 Good evening everyone. As a preliminary matter, I'm Diane M. Mahant, select board chair. Permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Dan Dunn. Here. Joe Curo. Here. John Hurd. Here. Steve DeCorsi. Here. Town staff, when I call your name, also please respond in the affirmative. Our town manager, Adam Chaptholane. Here. To our town council, Doug Hine. Here. And Ashley Maher from the select board office is taking minutes remotely. This is an open meeting of the Allington select board being conducted remotely consistent with Governor Baker's executive order of March 12, 2020, due to the current state of emergency in the Commonwealth. In order to mitigate the transmission of the virus and reduce risk of COVID-19 illness, we have been advised and directed by the Commonwealth to suspend public gatherings and, as such, the governor's order suspends the requirement of the open meeting law to have all meetings in a publicly accessible physical location. Further, all members of public bodies are allowed and encouraged to participate remotely. The order which you can find posted with the gender materials for this meeting allows public bodies to meet entirely remotely, so long as reasonable public access is afforded so that the public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting. Ensuring public access does not require ensuring public participation unless there is a public hearing on the agenda. This meeting will feature some public comment during certain agenda items, including the election update and polling location discussion. It will not feature citizens open forum consistent with the board's practice when warrant article hearings are on the agenda. To my understanding, some members of the public would like to provide some comment on the election process, so after members of the board have spoken, I, as the chair, will ask for a list of persons wishing to provide comment and call on each in turn. Please keep in mind that all participants and members of the public must be recognized by the chair before speaking. For this meeting, the select board is convening by Zoom as posted on the town's website, identifying how the public may join in. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and that some attendees are participating by video conference. Accordingly, please be aware that anything broadcasted may be captured by the recording. Please also take care to adjust your screen or device name if you would like to speak. In order for us to recognize speakers appropriately and develop accurate minutes, it is helpful for participants to see your full first and last name when calling upon you rather than a nickname. Finally, all participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment and those persons are not required to identify themselves. All of the materials for this meeting are available on the Novus agenda dashboard and the board's webpage. We recommend members and public follow the agenda as posted on Novus, unless I note otherwise. Now before we turn to the first item on the agenda, permit me to cover some ground rules for effective and clear conduct of our business and to ensure accurate meeting minutes. I will introduce each speaker on the agenda after they conclude their remarks. The chair will go down the line of select board members inviting each by name to provide any comment, questions or motions. Please hold until your name is called and further, please remember to mute your phone or computer when you are not speaking. Please remember to speak clearly in a way that helps generate accurate minutes. For any response, please wait until the chair yields the floor to you and each vote taken in this meeting will be conducted by a roll call vote. I would like to ask our town manager, Mr. Chapelling, to also make one additional comment about the manner in which we'll be conducting the meeting tonight. Mr. Chapelling. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to mention for those participating tonight that we will be trying something different than the past, I believe, two board meetings. This is, I think, the third meeting that we've been using in the webinar format, which had been presenting with a limiting factor of not allowing participants' video to be shown when speaking. That was also being performed or that was also went in line with security mitigation that we put in place after the conservation commission had been zoom bombed several weeks ago with some very explicit and disturbing imagery being demonstrated on the screen. So tonight, what we're going to try to do is promote those in attendance who want to speak to panelists, the panelists' position temporarily so they can show their videos if they so choose. But I do want to mention that we do so, understanding that we're shifting the balance slightly towards a heightened risk. Where is that, or we're in that, if someone whose name we know wants to speak, the chair shall call on them. If someone's name we don't know wants to speak, the chair shall call on them and we can't predict what might come up on the screen. So I'm not saying that this is an unacceptable risk, but a risk that we should understand before doing it. Second, as a matter of equity, I know there's equity concerns on both sides of this coin, but I think it's important to mention that for those who are calling in or who don't have the technology at home to utilize video, they won't have that same access to show themselves on video as those participating do. So with that, though, I didn't want anybody to be surprised that when called upon tonight, we will promote them to panelists and if they so choose, their video will be enabled. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chapter Lane. And as we said, we're just going to, every week's different. And we're going to keep trying to make accommodations and see what works and what doesn't work. I apologize in advance for, but you don't know unless you try. So we're going to try. And my colleagues are also all in agreement with that. So with that, we will go to agenda item two, which is the third quarter report for 2020. Mr. Chapter Lane. So thank you, Madam Chair. What I'll do is I will test this for the first time. Should be a safe test. We'll ask Sandy Poole to come and address the board in regards to this third quarter report. Our deputy tail manager, Mr. Poole. I just got you posted. So here you go. Well, there he is. Hello. Sandy, should I also bring Eda in as a panelist for this as well? Yes, please. Okay. Nice beard, Sandy. Oh my God. I forgot to shave. Wow. Thanks. She should be coming in here. Let's see. We just lost Eda. Eda, do we have you? There she is. Okay. So our comptroller Eda Cody is also joining us. Our deputy tail manager, Mr. Poole. Yes. Hello. So I will cut to the chase right from the beginning and say that this report, which is through three quarters of the year through March, at that point showed that we are basically on track for both our spending and our revenue, which both of which is good news. I'll also say that Eda and I have looked at our revenue and spending through April. Even though all those numbers are not fully in at this point, most of them are, and they continue to be on track. The reality is that 77% of our revenue comes from in the general fund comes from taxes and those tax collections have been coming in steadily. The other revenue that we've gotten so far, including local receipts have also come in steadily through April. We've actually hit our budget target through March. We were just a little bit short of that. And State Aid has been coming in steadily unless there's a disruption to that by the end of the year, which the state so far has said they're not planning to disrupt distributions of State Aid in FY20. We expect that that will come in as originally projected. So overall, I think at least for FY20, we're in good shape. We have been talking to departments about their spending and trying to get them to clear up their encumbrances, their old purchase orders and so forth and get them off the books because if they're not really going to need to buy things by the end of this year, we're asking them to clear those off the books. That in the overall sense is the general fund. We have five enterprise funds, the Water and Sewer Fund and then the Enterprise Funds for Breckenrink as well as for the Council on Aging Transportation Fund and our Fund for Counseling Youth, known as the AYCC Fund. Those funds, most of them are doing well. There is a lag, we think, in revenue collection in Water and Sewer, but we also are looking very much at time to keep down our spending there. AYCC funding, they have expended 86% of their budget at this point of the year, but they're also collecting more revenue than they had originally been budgeted and so Ed and I both think that the AYCC fund will be in good shape. Council on Aging Transportation has only expended 53% of its budget mostly due to some vacancies there. They've collected 75% of their revenue and so we think that is in good shape. The one fund that really worries us is the Ed Burns Rink Fund. We think that there is a good chance that there will be a deficit in that fund. To deal with that so far, we have laid off the part-time workers who work keeping up the rink. The rink has been shut down since March both for mechanical issues and because we just couldn't operate it because of the quarantine restrictions. The temporary department head Bobby Jefferson has been working with Eda and with Julie Wayman in my office to look at their expenditures and try to keep them down and cancel out any purchase orders. Having said that, we do think that there is still a risk that there will be a deficit in that fund. It does not have much of a substantial fund balance so there may be the need to supplement that with either supplement it with general fund funds at the end of the year going through the finance committee or not transfer some things out of that fund that would usually transfer like health insurance. We're monitoring that closely and we'll come to decisions before the end of the year. Finally, the recreation fund has also seen a drop-off in its revenue drop-off in some of its expenses too. There is a fairly substantial fund balance in that enterprise fund so if the revenue does not meet expenses for the year and they end up with a deficit, that deficit can be covered by the fund balance in the recreation fund. Having said that, I would go back to the memo. There's a lot of detail in here about a lot of specific departments and their spending. Much of the explanation of that is consistent with what you've seen in previous reports so I don't think there are any real major changes. At this point, I think instead of going through it in a lot of detail, I would just stop at this point and ask if any members have any questions or if Ida wants to make any other comments. Yes, if I could call on our comptroller, Ms. Cody. Yes, can you hear me? Yes. Hello, everyone. Hi, Ida, is there anything you want to add to what I said? I think you've pretty much covered everything accurately. Well, that's a bonus. That's great. Thank you. Okay, with that, unless our town manager indicates otherwise, I'm going to call on Mr. Dunn. Thank you. You answered most of the questions I had. Does your dirty crystal ball say anything about 2021? Right now, we are doing a lot of forecasts and what ifs about 2021. The biggest question is what's going to happen with state aid. We are having a meeting with a revenue working group this week to speak with them in preparation for then calling a long-range planning committee meeting to inform members of that committee of what our findings are. We don't really have any inside information about what the state is going to do. They've been very tight-lipped about it. So that is a big question. The other question is about local receipts. I think that local receipts that are most in danger of falling short are our motel taxes and our mail tax because we expect there will be a continued period into FY21 when those things do not come in at their projections. So what to do about that for next year is part of the conversation that we're going to have among ourselves this week and then more publicly after that. I will say I think at this point the biggest question for us is not really what's going to happen in FY21. The biggest question is going to be how this will affect the next time we need an override. And right now our projections are with the numbers that were in the governor's budget, FY24 would be the budget year when we would need to have an override by. Some of the projections I've looked at internally moved that up to FY23. And a position that I personally think is unacceptable. I think what we're going to try to do is work to make sure we don't have to have an override earlier than FY24. But a lot of that depends on things that we don't know yet. So that's where we are. I hope that answers the question. Thank you. Mr. Kiro. Thank you very much. And thank you for all of this information. It has been so helpful since we've been getting these quarterly reports to just have a feel for where our fiscal position is. I just have one question and it's on the snow and ice, which we had a very light winter, but was showing 117.2% used. Is that because we typically just make that up on the back end? So I think that has to do with probably there are some incumbrances in there for buying things like salt that we didn't clear out as of the end of March. So I think that is probably a significant part of that number. And we'll see it aligned more closely to what we actually going to need by the end of the year. So through the chair. So if we do have some of that stockpiled, then presumably that'll be advantageous to next year. That's also true. Okay. Great. Thank you. Mr. Kiro. Thank you very much. Thank you for all the information. That was very helpful. Just one comment about the Ed Burns fund. Once we get to the end of the fiscal year and we can resolve that enterprise fund, just it'd be a good time. You know, we all, the user Inc hope come September, it'll be open and ready to go. But just to make sure we're planning and preparing for in the event, that's one fund that if this continues, will continue to not generate its revenue. So I just think it's something that we need to look forward to and keep in mind as we're going through the numbers here. