Acton Select Board Meeting - December 19th, 2022

001[Music] thank you good evening noting the time in the presence of quorum like to call this December 19 2022 meeting of the act and select board to order and I will uh give a moment for the finance committee to call their meeting to order as well thank you Mr Charter uh noting the time and the presence of a quorum I hereby call this meeting of the act and finance committee to order as well thank you thank you first order of business he eagerly awaited 2024 recommended Municipal budget presentation Mr manjarati okay good evening nice to see the select order of the finance community meeting together I think this is the third year we're doing this for the budget or the second either way it's it's I think it's great it's nice to see everyone here

002and I'm excited to talk about uh the budget so I'm John mangaratti I'm the town manager and this is uh my fifth budget presentation I had to count I wasn't I didn't believe it at first but it's uh so it's my fifth budget presentation and I'm really excited to talk about it this was a challenging year uh we say that every year but it actually was a challenging there this year but I'm proud of the work that we did and I think that we have a plan that maintains services and it also makes some targeted adjustments in some areas of need um but before I get to the numbers I want to talk a little bit about connection as you all know we're a service organization we're out there every day in every Department serving

003the public and keeping the town running and we do this with dedication and professionalism and an important part of what we do is connecting with people and we do this in many ways we connect through our public art projects and Community Gatherings like this one near the entrance to Kelly's corner we connect and celebrate our history like the one of like the very thoughtful ceremonies we have for Memorial Day this is the one from this past year we do other things we have people share their stories and connect with each other in different places and different ways our police officers our firefighters sit down and have lunch with residents our library director goes and talks to seniors you know and when there's things happening in town if there's current issues current concerns either Statewide or

004internally in the community we have forums we reach out we get people information and provide education about what we're trying to do and and get input from people we hold a lot of forums forums and forums and Forums on on everything that we're doing whether it's a road infrastructure project a dog park updating our master plan for the recreation open space and Recreation plan we want to get people's input and we've been working very hard to try to find ways to do that we also have events to try to get people to come to facilities like our Human Services the senior center we celebrated the fifth year of anniversary being there and we had an open house which was pretty well attended in September and we have youth manufacturing Day events to try to get

005our Workforce Development concerns addressed through collaborations with our regional and partners and local businesses we have celebrations for big Milestones like building a beautiful environmentally friendly fire station we also have festivals to celebrate the work we did on climate action planning like the one we had at narrow Park this summer we had a big block party to celebrate the start of the Kelly's Corner infrastructure project there were dozens of community organizations there hundreds of people and it was really a great event to get people to know what's going on with the project and also just connect and meet each other in new ways we also get recognition and I try to it's important I think to to bring this forward our finance department for eight years running has been recognized with an international award uh

006for excellence in financial reporting that's that's a good accomplishment a great accomplishment uh they just published The Current financial report on their website today so if you want to check out this year's uh most likely award-winning report you can do that after tonight we also were recognized by the baker Polito Administration as a leader a leading by example award to say the work that we're doing sustainability sets us apart from other communities and we're very proud of that the other points of pride in the last year CBS News has done a few stories on some exciting things we're doing in town like the commission on disabilities and the Adaptive bike program that that they have that we have at Nara Park and you know the the CBS news also covered our our fire station they

007were very impressed with the green features of it so as we work through the budget and prepare for this presentation we really take a look at the other funding that we brought forward and I'm proud to say that 6.7 million dollars that we've been awarded through competitive grants in the last year and a half is being used to help offset costs and local taxpayer funds this year and that's part of 16 million that we've brought in over the last four years in competitive grants That's not including arpa which the select board led a a very robust Community engagement process over the last two years to find ways to invest that seven million dollars so we're really leveraging external funds to make it easier for us to do things we want to do here but the

008limited revenues that we have year over year our revenues are limited by prop two and a half and and various other factors and we have to find creative ways to get things done and we continue to do that and I'm proud of the work that we're doing there uh do other things that we're doing we're reorganizing existing Staffing to to address needs that we have going forward changing the way we do things we staff a new uh Town service hotline that gets about 2 800 calls in the last year that's all with existing staff we've changed some other processes to try to address needs that are emerging without having to add staff and we'll continue to do that and find creative ways to address needs we support our local businesses part of connecting with the

009community is connecting with our businesses they really make a difference to what this community is and how it's separated from other communities nearby the businesses we have are really a big part of our identity and we're working hard to try to promote them and encourage them and encourage our residents that to frequent them and planning is a big part of what we do as an organization uh the planning that we're doing now is related to Powder Mill Road we're doing a big South Acton Village planning process as it relates to MBTA zoning and updating 1995 plans that we've already established in fy25 we're going to do an update to the comprehensive plan more of a targeted strategic planning process instead of the very long and and excellent process that was used last time and another

010part of planning is Select board goal setting so select board goals uh you know you set the goals every year in June or early July and that really sets us in motion for what we're going to be doing with the budget process we send those out to the Departments they get us back the information by November we presented Capital plans a few weeks ago and here we are tonight doing the budget presentation and if it's supported we'll continue on and hopefully it'll go to town meeting in May the goals I wouldn't read these but there are eight short-term goals and five long-term long-term goals and they're really something that we focus on as we're developing this budget that we're presenting here tonight some of the challenges that we're facing infrastructure we have 102 million dollars

011of needs in the capital plan over the next 10 years a lot of those are big infrastructure projects Public Works buildings sidewalks Bridges uh things that we need to do uh whether we want to or not we need to improve and repair our existing infrastructure for safe safety of our residents and just maintaining our physical assets are other things that are challenging for us our fixed costs our fixed costs increase at a much higher rate than the revenues that we bring in so health insurance pension assessment those things go up five six seven eight percent every year the revenues that we bring in are half that or are not even close to half that so if that keeps happening there's less and less resources to do things normal things never mind new things every year

012it's a challenge that was not unique to Acton and but and so we work hard to try to find ways to address that our population is growing um not rapidly but it's growing and our service expectations of our residents are growing also our senior population continues to increase and we are really hearing from folks that live in renter occupied housing that they want to have better access to services that we provide and so that's a challenge that that we're looking to address there are 10 things in this budget that I'm going to go over briefly I'm not going to read the list now because I'll go through each one but there are 10 things that that I want to highlight that that's in this FY 24 budget the first of course is our work to

013address the climate emergency there are three million dollars in the fy24 budget to address climate change and climate Readiness measures many of those are funded through arpa or grants but some of those are part of the operating budget and they include events Community engagement uh doing the 100 APC green we're going to do a solar canopy behind the public safety facility we're going to continue to transition our entire fleet to Electric we have a pretty good stock of hybrids but now we want to go the next step to electrics we're going to add more charges in town including a DC fast charger on the corner of 27 and um Great Road and a big project that we want to advance this year that's in this proposed budget is the Public Works facility the Public Works

014study committee identified as a critical need that we replaced this facility that's been there for 50 or so years and does not meet the needs of the community now and it certainly it hardly met the community needs back then and so it's something that needs to be addressed if if it's not addressed now it'll just be more expensive to address it later and so I'm recommending that we uh borrow 1.2 million dollars to advance the design for that facility and also using some money from arpa work on the immediate relocation of the Fuel Depot which you can see on the left hand side of that picture there's a there's a loader and a van they're fueling up right now and so it's kind of right in the middle of the whole operation so it needs

015to be relocated other things that I wanted to highlight are road safety measures Kelly's Corner project has started you've probably seen that that's an exciting development but we're also looking at Great Road working with our partners at the state to make improvements both short term with a new signalized Crossing system called the hawk system but also longer term looking at intersections throughout Great Road and making improvements to the way that they're laid out to make it safer for people that are walking through them and also driving through them and so that's something that we're working on the next year so we're also looking at the Hayward Road intersection Town Center out here and making some changes to River Street for safety we're adapting our Police Department to the community needs we're adding a second full-time

016co-response clinician we currently have one and she works 40 hours a week and when she's not there there's a need for her there's a need for a second one so that so there's overlap and there's better coverage because the police department runs 24 hours a day and they're they're working with residents 24 hours a day so we need more coverage out of the co-response clinician program that'll be in the 24 budget we're also going to implement body cameras and dashboard cameras this is something that will be put through as a capital plan investment of a hundred thousand dollars to do the startup the technology the training and all that work that goes into it and then it'll be part of the operating budget going forward we're also continuing our plan to regionalize Public Safety Communications

017services with the town of Concord and we're hiring a director to take that forward very soon we have a lot of pride in the tree canopy that we have throughout the community both along our roads and in our public lands and we're we bought a tree truck to help limit the amount of contracted Services we need to use and now we need a person to operate it we have we have our we have an arborist and an arborist Helper but we need another one to do do it more effectively and to really implement the tree maintenance program that that the community expectations for us to do so we're going to work on that in 24 we're also going to continue to do some contracted mowing to try to better utilize the staff that we have

018foreign public spaces are another opportunity for Community Connection and we have several projects underway right now to create new spaces there's going to be a new Historic Park on River Street where we're taking down the river Street Dam with a 1 million dollar Grant there's going to be a new playground and a field area and on Gardner field there's going to be a new park space next to McManus Manor and there's gonna be a new dog park next to that on Main Street we're going to replace the boardwalk that was originally installed when the Arrow Park was created and make other accessibility upgrades to narrow Park to make it a place where people can enjoy safely housing stability resources we're going to study the feasibility of establishing a Housing Trust we're going to continue to

019look at ways to expand the tenant resources that we created and established earlier this year we're going to continue the rental assistance and child care assistance with the remaining arpa funds allocated to that we're going to provide sewer infrastructure to some affordable housing projects to help them be successful and and move to the next phase of the project and we'll be providing Energy Efficiency grants for businesses and multi-family properties we're also going to work to improve our public facilities we take pride in our facilities and continuing to maintain them allows the residents to enjoy them and feel pride in them as well our library was renovated beautifully a few decades ago and it hasn't been touched since and so there's a process that we're undergoing now to do a design for a refresh of the

020interior and I think it's going to bring some opportunities for us to design the Interior Space to the way libraries are used now and it's an exciting project that the library trustees have supported with some state aid funds that they have we're also going to look at creating a senior Cafe at the senior center at 30 Sudbury and we're going to continue to work on the ASAP Parliament project behind Town Hall I'm hopeful that there'll be some funding that comes from other sources to help us take that project to the next phase I mentioned earlier the work we do with supporting local businesses we're boosting them through several initiatives including public art and workshops we're also going to do more to celebrate Acton we haven't had the Fourth of July celebration in a few years

021we see we received direction from the select board to make it happen this year so we're going to make it happen part of that includes a funding request in the capital plan to help with the fireworks and other costs of that event we're also going to have funding in the budget for the planning process for the 250th committee that's coming up in a few years and the committee needs to do its work and having some funding will certainly help uh we're also doing some interesting things with the trees some of the trees that were taken down in Kelly's corner and finally we want to continue to promote and preserve our natural resources we reorganized our land use department and have created a full-time conservation agent and we'll be re and with through another reorganization we'll

022be creating another full-time Land Management position to help oversee the thousands of Acres of conservation land and open space that we maintain we're adding some funding for Arboretum maintenance and and Trail work and we're adding some levels of oversight to conservation restrictions to help that make sure that they're maintained properly and um can be enjoyed by by the public so all that said the recommended Municipal spending for fy24 is 38 million 777. 128 that's a 0.43 decrease from FY 23. it's not really a decrease in the operations of the town uh this year we stopped getting Revenue uh to pay the debt service from the McCarthy Town school and so our budget has to ramp down 1.3 million so if you take that out of the picture our budget is actually increasing 3.01 percent included

023in that will be a revised Capital plan which is everything that I presented on December 5th with the exception of the electrification of the public safety facility is being shifted from fy24 to fy25 in the 10-year plan that will allow us more time to do the study I mean to do the design work and have a better number for what the actual costs will be in fy25 so and the other projects that are in the capital plan and the Public Works building as I mentioned we want to make improvements to the 19 and 21 Maple Street commuter rail and Rail Trail parking lot to make better access to the train station and safer conditions for pedestrians and drivers we also need to replace a tight tank at station three for free cash projects there are

024375 000 worth of projects I would highlight the town hall Memorial Library parking lot which you maybe you parked in tonight and hopefully you were able to navigate safely to the entrance of the building but it is not I think it needs work and we have some preliminary designs that we've brought to the board and the trustees and we're going to continue that process with 60 000 of More Design funds also in here is the fireworks funding and the body camera funding that I mentioned earlier so here's the budget slide that maybe you're familiar with from the past with two yellow highlighted numbers to show that although operations are going down 0.59 percent the actual increase is 2.96 and the total budget increases 3.01 percent and I look forward to your questions tonight and throughout

025the budget process and thank you for your support and I want to thank the team that put this together it's a lot of work as I mentioned that budget schedule starts in the summer and we've been working on it ever since and so I want to thank them and uh thanks for their contributions thank you Mr manjarati um nice job we'll open up to questions first from the select board [Music] Jim hi John one question um uh sorry this went by a little too quickly for me to to get the the fueling the fueling station funding uh for the one at the at the DPW is that for uh does designing an engineering or is that the actual is that also include the actual work of of moving it somewhere else see 200 the 250

026000 in arpa funding allocated for that project it would not cover the construction uh it may be covered portions of it but it's Mo it's mostly designed images thank you um just a quick question in terms of um getting the more specifics of how the operating budget is broken down by Department requests and things like that we'll be able to see that um later on or like what's what's the timeline for us getting the whole budget yes so thank you the um the full budget book was was published online earlier today and um there should be a note in your email inbox with the link to it if not I can I can share it uh tonight thank you much appreciate it the question is from the select board I want you to the finance

