 Welcome everyone to the August 20th select board meeting. This meeting is being called to order at 637. This is an unusual meeting. This is a meeting that we do now. It's an annual meeting. This is the meeting at which we review and discuss the draft of the town manager's performance evaluation. That's the only thing we're going to be doing tonight plus one agenda item for a for a license or two One or two licenses however many we have but but the only thing we're going to be really discussing in detail tonight is the town manager evaluation So I want to warn folks at home that this makes for very very very not interesting television Because what we're going to start with doing is reviewing documents We're going to have something like 40 pages of documents to read It makes for really very exciting meeting to watch but then we'll discuss them The reason this is the only thing on our agenda tonight is this because this is really the most important thing that the select board does Not only does this provide critical feedback to the town manager And gives him direction and guidance It also helps the public to know how well our Individual and collective priorities for the management of the town how well they're aligned with the community So so this really is a critical task for us So First let me step back to what got us here In sort of the larger picture we have over the course of the summer been conducting The performance evaluation in different steps We've talked about the the various documents. We got all of our ducks in a row We solicited public and staff comment throughout the month of July And then once we had all of the public and staff comment in we all worked individually on our own evaluation forms Last week everyone got those into me So I am the only person who has read everyone's evaluation forms I should note mr. Hayden was not able to get his in last week and he has provided his today So that is on the desk in front of you. I'll be giving you the whole rest of the packets in a moment so what I've spent the last several days doing as Has been our practice the last couple of years is I have been trying to Capture the spirit and the details of everyone's individual Evaluation forms and put those into a composite draft It is a composite because The select board has no individual authority as we all know We only have authority when we speak with one voice, which is to say at least a majority of us are saying something And so our individual forms don't have any individual authority or guidance really for the town manager It's only the the composite document where we are speaking with with a single voice So I have tried very hard as I said to capture all of the details where we have spoken similarly As our evaluation form is complicated as we all know it's got about 27 questions on it We all interpret those questions a little bit differently. We all put different Different categories of items into the different answers of different questions But I try and synthesize all of that and put that together into a draft memo and a composite of our evaluation form. I Try to take no liberties whatsoever. I'm not I'm not making any assumptions about anything So I have not included something unless it has direct reference in Three or more of the evaluation forms So it's really important what we're going to be doing now is Making sure that there are not other things that we might all agree on or three or more of us might agree on that We want included in the memo Because individuals of us thought about it it occurred to us But but it didn't occur to the others of us as we were filling out the form But as we discussed it we would say yes We want it that included because the goal here is to make the evaluation as complete as possible Both for the areas that we think are great strengths and for the areas that might benefit from more attention so I Want to thank first of all all of the public and the staff who offered comment to us on this the select board's individual evaluations are really made up of a collection of our personal observations over the course of a year as well as the informal feedback all of us receive constantly And the formal feedback period that I talked about with the public and the staff comment So we had pretty good response to both of those and I just want to Express my our appreciation for that because it really does help to inform us Also, I want to thank the select board for doing an incredibly thoughtful and careful job with these. I know that Like me you probably hate this. This is this is really it's complicated It's you want to be very honest. You want to be very clear. You want to be very helpful and The public nature of an evaluation is very awkward and so I also want to thank mr. Musanti for being an incredibly good sport about this Because it is difficult, but at the same time he recognizes and appreciates that this is all about Are helping to further improve his his great leadership of the town So let me summarize that this is again an incredibly positive evaluation. No surprise there Overall, this is an excellent review with a great appreciation for mr. Musanti's work once again We have identified some areas that would benefit from more attention in the coming years to help further your management and leadership skills And and we look forward to kind of talking about those with you So without further ado, I think I Am going to pass out all of the documents. I will note This is important explanation for folks at home The reason that you haven't seen these yet is because the new open meeting law as revised in 2010 A year when I was paying particular attention to the open meeting law as it relates to the town manager evaluation they change they made a change that does not allow for documents that express an opinion that are created by the board members themselves to be distributed ahead of time So there's always gray area interpretive area there about what constitutes an opinion or not but basically anything that would be That would be Substantively influencing the others in our body isn't supposed to happen outside of meetings. So Since there's nothing more important that we do than the town manager evaluation This is this is as of yet the best way we can find to do this so oh and the other thing I wanted to note about that is Debra Roussell in the office bless her heart to accommodate this as well as The people who are watching at home Put these up on the website and just published them at home from home at 6 30 So they have not been available to anybody before that but now they are available to everybody on the website So so anybody who's interested as we sit here and read these for really the next 30 40 minutes However long it takes before our discussion starts. They are welcome to read along at home so I'm going to pass these out now and Remember that this is the draft memo which comprises really the guts of the evaluation is a rough draft That is ours to add to subtract from and revise tonight Because the goal here is to make sure that the that that memo Includes everything that we want to include Make notes as you go along. I would suggest that you start with the draft Memo, and then you read all of the individual forms as you go through the forms If you know anything they say wow, that's a that's a great concept. I wish I had included that I wish that headed up in the draft memo make a note of it or you know market in some way You're gonna have a whole bunch of pages in front of you It will be difficult to just sort of find later if you don't market. Don't ask me how I know this So Yeah, so so go through think about the things that perhaps didn't get included and should get included and Remember, I really was trying not to make any assumptions. So so make sure that the things you want included are in fact in the memo and At the end we will talk about all those things that that still need to be included because I have Had a lot more time to sort of synthesize these then you have I have a couple of areas that I'm going to recommend that we talk about that that Aren't included that I think we should talk more about and I look forward to all the ones that you will have So I'll stop talking now. I will hand these out and Oh, and so mr. Haydn's you have on your desk right now Mr. Haydn's because I didn't receive it until today. It is not included in either the numerical or sort of the spiritual Draft of this memo so far. I have read it just quickly It doesn't deviate significantly from any things. It will not be difficult to Incorporate those answers into the memo. So where the memo says, you know, it