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Ducorsi. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Mr. Pooler and Ms. Cody for the quarterly reports. They have been very helpful. And the question just for fiscal 21, one of the provisions in chapter 53 is that the town could adopt a one 12th budget if we're unable to adopt the budget for fiscal 21. And so much of the work you're doing hinges on having an idea of what state aid will be in fiscal 21. If you're not getting called guidance or an idea of what to use, is there a possibility that there could be a recommendation to go one 12th until we get a little bit more certainty or would you prefer to pass a budget and perhaps adjust during the year? Adam and I have not talked about the exact timing of that, but I would say it is my opinion that the extent that we are able to have a town meeting and pass a budget that we would do that. If by the time that comes up we don't have any information from the state about state aid, at that point I think it might be, at that point I would maybe recommend going with the one 12th budget. One 12th budget means that we have to go forward each month for the budget that is at least one 12th of the FY 20 budget and can be more. There are some things that we tend to pay for example the beginning of the year such as our pension allocation that I would recommend that we go forward and just pay into the pension funds right up front. It keeps us on track for pension funding and so forth. There are other things in the budget that we have adjusted and added made recommendations for additions this year. Some of those I think I would hold back on before if we didn't know enough about our state aid. That's all very general and will depend on what our state aid numbers are. We have been talking within the finance group with Ida, with Mike Mason from the school department, with Phyllis, Paul Tierney and other staff about what a one 12th budget would look like so we will be prepared to put that forward if necessary. I think again my preference would be to try to see if there it is possible to have a town meeting and go forward with a regular budget at that point. Thank you. Mr. Chapterling. Just to really second Sandy's remarks, I would certainly prefer if it's possible and responsible to adopt a full year's budget with the potential for coming back in the fall to make adjustments if there's more information that we're still waiting for. So let's say the state's budget does not come out before July 1st but we anticipate it coming out over the summer in September. We could adopt a budget with reasonable estimates and then clean it up in the fall. Alternatively really our approach wouldn't be entirely dissimilar if we adopted the one 12th budget. We would do it in the manner in which Sandy described but likely come back in the fall also to adopt a full year budget. So I think these are discussions we'll all be having over the next couple of weeks leading into June, leading up the town meeting and determining what the you know what's the best risk balance for the community given what we will know at the time. Thank you. I have I think two questions or one request and I love all the detail that's in here and continue to add to it and expand it and customize it. I was wondering if in the future we could on top of the Munis report maybe have sort of like a table of contents of where like one of the things and one of the questions I would ask you is I wanted to look up it seems as though everybody is building everywhere if I watch on Facebook and I'm just I was trying to find in here where I would go in terms of whether it's building department inspectional services and it's because of the way it comes out on my iPad it's almost impossible to zoom in enough and I did have the office printed out so I wasn't able to find that so if there's any way just for the 15 or 18 categories if you could just have like a cover sheet on the front that says you know on what page in the whatever amount of pages it says usually says but anyways if that's possible and then my my second question would be is it just me I would go to look to see if what I'm thinking is that a lot of people seem to be building and renovating which means they're probably pulling building permits what can you glean out of Munis or is it everything's projected the way we thought? So that's a very good question and it's been very interesting to see that in fact you're exactly right people are pulling building permits the inspections office has been open they have a little basket out front where people can drop things so they're not allowing people to come into the building but they have been able to process paperwork and quite a few people have taken out permits and that revenue it maybe it's consistent with what it's been over the last few years so I would say we have not been significantly hurt in any way from the lack of building permits that construction work does continue. Okay no okay so whatever for the next quarter report you don't necessarily have to do anything voluminous but even if you call and say you know you might want to look on page 27 of Munis because I just want to see how that trends if that's just sort of an initial thing if that's going to continue to rise and I only bring that out to the point when we get to whether it's the Ed Burns Arena or some other area in town or decisions around furloughs and layoffs in the future if that is something that continues to trend up as I would say that's a good thing for us to know because there's a lot of other things that unfortunately are trending down so I can't see the inside of my screen I can't I'm texting my husband somehow this calendar says start your calendar and I don't know how to shut it down so if anyone if anyone of my colleagues or the town manager sees that someone especially my board colleagues are raising their hand let me know and if not I don't think we need a motion for this do we oh no can move or see let's move received by mr. caro is there a second second seconded by mr. decorcy any further questions or comments if not an emotion by mr. caro seconded by mr. decorcy attorney heim roll call please mr. decorcy yes mr. herd yes the chikiro yes you're done yes miss mahan yes that's five oh unanimous vote and I want to thank miss cody and mr. pooler for once again really getting the gist and then some of what the board continues to request and expand upon and you do it so seamlessly but I know it's not so you know thank you both for all of your hard work and efforts it's appreciate okay we will now go to agenda item three request contractor drain layers license greener group llc out of rural mass um usually they're not here so i'm gonna still assume that's the case move approval subject to conditions that's uh motion by mr. dunn is there a second second seconded by mr. caro uh any further questions and comments if not an emotion by mr. dunn seconded by mr. caro attorney heim roll call please mr. decorcy yes mr. herd yes mr. caro yes mr. dunn yes miss mahan yes that's once again five zero vote agenda item three is closed we now will go to agenda item four um I have decided as chair um I did this at the very first meeting that we had zoom where we discussed uh town elections and moving forward um normally on individual agenda items you're either a member of the board or uh some of the town staff similar to any corporate um structure you know uh people sit around the table and if other people come in you know the data listen but having said that and hopefully this doesn't play out last time I did this um I do want to uh before I turn it over to the manager if there are individuals who have brief brief questions um or brief comments um constructively um I will uh take a list and entertain those but I want to be very cognizant mindful of the fact that um if we start to go down a road and this is totally my call um that um is really not appropriate and on topic I am going to ask the moderator to unmute that person and uh one of the moderators and we'll move on in the list because one of the things I'm trying to do better at on my job is um some people have communicated to me in person before March 12 but afterwards that um sometimes they find it difficult uh watching portions of the select board meeting and they can't watch it anymore and to that I apologize um we really want to work on that with everybody else uh because it really does pain me I don't want anyone to uh have those sentiments so um with that our town manager Mr. Chapter Lane is going to discuss um local elections plans and polling locations this has been a moving target if you spoke to me up until this morning there was one smaller version of polling places that um I would tell you that it was probably the way we were going to go but then attorney Heim has had conversations communications with the secretary state's office uh the town manager who's our liaison to the various town departments members of our select board office um our assistant town manager Jim Feeney that I'm going to leave people out this has been such a moving target and so many town employees have had to do in the middle of this pandemic basically with no policy procedure or guidelines on how to put a campaign in in the middle of the coronavirus and they've really done a great job so um with that I would like to turn it over to our town manager Mr. Chapter Lane. Thank you Madam Chair so I want to provide the board an update on a matter of the mailing of the post card that we've discussed I want to ask the board to consider and approve uh some slightly modified polling locations for the June 6th election and then give an update on the work that's still to be done so the matter of the post card which was discussed at last week's board meeting as well as during a listening session on last Wednesday evening um we have cleared up one of the items that was a major question at the listening session and that was whether or not the request for people to list their date of birth on the return post card was necessary we have cleared that up and we will be removing the date of birth line from the post card so that should allay the concerns of those who raised those concerns last Wednesday and we've also in cooperation with the health human services department who consulted with uh Arlington Eats and the council on aging in terms of the languages that they recommend we try to put on the post card simply saying important please translate based on the vulnerable populations they work with uh that speak languages other than English and those five languages again identified by Arlington Eats and the council on aging are Mandarin Spanish French Russian and Portuguese so we will be putting again the translation for important please translate on this post card for those five languages and in consultation with the clerk's office it's my understanding that we should be able to get this post card mailed later this week so by the end of this week that post card should go out and residents uh registered voters can expect to start seeing that post card hopefully by the end of this week if not early next week I do want to point out it was brought to my attention just before the meeting uh there was a campaign mailing that went out that has caused some consternation um in that it appears to be from the town and I just want to make clear that it was not from the town it was not this post card so you've not missed the post card if that's what you're looking for the post card will be going out later this week moving from the post card I want to talk about the polling locations so we're trying to balance uh having safe uh from a public health point of view polling locations while also being able to staff those polling locations given concerns about having uh having enough poll workers but also having too many people in one room if we had fully staffed polls so we're recommending to the board tonight a reduction down to eight polling locations primarily using the elementary schools uh but also using town hall and what I'd like to do is just read off what we're proposing in terms of polling locations and I'll go in um they're not in exact order but starting with one uh we have one three and five proposed for the Thompson school at 187 Everett street two four and six at the Hardy school which is located at 52 lake street seven eight and ten at town hall 730 massachusetts avenue precincts 9 and 11 at the bishop school located at 25 columbia road precincts 12 and 14 at the bracket school located at 66 eastern avenue precincts 13 and 15 at the stratton school located at 180 mounting avenue precincts 16 18 and 20 located at the down school uh at 185 Florence Ave and precincts 17 19 and 21 at the pier school located at 85 park av extension so statute requires that for any polling location changes the town send out a postcard an additional postcard the voters who have had their location changed so for all those changed under this new uh strategy that we're proposing