001All right. Good evening everyone. I'd like to call our special organizational meeting to order. Please stand. 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. get it done. >> Very good. Let's do it. >> All right. We got a lot of work to do tonight in a short amount of time. So, let's get it all done. >> So, first next on the agenda, we need to vote for our deputy first selectman. Um, I'd like to entertain any nominations. >> I would like to nominate John Dylan. >> I would second that. Right. Any discussion? All right, call for the vote. All those in favor. All those opposed. Extensions. Motion carries. Congratulations, Sean. >>
002Congratulations, Sean. >> Thank you all. >> We good. >> We're all team here. Team absolutely. >> Um, [clears throat] do we have Carrie on the line right now? Not yet. Okay. So, let me know when she's on. We'll skip to the next. Can I just take I'll fill in with one quick second something I was thinking about. I think I mentioned it to you earlier today. Um I just like to to take a moment. Uh since our last board of selectman meeting, uh a good friend of mine, a neighbor, a former member of this board of selectmen. >> Yes. >> And a former state senator, the 33rd district, Fred Nouse, passed away. Uh, and I just think it's, you know, I think it's important for us just to to mention his name and recognize him
003as a former member of this board. I think a number of years he sat here where we are. So, I just want to uh, you know, say u good words and remember his wife Amy and the family through this difficult time. >> Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. >> Absolutely. >> I work with him. I got to know him during some projects. Good maiden. Just a very very >> mildmannered, easygoing guy, but very bright. >> Bright. He got things done. >> Yeah. >> Took a lot to ruffle him. I don't think I ever saw him ruffle. >> Yeah. When I read his obituary, I forgot he was a state senator, too. So, you know, he had a lot of experience. He was a state senator before he was on this board. So, he brought
004a lot of experience to the board. I just felt it was important we mention his name. >> I worked with him at state capital. He worked for David Evans as a lobby. He was just a levelheaded. >> Very good. >> Yeah. Just thanks for letting me put that in there. >> No, absolutely. Thanks, John. I appreciate that. >> So, with the board's approval, why don't we skip number three? Once we carry on, we'll uh we'll bring her back in. Uh number four, rules of procedure for board selecting members. Everyone has that. This has been the way that cleaning has been done for a long time. Uh review it. Uh for those of you that are new, double check. And if you have any questions about this, um it's worked for us. And once everyone's reviewed
005it, >> we actually received it. Well, I did in the um notebook that Michelle gave us. So, I had looked at this. Okay. >> Before this meeting, we >> move on a minute. >> Yeah. I'll make a motion that we adopt um the rules of procedure for board of selected meetings as presented. >> Second. >> I'll second. >> Seconded by Dave. Discussion. All in favor? >> Opposed? Extensions. Motion carries. Also in your packet are the meeting dates for calendar year 2026. You all should present this as well. >> We have Oh, good. >> Okay. >> Right. Let's we'll keep that back in. All right. Let's go back. Good morning, Carrie. >> Evening. >> Good evening, Carrie. >> We can't hear you. >> Carrie, you're muted. There you go. Well, >> do it again. >> There
006you go. There you go. >> Hi there. I'm so sorry. I was having trouble with the link and I apologize sincerely. >> No problem. >> Uh but I I just want to say first of all before we get started uh I want to congratulate all of you on a successful election and I want to say kudos to every one of you for volunteering to support the town of Portland. Um it's a big task. Um, and so again, kudos to all of you. Um, I have a PowerPoint. Um, and I was going back and forth with Michelle today. I don't know if I'm supposed to be sharing my screen or if your audio director is going to be putting it up, but um, but I'm ready whenever you all are as as long as we figure
007that out. >> You can share. >> Oh, you can share, Carrie. >> I can. [clears throat] >> You can share. Yes. >> Okay. Um, let me just see where the So, how do I share? Let me see. I'm not seeing. >> Oh, there we go. Share. Oh, it says it's not turned on. So, I'll send a request. Okay. I'm really sorry you guys. I'm a little confused as to where we are right now. There you go. You're on, Carrie. It's up. [clears throat] Ah. So, oh, you guys are awesome. Okay, here we go. All right, so I just want to say for those of you who don't know me, my name is Carrie Olsen and I'm a partner with the firm of Harris Beach, North Carolina. I've had the absolute honor of being an attorney
008and town attorney for Portland since 2010. Um, and um, you know, we've worked very collaboratively and I'm I'm really excited for all of the new newcomers. Uh, and I look forward to working with you. Um, so what you're going to see is, and we're gonna I not try to prolong this too much, um, because most of these presentations that I give for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, for which I am general counsel, are two hours long, and I know you're not into that. And you also have the fortunate asset of Michelle who does a lot of the work for making sure the agendas are timely, the minutes are timely. So, I won't spend a lot of time on all of that. So, forgive me for breezing through some of this. Um, but um but this
009is my PowerPoint that I that I use with CCM. So, the the topic tonight is how to run legal and effective public meetings, specifically FOYA and um Robert's rules. So, we're going to work on that. Now, do I just ask you to um move the slide or or is there a way for me to do that? Okay. Yeah, they don't need to know who I am. Go ahead. Next slide. I already told you they don't need the disclaimer either because this is legal advice. Next slide. Okay. So, public meetings to be effective. Public meetings have to be legal. You have to follow proper procedures, which in Portland is Robert's rules. You have to treat everyone equally and fairly. And you have to do your best to avoid disruption. and we're going to go through some
010some uh tenants on how to how to meet all of those objectives. Next slide. So, how many of you by a show of hands know that you are now subject as public officials to the Freedom of Information Act? Oh, okay. So, there are a bunch of you who didn't know that. So, uh let's move to the next slide. So basically what it boils down to is as public officials, as part of a public agency, you're now subject to FOYA. And I always say when I do these lectures that if you understand the the purposes of the rules, it helps you to apply them. So we're just going to start with the basic principles of why FOYA. What's the purpose? And and what it does is it provides the public the right to attend meetings and
011obtain public records from all public agencies with some numerated exceptions. But to me the most important purpose of FOYA is that it's the purpose is to promote open government. So if you keep that in mind it will help you to apply the rules. Next slide please. So FOYA only applies to public agencies. And I'm going to nip to the bud here. You are the board of selectmen for the town of Portland. You are a public agency. So you are subject to FOYA. And it's a very broad definition. Next slide. So again, FOYA provides the public the right to receive information about and to attend meetings of public agencies. What are meetings? Right. It's any hearing or proceeding of a public agency and convening or assembly of a quorum of a multimember public agency. any communication
012buyer to a quorum of a multimember public agency whether in person by means of electronic equipment as if you are discussing or acting upon a matter over which you have supervision control jurisdiction or advisory powers. Next slide please. So again to break it down into a nutshell if there is a convening of a quorum of you and you're communicating to or from a quorum of you to discuss to discuss or act upon any matter over which you have supervision control jurisdiction or advisory power pursuant to FOYA that is a meeting and you have to follow FOYA's rules for meetings. Next slide please. So what is a quorum in general? It's a majority of the members of a given public agency. [clears throat] >> It could be defined differently by your charter or ordinances. I don't
013believe it is. And I, you know, I have this note at the bottom and I probably should leave it off because I love to challenge people. Why? Why do you think there is a quorum requirement? And again, I'm going to nip it in the bud. If you think about it, if there was no quorum requirement, if only two of you showed up, you could vote on and have a significant impact on things that are happening in your town. And as you know, your town has voted to have all of you be on the board of selectmen. And they don't want just one or two people making decisions for them. So the purpose behind the quorum is to make sure a majority of the representatives of your town are there and acting on things of public
014importance. So it's a pretty good rule. Next slide. So you need to understand that absolutely no substantive action can be taken at any meeting unless there is a quorum. [clears throat] The one exception is you can do things like set the time and place for the next meeting. And I have been a member of boards or have represented boards where they make this mistake all the time. They seem to think that as long as you have a quorum at the beginning of the meeting, the rest of the meeting you're golden. That's not true. If you're going to make any substantive decisions, any votes, anything you know that's going to have um an impact other than setting the time and place for another meeting, you have to stop. If somebody gets up and says, "I need
015to use the restroom and now you don't have a quorum anymore. You cannot conduct any business till they come back." And a lot of boards and commissions make this this error. They think as long as there's a quorum to start, you're good. That's not true. You need to maintain a quorum throughout as long as you're doing any substantive business. Next slide, please. So, meetings because of the fact that the definition of a meeting under the Freedom of Information Act is a quorum of a public agency discussing public business. The problem is that these meetings while maybe not intended, can suddenly happen anywhere, right? It could be a quorum of you talking in the hallway at the town hall about something that's in front of you, your home, the local Dairy Queen, calling each other on
016the phone and doing a um uh you know a um you know a communication with a multiple of all of you. Email with a quorum of you texting, skyping, internet chatting, whatever it is. If you are talking to a quorum to a majority of the members of your board about something over which you have jurisdiction, you are having a meeting and FOYA requires that those meetings be noticed in advance and that the public be able to participate. So you need to be really careful. And what I say here is, you know, when you get that email, the biggest mistake you can make is reply all. Don't do it because you could inadvertently have an illegal meeting. Next slide. Shall I just ask at this point? Have I scared you all yet? >> Nobody's talking. >>
017Okay. A quorum is not a meeting. So, a chance meeting or a social meeting where you're not discussing the town's business. Okay. Um there are also some statutory exceptions like personnel search committees, strategies with respect to collective bargaining and a caucus of a member of a single political party. Next slide please. Other exceptions are communications to or from a quorum like I said about time and place of a meeting. You can communicate amongst a quorum about the published agenda. Like if you want to see something put on the agenda, you don't discuss the substance of the matter, but you can communicate with a quorum about asking that something be put on the agenda. Um, attendance by a quorum of your board of selectmen at a noticed meeting of another public agency, that's okay. administrative or