involves four of the five select board members Responses I can change all that to five and I can redo the numerical Percentages on the composite form Okay One second I confused myself. Does everybody have Does anybody have anything that says me on the front, you don't want anything that says me on the front? So I've given out Four packets or five packets. I've already everybody has their the packets with everybody All right, so if anybody's missing a piece, let me know then I have two For us and I think that's everything. So now read at your leisure No, hurry. Like I said, this will be 30 or 40 minutes probably and and then we will talk about it. Thank you very much Just checking in how are we doing two minutes? You got it It's important so we have to all feel like we've had Enough time to do this. So I don't want to rush anybody at all. Would you like a few more minutes? Years ago when they made the John Grisham book The Firm into a movie I always remember the movie review talked about furious photocopying and that's what this meeting feels like furious memo reading Okay, so so something I should have noted at the beginning is that I did preview all Of this stuff with mr. Musanti on Friday. So he and I have talked about it. He's read through everything so there There are no surprises here to anything we're talking about now First of all, I hope that you think that the draft memo captures the spirit of What we did here, you know, I want to keep I want to keep fine-tuning the specifics But but make sure that that we're starting in a in a good place So I see nodding so that's good Okay So I will so that you guys can keep thinking about it But also as I said because I've gotten to think a lot more about this than you have I'll start off with a couple of areas that that I Wanted us to clarify a bit And one of them is the issue about voting and advocacy at town meeting This is something we had some comments on we had comments on them last year also last year We came out very strongly in support of mr. Musanti voting and speaking Advocating for his positions at town meeting Because we thought that was important this year that was noted on a couple of forms But it wasn't noted on a majority of them. So again, I want to clarify it all of them noted his Right to his undisputed right to vote and to speak at town meeting, but That's not the same as whether we're encouraging him to do it or not And I would think that it would be helpful to him to have We as his supervising body come out strongly and as far as what our position is on that So again, we did come out strongly for that last time. So I'd like some comments from folks This bro, please speak into your mic I think I made it quite clear in my comments on my form that you know if people don't like it We should change the Amherst town government act because that is how it is And I'm fully in support and I liked that you included that statement here I think if anything what might need some clarification is not whether or not we support his right under the town government Act to do so And not whether or not we support his right to advocate for his positions I think some some other things kind of muddied the water that caused people to then call the whole thing into question and Based on the comments that we got both throughout the past year and and also in the evaluate from individuals And one is associated with the amount of time that he speaks which I think is simply a Clarification that needs to be done with the TMCC as we said when we asked you to forward us our position Our questions and comments about you know sort of the town meeting to brief to the TMCC Because I think that's something that basically just the whole community needs to be clear on I think there's been confusion and we discussed it at the time at the select board meeting that there's been confusion as to You know What's an employee answering a question and therefore is that subject to three minutes or as he asked now in his case Is he answering a question and advocating and so then does that stray into the three minutes or like does he get? Unlimited time to answer the factual question and then get to do so I mean, I think that's where you know, some people started feeling like he's taking all the time He wants it's like nice just answering that okay I can see where you could say okay he's answering the question and he's adding a little editorial to it So I think that it's just a matter of all having the same shared expectation I think that there are people who not only one don't like the town government act that says he can advocate for his position But to expect that anytime any human being speaks on the floor of town meeting It will only be for three minutes. Well, that hasn't always been true for any employees that we've ever done that too I mean through the time I've been in town meeting and even for things like the select board I mean the select board will say hey wait, mr. Moderator we could clarify that and he doesn't say okay. No, you have three minutes. He just lets us clarify it So I think that it's just brought out that bigger question and I really hope that we would not Focus it as being you know a problem of his as being it just was indicative of a larger problem That we associate with that and maybe mr. Walsh somebody can clarify that better later Okay, so if if I can summarize um, so your your comments come out very strongly as do mine in favor of him Advocating for a position at town meeting that he that he both can but more Should right, so you're saying there's this other issue about time and so that's just that's a really a separate issue That shouldn't be muddied into whether or not he's allowed to speak because he spoke in a way that was too long Right, so so we're not gonna come out with a position I don't think on whether or not he should be subject to the same time limits No, as everybody else, but I appreciate your you're making that point but So so so far we've got you're saying that he should that we want him to be able to speak It's important to understand what he thinks and what he's pushing for And then there's the timing issue that separate and I guess my point is to my colleagues and to the public that if the Timing issue is an issue, which I think it is then that needs to be dealt with separately of our statement Associated okay here, and then the other the other thing that's also sort of adjunct to that whole issue was that the Mention in both one of our comments and in some feedback we got from the public about the zoning threshold of two-thirds a majority Which I know you know everything is what you're used to but two-thirds in Massachusetts has been something that people many people in Massachusetts with very good intent have been trying to turn over for many many many years And so the idea that if we changed from two-thirds to majority that would make us foolish or Inappropriate or anything like that I find very offensive when most of the country as I understand it does not have a two-thirds threshold and Secondly many good-hearted people in Massachusetts have tried to change that as well So although the comment you know can be placed in some context associated with you know Anybody can say anything in town meeting, and I've certainly said way more uncomfortable things than that at town meeting I think if I would caution the public who's concerned about that statement and and even my fellow colleagues that I mean It is a matter of opinion. It is a relative situation in that As I said, there's been work for years for people to try and improve zoning regulations in Massachusetts In the context as is there a way to protect public rights and not have it be a two-thirds threshold rather than just the outlets Just get rid of it so the majority works and of course We don't want to be like most other people that have just majority rules But I don't want again that to muddy up whether or not he's allowed to talk to me Okay All right other thoughts in general and specific about this Mr. Hayden and Mr. Orton. I want to Lend my voice to the chorus of support to having a town manager speak And I'm going to Maybe pull away from the word advocacy clearly that's often involved and appropriately but the reason I think it's important is That It's for the same reason that I think it's important that the finance committee Get to speak in advocacy of their Budget it's important for the library of trustees to speak in advocacy of their Whatever their position is in office of budget Or or the planning board or you know, go right down the list of people who get up a town meeting and speak In