tonight a postcard will be sent out and I believe that's managed by the select board staff uh in the upcoming weeks so that will be another another mailing going out by the town so again we uh firmly know we'll be mailing the postcard we're asking for board approval of these polling locations tonight and then in terms of the work we're going to do going forward we want to place and locate at least one possibly more drop boxes for the safe return of ballots for those who are not able to place a stamp and put the ballots to return to the town back in the mail we're going to work on further signage and outreach in different locations in town calling people's attention to the to the election and its date and how to get a ballot and we're also going to be continually working on how to make sure the polling places can be as safe as possible facilities is already ordering plexiglass shields to keep poll workers safe as well as voters safe and their interactions with poll workers but we'll be doing more work to make sure that we lay out the facilities as appropriate we'll also be working to identify enough poll workers for the day uh and if we go through the list of existing poll workers and need more I know I've talked about recruiting existing town employees and it's also been suggested to me that we could potentially look to college students who are home from school who might also be willing to be trained and work the polls so we'll be looking at all those options uh with that I think that's all I wanted to offer tonight but I'd be happy to answer any questions that the board might have okay and I'm going to start with my colleagues on the board um Mr. Dacorsi thank you madam chair and uh thank you mr. chapter lane for that update and um and and for the forum last week I did uh Cuma corner had moderated that forum on on the election and there were some questions that came out of that that you've uh addressed tonight namely on the postcard so so thank you for that and as as we sit all along we're we're trying to to get through this and um put this election together with the locations and with access to the ballot as best we can so from what it sounds like the three precincts that will be receiving postcards a precinct seven nine and 20 is that right if you if you voted a chestnut manor at the park have congregational church you'll be voting at a different location this time that is correct okay all right so so that's um that's good and then on the poll workers just a question madam chair um to the extent that we need poll workers do we need to appoint them at our next meeting or appoint them during one of our meetings before the election yes okay okay and then the last thing I want to say and this is a follow-up on on the postcard I know there's been a lot of discussion around town there's a lot of discussion at the forum last week and people concerned about just various concerns about the postcard and receiving it and sending it back and and I just want to point out if you're concerned about whether you're going to get the postcard or waiting or getting it back you can still complete the early ballot application or an absentee ballot application and send it back to the clerk's office either by email or by fax and I think there will be a location later as the manager said this is the the early ballot application is on the secretary state's website there's a link to it on the clerk's website it's a one pager but to the extent there are people out there that are going to be waiting for the postcard and they can print out the the ballot and email it back go right ahead and do it because that will that that won't title you to the to the early ballot and you know perhaps save some time in terms of that that turnaround later that's all I have thank you mr. de Corsi and before I call my colleague do we know or can we find out and we can discuss it tomorrow the next day I know we have a meeting scheduled a regular scheduled meeting for May 18th it sounds like we're going to have to do some outreach in terms of a poll workers and what is the very last day in May is it a week before the elections or two weeks because if that's the case we may have to may get 75 percent at that 18th meeting and if we get a few more after that we may have to have a special emergency meeting so we can discuss that tomorrow the next day going forward so with that mr. Hurd thank you and thank you Tom Andrew and everyone who's been working on this the I was viewed the election forum the other day and I think everything all the issues that were proposed have been addressed I think the main thing was the the postcard which I think is in good shape and again making it easy for our citizens to get the postcard back so thank you for your efforts on that on the locations you know I think this looks good you know I think everyone in head anticipated the chest that manner and elderly building couldn't house elections and then park have congregational has a lower voter turnout than other locations so I think this these locations make sense just some food for thought for because I know over the years voting locations has been a hot topic is that I participated in the poll in the election forum the other day and I was one of the five participants out of the 78 people pulled that said I was going to vote in person so it looks like we are going to have a lot of people who are doing the vote by mail that's not to say we don't have to be prepared at the locations and make sure that everything every is operating safely and safely for both the voters and the poll workers and then I just want to reiterate my comment last time I think one of the main safety features at the polling location is just to try to set it up so there's an entrance and an exit and people go through the location in a line so they're not people exiting aren't passing by the people that are entering so that's it thank you Mr. Carol thank you Madam Chair I think to Mr. Hurd's point you know I know that we as a town we can't really tell people whether to do that the mail-in vote or in-person voting somebody asked me my opinion though I'm going to advise you know take advantage of the mail-in voting and because we'd like to keep down numbers at the polls the forum was excellent I think we had what over a hundred people who were who were on um uh LinkedIn through Zoom and I know there would have been more watching my understanding is that the staffing profile is going to be reduced um at each of the polls correct ma'am chair uh so right now um we we've learned that we can have a a minimum of one person at a check-in wanted to check out so two checkers or two inspectors and we could have as many as one warden for up to uh five precincts obviously there's not going to be five precincts at the same location so we won't have that ratio um I've been talking with a few of the experienced wardens who would like to see one warden per precinct because of the important role that wardens play and uh I appreciate that and I and I think it's a worthy goal what I've said to them thus far is that we will try to do that but we want to make see see how many wardens are willing to say yes or potentially even clerks might say yes who would be promoted to warden so we are going to be going with a reduced profile the exact scope of that profile we're still working on okay and um I don't know madam chair if you know or if the manager knows you know where we're at with the recruitment how close are we to um to uh having what we need to to staff this number of polling places I so like I am not able to give you a fully informed answer tonight I've been talking to the select board staff and I know they've been making the phone calls the the general sense they've given me is that there's a pretty significant number of poll workers who are not not comfortable coming to work um so I don't have a count for you from them but I know they're working on it and I've told them that I'd like for this week to be the week we really focus on knowing where we stand in that regard okay thank you very much and madam chair through you just once more the manager I just want to acknowledge that this is not really in your job description to be handling the organization of of the elections but this is a really extraordinary time not only because of the pandemic but we have some other factors that make this an extraordinary time right now and so I just want to publicly thank you for all of the work that you put into it I have to admit that when we appointed you as the liaison in this task it actually slipped my mind that your first municipal position was actually running an elections operation so I already knew we had the right guy on it but but uh I was happy when I remembered that fact as well so thank you but I think we can probably all promise this isn't going to happen every year in every election because um that this is kind of an extraordinary assignment so thank you very much of course thank you thank you and um before I call Mr. Dunn as of Friday when the plan was when I was contacting with um Marika Pelker in the select board office we were going to have hoping to possibly have three uh voting locations which meant 47 to 49 employees we were all set for that so but obviously now it's gone from three back to eight so um so I know there's been at least 47 to 49 employees identified but that's not a third of what we need um Mr. Dunn uh at risk of repeating people before me um I'm really happy with the plan I'm really happy with the the choice of polling locations I think that the postcard is an excellent innovation to manage the accessibility issues created by uh the coronavirus and I also and I really appreciate the town manager stepping in and handling that innovation and uh I guess I'm gathering now that he's also picking up some of the stuff that might traditionally be more in the select board's office or the town clerk's office and um I really appreciate that he's doing that in this time of need and uh I agree that we shouldn't let's do it because it's gonna it's the right way to get done but let's not make it the precedent for for the future but that doesn't mean don't I'm gonna take it and I'm gonna say thank you because I really appreciate it thank you Mr. Dunn um besides everything that I've spoken to Mr. Chapter Lane and Attorney Heim well the past couple of weeks um something I'd like to put forth through the town manager you Mr. Chapter Lane is and I know there's some framework already in place for this but um in terms of um somebody may just be email contact with uh John Griffin and sort of provide a you know premier brief um discussion of what description of what we discussed here tonight so whatever way because he's been very good John Griffin over at the housing authority of keeping people out of that building and keeping our senior residents in their safe um it's it's amazing um I don't want to jinx if I say too many things so uh I was thinking uh I would leave it to our liaison Mr. Chapter Lane to reach out to or directs on to Mr. Griffin to Pam Hallett with the housing corps and then um sure this pot's already been done in terms of any proper uh information dissemination through um Christine Shaw counsel on aging and all all of that um and what I would say is me you know five dimes and ten nickels make a dollar if there's you know any postcards that well they shouldn't be left over so that won't happen because they're going to be sent to the registered voters but just so they can notify however they notify those populations to um this information here because I know a lot of them you know they still have the original flip a phone and you know sometimes don't even use that and there's nothing wrong with that um so what I will do now again I'm breaking uh I'm sorry I tell manager Mr. Chapter Lane sorry I just want to very quickly say I really appreciate um the board's expression of thanks but I do want to make clear um you know a total team effort uh Doug town council um if I've been the coach he's been the star quarterback the clerk's office Jim Feeney Christine Barnjono the select board office we've been working together a lot and it's really it's really actually been very gratifying working with all these folks working so hard to make this all happen so I wanted to make just make that clear that uh I I real I makes me feel good to get the thanks but I want to spread it around as well so thank you it's pretty little love okay um now uh if there's anyone who has brief questions or comments I'll give it like 30 seconds and and then ask for the list and just the same ground rules that we always operate by um in terms of posing your remarks and or questions okay Mr. Chapter Lane so there's um so for anybody who wants to say anything you could use the raise hand feature and right now Makaya Healy has her hand raised okay um I will call on Makaya and then I maybe I'll give it one more shot to see if anybody else um Miss Healy Miss Healy you should uh you should pop in any second here I've just promoted her to panelist hi there wow I can't believe I'm first um I have just what um one question about whether there's been conversation about whether hours will be reduced um for polling and and I just wanted to see if you could just clarify to make sure that they will be the regular hours because the least disruption to this process the better so um if we can keep that the same that would be great just if you can clarify that for for all of us um and then the other thing that I wanted to say is um I would just encourage um that we have more than one drop box um secure drop ballot place um maybe one in east Arlington in the center and the Heights just for people who get around um