Reader
Browse passages, annotate evidence, and export with full provenance for citation.
I move favorable action and that the town vote pursuant to Mass General Laws chapter 41 section 1 be to make the elected office of treasurer an appointed office such office to be appointed by the select board for a term not to exceed three years provided however that such change shall not take effect unless approved by the voters at the 2020 annual town election and further that any incumbent holding office at the time of acceptance will serve out the remainder of the elected term second we have a presentation approval of article 21 will move the position of town treasurer from elected to appointed town treasurer is a highly skilled position that executes many complicated legal requirements but does not make public policy it is closely regulated and audited while sherburn's population has not grown significantly technologists technologies financial options and state mandates have increased exponentially and continue to do so performing the duties of treasurer has become increasingly complex our our town is no longer well served by a structure from a simpler time here are some reasons why we should change first candidates for elected office in Sherbourne must be Sherbourne residents up to now call of town moving to an appointed treasurer will cast the widest possible net for qualified applicants adding non-residents and campaign shy residents to the pool second appointment will promote the best practices of hiring verification of qualifications vetting of references and thorough interviews third appointment will allow closer monitoring of job performance we do have a process for removing elected financial officials who have demonstrated serious failures but the process does not address lesser deficiencies appointment will allow job performance to be evaluated by a supervisor at shorter intervals and if there is a problem appropriate action remediation or removal can be taken immediately no need to wait for the next election fourth appointment will facilitate succession planning currently a non-resident assistant is trained at servant's expense but is ineligible to step into the treasurer's position should it become vacant a non-resident assistant seeking advancement has no choice but to go to another town taking along our training in institutional knowledge and fifth of will coalesce the finance department under the leadership of the finance director to allow for more effective establishment of departmental goals based on overall town needs and priorities there are some concerns we've heard first the treasurer should be independent from other officials this arises from concern that an appointed official might be asked to do something unethical by a supervising official and should have the freedom to refuse protected by having been elected such abuse of power is unfortunately possible in all organizations and should more properly be addressed by HR reporting rather than by election second sherburn residents care more about the job we believe that good employees take pride in their work ethic and honest character wherever they are employed several of our staff assistants are not Sherbourne residents but from our experience they care very much about their jobs and serving the people of Sherbourne residency is no substitute for good hiring practices at the same time appointment does not prevent the best applicant from being a shared resident third we've already been down this road we did it several time meetings to feed a motion to combine treasurer and collector and to make the new position appointed the single issue of moving treasurer from elected to appointed has been considered twice once losing by five votes so why did we bring it up again the short answer is good ideas don't die when our committee began its work in 2018 we reviewed listened and deep dived into similar towns looking for best practices that can help sherbert move forward in continuous improvement appointment of the treasure still emerges as a best practice seven of the ten smallest Middlesex towns have appointed treasures or treasure collectors Collins Geor and strategic Banamine management all advised moving to appointment I'm really getting Brian sherburn is a small town trying to strike a balance between adapting to modern needs and retaining the best of traditional character we must maximize efficiency and effectiveness of the first in order to keep the second change is always challenging but when there are sound reasons to change refusing to do so chokes innovation and stops improvement dead in its tracks our current town treasurer was appointed to fill an unexpired term all indications say she's doing a fine job and she does not oppose this article our recommendation of article 21 is based on what is best for the town and not intended to reflect on any individual we urge you to support article 21 thank you we have a presentation in opposition to this article as well Nancy Nanci heads excuse me 64 south me nancy has 64 South Main Street and your collector please do not give up your right to a lecture of financial officers I was asked if I would support this article if the collectors position was not included in this year's warrant this is not about me or about Heidi and it's not about the people on the select board is about the structure that will serve the town the best through the years regardless of the people in place the Independence of the elected officers as another layer of checks and balances especially necessary in a small town operation and the personal commitment of the elected officer to the community has been of great value to us through the years no matter how you couch it this article is about consolidation of power and with it the repositioning of authority the appointing authority becomes the office Authority even though that appointing authority is itself an elected board that has no requirement of knowledge of municipal finance or the laws that govern it your financial officers should remain elected first long as we have residents who will step up and assume that responsibility it is a huge responsibility both on a municipal level and a personal level a bond of over $1000 a hundred thousand dollars is on the heads of both these officers when that responsibilities should go the authority to act according to the very specific state statues your financial officer should remain independent of the day-to-day politic and personal agendas that can compromise the integrity of the office after 30 years in Town Hall I can say unequivocally that had I been appointed I would not have survived the politic and I certainly would not have been comfortable to stand before you now to oppose all of my esteemed colleagues on any of these articles there are already multiple labor layers of oversight you authorize what we spend and borrow the Select board has to sign off on any outgoing money through the warrant process and sign off on any authorization to borrow they have a significant amount of oversight then we answer to the Department of Revenue the rating agencies the annual outside auditor and the inside otter who is your finance director slash town accountant and who works directly for the select board she does ongoing reconciliations of they counts in both the tax office and the treasurer's office to make sure we are on track with those appropriations the select board already has the authority to a point should a vacancy occur out of the normal election cycle a provision you adopted last year to remove or to censure these officers for not doing their job for doing their job poorly or doing their jobs dishonestly is a protection also initiated at the select board level and Accenture is a pretty strong negative job evaluation the treasurer's job has always been complex but the complexities change ongoing education is necessary whether you're new or seasoned and there will always be a learning curve whether newly appointed or newly elected the only thing about the collector or treasurer's job that cannot be taught is work ethic and honesty the electric has been very good at vetting that for us and the MCT a mask collectors treasurer's association is a terrific network of all kinds of john job-related support to help even the seasoned navigate the waters there is no great pool of applicants across the state the grain workforce has alarmed the Department of Revenue the mass municipal Association and the mass collectors and treasures Association and steps are being taken to encourage the next generation of candidates our last two financial appointees the accountants last finance director Sharon and treasurer Heidi did not come from the municipal world but are proving rapidly they are up to the task and an asset to the town the prior accountant finance director appointee did come from an immiscible world with a pedigree a mile long a pocketful of non-disclosure agreements and brought us to the brink of disaster in less than a year there are no guarantees appointed or elected but with the brain trust we have in our own town hopefully there will always be someone willing and able to step up and serve in the two elected positions so we can maintain the independence and integrity of the offices and if they're doing a good job we have always shown appreciation by reelecting them that risk should not deter anyone from considering the job history confirms that as far as upper mobility is concerned if we treat people right to fair working conditions fair compensation respect and appreciation for what they do we will get a fair return I have had my assistant for over 17 years and only once did she consider another job another assistant job they'll fully qualified to be a collector and it was all about compensation she also serves as the assistant treasurer she knows that she's an integral part of any transition plan to support a new collector upon my departure and will be there she receives fair compensation and support please finish up Nancy this is about keeping the integrity the independence the responsibility and the authority in these jobs and how they can endure the test of time with changing players and continue to serve you best and it is about you being able to have a say in that keep your right to vote and say no to this article once again please I'll now open debate yes mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Morrill that we need to have the ability to hire the best for an important job like the treasurer we feel that as it's been brought up the finance director that we had before had she not been appointed or in a position like that that would have been much harder to remove her as soon as we did so I think this gives the town flexibility for a position that's very important is there any other question comment okay I have several here but Robert Robert Johnson - seven - Western Avenue I'm in favor of keeping what we have I think it's important to have checks and balances whether on the national level the state level or the town level I think that's really important I think the Collins report has a problem where they have one recommendation that fits all towns regardless of what the input is from the different towns their recommendations are always the same and one size does not necessarily fit all so let's keep our checks and balances thank you I'll take the rear Don cross Shaw 198 Western Avenue I support keeping the election of the town treasurer who would be answerable to the voters of the town and not to the few people or person who would appoint him or her George George Morgan 41 Bear Hill Road as voters we would like to believe that when we actually achieve a majority vote on a matter of sound business that the matter voted upon will then rest to that majority vote such is not the case with article 21 an article that has appeared on at least two previous warrants and that on each occasion has been voted down by a majority of the voters at those town meetings once again this article asks us to surrender our right to citizens to elect our town treasurer once again no claim is made that there is that any abuse of the office no claim of any inability of the office to competitive competently perform the requirements of the office reasons that have been advanced for this article are speculative and not based on any current evidence including imagined future complexity of the job beyond what the elected treasurer could handle imagined future need for frequent oversight of treasurer's job performance imagined future need for increased accountability of the treasurer to be to a supervisor a further reason advanced for this article absence of candidates for the office this is not a reason for altering the position from an elected position to an appointed position has already been demonstrated in the case of our current treasurer that under such circumstances the Select Board may appoint someone to the position doing so does not require that the position thereafter cease to be a position for which the treasurer may be elected the sponsors this article cite state that their purpose for the article 21 is efficient workflow resident satisfaction with the treasurer and functioning job structure at present the work of the treasurer's office is flowing efficiently residents are satisfied with the performance of the treasurer the job structure continues to function without any demonstrated need to change it George your two minutes are up so finish up please okay all right to reelect the position particularly in a town of our size where government does not need to be the size of those in larger towns is a concept that informs how we as a country govern ourselves and as such is not the right that we are obligated to surrender to local interests thank you George thank you are there is there any yes thank you madam moderator Greg Kenan 1:29 Hollis Street I urge you to support this warrant article and amendment to the town bylaws I have the greatest respect for town collector Nancy Hess but to be clear this article does not affect her office the person whose office is affected has not spoken against and to my understanding does not oppose this article the most frequent argument we've heard is that we need checks and balances and that sounds very noble and as a general proposition it's true but let's drill into that a little bit more what's never been articulated is what has to be checked and what has to be balanced the treasurer position is a very highly regulated position it's audited and it's subject to all kinds of safeguards so what checks and balances will be added to that by electing I suggest that there are really are none this is not a big town small town issue many other small towns in Middlesex County and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts appoint their treasurer's the town of Holly in Franklin County has a population of 331 they appoint their treasurer there's nothing about Sherbourne that makes it different from these other towns who have seen the wisdom of appointing their treasurer and what I think is very telling is that the Department of Revenue which is the state agency charged with overseeing the financial integrity of towns recommends that the treasurer be appointed so let's listen to the recommendation of these experts and learn from the experiences and other towns let's vote to approve this article the Select board favors it and the advisory committee favors it as well thank you there any further comment okay then I will close debate are we set to go yeah okay and I would ask you to please vote now [Music] motion passes 115 to 70 article 22 established quarterly tax payment system this is a majority article madam moderator yes mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Aronian I move favorable action and that the town vote to accept the provisions of Massachusetts general law chapter 59 section 57 C for the purpose of establishing a quarterly tax payment system for the fiscal year beginning July 1 2020 and continuing thereafter second we have a presentation article 22 will change the town from a semi-annual to a quarterly property tax billing system the town's fiscal year begins July 1 when a disproportionate number of bills come due but under the current semi-annual system that is precisely the time when available cash is lowest because the first tax payment is not due until November 1st a lesser cash shortage occurs in early spring because the second tax payment is not due until May first quarterly tax billing will address these annual cycles of cash shortages by smoothing cash flow throughout the year with approximately one quarter of revenue due three months earlier in the fall and one quarter of revenue due three months earlier in late winter smoother cash flow will reduce the need to budget the cost of short-term external borrowing and the town can also benefit from six-month additional interest income smoother cash flow will also reduce reliance on the stopgap measure of borrowing from reserve funds to cover operating expenses in a quarterly tax system the first two bills due August 1st in November first our estimated amounts the second two bills due February 1st in May first are adjusted once the tax rate has been set under a current semi-annual system the Assessors feel pressure to set the tax rate as early as possible so that November bills can be mailed early and with luck paid early to help relieve the summer fall cash crunch quarterly billing will give the Assessors more time to complete their work and ensure its accuracy because the tax rate need not be set until the third bill an owners total property tax bill for the fiscal year will be the same whether quarterly or semi-annually is used now what will quarterly tax billing mean for property owners more than half of residents indicated in our online survey that their property taxes are paid by their mortgage lenders from escrow accounts for them nothing will be different but importantly the town rather than the mortgage lender will benefit from any interest earned for those who pay directly to the town we believe the tax rate reduction from reduced short-term borrowing costs and potential interest income for the town will help offset the investment income an individual tax payer would forego by earlier payments and third seasonal income earners such as farmers have expressed concern about aligning their income stream with quarterly billing our article intentionally delays the start date of quarterly billing one year out to fiscal year 2021 so that seasonal income earners can plan well in advance commercial billing services have advised us that the most cost-effective way to handle quarterly property tax billing is to make two mailings each with two bills in one envelope the extra expense of quarterly billing is essentially one the cost of printing but not mailing additional bills and two the cost of processing additional payments using data provided by the collector's office we estimate that the additional expense of quarterly property tax phil's is 587 dollars per year contrast that with the $7000 which we annually budget and taps for short-term borrowing and the six months additional interest income that could be earned by the town we believe that quarterly tax villag is clearly cost-effective yes there will be some confusion and lost bills in the beginning but these problems can be mitigated by robust public information campaign quarterly tax billing is recommended by the mass do our colleges Institute and municipal management services all of the ten smallest Vilsack's County towns except Sherbourne our quarterly property tax bill errs 114 of the 170 Massachusetts towns with populations under 10,000 bill quarterly and eighty-five percent of all messages it's Townsville quarterly it's a smart solution to a serious recurring problem one advisory member commented at the advisory hearing it's overdue we agree and we urge you to support article 22 thank you I believe we have a presentation in opposition I'm a glutton for punishment deja deja vu all over again this is still aprox a solution to a problem for which we have not yet passed the litmus test we have not had to do excessive borrowing to meet our obligations as backup we have always had a borrowing ready just in case but quarterly billing is not going to eliminate having to budget funds for borrowing we have had a few inch anxious moments but serious conversations with advisory the accountant finance director and the finance team has made us all recognize that free cash is neither free nor cash and a few gentle Corrections to its use should set us back on track to a little less angst in anticipation of those first tax payments we have not forfeited any interest for lack of funds to meet payment deadlines that are for big savings we have not had to send out our tax bills late delaying cash flow on the contrary we usually get them out early and big those who can to pay them a few weeks early to jumpstart the cash flow our tax payers have stepped up every year asking taxpayers to send their cheques a few weeks early it's different than requiring everyone to send them three months early even if it only lets half the tax payers keep their money to get their own interest any interest the town would gain would not move the needle on the individual tax bill because of amazing cooperation between advisory the finance departments the town clerk the Select board and you the taxpayers we have been able to have the kind of money management that allows us to function successfully on a semi-annual system and maintain a triple-a bond rating especially unique for a small town anyone falls down on their part of that process and we may have to rethink but this is a