advocacy for something We rely rely on John to Stay abreast at a much greater detail and Maybe even with greater knowledge on a whole host of things and that's what I want town meeting to have access to Not necessarily my opinion, but sort of Intelligent but the the intelligence that the fullness that the town manager can and often does Bring to a discussion Mr. Wild Decreasing triviality With regard to the timing issue I just wanted to point out also for the benefit of the viewing audience that unless I'm very mistaken We don't have a timer we can see easily there So for example, we're sitting at our desks and the timers behind us and the town moderator Is keeping track of the time or the audience the other town meeting members will see the lights in the clock But we don't so if people want us to stick to a strict time limit somebody has to enforce it Or they have to give us a means to to see what time it actually is So it's very easy to go over time and the moderator tends to err on the side of the judgment call Sometimes a long people to stray if they're finishing up a comment. That's just by we have context and as far as a two-thirds thing Only because it became an issue here. I did not hear the town manager saying we should change Massachusetts law I heard the town manager saying that by most standards a two-thirds vote minus one would be a very strong endorsement But we have this higher threshold and it's been noted subsequently that there are other thresholds in other communities But I didn't see him complaining about the procedure in town meeting I thought I'm trying to as I thought I'm trying to assess the support for a given measure and then finally to the most important I thought I came out in favor of the advocacy and if not, I'll do it here You know my point was aside from the fact that the town manager is entitled to vote It would be peculiar for him to pretend he has no position since these things are developed by consensus We talked so much about the partnership of the town manager how he informs us and we're the chief executive So we oversee the town in the political sense, but he's the chief executive administrator Or like a chief financial officer plus an executive rolled into one along with mr. Puler so they're the ones who are implementing policy and policies that they have to Discuss with us and that they have to put into practice So it seems sensible that they would be able to advocate for those policies I would in fact like to know if he could not support a policy that we're trying to support by a vote of 51% or 66.7% so Obviously, there are some sensitivities involved and so it's important that everyone understand Why these things are being done and it's not manipulative or aggressive or whatever But I think the principle of the vote is very clear and the vote in the voice I should say I did state in my Evaluation that I thought it was John's right to advocate and to and to vote but that perhaps Keeping his remarks a little tighter might be a good thing Since timing seem to annoy So to clarify Do you want to go so far as to say you encourage that or just that you support that it's his right? Either way. I mean, I'm I'm happy. I don't have strong feelings about it I certainly think it's within his right and that's good enough for me. I think he's following What he feels it's his rights and that's fine Okay. All right, so I think we're We're at least very strongly Majority in favor of of Not just supporting but encouraging like we don't want you to stop voting or or advocating And so I'm just saying she doesn't feel quite as strongly as that but it's all it's it's full support for sure And and very strong encouragement. Okay, I certainly don't feel he should stop doing it Okay, I think we're all on the same page there. Okay, I Don't want to get sidetracked then so will I can reference the timing issue as a problem the zoning issue I personally agree a hundred percent with mr. Wilde's interpretation of what happened there and and that it was misunderstood by some So I don't think he was advocating But I also don't want to get sidetracked in that word zoning issue you want to comment Particular point at the point I was trying to express Perhaps not as effective as effectively as I could have was that There was very strong support within town meeting for The zoning measures and that was not meant to say that I was suggesting it the rules be changed I also appreciate the feedback again from the community, but also the select board about Participation in town meeting ultimately after lots of deliberation really two years ago now Coming into this position and then throughout I just think fundamentally it's It's important for the community in town meeting to know my my thoughts on a particular policy matter before them While trying to be fully cognizant of my role as town manager that one of my many duties is to help facilitate a smooth functioning town meeting and the whole run-up to town meeting the preparation the preparation of the warrant the formal and informal coaching that inevitably goes on with Citizens submitting petition articles etc about appropriate procedures, so I'm Trying very much to stay conscious of that and not have me taking a position on a given issue cloud That we're trying to you know perform that support role for town meeting in a professional and inclusive way Thank you very much Okay, next issue. I wanted a little clarification on this which is question 13 and goal number 9 This is the one about the staffing plan and the way that I had summarized our comments and ratings were that Perhaps we were not ourselves sufficiently clear on what our expectations were for that I Was a little bit surprised by our collective comments on rankings Comments and rankings about that because I thought that we had been clear. I thought that we had particularly in discussing Performance goals for next year when we were having this discussion talking about That we were expecting really something that that ends up being a written document something that is not just sort of comments in a budget That you need to kind of infer, but that's a written plan So I'm not sure if our comments were various degrees of trying to be diplomatic and not say You haven't given us that staffing plan yet or if we do indeed need further clarification on this So the question is Is this a fulfilled goal or an unfulfilled goal or is this a goal that we keep needing to talk about for the future? So a couple of us put it as an unfulfilled goal and a couple of us put it as you know Anybody who had something that was other than needs improvement or unable to judge If you'd like to weigh in on what your thoughts were about the that particular question again, that was Question 13 goal number nine. Mr. Hayden. I I'm one of the unable to judges the Am I the only one maybe? No, there were two of us the And the reason I say that is because I can't think of a place to go where I could say, ah Here is what the request is or the suggested requirement is for This department or that division or that that function or whatever, you know, I have a very I have a sense Good or bad. I do have a sense of what the goals are but I couldn't put my finger on the one thing and I'm I'm at the unable to judge phase because When we were introduced to Deborah Deborah That's gonna be difficult That was one of the the tasks that was mentioned as being set to her. So I'm waiting for that for her her Her interaction with with mr. Misanti and figuring that out, but that's going to be okay So I would say unable to judge or needs improvement anything that suggests that the goal was unfulfilled is To me makes sense with what I thought our expectation was so anybody who who put satisfactory or commendable or anything like that If you want to speak about what you thought mr. Wall Yeah, it was a judgment call so probably I would have put down unable to judge I guess my reasoning was that there were a number of important changes in staffing new human resources director new person in planning department lots of things going on Mr. Misanti coming back from medical leave under the circumstances I Assumed that the work was going on, but we hadn't yet seen it So that's a judgment call, but it was my understanding. We would get a formal plan at some point Okay, so I guess I was rating presumed progress, but Under the circumstances that it was not Reasonable that it wasn't fulfilled But that it wasn't because I imagine it's much easier to discuss planning when you've got your personnel in place At the tops of those departments or at the key Second-tier levels What I wanted to