primarily by foot who don't have vehicles people who are in chronic pain like the easier um way to deposit those ballots the better that's all thank you thank you Makaya um Mr. Chapter Lane so I would say I know there there is no intention to change the hours that would be the normal visible election hours for the polling locations and we will uh we'll certainly look at uh multiple drop box I think it's a reasonable request and we'll we will take a look at it and what what decisions we make we'll we'll publicize as widely as possible thank you so much thank you um so anyone else that's waving or uh so I town council had his hand raised I'm not sure if that was intentional or not but Trani Hyme I just wanted to make sure consistent with um thank you Madam Chair I just want to make sure consistent with what we'd spoken about before uh we try to figure out some way of of letting folks who might be dialing in by phone to uh see if they have anything they want to offer in terms of public comment yes thank you attorney Hyme I forgot to um include that at the beginning and I should have yeah I do believe that if someone's on a phone line and they dial star nine uh it will show their hand is raised okay uh first and I'll check back one last time um I'd like to entertain a motion by one of my colleagues to vote the eight aforementioned polling locations for the June 6th 2020 election is there a motion to move approval so moved moved by Mr. Kiro is there a second second second by Mr. Hurd um anyone else um Mr. Chaplain that if not all there are no other hands raised at this time okay so um barring any questions or comments by my colleagues on a motion by Mr. Kiro seconded by Mr. Hurd attorney Hyme roll call please Mr. Corsi yes Mr. Hurd yes Mr. Kiro yes Mr. Dunn yes Mr. Hahn yes and that's a unanimous vote agenda item four is closed um Mr. Chaplain for agenda item five was at a time certain that um miss rate was going to join us should I take it now or move on and come back miss rate and um miss work or both with us uh so I can promote them to panelists when you're ready okay uh so we'll go right into agenda item five cdbg cv cares act funding plan discussion of invoke to support program year 45 plan amendment uh along with um town staff and our three citizens our three residents who are also on the cdbg committee myself and mr dunn are also um members who uh met for the cares act um cv as well as two other appropriations of funds mr dunn is there anything before I move into the heart of the matter nope okay and um I just wanted to say that um I want to thank miss rate and mrs ricko again you know in the middle of a pandemic crisis um you know pulling together a zoom meeting with I don't know how many of us something team uh as well as all the work they had to do beforehand to come up with funding suggestions and making sure things were appropriate and fell into categories that um could be applied to this as well as really being very flexible with the subcommittee uh when we had discussion about a few items and sort of tweaking them you know revising adding to um and again they got that right back to keep this on schedule so um I really do appreciate a lot of our town employees I think that we're working more than 40 hours a week and definitely more than five days a week but uh with that I'm going to start with you mr chaplain uh that that was a great introduction so I think I'll turn it right over to Jenny or if Jenny wants Erin to lead to describe uh the discussion that was had at the cdbg subcommittee and what's being proposed for the cares act funding great this is Jenny Radham the director of planning and community development for the town and can you hear me all right yes excellent thank you there are two matters that are before you in relation to this agenda item um I have provided you with the cdbg subcommittee meeting minutes the committee met on April 15th um and uh essentially the summary of that meeting led to the development of the and the refinement of the substantial amendment that's also before you tonight um I've also provided you with uh the cares act memo that came from HUD directly to Ms. Mahan which notes that we will we anticipate receiving uh $659,903 in addition to our regular allocation in community development block grant funds the town receives about a million dollars annually as well as some program income that we work to appropriate every single year this was obviously an expedited process really appreciate the time and energy of the the subcommittee who met to discuss this of course they met previously to review uh applications earlier this year as well as part of their regular schedule but this was an additional lift for them so I appreciated that um as well as the input that we received from a number of people in the community who had comments or questions or new ideas and suggestions for the use of the funding um there are two things that are related to this agenda item that I just want to make sure clear the first one is that we provided you with an amendment to the citizen participation plan which is the very last page of that document it's page seven to me but it might be different in different packets um which as language that allows for during an emergency we will uh be able to grant any waivers that provided to us by HUD um in this particular case there are actually a number of waivers that relate to the execution and implementation of the CARES funding including being able to spend more money on public services than we usually can um and then also in particular to the citizen participation plan allows for an expedited review process that we will then be able to um you know get the money sooner and get it to people in need as soon as possible which is what HUD is looking for us to do because we want to try to move the funding as quickly as possible in relationship to the pandemic which is the sole purpose of the funding and so with that that's that's part one so we do need to amend the plan the second part of course is what we are actually doing with the funding and the substantial amendment covers three categories and um at the end if you have questions that are more technical in nature Aaron's work oh the assistant director who's also serving as the interim community development program manager um can answer some of those more technical questions should anybody have them but the three parts of the funding would cover uh a substantial a significant amount of funding towards rental assistance um and the first part of the rental assistance program is that we we designed the program initially we thought that it would be for four thousand dollars per household the subcommittee chose to move that number to two thousand dollars which would enable us to serve more households we projected could serve at least 66 households um and it would cover at least two thousand dollars a month and be covered for a total number of three months for every single household to qualify and these would be low or moderate income households who would have to qualify for the program it would be it would not be administered by the town as in the department of planning and community development but it could be administered by housing corporation of Arlington or another agency that regularly provides funds in terms of rental assistance to eligible households so that's part one part two is a an emergency micro enterprise business assistance program this actually builds off of the program year the next program year's funding that we had already appropriated and allows for an addition of two hundred thousand dollars that would be available to a number of businesses um again we're we're projecting here but we think that it would at least cover 20 micro enterprises a micro enterprise in this case is a a business that employs five or fewer employees with the uh one of them has to be the owner of the business um and that they have to have the low mod income uh designation that has to be part of the the eligible activity for community development block grant funding so at least uh ten thousand dollars would be provided and again up to 20 micro enterprises the last part of the um the planned substantial amendment to allocate these funds would go to public service agencies only the difference would be that we would be covering public service agencies who are specifically working on issues related to the pandemic uh related to COVID-19 and so what we've suggested here is that it would be anything for housing basic needs or not but basic needs um other than housing including other household expenses food security mental health counseling um child care transportation and senior support um we estimate that we could support 400 low to mod income clients um and that's in addition to those that uh 1200 dollar now 1200 person number that's already anticipated in this program year um in terms of uh commentary on this particular particular item we receive some feedback about potentially providing support on uh technology support so that people can more um easily participate in um events have technology access to participate in meetings like this um we understand that the council on aging is potentially interested in pursuing such a program and we would also hope that potentially there will be um applicants who might serve children school-age children who also could more readily participate in school or town activities um electronically but that who do not currently have access to that technology so um so that's maybe an addition to that particular program we also received some feedback on the rental assistance program which is that potentially we might want to add some discretion to the program that if a household needs more than 2000 dollars per month it's at the discretion of the program to potentially fund more per month um and that does align with potentially some um average rents that are out there and uh we might want to I think in some that substantial amendment we are also reprogramming some money um which goes will go to rental assistance that's coming from uh the current FY19 program year um full of the comment period it actually closes uh in two days and um I'm glad to answer any questions thank you um just one uh point of clarification um it's my memory um and maybe it's it's not in the minutes so maybe I'm not recalling exactly but I know when we were talking especially around the 4000 going to 2000 allocation um and Mr. Dunn can refresh my memory if I'm correct or not but um I remember having conversation and I seem to remember um the citizen residents and I believe Mr. Dunn but I'll let him speak to himself that we didn't um indicate this would be low to moderate we just wanted it to be low income in terms of the uh renters relief but Mr. Dunn could you uh miss my memory faulty as in low only versus low to moderate yes because the point that I made was that um trying to reach as many people as possible people who are hurting the most um if if it was low to moderate um the people who are on the low end obviously paying lower rents the people who are in the moderate part um would automatically use up the 2000 and my rationale was if it was just offered for low income um I'm I'm confident would reach more people because I don't think you know if you're low income in terms of your socioeconomic status um I doubt um anybody's over $2000 and the vast majority are probably not even up to 2000 but um I thought I thought we were in agreement with that that this we would offer this just to low income um I do remember that line of conversation I remember being a lot more fixated on the four to two and I don't remember how that one turned out okay because I I know the citizen residents that's how I thought it would be put forward so I guess what I would say to my colleagues and does Mr. Chapter Lane also vote on this? Yes okay um everything that Ms. Raid has presented um I would agree with um it but I would just ask one of my colleagues if they feel so inclined um to uh for the uh up to $2000 a month program that that's offered to low income um renters only so um but we'll move for uh Mr. Chapter Lane Could I um could I suggest an approach that's similar to what Ms. Raid mentioned in terms of the giving the program administrators some flexibility that we start with a priority for those that are just low income but that if there are not sufficient applicants with those eligibility criteria that they be allowed to expand to those uh qualifying with moderate income? You know why I'll say why I don't want to do that and again I'll leave it to my colleagues and the town manager is um in trying to if it's low moderate um versus if it's just low if it's just low income um the the town planning department or whoever uh are going to have to sort of go it's not going to just be a blast you know go on the town website you've learned about this program which people who are in moderate and um higher incomes are used to probably checking once or twice a week I think the way the program in in an effort to reach more people who really need it and I don't even think we have close to enough in terms of people who fall in the low income category if um if it's just the them I think it will really guide sort of our outreach and um and sort of focus us on the mission of you know whether it's working with the food bank I mean I like to need food bank council on aging to get the message out to those people who are low income who may not be have the technology they may be savvy enough but they don't have it um my fear is having it low to moderate um it's going to get scooped up we're not going to reach who we want who's hurting the most right now okay so that's something to ponder so with that um unless