that particular issue which is a very sensitive one maybe we could abbreviate it by saying we're relying on your feedback to help us develop the best models for representation yeah I agree I agree okay so do you want to read this I was hoping I was gonna say could you please read okay graph as you wish so we can get in the record so we are we're we're we apostrophe re relying on your feedback got it to help us develop the best models for representation and for taxing everyone equitably for our municipal services good instead of yours should we say residents to be clear who yours sure got that we're we apostrophe are relying on residents feedback to help us develop the best models for representation and for taxing everyone equitably for our municipal services I retract the addition of the e-series correct so are the board trustees are you ready to vote on this matter make a motion I recommend trustees approve the elevator speech about potential merger yes hang on just a quick second procedural standpoint with the motion on the table in order to have public comment before we vote the person making the motion would need to retract it or let us finish out and then say it after right right normally the select what the select work does is when a motion is on the table and it's been seconded you can vote and then there's comment or you can allow it now it's the policy it's practice okay whatever the board preferences trustees are you okay getting the public comment before we vote sure yeah I'm trying to help can signal elevator pitch has three parts a problem benefits of your solution part one part two is a differentiator why is your solution better than some other that might be competing and finally an ask you ask somebody to take an action that is in the that is in the pitch that you've got at the very end you're asking for feedback but everything else is very muddy before you approve it I suggest you consider what the basics of an elevator pitch really are because I don't think yours it's the mark so trustee I know we're calling this an elevator speech it's not I mean I think we're getting into to semantics here on what what this is and it's just informational to the people that were you know you represent trying to get feedback call on other students call it something it's it's I'm not getting on this discussion from the trustees on that motion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye may pose thank select board members would anybody like to make a motion I move that we speech about potential merger of the town of Essex and the village of Essex junction with any edits thank you thank you any all those in any discussion all those in favor please say aye opposed all right thank you and again thank you governor and subcommittee for your work on this takes a long time to write two small paragraphs our last business item 5d is approved revised joint meeting schedule Sarah would you walk us through certainly so back on April 9th of this year we moved from each board meeting individually twice a month and the joint board meeting once again to each board meeting individually twice a month and the joint board piggybacking on the first select board meeting in the second trustees meeting that's the update it has been five months of that just about and we wanted to come back and suggest that maybe it's time to review and do something slightly different and are interested in the board's feedback we've staffed us put together a proposal that would suggest that we hold only joint meetings twice a month with the ability to do individual business before after around those but we are open to suggestions and we're interested in getting everybody's feedback on how you think it's going and if we should continue this way or make a change at this point I know we we talked about this one's before I agree that it would function better and maybe like when you're in high school or college and you have less to do you don't get as much done and then you have more to do and you suddenly start getting stuff so I'm eager to give it a whirl but I bow to those of you that have been doing this way longer I am all in favor of you know having less meetings for us as well as for staff but I'm still trying to grasp how the fundamentally works when we have like what we just had right with the condemnation proceeding and something that the select board itself doesn't really it's they're not involved in that process and how how we would do that because obviously they don't want to sit here for 45 minutes while we talk about something that has nothing to do with them and vice versa so I'm still I'm still grappling with that piece just to comment on this agree the amber on this anything to reduce the number meetings we have but along with the whole thing of issues like the condemnation issue that we dealt with earlier their first meeting venue may have to change because this this room is not large enough we're going to start doing this kind of thing that the amount of people the potential is there for a much larger audience to be heard and I think we really have to consider you know maybe changing the venue I agree with Amber too I I feel right now there's already kind of a backlog of village specific stuff that is just not just not making it on the agenda I mean I brought up earlier planning we have two planning we're down to planning commission members and it really is something we need to focus on you know and I have like the joint meetings I understand the necessity of it but I think that yeah I just don't know how this works and I don't I don't there's a bit of a pressure as we said when we have a condemnation hearing and something comes up and something else comes up and we anticipated it was going to be 20 minutes well actually we need 45 minutes and then we're kind of under pressure to get the joint meeting going but we want to make sure we have give village specific stuff the thorough vetting and hearing that it