say that I just thought was ever so valuable is that I actually thought what you had said Given them what I read of everybody's thing made total sense. Like we're all over the place on this And so we need to work on this a little more and in reflecting back to and the signs the perfect thing of that She marked it xx I Think that what you said earlier though was that well since we we had this conversation About the FY 13 goals I think actually between the time of the end of FY 12 and the discussion we had about the FY 13 goals I think we're clearer on what we expect FY 13 to look like but that couldn't be reflected here because It wasn't FY 12 So in FY 12 it was still kind of all over the place. I think that we should probably revisit it Before we get too far along in FY 13 But I think we now all better understand having had that conversation associated with goals And having looked at this and see where we all end up what we all think that means and we can obviously Have a separate conversation maybe as a very short agenda item at some point What was it you meant about that again our notes indicate that so that we will be able to effectively Look at that next year But I think that for FY 12 although it was very clear to some of us what we thought it was it wasn't very clear to all of us Okay, so this is reflecting those moments in time. Okay, so so we're pretty good with the fact that how it's how it's presented It's not you captured. We haven't we haven't fully worked it out. So, okay So I did you have any other comment? No, I think the list explained my point of view The hires had been great and the fact is we haven't seen a plan with cost estimates, etc. Okay Okay, all right So I think I might be able to tweak that just a tad more But but that we've got the the concept in the spirit of that. Okay next one Question 25, which is goal number three Part of that was about gathering info on strengths and weaknesses of service delivery This is one that has been on there for a couple of years and last year We specifically noted it as one of the areas that that needed some improvement that again We were kind of looking for like some list some something concrete not just you know We always want to hear about How service delivery is what but but actual steps that were taken to To try and collect feedback from the public about service delivery So we had noted that last year only one or two of us noted that this year So again, I'm wondering if we felt like like we needed to clarify what our expectations are there or that we are That it's difficult to answer these questions and kind of get at every nuance of it. So So my question to you is is this Is this need additional wording? Is this something that has or has not been fulfilled in a way that needs to be reflected in the evaluation because at this point It is essentially not there last year. It was noted for improvement. Mr. Wilde I guess I mean maybe it's the gather information That's particularly vague because you could just ask people to tell it You know, how are we doing or you could do it? You can put more formal mechanism technological or others So maybe we should be more clear about what what sort of data we're looking for and what means of solicitation and delivery So much for all the same more clarity for next year So leave it unreaded at this point and because we get questions about things like the work on the street or as a parking What's different in parking violation of parking fawn, you know things that are People may have different expectations of the level of information they should have or the timeliness of information So I mean the first thing I think we can do is to clarify what we think we should be doing in Giving information to the public and making the public aware of the means that we have for putting things out and getting feedback from them, but I think in particular the feedback is We could make clear what we want there. Okay others. Mr. Heen Yeah, and maybe part of that the clarity a lot of reports, you know across our desk and that and they're often Not somehow or other cohesive with this one goal. We saw the the paving report and that went off and several months earlier We had a little report on the number of potholes the number of yards of asphalt that had been used in potholes that month or the two months beforehand I can't exactly and and some time before that there was a street light survey, you know So all of these these little bits and pieces. I can't help but to notice that this month's addition of the Pioneer Institute's guide to successful municipal governments Includes a whole chapter on how that data is collected and and you know what Pieces of that are valuable to clump together. So that that's that is a that is a tough one and there is A lot that goes on and I so I'm looking forward to the Resolving the challenge of making that Accessible I might just as a as an aside Mentioned that If if there had been if there is a system that exists to sort of collect all that stuff easily and and create a An easy point of access to it We might have had fewer phone calls going on during the snowstorm I mean if somebody could access. Oh, yeah, we know we know where the crews are We know, you know where the utility companies are headed. We you know, we have a sense of that So I mean that that turns out on my reflection to be kind of a significant Goal important but also big Thank you, Mr. Steiner Ms. Brewer The reason I marked that satisfactory is because I've been looking at it as Yep, things are going along. There's information about town successes and challenges out there. There's support There's seeking of support the gathering of information issue is not done yet in some formalized way But it's not done in a bad formalized way, which I'm happy about It's not based on some Suggestion box, which is really not the way to go. It's not based on some expensive Let's hire somebody to do a survey of something that's useless It's I think it's the more that I'm saying satisfactory and someday it would be commendable if Somebody came up with an interesting initiative as to how we might more effectively do that And I'm also totally open to including things under that goal in terms of like when the town manager does a self-evaluation of saying So when it came to the storm response One of the things we did is we started talking with the senior center and council on aging about How seniors how they dealt with it and so now moving forward we have this new thing We're doing and so it could be very isolated, you know associated with individual things But to me it's kind of one of those almost permanent goals Rather than a year-to-year goal that is like what's another way we can look at this And although there was nothing hugely exciting in that area to me this year, and so I just marked it satisfactory You know I guess the way to get from satisfactory to commendable in my mind is to come up with some more Specific ways of doing it at specific times and then mentioning those to us so I can remember to include the Evaluation, but it's not really a problem It's just a it's an opportunity place that we could continue to come up with good ways of doing it because we've all seen It done kind of poorly and that's okay to not bother with suggestion boxes that are just kind of like okay I had a box you can put something in it That's not really the kind of thing we're looking for we're looking at trying to improve individual services I'm thinking of the sheet we got on the new parking system where we had Specific complaints about how this part of it worked and that part of it worked and what was being done Somehow the complaints about the parking system must have gotten through And we're being addressed point-for-point, which I thought was really good So I don't know Somehow the public's input on that must have been useful And it was nice to see that service in particular addressed so hopefully You can gather more public opinion in some meaningful way for other services in town Okay, Mr. They want to revise and extend my remark The reason I'm the other commendable is that You know, I have a sense that the information is been made available I want to recall the very extensive Descriptions of the successes and failures and shortcomings That accompanied every budget item in the report the reason that report is a hundred and sixty pages long Is because there is is a half a page a page two lines on How effective that budget had been the year before at fulfilling the needs for You know, whatever it was that that budget item whether it was well, I'm not going to go in any more detail