um is right if there's or anything else I should you wanted to add I'm sorry just to be clear just clarified low moderate income in HUD world um low income is 50 percent of the area median income so for example that would be if you're a single person living by yourself you would not be able to earn you'd have to earn at or below forty one thousand five hundred dollars for your household um a two person household is forty seven thousand four hundred dollars three person fifty three thousand three hundred and fifty dollars but fifty percent is categorized as low income moderate income is eighty percent area median income and that is for example for one person household sixty two thousand four hundred fifty dollars two person seventy one thousand four hundred dollars so just just to give you um some of the benchmarks so if you uh wanted to be low income would you be saying 50 percent area median income is that just so I have the I I can put that into the amendment yes and now some people they may say boy you know nobody lives on that amount of money here in Allington uh yeah I just some of those amounts sounded pretty uh rich if you were considered in low income but anyways uh sorry project didn't be coming out um trying to change the order Mr. Currow yeah yeah just just thank you very much for the presentation I think it's so important that we get this this um assistance out right now um we're going to have a lot of challenges in town once once the cloud lifts um on this and there are a lot of the the cloud isn't going to lift for some time on on some of the populations we're trying to serve here just looking for some clarification Madam Chair what you're suggesting this is just for the tenant assistance program that you're you're you're uh talking about correct just just that that one okay the renters relief program whatever you want to call it yeah okay great thank you and um my question on the small business grant program 200 000 the uh goal outcome is 20 new lower moderate clients are you expecting that these are all going to be 10 000 grants or um are there some criteria that will be put forward to to determine the grant amount I think I know that goes for everything here no I think I know the answer but the person with the best knowledge would be Ms. Wright because the criteria would be set that it would be up to ten thousand dollars continued upon a review of the application and the needs uh the justification for how the funds will be used would anticipate that if we expended ten thousand dollars per business then obviously it would only serve 20 but I think that it might range and I think we might be able to reach more people potentially however there are probably many many of these smaller entities that are very much in need right now a big source of relief okay great thank you very much and my only other question is do we think that um I mean I think I've always been a fan of the homelessness prevention program HCA but do we think that that that the expenditure of those funds might be slightly delayed because of the um the the current moratorium on evictions Ms. Wright okay there are resources funding that could potentially go towards um which that organization and others might have access to so um I don't think that there will be a delay in getting the funding out okay okay great thank you thank you uh Mr. Hurd yeah it's just a question on the small business grant program are we required to limit two businesses with five less employees per HUD guidelines is that why that's on there Ms. Wright yes we are that's the death okay because I mean I think what comes to mind for Arlington and small businesses in need right now are restaurants which generally would have more than five employees so I mean it is what it is if we're limited and there's nothing we can do about it but the shame that I think some of those are some of the businesses that could benefit most from this so any follow-up Ms. Wright no I I understand that comment very well and I will just note that business is a broad category so it could also be organizations non-profits we'll be putting out those guidelines in the criteria Mr. Dacorsi thank you madam chair I did just a couple questions I first want to commend Ms. Werko for the Bruce Springsteen Clarence Clemens background behind her there I have a question on the tenant assistance program um you mentioned that that the it will be an outside program administrator what's the mechanism for how that would work in terms of how the the tenants are are selected and how the how the administrator is selected Ms. Wright actually um I'll let Erin take that address that question she's been working very hard on figuring out the mechanics of the program if you would please definitely Ms. Ms. Werko hi thank you it's uh my husband's poster but yes I appreciate that so in the though we would plan on doing a an emergency procurement to find an agency or agencies that would have the ability and the experience in providing this type of administration there are a number of those agencies that are in the greater Boston area that hopefully we can draw upon so as part of that procurement we would have specific requirements of that agency that they would have to meet in order to be considered for to be our administrator of the program so that that would be the means as to which we select the agency or agencies as part of that oversight as and part of our program design we would have the guidelines that the agency or agencies would have to follow that would include the eligibility requirements the how the money is dispersed these funds do not go to the tenant directly they actually get paid to the landlord directly we'd also have requirements on how to determine if there's a duplication of benefits which is a concern of HUDs at this time due to the amount of funding that is out there and available so we wouldn't this the staff in the department would maintain oversight over the program but relying really on the agency or agency to do the day-to-day assessment of applicants and following the guidelines that we've set forward I hope that answers the question it does thank you and I just want to thank both of you for all the work this year and on cdbg because in addition to the regular grant we have this reprogramming I think there may be one more amendment for prior year that may be before us shortly so thank you for all for all your work on that thank you mr decorcy and mr dunn thank you madam chair through you um jenny or erin uh if we go with the low income on the rental and we don't get sufficient applicants to expend the funds would we get a chance to modify the policy in the future and how would that work miss ray it would be best to have some flexibility with the policy now rather than have to amend the plan with HUD in the future which would have to go through an amendment process and review process so the I think the preference would be that we well we are able to put out the funding the way that we've already outlined and if there is funding that's still available I would suggest that we raise the the cap to 80% or perhaps 60% or some other number that might feel more comfortable to the board to allow us to be able to continue to utilize the funding my guess though is that we will actually see a number of people apply and then we won't have any problems yeah I guess I I didn't understand the answer if we choose to go with low and it isn't full we it isn't filled what what's the process and the timeline by which we would amend it we would have to go through this three post three posts and sorry madam chair is it yes miss ray I'm sorry we would have to go through the same amendment process which could could potentially be three three to four weeks of a review an amendment to the plan a public review a submission to HUD and an approval and then be able to put the funds back out again so we'd have to go through a plan and that has to be would be changing the policy and the design program thank you okay so but so a big picture really I'm very happy with the work that the group has done I mean I was part of it and I you know I was happy to participate and I think and I'm actually appreciate the assistance from the federal government I think that this is a money that we're going to be able to put to work pretty quickly on the very specific issue of the criteria for the rental assistance madam chair I understand what you're I understand the preference for low and I can go along with it but I would I I'm really hesitant to write something into the document now we'd have to go change I would rather write it as a preference and give leave the flexibility in with the administrator if necessary um if I could through your question Mr. Dunn I'm as miss ray did I just hear in your remarks that with just a low income designation that I don't know if you said you were confident or or some other word that there wouldn't be any money just left in that fund I may have misheard you know that is what I said I believe that we will have enough people apply you could also however in recognizing what Mr. Dunn is suggesting you could also say that there would be priority given to households that are earning at or below 50 percent of the air meeting income and then that would enable us to in the event that we do not have enough applicants in that pool be able to go to the next group of households at slightly higher incomes I do think that we will have okay and again I just would say to Mr. Dunn and my colleagues you know having lived in this world when you see something like this a lot of the times people who really need to reach get this money when there's a hurdle like low moderate sometimes things don't not all the times but sometimes things really don't work out the way I think a program might have been intended I think if we just keep it just on this and I know the three citizens agreed with this pot they felt very strongly about this also that make the 4,000 Mr. Dunn made the motion to 2,000 and that we keep this open to low income and if I could ask Ms. Ray am I am I correct in what I've been reading in terms of future federal stimulus fundings whether through CARES Act or something else that it's anticipated that we may be receiving in the short term additional monies whether through another CARES Act or federal stimulus are am I misreading the information that's coming out Ms. Ray it's very possible that Arlington will receive additional funds right and we discussed that at the subcommittee meeting and said that to the citizens that were there we kind of gave them heads up you know you may be coming back again sooner rather than later the select board members may change but the rest of the subcommittee would not and so to Mr. Dunn's point I would say that if we got to that point in our Ms. Ray statement that you know she's confident there's more than enough if this is just low income to me it's not even enough if we limit it to low income plus we have from everything that I'm reading coming out of the hill and Ms. Ray and Mr. Chaplin and others and Ms. Zorko I anticipate myself perhaps within the next two three months some similar funding to to what we're discussing right now so I would say to that if if what came out that Ms. Ray and the planning department said well you know all the money did go to low income but boy did we really have to you know go out and find the audience maybe that's something that could be addressed with the second round of funding but for all the reason I've stated I'd like to keep it low income programs that way it gives everybody a little extra including myself and members of the board to reach those residents or when they contact us and say you know what about me so I'll see how my colleagues feel on that so with that this is a public hearing right Jenny do I have to have not have to but am I supposed to have public comment on this it's not a public hearing but if you are of course welcome to received it is a comment period and so we will we are continuing to accept comments and writing by phone any other magnets okay let me just make sure if any of my colleagues Mr. Hurd did you have I was just going to add to what you said that where the number is this program will serve about 66 households correct Ms. Ray if I'm reading that and the numbers that we've seen for low income I'm confident that that will be filled by 66 low-income households in the town and I think it's an acceptable risk to make sure that those people get the assistance they need over the next tier of residents and you know we never we would never want a situation when these funds come in and don't get utilized but like I said I think that's an acceptable risk to make sure that the funds are going to those who most need them thank you Mr. Hurd and I just want to let everyone know the reason I'm trying to put everybody's name and or position when we recognize them is under the executive order there's language in there to do that for the meeting as well as anybody who is coming listening to this meeting by phone and is not using a laptop video computer as well as in terms of taking proper minutes sometimes voices we pretty much know each other's voices but every now and you don't know something you go from there so if I don't see anything else further from my colleagues the town manager I just it's not a public hearing but it is public comment is there anyone Mr. Chaptolin if there's anyone out there that wanted to have any brief remarks or questions about the CDBG CARES Act funding so I did see Mr. Dunn raise his hand but I also have a raised hand from a phone call participant so I don't know their name but I can't allow them to speak yes please let me know when they're on or if