drastic step even the DOR in their later reports acknowledge that going to Quarterly's may not be as economical for the smaller towns different towns have gone to quarterly billing for different reasons we should not go because everybody else is doing it I'd followed up with one of the town's studied and learned that they use the same vendor for their accounting and collection systems as we do but besides taxes only collect for the water department we have centralized collections as recommended by the do are rare in small communities and only added three hours per week of clerical help to do so this has gotten proceeds out of departments desk drawers and to the treasurer in a timely fashion we collect funds for burn permits Fire Department inspection building department gas plumbing wiring dog licenses boat farmer permits pawn stickers council on aging programs recreation programs swim lessons conservation fees to the tune of over $600,000 last year that's a lot of 10 20 75 and $100 transactions if you think adding close to two thousand more transactions twice year passing through this office is not going to have an impact you are sadly mistaken these are all funds that must be processed accounted for and reconciled the first bill whether one or two parts is male late June for an August first due date Sherman vacates for vacation a bill mailed to an address where people are away is returned to us to remail the second if not included in the first gets mailed at the end of September for November first but as both bills are based on the prior year's tax is not really half and does not return as much money to the coffers as an actual bill this itself may have unintended consequences the third bail bill is mailed between Christmas and New Year's again Sherman vacates this also may have the fourth payment slip included again if people are away another mailing is required it is supposed to be an actual tax bill with the actual tax rate and any increase from the prior year but since so many cities and towns have gone to court early as of DOR has difficulty getting everyone's to reset by the deadline so pushes for towns to start the process earlier and earlier the third quarter is due by February 1st at the same time we are doing close to 5,000 excise tax bills and the first pond transfer station stickers burn permits dog licenses and lifetime learning registrations quarterly billing will increase costs the town and there is no going back once you invest in that necessary in computer programs educating the public excetera going back will not be reasonable just as going forward before it's absolutely necessary is not reasonable please vote no thank you is there any further comment questions yes tomorrow the Select board voted unanimously to support changing to quarterly tax bills we feel it's time that we smooth our cash flow this last year the only reason we avoided a short-term bond was because so we it just doesn't make any sense especially since over 50% of the town the mortgage companies just holding that money anyway we should have that sooner in the early part of the fiscal year getting a first tax bill in August is really gonna help the finance office and smoothing our cash flow in the town Karen Lane 15 Meadowbrook Road urban I don't have a dog in this fight because we pay our taxes or our mortgage however by one we do not know the impact yet of the tax bill on on people in cherven in the change in the property tax law in our federal income taxes we all have taxes higher than $10,000 a year I am concerned that you are going to be billing people when they have to pay their federal income taxes and I'm also concerned that you're going to be billing people at the time when they are good and be getting bonuses from the year previously and they do not know what their income is and the other thing is the grain of this town how is this going to affect the elderly citizens of this town who are on fixed incomes who no longer have mortgages but have huge tax bills and now they have to budget to pay their bill four times a year as well as dealing the with the impact of the federal women's change that has decimated the states that have high property taxes like ourselves so I would say vote no on this bill this year because we don't know what the ramifications of the of the federal income tax changes are on the incomes of the people with Serban thank you we have more comments here Robert Robert Johnson 272 Western Avenue there are approximately 2000 bills that go out that's more than the 1700 households because some households get more than one and sometimes there are other types of bills than just the real estate bill that goes out I doubt that the tax office can process 2,000 bills twice a year for under $600 I think that's a gross underestimate of the cost and I think that in addition to that feature if you send out two bills at the same time I'm confident that the first bill will probably get paid by the majority of people on time but that second bill that gets put in the drawer how many people are going to remember that three months later and if they don't what's going to happen well there's going to be more work for the tax office for them to send out you haven't paid your bill and in addition because you didn't pay your bill now you're gonna have to pay more so we're going to end up paying more money each of us individually and it's going to be even more work for the tax office so I think that there's a significant increase in cost here I don't think $600 comes anywhere near the true cost Thank You up back there sir maybe 17 Abbey Road I'd like to ask to move the question so I'm moving the question there is excuse me I need a second first of all right no debate on this question and we need a two-thirds vote to move the question so we are not voting now on the question itself we are voting on moving the question it means that okay if we move the question that cuts off debate no one else will be able to comment on the main motion which is the question at hand and what on whether to move to quarterly tax payments or not so the the thing that we're going to vote on now and I'm asking the the techies down front here to see if they can put a slide together quickly for us okay because it is a two-thirds vote so when when I ask you to vote you are voting on whether we are moving the question which means that I will go directly to voting on this question with no more opportunity for debate the question has been moved and this must be considered please vote now hang on all right so wait okay we are voting on moving the question okay if motion fails as this would not be a two-thirds majority so debate may continue I would support very strongly what Robert just told you but I want to add a little something else to that in the write-up about the quarterly tax billing it says it would reduce the Assessors workload I was in the assessor's office for over 30 years so I think I know a little bit about what goes on there and it would not it would make more work for the Assessors I also have talked to a gal who is doing quarterly billing and she isn't he had Assessor in another town and she agrees with me it would be considerably more work because the Assessor has to prepare lists twice instead of once and it wouldn't reduce their work that would not give them any more time to do their work after it's in place also if you recall some of you will back when quarterly billing first came about Ruth Johnson and Pete Hoagland did a very thorough job looking into it particularly from the interest income we heard that the town would have more income coming into the town earlier and they'd be making quite a bit of money now the interest rates back then when they did this research was considerably higher than the interest rate today which is almost nothing so it's not going to save the town money it's gonna cost the town money because you're doing more work thank you Thank You Jean any other further debate oh yes we have Thank You Madame Otto ready to Greg Kenan 129 Hollow Street and I just wanted to respond very briefly to a couple of the things with that we have heard here I do support this amendment I think it's well past due and it's something that we ought to vote just keep in mind this will not affect overall tax bills the tax you will pay over the course of the year will not change it will just change the timing of two of the payments we heard statements about the town asking residents voluntarily to pay their bills early so that the town has enough to cover its expenses is that a good fiscal practice to rely on voluntary early payments just so the town can pay its bills I respectfully suggest it is not and let's talk about the benefits here the town and its set forth in the advisory committee report the town potentially will benefit to the tune of $100,000 from moving to quarterly Billy let's do a back-of-the-envelope calculation seven million dollars will be collected three months earlier twice during the year seven million dollars at a three percent interest rate is $210,000 a quarter of that for three months it's fifty odd thousand dollars twice a year is a hundred thousand dollars so potentially a hundred thousand dollars in interest savings that the bank and mortgage company now gets will flow to the benefit of the town this is not really a question this is something that should be approved the select board and the advisory committee both favorite the Department of Revenue same Department of Revenue that is charged with overseeing good fiscal management on the part of towns recommends quarterly billing let's vote support this thank you further comment I just wanted to respond to Robert Johnson's comment that he thought that the estimate of the additional cost was a gross grossly low number as I said in our remarks we actually worked with data that we got from the collector's office we got a price for what the additional forms would be we even added in the cost of using additional toner we looked at the the estimated how many particularly bills could be processed in a minute and we received two different answers and we actually went for the middle we averaged it and we asked the question well who is it that processes these these bills we were told that all the people in the department do so we actually took the per hour wage that is paid in the department which goes from and we have two year old data that we're looking at but forty dollars and forty-five cents an hour it's the high for the collector and the part permanent part-timer is down at twenty to sixty five we average that out so we use that as the per hourly cost of this and that is really the genesis of where we got that number we have some comments of that it's Bill Seymour 25 Saddle Brook Road and chairman of the board of Assessors the Assessors discussed this and voted to hold a neutral position and are