deserves so I I understand where you're coming from I might personally I'm willing to whatever but I I'm concerned about how it would work for and I'm sure I mean look at what you're doing with your firearms stuff in the town I mean we have firearms ordinance in the village just can't shoot a gun anywhere that's it you know I don't know why you don't do that but you know but just kidding just kidding just kidding just kidding but I'm saying is that you've got you know you you also are going to have town specific stuff that doesn't you know you know that we're not fascinated by this town citizens but you know I so that's my feeling I don't have a definitive answer for you but I've got those concerns again happy for fewer meetings a couple of little concerns little concern is starting because we tend to go late as it is but I understand other people other than it's the you know we have to flex but again there's things that I would I was kind of hoping we would be trying to bring up over the course of a year or two and I see a lot of that already drawn out by merger and I don't know where that without having separate time for the trustees to get together I don't know where that emerges and I'm all for merger I'm on the government subcommittee I'm feeling like if the details work out it's a great idea but I don't think it can swallow everything so that's right no you haven't you know and I just occurred to me just talking about this and look what we're talking about we're talking about creating a unified government that's going to have be everybody and look what at least we're saying here and I'll bet the select board could say the same thing think about it the board that we're anticipating or considering creating all of these things that we're talking about that's that's all not going to go away that's also going to be here by Rob's ordinances condemnation hearings all that's that's not going away just because we merge so think about that as we head into this where what kind of a board you're going to want and what kind of meetings you're going to want because this is this is telling us this is this is a big community I mean this is a big place Essex has really grown and there's a lot of issues out there so I'm not I'm not making trying to draw any conclusions but just keep all this in mind as we anticipate a consolidated government we have to be consider that all of this stuff you're going to have to have a government ticket that's going to be able to handle all of these things well that that's presuming that we're going to want well ideally well from my perspective one more and it's just going to be accepted that's the way it's going to be everyone's going to vote everyone's going to be playing it we won't have these duplication of meetings so we're cutting out a whole merger the process that that's true we don't I think I think right and it will all be layered and I think the layers will come together and the values have to be spoken for and things have to be addressed and as I understand it there is space made for the parts where I understand the schedule but there's space made for the separate things to happen and you know there are going to be times that we're all just gonna have to just take a big swallow and sit through several hours but not with regularity I hope you know I'm not sure that's the case because once we add 10 people I think it's very regularly going to start because you have double the opinions yes these meetings are very regularly probably gonna start running 10 30 11 o'clock I mean I've seen it and firearms yes but we also have leash law dog that we're going to be looking at which is gonna be another big extensive lots of people's topics right I mean I'm just wondering if I might be ambitious starting November for two meetings a month even with those just those two alone I think you're going to take dominating multiple meetings I appreciate looking at seeing how we can reduce the number of meetings because being on the subcommittee to I mean that's that's a lot of meetings and the staff is going to wait more than what I do so I don't want staff getting burnt out either so I like appreciate the idea of looking at it how can we do this better but we need to be careful too that the elected officials don't actually discuss policy or about things that the voters didn't approve us to do for example the select board should be ever in your discussion in the village about your development programs right that's not what we were elected to do and village you know shouldn't be talking about the sxp library and what we do there is that you are voted to do that either so we just need to be careful and if we have joint meetings and there's a town only issue or those only issue the other board should be just like a member of the public and really not participate fully I mean just as a member of the public I think we're getting back if there's some other alternative that you could come up with that could allow these other issues that are on them you know the back burner but they're not too far back and how we can get those to the front to work on I'd be up for hearing an ultimate solution as we answer the point where we're approaching the government subcommittee I'm wondering if we need to joint meetings I mean as we approach November will we need to be I mean my understanding with the joint subcommittee meetings the joint committee meetings was to facilitate keeping everybody abreast and to prepare to mean should this pass and make decisions together as they're needed to have a speed so if we approach a point but the government subcommittee were finished with a lot of the crazy quick work we're trying to craft the actual proposal there's fewer decisions that need to be made so maybe what we need to do is just back off one of the joint meetings and leave it as is or something some some iteration of that instead of trying to be jointly twice a month to be made once joint once twice a month