027committee thank you uh let me start uh down on this side Mr Cole do you have questions or comments we'll work our way this direction yeah yes I do have a couple of questions thank you um I'd like to start on the topic of the DPW facility improvements what is the uh deliverable for This 1.2 million dollar design is it a 25 schematic is it a 90 schematic what's the the role that we expected we're hoping to get I'm sorry we're hoping to get closer to 60 percent okay and the corollary that or the the follow-up question I have on that is that um we have not yet brought two town meeting a full discussion about a DPW rebuild my concern is that the size and scope of this project might be more than we

028want to then we're actually going to be able to fund when we go to town meeting so I would be much more comfortable about having a preliminary discussion or preliminary size and scope call and get get Town buy-in before we commit to what is in the book at 32 to 36 million dollars for a project so I think I would like us to see I would like us to bring to town meeting a a sense of the town before we start spending a million dollars on on the 60 schematic if there's I don't want us to spend money on a plan on a schematic only to fail because we've taken on to ambitious project to begin with does that make sense uh yes thank you for the feedback this was identified as a number one

029goal for the select board this year and um so I think bringing this to town meeting which is what I've proposed to do here would give the select board and others a chance to explain exactly what this 1.2 million dollars will lead to which is as you mentioned in the capital plan more than 30 million dollars worth of construction so I think that is the intent here to bring it to town meeting this this spring okay because I I definitely would like us to come up with more creative ways of doing this I think a 30 million dollar project is is over the top but we'll I guess we'll have that conversation as we get closer to meeting um the town hall Memorial parking lot design um is that in being done completely independent of

030any Ace of Parlin work uh thank you for the question it's not done independent I think it'll any any redesign that we do will and make sure that it doesn't in interfere with proposed plans for that site so I think it will be coordinated to answer your question okay um I know it's on item item eight public improving public facilities but the last time as a problem was brought up the town meeting it failed so I know I'm happy that you got we're able to get some outside funding because I didn't want I don't want any taxpayer dollars to be put towards that house do we have a plan for ASA Parlin are you going to get full down full-time buy-in before you proceed uh yeah thank you so the budget proposal does not include

031any funding for this project it's something that will be funded through arpa and other other means it's still taxpayer dollars it's right so and so in one of the select board goals this year was to develop a plan for that which we intend to do before we get too far along with though we're trying to secure the funding and if that works out this winter then we'll move forward uh full full steam ahead with the planting and the continuing Community engagement to transform that eyesore and Hazard into something that benefits the community thank you those are my questions Mr noon yeah John uh nice job um is there a increase in overall ftes in this budget or if so how many the um there were a few areas where I mentioned we reorganized things so

032it didn't actually increase the amount of benefit employees we have there are a few times where we took a a full-time employee that's not working 40 hours and brought them to 40 hours which is technically an increase in of ftes but not of a full-time equivalent person the only singular ad is um the arborist so just one okay so the um the additional um whatever the social service that's through every organization okay and are there any um significant collective bargaining um any contracts out there that hadn't been settled for so the collective bargaining contracts for the employees are for the most part settled at least through the end of 24 but I think the public works and other ones will start having to be renegotiated soon thank you Miss Anderson um where can I get

033some more details on the Maple Street parking lot for post changes so we um we Pro we had a design process in community engagement process um in 2021 to re-envision what that parking lot would look like and we brought the concept to the select board it was approved I can find that and I believe it's in the capital Improvement plan but if not I can send it to you directly I just if things are different times are different now budgetarily I'd love to understand with that big number what we're looking at relative to the the current situation versus where we kind of hoped things would be right now my other question is relative to the social worker I think that's effectively what we're talking about adding um is there any idea now that we've had

034one working with the police how much police work that's sort of offloading are they helping out with calls are they able to divert calls that would otherwise Hope Police response to this person uh the the program is very successful uh it's not it's not necessarily the voting calls that would have gone to a police officer to the clinician but it's all the follow-up work that goes into every situation that the police deal with that this person really uh has creates great value for the department and for the the people involved the residents or whoever is is interacting with the police instead of having to follow up five times as a police officer our clinician can do that into it in a different way and more effectively because officers work shift work and they're they're there

035every other day and things like that so it's been very successful and that's why we're looking to expand it we are going to apply um to the to the Department of Mental Health who gave us the grant for the currently the one that we currently have but even if we don't get the grant it's important enough to add this uh through a reorganization uh which is what we're proposing to do in the 24 budget benefit for the citizens and having to spend less on police by transferring the mental health specific calls to people who can better handle it like social workers yes our officers are well trained but this is a licensed clinician so it's um it's a different level of service thank you Mr Majors do you have any questions or comments for Mr

036mandrelli what I I like in the plan is that you're you're more supportive of local businesses and supporting uh the image of the town of Acton through events and like this Fourth of July thing bringing the community together I think that's all important an important role of the select board in the town government just to promote these things so a lot of these Financial details I'm sure will will come on they're close with scrutiny as we sort of get more information and dig into the numbers but I think most of the plan makes sense that infrastructure really needs work um some of the electrification goals I might have a small issue with but all in all I think you know you're you're moving in the right direction thank you Mike I just want to welcome

037uh injuries introduced to the public and welcome our newest fincom member Scott Sullivan sitting at the end over there he's our newest associate member I think he was just sworn in this afternoon is that right so I'm sure he feels feels very much on the hot seat so hopefully everybody can welcome him Mr Sullivan do you have any comments or questions you'd like to I don't have any questions or comments at this time thank you so much and um I we have somebody online is that right isha's on I do need either um Mr manjarati or Mr Charter to chime in on our agenda we didn't specifically say anything about having a hybrid meeting can our members who are in the public still participate through Zoom is that yes it's wonderful so if we could

038get them to speak that would be great if they've got their hands raised Isha you should be able to speak hi uh thank you very much um let's imagine I had a question about the ASAP house um what specific funds other than Arbor um are you planning to put in Grand Sport I didn't quite catch that thank you for the question so there's been I believe it's 400 000 from arpa there's a community preservation committee uh CPA application that still has funding remaining in it with about a hundred thousand and then we work with our federal um delegation congresswoman Lori Trahan has put in the federal budget an earmark for the project and it has to be approved by the Senate and that hasn't happened yet so we can't really count on it but it

039is it is in Washington and we're hoping that it comes through for us and if it does then that I think it will be 750 000 that would be contributed to the project which would make a significant difference and allow us to take you know do the project thank you great thank you uh just one question for myself then that's all right um on the uh electrification of the public safety building just to make sure I'm clear because the slide doesn't quite tell me exactly it sounds like you're spending planning on spending the 1.2 million in fiscal year 25 rather than 24. is that correct yes so the the project as proposed in the capital plan was to do the design for 150 or so thousand dollars and the construction for the 1.2 and this

040new plan revised plan is to First do the design using the Opera funds use that to have a strong construction number come back to this body next year with what that number is and see if there's support for that wonderful thank you very much any other comments or questions from the finance committee missed Mr Cole how does this fit with the ALG planar should I would kick that until I LG later my guess would be that this helps the algorithm okay yeah so the the most recent direction from ALG was to come in at three percent this is at 3.01 percent yes but um to come in at three percent that's for a blended overall between all the entities including Minuteman and Minuteman has a a larger ask this year so I'm curious how we

041intend on filling that Gap so so that is a part of the plan that I don't have control over uh this is what I presented tonight is the town operations and I think the work Starts Now to sort out how we'll address the the other costs that go into our annual financial planning so the Target that that we were working with for the town operations was three percent and that's that's where we came in and so we're going to work with our partners at the school district and finance committee to to get there Mr noon yeah the current ALG plan for the town was 38. 868 436 so um that is so you're slightly under that number but it must be said that that plan still has a deficit in total when you add up

042the schools and the minute man any other questions or comments from the finance committee thank you okay let's open up to any questions from the audience I will start with anybody here in the room that has any questions about the budget Mike Allen 93 Howard Street you have a tight tank on the number three fire station I can never remember which one is fired Is that West Acton or something okay see if we build you out anyway um the cost in there is just a replacement for a tight tank that's existing there that's correct yeah we have other funding that we use for the design and this is the number for what it would cost to actually do the construction okay all right thank you okay uh do we have anyone online okay all right

043thank you very much it's always an interesting budget season we'll move along finance committee wish to uh we have wrong if you don't mind um I'll just take a quick show of hands I was planning on adjourning after the budget presentation but I'll ask my finance committee for a quick show of hands if you would like to stick around for the managers update which we also got via algae I assume not much has changed since then is that correct so it'd be the same as what I reported from LG or if anybody wants to stay adjourned or stay convened for any of the other items on me okay so with that I'd like to mention to Mr Sullivan that it is finance committee tradition that the newest member usually calls for the adjournment and I'll

044make this very easy for you by saying I will now entertain a motion to adjourn use your use your microphone though sorry I will motion to adjourn wonderful great and because we have one member of the fincom on uh remote we do have to take a roll call vote so I will start with Mr Cole aye Mr Borden aye Mr noon Ms Anderson hi I will also say aye Mr Majors aye and Mr Sullivan aye and miss gangali hi thank you so much we are adjourned thank you uh select board thank you Mr mandrelli thank you for joining us foreign looking at the time and we do have a specific time slated for site plan special permit so we will have to defer on Resident concerns and the chair updates until the conclusion of the

045site plan special permit hearing the actin select board will hold a public hearing on December 19 2022 at 7 10 pm continued from December 5th 2022. in the Francis Faulkner hearing room 204 at the Town Hall was 72 Main Street Acton and virtually at actonma.gov meeting slash boss on the application of BWC Coles Brook LLC for a site plan special permit on the zoning bylaws section 10.4 at 100 Discovery way for an energy storage facility application materials and how to participate remotely are available online at the Acton Town Hall http.acton-ma.gov dsweb view collection dash one five three seven six is the uh applicant available and as that is being set up we'll uh I will defer to Mr Martin for uh the lead into this thank you Mr chair so the uh the applicant has

046made um some changes to their proposal which they are presenting tonight um they weren't available though in in time for um the planning department to review and comment on them so their planning department comments are not ready at this time but we can still hear the the presentation of the new plan thank you yes well we're waiting to get this set up I just had a question for uh for Mr Martin um just to be explicit about what you just said uh I think what you're saying is that we're going to get some updated information and then we're going to consider like what a continuance or something um that's what I would recommend yes uh because I I don't think we could uh go forward with a decision um without uh planning Department's comments thank

047you I apologies for the technical setup there thank you for your time um I know it's been a while I'm Josh larsey from bluewave I know it's been a while since we last spoke with you um so thank you for hearing us tonight as was mentioned we did want to come tonight to present I just update on the project what's progressed and changed since our last meeting with you how things are progressing with the Board of Health which is also an ongoing discussion um and just to solicit any questions remaining concerns of this time that we can look to address before we would come back before you at a subsequent meeting so um so jumping right in we did want to recap just a couple of topics from the last meeting we felt that there

048were a few items just more broadly speaking to energy storage explaining the system the program how it's operating that we could could just explain a little better um for everyone's benefit uh before jumping into the updated site plan we also do have a printed copy as well for for viewing and some other printed copies um as was mentioned we unfortunately haven't had a chance to get planes review or the peer review yet for that site plan but we will look to do so foreign just jumping right in so one of the things we mentioned our our initial uh hearing was the clean Peak program and and how batteries function and just again recapping uh the primary benefit of energy storage is in its ability to offset Peak load generation that occurs in Massachusetts in the

049Northeast a lot of that Piccolo generation comes from natural gas as most are probably aware from their energy bills and how they've been trending uh those have been going continually up and up due to the increase in pressure on natural gas prices uh energy storage fulfills a very key technological niche in order to combat the the need for natural gas peaker plants um which will only grow uh ever as as load continues to increase over the years this was one of the main impetuses behind der creating the clean Peak program there's an estimate that approximately 90 of carbon emissions over time will be able to be reduced by the implementation of energy storage onto our modern grid and der specifically estimates that uh clean Peak the cleanpee program specifically will save customers around 710 million

050dollars in net savings and 560 000 excuse me 560 000 metric tons of CO2 reduction and again that's from purely the the clean Peak program as a whole it doesn't necessarily come from Storage projects that are tied specifically to solar but simply from their implementation on the grid generally and again to be eligible to generate clean Peak credits in the clean Peak program you have to be what's called an eligible resource and one of the ways you can become an eligible Resource as a standalone energy storage facility is to charge and discharge during those specific hours that the program sets which is up there for everyone to see and again by by law through the clean Peak program if you charge and discharge in those hours you are generating creepy credits and you are providing

051that benefit to the grid um as I mentioned it's so important that we continue to develop these Standalone energy storage projects spread out through our grid not concentrated in one area and that's because of the liquefied natural gas presence in our in our Energy Mix for peaker plants the high cost to operate them and also just how much they contribute to Peak load emissions renewable energy energy generation currently does not meet match that Peak demand and more importantly those again those generational hours don't match up with uh when the load is most most heavy on the grid foreign just touching on a couple of things again relative specific to energy storage the technology recapping what it looks like for starters physically but also what are the key features that modern energy storage systems the storage