happy to work with whatever outcome thank you another comment part is favela 32 Maple Street with all three strikes with respect to my friend Craig Kenan and others i strenuously disagree it's hard hard for us to pay our taxes most of us who live here and having to go to this pay schedule is harder in fact it's not just no big deal to have to pay four times a year instead of two times here it is a big deal and I believe I know some people that choose to have their more their taxes rolled into their mortgages to make sure they're paid as a matter of fact you know who wouldn't rather have that interest in your own pocket so I think it will make it harder on the taxpayer as well as the debate about whether or not it's going to cost more money to process these bills on the returns and so on and so forth thank you if you can wait everybody first computer unless you wish to Peter black 55 Maple Street I'm anytime someone tells me that there's a free lunch I get suspicious I know it's gonna cost me money to pay my tax bill four times a year instead of twice and I don't have a mortgage but if I did it would cost my mortgage company money and you know they're in it for a profit so they'll find another way to get that they're not gonna pay the town a hundred thousand dollars a year and say oh this is so nice it's gonna cost us money this is a tax raise so I think if you're honest about it and say it's gonna cost something we can go forward well can you say we get a hundred thousand dollars and it costs you nothing that's not true I'm gonna vote against this Nancy I just wanted to comment on the analysis of the cost in my office I was asked how many seconds it takes to enter a bill into the computer that doesn't take into the consideration what do we have to do as far as getting that bill in front of the computer there's more to it than than that and also the idea that you're going to have seven million dollars sitting in the bank to gather interest my understanding is that seven million dollars is going to pay bill sooner rather than later and therefore won't be sitting in the bank gathering all that interest so again I urge you to vote no on this article is there any other comment or debate okay so are we set to go with the voting side okay then I would ask you to please vote now okay can we can we get the numbers here please all right motion passes 95 to 93 article 23 amend the general bylaws with respect to illicit discharges madam moderator yes I move favorable or action and if the town vote to amend as people are leaving would you please leave quietly thank you very much I move favorable action and that the town vote to amend chapter 25 of the general bylaws comprehensive stormwater management by inserting a provision addressing illicit discharges to the stormwater management system with text to be inserted shown in bold underlined and text to be deleted shall shown and strikethrough type as set forth in the handout entitled 2019 spring annual Town Meeting article 23 illicit discharges provided that April 23rd 2019 annual town would people please be quiet thank you second right I believe that Eric Johnson from the Select board has a few words to say about this thank you madam water here yes like board voted unanimously to approve this bylaw change it really is its Genesis is the the EPA permit that was issued this last July they had the unprecedented essentially of regulating the water quality of the stormwater it goes through the town stormwater system it's called the National pollutant discharge elimination system yeah originally was used to regulate wastewater treatment plants and factories and now it's regulating serving stormwater so it's kind of a big deal at the genesis of this at the heart of this bylaw change it regulates new development has greater criteria it regulates illicit discharges and regulates kind of on how how we enforce that it is an important bylaw it protects our waterways and which is the heart of all of our drinking water as well as our recreation as well I think the Planning Board had some specific presentation on it oh the one thing I want to add is that the what you see here is some bylaw changes has been a handout I had to be tweaked a little bit to make sure it was compliant with the with EPA permit I think maybe John can talk a little more about that John higly is going to make a presentation on this now hello John Hickey 14 Center Brook Road chairman of the Planning Board you won't get a handout or most of you've got a handout that's a that shows the edits to what appears in the printed town warrant so rather than go through that whole thing we have a few slides to just point out the changes between what's printed in the town warrant and the the final that's being voted on so as mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Johnson just said this amends our general bylaw for comprehensive stormwater management by adding illicit discharge if that is now required it was passed in 2016 and it becomes effective and I think it's July of 2018 so this is our first chance to vote it and add it into our current general bylaw so that's what we're doing here just bringing us bringing our current bylaw up to date as soon as we can which is tonight so the first change is that date it's effective what appears in the tongue in the warrant that the change in the handout is July 1st 2018 that's on page 23 the second is just a typo thing and we've just passed a tonight a an article that would allow that allows making typos type of Corrections but on page 23 and 24 section four point one the the lettering of these items was incorrect and this corrects it so now it reads a B C and D so that's just a typo correction from what's in your printed warrant the the next one is on page 25 which is section 5.3 stormwater management handbook and the addition is it also references and NPDES permits and also that the Planning Board will utilize the provisions of M s for general permit and other NPDES permits so the reason this is the the Planning Board's role in this is if somebody's got a development that part of the criteria for deciding to issue a permit or not is that they have to follow the rules of the stormwater management so and our current bylaw says that we can look at the stormwater management handbook as a reference for what that criteria is so we we want as mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Johnson stated we want to update that so that it also includes NPDES and ms4 and MPTs is that is the the federal ms4 is one of those is it as part of that so we want to be able to reference the best right now the in book may lag in terms of the criteria and the and what's required in stormwater management and so this language allows us to reference ms4 and MBP MPTs so that we're current and comply with our own urban zone and ms4 permit and then the last I think it for the last one is on page 25 we're just adding the name of cm and D and then as we've already voted tonight that will then go back and we change the DPW next but right now we're just voting on this correction so this is the last on page 26 the language and the handout states this and and this is language that just says that it's the illicit discharge language that we need to have in in our article it was left out in the handout version in the in the town warrant article version its corrected here in the handout so this is language that's required by the MS for permanent so that's it any thank you is there comment or by the way this language is in your handout are you in line Mike yeah okay Michael Lee 28 Wildwood Drive is the intent of this bylaw change to make it illegal to have a pool filter that is back washed and we discharged that back wash out to your property I know that's just be a regular ground discharge this one i regulate if you discharge it's like a catch basin in front of your house in the street that is that that is actually the town's ms4 system it's actually the catch basin system and the pipes in the catch basins and so on so how do we know when we're discharging that it's not gonna lead to one of those spots just discharging to your lawn it won't it will not make it to the catch basin you'd be fine Darryl Darryl Beardsley 54 Forest Street and ironically I also have a cool comment under 4.3 a it says for things that are strictly prohibited dechlorinated swimming pool discharges somewhat implies that chlorinated would be okay which actually from an environmental standpoint would be more problematic so I was just wondering whether us either there's a specific reason for that or a simplification to just swimming pool discharges would be appropriate does anyone have the answer to Darrell's question yeah I mean really B covers everything a was called out he is a because some places do allow D chlorinated swimming pools to be to be discharged it was this basic call thought you almost don't need a with B and look at these says any discharges you know Leslie put into the street so I think that would be covered under there is there any further comment questions Susie yes isn't Allen Western Avenue I'm just wondering do we still have quorum yes we have actually made a count okay because I'd like to have a question up there well we hit one if we're still here okay so majority vote on this and we're set to go here okay so I would ask you to vote now on this question motion passes 142 to 7 article 24 amend the zoning bylaws with respect to accessory apartments and this would be a two-thirds vote Madame moderator whoever that was mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