than that that that document is it is extraordinary and has a ton of information and If you have a pension for numbers you can sort of drill down not very far and realize Oh, yeah, look at this the spending was adequate the spending was not adequate the spending is behind spending ahead So I mean it's all out there, but it is maybe a little bit Diffuse and and maybe that's the discussion that we need to be having how to make it less More more easily accessed. Okay, so so my goal there you can see this is why I'm not taking any liberties I'm trying to assume anybody means anything my intent is to make sure that we do not Unnecessarily ding him on something that we don't even know what we're talking about and that we don't fail to give him credit For something that we are all on the same page about so I put this one firmly into the category of leave it as it is and Work on further clarity to the degree that we need to for next year, but it doesn't require any further Clarification I don't think in the review Okay, and my last one and so so we talked about the October storm as part of this discussion a couple ways some of us called out the October storm as a really important example of excellent crisis management and So I'll say I was among them not all of us did and because that was really such an extraordinary occurrence If we mean to market that way I want to make sure it gets included so what are folks thoughts about including the October storm and various references as an example of excellent crisis management Ms. Burr speaking as someone who totally neglected to put it in her entire review I would be thrilled if you would include that and when I was not taking an extra two minutes to reread the draft Evaluation memo after reading the other materials It doesn't seem to appear in here And I didn't know if that was because you were concerned that it wasn't on enough of the forms And I wasn't sure if necessarily which section to throw it into but obviously you can base that on whatever you want to but including like whichever section if it shows up under community and intergovernable Relations whatever obviously it wasn't a goal because we didn't know we were gonna have a crisis, but I Absolutely agree with all the comments that everybody made in terms of how well that went and I mean I made some offhand remark to the separate issue of when the town manager had to be away And he had obviously set things up that things could go very well And that probably on a separate note should be as as acknowledge here as well, but most importantly I really think the crisis management thing. I'm just I just totally didn't See the obvious place to tuck it in and so I forgot Like this together because that's I wanted in the form really inspires different reactions from everybody in different places and Different memories that you might have and so some ways of dealing with the October storm talked about kind of the need for more Communication or whatever so sometimes it was mentioned in forms, but it wasn't specifically called out as you know Excellent crisis management. So again, just because it was mentioned I didn't I couldn't I didn't want to take the leap to to the judgment about it. Mr. Walsh In the same vein I mentioned that I hoped in order to draw a balance. I think on overall we did very well You know, we could have been hit a lot worse I Think the other thing is that we were and the town manager came in that happened to be here one day myself in town hall And he was in his office working for several hours despite the fact he would been on medical leave and so forth I mean so and the rest of the team came in and pulled together very nicely What I was trying to say is that we did a very good job I think in some areas we couldn't expect certain things and some if we could have but we adapted along the way too So we got better and better as a thing happened and in retrospect though We saw the things we could have done differently where there was social media or the use of the radio things like that So I was simply saying that there was feedback from the public asking for more or different response That we should heed that in in the future, but we did well. I think so Yeah, I'm gonna be in the yes column as well the the other part of it besides the the management at the moment When the during the emergent condition? is the follow-up You know crisis management is a forward-looking activity as well as A lights and siren response and I think that That's commendable. I mean clearly we've got lots. We've been a lot of thought a lot of effort put into Mitigating and unfortunately, it's always the last Emergency that we're preparing for who knows what's coming But if if our ability to learn and think on our feet this time is any indication. I think we're okay I have it in my report. Oh good So we're good. So we'll include it. Okay. Yes, and someone maybe miss. We're just mentioned about the How well things went in mr. Mecanti's absence, which is not currently included in the pond. Yeah, exactly Okay, so that will be added off which almost sounds like yeah, we didn't even notice he was gonna know Yes, so cleverly worded mention of that Okay, so that's the end of the things that I teased out and wanted to make sure we include so now We will just go around the table and see what other folks want to include so again This is things that got mentioned in individual reports that I think weren't either included or fully captured in the draft or Essentially to advocate for things that maybe you were the only person who who wrote it But you want to you want to try and get us to agree to include it So we can start anywhere miss. I would like to start. I'm sure I am not going to sing a lot I have a lot of specific little details in my report, but I don't think any of them need to be Advocated for for inclusion in the overall summary because mr. Musanti will see what I wrote and I think he knows probably where I'm coming from on a couple of issues and That's good enough for me. I I think you have captured very well in this document the major areas and That satisfies me Thank you this bro I Have two things one is hopefully very easy and one is more complex the very easy one is in the draft evaluation memo if Which I hate to bring up even like a comma Or something in this thing because you worked so hard on all this when we talk about the solar project in small letters Could we for history's sake? Since it's our first but not certainly our last Refer to it as something more formal the first time we mentioned it probably under right here But you know solar farm at closed landfill at such and such address and then later solar farm because we're going to have Lots more going on but this being our first huge project I'd like that to be really clear in this evaluation so that five years from now when people are looking back and our Glorious solar history. I don't know exactly which project we were talking about so hopefully that's an easy one and the more complicated one is And I was just so excited that you decided not to touch on this one question 20 goal number five So that's the other assessment not the building assessment not the assessment. That's not the budget detail But the other thing Shall conduct an assessment of the town's human resources needs and capabilities? Okay, so to try make a long story short Reading over everybody's answers. I Don't think you answered the question the same way I did and I disagree with you in this particular case in that All the good stuff about new hires goes in other sections The point is the assessment has not taken place And if we think that doesn't matter I guess we could write that down like I always thought that was a stupid goal And then we don't need it anyway, but to me although of course We aren't there yet because we just got a new HR director The assessment still needs to take place We don't know of any idea how well we're recruiting hiring retaining and supporting town staff in terms of our alignment with best practices So I don't see how we could conceivably consider that to be commendable. I'm totally flummoxed by those answers so I see the comments that support the great hires and Great progress and the sensitivity issue which I think was also important that I didn't bother to mention on mine for whatever reason I Think those were all really good. I just think that the answers don't support the rating on 20 which is goal number five which I'm marked as needs improvement and I think either needs improvement or unable to judge are much More accurate answers than anything else for that goal because of the