052systems that are being deployed now what about them makes them safe what are all the features that go into them this is a picture of the Palance centipede system that's being proposed on the site we want to make sure there was a clear image for everyone to see again all of these modular segments extending are the battery segments that larger segment that's at the front of each of the three rows is the collection segment that takes all the energy coming from the batteries and feeds it into the the PCS or the power conversion system which has the inverter the Transformer um again this is illustrative our updated site design will have two rows of batteries with two collection segments and two inverters and Transformers we wanted to specifically touch on again and really emphasize um

053the degree of of testing and standard certification that these newer systems go through and the various standards that have been developed specifically related to fire explosion prevention for monolithium Ion systems um the most important is ul9540a which is extremely rigorous and thorough fire test for lithium-ion battery systems they undergo a number of tests uh stressing the battery exposing it to fire exposing it to physical penetration typically through a nail test all kinds of tests to put the batteries under duress and at the unit level which means that the enclosure level to see if thermal runaway propagates and if fire propagates from enclosure to enclosure so in order to pass that ul9540a test these systems have to demonstrate that they prevent thermal runaway from spreading amongst the cells within the container and furthermore that uh in

054the event of a fire that fire doesn't doesn't have a risk of spreading to these adjacent enclosures in FBA 855 is a national fire code extremely comprehensive uh standard that goes through many different requirements and Design Elements of energy storage um all of our systems are certified to in FBA at five five as well and we also looked at an FBA 855 for General design considerations and requirements whether that be setbacks from buildings or spacing of the energy storage containers themselves there's also nfba 69 which is a standard on explosion prevention which is important for understanding Lithium-ion batteries the type of chemistry what kind of gases are emitted if there is thermal runaway or a fire and how the system can be designed to prevent to prevent explosions and to prevent any concern over explosive

055danger and then you all 1973 which also looks at better Design Elements all the way down to the cell level so a lot of comprehensive standards go into these systems um at a base level this is a cross section of the powen battery segment and yes all right so this cross section refers to um an individual one of those uh units that are stacked up in a row and each one of these units again has its own gas detector smoke detector heat detector statax aerosol suppressant and fire fire department connection and dry standpipe that can be connected to a sprinkler on the inside of the system each of these units has its own HVAC system with ventilation that's specifically as part of the an FBA 69 certification being able to show that these systems can

056ventilate gases as needed and most importantly have layers of redundancy and fire alarms and Fire Prevention such that in any kind of conditions where fire could occur those are detected early on before there's ever a fire and certainly if there is a fire then that's detected and dealt with appropriately with fire suppression systems so moving to just our updated project design um we did you know hear all the comments of the last hearing both in with the select board and through our Board of Health process we wanted to go back to the drawing board with the property owner and try to explore you know each possible alternative that could exist on the site is there anything we could do to improve the site design and location to help mitigate some of the concerns been raised

057um to improve on the design although we felt safe and comfortable with the design location as is we want to provide as much comfort as possible um and you know make sure as many people are as happy with this design as we are this is the the previous site plan that was submitted initially in total square footage in terms of the limit of work it's about 48 000 square feet that's encompassing the the footprint as well as the access road and the underground line leading out to Piper Road um um could you could you Orient me a little bit on that map what roads are where and and what where the actual facility is in that map yep so let's see if um yeah there you go apologies um so Mike right now is pointing

058to the old system location uh those are the two rows of battery segments each with their own collection segment and then the two concrete pads which have the individual inverter and Transformers for each row batteries um again there was the fence line we had the vegetative plantings along the southern border between the southern property line and the system fence line the access road spur to the West leading down the slope to the parking lot and then again the underground three-phase line goes up discover way and then off screen toward Piper Road down the rest of the discovery way and then you can see the existing office building uh and the other features such as the wetlands to the East and the North oh yeah and then excuse me sorry so the in The Limited work

059extended roughly 10 feet beyond that fence line to allow for an additional a little bit of additional space and that's what total to approximately 48 000 square feet so this is our new uh further setback system location and condensed design highlighted in red the the Box showing the previous system location um and so you could see the difference in the the size and footprint so after discussion with the property owner and where we could where they would be willing to cite the project alternatively and also just looking at different factors setbacks and resource areas compatibility with other features on site such as underground septic or utilities we came to this location um that we feel improves on the everything in our original design um while also maintaining all the characteristics we need for a successful

060site yeah so as Mike must point out those are the the Residential Properties about in the 100 Discovery way property to the South and then again that's the office building uh kind of in the center of the screen there outlined so what we've done is we've moved the system further away from the Southern Property Line it previously the setback from the system the closest residence was about 166 feet that's now been increased to 259 feet um and uh furthermore we've been able to shrink the overall footprint from uh 40 uh 48 000 square feet to around um true I think it was the 13 000 13 200 square feet um so and most of that elimination is in the form of um you know we're no longer cutting down nearly as many trees with that

061footprint what would be proposing is to um grade into the slope so again for those that it's a little hard to see the grading detail but um the the ground slopes are way up up from the parking lot back toward the original proposed location so we had proposed to you know do grading and do a cut into that slope um stabilize the slope with a retaining wall and kind of couch the system kind of in that that cut most of that slope is just dirt there's a line of kind of visual trees adjacent to the parking lot we would remove some of those as needed to make that cut we would look to install concrete bollards along the front of the system uh adjacent the parking lot for vehicular protection and protection of the system

062um everything else about the site in terms of the underground Line running out to Piper Road would remain the same um we're still looking to maintain an approximate 100 foot step back from the existing office building um we're still in groundwater protection zone four uh and we're also uh still signing the system outside of any uh sensitive Wetland resource areas or buffer zones um and this this like yeah absolutely so the old location is just that larger rectangular red rectangle down to the South so and and again that um sorry and the new location is another 100 feet set back so it's basically just off the parking lot um it will be just off the parking lot sure is there another screen that shows the new location um I could I can pull up the

063so this I can pull up the site plan to show and zoom in a little more if that will help so this is the southern edge of the existing parking lot again um the existing parking lot runs right here where my cursor is tracing so previously the system uh was uh right here again the distance from the original location to the nearest Residence was around 166 feet um again further set back now um in terms of the actual system limit or fence line it's another it's increased to 259 feet to the actual equipment it's it's right about a hundred and another 100 feet step back from the closest resonance um again this slope here you can kind of see the these squigglies those are the the current tree line on both sides so most of

064the space where we the system would now be proposed is currently cleared there's it's just dirt there is again some visual trees here that would be removed as needed we would no longer need the access road um this would put it also closer within 80 feet of the existing fire hydrant on site so um and we'd look we'll be looking to confirm this with the fire department they were looking for a minimum distance of 150 feet to the closest hydrant so whereas previously we were going to need a new hydrant now we can utilize the the hydrant that's effectively adjacent to the system location um the system would be at grade with the parking lot so from the Southern Property Line looking toward the system you wouldn't see the system it would be down at

065grade with the parking lot again we'd have a retaining wall built up so the system would be completely screened from the Southern Property Line in southern Butters both visually and um and and for many other impacts such as sound and again we're looking to maintain still approximate 100 foot step back from the existing office building and then again just flipping back that was um compared to this previous design and location closer to the property line bigger footprint because it was in the tree line with this access road so overall a very significant reduction in the limit of work and the amount of clearing needed some increased grading work do the need for that retaining wall but we feel that it's certainly an improvement um given that it'll be directly accessible off the parking lot and

066just kind of recapping here those benefits we feel that it really uh improves on the design it was a location that we were able to work out with the property owner um there's you know a few complications just making it work with the parking lot but um we do feel like this is an improvement and helps mitigate those concerns we're raised we did want to provide coincidentally the project that's at the active-boxborough high school provides somewhat of a pretty close visual example of what the project could look like or would look like um it would look fairly similar to this in terms of being said just off the parking lot um you'd have the system located with concrete bollards again for purposes of protecting the system from any vehicular traffic the interconnection route from the

067utility would run directly to the system and then the system itself kind of sitting at great with the parking lot with wooded areas and Residential Properties further further setback out of sight so just thought it was a good example to help visualize what it could look like rather than just on a plan um lastly we just want to give a brief update on the board of where we're sitting with the Board of Health we've had a few meetings with the Board of Health since uh meeting with the select board we have discussed a number of topics containment fire prevention mitigation and mitigation and noise we've discussed a number of permanent conditions uh conditions on the project that we place such as fire training with the fire department both before and after the product is constructed

068again concrete bollards safety enhancements security enhancements for the system we're in the process of updating our emergency response plan and sound study for the Project based on the new site design and we'll be submitting those to the Board of Health our goal is to submit everything to the Board of Health if possible before their next meeting basically with a recompiled package but we have had productive conversations and we we uh it just maybe it'll move forward with the Board of Health fairly quickly and addressing the remaining concerns and that's the update we want to give apologies for length just wanted to make sure we ran through everything and I'm happy to take any questions um we'll send the presentation through to Kristen so she can just put on Post online for availability um I assume

069it'll be posted at the link where the other materials are yeah okay thank you David uh just a quick quick question to the gentleman's concern um when do you expect to have your new package submitted to the town sure so we're updating some additional finer details on the site right now or they should say the updated site plan specific to storm water um we're hoping to submit it you know as soon as we can the Board of Health application materials we're looking to resubmit by next Tuesday in terms of what's needed for planning again it's really just the remaining storm water details so um we'll have to figure out Dave it would be in the coming two weeks next two weeks so kind of definitely before the end of the year um that would be

070our hope yes if not the end of the first week of January and then and those materials for everybody will be put with all the rest of the project materials so you will be able to go back to the site where you've gotten the initial plan to get the updated plan same place thank you any questions from board members immature thank you one of my questions was you did mention that there was a significant decrease in square feet of the facility I was wondering if you can go into more detail about that and you did mention that there weren't going to be any safety features that weren't going to be compromised with this new size and it is good that it's shorter it is smaller but I do I would like to hear more about

071how those changes were made and if you could remind me again what the difference of square feet is in the new facility design sure um yeah so one of the primary reasons why the site was was larger in its previous location was mostly because of where it was within the tree line so we wanted to ensure there was additional space set back from you know just given the fact that it was going to be surrounded by existing vegetation we did want to make sure there was some appropriate setbacks on all sides with the new location that meant just a larger footprint so the batteries would be more spaced out with the new location just given that the majority of the site will be kind of surrounded by more exposed area but directly to the parking

072lot we're able to reduce those setbacks there's obviously not a concern over as much a concern over direct vegetation surrounding the entire the system the in terms of setbacks or spacing of the batteries themselves within the site the footprint from a safety perspective we're still meeting all the designer recommendations for proper spacing of the batteries between primarily between the rows um and uh as well as yeah and as well as an FPA 855 recommended suffix so we look to both in FBA um a55 as well as the manufacturing our conditions um so we're not going to drop under those recommendations for battery spacing and then uh just up there the apology I think I misspoke earlier the previous site footprint from a limit of work perspective was forty four thousand eight hundred square feet and

073it's now 13 200. thank you other questions from sorry about that one more question um you did mention that um and this is definitely more of a Board of Health question but I I am very curious to hear um what changes are being proposed in the emergency preparedness plan um you said that you've been working on that can you give us a few highlights on what those changes look like sure great question um most of the changes are uh some additional uh information that just wasn't provided in that initial draft to the board so um nothing that actually was in most of it's not necessarily been impacted by the site plan uh most most of the updates to the emergency response plan that are impacted by the site plan are Pages kind of the um

074diagrams in the plan that just show where the system is location of certain equipment the Knox Box um uh the closest hydrant those kinds of things again since for example we're not no longer going to be proposing a new hydrant just because we're going to be much closer to the existing one those kind of changes are being factored in but in terms of procedure um how a First Responders should you know respond to the site in the event of emergency all those are going to be pretty much remaining the same there's not going to be material changes on that front thank you so I I'll open it to limited questions from the audience um considering that these folks will be back here to see us again in a few more weeks and with at that

075point we'll also have a planning department review of the plans but if anybody wishes to make some very brief comments I provide that opportunity please approach the podium hi Deborah symes 109 Concord Road um hi a couple of questions uh one is you threw out some metrics about the clean Peak program and you said it sorry said it say saves 710 million dollars um across the Commonwealth and 560 000 metric tons of carbon I assume or broad emissions um is that somehow historical data or is that projected and is that per year are those not is that um I'll default on this display I can get clarity on those those numbers and provide them okay yeah and may I ask one other question thank you um I had so many I have to pay oh

076so this may have happened at the last hearing and I don't know don't remember it but um if there's a power outage I mean this is kind of meta and weird but like what's the backup is it the battery itself that allows it to continue to function yeah so that's a great question it was a point I didn't touch on in the presentation but um that's another benefit of the battery storage systems standalones in your storage systems since they are AC coupled directly to the grid um they do help improve good resiliency and can in some instances provide backup to the creating case the case of outages I think actually actually recently um with the hurricane that passed through Florida there was a community in Florida that was able to stay powered on through a

077great connected energy storage system uh I could find that article to provide to you but they do provide additional resiliency and back up in a follow-up or no on that point Sorry quickly um so I understand that but does it also is it using its own stored power to allow the facility to continue to function oh I see as opposed to pulling more power down from the Grid in order to work right um in the event of a power Edge there any auxiliary power the system needs like to function HVAC or anything like that it would use its own power okay yeah so thank you thank you Angela Morrison 15 brucewood Road um just two follow-up questions on hers on the emissions that you're saying that are being saved from the system are you guys