and finally say don't grab it did I say that right jointly once a month or something like that because I'm not sure some of the things that I have in mind that I was hoping to have a discussion with some of the village trustees over time in the community can be done in 30 to 45 minutes so once or twice a month back to me. I have three comments on the comments so far the first is any items that either board is interested in that feels like they're not getting on the agenda please write them down and send them to the president of the chair so the staff can have them we have a work list it's a beautiful Excel spreadsheet and it has a tab for the select board tab for the trustees and a tab for the joint and it has layer year over year what was on each agenda so we don't forget things well one year over year we're getting there and it's planned out for the entire year I have very little planned out for the trustees agendas so from my perspective I don't see anything that's on the back of the not being addressed from the village side of things I just let Greg handle this life and of course so these things please queue them up so that we can get them planned out amongst the work that staff has to bring to the boards. Thank you. The second is Pat to your point we don't envision the total hours committed decreasing. We just envision the number of evenings committed decreasing so you're right I don't think it's gonna shorten meetings I think they'll be longer but fewer. So same but the same amount of time. Same amount of time. Okay yeah that's it. Rush and to your point I think in addition to meeting more frequently jointly to address that with the government subcommittee anything from the staff perspective more and more of what staff does and what staff has to bring to the boards affects both boards so this which is which is another reason why twice a month is really nice so and it's particular moving into budget season so on September 9th you can anticipate in your reading packet a preview of joint board budget goals that we're talking about at the end of September and sort of an introduction to taxation plan ideas as we move into budget season there's gonna be stuff that that crosses over so Jim's presentation this evening was another example of something that was just taken care of because we're meeting jointly instead of going to me so I think there's some play there so maybe we meet jointly once a month the beginning of the month and then if some if staff has something that needs to go at the end of the month they have to go to meetings or can wait and they go to one you know I think that we're really looking for this is a suggestion there are any number of ways that this could work out but trying to continue with this our ability to get answers and get issues in front of both of you and rapid succession and as efficiently as possible but without you know having us all move in yeah those are my three points I would if I can decide one thing before you do Evan one thing that I know I was talking about this and trying to figure out the pros and the cons and the cons that I kept coming up with are things that I see as potential things that certainly could exist but I couldn't put my finger on an actual concern yes something could happen we may need to have a trustee only meeting we may have this concern that arises we must address now we can schedule a meeting when we need to outside of this we can meet the second Tuesday of the month and have it just be us we don't need to limit ourselves to just 6 30 to 7 o'clock similarly the other thing that this could do if we do try to have our meetings jointly and only jointly is it helps us to understand the other's business if you will the others could be other the other part of the the other side of the community if you will that we may not be as in tuned with as we may think or assume that we are so would help to build that collaboration that's that may not exist and help to also then have that a public show of we actually can work together such as we are now even more succinctly and I would try to do everything we could to not go to 10 30 11 o'clock again because that's very painful I mean I'm fine with staying up late with speaking over any 25 yeah just say a couple things other communities that I've worked with thank you first of all thank you for your comments all of you we met every other Tuesday our standing rule was you scheduled every Tuesday we may not have meetings but those were our emergency days it is impossible to get five people in a room on a night that has not been scheduled weeks in advance so all we did was we said Tuesday nights even though there's two off Tuesdays please don't schedule anything something could come up and most we always got we 90% of time we got a quarter we did that second Sarah took up some good points with our budget there's a lot of crossover in your budgets now there's a lot of crossover with personnel there's a lot of things that are yes specific to one part of the community but they're starting to bleed over into others including the operations of our buildings and who's in them and what happened that that is something you may want to consider this does not have to be decided tonight it was Brent here for a discussion in the beginning and some thoughts but that that's another thing and the last one is it consider what you're asking the citizenry to do should they wish to run for elected office on average 24 night meetings a year plus budget plus special events plus special meetings and any committees that they're on how many people are raising their hands saying sign me up for that versus whatever we could do in this new digital immediacy type of thing maybe just some ideas of why maybe other people don't want to sign up to be elected officials is the number of meetings in the length but that's what we're looking at and staff I would be remiss most people think we love night meetings you would be wrong we just