specificity of that goal I'll comment on So there's been a dramatic change in the human resources department and the The Goals and vision for it. I wouldn't want to have that go Unappreciated and that seemed like a Step towards even though it wasn't the formal assessment itself. It was Understanding what the select board's goal with the Intention with the goal was so I was happy in fact it was funny because when we talked about the goals for next year I said we don't need this one anymore, right? Like consumer resources and everybody said no no We still need it because we still want the assessment. Okay But because there's been such and a Change there. I wanted to make sure that that was acknowledged. So I Had put it in because I think that we did all say those of us who put it as commendable noted that it was a step Indicating the progress that we were looking for already there. So that was how I felt about it other folks First we get to hear from Mr. Hayden Well, the the the reason that I'm the soul unable to judge is that It's for that reason. There's been significant progress which is noted in Question number 17 recruiting and assigning best available personality the person personalities personnel In their company, I mean that's that's I think we're almost unanimous In well, we're unanimous in it being satisfactory or better the and while That action the action of getting you know, Miss Radway here and Sort of the the the reassignments that that kind of filtered around that You know don't rise to the level of Mine being able to to judge that the task is complete is because it isn't Didn't you know that those are an important first step. I think we should all understand that and acknowledge it but So, you know, I'm thinking unable to judge is maybe the most honest way. It's not unsatisfactory. It's not just isn't Beyond and and I do think this is important to be said beyond The observation that it is happening sort of an informal level things are beginning to You know staffing speaking to base much I think much better understood that where it's what's needed Who's needed what skillset what tools are needed in each spot as much? recently as much better understood then when I first joined the select board Thank you, Mr. Well, I think you adequately expressed the reasons for my Commendable reading there having heard Miss Brewer. I can in several cases. I put down it was a judgment call I could go either way and having heard Miss Brewer's comments. I could see why I might have gone More toward the middle than to the commendable, but I think all was trying to capture that positive change that had taken place there I also think that's what's useful about the process. You know when you have a kind of disjunction Or contrast and responses. That's an opportunity as you said the individual responses aren't the evaluation It's a collective conversation. So to me. This is where the process has worked. Well, there were a bunch of commendables There was Miss Brewer's Needs improvement we're having conversation but now and the pros will capture things in a way this little simple check-off grid can So I'm satisfied with a description along the lines of the conversation we're having Again clarifying things for next year's goal in the process I did say that This is a good step forward my exact words the hire of the new unit of miss redway I also mentioned the fact that um Mr. Musanti is gathering data on staff salaries across a bigger universe so that people In town can see how they compare and I think that this is a another important Step that will help with some of the complaints that we've had about Salary compensation and other human resource issues so okay, so I think that what I'm hearing is that Basically, we're all comfortable with the rating that we put But Rather than calling it out as that rating I can talk about As I did for another one saying how kind of the ratings were all over the place I can say the reasonings were all over the place But you know that there's agreement that this is This is not yet fulfilled but is still pending but that all We appreciate all the the positive signs in relation to the human resources development or whatever, but I just won't I won't emphasize what the current rating is Because the rating as we're saying it is is not fully capturing what we What we want to express as the status of the fulfillment of that goal misty I was thinking that you might want to say something like um We are at a great place We have really moved forward And that next year we will be able to have a more complete Evaluation or whatever the phrase ecology was here assessment But we have moved significantly forward this year Um, do you think that's kind of capturing what I said is kind of capturing what you're looking for for a change? Oh The reason I the reason I'm concerned about that and I really don't think we're talking about different things at all What we're talking about the difference between which you've just addressed and what you said is We cannot we could not as things stood have a goal that said hr assessment is 75 Commendable because the hr assessments not done So you can't do a commendable on something that doesn't exist If you don't feel like You know all these other questions about personnel and recommendations starting with questions 14 through 18 Capture how much things have gotten better that I appreciate that it needs to be reflected somewhere But I don't think that was the right The right way to reflect that goal So I'm totally okay with the fact that if we just take that out as you know when we have the goal one two Five six and eight if you just take three out of the list and characterize the way you just did because it's not that I'm arguing That's anything bad in hr banding stretch imagination. It's murals times. It's that I just don't want us to Say Like was said earlier, but we don't need to do this anymore Oh, we still need to do this in a big way because we still need to do the assessment But it can't be done tomorrow. The person just started We've got lots to do in terms of the big picture But now we actually have a hope of doing it whereas when we started this goal It didn't seem possible So I'm very excited about the potential as well nothing and what I was trying to say is negative I just was one of the places where our Disagreement as to how we interpreted the question and where to make sure the right credit got placed For good accomplishments worked out So I think if you want to just carry it in the text and just pull it out of that list I think it sounds perfect I would just just point out that with the with the new arithmetic since there are now five of us who've weighed in This would fall into the other category anyway because it'll be 60 0 20 0 20 That's one thing and and also just just sort of an underlying Sense that I want to get it's one of the things that that I noticed about Our form here, and so this is maybe looking ahead is that some some things we're we're Rating the thing a report A list an assessment whatever and sometimes we are rating the The quality of of Of the effort that has gone into that and I found myself Not able to differentiate between those but Maybe more of that in a little bit Yeah, so you know we can and should and will continue to refine our goals as we deal with those I and I said this when we talked about the forms as we were reviewing and approving the forms to use this year That actually because of how this works I don't think that we should obsess too much on any particular question within the form because what it does is It makes for a very broader. What's the right analogy a very It becomes a funnel that widely captures Through the different questions through the different interpretations It it captures and teases out lots of different things that we think about So I'll tell you that from from what I have to do with this. It makes it very difficult I can't just look at you know number 14 and say yep Nobody nobody said x y or z and number 14. What because some of us might have said it in 13 or 12 or 14 Exactly. We said at different places exactly, but it is still all being captured by the form So so that's why the performance goals are a different matter We should be extremely clear with what our intentions are for the further performance goals As we keep going forward with them But but in general on the form whether we whether some of us captured one feeling in line 12 and another in In 18 I don't think that matters as long as it was captured mystery which brings me to a general comment on the The questionnaires that we received back. I just wanted