078factoring in the emissions that are created from building the system and the mining and the refining and putting it all together too um so what your differential is typically um life cycle analysis of systems and from start to finish like production and retirement um most uh estimates of offset of emissions don't typically factor in like full life cycle whether that be solar or energy storage I could clarify I don't want to misspeak but I can clarify for you but I would assume that that number doesn't doesn't Okay so I'm to make sure because I know the production usually to create batteries is more than what the savings and Emissions is over time next question is um can you pull up the site meeting real quick or the site plan thing so at the last meeting

079um you brought up that you guys were talking about changing where the new location is and you mentioned that it would be in that top left corner away from all of the houses what changed since then yeah so we looked at a number of locations on site and yeah I can point to where she's referring to which is the the turnaround area um so that area is in fact um part of the subdivision of the site so it's called on the deed and as part of the subdivision the turnaround area um it's considered the the end of Discovery way um the road so um with the current subdivision you're not actually allowed to build in that area where that not so there's a there's a gap between the actual parking lot in that turnaround area

080but most that area um is unavailable for construction due to the subdivision so can it move to the right um you're saying the entirety of the subdivision road yeah um because I think at the last meeting it was proposed that it would go outside so yeah I think that gave a lot of people false hope not that we're okay with that at all that's another discussion at the Board of Health meeting but the promise of it going on the exact opposite side of the neighborhood I think some people were oh okay but this isn't in my opinion much different than the original one 100 feet isn't much in my opinion sure so um I know at the Board of Health meeting I mentioned we were looking at that area and hoping to potentially look at

081the siding it there um I did mention that that meeting I still we still had to follow up with planning review whether or not it could be put it there from a planning perspective um and also uh we still had to talk to the property owner in terms of um you know if we could put it there and also if there were implications on what would be required to put it there whether or not we would be allowed to so um unfortunately since that meeting we've been again speaking of the property owners speaking of planning exploring all the alternatives on site um and right now this is the the solution and the updates I plan we've we've come to um I think if you know if if there's a blank slate you know we would

082love to to put it anywhere if there were no office building um probably put it in the middle of the site but um this is the the solution we feel is is best and mitigates the concerns have been raised okay off of the neighborhood but first thank you thank you hi I'm Tara from Mesa I haven't my second um I explored her life cycle analysis request and I hope you get those numbers in writing so that we can investigate the validity of the numbers because I appreciate the industry-wide numbers but it doesn't it's meaningless when we're trying to make a decision about whether it's worth the destruction and the danger to have this facility in in that this on this parcel um then I'd like to know what the Acres Disturbed before and after and

083I might have missed that you might have said at the beginning and then to be careful about the Florida health side that said that you provided you addressed some concerns that usually means from an applicant's perspective that they've provided some answers there's no way to know whether those answers were actually um where those concerns were addressed from a Board of Health perspective or the member of the public perspective so did somebody talk about the number of Acres of trees before and after with the two different proposals you sure should just buy it yeah okay so about two-thirds less um not that I'm again happy with the proposal at all I just want to know the numbers thank you thank you any any other questions yes this is a question not a speech promised Michael Schultz

08424 brucewood Road I was gratified to see the improvements and safety that are being made for uh ESS systems I know the technology is uh evolving and I know it's getting better I also know though that it's only four or five years old so I just want to ask is anyone at Blue Wave prepared to say 100 percent that a massive thermal runaway explosion is impossible in the proposed the system I can't speak definitely for absolutes either 100 or zero percent that nothing will happen or yes something absolutely will happen um again I point to the incredible level of scrutiny and design standard that has been raised for these systems over the years um I think you and and are excuse me I'm speaking of the board um why many of Butters and the public

085have raised are the concerns and the Passover fires and all I can say is these systems have evolved quite a bit beyond the early days of of these systems um that doesn't mean events cancel happen and that's why the primary focus of design and standard certification nowadays goes to if something happens whether it be a fire event or localized or run away say to a cell or a group of cells within a unit that it doesn't spread or propagate and doesn't create a larger public health or safety concern thanks Josh I think I got my answer thank you next I am Don Hoban eight brucewood road to probably really quick questions what is in September City Waltham had an electrical surge caused by a faulty substation created Havoc within some homes and commercial buildings and

086also on some of their infrastructure I'm curious about what if any safeguards are in place for that and then secondly in North Carolina recently had what they think is an act of domestic sabotage and how vulnerable is the battery to something like that as well thank you briefly touching on those um so the system as a whole from a site perspective has multiple layers of protection against grid conditions such as over current conditions or irregular voltage conditions um as part of the interconnection with utility they have a set of equipment on their end um where if irregular conditions are detected they have shut-offs and load rate load brake disconnect we also are required by utility tariffs to have that same equipment prior before even getting to the system once you get to the system the

087inverters themselves are often equipped with over current settings there's very fine thresholds for what trips inverters to shut down a system and stop the battery from being charged with you know faulty conditions from the grid so there is a high degree of protection from any kind of great conditions that would shut the system off from the grid and prevent it from being charged or overcharged into concern and then on the second question you know where we also noted or saw the events in North Carolina for the substations that were the target of some shootings uh you know it's unfortunate to see and I think any uh any piece of infrastructure on the grid be it a sub private or public substation solar project those are all you know going to technically be exposed I mean

088these these projects are often cited in areas where they can be reached um you know one of the concerns of the Board of Health was put in some security systems and cameras uh extra security to ensure that people can't access the site as I mentioned as part of the ul9540 testing uh there are tests for penetrative penetrated tests for the cells such as a nail test to see what would happen if a if some kind of object were to penetrate the cell what happens to it um and is it still able to prevent the system as a whole thermal runaway and conditions from creative fire so we feel pretty good about the system safety from that perspective say if a similar projectile were to to do thank you John book is so good road there

089are two forms of forces of nature I'm worried about one or the Hundred Year storms that seem to happen every five ten years and the floods that come with them and my concerns for the batteries and also for the water supply or the runoff that might be affected by the second is lightning which seems not so much a worry if there are trees nearby but if we're moving away from trees I'd love you to comment on a way to Abate the the concerns of lightning my third force of nature is having taught two 16 year olds to drive and cars and cars hitting the batteries and perhaps shutting down an area so that people who are needing to drive in a parking lot stay far and Far Away those are my three concerns thank you

090so um Mass dep's from under standards for every project we're looking at 5 10 100 Year storm events um so we're again currently updating the stormwater calculations for our site making sure that um there is minimal or there's no concern from an increase in stormwater outflows uh just due to the new site design and the reduced uh limit of clearing the existing stormwater flows on site are going to change very little in terms of an increase to storm water flows again we're running those calculations but um just given the the much reduced clearing trees and changing the ground congregations we expect that to be very minimal uh and again per DP storm our standards you aren't allowed to increase storm water flows off-site in the event of 100 Year storm um we also are out

091of the flood zone so the nearest flood zone is to the east of the site um kind of in that Wetland system to the east it's about I think 152 foot elevation and our system and the parking lot would be at around 162 164 foot elevation um uh from a lightning perspective uh certainly a good question um as you mentioned there would be you know you would you you would think with uh the office building adjacent to the site much taller the trees off as well um that uh if there's any concern over lightning strikes in the area those are pretty tall trees um they might they're likely going to be if there were line strike in that property would be uh likely targeting the trees we'll certainly take our look and if there's a

092concern we have over uh potential lighting impacting the system which we currently don't have um you know we could propose lightning arresters or some similar equipment on site um and then finally the parking concern a parking lot concern again we have discussed this with the Board of Health we are proposing um uh concrete bollards on the system NFPA 855 also covers systems that are located in parking lots and uh what kind of bollards should be provided and Via vehicular obstructions to prevent you know concerns over collisions with the system this is an office parking lot um you know most of the current tenants use the northern side of the parking lot and again the system would be offset from the parking lot itself so we don't have concerns over uh traffic that's not used to

093drive around the system or the building coming in and out on a regular basis but certainly we would go through a process with the property owner to explain here's the system here's you know the setbacks if there's parking next to it you know who gets who uses it if it's supposed to be used by the tenants or by anyone using the office building or if not um and just making sure everyone's aware of the system and how to navigate around it thank you I have two questions I'm not sure if they can answer that or not from Real Estate point of view I would like to find out what is your arrangement with the owner of this piece is probably a long-term lease of the and if it's a long term I know sometimes company

094has like 50 years 100 years lease I'm just curious how long the arrangement I don't know if it's private information or not and then we know that companies come in and dissolve and the new entity what is the security build how the facility can go from one owner to the other owner so we know actually who is the owner because we neighborhood probably will stay there longer than 100 years and we would like to know who will own this stuff I don't know if it's private information or not but I think it's relevant to us thank you thank you um we do have a uh option to enter into a long-term lease with the property owner um at least would have an initial term for 20 years um it's possibility it could be extended beyond

095that with mutual agreement with the landowner um and the but the expected life of the batteries is 20 years in terms of ownership Blue Wave will be owned and operating this project if somehow the project will be sold in the future or change hands uh Blue Wave would be notifying the town providing updated information who is going to be that owner um you know what what are their credentials we don't want to just well first off these systems are sophisticated and you're not going to just be they're not going to be owned and operated by someone who's not familiar with them and how to operate them and whoever owns them is likely going to be owning operating many of them so uh but there would be all the information would be passed along to the

096town the property owner at any time of sale as to who that new owner will be updating contact information from an emergency response perspective as well as just an operational perspective as well yeah and yeah and certainly it could be a condition of any approval that we are required to notify the town um of any change in ownership um be it internal or external thank you prior to construction we would look to provide a decommissioning estimate to the town and then pull a bond for the amount of the decommissioned estimate escalated for 20 years in the future so whatever the cost estimated in 20 years then that Bond would be callable by both the town and the property owner so in the event if if you know extremely unlikely event the system were abandoned the

097town could could pull those funds to to remove the project thank you but it is blue as responsibility no matter what next and Janice Ward 32 brucewood wrote first of all someone did mention trees and lightning and you didn't seem to have a real answer for that this is called the woods neighborhood for a reason because there's a gazillion trees here it's a very wooden neighborhood it's very important to us second of all I feel like we have a bait and switch situation here the last time we came here you guys said oh we can move this facility over the other side of the property no problem don't worry I feel like I've been patted on the head and then told to go away we're going to take care of it and you've only moved

098it a hundred feet the third thing is you showed us a facility at the high school what size is that facility compared to the one you're talking about sure I do want to clarify we spoke at the Board of Health meeting about the possible relocation of the system we made it clear although we did desire to move it to potentially that the turnaround area as part of the subdivision that we still had to look into whether it was feasible from a planning perspective and with the property owner um we certainly don't desire or have no issue being switch anyone in the public or the boards were trying to work with the town in the and do our best to mitigate any and all concerns for the site from a design perspective in terms of the

099uh uh sorry uh I was excuse me about my blank on the second question um could you oh the size Excuse me yes thank you um the size of the system of the school um I believe is 11 megawatt hours so our system would be a total of 20 megawatt hours so um a five megawatt four hour battery so in terms of overall our project would be a little bigger um uh slightly more energy dense but in terms of overall footprint pretty similar thank you ma'am will you please come to the mic if you wish to do a follow-up well it's not really a follow it's my original question how many square feet of the High School site compared to this proposed site I don't have the square footage of the High School site on

100on hand I can can get that and and compare it um again uh I've been in high school so I just purely from my own estimation it would be similar but ours would likely be a little bigger but I can get the square footage comparison foreign I live in 26 Bruce Woodrow and my question is pretty much similar to the previous lady was asking so you moved aside by 100 feet and you said that the site further north west was not buildable have you looked into the parking lot between the building and the road too uh it can you build in that parking lot instead of uh you know just move the side by 100 feet so um the parking lot area that's between the building and Route two um we did ask the property

101owner if it'd be possible to put the system there um there's an extensive septic system underneath the parking lot um that basically renders the Northeast portion of the parking lot not buildable at the northwest corner of the parking lot is also uh you know puts you within the the 100 foot buffer the wetlands but um at this time we weren't able to work out and raise with the property and where we're able to cite the system in the parking lot but regardless of um that uh there really is just very limited space anywhere in the parking lot to put the system our first thought was in the northeast corner between Route 2 and the building but again um impacts the septic system would render us unable to put the system uh over on top of

102that so um the Eastern portion of the parking lot is is very tight you are also within the 200 foot buffer zone of the riverfront area closer to the wetlands and then the northwest corner is currently being utilized and then again we looked at that turn around area as well so we have talked with the property owner I think we sent over um close to 10 site conceptual designs to try to explore many options this is the one we've arrived at and that we feel is an improvement over the previous original design um and um you know uh further sets back the system from those those Residential Properties well I can I can I can tell you that a lot of my neighbors like took the Comfort like hey that stuff is close close it's

103very far away from from our neighborhood I mean tonight and I I still feel very uncomfortable you just moved about 100 feet and call that that's done that's not not really much uh you know to the safety of my my neighborhood so thank you thank you um David do we have people online wishing to speak okay yes we have uh Matt we have any online comments oh yes Mr chair there are three raised hands do you want me to call on them now yes please first up is William you should be able to speak okay Matt move on next up is Charlie you should be able to sleep okay Matt let's move on do we have anyone else one more Rachel Wilson Rachel you should be able to see hello can you guys hear me

104yes all right excellent so Rachel Wilson 12 brucewood Road um I I too I'm a bit disappointed that it's not in the parking lot as discussed at the Board of Health meeting but I I'd like to know how many trees um and if they don't know at this time if they could include it when they put up the final uh site plan or do they plan to remove I know that they mentioned the you know a row of ornamental trees along the parking lot but how far into the woods if at all do they need to remove the trees and if possible could they flag out the area they plan to remove trees from so that folks could go and get some sort of visual um and that that's pretty much all my questions at