do them because that's part of what we have to do we really don't want six or seven night meetings a month out of 16 days Monday through Thursday we don't normally have meetings on Friday so but so you get 16 days Monday through Thursday and we probably average somewhere between five and seven now it is with joint committees and other things so we're not the focus you guys are but we're just looking at ways to potentially get business done so if we do this can we establish some orderly conduct of business regulations and the select word has a document that kind of specifies how we operate you'll notice I always raise my hand sometimes it gets missed but it happens but so in the whole question of if you're on a topic that's either town business or village business we need to have a way to make sure that we're segregating discussions for Raj got all kinds of emails about the leash law in Indian Brook although he's a that was the reporter but but but but I recognize that was that was a that wasn't it was a comment so so so he was he was commenting at the table and I'm hoping nobody's taking this as a criticism either way the rise or the report just an example of you know people are at the table having a discussion and you know even the rassics reporter who should be familiar with all of us misunderstood who had jurisdiction or who had who had was you know was able to you know and I just it concerns me that we could get into some situations where you know we have people that are talking to us about representation and then suddenly we've got it's eight people from the village not seven like you said the whole representation question and we've got topics that are town only your village only we've got all these people at the table talking about it if this is the only forum that we have those meeting in meetings and I'm concerned about not having one board at one side and one board on the other so it's easy to tell who's talking who's got jurisdiction who's allowed to talk during certain points of the meeting those are the kind of concerns that I that I would have with all these joint meetings I also don't want to hear about trustee complaints about their website I don't care kind of you know just and I know I know there are some issues that people are passionate about and that's fine but but it's it's it's either there are in listening to those comments aren't going to prepare me to be a future board member I would just you know push not to talk about that topic leave the staff but anyway I'm going in longer than I intended sorry I think I hear you you'd like to how we can efficiently run through the meetings and keep separate village from town we need to have jurors and jurisdiction segregation that's clear yeah I I don't need a vote tonight I needed some thoughts and some things to work on and I could get back with the chairs so I agree we should with Andy that we should definitely have some jurisdictional separation that's important so that we're not accusing people the dog ordinance conversation as far as I recall was the chief presenting an amended ordinance to both boards so that it could be identical so that both boards with referring to the same thing so that particular conversation I felt like it was appropriate for both board members board members from both boards to talk about it but the one that I was specific I was specifically talking about leash leash or no leash at Indian group that was what I referenced in my email to you earlier it was leash versus no leash at Indian brook where the trustees are members of the public for that discussion except that that discuss if I can interrupt that discussion was a meshed in an overall discussion about the ordinance that's hard to have a problem that's hard as a jurisdiction segregation comments to me no no no I just said other hands were going up so you let me just finish real quick so yes jurisdictional issues we need to keep them very clear but that said I do want to hear about the trustees concerns about the website and I want to hear about stormwater in the village and I want to hear about Indian brook and I want to hear about Brigham Hill Road I want to be a better select board member by hearing everything that's going on in the village and I want the village trustees to be better trustees by knowing what's going on outside in the town because eventually ideally we're all going to be on the same board maybe not us but it's going to be one board ideally and when trustees come to 81 Main Street I want to extend every possible courtesy to them which includes listening to their debates it can be boring I confess that when water rates come up I just want to fall under the table it's just topic I just am not interested in but taking one for the teams so we will all have those kinds of situations where it feels like we don't need to be in the room but common courtesy and for the betterment of our understanding of the community it's important that we are one thing I really want everyone to think about I like the idea of having a standing weekly meeting that every Monday just we're going to meet the two Mondays but the other two you know whatever it's important what I said was free right that's what I just in case we need especially keep it free keep it free it's not great with some people's lives and some people travel we get that just as long as we can get a quorum we can keep business moving I mentioned it worked about 90% of the time I'd like everybody to think to think about that because that's a really good way to do it but the one thing I want everyone to really think hard about is the workload of our staff and how the more meetings the more packets the more compliance with open meeting law in terms of posting the packets posting the minutes getting the packets to all of us I worry a lot about staff capacity so if there is any way in addition to scheduling that we can ease that burden for streamlined processes please let's try to find those