gallant ah no thank you I move favorable action and met the town vote to amend section 3.2 subsection 2 of the zoning bylaws with insertion shown and bold underlined and deletions shown and stripe to type as printed in article 24 of the warrant except that the following shall not be added to the end of subsection a7 quote such special permit shall automatically terminate upon the sale transfer or other change in ownership of the property of which such unit forms a part second daddy may do have a presentation I think you do adding a weight when Jackson remember at the Planning Board we the Planning Board had voted unanimously to support this article and and we are we accept the change in language recommended by Advisory the purpose of the article this year is to simply clarify a few things that to bring it back in line with the intent of the accessory apartment bylaw it's fairly straightforward to town supported this last year as you can see the language changes are fairly minor simply just removing something that caused more confusion than was intended removing the word existing and removing the date that was applied to bring it back in line with the original intent of allowing for a more naturally affordable housing throughout our town and to provide an opportunity for seniors to age in place providing opportunities potentially for for families that are divorced for both families to live continue to live in town there's a number of reasons that this is a good thing and we're not and as again I've said town supported this last year we're not changing any of that we're just clarifying some language items Thank You anime yes my the Board of Selectmen unanimously supports this this is a great way to have another as pulpit before another tool in the toolbox to get affordable housing into the town of Sherbourne and buy affordable there I mean a diversity of housing stock that would be suitable for people who work in town perhaps and other people who right now don't have good a cup to have accommodations in Shermer okay this right because this is amending a zoning bylaw it requires a two-thirds vote we such a go here okay thank you so I would ask you to vote now on this passes by two-thirds the number is 132 to ten I'm just going to make a statement here because I am leaving the stage because a family member is making a presentation on the next article but we are down to the last three articles and two of those articles are citizens petitions someone did raise the question of a quorum and so we have one now the corn is a hundred but I would ask you if possible to remain for these last three articles particularly because they are citizens petitions and if we don't have a quorum we have to come back Thursday night and people have made these petitions and we'd like to hear them [Music] we're at article 25 authorization to acquire CSX property the Rail Trail Madame Oh ready yes I move favorable action and that the town vote to authorize the select board to acquire by gift purchase eminent domain or otherwise the fee or lesser interest in all or part of the CSX property from the vicinity of Whitney Street north to the Framingham town line that's Assessors map number one parcel 32 for open space and recreation purposes specifically for a so called rail trail and thereafter construct the so-called rail trail thereon provided I'm sorry provided however that such acquisition and construction shall be funded by environmental bond bill funds made available to the town for expenditure without further appropriation donation gift and or other private federal or state grants made available to the town for such purposes and to accept on behalf of the town any fun so donated grant that are gifted and further to authorized the Select board to execute all instruments including deeds leases licenses restrictions donation agreements grant agreements contracts and or other agreements upon such terms and conditions as the Select board deem appropriate and to take all other action as may be necessary to effectuate the vote to be taken here under second it's been moved and seconded I understand there's the presentation John Hinckley fourteenth South Road chairman of the Planning Board the Planning Board voted unanimously in favor of this article thank you Rob Wolfe 31 cider Hill Lane I'm on a working group that John higgling in the Planning Board organized our goal is to extend the Upper Charles rail trail through sure Bernie the trail currently consists of six or a bit more miles of paved trail in Milford six miles of stone dust trail on Holliston and Sherbourne owns 1/4 mile from the Holliston line to whitney street that little section is currently undeveloped but there's plans in place and grant money already awarded for construction of parking spots at Whitney Farms entrance and a handicap compliant path to the trail at that point here's the map of the the trail now the green section is the paved section in Milford the purple section is the section in Palestine you can see there's some little bits in Holliston in Hopkinton that are under construction and the rest is just possible future plans here's a couple of pictures of the Holliston section which is really quite nice it was kind of an eyesore beforehand there was a lot of littering dumping trail being torn up by motorbikes and things and it's really a nice community resource there there's the center and there's the bridge approaching route 16 so the proposal is to authorize the acquisition of the further 1.4 miles that goes from whitney street to the framingham line the estimated cost of required environmental studies the purchase and some improvements is in the environmental bond bill authorized but not allocated yet a hundred percent of the bond all funds are from the state there's no local matching funds required and there's the possibility of getting other funds and donations if needed CSX is also offering another four tenths of a mile north of that to Framingham here's the here's the proposal from CSX and let me just point out a few things there's Whitney Street at the bottom the rail line is a single track going up and then it widens out into about six sidings and then just right here at the power line right away as the framingham line then there's a small section in Framingham and then it widens out again into the CS Engineering Yard for it if Framingham buys this small piece there's a possible connection to Bates Road which go out to 126 they give a nice easy path to the commuter rail station you can also see the Barbour reservation here and there's trails that used to go across here but they're sort of blocked right now here's the assessor's map showing the abutters the light green that looks yellow there is town owned land including the Barbour reservation the dark green is conservation land owned by the rural land foundation and the red is the N star power line right away so you can see that almost all the abutters are conservation land including a lot of wetlands here's as the trail enters Sherbourne you can see the stone dust ends at the Holliston border it's dopping brook which flows under the trail on the culvert forms the border and then the first part of the trail and Sherbourne is unimproved but it's in very good shape and then it gets a bit wet as you approach whitney street and that's where you may end up detouring around on the easement and the Whitney Farms property here it is just north of Whitney Street and then as you go farther north it starts to widen out at the sidings and there's a lot of wetlands formed by beaver activity and behind the Barbara reservation so just to summarize there's very few abutters which is mostly conservation land there's a good possibility of linking the base circuit trail from the Barbour reservation across into Ashland avoiding the current detour on Whitney Street which is a dangerous road with not much shoulder it's consistent with recommendations in the open space and recreation plan and the master plan the Framingham section of Framingham gets on board will wink out towards the commuter rail station it's possibly in the future that can even link on the rail bed all the way to the rail station the it's possible that this would not move forward based on the amount that's in the bond bill but we hope that the amount estimated is good and that the select board would be able to negotiate a purchase and sale with CSX contingent on the funds becoming available from the state thank you thank you is there any discussion questions yes Richard Richard Robinson 117 Millstreet I'm certainly in favor of the acquisition I'm not in favor of passing supporting a motion that is not ironclad and I do mean ironclad that no town funds are involved in this it's not quite clear to me from the motion defense true I wonder if we is this the motion because that's not I think what was actually really no that's not the motion - thank you would you like to hear the motion again it says they're authorized to look for to acquire buy gift purchase and I'm not sure what the nature of that purchase would be and I don't I'm afraid I just don't understand enough about this environment of bond bill funds and whose money it is and who authorized it and how much all of that and what kind of negotiate is involved I think I need some more clarity before I can support this and I may not be a little bit dare inclined KP law through the moderator so there is no there is no appropriation as part of this motion so the town is not spending any funds so in my opinion the language is ironclad in that regard if there was going to be an expenditure of funds town funds there would need to be another Town Meeting article at a subsequent tab meeting so this part of this motion is ironclad in that any type of acquisition would be a hundred percent not from town funds are there any other comments or questions if not we'll proceed to the vote if you could place your vote now 152 to 0 motion passes article 26 this is a citizen petition supporting a new position of sustainability coordinator madam moderator mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Tsai I move favorable action and that the town vote to request and recommend that the Select board create the regular part-time position of sustainability coordinator and appoint a sustainability coordinator whose compensation shall be fixed in a manner consistent with the personnel bylaw and further that the select board shall fix the sustainability coordinators compensation in a manner consistent with the personnel bylaw and related plan and within the amount annually appropriated for that purpose and that the select board and Town Administrator be requested and recommended to take whatever actions are necessary to effectuate the purposes of article 26 as printed in the warrant second I believe we have a presentation petitioners Fred Cunningham 58 Everett Street tonight we have an opportunity to direct a town to hire a part-time sustainability coordinator we're asking for your vote on this important initiative which has been given a recommend favorable action by both the select board and the advisory committee sherbanoo green community since 2011 has been working to reduce our emissions and to increase the use of renewable energy and although our town officials have made admirable progress town employees working on this all have full-time responsibilities a coroner's role sole role is substained ability that means getting grants and financial incentives for renewed energy renewable energy and carbon emission reduction projects it means measuring and reporting on progress against our goals it means working with residences and businesses to educate and to recommend cost-effective energy reduction projects coordinate and collaborate with projects across town departments and a lot more so tonight I can cover three main topics what is sherburn's carbon footprint what's the cost and return on investment of a coordinator and at a high level what can a coordinator do for our town since we became a green community in 2011 we've reduced our carbon emissions approximately 25 percent over our 2009 emissions and that's laudable progress