105this moment okay thank you thank you um I know we provide an estimate of the number of trees uh per the limit of work footprint previously we can provide an updated estimate on that and we can also uh it's also been a request from the Board of Health uh weekends are only look to flag flag the area of the system okay thank you um so I presume that you're going to be looking for a continuance based on we don't have information we can deal with at this point uh Lisa or John can we look at a possible time for a continuance uh uh Kristen gishaard is here too if you have any input on that Kristen virtually Christian if you wish to speak yes hi there sorry about that I was just gonna mention I

106I have no comments at this time um but once we receive the plans we'll make sure to review them and send them to the review engineer for their uh we have the storm water system um I would request that we have um at least um you know at least three beats given the holiday week approaching um in order to get that over to gcg to peer reviewer okay thank you so coming up we have January 9th and January 23rd looks like January 23rd David uh Mr chair I move to continue this hearing until January 23rd at 7 10 pm in this place January 23rd I can't believe you can't hear me Mike 7 10 p.m January 23rd in this in this room all in favor say aye aye opposed abstentions gentlemen we'll see you in

107a couple of weeks thank you thank you Mr chairman thank you okay um next we have another another hearing which we're only uh about 35 minutes late on the select Board of the town of Acton has the cable the select Board of the town of Acton has the cable television license issuing authority will hold the cable license for seating pursuant to section 626 h of the federal cable act 47 USC section four five five four six H informal licensing process on Monday December 19 2022 at 7 30 pm at Acton town hall room 204 472 Main Street Acton Mass regarding the renewal of the cable license cable television license at Verizon New England Inc remote participation use the link to join the public meeting actonma.gov meeting slash SB or from telephone dial 646 -876-9923 and

108in a webinar ID number 503-918-785 telephone users may dial Star 7 to request to speak computer and app users may use the raised hand featured request to speak copy of the proposed renewal license as updated prior to the proceeding will be available for a view in the town manager's office and also available online as doc Dot actin-ma.gov dsweb View slash collection -16148 after December 14 2022. welcome Richard Logan cable advisory committee uh I submitted a presentation I don't know if you have it available if not I'll just read from my notes Mark do we have I don't think we have that I emailed it uh I think it was early today because we still had to meet with Verizon so you may not have seen the email yet I think I do sorry about that

109okay so uh cable television renewal license granted to Verizon New England uh next slide so the summary is uh we're renewing the license the previous license was I believe a 15-year license this license is going to start when we get it finalized we do have one open item that we need to clear up with them this week we did talk to them this morning but hopefully we can get it to get it done and start the license on 2023 to 2028 it is a five-year license what is unusual compared to previous licenses of 10 to 15 years uh the previous license was from October 2006 expired in 2021 and like everything else in the world was delayed due to covert next so it's a five-year term they do have an out uh after 31 months

110they can give us 180 days notice if they want to get out of the business but that doesn't forgive them from any of the money for Capital uh naturally the subscription subscriber money would change dramatically they'll continue to maintain existing drop and Outlet basic cable service and no charge to the town or schools as requested one drop per location next slide there's a little change in the positive of the public access channels previously we had three analog channels which uh with both Verizon and Comcast over time we've tried to get changed to standard definition digital they the actin TV is actually been supplying them that way for a while but getting the cable companies to accept a real digital uh signal what they were doing was down converting it to analog and then back up

111again which if you've watched some of the presentations you see it messes up the signal they're actually getting a better signal than it looks like from Acton TV but in addition to those three channels becoming digital uh they're going to give us one HD channel and uh it's on us to decide what we want to do with that do we want to make it a fourth Channel do we want to make it uh just the public the educational of the government channel do we want to switch it depending on important events happening on one of the three original channels next please uh this first bullet is just talking about the payments that we get you know they technically the payments to the town but the town has a memorandum of understanding with Acton TV to

112pass on the money the revenue payments based on your cable bill to the town or acting TV is five percent gross annual revenue that's set by state law it's also a license fee equal to 50 cents per prescriber um again the Massachusetts sat down why they separated it back in the day I don't know but so it's 50 purpose subscriber and then five percent depending on the total of everybody's bill in Acton uh the capital funding is TBD we were asking them to come up their offer was two hundred thousand dollars and that's been calculated by the the town special counsel for uh cable licenses it's based on uh the fact that they're asking for a shot or license so we asked for a markup from what you know would be three-fifths or three tenths

113of the previous kind of license based on subscribers um we've had an ass they've made an offer of two hundred thousand uh we met with them asking for more we went again this morning we have a number that dear lawyer thinks they'll accept and that I think you'll accept and we should be getting an update on that this week and then if that's the case we would ask to appear again at your I believe there's a meeting on the 30th to get actual vote on approval of the contract um beyond the current cable license this is uh stuff that we presented to you uh only a few weeks ago for the Comcast so I won't go over it in detail but what I would like to say is uh put both the Comcast and Verizon

114license you see getting renewed the revenue and the capital money is not something you're going to see a lot of going forward there is a lot of cord cutting going on if you look at the peak of Verizon's numbers it was around 2012 there were nearly 5 000 subscribers um the numbers today is slightly below three thousand so you know people are people are cutting the cord uh not to get off of a tangent but people have been asking forever for a la carte on cable mostly the the big content providers like ABC and Disney enforce the cables companies not to do that and people don't want to be paying for 1500 channels they don't watch so now people starting to cut the cord and subscribe to the stuff they want and that's going to

115continue and so um a time in acting TV need to start now and not wait five or ten years for those licenses to expire to see what if any funding is going to be available are sponsorships or whatever but um from the cable committee's point of view we need to start now I figured out what we're going to do about that um next is just backup information if you have any questions I have a few slides of backup but that's generally where we're at all the other language in the contract is agreed upon between the committee and Verizon the five percent the 50 50 cents per subscriber is set in stone with the state so it's just the capital money that we're hoping to get a few thousand more out of them above their 200

116000 office so that will get off to a good start with the capital money from Comcast and Verizon and going forward you know we know that's gonna dwindle dramatically okay thank you just to clarify to the board the town manager and I have spoken about possibility of having a short virtual meeting on December 30th um to deal with this and any other time sensitive matters that might occur John do you want to update us on that I was hoping to avoid that meeting but we'll certainly do whatever we have to do to get things done by the end of the year I don't have I don't have an update other than we'll we'll make it work if we have to okay thank you my understanding is we we do have to vote on this before

117the end of the calendar year Well we want to get it in uh otherwise there'll be changes the contract as far as dates and things like that and because of covet and other things corporately outside of our control it's dragged on for quite a while we want to get it closed okay thank you David hi thank you very much a very good presentation um can you tell me what the peg Capital money is used for well the peg is the the three channels you see from Acton TV public channel the educational Channel and the government Channel and actin TV is generally used to upgrade equipment thank you okay other question Jim um yeah thanks I I've been learning a lot from these presentations hopefully I won't forget it all over the next five years but

118yeah it's okay you'll come back and re-educate us um so we did get a a summary from you know attorney William Solomon yes um maybe you've seen that too that one last December dated December 15. and um a strange thing about it uh was it mentioned a peg access Studio at 686 South Street which sounded like some other Town um so it sounds like a cotton paste art yeah so I was worried that there might be other errors there because of the you know if that was wrong you know we didn't know what else might be wrong so uh that might be worth taking a look at between now and the 30th just to make sure we don't have any like you know incorrect information here thanks wow thank you Hamilton thank you um yes

119one quick question so you did mention that this is a shorter contract um I'm wondering if you know why Verizon is pitching a shorter contract um or to the best of your knowledge um why that's the case well Verizon hasn't disclosed their corporate strategy per se to us but it's it's pretty obvious to us that it's because of cord cutting and the the subscribers on cable dwindling that a lot of cable companies are looking at um either having you get Broadband from them and then they will get into the content business which I've already seen articles in the past few weeks Verizon looking to acquire some of the content companies and there's also technical talk going on that everything might just go to 5G and you would have a 5G box in your house and

120get the same content but because of law technicalities it wouldn't be cable but you would be able to get the same kind of service so what what Verizon is putting putting their bets down on I can't say percentage-wise but I'm guessing it would end up being broadband and content okay thank you other comments from the board comments from the audience yeah uh speaking of Errors the first slide said five years through December 31 2028 it should be 2027. uh 2023 4567 if it's going to end on December 31 it should be 2027 not 2020. thank you John I have a comment um and I understand attorney Solomon's here in the virtual room too but I would just uh reiterate what I mentioned at the the last cable uh hearing is that uh and it was

121just mentioned also here that we need to identify a strategy for funding this valuable service that's provided in broadcasting our government meetings and town meeting all the things that acting TV does for us because if there if everybody's cost is going a little bit up every year right and their revenue is going in the opposite direction and so it's gonna something that needs to be discussed at here in town and with acting TV and that needs to be sorted out in the next few years so that we're not stuck thank you too bad you've already submitted your budget John David yes attorneys Allman yes hi how are you thank you could you be here let me um put this up so just a few items um one is we've got over the buyer's license fairly

122carefully I wasn't sure where the reference was to the studio if it was in the license or the summary to correct it if it's incorrect but what I do is I check these over against other licenses on its own someone's wondering where the reference was the studio certainly correct it if it's there [Music] um on page two of your summary oh okay where it says Peg engine connection and cable casting it has 686 oh okay yeah and you know my expiration only and not uh is that uh when we're putting this together deciding what to do today for this hearing I I put the summary together quickly uh uh before the agenda went out so you know I always use a template rather than read topic itself the the level of work on that summary

123is very vastly different than the level of work on the uh the license itself but that's I just took a look at the license that has the correct Craigslist street address but thank you for pointing that out just a few thoughts um it was about five years ago I told Wall Street that they were getting out of the Cable business you know they they prefer to if they see it do streaming video in their perfect world they would have all customers as a wireless customer even though this fiber behind it and you know the the leadership of the company has tried to pursue that and the way they pursue that with the friend the folks who worked for them on licensing cable franchising both nationally and uh Council or East Coast Council but out of

124out of Massachusetts is to try to uh limit their commitments to a cable license because of the leadership of the company has a dream of transitioning that dream really wouldn't might require 5G small sell hot spots that's something that has been delayed so the five years really represents they're wanting to have flexibility going forward but I do think that there that they're overly optimistic if they about their transition because they have a good business and it's appreciated by those who who have cable and while there are people who do cut or shave the core they still have a significant Cable business that enacted and elsewhere that provides significant Revenue that a company doesn't necessarily just want to give up so it really represents their goal for flexibility rather than an immediate intent to change something

125and that's why they're continuing to license but but would like that three year out as mentioned uh by the chair exchange for the three or out they provide five years of capital funding in three years um and um and additionally uh into their credit they understand that for that flexibility since the town's not always enter in agreements where there's different terms and apply uh or different parties they provide a a premium so the capital number okay Capital number of Verizon represents both the greater number of Verizon subscribers over Comcast it represents uh some level of premium in addition to what what paper Comcast in exchange for that uh flexibility um and I also would require the town to re-license again going forward where otherwise it wouldn't have to um I guess that's allows to the

126meeting on December um 30th is it uh you have before you you had the draft license uh the only thing that would be different in that license other than maybe a tweak or two where we were driving what what I had versus what Verizon had to match what was agreed to would be the capital dollar number so it would be the same as you now have before you so that um I I and having me having had the hearing today I anticipate that the meeting on on the 30th for purposes of the cable manner to take no more than 10 minutes if that unless there's some you know significant discussion that doesn't happen here so that I think it would be very very quick and I think this Advantage is to getting things done in

1272012 because sometimes large corporations decisions are made at higher levels and the most decisions domain it's harder for the to finalize what the folks Below have been working on so I think it's in the town's interest to complete this this year uh so the town has the certainty of the license it's negotiated and I'd be happy to answer any questions I guess the only other thing I'd say is that with respect to the funding of both the Comcast and Verizon license these these licenses are the top two or three percent of all cable licenses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and that's a tribute to your cable committee and to your administrative staff and Technical Staff Mark Hall uh uh um in that and uh oh look who you who's that prior chair and the rest

128of the committee and this license really represents the best not only in terms of licenses represent uh the the Leading Edge on on the on the legal issues making sure that the terms that the town has negotiated are fulfilled uh during the license term so it's a very strong license financially and and legally okay thank you thank you great uh so have you ever heard from the public I guess we have I guess yes thank you show any other questions from the board okay um Sean I guess we'll have to work with you on how we end up doing that final vote so you would continue the hearing or you would close the hearing and then just vote I think you can close the hearing light that'll be easier okay okay yeah close the hearing

129and you know we're going to hear from Verizon I believe as early as tomorrow if we don't have an agreement with the Verizon that we wouldn't have a meeting if we do have an agreement with Verizon then discussion of you know five ten minute meeting would be all that you would need to to take the final vote David Mr chair I move that we closed the Verizon cable license hearing second okay moved in second dead to close Verizon hearing commentary all in favor of closing these Verizon hearing please say aye opposed abstentions okay we're closed all right um and we are at 8 30 and now we will entertain residents concerns any concerns that are not addressed in the uh in the agenda anyone has any comments please come forward yes this is must have