To to reiterate My appreciation as well for the information that they got and I want to be doubly thankful for the comments When when actual comments were written down sort of for the same reason that you can assimilate and figure out what The answer is when the comments are written down that helped me understand better Everything else around it Okay, miss burrow were you done with things you wanted to have included or changed or you have any more Mr. Hayden anything I I just wanted to to Give as an example My dilemma about you know the effort versus the outcome under under economic development for instance, you know I I I it's it's one question and I put four check marks into it two of one and two of the other and um I I'm going to enjoy how the arithmetic on that works out. I see some some odd percentages So I think you've got a system pretty well established but um The thing that I understood as I contributed that question is that um part of the success Of particularly this this goal involves so much broader market forces than Um, we can expect uh, mr. Mazzanti even in his godlike aura to be able to control So, um, I really thought jeez, you know, we don't have a new multimillion dollar tax Able asset in town Is that his fault? Even though clearly we've we've tasked him with with developing that Um, I don't think so So are you looking to have a change with anything that's in them? No, not not this year. I think that what I'm trying to to to lay the groundwork for is your understanding of why I marked it the way I did so when you make your comments you can Have that to to simulate Okay, um, but also to prompt my colleagues as we have our discussion about the 2014 goals Um, we might have a little thinking about that as well Okay, um, and since you mentioned the uh dividing up in the math that's involved so um Some of us give one answer to every question and some of us give multiple answers to every question And some of them are multi-part questions. So that makes perfect sense and uh And and we're all again. We're all going to approach this differently So what I've done is when there were four sets of responses then each of us were were 25 percent in that And and if somebody uh divided up their answer that was also divided up as well So I think that was well captured in the uh in the composite if you look at the composite I agree. Um, so it so you know feel free to do that. It's a perfectly fine way to do it We should all we should all react to the form however we do, you know, and then it's just kind of My problem. I think it's clear and and now that that all of us have waited a four-part answer now is five points each Okay All right, so anything else you wanted to change make sure it got included or nuanced in the memo. Thank you Okay, mr. Walp I think you captured everything very well, especially given the complexity of the form and our responses The only slight question I had is about the evaluation process information because again There's I mean here. There are five of us who spend our time doing this every two weeks or sometimes every week And we have conversations and we're discussing the results in the case of other things We have mostly prose letters from the public Under three dozen and about the same number even fewer from town staff Uh, you know barely ten percent And so I think it's useful that you indicate here that low response level and the maybe difficulty of interpreting some of those responses Because it's hard to know how to react and miss Brewer. I think made a very good comment in her Uh, final remarks about maybe the need for better forms or better feedback mechanisms Because clearly there is certain there's a kind of a disjuncture between generally very strong staff satisfaction In a pocket of less satisfied opinion, but it's very hard for us to assess at this distance Indeed. Okay. So, uh, so you're not looking for any particular change about that? I just wasn't sure whether you're going to if the Evaluation process information is really going to become part of the report or is that background? Everything that you see there is the draft memo. So that is going to stay. Yeah, so you want that in there? You want it different or no, I think it's useful to have it there. Okay Okay, it's just you know, it said agreed upon during discussion. So I was going to make sure the numbers stayed in there. Okay. Yep All right So then I think that's everything unless people have thought of new things I started with you, right? I'm not leaving you off. Okay So everybody has gotten to comment on things that they want to add to subtract from revise in the memo Okay, I think that I can capture all of these things We're counting on you Again, thank you very much for for approaching this so thoughtfully and so carefully and and the reason this is so Difficult for us to do is because we put so much effort into it It is an in exact science in the memo. I say it's more than art than science and it surely is It's very important we're doing better with it all the time and And I I feel very good about the the final result that we get from it And again for folks who are watching at home What we were talking about we spent the majority of the night talking about was making sure we got things included or not included You might get a misimpression that this was about About problems when in fact that the evaluation itself is overwhelmingly positive the select board the community and staff are all extremely supportive of mr. Musanti appreciative of his his tremendous work on behalf of amherst and and this is A good opportunity to be able to tell you that and how much we value it. So thank you very much Before we finish this part of everything. Is there anything that you would like to comment on or ask questions about or clarify? No, just I'll say again how much I'm enjoying the work and the challenges That come with the job every day and I'm blessed to have such a talented Staff at all levels and I very much appreciate the Individual feedback from staff and from board members as well as the collective feedbacks. I'm looking forward to next monday Thank you very much. So next monday. So i'm going to turn this into a formal memo What's currently a draft will not be a draft anymore? and And basically just trust me on it if you if when I submit it next monday to you all and we Vote to formally approve it if you're not ready to approve it because you think that I haven't captured it Then we'll just wait another amount of time But but it's not going to be dramatically different from what it says now and it will just incorporate what we've talked about This time Is there any chance that you could send it to us ahead of time so that We can come in prepared to say we think it's wonderful or I would change line three and put a comma in there Not that you would ever do that. I Tell you what go easy on the editing because This takes me so much time and there's you'd have to pick your battles because at some point i'm just going to go. Oh, yeah I'm just warning you if I lose it on this that's why But certainly I think that because this is all reflecting a conversation that we've had in public We're not now influencing each other outside of meetings. I think I certainly can do that So what I will do is hopefully I'll try and circulate a draft in advance of the packet deadline So that we can come up with uh, hopefully the final version for the packet deadline. I think that's perfectly legitimate. That would be great Okay, mr. Hey, I just wanted to add to your list of appreciations appreciation for you Keeping us steering us clear from the the booby traps and the open meeting law Um, something is value as important. It's frustrating as heck. I just want to point that out I did not to be able to to sort of think out loud with colleagues beforehand, but um The uh, because it's so important, you know, I appreciate that, you know, we're doing it right So that it will stick Thank you All right, anything else miss burr. I know we're all tired and I just feel desperate to say this So if you can just a minute it'd be awesome Um, I realize that we will have a separate conversation after we are finished with the august 27th saying, okay Moving forward. What are we going to do differently? Um next time around not only the fy 13 goals Which is the ongoing conversation? But also the possibility of the blah blah blah that elissa put at the end of her thing associated with The staff questionnaires and how we could do better. Which is something we talk about every year Which is why we tweaked them this year. So I know that's upcoming. So no, I'm not talking