018staff meetings of a single member public agency. I have never understood this today. I I don't even understand the rule, but uh apparently if you are a one member agency, it's okay for you to talk to yourself. Next slide, please. So, caucusing. How many of you are familiar with caucusing? I'm not seeing any hands going up. Okay. So, basically caucusing is where members of a single political party need to discuss party strategy. Okay. So, even if that meeting would otherwise constitute a quorum, as long as you are all um caucusing and you're members of a single political party, it does not constitute an illegal meeting under FOYA. But you need to be aware that the presence of any third parties at that caucus can totally negate the caucus and the validity of of skirting foyer
019and the meeting requirements. What does that mean? You can't have a caucus and invite a reporter, a consultant, uh, an independent from your town. Um, you know, and again, anybody outside of your political party meeting with you will destroy the caucus. So, you need to be careful. Next slide, please. I'm sorry that I keep looking to the left. You have to understand that I have a much bigger screen than my laptop to my left. uh which is easier for me to look at. So I am not ignoring all of you and I apologize for you having to look at the side of my head once in a while. Okay. So access to public meetings. So what does Foyer require? Public notice of the meeting, public notice of the agenda, act timely access to meeting minutes,
020the right to attend and observe any public meeting. There cannot be registration requirements at meetings. And I see this all the time, but you have to understand that individuals have a right to show up at your meetings. [clears throat] >> You do not have to disclose their identity. They do not have to sign in, and they still have the right to attend. So, you all need to be aware of that. Individuals of the community have the right to record, photograph, and even broadcast your public meetings. Okay? That doesn't mean that they have a right to take their phone and get up in your face, you know, up at the front table and disrupt the meeting, but they do have a right to record it. So, you need to be aware. The other thing you need
021to be aware of, there is no absolute right to speak or be heard at a public meeting. If it is your practice, however, to allow public comment, you have to allow allow all the same opportunity. Okay, you don't have to allow it, but you put it on your agenda and that means it's fair game for anyone who attends whether they live in Portland or otherwise. And maybe I should stop for one second and see, does anybody have any questions before I go on? Okay, please tell me I'm not boring you. Okay, next slide, please. So there are um three essential types of public meetings. There's regular meetings, special meetings, and emergency meetings. Next slide, please. So the regular meetings are the ones that you report to the town clerk every year that you're going to
022have. So So here we are, you know, on a on a Wednesday, uh it's the second Wednesday of the month, right? Um, so if that's your regular meeting schedule, that's what's going to be filed with the town clerk. Your agenda has to be filed 24 hours in advance. And when you have a regular meeting and the agenda is created, you do have a right at the meeting by a twothirds vote of those present to add stuff to the agenda. The assumption being that anybody who cares about what you have to say is going to show up and they're going to be aware of it. And then the minutes have to be timely posted thereafter. Next slide, please. Special meetings. And this is where again a lot of my clients get into trouble. This has to
023be the notice of it has to be filed with the town clerk at least 24 hours prior. The agenda also 24 hours prior. Other business cannot be added at a special meeting. It's only what's on that agenda. And a lot of my clients make the mistake of starting to go off on tangents and talk about things that are in addition to what was on the agenda. Not supposed to do that. Next slide. And I won't spend a lot of time on this, but there are such things as emergency meetings where there's no agenda, but you have to have a really good excuse and you have to explain what that really good excuse is. And I don't know how many of you remember that horrific October snowstorm. It's the only time I remember having to advise
024a client on an emergency meeting. That horrific October snowstorm that we had that basically paralyzed the state. And I had a client a town where there were trees down. They needed to hire a contractor to get them out of there. They couldn't wait because people were blocked. They couldn't get to the hospital. They couldn't do anything. So it what I'm just trying to impress upon you is an emergency meeting has to be a true emergency. Next slide please. So the latest and greatest since co are the virtual and hybrid meetings. And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this with you all because you already do hybrid meetings. But you do need to be aware that with virtual and hybrid meetings, some of those deadlines get pushed back. So, for example, it's
02548 hours for the notice um for a virtual and hybrid meeting, excuse me. And um and again, you need to just be aware that there are additional rules. So, if you're thinking about asking Mike or somebody to add stuff to the agenda, probably the smartest thing to do is keep in your mind 48 hours be before that meeting, I've got to get this information over and um get it on the agenda. As I said, you're very fortunate that you have Michelle because she knows all these rules and she'll make sure that you abide by them. So, I'm not going to spend a lot of time unless you have questions, but you should be aware and you should be aware of the fact that there's a requirement. Oh my gosh, all of a sudden I'm cough
026too much talking. Um, that you do have to allow members of the board to participate virtually whether it's a hybrid meeting or not. So just to be aware and this is in the PowerPoint which you all have. So if you want to look at this more carefully you can. Next slide please. Um, so I I don't know if I need to get into this, but there's technological issues that can come up during a hybrid meeting and you should just be aware of the fact that just because you lose connection with some people in the public doesn't necessarily mean that you can't go on. It depends on whose side of the coin is the failure to be blamed on. Even if it's a board member, you can reconvene and you can um you know start the
027meeting over uh if connection is is reaffirmed. The only thing you have to really worry about is if there are problems with the connection and you lose your quorum as I said before you're done. You can't do anything substantive if you lose your quorum till you get it back. Next slide please. So relocating meetings, [clears throat] sometimes you end up with meetings that are so controversial and you know you're going to have a huge turnout. We've had this with some land use matters in Portland where we end up going to the high school. Um you should just be aware that if you can you should give 30 days advanced notice that it's moving but at a minimum post notice on the door um at the time and place as to where the the meeting is
028convening. Okay, next slide. Okay. Agendas and minutes should be posted on the website. And the purpose of agendas again is to give notice to members of the public of the business that is planned to be transacted. So they know that if there's something they're interested in, if it's on the agenda, they need to show up. Next slide. Uh so again, um you have to take minutes. Um and again you you know you have good assistance in that so I won't spend a lot of time on this um but minutes have to be taken and they have to be posted and with executive sessions it's critical that the agenda state the reason for the executive session that there be a motion to go into executive session that also states the reason so that any member of
029the public understands why you feel it's justified to go into an executive session. And I've had a lot of clients get into trouble with this. So, they like to create ways to go into executive session that are not necessarily authorized by law. Next slide. Notice of votes. That's within 48 hours of any meeting. Again, you've got Michelle. Next slide. Mhm. >> So, executive sessions again, FOYA allows you to go into executive session to talk in secret and exclude the public, but only for the statutory specified reasons. Okay? To go into executive session, you need a twothirds majority vote of those who are present to enter the executive session. You have to state the applicable basis. This is critical. And you can invite others into executive session to provide information, but you should excuse them once
030their participation concludes. So, for example, if we're going into an executive session about pending litigation, you might want to invite me in to tell you, give you the update on where things stand in court, but once my participation is done, you're supposed to kick me out. Next slide. There are a number of bases for executive sessions and again I'm not going to spend a lot of time tonight because I know we're trying to truncate things but it's in the PowerPoint. The point the biggest point is there are enumerated reasons by state law that you can go into an executive session and if your reason for executive session is just gez I don't want to talk about this in public because it could be embarrassing. Uh-uh. It's not going to work. It has to be one
031of the enumerated bases. Next slide, please. Um, and again, I said third parties can be invited, but you got to kick them out when they're done. Next slide. Okay, so that's the foyer part of this truncated presentation. Do I have any questions on that? We're good. >> I don't see any hands raised. >> Tell me you don't already all know all of this and I'm wasting my time. [laughter] >> No, you're doing good. Yeah, it's always good to go over it, Carrie. >> Yes. >> Okay. All right. I just I'm not getting any feedback, so that's hard. Okay. [clears throat] All right. So, we're going to move on from foyer then, unless you guys have a question. And of course, if something comes up after and you have a question, you know, send it to
032me or or send it through Michael, you know, whatever whatever works. All right. So, conducting public meetings. So, this is where we get into Robert's rules, which I understand is the um method or I should say the um the rule that Portland has adopted for conducting its public meetings. Next slide, please. So, I have to say when I was first asked to lecture on this, and that has to be at least 10, if not 15 years ago for CCM, I remember sitting outside on a sunny day and I'm reading the truncated version of Robert's Rules of Order, which was 800 pages in and of itself, and I'm saying to myself, who is this Robert? And what the heck is up with these rules of order? And then I had this sudden epiphany and I realized,
033what if we didn't have rules of order? Wouldn't it be like putting like 25 kids in a sandbox with one truck? How do you maintain order? How do you even decide or figure out what work has been done? What what objectives have been reached? What decisions have been made? If if there were no rules of order, it would be absolute chaos. People would be talking over each other. And I said to myself, "Boy, that Robert was a lot smarter than I thought." But it is also a pain in the neck because his rules of order, you got to remember, they date back to the 1800s. So, there's some parliamentary procedure here that can make your head spin. And what I'm going to say to you is, um, you don't have to be perfect with Robert's