130again um I have a concern about appointing James fujiani to a full um to the planning board at all but directly to full bypassing people who have been on the committee um but I I I feel like based on the history I've seen of his professional life that he I love the idea of age friendly that's awesome but I feel like age friendly where it's already being built as opposed to age friendly trying to promote new business I see a new building the organization he works for apparently is a smart growth Alliance partner he's presented in smart growth conferences to be able to present at a smart growth conference I know because I applied and went through the process you've got to have an organization that is a smart growth partner to be a smart

131growth partner you have to be silent on the matters that the other partners advocate so you either have to support it or you have to be silent and one of those the main reason the smart growth Alliance exists is New Growth so I have concerns to appoint effectively a professional advocate for New Growth or silent on New Growth I feel like that's an inappropriate or bad decision bad thing to do so I hope that um in the case that my suspicions are wrong or in the case to give us some time to investigate further to have him come and talk about his stances whether he can be balanced on the idea of destroying Acres of trees for you know single family or multi-family whatever it is that is there's a reason for it that's a

132community need as opposed to just satisfying the market so I hope that you hold his appointment and give us time to get him here and ask questions of him so that we can feel as a as a public that he would have a balanced view relative to the master plan in other community goals as opposed to being really focused on his own goals and his partner's goals thank you any other resident concerns yes good evening Martin Benson 21 Deacon Hunt Drive um during residence concerns at the October 17 2022 select board meeting I suggested it was improper for Mr Martin to issue an inflammatory public statement on behalf of the deic regarding the September lockdown at the high school I reminded the community that Mr Martin has a history of issuing statements on behalf of

133the town which fit his predetermined narrative without first waiting until all the facts have been disclosed publicly for example soon after the zoom bombing Mr Martin worked with Mr manjarati and Mr light to push the false narrative that Colonial mascot supporters were responsible Mr Martin responded verbatim during his member minute by saying quote first of all all of the things in Mr Benson's opening statement that called out me explicitly were wrong to say that none of them were correct and quote Mr Martin there are dozens of your emails as well as your own comments on public record which prove otherwise while on the select board you have made multiple false accusations against members of our community as a reminder and as an elected official you are held to a higher standard when it comes to

134libel slander and defamation of character secondly despite file and three appeals to this with the Secretary of State I still have yet to receive from the town a response to my records request of April 20th 2022 compliant with the public records law the town still has not cited the legal exemption for any of the redactions found in the release documents a fourth appeal will be submitted if the town does not fulfill This legal requirement third tonight this board is going to consider removing a member from the 250th anniversary committee due to hurtful Behavior therefore I'm requesting this board add an agenda item for their next meeting to discuss removing Mr manjarati from the 250 committee as he too has displayed hurtful Behavior directed at members of our community while overseeing the zoom bombing investigation Mr

135manjarati colluded a superintendent light to spread false conspiracy theories insinuating the colonial mascot supporters caused the attack prior to the zoom bombing they intended to hire an outside agency called Visions to conduct meetings with elected leaders so they would disregard Mr light's unethical behavior and instead unite around the predetermined retirement decision the pair saw the zoom bombing as their opportunity to push for Visions after spreading these false conspiracy theories Mr manjarati purposely withheld information exonerating Colonial mascot supporters for the sole purpose of promoting the need to work with visions in March of 2021 Mr manjarati falsely claimed he could provide no further updates regarding the police investigation even though the police report was considered a public record in addition to falsely blaming mascot supporters for the zoom bombing and then inappropriately withholding the investigative results

136Mr manjarati also engaged in convert efforts to de-emphasize Acton's Colonial history with only Mr Martin's knowledge and not that of the entire select board Mr manjarati hired Community circles to conduct diversity and inclusion training for Town staff based on the premise that anger over the colonial mascot change led to the zoom bombing following the training Community circles issued a memo emailed to town staff and not CC to the select board recommending the town conduct a quote review for unintended Colonial symbolism furthermore Mr manjarati has displayed breathtaking level of disregard and disrespect for Our Town Heroes interred at the Town common he is on multiple occasions gone beyond his scope as Town manager and authorized the illegal desecration of the gravesite housing our nation's first veterans despite the hurt felt by many residents he has never

137issued a formal apology Mr manjarati's participation on the committee will only bring Division and controversy given the hurt he has caused to so many individuals his false allegations resulted in a considerable number of acting citizens feeling unsafe from the coordinated attacks by the school system town government and social media these residents shouldn't have to relive this trauma during the 250th anniversary Mr manjarati should immediately step down or be removed from the committee lastly Mr manjarati could you please answer this one question during your update was any representative from John Guilfoyle public relations firm involved in the planning or production of the school district statement on December 18 2020. thank you um other resident concerns I fully expect a coordinated attorney by David Martin and others to sabotage Dave lunger's appointment with the 250 committee it

138will consist of a combination of Lies half truths Hyperbole and vile accusations sure I will say more during that agenda item but want to use my time and citizens concerns to point out the various untruths that he continually spouts first a couple of meetings ago he accused me without naming me you know concession of dissing black people it was a violent defamatory thing to say more so because it was a lie I will never forget that more recently when Daniel gilfix confronted him about unequal treatment given to him and another speaker he doubled down on his own troops even on the exact minute and second on the videos pointed out to him and this is what he said at the last meeting in response to Dean Charter during the discussion about allowing public input remotely

139slightly paraphrasing in the interest of time quote we used to all our public and put a DIC meetings but a small group of people about three would come on for weeks in a row and say things which would get some members of the committee in tears it's exhausting to deal with statements that there is no such thing as racism in acting again and again and again that we've never had a problem in that mixed slurs on our streets again and again and again that actions like shooting Asian women in Atlanta was not a racist act again and again and again those things are exhausting for members to deal with people who are saying things that were demonstrably false and attacking people on the committee I chose to protect the members of the deic by not

140allowing any input only send email the policy was to account from abusive members of the committee unquote did you hear that several long sentences every single one of them a blatant lie he could disprove any of those sentences by being bringing forth audio on our video evidence from the meetings but he never has and he never will because these things never happen who are these three horrendous people who abuse committee members and brought them to tears is he referring to me Charlie I don't know Leo I mean who who are they whoever they are shouldn't these three be shamed in public the way you plan to shape shame Dave linger Dave longer in a few minutes to the rest of you select board members your fiduciary responsibility is to the citizens of act and not

141to each other so the next time an assertion is made by one of your colleagues in Open Session that is questionable at best I hope you ask for evidence before accepting it at face value thank you thank you any other president concerns all right moving on Town manager update thank you um I spent a lot of time on the microphone early so I'll be brief I want to recognize some long standing and very valuable members of our organization that will be retiring in the near future our police chief Rich Burrows he'll be retiring at the end of this year he's been the chief here for five years and before that he came on as our Deputy he's shown a lot of leadership and brought some really important initiatives forward related to community policing and school

142resource officers and the clinical co-response and he was instrumental in getting the department accredited again which is a is a big honor and shows a lot of professionalism for police departments I also want to recognize three pillars in the finance department that are going to be moving on in the next few weeks Finance director Treasurer Steve Barrett served this community since 2000 as its Finance director will miss Steve sharp Financial skills dedicated leadership and warm personality Brian McMullen the assistant Finance director principal assessor he served the committee since 1992 and has been a key part of the financial leadership he also has been a champion and an advocate for people in need which has been a really important part of his role here in the town of Acton and Lisa wojic Our Town accountant she's

143worked here since 1993. she's been a big part of the financial operations for many years she was appointed as a town accountant in 2012. she brings a wealth of knowledge she's a critical part of the operations she's a very thoughtful and dedicated co-worker so it's going to be a lot of change in the finance department and I just want to thank them and congratulate them on their retirement and wish them the best and just thank them for their service to the community thank you uh it's any select board member wish to make any comments Fran I just wanted to give an update that I attended yet another court of honor this one was in Sudbury for troop 12. um Anna Campbell Acton's own Anna Campbell is the first Eagle for the town of Acton and

144we it was such a nice and moving ceremony they pinned her with her grandfather's pin which I thought was so so moving and I just thought I'd give an update thank you David thank you again everything Mr Benson said about me is incorrect it's factually incorrect tonight and Mr dattar which you said that uh and when we were discussing the 250 committee you brought up the 1619 project and criticized the 69 team project I didn't do that thank you other members Jim sure a couple couple little things um foreign driving here um really nice lights in front of town hall it reminded me of how I just left my house having sung the blessing over the second night of Hanukkah another another Festival that happens right around this time of year and you know remembering

145that I was driving here in the dark I was recalling that December 7th was the earliest the sunset is going to get and we're already on the sunset side of things not on the sunrise side of things but on the sunset side of things it's getting lighter and you know there's there's all these festivals right around this time of year to um acknowledge the um both the terror and the Miracle of it getting darker and darker and then finally getting lighter and lighter so I just wish happy holidays to everyone and a lot of light um a couple of other little things um so Tara mentioned James fuccioni I've had a number of exchanges with him this this weekend and uh based on Tara's concerns so I'm enthusiastic about his appointment but for the purpose

146of having uh you know an open conversation about it I'll I'll happily you know pull it off the consent agenda and let people know what what what my findings were in talking with him um and oh yeah yeah one last thing um we've got a great update from uh the select board got a nice update from John on progress on what's now called the uh the Legacy Tree Project which is um uh six to eight uh sections of trees uh large trees rescued during the initial clearing and cutting of large trees uh in Kelly's Corner those are now you know in the custody of the DPW and staff are assigned to work on what happens next the notion is that you know if we can take large trees and not chip them up we we

147don't lose all that carbon that they've sequestered and we also honor uh you know these long long lived trees that have been that have been growing for a while um and I just wanted to thank John and his staff for beginning to work on that uh you know reaching out to to mil to Millers to understand you know how they could be cut up into Lumber reaching out to different departments about um you know what what needs could be filled by wood this is Red Oak so if you need if you have ideas about the use of large Red Oak let me know I'm happy to pass it on to staff or just contact John directly I'm excited to see this project unfold thanks thank you comments from any other members of the board all

148right um the update that I will share with you is at least until the end of this board we reorganize after town meeting as as everyone knows so my intention would be that we will continue to entertain comments from the audience in person and virtually for all select board meetings until that time when the boards reorganized and that will be obviously a board decision and certainly the new chair can weigh in on that so at least until somewhere around May 2nd or May 3rd we'll continue to entertain virtual comments to the select board and hopefully for all other boards and committees that finishes my update I think we'll move ahead with our next pieces of business item six discuss concerns regarding appointment of David lunger to the 250 committee now I'd like to caution folks

149a bit I know emotions are running high on this whole issue so I would like to limit comments uh to a reasonable length of time two or three minutes maximum per speaker I think it's important that we focus on the issues and we don't Focus so much on the personalities I think regardless of what the decision is made regarding this longer's continued position on the 250 committee I think we have to realize that he is a member of the community and deserves some respect for that um I think all the rest of us deserve respect as well so I would I have never yet had to use a gavel but I'm certainly prepared to do so now if uh if I think that things are going off the deep end so the way I'd like

150to proceed with this is uh Imaging raised the issue of Mr lunger's suitability to the board so I'd like to have her introduce this issue um speak to it for a moment or two and uh then I would like to open it up for uh Mr lunger to make some comment back then we'll have each of the selected wood members can speak regarding it and only at that point we will open it up to the audience after we get suitable discussion of everyone's views from the audience and from the board I'll give Mr lunger another two minutes to recap and then we will discuss the whole matter just amongst the members of the board and presumably there'll be a motion and a vote at that point so image would you like to introduce the matter

151thank you yes so for a little bit of context we did receive a note from a Community member outlining concerns of Dave lunger's appointments specifically on some of the public comments that he had made specifically on social media around a a few conspiracy theories around overthrowing the government and also those related to anti-lgbtq plus stances um upon receiving this letter we then um decided to put this on the agenda just to have a more open and honest discussion we've also posted a few of the letters that we had gotten from residents either in support of or against Dave lunger's appointment so that's the context of what people know the research that I've done on my end has been focused on understanding the legal ramifications and what we as a committee or what we as a

152board can do since we have already approved Dave lunger's appointment I will say that for me and I'll speak personally I have very close family and friends who identify with being lgbtq Plus so seeing those comments was at like it it it made me feel really really upset and I'm I and I don't identify as part of the community and so I think that it it was something that really it really affected me and I know that it affected people who do identify at the end of the day actin should be a safe space for everyone and the people that we have on our boards and committees should be as the chair said adhering to basic respect for each other um and so I think that that was something that um was really really frustrating

153to see um but I will say that moving forward one thing that we should talk about as a board is how do we address these concerns in the future as well because this isn't going to be this isn't this shouldn't just be an isolated conversation around one appointment this should be about how can we as a board set some guidelines and parameters for what we're looking at what could be our code of conduct for people serving on our committees and working with organization like working with the VCC for example to make sure that you know if we do want to update our vetting processes what that looks like but I'll stop there um because I'd really like to hear about what the board thinks um but also residents who are here who have something to

154say would really want to hear their thoughts hey thank you Mr lunger would you care to make some comments okay I have three issues to touch on this evening on this agenda item for the purposes of mending and healing first on the references to the United States government second on the inclusion of indigenous people into the 250th anniversary story and third on my tweets of concern to the lgbtq community on the first point I wholeheartedly Revere The Guiding document the Constitution of the United States for America what has been referred to as the 5 000 year leap and have always been intrigued by and Drawn to its history it must be continually strengthened taught and celebrated and here we have a perfect opportunity to do so in 15 years from now I hope and pray