they should be able to speak now hi this is Makaya sorry I'm having internet problems I called in with my phone hi my question is I can't hear can you hear me that's okay um no I'm just say your full name just for the record sorry oh I'm so sorry my name is Makaya Healy I'm at Howard Street and my comment is um you know to underscore Diane's point I do think that it's important to prioritize our low-income residents as I think everybody is in agreement on because they're the ones that are hurting the most and they'll have the most they don't have a lot of cushions to fall back on so I appreciate that just the emphasis on needing to make sure that those residents get the most support as possible I think a piece of that has to do with Howard communicating and to whom we're communicating to I looked at some census information and it looks like we have 7500 residents that are renters I don't know how accurate that is that's from the US Census data and I know a bunch of renters are probably a part of the you know the AHA or the Housing Corp but I'm just wondering if that could be communicated that it doesn't have to be tonight obviously but just be just communicate how how we're getting the message out that these grants are available assuming that it'll go through the town website but just if other thoughts have been given to that I would love to hear what Jenny and Erin have been working on and thank you so much for all the work that you're doing on this I really appreciate it thank you you're welcome mom I know it's a public comment and Ms. Rait is the purveyor overseer of public comment I know you've heard Ms. Healy's remarks Makai's remarks is there anything you wanted to say briefly in response to that or yes absolutely thank you Ms. Mahan the the first thing I will just say is that yes there are approximately 7500 renters from the last based on more recent data that figure might be a little bit higher but 45% of those renter households are earning less than 80% of the early median income and 65% are actually spending more than 30% of monthly income on rent and so you know there is there is a great risk of potential displacement and so I do think focusing on lower incomes makes a great deal of sense in that regard in terms of getting the message out we are working on a fair housing action plan and have been in contact with numerous groups and committees and the commissions of the town that are part of that that will be part of that process as well as social service agencies housing providers etc so we have Erin really has a long list of agencies and entities and even individuals who can help us to spread the message and get the word out so that people are aware of this opportunity we also have had feedback about potentially sending these messages out in various languages I think we will definitely look into how we can do that or ensure that any subrecipient of funds can help to ensure that the message is received in any language as appropriate so that as many people can hear it of course we will take the usual town channels through social media town notices the website and our traditional email list but we do have other more specialized lists for other engagements that we are partying I'm open to other suggestions of course in terms of how to make sure as many people are aware of this possible and taking you up on that offer I don't know if it's allowed so I put it before Ms. Wright we do have a newly formed chapter and I have been promoting this to people and I'm surprised by how many people in Allington were aware of this particular group there's the ox chapter of RIM the registry of interfaith ministries and we just started a it's a program Sherry Barron is affiliated with it she gave me a lot of information on it it's the immigrant families here in Arlington it's called ARCS because it's AR for Arlington C for Cambridge Big C S for some of them I don't know if it's appropriate but if the planning department could look at I don't want to offer something that people can't take advantage of but these certainly are people that you know refugees refugees who left their country some fear of their life and you know they come over here and sometimes I heard stories they can't work for six months they have to wait and we just start this new chapter so if Ms. Wright if you could maybe reach out to that group the person who runs it I know lives on Egerton Road and I can't think of her name right now and I don't think it would be a large number of people here in Allington but that's definitely also a needy group so I'll leave that with you Ms. Wright thank you so I'm going to unless I hear anything else ask my colleagues to put forth a motion between to the board select board and town manager for the CDBG CARES Act plan amended and then three different allocations previously described and if anyone has any change to the language on the low income versus low moderate I'll leave that too who would like to make the motion who does I'm sorry Mr. Dunn oh I'm sorry Mr. Dunn I would like to move approval to the amendment as written in all regards with the exception of adjusting it to the rental program to be aimed at low income as opposed to low moderate is there a second Mr. Dunn's motion but Mr. Herd um just want to check with Ms. Wright and Mr. Chapter Lane if we're all set in accordance with this Ms. Wright just one other the plan the citizen participation plan amendment needs to be also moved okay uh do you need two separate votes or can we just do it on one fell swoop one is right specific to participation plan is different than the substantial plan amendment okay so two separate ones all right um any further comment on a motion by Mr. Dunn seconded by Mr. Herd uh motion that the select board and town manager need to approve attorney Heim roll call chapter lane yes Mr. DeCorsi yes Mr. Herd yes Mr. Kuro yes Mr. Dunn yes Ms. Mahon yes that's a unanimous vote regarding the um funding recommendation from CDBG as amended by Mr. Dunn regarding the CARES Act um allocation and we now will take it I'll entertain a second motion regarding uh approval and establishment of the citizen participation facet uh is there a motion Mr. Dunn move approval of the modification of the emergency and other situation for the citizen participation plan motion by Mr. Dunn is there a second it's not second by Mr. Kuro and then I heard Mr. Herd true but trying to move it around a little um is there any question or comments by my colleagues um uh seeing Ms. Wright and Mr. Chaplain it looks like we're set for a vote so uh vote by the select board and the town manager roll call please attorney Heim Mr. Chaplain yes Mr. DeCorsi yes Mr. Herd yes Mr. Kuro yes Mr. Dunn yes Ms. Mahon yes that is a 6-0 vote agenda item five is closed we will now go to agenda item six for approval creation of an Arlington economic development recovery task force uh Mr. Chaplain our town manager so I'm going to uh did Ms. Orco adieu and replace her with Ms. Carter from the planning and community development office so let me just uh do that all right so Allie should be joining here shortly um so this was an idea that was brought forth by Allie and Jenny and it's a model that I believe after something that Mayor Driscoll and Salem has put together in the past week or so and you know it doesn't it's not exactly modeled the way we normally ask the board to put together committees normally we would put together a structure ask you to approve it and then go recruit candidates given that time is of the essence businesses are struggling and are very interested in what a reopening and recovery plan looks like we've put before you a recommended slate of applicants but are also open to others joining if they expressed interest uh as well I don't think this is meant to be an inclusive not exclusive process so with that I would ask uh with the board's indulgence if Jenny or Allie wanted to add anything but I think this is a good uh smart thing we can do to try to help our local business community um Ms. Wright presentation just uh very enthusiastic about the opportunity to both look at the short term and the long term and I think that the the focus on recovery is very important and may endure well into the future um so there's some immediate issues but then of course this will be a long term um focus for the town for at least up to another 18 months and um there may be you may be seeing some program suggestions policy changes um things that will help to assist in that recovery and I'm hopeful that that's what can come out of these dialogues as well as anything else that will assist businesses in our region to be able to operate thank you and if I could I could call on Ms. Carter and just ask her to say her full name and her job title just for the record sure my name is Allison Carter uh I'm the economic development coordinator for the town usually hear me as Allie but full name Allie the person I've probably thrown three ideas that I've read about state grants federal grants and I'm so excited and they just came out that morning and um 0 for 3 because every time I've emailed Adam he's emails right back oh yes Allie just finished the application it's out and she's put in for that grant whether it's through the attorney general whether it's through the state website and but I'm going to keep trying I'm going to try to find one that you're not already on top of but I'm 0 for 3 and I don't like to lose but uh back to you Ms. Carter please do I love getting suggestions and I don't want to miss anything um I just want to say uh thank you for entertaining this and having us here tonight and just that um this is really an opportunity for us to give the business owners a seat at the table we need to have their input to do this effectively um and so I um I've heard so much from so many of them things that I never would have thought of um so their input is just invaluable these are things we can't come up with just sitting at our desks or home offices as it were so thank you so much happy to answer any questions with Jenny if you have any okay um and I did hear from only one of my colleagues on the board who also is a small business owner I would classify that person as I can say he because it's all men but um beyond that first I'll ask questions and um if um if I should make an appointment tonight for the select board so they can um proceed on or if people want to get back to me um we'll see how that goes but we do have um Mr. Herd who has contacted me and indicated to be willing to volunteer and with that I will start with Mr. Herd no let me start with Mr. I'll go ahead Mr. Herd go ahead sorry no no comments I think other than I think this is an excellent idea and thank you for Allie and the whole staff for putting it together and I know there's a lot of business owners that are struggling right now and a lot of people kick it around ideas and to have a nice think tank for everyone to come together and figure what we need to do to move past this I think will be really beneficial for the town and like I said I want to throw out my hand and push anyone out but you know as a small business owner and someone that's in town you know a week I would love to be the board representative on the committee thank you Mr. Herd Mr. DeCorsi thank you Madam Chair um and thank you Ms. Carter and Ms. Raid for for the memo and the reference to Salem too I did go on their website and that's that's an impressive task force that they've created um out there and and hopefully with the the number of people you have here there can be ideas generated and and things that you know we may not be thinking on the government level but uh that can be done within the community and I like them so thank you for your efforts thank you um Mr. Dunn happy to support this great idea Mr. Kiro thank you very much I think you have a great cross section here of height center east Arlington as well as a good mix of our business community our non-profit sector cultural sectors so we're all going to have to work together on this this recovery um we all know that the small businesses are suffering and struggling and I don't know if you can answer this through you Madam Chair if Ms. Carter can say are are you specifically aware of of businesses that are on the edge right now um in the face of the crisis Ms. Carter I think we all sense that they are but but yes um unfortunately there's a wide spectrum of responses and states that people are in and some people really um are already reckoning that this that this is the end but it's you know I don't know if since I've spoken to them they've gotten CARES Act support or something else came through um so it's also their news to share when they're ready to do so um but it it really is a dire situation for many of our local business owners right now I appreciate your um maintaining that list of resources not just local but state and federal I've I've referred a couple of people to you I know um already in the past couple of weeks so thank you your job is more important than ever it was already pretty down important okay um I think I've probably already said all my my remarks so with that I will take a motion from one of my colleagues to approve the creation of the Allington Economic Development Recovery Task Force in that um we appoint Mr. Herd as the uh selectman representative to that committee um and then some of us are correct a little different motion is there a motion to that effect so moved by Mr. Carroll is there a second second second by Mr. DeCorsi any further questions and comments if not on a motion by Mr. Carroll seconded by Mr. DeCorsi roll call vote please attorney Heim Mr. DeCorsi yes Mr. Herd yes Mr. Carroll yes Mr. Dunn yes Ms. Mahan yes