034rules. understand the main objectives of them as I just explained to you. And if you screw up, Robert's not gonna swoop down from the heavens and have you drawn and quartered in the town square. Um it's it's not going to happen. You just have to do your best and and if there's a problem, we'll fix it later. But the bottom line is you do your best to follow the rules of order. And I understand that you've all been provided with a truncated, I don't want to say rules of order for dummies, but rules, I don't know, some kind of footnote, cliffnote rules of order. And I commend you to to reviewing them. But again, don't expect to be an expert. I've been doing this for 28 years and I'm no expert. I often have to
035look stuff up. So again, you do your best and you understand what the purpose of the rule is. Like I said, if you understand the purpose of the rule, it helps you in applying the rule. So you do your best. So the purpose of the rules are to maintain order, ensure everyone has a chance to participate, right? Because they all have to talk through the chair and ensures that necessary business is properly addressed and that there's a record of what business was conducted and what decisions were made. It's really quite critical to be honest. that Robert was a lot smarter than I first gave him credit. Next slide. Okay, so the types of rule. Okay, you you guys are Robert's rules. We'll just skip right over this next slide. Um, so preliminary considerations. Like I
036said, running an effective meeting requires advanced planning. So, you really do want to give your agenda appropriate attention and you want to disseminate relevant information in advance. That doesn't mean you're encouraging discussion of the matter beforehand. But if you at least disseminate relevant information, everybody has a chance to read it, digest it, come up with questions about it so that you know, I mean, how many of you have shown up at a meeting and all of a sudden you get like a 25 page pile of crap and you don't even have time to review it and you're being expected to vote on something. So disseminating the relevant information advance is really a good idea, but don't talk about it outside of the public meeting. Next slide. So, the first the first rule for for conducting
037effective meetings is to run your meetings on time. And I'm going to admit I am really bad at this. I was I was a member of a board and the and the chair of this board never started the meetings on time, you know, and for me, you know, time is money, right? Time is my it's my job. It's my commodity. And if I knew that I could spend another 10 minutes doing something else, um, that's when I would show up for the meeting because that's what this chair taught me. On the other hand, if you always run your meetings on time, it's extremely embarrassing for someone like me to show up after the meeting has already started and you have to walk in with your head down and all this, you know. So, first things
038first, be on time. And I think I was late today, so I'm sorry about that. Um, and then the other thing is follow the meeting rules, right? So, you want to follow your Robert's rules and the town of Portland has their own uh board of selectman procedural rules. Make sure you familiarize yourself with that as well. Next slide. So, this is just an example of an agenda. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but um it's here in the PowerPoint if you want to look at it. And uh it's obviously also very helpful, I think, to Michelle and and Michael who ultimately sets the agenda, but you all should be aware of the things you want to consider putting on one. Next slide. Um seating alternates. You should be aware of
039who gets to choose. Um is this by ordinance or some other law? um alternate participation in meetings, public hearings and deliberations is very controversial and and in fact it was very controversial in Portland especially during the Briner Place hearings. Um there is appellet and supreme court precedent that while alternates can and should participate in public meetings and ask questions the minute the public hearing is closed and unless they've been seated you know for the throughout the process they need to step down and walk away. They shouldn't even be sitting up at the table because to do so result in a illegally constituted board. So for example, if you have a seven member board and you let an alternate sit up there and vote or deliberate even without voting deliberate, now you have an eight member
040board which is not justified. So I am sorry to the alternates. I'm going to tell you how important you are. You're very important because somebody could go out and it's going to be important that you have been there, you've listened, you've participated because you might be called upon to step up even at the last minute. It's critical that you participate and attend. But don't be offended that if you don't get to vote and are asked to step away, you know, or heads to a vote and you're not seated, it's just the law and it's not that you're any less important. Next slide. Okay, so Robert's rules, it's the typical parliamentary procedure and business is conducted through the use of formal motions. Okay, so everything's done by motion. Next slide. And I won't spend a lot
041of time on this, but there's a number of different types of motions. Um, and there's not going to be a quiz on this, but you should realize that there are some motions that, you know, if you make them and then you go to amend, you got to rule on the amendment and then you got to go back to the main and you got to revise that. So, you should just realize that there are a number of different types of motions and everything sort of follows the other. So if a main motion is made and it's seconded and somebody says you know I don't like that I want to amend it to say XYZ um then what happens is the main motion gets tabled effectively effectively and the amendment gets put before the board and everybody
042a let's say everybody agrees with the amendment by vote right then it goes back and the main motion is amended and and it gets voted on in its amended state, but everything is, you know, step by step by step. And at the end of the day, the whole reason for it is to make sure everybody is very clear about what transpired at the end of the day, what decisions were made, what was the ultimate outcome, right? What do we need to do next? And without these processes and procedures, things can get really muddled. Um, but again, if you miss a step here or there, it's not the end of the world. So, you just do your best. Next slide. So, motions should always be addressed through the chair. Okay. Always. Okay. Motion should always be
043stated in the affirmative. And I I might get some backlash from here, but this is especially important with land use matters. It um you're supposed to state it in the affirmative so that if the vote is no, it's over. Think about it just for one second. If a motion is, you know, to deny something, okay, I put I put a motion on the table to deny this request and your motion is seconded, but when the vote is taken, it's knocked down. Where are you? The motion to deny didn't carry. So now you have to do a motion to approve, right? So it's a second step and in some land use matters and I won't bore you with it. It can have a detrimental effect because there are some things that if you don't act on
044them in a certain time frame are automatically approved. So always best even even though I know there are often times when people say I cannot bring myself to give a motion to approve something. I cannot bring myself to do it. And I get it. It can be very hard, but it it at the end of the day, it's the right thing to do. So, um, state them in the affirmative. Um, next slide, please. I don't think I need to go through these examples. Next slide. I know you guys have a full agenda. Okay. Closing the uh debate. So, you have a motion. it's seconded and you start discussions and it's going on and on and on and on, right? And you want to shut it down. The correct thing to do is to make a
045motion for the previous question so that you can close the debate and that requires a 2/3 vote. And sometimes it is justified especially when you're just kind of going round and round and round. Just want to make sure you're aware that that is an option under Robert's rules. Next slide. So, voting on a motion by voice, by roll call, or by general consent. And some of this is going to depend upon, you know, how many of your members are doing things in a hybrid fashion, as I showed you in the previous slides. um and whether it's controversial. And the general consent is usually based on the consent agenda when nothing real controversial is coming like I don't know tax refunds or something like that. Um and unless somebody says I object, it just goes through.
046Um but if you've got some some members participating in a hybrid fash in a virtual fashion, you might likely have to do it by roll call. So you should be aware of that. Uh but a lot of votes are taken just by voice. Yay or nay. Next slide. Um and then I as I told you consent agendas. These are just examples of ones that are usually not controversial where the um the chair can just put forth the consent agenda and without objection it passes. Next slide. Um, okay. So, this is a little more complicated because it gets into what are the voting requirements for something to pass. And the only thing I'm going to say to you tonight instead of picking through this is to say it really depends. And there are some matters that
047require a supermajority or a majority as opposed to just a simple majority. And you should be aware. So for example, things like suspending the rules, limiting or extending debate, amending the agenda requires a twothirds vote of those present and voting. Okay. Um majority of the entire board regardless of who was present is required for motions to resend or amend something that was previously adopted. Okay. So um and then the other thing is you should be aware that your personal your personal the town rules and or state statute might dictate might dictate um a different requirement. So for example again I talk in the land use context with it which I do a lot with in Portland. Um, and there are requirements under the general statutes that say certain things need to be a twothirds or
048a supermajority, like if somebody files a petition against a zone change. So, you should just be aware that there may be requirements you're not aware of for a supermajority or majority vote um to pass a particular motion. Next slide. And of course, if you're not sure, you call me. So voting requirements again they're dictated by policy state law like foya land use and here are some other examples that I give you of where uh sort of the state statutes override and tell you how many votes you need. Next slide. Who can vote? So anybody whose right to vote has not been suspended has a right to vote. Okay. Um, now I'm just going to tell you this because this is something I feel strongly about and I'm going to tell you my colleagues um agree
049with me on this. I've had this discussion um in an open form even with um the office of um uh OPM and OLR. Um, under Robert's rules in general, the chair is not supposed to vote unless it's going to effectively change the outcome or break a tie. Look, you're all elected officials. You were elected for a reason and you were elected for the reason that the people who voted for you appreciated and supported your opinions and the platform on which you stood. And the chair is no different. So, and again, I know you like to follow Robert's rules, but in this instance, I I advise my clients that the chair should be a voting member regardless. you were you were elected to do it and you know you're you're basically disenfranchising the people who vote
050for you if you don't vote when it comes to especially critical issues. So I I've got the rule here for you but I disagree with it in the municipal context. Next slide please. [clears throat] Okay. So, amending a motion. Um, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this either. Um, what you would do is file, not file, you would claim a motion to amend a pending motion. And the only thing I would say to you is the amendment has to be gerine to the original motion. So, you can't just, you know, come out of left field with something totally different to add to the motion that's pending. It has to be gerine to that motion. So that's that's the only I think real critical thing you should know about amending a motion.