the fact is however if you look at this chart that we have not continued to make that kind of progress as you can see the chart is essentially flat since 2012 now the town's done very good work on municipal buildings but in order to achieve significant levels of carbon reduction we need a dedicated resource who can expand the scope of work to include other municipal opportunities but also residential and commercial opportunities for why is 25 percent of a reduction which we've already achieved not sufficient it's because we haven't achieved significant carbon reduction since 2013 and in 2013 this data shows and this is the most recent data available the urban residents were emitting 80-plus tons of carbon dioxide per household annually and if you look at this that's much higher than other towns in our area with the reality of climate change becoming increasingly clear the time is now to act the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that we must reduce our carbon footprint by 50% by 2030 and a hundred percent by 2050 or we may face irreversible climate disruption and changes we need to do our part in the short time allocated for statements tonight we cannot begin to cover all the data that we've accumulated on the compelling return on investment or the wide range of grants and incentives that are available or the scope of municipal commercial and residential activities the coordinators and other kinds of achieve but we can give you a few facts that are relevant sustainability coordinators in other towns around Massachusetts have achieved between four point two and eight point three times the salary and benefits of the position in other words if we were to hire a sustainability coordinator at thirty nine thousand dollars which is what we proposed to advisory we could reasonably expect a return of a hundred and sixty three thousand eight hundred dollars brought to town annually via grants incentives and savings and that's the low end expectation by endeth twice that but I want to be real clear this is not all about money this is about the scope of the initiatives that a coordinator can bring to our town over and above what our town officials who have full-time responsibilities our volunteer groups which I've been very or town committees can achieve so what kind of initiatives what kind of coordinator do for our town other towns have realized these kinds of results they've produced significant reduction in energy costs and ongoing savings through infrastructure projects such as installing energy efficient systems LED lighting solar arrays electrical vehicle procurement and a wide range of residential programs they've secured grants and incentives for sustainability and climate vulnerability and mitigation they've freed up town officials who are working with their regular jobs while attempting to address climate climate change and carbon reduction they track and report on the town and residential energy use in energy reduction they've arranged electricity aggregation or the block purchase of electricity lowering the costs for both the town and its residents they've promoted residential carbon production through things like massive audits solarization programs renewable electricity composting things of that nature they partner with selectmen Energy committees facilities volunteers and other town committees Fred run public forum so tonight what we are asking for is your vote of YES on article 26 for a sustainability coordinator thank you thank you yes mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Dorrance us the Board of Selectmen have unanimously endorsed this article and I wanted to urge your support on the following basis in connection with the work that I've have been doing at the State House I have been told that there have been opportunities for the time to obtain grants that we have not applied for that we have not pursued I had a discussion with the Green Communities coordinator that they are are funds that community like Sherbourne could pursue I believe the premise behind this article that a dedicated employee or worker who can apply to for these grants well in in actuality produce dollars for this community and as part of producing dollars for Sherbourne we will be improving the environment for the community and for the state and for our nation I think we're all responsible to make our environment safe and for make our environment that's better this is an opportunity to do a win-win for the town and for our environment I urge you to support this back of the room please Neal Neal Kessler 43 page Farm Road first just wanted to say that last week their Conservation Commission voted unanimously to support this article and I would just echo what mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Dorrance has said that we should be looking at any Avenue where we can add money to our bottom line instead of you know looking to other sources the other thing I just wanted to bring up is that Sean clean earlier tonight we we had a you know requested funds for tree mortality and tree damage and one of the things that interests me most about this sustainability coordinator position is just how much we can do in terms of resiliency where we've got issues with tree mortality storm damage the moth damage we've got floods we've got all these kinds of sort of negative things that a sustainability coordinator can come in and not only help us find funds for but also just help us plan better and and built into the future a way to deal with these things even to the point of you know what kinds of trees can be plant so that they're more resilient to bigger storms down the road and I would also just echo that this isn't only about dollars and cents but just about a lot of issues that affect the town in terms of wetlands and and environmental things overall so I would just urge the support for this article thank you Robert Robert Johnson 272 Western Avenue I have a question and that is what if sometime in the future three years from now five years from now ten years from now we aren't getting a positive return from having this position is there an out or is this position irrevocable and goes on forever or do we have to have another Town Meeting vote to abolish it question okay is there someone here okay so with any position that's authorized or made part of the region classification plan or any position authorized by Town Meeting it doesn't have to be filled by the by the select board or if the town administrators the appointing authority by the time administrator there's always decisions that are left to the executive branch of the town so just because a positions been authorized or is even allowed by your bylaws does not mean it has to be filled so to your question if it wasn't working out you would have the elected officials of the select board be able to make a determination that they just don't want to fill the position or that they want to lay off the employee or whatever that situation might be I'd point out the language in the citizen petition the last sentence states that the Select Board may terminate remove or suspend the sustainability coordinator in accordance with the town's personnel bylaw I think it's tough look very specifically in the language Mykel Mykel lesser 54 Fire Street um I agree with everything that everyone has said I'm in support um I think this is a great idea I'm just gonna briefly speak as your last chair of your Energy Committee since we have not met for a few years I spent a lot of time working on the Energy Committee and doing a lot of the projects there that maybe had that first little dent in our energy use a number of years ago what I'd like to say is that this kind of position not only could it get money it will basically leverage a lot of resources that we have in town such as myself and others who have been on the Energy Committee who know a lot are willing to put in time but we do need somebody to help sort of basically anchor our efforts it's hard I did it for a number of years it's very hard to keep it going without having somebody who's more dedicated to it and I think there's a lot of volunteer and other kind of abilities in this town that would be greatly leveraged and come forth this position surrounding thank you thank you Michael is there any further debate question two comments okay then are we ready to go here okay please vote now motion passes 1:26 to 23 article 27 citizens petition with respect to transparency in excluding debt from prop two-and-a-half limits and bundling of capital projects again I would ask you to please consider staying so that we can maintain a program quorum and not have to return thank you madam moderator yes mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Waldron Sherbourne advisory committee has been informed by the primary petitioner that they do not wish to present this article and in fact wish to not move forward with this article therefore I move that no action be taken on this article I second that motion is there any comment controversy whatever okay this is a yes vote on this is to defeat the article and well yes and a vote for yes that's right a yes vote moves no action on this right so we're ready to go I would ask you to vote now hey no action passes 119 to 5 article twin article 28 citizen petition with respect to transparency in the incursion of additional unfunded liabilities matter moderator mr. lahey I move that no action be taken on article 28 second michael has a presentation here to make I know it's late move as quickly as as possible I am urging you to vote no to the continued to neglect Michael can you identify yourself as Michael 828 Wildwood Drive I urge you to vote no to the continued neglect of our financial commitment to town employees a few facts if you're not aware of the town's pension program our active and retired employees have earned over 22 million dollars in benefits yet we've saved less than 50 cents to pay out those future benefits in 1988 the state mandated that we fix that these pro up problems be fixed in all towns in Massachusetts in 30 years we've made no progress I'm proposing a simple strategy when you're in a hole stop digging this changed our bylaws will force budget makers to not passively let this deficit grow it mandates additional funding above the minimum required by law if and when our auditors determined that the deficit is grown it honors the principle that the town does not deficit spend for an operating budget item it ensures that we incurred debt only for capital items that have a long-term benefit to town residents today and in the future vote YES if you want to continue to prioritize other service is over the financial security of town employees when they retire and I want to point out the town employees are not eligible for Social Security whose financial security the police officer who patrols our neighborhoods to ensure that we're safe the educational aide who provides support to an autism child with autism so they can continue to be educated in the classroom alongside their peers the DPW plow driver who's up at 3 a.m.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