efficiencies we are all spread very thin I think staff might be spread even better than us that's all Dan you had your hand up and then I mean I want to believe or this whole thing but just to Andy's point the confusion by this reporter citing comments by a resident of the village I know we now we all have to see a name plates we all sit intermingled if we want to make it real simple we sit on one side you sit on the side it's pretty clear these people sit on this side our trustees it doesn't in the appearance maybe that comes across as being rivals but I mean it just simplifies it maybe for people that don't understand or even people watching the TV world you know they're looking out here and they can't really see the name name plates and don't see your name as you see that the select board members for everybody have little name plates we don't know that's why here in the village whatever I'm not just I just just say it just offer me anyways we could have different colored shirts I think that the meetings being combined will create maybe initial confusion but for people who would watch channel 17 who do watch channel 17 it would start to create a clear picture of what's actually happening because most people still don't understand junction if you live in the village you're also a resident of the town people if you live in the town outside the village you're also a resident of the town the same as someone who lives inside the village but you don't get so it's it's I think that the more you were to see us all interacting the clearer it would be to people at home watching and I think it would be helpful to understanding especially as we move towards asking people what they want so that they could see more clearly and ask questions about well why did I why are George and Annie at the same table and what you know I hope you would say that because George is a good TV show name it is yes we get up here what's your dog's name his name is blue so George Annie and blue can be outside the nest yeah so you would get sit outside the nest George can hold on to blue I'd love to talk about this more but I don't want to digress too far there are kinds of good ideas about this Andy and you know I could work but let's keep on topic I agree 100% with you Elaine I'm actually incredibly interested on the things that happened in the village not the website but that but that said I mean I actually I I'm too leading more towards I think the point that Andy was trying to make in that I was not voted to weigh in on village issues and I think that that's a big concern as we move towards merger if we prematurely start kind of sitting at the same table when these things are being discussed it doesn't necessarily seem like we're made members of the public I mean we just have no legal authority to be weighing in there and I I'm hesitant to before we do this vote to lure those lines any more than necessarily already are because I think that it may be an argument against it from people who would be opposed for the merger to say hey you know these guys already do everything together and we haven't voted on that yet I mean I think that there's a real valid concern there I mean just even from a legal perspective I mean I don't know you know we have these joint meetings we have joint issues great but you know when there's not a joint issue but we're all sitting at the same table how am I weighing in when I'm just technically a member of the public on certain issues and not on others I think we need to be really careful about that because that's ammunition that can be used against the merger vote it can be ammunition that could be used against us as individuals I mean I'm I'm worried about how that mechanism thank you those are good points Evan all I'm just saying the point is that you still do your own business for you know like home court you get to go first then you do join when you're in the other person's court they go first and then you do join and really the stuff that is just village stays village stuff that's town outside the village stays town and then when you have joined stuff it is the second part of the meeting I it's exactly like tonight the village went first it went a little long and now we're enjoying me but we need to the idea is we start doing it several times and and just keep getting to business again we started this a while ago because staff had to go to the village board and then the slight board with a night if the village let's just say the village board said oh that's wonderful we don't have any corrections you're all good then they went to the slight board and it's like we're changed it the staff had to come back to the village board with the changes that dislike part and then the village board said now we're not interested we liked it the way it was it goes nowhere we need things we need you to be in the same room to hear it and figure out what's what many more times and it's getting deeper and deeper especially in budgets so just again I like this conversation I don't know if we're coming to a anything tonight but we could certainly bring this back on another agenda for a complete you know what after we get some some thoughts I was just going to say there wasn't clear to me when this was presented that we were talking about using the same format that we use now I think that wasn't clear at all discussion point specifically says the joint board 7 p.m. joint board 7 p.m. right so I read it as all meetings are everybody here at the table regardless of the topic you got it you guys whichever way works best if you if this way is working it's fine it's just we need we just bringing this through because we're struggling with the amount with the amount of meetings I'll just be honest with you we understand we we got it and it's a marathon not a sprint but there's just a lot that we do every day and it's it is preparation of meetings and Raj I hear you there are things we are not getting to or would like to