051It really has to relate to the original motion. Next slide. And we're going to go past this. Thank you. Next slide. Um so so changing the vote. Again, this is complicated, but if you're in the meeting, it's a motion to reconsider, and you have to appreciate that in order to get reconsideration of a motion that has passed, you have to be somebody who voted for, let's say you voted for it and now you're saying, "No, we shouldn't pass this." You can imagine that if anybody could just bring forth a motion to reconsider, you'd never get any work done because every time you all voted for something in favor of something, somebody could say motion to reconsider to deny. But that it doesn't work that way. The motion to reconsider has to be raised by somebody
052who's effectively changing their mind. And I think that's important. It needs to be made at the same meeting. has to be seconded like in every other motion. Um and then if the motion to reconsider is granted, the original motion is back on the table for a new vote. Next slide. Um so after the fact changes, again, this is this is really complicated, so I'm not really going to get into it, but you you need to you know, if if something happens at a meeting and after the fact you panic and say, "Oh my god, that was a huge mistake." you need to reach out to Michael and myself and we'll help you figure out how to fix it. Uh if if it's fixable um because it is very complicated how you deal with after the
053fact changes under Robert's rules. Next slide please. So enforcing the rules first of all it's the duty of the chair to enforce the rules right like the point of order arguments. Um the chair rules that a claimant can appeal the chair's decision to the entire board if they don't agree with it. Um examples um motions to suspend the rules again requires a twothirds vote. Um somebody who's being unruly you know if the chair calls them out um and they they claim it um the entire it's up to the entire board to either agree with the chair or agree with the claimment. But you really do want to enforce your rules. Don't let things get out of hand. Next slide. So, dealing with disruptive behavior. The only thing I'm going to say here is you should
054deal properly and promptly with it. And and I can tell you stories of instances where I've had members of town councils or whatever who have been so disruptive, members of town councils that that the rest of the council couldn't get any work done. Um, and we dealt with that by sending a letter to this particular individual from every member of the town council. And again, this was across party lines saying, "You got to stop because this is not working." and and this person would do things like call out town employees. Oh my god. Um you've got collective bargaining agreements. You've got all kinds of statutory rules about what you can and cannot do with employees. And this guy would, you know, criticize uh employees of the town. I mean, was exposing them to significant liability
055and we needed to shut them down. But we started with a simple letter, but from there, if they don't chill, you're gonna have to take much stronger measures and and we can assist you with that if it ever gets to be um that severe. But most of the time when you're dealing with with issues, it's going to be the public. And if you know something is really controversial, like I remember again in Portland when Brandon Place was first coming up, we had police there cuz we knew that it was going to be that heated. And and all I can say to you is and and I'm just ashamed that I even have to say this. After 28 years of practicing, it is so sad that we've reached a point in our society where I have
056to say to you, if at any point you feel unsafe, you have to do whatever it is to protect yourself. [clears throat] And if that means shutting down the meeting, calling the police, uh, you know, whatever it is, you know, you're not there to be abused and you should not be ashamed for acting swiftly and making sure that people who are disrupting your meetings are ejected as fast as possible. And sometimes you can plan that in advance and have the police there, which in and of itself tends to quell a lot of discourse or, you know, panic buttons or phone calls. I, you know, get the police there. Whatever it is, whatever the safety plan is, um, just know you're not there to be abused. you are public officials who have dedicated yourself now voluntarily
057um to doing what's best for the town of Portland and I commend you for that and um but protect yourself. Next slide please. Um, we're going to just Oh, so as far as the unruly public when it comes to allowing people to speak and all of that, again, you're not required to, but what I say is what really sort of calms things down >> is if before you allow public comment, you set the rules. So, if you say, "Okay, we're going to let everybody talk, but you only get three minutes or five minutes." Um, and again, if you're fair and you let everybody have their three minutes, then nobody feels dejected. The minute that you don't set the rules up in front and at the beginning and somebody starts talking and they hit the 3m
058minute mark and you haven't said anything and now you're shutting them down, they're going to feel ostracized. They're going to feel like you're treating them unfairly. So, it's always a good idea, communication is the key, right, to set the ground rules from the outset. and I commend you to doing that. Next slide, please. We're not going to get into the discipline thing. I don't think we need to do that tonight. Next slide. So again, from the outside, you need to control the floor. All speakers should recognize the chair. Everything that happens should go through the chair. You should follow your agenda, even though you can amend it with a two-thirds vote. Stick to your rules of procedure and above all treat everyone equally well. Does anybody have any questions for me? And I hope I
059didn't bore you to tears. >> You did not. That was great. >> Good to hear. Thanks, Gary. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Any questions? Let me know or send them to me if you >> All right, Carrie. Thank you very much. We really appreciate >> You're welcome. Thanks, Gary. Thanks, Carrie. >> Have a good night, Carrie. There's gonna be a quiz there. There will be a quiz at the end, right? >> All right. Uh let's get back to agenda item number five. Um our meeting dates for calendar year 2026. How can I get a motion? >> Make a motion to approve. >> I'll second. >> David made the motion. And who approved? >> John, I second. >> John second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed. extensions. Motion passes. Good. So, everyone should
060have a piece of the yellow sheet with all of the board select leazison filled out as well as the detailed one. Um, if we could do it tonight, I'd like to give it a shot um to see who would like to be layers on for the various boards. Take a look through it right now. Um, I know John, you're on the board of ed right now. >> I'll I'll keep the board of ed and I I was on I'll be honest with you, I have the um conservation commission in the wetlands, but there, you know, the meetings periodically are cancelled. I I haven't really been able to do a lot with them. So, I would like to step aside from those, but I would be interested in doing library board of directors if I think
061Tim had that, right? >> Uh Tim did have that. Yes. >> I mean, I I would do board of ed and library board of directors if that's okay with everybody. So, board of ed and library board. Yeah. All right. Um I was on economic development. Um I'm off involved at all of them. Who? Just let's go right down. >> What night? Like what night do they meet again? >> Bring it with you. >> I do not know. I put it down and then I forgot it >> for this reason. >> Their meeting this month was the 19th. So that would be tomorrow. So they're Wednesday meetings. for economic development. >> Are they are they the fourth Wednesday of the month typically? Is that the >> economic development? Correct. >> Yeah. Because fourth Wednesday a lot
062of times will work but >> it's second Tuesday. Okay. So it's not Wednesday. >> I've seen >> Yeah. Something's weird. That's what I'm saying. Something's off. >> Yeah. >> I can do the economic develop. what night economic development is. >> Yeah, >> I'm looking at the schedule and I see they have it listed for November 18th this month at 7, which is tomorrow night. Oh, no. Twitch is tonight. >> Tonight, >> okay. >> So, traditionally it's a second Tuesday. >> Yeah, you have to go back and look because change there. >> I had written it on Yeah. They got bounced as a >> So Dave just said he'd be willing to go on there as well. >> Yeah. I mean, if you don't want to >> No, no, that's it's I may try to go
063when I can. Um, but I right now I've got some meetings. That's why I'm looking at the nights. >> Okay. >> There's some right now I've got a lot of Okay. Other stuff I'm Dave officially I think Davis. >> Dave. >> Yeah. >> Right. We've had multiple members on that one. >> Yeah. >> So, if someone else has a need to be on there, I think Tim and I were both on ABC. >> Oh, really? >> Yes. >> But I had it. I That was one of the ones that interested me. >> Would you like to work out with it? >> Well, Dave and I could share, right? Or together or Yeah, sure. That's so >> Okay. >> Which which sheet are you looking at? The yellow one or the yellow? >> Yellow >> with
064Dave. Thank you. I'm also willing to be on the um senior advisory. >> You want to go down the list? Sorry. No problem. The chair would like to run it as the rules are. >> Okay. Uh emergency management advisories. Yes. So we had none the last two years was assigned to that. Any volunteers for that? >> Is that a regular meeting of these folks or do they >> be honest with you? I've never been to one of their meetings >> at Stan not with anybody else. Don's the only one that ever talked to. >> Yeah. >> So, >> you know what? Um, you can put me down for that one. And I'm not sure how the nights will work, but >> I will try to go when I can. That way, at least we have
065somebody there. >> All right. >> Yeah, I'll try to give it a shot. All right. Um, ethics commission, >> they have a leazison, right? >> Yeah. And these are just these just layers. >> Um also there's we're not going to do it tonight, but there's also two openings on that committee. >> Yes. Right. >> So [clears throat] that will be dealt with that way. But um who's interested in that? I assume Mike, right? Anything we don't fill tonight, we can >> we can look at them and fill them in a couple of weeks too when we can look at our schedules and the meeting rates. Okay. All right. housing authority. I was on there before attended just a few meetings. >> I think they meet on Mondays. I >> Yeah, they do. >> Bobby, any