155that acting then forms a 250th Constitution signing anniversary committee for September 17 2037. on the second point perhaps not directly stated in the agenda item information the packet that was included regarding the inclusion of indigenous peoples into the 250th anniversary story over the past few months I've observed concord's 250 committee already humming with activity since at least 2022 early 2022. consists of at least nine subcommittees and one top level committee at least 100 concordians are currently involved and it looks like more will become involved as the months and years go by while the main focus is on the events of the Concord bridge on April 19th Concord does have members that represent and promote the inclusion of stories of native indigenous peoples I believe concord's 250 committee can and should be one for which actin

156can strive for as a model of comport and emulate it should clearly include indigenous peoples as part of a of a part of the story to be told taught dialogued and celebrated on the third point and in heartfelt sincerity I want to express sorrow for and apologies to those hurt by my tweets out of respect for an agreement with feedback I have deleted those offensive posts that maligned lgbtq I will be more conscientious and prudent in my future posts and memes all that conions must feel welcome and actually be welcome to participate in the 250th anniversary story unfolding here over the next three years thanks for listening thank you so at this point uh I'll ask for comments from other members of the select board David so I'd like to um well first I'd like

157to thank Ms Perot who pointed out the social media's media post to us that you felt were incompatible with the 250 committee um uh Mr lunker sent us a written response um before today in which he attacked Miss Peru hit and and others and um and I'd like to note that she didn't make any accusations at all she just used his own posts and explained the context of those posts now let's talk a little bit about his posts you know he said the diet that he's he's um sorry about making the um anti-lgbt TQ post of which there were quite a number I want to point out a couple of things that the 250 committee includes a statement of inclusion in the charge of the committee and in addition last year the slick board voted

158to place this statement of respect for all on the select board page on the town's website um the select board values all actin's residents any type of hurtful speech or action targeting anyone for who they are is unacceptable here including racism anti-Semitism ethnic slurs homo transphobia ableism Etc respect for everyone is respect for everyone is expected in all interactions in our community in one of his posts in addition to just degradating people gay people or trans people he Advocates well he says that he Associates gayness with pedophilia I'd like to note that 90 percent of pedophiles more than 90 percent of pedophiles are straight men the association of gay people with pedophilia is incites violence towards those people we know that it's happened multiple times in our country and why someone would push a false

159narrative that they know it's been the news for years now incites violence I can't imagine you know I appreciate Mr longer's apology tonight but you know for me one apology doesn't do it um and let's let's talk about the the Patriotic nature of this committee right so this this committee to me is a patriotic celebration of the creation uh uh of the creation of our our country um and making plans for that in in one of uh Mr longer's posts he um posts a top eight list of ideas of things to do on a date and the the end of the list uh says to protest the police start a militia and overthrow our country now maybe he considers that to be some kind of sick joke I don't know but to me that's certainly

160not not patriotic and put in the context of his other tweets it's it's very troubling right so he also has tweets that says um uh no black pilling military now is the only way trust the plan nothing can stop what is coming nothing and over the next few months as the screws tighten even further screws over lockdowns boosters infiltration Market downturns War around the globe the best news nothing can stop but is coming nothing WWE you know and they're they're more right I'm just I selected the two here that were in uh Ms Pro hits uh note um uh I found more um uh you know to me these are calling for military action against the United States um uh you know he says he's in favor of the Constitution but he's not in favor

161of the current government um so I uh you know let me let me say one other thing if I if I was uh I'll say two other things right I know other people who have been nominated for this committee who I know their social media posts and they're troubling to me right they they maybe advocate for causes or various things that I that are troubling to me I I didn't and I'm not going to object to those people being on this committee because what they have what they had dealt with in their social media post doesn't directly affect this committee but the Patriotic nature of this committee means that attacks on our government are directly applicable right I wouldn't uh proposed that someone who's an anti-vaxxer be nominated to our Board of Health in the

162same way I'm not going to not say that someone who's against the United States or Advocates again and again in post for military action against the United States is a patriotic could be a patriotic member of this committee you know when when Mr longer when we were forming the committee Mr lunger Rose to make comments about educating the world about the American Revolution to me at that time it sounded like uh indoctrination he was advocating in Dr indoctrination it made me uncomfortable but I decided to put it aside um and um and when we appointed him as a 250 member and I didn't know about this you know so I voted for him at that time however now that his social media is uh posts have come to light um uh those indoctrination comments are

163more troubling to me and his continued membership in the committee is incompatible with its purpose thank you comments from other members of the committee Jim um so I look forward to hearing from the rest of the board and from the public this has been a really troubling issue for me um I but I I should say up front that my my default for now is to Advocate that we take no action that Dave Dave continues his membership on the on the 250 committee and that um that this discussion is useful because now you know we're we're learning about um you know beliefs that he has and people can watch out for that on the committee um some other quick thoughts um being on the committee is not a reward um it's not a it's not

164a prize um it's a lot of work so people that are willing to do the work I want them on that committee I know that um there are people with a really wide spectrum of beliefs serving on actin committees and they managed to get along for the most part I've been on some committees I've been on well I was on one committee where we did finally you know seek to have someone removed and it worked because they were being actually disruptive um so Dave is is currently on a committee that has 11 voting members uh so I'm not concerned about if he does advocate for some view that's way out of the mainstream I I'm not concerned about it because he's going to get out voted um and um if he's being disruptive in some

165way then just like any other member of the committee the chair and the committee can intervene to either you know initially give feedback about disruption and then ultimately if the disruption continues to ask ask us as the board to remove him so my my standard is about Behavior not about um you know as as we looked a few years ago at a different uh board member uh our our stance was it's not our business to be monitoring social media and what people say um so and I I still think that's true um his posts were I mean inflammatory uh hurtful um and so I appreciate the apology um I think I think Behavior counts a behavior is an apology an apology is a behavior and accounts you know we'll see we'll see where it goes

166but to me that that's meaningful um that's it I'm looking forward to the rest of the conversation thank you brother comments friend I didn't write any organized thoughts down um but I a few questions uh can I if I can direct this at him Aja I didn't know I'd love to have the conversation about the process of removing someone from a committee um I was uh sorry um I was looking through the town Charter and I and I found nothing so I would love love to learn more about that I don't know if John can speak to that um I I know in person even so um I think I think I think these tweets are so egregious to me that I can't even comprehend someone even wanting to be a part of the 250th

167celebration um they're they're just Direct in direct opposition to to what the 250 should stand for um and you know Concord always starts things earlier so we we don't need to worry about them but I think that we need to we received a letter talking about precedence and I think that if we don't start setting this as precedent then I mean working toward inclusivity and Equity is is Paramount Thank you images yeah friend it's a really good question um So based on my understanding but I'd love to hear from Town Council as well is that technically we can vote to remove um a person from a committee since we have the authority of appointing someone um but to my understanding the what we do need to have a conversation about is how do we how

168do we navigate for example our board you know representing the town of Acton as Government how do we work to ensure that First Amendment rights are being protected but that they're not being abused so for example in this case would these tweets um and the potential violence and feelings of severe unsafety that people might feel based on reading these tweets could that be viewed more as conduct which then exempts it from uh First Amendment because first amendment is primarily about speech um I think that that's that's something we would need to have a conversation about with Town counseling yeah I would love to hear your thoughts on that thank you Nina no problem Nina Pickering cook Town Council good evening so the the you were um right but you skipped kind of an important component

169of this which is um cause for removal so uh typically unless you're by law and and as voted by town meeting or your Charter sets forth that you can remove someone with or without cause you typically would need you have removal Authority certainly of a board you create in a point but you should have cause before you remove someone now um that action so it's to avoid acting in kind of an arbitrary or capricious manner right you're on one day you're off the next you know that's chaos so um what I think image is getting at is what would constitute cause for removal from a committee um I think if um certainly new information coming to light could be the basis for a cause if going forward now you all decided to seat the appointed

170member um that that old conduct you're now aware of would not be considered cause anymore but additional um concerning conduct in meetings or writings could also be seen as a good cause for removal now when you get into issues of whether someone's speech is protected or not it really depends on the Forum the speech was in was it in a public meeting was it him as an individual him speaking as part of the committee I mean there's just a whole host of factors that go into that analysis that it would really be um have to be contextualized in order to give an answer as to whether that speech is protected or not but typically a public officials have um your speech is less protected than just an ordinary citizen so that means more restrictions can

171be put on that speech um through codes of conduct or otherwise does that answer it questions I had was um with this with our board um when we appoint or in this case choose to remove someone um in terms of how we as a board navigate that is it okay for us to based on you know so I guess my question is um understanding that people with differing opinions serve on committees but in this case I would argue this goes beyond just the fact of differing opinions this goes into whether we're making vulnerable communities feel unsafe is there a distinction between that in legal terms and like how how would we navigate that if that makes sense okay so so is your question whether [Music] um whether there's any legal guidance for you all about

172whether how to appoint and whether to a point or whether you would have liability if you did appoint someone it's the liability that I'm primarily questioning about no Mr Martin hi thank you two two quick things um uh I presume we're not interfering with uh Mr Lumber or anyone else's Free Speech rights by just not allowing them to be on a committee right I'm you can post whatever he wants to post right correct but we don't have to take him on our committee correct and and the and the second thing um uh the the statement that we adopted last year which I read during my remarks um uh are the the town's uh statement of respect for all um a violation of that the last sentence here he says respect for every everyone is expected

173and all interactions are in our community you know that also was caused right to not include someone on the on a committee well that would be when I was thinking about cause it was it was cause to remove someone from a committee so you don't have a standard or a threshold that's set forth in your bylaws or or I I don't know I don't think even in your board policies which states um uh uh threshold or litmus test to get on a committee but when you're talking about cause um to remove someone from a committee certainly a violation of ethics bylaws Town policies that would all be relevant and so if you if you were to take that step I would just advise you to document as clearly as you could what factors you are

174considering in that removal thank you um all right uh my comments like other members of this board I serve with a many people that I have deep and fundamental disagreements with and I have done so for not only my elected life but my life as a town employee before then the fact that you disagree with someone the fact that you can't imagine how somebody comes up with some of these thoughts doesn't really matter you can still collaborate with someone and move towards a common goal and I I think that's that could be the case here and it's certainly the case in many other situations I am very concerned about the preservation of First Amendment rights for all citizens and I'm troubled that uh that we're sort of doing a stealth censorship in some of these

175cases I will take note of the fact that everything that we're talking about these previous quotes tweets that have been spread around we're all done to the best of my knowledge by Mr Munger acting in his capacity as a private citizen and prior to his appointment to the committee I'm not aware of anything new although I could be wrong I'm not aware of anything new that's been posted which is inflammatory I think there's a key distinction there between when something is done and when it isn't finally I think it sets a very bad precedent to start scrubbing people's social media after the fact if you go down that route although you might find Mr lunger's comments are repugnant you go down that route there could be other people that have said things in the past

176that any of us might feel is repugnant and where does that stop uh 250 committee at this point has not even had a meeting yet because we're trying to assemble a committee what happens if you go to any of the other boards or committees and decide wow gee somebody's been been on that committee for two years but I just found something that out that they said four years ago that I really object to and I think that person should be thrown off the committee and I think you know we're facing an election campaign in the next few months the political complexion of this board might very well change and I want to remind my colleagues of that I'm not sure it's going to happen or not but you open that Pandora's Box I was starting

177to examine what people have said in the past and using it against them and start throwing people off committees I think you might have some really unexpected consequences and the worst unexpected consequence is we already have a severe problem in this town with getting volunteers people don't want to run as volunteers they don't want to run for elected offices the fact in this last election cycle two of us David myself ran completely unopposed and David and I both have radically different views of the world yet both of us was re-elected now I'd like to think that there's a 50 50 split in this town between our personalities and our political views but I suspect it's because to a certain extent government on every level including local government has gotten so unattractive because of the nastiness

178that goes on people don't want to do it it's exhausting and now we're starting to engage in personal attacks against people this will set a really bad precedent so for that reason I joined Mr Snyder Grant and I would not vote at this point unless I hear something in the next half hour to change my mind on that I would not vote to take Mr lunger off the committee because I think it sets a really bad precedent I'm not endorsing anything that he has ever said in the past and I will not endorse anything that anybody else has ever said will say in the future but I just don't think that the situation we've got Rises to the level of requiring that somebody be removed from the committee with that I will open this to

179a brief commentary I hope from the audience good evening Mike going 93 Howard Street I'm here to offer my opinion on the select board meeting of December 5th I attended that meeting but had to leave prior to the end after reviewing the tape at the end of the meeting I was shocked and disappointed to find that I and other respected members of the community hadn't been approved for the 250 celebration committee I'm trying to understand why that was delayed Mr Martin indicated that he had held the consent item due to his problem with the previous appointee what does one issue have to do with the other the board was voting on our appointment I'm also surprised this delay was supported by the other members of the select board it's insulting whether a previous appointee had

180tweeted or retweeted comments on social media that the board found disturbing was an issue to be taken up with that individual not the remaining appointees it seems to me that the person should be entitled to his first amendment rights to free speech whether on social media or live Mr Martin mentioned overthrowing the government as one of his concerns cited in the citizens letter I find that ironic as the purpose of this committee is to celebrate the 250th anniversary of a group of patriots who are advocating overthrowing their government and succeeding creating a new form of government that has emulated has been emulated from by many over these two and a half centuries the 250 committees will be large won by today's standards the influence of one person's opinion on the outcome would hold limited swag