clearing our major roads so that we can travel safely in the morning school support staff who feed our kids and maintain our buildings in fact all full-time employees of Sherbourne who make this a great place to live well yes if you're okay admitting we can't properly manage this obligation well unlike 51 other towns in the Boston metro area who do a better job with their pension management residents incomes in these towns I've listed here are less than half of Sherbourne yet they still figure out a way to better manage their pension plan places like Chelsea Revere Everett Maynard what towns in the Boston metro area have a bigger problem with their pension plan one Quincy and then tied with us are the 30 other towns that participate in the Middlesex pension plan administration vote yes if you believe our pension administrators are effectively managing this trust in 2008 we were told the deficit would stop growing by 2012 in 2012 by 2019 most recently we're told it will definitely stop growing by 2021 well yes if you want to kick the can down the road and let future Sherbourne residents pay for services we receive today alternatively you're okay with using future wages withheld from employees to pay pensions to retirees and what happens is poorly when pension plans often morph into ponzi schemes where dollars come in and they immediately go back out well know if you would want if you would only work for an employer who is properly funding the pension promises they made to you what would you think if your employer if he found out they were obligated to fix an underfunded pension plan but in 30 years they did only the bare minimum required and your benefits were still just fifty percent funded well know if you want to declare if we can and we will do better you want town employees to know we are just as concern for their financial security as our pro impersonal well-being you want to send a message to town leaders that we need to make difficult decisions today not in 10 or 15 years well know if you want a bond rating agencies to see evidence we're taking steps to preserve our triple-a rating and in the most recent bond rating they've expressed some concerns about the status of our pension fund as has happened in Texas is a national issue in the town of Fort Worth out west in Colorado their penchant their credit ratings at risk on the East Coast New Jersey has the second worst credit rating of all states in the country and Illinois is now at a junk debt status in there it's a mess so facts we can't change the rules governing how the retirement benefits earned it's a state mandate we can't expect a state to fix local problems either the Boston Globe recently expressed this concern in an article I want to wrap it up Michaels yep for every year we delay the problem compounds 25 years ago was a million dollar problem today we have a ten point seven million dollar problem if you vote yes in ten years this could grow to fifteen twenty possibly even twenty five at the current growth rate right we're happen up place so I urge you to please vote no protect our employees and the neglect of their financial security thank you are there is there any further comment yes mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
moral the select forward voted unanimously to take no action on this article based on the fact that we are currently in accordance with state regulations meeting our pension obligations and the and advisory made a comment earlier tonight about how strapped we are with our operating budgets this would put a requirement that a certain amount to go into this every year that would then further reduce our operating budgets or increase taxes it would only require money to be put in if the deficit grows worse if the deaths of deficits growing worse that means we've been earning benefits from those town employees but we're choosing not to fund those services we've received this past year at the time we're saying in five or ten or twenty years we'll take care of them okay so it doesn't it's just a shell game mr. Williams Ben Williams ten Wildwood drive the Advisory report says this would put an undue strain on department budget makers who are already being asked to make budget cuts in their FY 20 bucks well this is a case of you can pay some now or pay a lot more later I don't know when we would ever feel like there was too much money and that we would have plenty to lavish around on pension plans and so forth there is the opt-out provision on this it's not a guaranteed thing that we would have to make these supplementary payments I support the idea I will vote no on the motion yes Scott Embry 36 wildwood dr like that's the Advisory Committee if it continues to grow at recent rates what leads you to believe we'll be in a better position five or ten years from now than we are today to to draw the line you repeat the question one more time if what in five years if it continues to grow at recent rates what leads advisory to believe we'll be in a better position later than we are now to pay our current responsibilities you're saying no action take no action now because we're doing the minimum required by the state by law how is this going to get better in the future I would respond that as we had our discussions about this article and about the obligations that we have to be town's employees we are aware of the obligations and as we think about the longer term financial planning for the town and our obligations that we have to fill I guess I said that we are aware of it however by forcing this mandate by forcing this mandate on the taxpayers in town you've kind of taken away some of the flexibility and tools that the budget makers in town have the treasurer has and financing in a way to me why I voted again to take no action here I feel as though there's a bit of a awakening Navy to this problem that we're facing but I didn't want to necessarily limit how we can handle the overall budget due to this one aspect that look there's other problems that this town has financially right and if you were to put limits on the actions that one could take to handle all these smaller issues that we face then this know there may not be money to do the things that we need to do day-to-day to run the town so again I to meet personally it was an awakening to the issue and it made all of us have discussion about longer-term planning but I don't know that putting this putting this article in place I don't know this is the best solution for it it removes a lot of flexibility for the other aspects of the town's finances that are all Oh Richard you can respond afterwards Michael okay I want to give people who haven't had a chance to talk to mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Robinson 117 Mills Street I'm in favor of the article against the motion and I can think of some better ways to use $5,000 that we decided to spend for electronic voting someone at the rear Pat Mulhall 48 Greenwood Street I'm confused as a yes note as a yes vote mean that I agree with no action be taken yes thank you Michael mr. Leahy has commented about the need to have financial flexibility and the bylaw has a provision that if if the Advisory feels that for some reason the mandated amount to be amortized was not affordable in any particularly year's budget then award an article would be put on the ballot and and you the residents of town the citizen legislators at that time could say yes we're willing to continue to defer changes do that they're willing to defer increased costs to the pensions to a future point it just makes it a public vote just like we vote on fire trucks and wastewater treatment facilities and a whole whole range of things so it does not remove financial flexibility it makes it visible it makes it transparent is there any further comment yes mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Dorrance us I want to point out that this problem is one that's faced by wallach communities in the state and the state itself and so there have been many discussions which I've participated in involving trying to find statewide solutions so one of the things that might change over the next few years is that as we work collaboratively with many communities to try and solve this we think that there are ways to reduce managed or otherwise make it easier for the municipalities in Massachusetts to deal with this issue I would suggest deferring action on this article let's see what we can do on the state level are there any other comments okay then we will are we ready to go with this okay remember that a yes vote is for no action a no vote is to passed the citizens petition or no I'm sorry that's right they yes a no vote opens the opportunity for a positive vote to pass the petition a no action must be defeated before okay we are voting now please yes is for no action motion passes 79 to 41 thank you I would take a motion to adjourn second to dissolve the meeting motion to dissolve
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
you welcome to this regular meeting of the Dicer Unified School District let the record reflect that all board members are present with the exception of miss Tanner at this time we'll ask you to please rise as a Canyon Ridge basic sign language learners lead us in the signing of the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] thank you so much beautiful job great job your grouping of your members we called them the advanced sign language group and they were older mostly going on to high school and since all four high schools now have ASL it was helping prepare them most of them went on to willow Canyon that's where we feed into this year it's back to the basics because the older ones have moved on thank you thank you next we move to agenda item B approval of the agenda form I move that the board approve this agenda form consistent with governing board policy and temporarily suspend any policy with which is agenda may be inconsistent second motion made by Christine Pritchard second by Tracy source Inc Bell please cast your votes motion carries next we move to recognitions and celebrations item c1 dance performance mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