066interest in that? Okay. >> I know the meeting yesterday was late afternoon. It was I guess when the when it gets darker earlier, they move it. I think it was like at 3:30 or something. >> Oh. Vinnie on the housing authority. >> Uh yes, we have Biddy. >> V. >> That's once a month on what the first Monday or something. >> What did you say? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. Um Housing Board of Appeals, Code Board of Appeals. There was no one that was assigned to it last two years. Why would we just leave that open? >> And they don't meet on any regular basis. only if they have an appeal, >> right? That's what I mean. So, yeah. Okay. >> But you would still put leaison even. >> We Yeah, you could have
067a leazison. We didn't have one in my studios, but we could. >> Um, all right. Inland wetlands. Uh, John, you were on before? >> No. Right now. I think we were just thinking about that one. >> We don't have anybody. >> Not right now. >> Right now, though. >> Wetland. Anybody want to take that from me? All right. So, we're gonna take John's name off and John what um what were the meeting dates on that? >> I think it's Tuesdays. >> They are Tuesdays also. So, they may conflict. >> That's where development >> that's board of education kind of Tuesday. >> Correct. >> Right. Anyone [clears throat] on this side of the table interested? We don't have to do it now. We can't decide. We can >> Yeah, >> next one. Let's leave that open
068then. >> Right. Long range. I'm Oh, sorry. Library board of directors. >> Se you got me on that picture. Sure. [clears throat] >> No pressure. Um, Long Range Capital. Bob's on there right now. [clears throat] I was on it with him. Uh, please stand. >> Anyone want to join him? >> Okay. Parks and wreck. Um, Jim is on there right now. >> Yeah, that's a that's Yeah, because I usually do that and then I go to the water and sewer which is, you know, one's at six, one's at seven. Got it. Um, Bobb's also on planning and zoning commission. You still want to stand there? Yeah, I'll stay there. Okay. Does anyone want to join him on that? No. Did any your head came up? >> Well, I'm just saying it. Do we usually have
069>> I mean, you don't have to have >> the same meeting, >> but if it if it's something like of interest, like if there's a a committee that you want to try to attend and make it there. So these are really um these are really uh for the things that catches your fancy that that you want to uh be closer to maybe make a difference. So where wherever the personal interest is. >> When go ahead. >> Uh we're on planning and zoning commission right now. So >> what does that mean? >> It's not going to interfere with no second and fourth Thursday. >> Hey, Mr. Chairman. Uh first suggestion. >> Yes. >> Not not now but maybe in the future. Right. It would be helpful >> to put the date put the meeting >> to
070put them just by by the agreement what night of the week they are. That would be helpful. >> That would be really helpful. Yes. >> Ask the same question >> on my desk. If I wrote it all out preparation >> and I have it on my desk like >> but out to everybody. >> No. >> All right. Um well let's go through maybe the more obvious ones. Senior citizen advisory report. >> Is that [clears throat] what you want? >> Same way. >> Interested. >> Andrew. Okay. Right. Water and sewer. Jim, you're on there. >> Y. Yes, sir. >> Dave. >> And I can do that too if you want. >> Be a dynamic duo. View services. I know interested in that. >> Possibly. I don't I I need to go back to what those are.
071>> I need to plot them on a calendar in a bit. So that's the problem. >> So here's what I'm going to do. Let because I think we're going to ask the same question. Why don't we stop there for now? >> And then at our next meeting, the third, >> we'll all get the date finaliz kind of finalize. Absolutely. I don't want to waste I know we have someone that wants to give a presentation wants to get home before 11 tonight. >> So all right. So >> and then we'll we're going to start right where we >> and we'll continue. Yeah. So we'll take the days we have and we'll double check that as well next time as well with that. So let's let's do that. Do I need to do a motion in order
072to stop halfway through this? I don't think we need >> You don't think so? Make sure >> after Carrie's discussion make sure we're doing it all right. So, >> all right. Um, all right. I'd like to present Brendan uh who's here with River Valley Transit. He's going to give a presentation on the services they do. thought it was important to get our new members up up to speed on what they do for the town and maybe some opportunities for us to use more of the services that we currently pay for. So, >> absolutely. >> Situated over the Thank you. >> Very official. Excellent. Well, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak tonight. Uh Michael's um one of our most recent board members which is awesome of Portland joined the transit district very recently.
073So we're very happy to have him. Um he's been an excellent member of the board. I know they always really like enjoy speaking with him and he br he's great perspective. So we're happy uh to be here tonight to talk about our transit services available in town as well as um our bus stop products as well we're working on. So we can go to the next slide here if that's all right. Next slide. There we go. Awesome. So, I'll just go over a brief introduction of who we are, a brief overview of the services currently available in Portland, and then going on to our bus stop project, which is our biggest uh next project we're working on shortly. Go to the next slide if that's all right. Beautiful. So, my name is Brendan. I'm a
074transportation planner with Real Transit. So, I do a lot of work regarding uh bus route planning, bus stop planning, that kind of thing, hearing from the public, making changes, um hopefully making sure the routes work well for for our riders and towns. Um next slide here. So, a bit about us. So, we you might have heard Middletown Area Transit. You might be more familiar with that, MAT. Um, they were the public transportation provider for a long time here in the in the Middletown area. We recently merged Middletown Area Transit and NinTown Transit down on the shoreline into one um unified transit district in about 2022 in summer of 2022. So um we have new branding largely the same staff but um it allows us to be one bigger unit which allows us for larger vehicle
075pools larger staff pools uh more fleet man. So it was a lot of advantages and eventually scale of going to one unified transit district across all Middle Sex County. Go to the next slide there. So a little bit about us. So we operate 13 fixed route buses. So when you think of fixed route that just means your traditional bus route with schedules and stops. Um we multiple destinations. We go to predominantly serve Middle Sex County, but we do have connections in New London. We have transfers in Hartford, uh, New Britain, and even New London. So, New Haven, excuse me. So, we have lots of connections there. Um, we have Deride SE, which I'll talk about. We have ADA paratransit service, which I'll also talk about briefly. And then we have some extra mile on demand
076service zones as well, but I'll focus predominately what's on available in Portland. All right. So, I always like I'm a big fan of maps and I like showing things visually. So, this kind of gets you an idea of our scope. So we might be small in terms of funding and kind of where we operate but we do go for a very coverage based model. So we do try we are responsible for lots of the state. So we like to make sure we have good coverage. So that little star is kind of roughly where we are here tonight. Um you can see the route 586 is your route in town and we have a central hub in Middletown where a lot of our routes emanate from uh with regional connections in Meridan, Hartford, Cromwell as well
077all the way down to Old Sabbrook and Madison and then down here in our shoreline region we have hubs in Old Sabre and Madison that connect multiple places even as far as in London. So just a good overview of kind of our the scope of our services. Um all we're all part of the same system. So go to that slide here. So yeah, these are your um your four main things we offer uh to residents of Portland, which are one the 586 bus route, which is your more traditional bus route. Um with that bus route, all bus routes, all fixed bus routes across the country have ADA paratransit service, which I'll talk about, and then our dial ride, which is an additional service we provide. And then finally, our tax program, which I'll touch on
078as well. All right, so um here we have the route 586. Uh this is the route in pink here. Um, this is a fixed bus route, meaning it has a sketch schedule and time. So, it's going to come there at the same time every single day. It operates hourly. However, you have the um unfortunate distinction of being our only route that does not run continuously throughout the day. There is a big gap in service between 9 and 12 and then 12 and 4. Um, that is a legacy thing we inherited when we merged together and we were curious as to why it wasn't filled throughout the day and it's actually one of our top funding priorities. So if we were to, you know, if we had a make a wish and we could pick one
079thing to fill, it would be filling your schedule to make it a complete, you know, full bus route as it's as it should be. In fact, it's actually a pretty decent wrership we have today considering the fact that we have such a kind of a a segmented schedule. It often it often lends itself the best to people who are commuting for work. Um because we have we have uh morning service and we have evening service. The problem is when we have folks the biggest complaint we hear is folks who trying to get to the doctor. we might have do doctor points in the middle of the day and that's kind of tricky. So definitely one of our our our wish top wish list items is to fill in that schedule. Um however we did have