and that is a unanimous vote and thank you once again to Ms. Wright um Ms. Cotter Ms. Zwerko um who really I know I've said it a couple times but um I can't tell you how many you know town employees that are working remotely um and if anyone wants to know what that means um they're definitely putting in supposed to be 37 and a half but um putting in anywhere from 50 to 60 hours a week and I'm always so pleased and a little bit angry when I sent out an email and off hours on the weekends and you guys respond to me within the hour so um even though you really technically on the clock as they say so appreciate all your efforts um and with that agenda item six is closed we now will have a warrant article hearing article 51 revolving funds attorney Heim thank you madam chair um this is your typical revolving funds article um I believe the deputy town manager provided a list of the revolving fund balances uh along with the projected needs and there Mr. Pooler is right on cue okay um if I could I think I'm here from attorney Heim to now call on our deputy town manager Mr. Pooler sandy here muted hello everybody nice to see you again hello if you could just say your name just for the record this is my name sandy pooler I'm the deputy town manager and uh what you have in front of you is our three documents a uh one called warrant article text which is the text of the warrant article there is a second article this paper called mem to sb from town council uh it's an explanation of what uh attorney Heim just said and then finally the article language that I provided which is article 51 revolving funds doc uh which is the language with the amounts for each of the different revolving funds put forward to town meeting um I will just say in summary um all of these amounts are the same as they have been in previous years in terms of their authorization with two exceptions one is that we increase the um authorization for the town hall rentals fund uh up to 175 thousand dollars um that is because um christine banjerno requested that we do this she currently has an existing revolving fund uh for woodmore robins uh that they use for various events that happen there um but as it turns out that that fund in and of itself does not pay all of those costs that they sometimes have used the town hall fund for paying for things that happen um in mutual areas between the two and at budget time she requested and we approved the idea that we would move toward um basically creating one fund uh in order to pay for all those activities and that would be the town hall fund um in researching it further as we were preparing this I think it's become apparent we're going to have to come back in the fall for for the new article to amend the language for that revolving fund to expand the town hall fund to include some of its other purposes but um at this point until we can do that we would request that you approve the larger amount for the town hall fund the other one is the fund for um council on aging program which has increased to a hundred thousand dollars again this is at the request of christine banjerno feeling that um she thinks once we have um council on aging senior center up and running there'll be more programs there and she wanted the flexibility to be able to run a larger revolving fund um I can go through any of the other funds that people have questions about but they are the same as they've been from previous years the final thing that I would note is I did send to the um select board office in the files I sent along with these documents the the document that eda kodi prepared that goes at the end of the select board um report showing what the expenditures in broken down into major areas for all these funds have been for the previous year so you do have that as part of what you can include in your report to town meeting with that madam chair I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you mr pooler mr dunne uh I move we recommend no action on the uh on the article excuse me I wow I'm gonna recommend approval all right I zoned out and I flipped my I flipped out my other head scared that you know what out of me the form of finance committee members shut down revolving funds oh god I was in the back of my head I was thinking about how we done no action on everything and how we had a consent agenda and just like that was running through the back of my head and the wrong words popped out of my mouth I second your second motion but not the first mr dunne move approval on article 51 um with the uh amendments to increase town hall rentals fund to 175 000 and the council on aging program to 100 000 I think that was what mr pooler yes put before us uh this is a warrant article hearing uh if there's anyone who uh from the public who wants to speak on this uh wave your hand or use the what is that is it the star nine mr chapter lane star nine feature in your phone yes okay and I'll just wait a couple seconds I do see mr curill has his hand raised as well okay um so I will turn to mr curill thank you very much madam chair I don't usually dig into this this one too too uh deeply but I wonder if we if um mr through you madam chair if mr pooler could um just briefly uh summarize there there are few funds here that have had no activity on them and um I just wonder if you could just give a quick rundown on on on those ones thank you mr pooler um so as mr curill points out there are some funds that have had a lot of activity and some funds that really haven't done anything um so just going down I guess I'll just go quickly to the whole list here I can do it fast the first board is for private repairs uh private repairs um $200,000 we did about um we took in money last year but didn't do any work there same thing for public way repairs so this really has to do with when um dpw can get around to actually doing getting this board contracted and they come in to come in spurts um box community uh central rentals uh there was no activity there um and it's I think it's been the same balance as it was from last year but be honest I don't know why they what they're doing over here at the fox library I know there have been a lot of changes in the last couple of years that I think has led to this fund not being in use uh robins house we already talked about conservation commission uh does have activities so I'm gonna skip that uh the uncle sam fees that has had no activity um again last year I don't think it did either um and I'm sorry madam chair to to uh mr pooler before you go to the others yeah yes on this one I vaguely remember a painful discussion at town meeting about this one year where I think I think this one was discussed for longer than the whole school budget um I don't recall what the revenue source is for this revolving fund this is for cleaning the statue right that I don't know off the top of my head I can go into let me see just a minute that's mr pooler who's hopefully getting us if he can the information I've got a list here of the the ordinance these can be uh grants and it just says grants and fees received by the uncle sam committee okay that's enough yeah defines it yeah okay thank you to carol you know I think he's indicating he's all set with that oh with that with that one I think there was just one more with no activity I'm sorry gibbs has no expenditures and cemetery has nothing so oh the cemetery chapel uh rentals um just looking at the these are rental fees associated with the rental of the cemetery chapel actually I'm gonna have to ask the town manager if you know what the situation there is because I just don't mr chaplain sure so this was established I have to say five six maybe even seven years ago um actually at the request of a former board member with the hope that we'd be able to get a rental program up and running for those who might use like to use the cemetery chapel for events much like the town hall and the woodmore robin's house and other venues in town are used for rental to my to my knowledge there's never really been much success in utilizing it as a rental and I think that's because there's still somewhat significant renovations that would have to go into the chapel to make it an attractive venue so that that was I'm positive of that being the impetus for the creation whether or not there's a way to breathe life breathe new life into that idea we could take a further look at thank you mr curel the only thing I would say is that um you know I'm not inclined to move an amendment to the to this right now but um you know we come up on next year we're at a decade with with no activity I just have to put the question out there about what whether or not we shouldn't be looking at cleaning up some of these revolving funds and maybe consider winding them down if they they really don't aren't serving the purpose that we thought that they originally would serve that's all no that's a good point whether it's uh in september or next spring um I'll leave it to others to decide you know what the time course on that would be but I but I agree on most points okay um on a motion by mr dunn seconded by mr curel to move approval on article 51 and to increase town hall rentals fund to 170 175 000 the council on aging program increased to 100 000 and any further questions and comments by my colleagues seeing none attorney heim roll call please mr decorsi yes mr herd yes mr curel yes mr dunn yes mr mahan yes that's a unanimous vote article 51 and martt article hearings are closed we now go to then the item eight correspondents received we um this is uh comments from beth maloff check regarding cdvg hud funds um I asked this to um come in the normal course of business um when we receive requests and the like um from residents so that's why it's on there is our motion to move receipt by moved mr herd is there a second by second is that mr curel sorry I still can't see the right side of my it's keep saying and what is it start set up your calendars I don't know if you won't let me close it um any further questions and comments move received by mr herd seconded by mr curel attorney heim roll call please I'm sorry madam chair may I yeah oh yes attorney heim is mr dunn still with us oh I don't I can't see the right hand side but he used to be right in the middle under me right there right he's not there madam chair if I may yes attorney heim uh ashley if you're uh I believe you're on the call if you can please note that looks like mr dunn has changed over to call him uh I see him on the call and listener as an attendee but he's not on the location we should note that the time is 9 13 so noted at 9 13 p.m um mr dunn um left the meeting left the video portion of the meeting and now is he back at 9 14 he returned faster faster than a speeding whatever okay so mr dunn you're back you can see and hear us all now I can yes thank you thank you okay um on a motion to move receipt by mr herd I don't know where I wrote a second by security for the questions and comments if not attorney heim roll call please mr decorsi yes mr herd yes jacquero yes mr dunn yes this mahan yes okay we now move to new business uh virtually to my left attorney heim none of business madam chair thank you thank you so much uh uh town manager mr chaplain thank you madam chair just very briefly um town's leadership team continues to meet daily in brief on our response to the pandemic so we continue to work locally on our response and as the board knows from the creation of the task force tonight we're actively talking about what recovery and reopening will look like in the days and weeks to come I continue to talk to my colleagues regionally as well as as a as a group of local leaders talk to various state officials so that we're having as much of a dialogue as possible about what the state is thinking in terms of reopening and recovery but we'll continue our plan to send out updates every day the board of health will be meeting Wednesday to consider whether or not it wants to take further measures in regards to face coverings above and beyond the governor's the governor's order which will go into effect on Wednesday and again we'll continue to plan and respond accordingly as the days and weeks go forward so just wanted to provide that brief update thank you thank you mr chaplain and also um as myself and my colleagues are aware that um there was a community conversation um around uh face mask face coverings face shield as well as possible exemptions for both children and adults in terms of medical um disabilities uh developmentally developmental disabilities and others and I had various people one was lauren lauren bellen who's an ollington resident and um she had reached out uh to the town manager and then through the town manager with christine banjourno and thinking that she was going to have to maybe educate and make a case in point for the small group of individuals um where uh face covering maybe a shield is appropriate but a mask isn't and in some cases nothing at all and she wanted me as well as everybody on facebook that had to be 60 70 comments um that were impressed and grateful that our town management and um town officials are already aware of this small group of individuals and um certainly take that into account so I another another reason love ollington because we know who our residents are um with that mr decorsi thank you madam chair i just briefly i just want to um we talked about our last meeting the the ollington covet 19 relief fund um started last week it is now accepting donations and and uh tomorrow is giving tuesday um and i want to just commend the town the town manager christine banjourno the ollington health and human services charitable corporation for for starting this and it's at