good morning the challah today is April 26th of 1948 day of school this is WDSU news I release $9 today for disturb' brothers TV and Pattie sandwich baked fries cherry tomato orange jams and milk smile from breakfast to of eat breakfast pizza banana apple juice and milk we have some friends celebrating birthdays I've been a partner Sofia Roux I'm sorry if I said that wrong this weekend Harrison and Pope yesterday please go to the office to pick out your work yesterday some of the question was april showers bring May of what the answer is flowers the winner is Kaley team team Detweiler come to the office to pick out your prize today's times that question is the university so is the full name of what fitness officer remember to write your answer neatly and include your name and class we have a special announcement congratulations to this trimester servers Andre and c18 summers Kaitlin see team Ward's grade es-tu Kenan Piper JJ no dislocating teaming Connor and let me tell you to Manchester and Aragon W Q stomp autumn and team Boger now we observe a great period of silence no effective existed we favor pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all have a fabulous right I remember kind of stumps every day everywhere that's why I just sleep
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Dean Madam President members of governing board members of cabinet this evening we are excited to have the Valle Vista High School dance group with us the Valle Vista high school group is fresh off of their learning trip to Hawaii and we are excited to have them here this evening for an encore performance so miss Crowe the room is yours [Music] we will leave my call [Music] ma Kali ma [Music] Emily Emily Marco Emily Halima make Akeno [Music] oh my god call me ma maken-ki [Music] cool [Music] oh ma Kali ma Makena [Music] ho ho ho [Music] he hoping even my call evil man Oh [Music] [ __ ] money [Music] ha ha ha [ __ ] you money [ __ ] you money [Music] beautiful job dance company y'all look like you just got back from Hawaii or something so with with the hula I understand that there's a lot of symbolism in all the movements do any of the students want to comment or share what's behind some of the so the song that we performed is called Hui Macau and it means in Hawaiian to blush and the story behind it all is a love song about a boy and a girl meeting for the first time so some of the movements you saw today and when we went like when we covered our eyes like this it shows and represents how the boy is looking into the woman's eyes and then when we go like this the in the song she said II hope a which means to come back so kind of just overall represents the love story we all did a wonderful job miss Crowe do you want to talk a little bit about your experience and the everything the Dance Company was able to take part in when their trip and so this has been the seventh trip I've been able to take with dancers we've done New York Chicago LA San Francisco and finally now Hawaii a couple of the cities we've done twice so we do a rotation and we just had the opportunity and our travel agency or educational performance tours opened up a trip to Hawaii so this was our first time going there and the experience includes master classes so they took a hip-hop master class and then the hula they actually had the opportunity to learn pretty much on the beach they just stood there in Luana was our teacher and she gave him all of the cultural background so they danced bare feet so sorry bare foot so they can be close to their ancestors so she gave them a lot about the history and the culture we also had the opportunity to go to the Polynesian Center to learn about all of the Polynesian dancing yeah it was a wonderful experience definitely a lot of time together and team-building especially getting us ready for dance concert which is coming up next week for us they did an amazing job of fundraising as well and using tax credit so some of these girls raise your hands if you have jobs yeah so some of them learned a little bit about what it meant to pay into the government and how to use that money to bring it back to themselves as well as family and friends helped paid into the tax credit donations and we were able to pay for 60% of the trip through tax credit all three of our chaperones were able to be paid out of our dance company clubs so our dance performances our fundraisers and the trip ranged from what was supposed to be about 1,600 and the plane tickets went up so eight hunt know the girls had to come up with 1200 dollars each and the rest of it we were able to take care of each of the dancers who went through our Dance Company Club what's your fundraising that's amazing and I appreciate you incorporating the information about tax credit because it's good for our community to know that just these are the types of programs that tax credit funds and offers allows our students to have such wonderful valuable experiences and then later on we'll be talking about a possible bond again with Dysart looking at you know our arts academics athletics this is one of our finance arts programs that definitely bonds can help support so perfect timing and just appreciate you guys coming back and sharing a little piece of Hawaii with us and glad that you had a really valuable rich cultural type of experience while you were there having fun as well so thank you so much validated dance thank you so much we appreciate it how appropriate that hula dancing is an art it is you know culture but it's an art but the fact that you're doing it in front of the the festival thing and all of your colors are into that that so it's it was just great it was remote planned it you planned it that way okay there you go awesome well thank you so much lovely job thank you next we will move to spotlight video district arts festival mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Dean Madam President members of the governing board members of cabinet this evening we'll talk further about the festival of the arts during the superintendent update but this evening we have a quick spotlight video highlighting our fantastic event last Saturday Dysart Unified School District it is a festival to celebrate all of the wonderful things that our teachers and students have done over the past year we have 50 different performances going on from various stages starting with our main stage we have collaborative performances and elaborate fronts from our band including our winter drumline along with our winter guards we have a collaborative dance performance that is going to include all of our different dance programs across the high school as well as West Point Arts Academy we have on multiple stages a whole bunch of small performances that include elementary and high school choirs we also have an elementary and high school band stage going on throughout the theater is taking place in the lecture hall our 2d and 3d art shows are taking place as well on the PA C and Elektra Hall Lobby our chalk exhibition is occurring in the middle of the courtyard we have 20 different schools that are laying down pieces of artwork as well we also have community involvement we have 50 different vendors that are located throughout the campus selling different arts and crafts that they have created personally we also have a set of food trucks that are out front offering various food options for our community members we have an instrument drive that's also going on in which we are collecting instruments that might be found in the home that people aren't using um that will help increase our inventory at the schools we also have the WAM truck that is out and they've brought a 15-foot trailer that opens up and the students can do some arts and crafts out of there I believe they're doing something with rocks today so we're really excited about this event it's a wonderful opportunity for the community and the students and the parents and the families to come together to celebrate the Arts there's something for everyone out here it's extremely important that we have like this to showcase what it is that our teachers and students are doing in the classroom it's not very often that they get the opportunity to shine except for perhaps maybe at their own schools so for them to be able to have it on display and one day that's truly focused on the arts really allows the community to see what it is that we're doing in Dicer after this thing the first one we're really really excited to be able to do this in years to come I'm going to continue the event I think now that the community's had the opportunity to really experience what the arts are there's that buzz that they want to do this again and they want to come back and I think the goal is to make it bigger and better in the years to come whether it's bringing in more performances adding more vendors but continuing to grow and make this a community tradition and just quickly I'm talking about the arts festival we like to publicly say a thank you to de neige Marinelli who's standing in the back who did a tremendous job of organizing the festival tonight thank you and we'll have a bit more information in the superintendent's update I would just like to echo mr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Dean's sentiments it was an amazing event you did a wonderful job everyone who was involved in it just it was almost like just a family I mean your family could just come for the day and you food trucks and just wander outside it was a beautiful day outside as well so good job to everyone involved it was just a beautiful event and definitely something that I think we could grow a lot of other areas as well so Madam President members the board I had one comment I like to give a shout out to Sara Mendoza she's our teacher at Rancho and she was responsible for leading the community effort of making that beautiful banner over there and I was neat to see kids doing all the handprints and then she made that all come together so thank you to Sarah it's nice to see the final product I saw as I was being painted to it on Saturday and so yeah it turned out beautiful John thank you Sarah next we moved to c3 certified education technology leader Madam President we will ask dr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
polling to present this information and if we would please ask the governing board to please move to the stairs for the next two items Thank You mr. Dean Madam President members of the board as you make your way to the front I'll introduce this item it's my pleasure to recognize dr. Michelle Bentham our director of innovation and teaching and learning she has recently earned the certified education technology leader siedel designation by passing a rigorous certification exam the acetal certification is awarded by the consortium for school networking and it signifies that dr. Benham has mastered the knowledge and skills needed to bring 21st century technology into our k-12 school systems to become certified dr. venom demonstrated experience in the education technology field and passed a comprehensive two-part examination based on the 10 skill areas and Cozens framework of essential skills of the k12 CTO and dr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above