080recently extended service to Saturday and Sunday. So it's funny with sometimes with CT dot when we get funding they only fund certain particular things. They don't give us a blank check and say hey go fill in what you like. They kind of tell us what they're want to fund and so service span. So adding extra days was um the the interest a couple years ago. So we were able to at least get some sunbay service now which is great. So at least there is Sunday service. So you do have service seven days a week which is definitely an improvement but again filling that gap especially during the weekdays is something we're looking to do. But it operates hourly. These are time points. So we don't operate we don't have any bus stops in our system
081which also makes us unique. Very few u was called a flag subsystem. I'll talk about that in just a little bit and why why we would like to change that shortly. Um, but you use these time points which are located throughout the route there to kind of give you an idea of where to wait. And you can wait anywhere along the route as long as it's a safe place to do so. But again, we have some issues there as well, which I'll talk about in a little bit. But just give you a little overdate of how the bus system works. And again, throughout this process, I'm happy to answer any questions at the end at the end of the presentation as well. Um, go to the next one here. So, I like to think of
082ADA paratransit and fixed route bus routes. They're basically intertwined. So you can't have a fixed bus route without ADA paratransit. This is a federal requirement. It's a mandate of the American with Disabilities Act. It makes sure that folks who can't traditionally use the bus route for whatever reason, typically it's a cognitive or a physical condition that prevents them from effectively use utilizing the service. They get a door-to-door ADA paratransit service which will pick you up and drop you off exactly where you want to go A to B. Um there is an eligibility though. So you know you have to have meet certain conditions. Um, and typically we ask for a doctor's verification to make sure you meet those conditions. Otherwise, you'd be asked to use the traditional bus route. Um, go to the next slide
083there. So, it also is only available for folks who live near bus route. Um, in particular, the the quotient there is 3/4 of a mile away from the bus route. And I'll show a map in later slides that will show all the services in Portland. I think once you see the map, it'll kind of help unlock everything together. But imagine a buffer and you'll see it um around the bus route that basically follows it. So, if you live near the bus route and you qualify, you can get the service. But once you have the service, you can go anywhere in our 16 town region. In fact, you can even transfer to go anywhere pretty much across the country. ADA is pretty, as long as there's a transit service connecting you there, you can go pretty
084far with it. So, it is a good program to have. Um, it's 350 way, $7 round trip. I should mention the fixed route bus, the traditional bus is $1.75 and 85 cents for seniors. So, it's half off for seniors as well, which is good to know. uh as well as folks with disabilities from the half off prayer. Uh the ADA service average also again directly follow the schedule of the fix of the fish route bus which unfortunately for you guys again poses problems and you have those gaps in the middle of the day. Another reason why we want to make sure we fill those gaps and then all of our vehicles not just ADA all of them fixed route anything I talk about today are all wheelchair accessible. So no matter what that we we
085have our drivers trained in the equipment to handle folks with with wheelchairs to make sure they're secured when they travel. So everybody can use these these services. Go next slide there. So we've talked about fixed route. We've talked about ADA. This is sort of the the last major service we provide in town. That's sort of our answer to cover everything else. So if you don't live near a bus route and you don't qualify for ADA, what do you have, right? So this is what you have. This is this fills the gaps and this covers the rest of town that doesn't have any of these services. So if you live far away from a bus route, this is the service you have. This is a it's very similar to the ADA paratrans. It's the same vehicle,
086same shuttle vehicle. It's doortodoor as well. So, it picks you up and it'll drop you off anywhere in our $16 out of town. So, you can go from here down to Old Tick, down to Middletown, down to Cromwell, Chester, wherever you like. Right. So, it's it's a pretty good service. It gets you doortodoor or curb to curb, which is pretty good. Um, there's no application. So, what's also different is you can use I can use anybody in town can use it. So, there's no eligibility. Whereas ADA, you do have to, you know, it requires a bit of an application process. This does not. You can book it today, you can book it tomorrow. Um, it's a also non-medical service only. So you can use it for that, but you can also use it for going
087to the movies, hanging out with a friend. It's it's available for building the community. So definitely we want to promote and again is also wheelchair accessible. Next slide there. So one thing to note, it is also advanced reservation. So like ADA paratrans, you can't call up the day of and say, "Hey, I want to ride in five minutes to the, you know, wherever it is." You do have to book at least a day in advance up to two weeks in advance. So you can book within that time frame. I always recommend that if folks are trying to book an important trip that's timesensitive, like a doctor's appointment, it's best to book as soon as you know when you have that trip, right? So, if you're two weeks out and you know your doctor's appointment, book
088it then to guarantee you'll get that spot because unlike AD, a paratransit where we have a legal obligation to serve you, Doride's not that. This is kind of um a nice to have where we like to make sure we connect folks, but it does fill up. It is first come, first serve. So, if there's a time you know you need to have, it's best to call in advance to make sure you get that time or close to that time. The only other thing that's of note is the service hours are Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. You know, ideally one day we'd like to expand those hours to be on the weekend, but right now those are our hours. And then finally, one last thing that's of note is sometimes if availability [snorts]
089allows, we'll set up a subscription service. And what that means it's just for it's the only trips it can be used for however are medical employment or um uh uh educational trips. So going to school and a great example of this is dialysis right so we have people who go to dialysis on this and if they're going three times a week right to dialysis we're not going to make them call every single time to book a ride if we know you've got diialysis at 9:00 a.m. Monday Wednesday Friday we're going to just show up and pick you up and go instead of making the person call every single time. Right? So that's only only for those trips. So if you want to go to the movies every single time, we're not going to do that.
090But if it's for work, for school, or for a medical appointment, again, dialysis is a big one. We see going to Devita and Middletown, that one we could, if again, if it's not already booked up, we will be able to do a subscription service there as well. So that's a good uh a good one to cover as well. So those are our services there. We can go to the next slide. I might show all of them. So again, do a quick little map if it's not very not very pretty, but the pink line here is your bus route. So it starts in Middletown. This is our hub. We're all at the bottom connect Middletown goes through Portland, comes through, goes into East Hampton. This little blue line you see, this blue bubble, that's the ADA
091paratrans. When I mentioned it has to be within 3/4 of a mile, that visualiz if I live here, I can qualify for ADA paratrans and then I can go throughout the system. However, if you're not near where a bus route is, this kind of grayish yellowish uh portion, that's dial ride territory. So, if you kind of live far away from the bus route, you have access to that. So, it is a bit segmented, but basically the point is that everybody in Portland has something. So, they have some option whether you live near a bus route, whether you qualify for a par transit or whether you live further out, you do have access to dial ride. Again, dial ride, you have access to about 16 of our towns that also have Delide. you can kind of
092go pretty far. Um, so that's something of note there. So I can go to the next slide here. So the last thing that is not a service we provide directly but a program we offer is our taxi vulture program. So this is basically simply put half off taxi. So if you're a senior over 60 or someone with a disability, we will provide a half off taxi anywhere especially if it's outside of our area. So it's kind of a way to acknowledge that we have all these services, right? But we know that we can't cover everything. Um, but let's say for example, you have to go to Stanford for a specialty, you know, hypers specialized doctor appointment that you can't get to through our service. We don't we don't have an effective way to get you
093there. We can basically help cover for half a taxi. It doesn't have to be medical either. It can be anything, but um, typically it's often medical. Um, but we will help um, pay for half the taxi. It's a quick application process just to prove you're over 60 or have a disability. And then basically how it works is a customer would put would put in let's say $50. then we'd match that $50 and they go on their way. It's only through one taxi provider. So, it's a special deal through we have through a provider. We have a [clears throat] program through them. Um, but we u they're pretty good and we have we have new providers who were who were even better. So, we're getting better rates for our folks. And just as an example, right,
094we had someone without this program get a ride from Old Sabrook to Middletown and back and it was $200 round trip. That's a plane ticket. So, you know, half off still isn't great, but it's better than than paying the full the full freighter there. So, um, it's another service we have to help kind of take the sting. I wouldn't recommend using every day to get around, but it's a good option to have in case you need to go somewhere, you know, once in a while type thing. So, but anywhere in Connecticut as well. So, just it's not restricted to the one thing we won't do that I'll just mention is if there's like you're trying to go to Middletown on this and it's during the day, we're going to just say take the bus, right?