and the time is very short to be able to do research get in meaning get the right staff in the right room at the right time and keep doing everything we're doing it's I think the lengthy discussion shows a general consensus that we're kind of not okay with what's presented here I wonder if we could table the action on it and ask staff to come back with something very specific because there are some really good ideas discussed in this conversation and then perhaps if the board members have had time to think about it we come back to the table and perhaps make a decision can I add one last thought you're talking about the board but you might want to consider staff and I think we'd probably be interested in hearing some radical rearrangements for how staff handles board meetings if you want to if that might help on your end you had I can't think of any offhand that if you put your heads together maybe there's some some other way of dealing with it as well that would be pressure on you guys too okay we did we let Greg go on vacation and vice versa I don't know but I'm good for tonight thank you so that sounds appreciate the conversation we thank you yes thank you continuing to help move us forward and that brings us on to the consent agenda from the trustees I'll make them I'll make a motion that we approve the consent agenda is there any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying hi hi hi folks great and on the select board is there anyone who would like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda I move we the select board approve the consent items with comments is there a second second thank you any any discussion so the line item says approve use of infographic it's not a discussion about the content anymore I think if we're going literally then yeah that would be true and I guess to clarify Elaine you asked if all my concerns were addressed the reducing number of voting times is still in there so still not satisfied okay even though that had passed at the subcommittee level I didn't know this was never seen at the subcommittee level who seemed for the first time in the last joint meeting we never really this before again for both boards we we have approved the development of the content on the wine merge we just talked about the elevator it's maybe we should steal a piece from it and for the short answer right now we say to better serve greater sx so we take the line that I think from the elevator it just says we will we will be stronger together as one united community I think that's in our elevator pitch what section so we just Andy just asked if we were voting on the use of the document you're talking about content I'm completely fine we want to talk about content but I will say this this particular document has been discussed at a very long time and I don't I question the wisdom of continuing to edit it by committee any other questions of this since there's a motion on the table of a second at the select board are there any other questions or comments on the consent agenda all right hearing none all those in favor of approving the consent agenda please say aye opposed nay thank you it's approved for the one going down to the reading file and board member comments unusually anybody maybe just one quick comment we had a second member who went on maternity leave yes from to Lincoln we're a big short staff for about 12 to 13 weeks so please bear with us we will do our best congratulations yeah I guess I'll say hope people notice the three rapid reflective beacons that have gone up around town hi Watha West fairgrounds and over here at the nest of calling it main street railroad yeah sir and looks like the public works has been putting up a lot more mid-street crosswalk markers which I think it helps tremendously especially on Main Street up near Athens and a few other locations that have been key hopefully we can do a lot more of this maybe it's may get me in trouble I just want to ask a question about the use of the infographic I'm sorry because we were told in an email that it would be used for some of the ASB sessions and when I was asked about that I told the members of the public who asked me about it that it was going to use for some and not for others but then it was not not used for any I just wanted to clarify for the record I guess right it was it is it true that it wasn't yeah I think I'm not used for any it was not used for and I was the one who got wrong information it was not used for any KSV and it was not available for the first forum they unilaterally decided it wasn't going to be at all right just wanted to have that said in public that we didn't use it right now them because I passed along incorrect information didn't seem odd but so good on KSV for keeping it consistent yeah thank you did I see yeah random comment off topic but I think important schools in session starting tomorrow and busing in the village is ago so for any village residents who are not used to buses stopping and starting around neighborhoods they're going to become a regular occurrence probably yeah if you know of any way to spread the word for people who are used to zoom in down Maple Street for example and not expecting to run across the bus that's going to be loading kids might be a good idea that just try to spread the word as much as possible they are big they are orange and if you pass one while it stopped you are going to get a ticket very expensive we're doing our best to try to load only on the same side of the street to minimize the actual crossings but that's not a universal case so just you know watch all right well thank you for your comments there is no executive session necessary today so that is the end of the items for business if the select that select board would like to make a motion to adjourn and a second second all in favor of joining please say hi I'll move that the trustees adjourn second all those who favor signify by sign any other comments in the motion