about this now What I'm talking about right now Is um, just a couple more process questions while comments while it's still all fresh is that Yes, so kief again needs credit for doing an amazing job seeing all these five different people Five different people turning their stuff in. Um, it's like amazing and the fact that we not only Interpret I mean every question is like we all interpreted a different way And you're trying to figure out. Well, did they say it in 11 or 13 or whatever? And does it all mean the same thing? We got people putting x's and two or three different places We got multiple questions within boxes. I mean like everybody's this is the way you fill out a form Interpretation is different and so for you to try and come out and into one Yeah, I like whatever you want to write is fine with me because I have no longer I'm willing to complain about any of that because it's crazy The other thing um, is associated with that is that I want to make sure it's clear to people that with the Unfortunately, relatively low amount of public feedback. We got both from the public public and the staff Is that one of the things we've made a point of doing in this process for the last several years And I know is sometimes done differently other places Is that each member of this board gets to interpret that information again their own way We all get the original documents associated with that and then we To filter them through our own brains as to what we thought people meant And so I have seen it done other places otherwise where they say well Here, you know hear you bill you look at all the staff input and you tell me what that says And then that gets incorporated into the larger thing now It's that we're all also interpreting that so I want the public to recognize and the staff to recognize that we are all Giving our own special filter to that before we get it to be so key But at this point that that seems like the thoroughly right way to do it as well But it is again being looked at through several different sets of eyes. So maybe you like that Unassociated with open meeting law interpretation having discussed these sorts of things at some length with some of the open meeting Law people at the agio's office. I think that The basic rule of if an opinion is expressed you can't send something out ahead of time is ludicrous I have told them that and they understand that Except they don't know how where to draw a line between different kinds of reports that people might make And so that's one of the ongoing problems with it And so it comes out with this bold statement of no opinion That makes no sense to all of us doing this work every day, but the reality is they don't know where to say not to Given that however, I feel that we are I am like Supremely proud and confident of our process here. I am confident that we are way Heads above everyone else in terms of what gets released to the public in terms of our individual information That's provided our individual ratings. We don't just have someone sitting here trying to make notes While we're just blah blah blah to each other. We're actually filling out forms taking responsibility for our ratings I think we should be very proud of that it's been a long time coming to the point where we are right here And it's not without thought and a lot of hard work Especially on your part that we've gotten to this point. So we should feel really good about this I absolutely agree. There are you know, I learned at MMA. I learned through consultation with other colleagues in in towns around ours All kinds of ways people don't do are unable to do do badly stumble over performance evaluations and And that's because it's hard. It's very hard But uh, but I as miss brewer said, I think we're doing a truly excellent job with it again I think we're so we're so thoughtful and and careful in it and And I think that the transparency and accountability of the process is just critical and and i'm really proud of where we are with that So thank you all very much Okay, um, so then the other thing we need to do is we need to make a motion And then I want to do a quick calendar preview and then we can leave miss stein I move that the select board approve a special wine and malt license for hurricane boosters For service at a golf outing slash dinner to be held On the grounds of the hickory ridge golf club monday august 27th 2012 from 12 30 p.m to 8 p.m Karen dunn manager Mr. I don't know what her it's just kind of tacked on there. Let's see if we can figure it out second off committee chair Yeah, all right. Mr. Hayden has seconded it for the discussion. Mr. Hayden just a very quick appreciation for um This is this is boosting a high school organization. So it's possible. There'll be high schoolers around I really appreciate the the controls that were described to us as far as making sure people who may Are allowed to access the alcohol will have access and those who aren't will not I'll also note appreciation for miss russell. This was actually a complicated special liquor license application. Usually they're very easy, but um because hickory ridge has an existing liquor license but has since Changed ownership that license is no longer valid and yet since it hasn't been rescinded and blah blah blah So there was a whole big thing that she had to go through with the state to make sure This could be done and the way that it's being done is is fully legal and and going along with all of the requirements So, uh, so this was not just a run of the mill one that came in and we approve it This there's a lot of work behind this to make sure it was all accurate. So thanks to miss russell Uh for the discussion all in favor say hi. Hi. Hi. That's unanimous Okay, I just want to do a quick calendar preview for you before we go Um, obviously we have not met in a very long time So we have a whole bunch of things on our agenda for next week. Um We have uh, and those are listed on the calendar preview at the end But I just want to call your attention to a couple of things We have three different public hearings two different poll hearings for western mass electric as well as the public hearing on the parking policy changes The parking policy hearing is going to be at 7 30. Obviously the public hearings all had to have their their times Noticed early. So the western mass electric ones are 6 45 and 650 and then the parking Changes one is at 7 30 Also next week, we will be talking about plans to fill the library trustee vacancy You all saw in the paper that there has been a vacancy there We have been notified by the library trustees about that I have been in coordination with mr. Sarah the president of the library trustees about this process and how it would work what the timing would be He in consultation with his colleagues requested that we do this at the september 24th Select board meeting. Um, so we will be discussing that next week But I wanted to get that kind of on your radar that that is what the that is what the expectation is It's not official until we approve it. But uh, in case you had any issues or thoughts about it I wanted to just get you thinking about that now um I think that is all I have to note about the calendar preview There are a bunch of other things that that don't rise to the level of being listed on here All kinds of updates and whatever's that are going to happen there But these are the things that that the public would be most interested in and that um, you all needed to be aware of I'm sorry. What did you say? I'm sorry. I um There will be three committee appointments we need to fill a committee for complicated reasons for law pause Okay. Yeah, there will be I'm sure there will be uh A bunch of other things that don't quite make uh being listed on on this section of the agenda ahead of time But uh plan for basically a busy long meeting next time and uh, and then we won't meet again until after labor day Mr. Hayden, how confident are we that the western mass electrical be ready for the sundaline road hearing? I believe that all of their stuff is all set. It all went out the mailings happened on friday, so They were already set with all of their arrangements. It was a question of whether They could get the coordination through their home office and the verizon office in order to get the uh, A butter notification sent out in time and that that did happen. So Yeah, that looks good. Um, I'm anxious for that one to succeed Yes, um Okay, any questions about anything on the calendar preview? All right, then mr. Hayden I would move to adjourn without objection this meeting adjourns at 8 47. Thank you very much