095Or take a dollar ride. But, if it's somewhere that we don't cover is where this is a good a good option to have. That makes sense. So that's a bit over a brief overview of our bus routes and I apologize for going quick. I want to make sure we we get through it all. I'm happy to answer any questions. I also just want to talk a little bit about our our bus stop project here today as well. Um this is something that we are working on. Um that's basically like as I mentioned earlier today we have a flag stop system which basically means that you can wait anywhere you like along the bus route which sounds great and it has some advantages but the disadvantages of that are that it often leads to confusion if
096someone's just kind of standing on the side of the road as our drivers are going by are they waiting for the bus are they not we have people waiting in unsafe locations at sharp corners and turns and fast roads near guardrails and that's not safe for our drivers or riders waiting to be picked up and also so we're currently undergoing a bus stop transition. So, we're looking to go from that flag stop to a more traditional, as you'd imagine, a bus stop, right? So, waiting at a bus stop at set locations. There are safety improvements here. Um, there are operational efficiency improvements. Sometimes we'll have folks wait at one side of the corner and 100 feet across the road, wait some so there is constantly stopping when they could just meet in one central location,
097right? So, you have safety improvements, making sure we're locating in the safest location we can find. operational improvements. And then finally, it's kind of good awareness, right? If you live in the area, you move in the area, you might not even know we have transit service, right? You see the bus occasionally, but where is it going? Where do I get it? Right? People when they think of a bus, they think of bus stop. So, it's also a bit of awareness as well, increasing transit awareness. Um, so I have the next slide here. So, that's all right. So, this is a very uh it's going to be a very small map to see, but these are sort of an overview of the of the our proposed bus stops in the region. It follows the 586 route
098exactly for the bus stops. This is not relevant to our ADA or die ride services. Those are all home pickups or you know door pickups. So these are our proposed stops here. The ones in blue are on state roads. The ones in the yellowish orange are on um local roads. And I have them I can pass that as well on the local roads. But it basically we're looking for town approval, especially on the yellow uh town road um stops, but also we want to hear feedback as well from the town. If they have any comments about the other um state stops, we're happy to listen to them. Happy to, you know, potentially tweak things around and change things. But as you can see, it's it's plenty of stops and we cover a a large portion
099of town. Um and we do our best to have good coverage while also not having too many stops. We try and find that balance. Um, it's imperfect science, but we look at things like safety, sidewalk, street lights, making sure we're not on curves, making, you know, making sure that's safe for the riders and drivers, making sure there's enough distance, not being so there's there's lots to consider when we're placing these stops. We're open to feedback as well. So, these aren't, you know, we're definitely open to the town's feedback. We want to be good partners on this. So, those are sort of what we're looking at. And the next slide here just kind of zooms in on the town stops that we really want to hear especially from and potentially get at some point from. So
100these are the stops. They're pretty much just shown two streets right there on on High Street and Spring Street. This is part of the route where we come up Main Street, Spring, go down High, and then we go on our way towards Port Coal towards Stamp. Um so these are the stops here. You've got of course Greystone um and Electric Company and Homeland Farms and couple stops on Spring Street to make sure we have some coverage. But again, you know, we are we are open to um you know, any any feedback or tweaks that may be necessary. Um, we did try and locate them in safe locations with lighting wherever possible. Um, not all the locations are amazing because unfortunately the roadway isn't always the most pedestrian friendly as there folks know in Portland Cobalt
101it can get, you know, not ideal, but we did choose the best locations we could find um to make sure there's still coverage because again today we have folks using the bus all over the place, right? Because you can pick it up anywhere. We have folks it's the wild west out there right now. We're trying to reduce that wild west and kind of have it be more, you know, uh, safer and kind of more consistent service rather than kind of people waiting wherever they wherever they choose, which as you can imagine, um, can have can have some limitations and problems. So, that's what we're looking at today. Again, you know, obviously, um, if you folks need time to look this over and give us feedback, we'd be happy to do that. I I can pass
102we have some I have some photos of each of the town stops if folks would like them as well. I can send out the state ones as well. happy to provide any any additional information, but I just appreciate the time to both introduce the service as well as our our bus stop program and I'm happy to answer any questions that the the board may have and and public as well. So, >> all right. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate it. >> So, I'll I'll start. Thank you. >> Yep. >> So, uh question for you. So, um ridership in Portland um compared to other towns. >> Sure. >> Um what what have you seen? Has it been increasing? Um, and what would be the best way that we could either increase writership or complement what
103we're doing right now? I see our senior center directors here right now. Um, and you know, we do a lot of it ourselves as well. What would be the best way for us to integrate what you do with what we do and make it seamless for the residents? How would they best complement each other? >> That's a great great question. Then to start with the wrership question, when it comes to the 586, it's a little tricky because we don't get yet we don't have great stop level data yet. So it's hard for us to parse to who's coming in Middletown, who's coming in Portland, who's coming east. We just get we get the one number. We don't know how that number split up between the towns. In the future, we should have that data coming
104in. We recently installed some passenger counters, so we get on and off counts. So we should have some better data in the future to directly answer how many folks on the fixer bus are either getting picked up or dropped off. When it comes to dollar ride and ADA, we have better numbers. just about last couple years has been kind of steady around between 500 and 600 folks using our ADA and dollar ride a year and then when it comes to how do we improve that there definitely is room for improvement it's not bad but there definitely is room for improvement I know we've working with the senior center a lot they've been excellent so working with I think public officials like the um like the senior center um we've also worked maybe the housing authority
105can be a good one as well we've worked with housing authorities in the past and in East Hampton we've gone to shadow makers and some of those locations and did some presentations that seem to have have us a little bump Um so even schools we even had high schools actually I'm going to go to a high school in Clinton um uh very soon as well was one of Madison to promote it. So any I'm happy to I'm always happy to do public meetings. Um we do lots of them to kind of promote the word. Also if you know there's any uh email communications the town can send out that can be helpful too. Um we recently had a couple new transit services crop up in Madison and Guilford and they were very like you know
106promoting it on their website on their email chain and that service grew very quickly. So I think for any kind of promotion is always helpful too. So um however broad you like the town to go we'd be happy to do that. Again I'm more than happy to do any public meetings or or events and uh you want something that could be fun too. So we can happy like a traditional you know PowerPoint but also we like to get out in the field too. So if you want to do like a try it day we call them where maybe get a group of 10 15 people. We all hop in the bus. I can be kind of the transit sherpa and guide folks how to do it right. where to get on, how to get off,
107how do you pull the car, how do you how you pay your fair, all that kind of stuff because transit can be intimidating if you haven't used it before. Um, but once you get the hang of it, it's not so bad. But if you know you're used to driving a car, which of course, you know, most of us are, um, you know, it's something to consider. So, I think a good thing is kind of getting creative with both advertising, but also some some try days can be fun, too. >> Yeah. Folks on the bus. >> Um, is there a cost for the dial ride? >> Yes, it's also 350 one way and then $7. So $7 round trip 3501 direction same cost as the ADA paratransit. However, now that you're that's a good thing you
108brought that up. Um with the the dollar ride currently we also have a grant through the senior resources on aging on aging. Um and they allow us to have a donation only for seniors which means if they fill it's like a quick again I know lot it's a quick little application but they fill it out it allows seniors to ride on a donation only basis which means if they don't have any money that day we're not going to turn them away. We ask for half fair, which is $1.75, but if someone has nothing, we're gonna let them on anyway. So, I can't call it free, but it's donation only. So, you know, do with that as you will. So, um that that's a good program, too, for senior for dial ride. So, for most of
109the folks in the town, that would probably be available for dial ride for them um if they're in that region. So, that can be a good way to make it very cost-effective to get around. It's a good question. >> Which was the program that you said that was a basically a donor bowl and it you said it was there was coverage in the mornings but no coverage in the afternoon. >> That that's that's the 586 our bus ride the 586. Yeah. It actually it has it has coverage in the morning and at night where it lacks coverage in the middle of the day. So from 9 to 12 there's a gap and then from 12 to 4 there's a gap. >> So how does that work if you're dropping someone off and then they >>
110Yeah. So >> get brought back home. >> Absolutely. So with the with the the dialery and the ADA there is le there those gaps aren't there. So the dial will operate all day. So for example if I'm using the dialer ride to get to a doctor's appointment old say it's not going to not pick me up in the middle of the day >> because that's personal. It's door to door with the actual bus route. So let's say if I were to take the bus route at 8:00 for example I get into Middletown. If I if I missed my bus at 9ine I'm gonna have to wait till 12 and cop the bus again to go back to Portland. And that's the issue. So you basically have to really plan around the schedules today. So, yep.
111Yep. It's a very it's very that's why it's on our top of our list for and so to be honest with you, right, so so the the management team came from Nintown Transit, which is the shoreline. And so when we merged this together, we saw the state of the routes, we did some route changes to kind of clean things up. And one of the things that remained was the interesting schedule. So, um, again, it's not because we don't want to do it. It's more because we need to find the funding to do it. But, uh, I can tell you again, if we had a blank check wish list, it would be it would be our number one. You can ask our director Joe that. He would he would agree with that too. It's kind of
112a it's a silly one. So we want to try and plug it as soon as we can. >> Yeah. >> If you go to Dialer Ride. Yes. Somebody calls up Dialer Ride has to go to a doctor's appointment. >> Yep. >> Um they book it, I would assume, round trip. >> Yes. We recommend they book a round trip, >> right? So they drive them out, pick them up, drive them out till their appointment. Yep. >> Do they just wait while the appointment's in? >> They will not typically wait. So what they're going to do is if they had say they drop them at 3, pick them at 5, they might pick up all their trips in that 2 hour time frame. Um, and there's usually a pickup window of 15 minutes on the other side.