www.ahsscc.org if you go on the town website you'll see it that's for donations but I also know that there will be information going out for people who are going to be in need of these funds and and so um as the funds are accumulated I I know the word will get out and we want to reach out and and help our neighbors and and help people in need and and tonight you heard earlier we we voted cdbg funds to help for tenant assistance this covet 19 relief fund is actually a charitable organization to help neighbors and maybe down the road locally there may be an opportunity to even dedicate some cpa funds to to people are in need so we're we're all working together through this if you can help through a donation great if you need services or need help um this fund is going to be there so I just want to point that out and thank every the individuals who put that together and thank you mr decorcy you've taken off one of my new business um I'm basically an email contact with um a little over half a dozen all single mom with children households who are you know when I read their stories I've offered to try to give them money myself directly and then they won't take it but there's certainly a need out there and um I know the manager and um christine bargera our health and human services director are close to um wrapping up you know an application application process but the big thing was to get enough money into this account so that um we didn't set anybody up for false hopes um we want to make sure when we put it out there that we can help but it seems like I've heard a lot of people speak about this fund um and people have contacted me individually have pledged donation so thank you mr decorcy any new any further new business no madam chair okay who's to my left now mr dunn uh thank you madam chair I actually do have something tonight it's a fairly serious one actually uh I sent out an email this weekend to the Arlington list and do a few other places about uh tone and message in the time of corona and uh what I was basically the and I'm gonna resist reading the entire thing here and it occurs to me I should post it on my blog blog at dan dunn.org and I'll do that after the meeting is over but the short version is that uh we've as select board members and as town have received both directly and we also see get cc done messages that are sent to town employees that have rhetoric and accusations that's really asymmetric way over the top with what the actual problem is and you know goat ranges from being compared to the pollock bureau to uh that to his um accusations the terrible is that we're trying to exclude people on the base of race or gender and uh I what my encouraged people what I remind people of in my letter is the the pain and the cost of that when we're when uh you know we have town employees and volunteers who are working really hard to keep the town safe and and happy and prosperous that you're also kind of fighting a rearguard action about people who are making some really terrible accusations about you that just have like they have no bearing with reality and no bearing uh with with the truth um and I and I spent a long time thinking about that and I also thought about realized that I was seeing it also at work in our customer service organization we for weeks like we've been having really good business uh since uh for for us you know this everybody at home for you know stay at home company is a really good thing for us actually and uh in the beginning everyone was really happy and it was all very positive and then we just noticed a couple weeks ago that a small segment of people were really unhappy and it is pretty clear to me that it's uh the stress and toll of what we're all going through you know there's a lot of fear there's a lot of uncertainty and there's a lot of stuff that's turned on its head and I think for a lot of people that um fear and unknown is coming out in the form of these really ugly messages and so I encourage people in my letter to be more thoughtful about how they write and to observe this in other people and when you see it to be the change you want to see and to maintain that positive attitude so um I apologize for the length of my new business I think I generally take a pass on it and so hopefully I've saved up a few weeks worth of words that I could use tonight. Thank you Mr. Dunn. Mr. Kiro. I am going to doubly apologize for the length to my colleagues um because it's interesting um you know it's a little discordant because I think this has been a great meeting I think we had great discussions as a board we had great discussions with professional staff we had very productive um public comment uh on the meeting but but the residents only see like one the lens of of these meetings and don't necessarily see the whole picture what's going on and I've actually I think I think all of us have been a little concerned with some of what we've seen um and I actually spent a lot of time thinking about it too and and putting my thoughts down and writing and I'm gonna I'm gonna ask the board for for indulgence for me to to uh read some of my thoughts on this um so every year town meeting members raised their hands and pledged they'll treat each other treat others with mutual respect and will conduct themselves in a civil manner that's becoming an elected town meeting member so disappointing that even as we witness countless acts of kindness in the face of crisis we've also seen a disturbing erosion of civility in our town's public discourse often involving current town meeting members or individuals who seek to serve in their capacity it has also become a sport among some to see who can launch the most inflammatory verbal assaults on members of the board and most disturbingly on our hardworking professional staff some of this has taken place on camera in response to a value engineering decision of the arlington high school building committee one town meeting member lodged an ad hominem attack on the town manager describing this project which is overwhelmingly supported by voters she referred to it as chapter lanes big dig and I thank my colleague mr dunn for calling foul on that behavior at that time in response to the chair's efforts to maintain a well-ordered meeting something that every town meeting members should understand and value we were called dictatorial off-camera members of the board have been called undemocratic and authoritarian both cases by town meeting members are town meeting candidates at one of our last meetings before the COVID-19 crisis heated up we witnessed shouted profanity and verbal attacks against two of our most respected police officers when attendees disagreed with the decision of the board raised voices have become more prevalent than at any time since I was elected to the board eight years ago a few months ago members of this board took time off their day jobs engage in racial equity and inclusion training organized by the town manager and his leadership team this is a direct response to resident suggestions attending members of the public were invited to participate fully in this board training despite this at the end of the four-hour session we were shouted at for not doing enough and supposedly shutting out the very people we'd welcome to engage in the day's program and to break bread with us now two incidents over the past week one of which must have done the reference are particularly offensive in one case the board was compared to the Soviet Politburo because images of attendees do not display during virtual meetings or they do tonight but you know a technical configuration issue with zoom and the lack of speaker images was compared to the historical disenfranchisement of women and people of color this is disgusting distortion and insult to those who suffered and labored to make gains in the face of real struggles for civil rights furthermore as someone who spent a considerable amount of time in the USSR and devoted two years of his life assisting refugees escaping Soviet oppression I'm completely outraged by the comparison to that regime if this board and the town manager were truly devoted to stifling voices of descent as some would have us believe we would not be appointing those same voices to positions of public responsibility on town commissions something we've done several times over the past months the second incident a member of the public and town meeting candidate referred to the process of planning for a municipal election in this challenging time as a sham and accused the town of imposing a poll tax that despite the fact that this town election will be the most publicized local election with the most public input into its planning and the most options for safe voting in the recent history of Arlington at our direction the town managers have been working overtime with the clerk board staff town council acting facilities director health and human services department and vision Arlington League of Women voters election modernization committee and others to pull off a very complicated logistical feat more than 100 people participated in last week's public forum on the election and provided very valuable input let's be clear it is very dangerous to plant the seeds of doubt around the legitimacy of a free and fair election we've seen that movie before and it doesn't end well so what are the consequences for the current decline in civility the starters dedicated volunteers have chosen to step back from town committees as their public service has been debased they've taken time back time for family and other personal professional pursuits others will follow and I fear that if this trend continues unabated we'll encounter difficulties recruiting and retaining talented professional staff all five of us have been duly elected by the voters of Arlington through our system of representative democracy we're motivated by desire to serve our neighbors and we all take seriously the privilege we are given to make decisions on behalf of those same neighbors we do so based on our best informed judgment not in response to loudest or most demanding voices not everyone will agree with every decision but everyone is free to voice alternate views and everyone is free to run for office and vote for new representatives if they're unsatisfied with the town's current leadership indeed many are availing themselves of those opportunities all of that is just fine and as it should be what is not fine is to express our disagreements through insults profanity hyperbole false equivalencies or name calling as people who have declared love for Arlington I have to think we're all better than this to be sure this is not a problem that is unique to Arlington our national dialogue is plagued by contentiousness as nastiness and that this year's massachusetts municipal association annual meeting panel discussions on the topic of civility through standing room only audiences i'm asking all people of goodwill to help us hit the reset button and re-establish social norms that restore the balance to our civic polity tonight was a really good meeting so god help us maybe returning the corner I once again ask Arlington residents to be what our friend Elaine Shea would call up standards and I suggest to my colleagues that after the new board is seated in June it might be worth a more in-depth discussion about any measures we can take to foster a more positive environment that discourages bad behavior I brought back a number of ideas from the MMA that I'm happy to share which might form the basis for such a discussion lastly I refer to the tagline that our chair Ms. Mahan has used in her frequent email updates to the community during the difficult days of the COVID-19 pandemic when Arlington faces adversity we come together and find a way through it let's take care of each other thank you and I apologize for the length thank you mr carol um on that I'll take a motion to adjourn by anybody want to seconded by mr herd uh no John didn't get his new business I don't think oh you didn't do you know business oh my gosh I'm sorry mr herd mr herd I'm sorry well the preface to my new business was gonna be I don't that's a tough act to follow but um no I I won't go into details but I will say that I did read Dan's note yesterday and it was very well written and well said and I certainly agree with everything that Joe just said and just to follow up on something that Joe noted on is you know we yeah we deal on a daily basis in the past few years with so much misinformation and falsehoods at the federal government level and on both sides and you know surely we can do better at the local level to have real discussions about the issues that are impacting us on a daily basis and then again just to thank the town manager town council and all of our town department heads and town staff that have been working so hard to both manage the daily business of the town to keep the town running and during this crazy time to keep us safe and to deal with the you know the elections that and I keep them accessible to people and they're doing an amazing job we have nothing but kudos and I know my board members agree with that so that's it thank you and I apologize mr herd somehow jumped over your seat to the I almost just let it go that's okay um I now will take a motion to adjourn by move adjourn mr dunn seconded by second mr herd um an emotion to adjourn mr dunn seconded by mr herd roll call vote please uh even before I do that the next select board meeting is May 18th regularly scheduled um roll call vote please attorney I'm on the motion to adjourn this is the Corsi yes mr herd yes mr curill yes mr dunn yes mr hawn yes we are adjourned god bless everyone good night everybody