113So, if you let's say you have an appointment at 4:00, >> we I recommend folks to at least book it for 3:45, one for traffic in case, you know, things get late and held up, but also there's also typically a a booking window where they can pick you up between, if I want to get picked up at 3:15, I might pick you up either at 3:00 or 3:30, somewhere in that range, it'll pick you up because we can't, you know, exactly tell you what's going to be at 3:04. It's might be a bit of a range. So, we recommend folks to book a little bit of time in before and after. Like again, with a doctor's office, right, you might think the appointment gets out at 5:00, but as we know, doctors can often go
114late and so maybe you said maybe book it for 5:15 or 5:30, that kind of thing. Um, but one one good thing to know is if someone ever gets stranded where they book a ride, let's say for 5:00 and and then it goes super late and they're out and the service ends, we will come back and pick them up. So, even if the service is over, if someone's left stranded, we're not going to leave them hanging. That makes sense. We're taking the return home. >> If somebody uses the 585 Yep. >> to get to a doctor. Okay. >> Y on the bus route. Yep. >> Can they use to and and configuration wise, can they call the dialeride to get back? >> Yeah. Yeah. As long as they lived um in the back the couple
115slides. As long as as long as they live in the dialide area, right? Um they could do that. Yeah. So you can mix and match, of course. Yeah. So you could it'd be it'd be an interesting scenario because um I apologize for the there's a couple couple back to the map slide. There's maybe three or four back. >> But you still need to book it, right? >> Yeah. So right here, right, went over there. Perfect. Right there. So you know if someone's taking if I'm taking the 586 bus, I probably live near here. >> Yeah. >> Whereas this is the D right area. So somewhere where for example to walk all the way down to the bus route. Yeah. And then yes, they could. Okay. >> But it'd be kind of a funny scenario. Technically,
116yeah, there's no restriction on how you can use it, but you would want to book it in advance, and that's the restriction. So, having that that 586 filled would solve a lot of problems for both the ADA and the fixture bus. >> What close is 58? I see. Because I'm thinking it comes from Middletown down Main Street and turns on Spring Street and comes down high. >> Yeah, it goes on Main Street. >> So, that big old Brainer Place >> that we're building here. Yes. Right. >> Is there a There's somewhere >> there'll be a stop there. Yes, >> there will. the go the closest we can get is >> right now the closest we can get safely as you know coming around that it's pretty fast the the closest we can get we don't
117even left the closest we can get is that is that uh that gas station >> kind of near there because right now there's a turn in there's not really a place for us to stop in that right lane turning in on 66 because it's a right we're not going to stop >> right and you don't turn on 66 >> correct we don't stop right there that's >> the best the best we can do is kind of ride at that gas station right there but we'd love to serve place of course we'd love to in We talked to the talked to them earlier when they were developing to kind of say, "Hey, if you'd like us to come in there, make sure you you know, you de develop the roads so that we if you want
118us to pull in, we can pull in because we might be open to pulling in, but if we can't fit, we can't pull in, >> right?" >> Kind of thing. So, but uh we did talk to them and they said they've made changes. So, we'll see how it works out, but once it's it's already up and running, I know partially, but we're definitely open to the future if the scheduling allows to actually pulling in, especially as more retail comes in, especially in >> Well, that side entrance that they have now by the gas station. >> Yes. >> Potentially, you could go in there and >> do a little Yeah, exactly. So, that's something we could look at, especially now with the new light in there. Before it would have been possible. With that with that
119new light, it might be possible because we would never want to turn left with a but forever, but now with the light, it might be something we could look into for sure. Yep. It's a good development there to surf. Yeah. >> Right. Great questions. >> All right. Absolutely. >> Right. So, Mr. Transit Ser, thank you very much for vetting this. We really appreciate it. >> I appreciate it. Anytime anyone wants me to go to a meeting or anything like that, I'm happy to do it. So, >> there you go. Thank you very >> very good. >> I thought it's important. There's a lot of people that have limited mobility and have more time getting around and yeah, I think the biggest problem is not knowing what resources are available, you know, and um our our
120senior center does a great job, but there's probably bigger need than just them. So, >> y >> All right, very good. All right, let's wind this down. Um, so today I got a chance to attend the Gildersleeve Blue Ribbon uh festivities at Gildersleeve. It was wonderful. Um, they did a great job there uh with the presentation with the parents and the whole bit. Uh, but I would like to have someone read the blue ribbon winner proclamation. Is anyone up for that? Andrea, >> you want to do that? >> Whoever wants to do. Okay. >> John likes to do >> he was you want to do it? >> No, no, no. He >> Okay. >> Uh, Proclamation Gillis School 2025 blue ribbon school winner. Whereas the state Connecticut State Department of Education's CSDE under the leadership
121of Commissioner Charlene Russell Tucker established the Connecticut Blue Ribbon Schools program to continue the tradition of recognizing and highlighting schools that are excelling in academic success. And whereas CSD used data from the next generation accountability system to nominate schools for the award. Current recipients were nominated based upon 2023 2024 accountability results. All selected schools in Connecticut were designated as schools of distinction. There are two categories of schools for this award. Exemplary high performing and exemplary achievement gap closing. Three of Connecticut's four schools earned the Connecticut Ribbon uh Connecticut Blue Ribbon School Award were identified in both categories. And whereas four public schools were selected for this honor. House of Arts, Letters and Sciences Academy, New Britain, Portland Gildersleeve School, Green Acres Elementary School in North Haven, and Western Intermediate School. And whereas the Blue Ribbon
122School program highlights extraordinary teaching and learning taking place every day in their classrooms. And whereas Guilder School is one of the three schools that has exemplary, high performing, and achievement gap closing. Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Michael A. Pilton, first selection of the town of Portland, Connecticut, to hereby proclaim November 18, 2025 as Gildersleeve School Blue Ribbon Day, and encourage all residents to celebrate and appreciate the teachers, staff, and students of Gildersleeve Schooling on earning this well-deserved distinction. In witness whereof, I do hereby set my hand and cause the seal of Portland to be affixed this 18th day, November, in the year 2025 by Michael A. Pelton for Selecman town of Portland, Connecticut. Portland Board of Selecmen, Andrea EG. Alfano, John H. Dylan, Robert W. Hedrickk Jr., David T. Kazminsky, Vincent S. Pitelloo,
123and James K. Trip. >> Fantastic. >> Welld deserved. >> Did [clears throat] they just out of curiosity because I I'm the leazison with the board of education. When they first spoke about this, >> did they speak anything about the the blue ri the towns with multiple blue ribbon winds? because I think they said that Portland has the most. We have three blue ribbon schools and I don't believe there they said at that point in time they did not believe there was another town that had three blue ribbon schools. I'm curious if they talked about it. >> Uh they did not but I would not be surprised. >> It's just an amazing accomplishment. >> Absolutely. And uh what they had to do to prove what they were doing at the school and the improvement uh is
124very extensive. Yeah. >> The vetting process was was amazing. So >> now kudos to everybody. >> Kudos to Tracy and the whole team there. So >> yeah, >> fantastic. Um, all right. We have refunds of excess payment. >> I'm still doing that. >> Yes, it is. It is a brand new day, sir. Would you you want to pass that on to someone else or would you like to continue carrying the burden? >> Somebody wants it, they can have it. >> If not, I'll do it. >> All right. [laughter] >> Motion for entertainment. Ally Financial $48748 and $615.96. >> I'll second it. >> All those in favor? >> I opposed abstensions. Motion passes. >> You did a vote. [clears throat] Just want to make sure. Okay. All right. Public comment. >> That's me. >> That is
125you. Yes. >> My name is William. Go up That way people at home can hear you. Thanks for hanging in there. >> No, no problem. >> My name is William McBrick. I'm the owner of a company called the Water Planet Company. We do business here in Connecticut as Clean Water Ops. Uh we offer a number of services, but the one that pertains most uh specifically to uh my meeting and my presence here this evening is our contract contract operations and maintenance of wastewater treatment facilities. We're founded in 1997. Uh we have over 28 years just about 28 years of experience operating wastewater treatment plants for both municipalities and privatelyowned treatment facilities. Um we have uh we have staffing uh to be able to support uh all of our customers and room to expand and grow.
126Um, I'm seeking today permission to um gather enough information to present to the town uh the WPCA and this uh esteemed board a proposal to potentially um take over operations of your wastewater treatment facility. Um we can do so in a number of ways and I'd like to at least explore some options with you and present you with a proposal to at least consider it. Uh the current situation uh is such that the uh [clears throat] the facility is currently understaffed though it is staffed with excellent excellent uh uh uh contributors. Uh both Kevin and Matt are outstanding individuals and they're doing a wonderful job of maintaining uh what is at least a three-person job. Um, I would offer the ability to staff the the the facility fully, uh, operating it within compliance with the
127D's requirements and regulations and, uh, and hopefully help Kevin to build bring him up to the, uh, superintendent position that that, uh, he so uh, obviously deserves. Um, so again, before I could even pretend to assume that that this is a a a viable uh possibility for the town, I seek to uh gather some information about contractual obligations and other expenses so I can put forth a comprehensive proposal for your consideration. There would be a simple um typically a three-step process. I would uh conduct some uh minor inquiries uh to gather some detail that would be necessary. I would put together a customized um comprehensive proposal specific to the needs of Courtland and then uh come out here and present it to you with a u u some options. Typically I have to go with
128a couple of different options but uh we have flexibility to do so and I'd like to be able to use our company's experience and uh aptitude to support town of Portland. Any discussion? [clears throat] >> Well, I think that's something we'd have to at a special meeting. We certainly can't take any action today anyway, but my thoughts would be we probably should have conversation with our public works, our water and sewer commission and and we'll have to have some other, you know, talk a little bit about it internally. It was my understanding that in a WPCA meeting it was voted to at least consider this option and then bring it confirmed this board right as a as a step two. So just just this is actually a special meeting we were organizing tonight. So we
129actually can't take action on anything but not our next board will be December 3rd >> um that Wednesday night. So we'll [clears throat] be able to we'll be able to talk about it more that night. >> Fantastic. So >> your your uh your consideration is all I was hoping for. Thank you. >> All right. Great. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate it. >> All right. We'd like to make the motion to adjourn. >> I'll make a motion we adjourn. >> That was that was the second house. >> Second. >> I'll second it. >> And all those in favor? >> I extensions motion pass it. All right.