181on the committee which heretofore has been populated by thoughtful people I feel that the 250 committee results according to the Charter should reflect many different perspectives just as this country does to quote Voltaire I may not agree with what you say but I will defend with my life your right to say it I ask that you board approve our appointment without any further delay thank you good evening Leo thoughtchman from Wright Terrace West Acton I hope you don't take Dave longer off of the 250 committee the impetus for this was that a person that had stated she does not know him uh that she had heard a few things and she didn't like you they then proceeded to cherry pick comments either made or reposted by Mr longer on social media this is a slippery

182slope to remove an already appointed member of a committee while you might not well you might disagree with Mr longer's comments he does have a right to his opinion the next statements are going to be quotes except for uh in the quote they actually use the committee's member's name I'm going to leave it out I'm going to call them JD so it can be John Doe or Jane Doe in October of 2020 a resident wrote to Mr Martin about comments by a member of the deic the resident wrote David this person scares me I would never say the second sentence in this post to another human being regardless of race ethnicity or skin color is this type of comment aligned with the mission of the actin deic Mr modern responded I don't think that JD

183is scary but I completely understand I for one like to say that what say what I need to say but in as non-offensive tone as possible JD is probably the most activist of the people on the deic fortunately being a large commission everyone moderates everyone else's views this goes with Mr state of Grant said you got a committee 250 committee charge says that the committee shall consists of 11 members which is the same number as the deic Mr Martin if you thought that the deic committee members can moderate everyone else's views why do you think that the 250 committee cannot moderate their own members views again similar to Mr Snyder Grant so please take no action on removing Dave longer thank you thank you hi there uh Rebecca Wilson Wingate Lane uh the 250th celebration

184is a special Community Building event we need people on the planning committee who believe wholeheartedly in bringing people together we want everyone to feel welcome and included and celebrated this is about trust Mr lunger has shown poor judgment and only now is apologizing for what he posted sarcasm and flippancy is no excuse for what he regularly posted and social media posts are a reflection of the person who is posting them all of us deal with this in our lives all of our social medias are always available to be looked at whether it's a job opportunity or a committee everyone has the First Amendment right to post what they want Facebook can take it down if they choose but people don't have a First Amendment right to be on committees Q Anon is by clear evidence

185violent anti-semitic and undemocratic we should not entertain these dangerous conspiracies that cause real harm to people it should not have a seat at the table I'm sure a lot of people are aware of the tolerance Paradox that we must be intolerant of intolerance or else it'll spread hate does not represent this community and we must stand up to it because we keep us safe if you can't have a respect for differing opinions and you call for violence you shouldn't be having a seat at the table I think what Miss nagaretti said was really important that there should be some kind of review of the process going forward to make sure that people are properly vetted thank you thank you hi good evening Marta Benson 21 Deacon Hunt Drive uh tonight I'd like to speak in

186support of keeping Mr longer on the actin 250 committee Mr longer has a fond interest in colonial history and graciously volunteers his time to run Acton's chapter of bugles for America each month Mr lunger organizes a bugle ceremony by Town common to honor those who paid the ultimate price to defend this great country it's a moving ceremony which hopefully members of the select board have attended given his interest in years volunteering for like causes Mr longer is an ideal candidate to serve on the acton-250 committee however since early July Mr lunger has been under the attack from Senator Jamie Eldridge in his radical far-left activist due to his work promoting question four on the recent Massachusetts ballot while Mr wonger was practicing his constitutional right to collect signatures for a ballot initiative Senator Eldridge and

187his followers tried to impede Mr Langer's efforts Senator Eldridge was so enraged that he even tweeted out a picture of his constituent Mr lunger in order to shame and intimidate him now the select board is trying exposed factos to implement a political litmus test to challenge Mr longer's appointment over the past few years we have witnessed how a once a political select board has become dominated by individuals and insistent on pushing a far-left agenda last week four members of the select board voted to hold up appointments to the 250 committee because they thought Mr lunger's social media post were too far to the right does the select board also intend to remove volunteers on Town boards who have posted material too far to the left or does this only go one way regardless if this

188committee voted to remove Mr longer it would establish a concerning precedent by which citizens can be removed from town boards for not sharing the same ideological political views as the majority of the select board how would you feel if in 10 years this board was comprised of conservatives and they began to remove individuals who held liberal beliefs further it's peculiar that Mr Martin's so interested in the 250 committee considering his desire to divorce the town from its Colonial history in addition to being an early supporter of retiring the mascot Mr Martin still has not apologized for publicly accusing the mascot supporters of being responsible for the zoom bombing when members of the committee tried to respond to Mr Martin's false accusations during the 2021 select board meeting Mr Martin acted as a as acting as

189clerk twice lost control of himself and hung up on the zoom caller while Mr Martin was chair of the select board Acton did not celebrate Patriots Day for the first time in Town's history not due to the pandemic most disturbing though is that as an elected official Mr Martin has been spreading rumors that he believes Colonial mascot supporters contacted the juvenile Zoom bomber in Arizona and instructed him to Target the acton-boxborough school committee talk about crazy conspiracy theories this board should allow Mr lunger to serve on the committee to wish he has already been appointed if the board does intend to vote to remove Mr lunger from the committee then Mr Martin should recuse himself from the vote as he has a history of targeting a maliciously silencing Mr lunger one last point two questions

190uh for Miss picker and crook could you please cite the legal statute that you are referring to that allows the select board which I allows the select board to remove a Committee Member because the public should have a right to examine this before the vote and then two you said that the public officials don't have first protect first protection or sorry first first amendment protection um but Mr lunger was um was not a public official when he made these comments so wouldn't his Free Speech they'll be protected so just to be perfectly clear I did not say that public officials don't have First Amendment rights I'm sure you all can relax you have First Amendment rights they don't have the same um they don't their speech can be more limited in certain circumstances based on

191their role as public officials you are right when Mr longer made these statements I believe based on what I'm hearing someone can correct me he was not on the committee yet so yes that would be different I was talking about going forward if he was placed on the committee what standard would be um would be upon any member of the committee including Mr longer with respect to the statute there's no statute that sets it out specifically chapter 40 generalize chapter 40 gives the board of slackmen just the general ability to create committees and the the courts have ruled that when the boards have the ability to create committees and appoint members to the committee they also have the ability to remove them and then the question as I said then becomes whether they have the

192ability to remove with or without cause and that depends on whether it's in the bylaw or the charter whether it's set forth anywhere so I can if you I if you want an email that sets out the case law I can do that but not right now to be beneficially of house Pages I'm excited yeah how past cases have been cited from the office okay I don't know what one thing has to do with the other okay I will I can certainly do that if the board agrees catch me up I'm gonna sit so I believe Mr Benson was asking for Authority that legal authority to cite that you all have the ability to remove someone from a committee once you've appointed them to a committee I offered to provide that to um Mr Benson

193by email if the board directs me to you're the boss if if you could provide that to the town manager and I'm sure he can provide it followed it along thank you so James Conboy 120 Parker Street I've known Dave for about 12 years or so and I've been to his house quite a number of times for meetings cookouts a few campaign kickoffs uh and I think he's really impressed me as a as a friend a family man someone who's been active in the community and uh it's certainly a very patriotic citizen as the the previous speaker indicated uh do I March in lockstep with all his opinions absolutely not and he knows this um as far as non-political opinions maybe as a private citizen I didn't read these but made some anti-gay comments which

194he apologized for and and should because even as a personal opinion as a private citizen it's good to be a little bit more enlightened whether you're a dog catcher or all the way up to the chief the chief executive who of course at one point when he was running her office was called to task on inappropriate touching or making women feel uncomfortable which he acknowledged and apologized for um again become becoming a little bit enlightened from the people telling him you got to change your your ways a little bit here so uh I think I would agree with Mr Charter that getting people to serve on committees is is difficult and when somebody steps up uh and and is willing to take some of the slings and arrows we shouldn't just say whoops uh you

195were wrong about something so we gotta find somebody else I think it's appropriate to keep Dave on the board in wow you'd be well served in the next couple of years in my opinion thank you thank you Melissa Brown 399 Great Road Unit 1 Acton Mass I think there's a difference between free speech and hate speech free speech and homophobe oh yeah of course thank you it's my my first time here um I think there's a difference between free speech and hate speech certainly we all make mistakes as we're learning and growing there's a difference between learning and growing and retweeting something that is deliberately harmful to a community that has been marginalized that has been deeply harm that has hidden themselves in closets for decades that has seen and heard children um really impacted

196and harmed in ways that we continue to see play out there's there's a choice there's a behavior when you repost that tweet when you conflate queerness with pedophilia that you know does not make me feel like I want to join a committee where who I am and who I love is not safe is not welcome is it's there's free speech in who you're if there's excluding speech and there's harmful speech and there's hate speech and it's I appreciate the apology and I feel like that's not really enough thank you thank you John Cliff Drive I came with prepared statements but some of you guys spoke very well and took kind of the you know so I want to sort of lower the temperature a little bit because I had something I was really mad when

197I saw the hit piece I mean I agree some of the tweets may not have been so good but then they sort of linked it to Neo-Nazi and having been called a Neo-Nazi myself the flippancy with which the left throws these Ben Shapiro is called the Nazi I mean you know they just throw these words out like they take something and they make it so massive and I've been called a racist I've been called a sexist I mean in open in acting by the way so when you talk about who's getting hurt and all that stuff it only runs one way you know conservatives are never like allowed to get hurt because hey you're an evil bastard you know so that's the basic sense you get so everybody gets hurt but you know there's free

198speech I mean yes so are we going to check the post and check who was kneeling before the flag you know the the kneeling Anthem tank was unpatriotic I mean who was bailing out like Kamala Harris baiting our people from jails who then committed crimes I mean everybody has done bad things and so this one-way ticket where only one side gets hammered and the other side gets to do whatever they want whenever they want it's kind of unfair so I think Dave should be on the committee we should lower the temperature on this and there's there's plenty of I mean you know at least one member of the select board there's plenty that he's done that has been abominable and by that logic he should not be in any committees or on the select board

199for that matter you know so I think we should uh keep things as it is and pending even the legal uh things that we don't know we should do it and yes and and to the people on the left Stop just using words like racist and Neo-Nazi on on a dime it gets tiring and it's not true and it accuses rather than uh Fosters a dialogue okay we can debate we can argue even some of the tweets that he that are unsavory I can make a case indirectly for what's going on in the schools today The Grooming staff and the the all that stuff so there are cases to be made we don't have to we don't have to in a tweet I don't tweet I think it's whatever but we don't have to all

200of a sudden make strong judgments you know we can discuss this further and a lot there's lots of stuff going on in our schools that we promote that are that are abhorrent that are terrible to our kids you know so I wouldn't use the word pedophilia directly for that but what's going on there should be illegal but we actually celebrated around the country what do we do about that you know but the schools are I don't know if Acton is doing it we're doing it I mean the nation is doing it so there's plenty of stuff to discuss but we should discuss it maybe calmly over a beer or something like that and not uh publicly accused people of being neo-nazis all the time he's not a Neo-Nazi thank you hello my name is Lila

201ramachandran I live on arborwood road um I just want to say that the previous speaker just talked about grooming and if they want to correct me it's probably related to queer books um and that was said without without any consequences um so there's clearly Free Speech even when it's harmful I will say Mr Charter and another residents comments about a dangerous precedent are the definition of a slippery slope fallacy um it's just fear-mongering and it's unfortunate um an apology is great it's a good first step I guess it doesn't negate posts and actions over years that show a pattern of espousing discriminatory beliefs I'm uninterested in discussing different political beliefs and it's just a poor defense because it's not about that um if anyone regardless of political belief says such hate speech I would take

202issue with it and have in the past and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to appoint someone and provide them a town platform to continue espousing discriminatory beliefs on he can clearly say what he wants but there can also be consequences um universities have rescinded spots for individuals and they are no longer able to pay to seek higher education there jobs have hired staff refusing to employ and pay them because of discriminatory posts we can rescind a committee appointment and I ask that you do that tonight thank you folks with just about I'm just about ready to wrap this up I think we've had a wide discussion of everybody's views um I would I would look to uh to the board if if you wish I would look to the board to see

203if if you're ready to make a decision all right let's we'll entertain commentary on this until 10 o'clock so I would hope that people would be brief in their comments so that we can get this done go ahead uh the creationist country is illegal is stolen land Isaac Davis rose up to overthrow the government I agree with a lot of what supporters of Dave have said I disavow any endorsements of some of this crap that I have heard and I would love the chance to have a beer name the place okay but this is my speech to be inclusive we've got to meet people where they are and help them learn the town appointed Dave without training or guidance on safe space or language the committee handbook does not address social media or what's expected

204of officials online that doesn't make any of what Dave did okay and I believe Dave knows that now I spent hours on the phone with him over the weekend I know that he knows that public officials have to be held to a higher standard as such I think you should be forgiven for this time I do not think anyone should be allowed to repeat what he did and stay on an official committee I was glad to find that he deleted the post and sorry I believe he's learned a lot together we learned more about safe spaces and safe language I believe that we're stronger as a community by learning together that doesn't mean appointing people who do harmful things it means handling violations in a respectful manner that results in best possible outcomes how many

205other Town officials have posted or said offensive things in public just last week a long time appointed volunteer used a an ableist slur in a public meeting instead of apologizing he said he's sick of people trying to get him to use PC language in contrast to that arrogant Behavior Dave a first time appointee quickly became sorrowful and willing to learn while defensive at first he didn't dig in his heels his more recent reactions are filled with understanding and respect I believe we should keep Dave on this 250 committee and show The Wider Community how we can come together and learn not to tolerate horrifying Behavior but to learn and grow I believe that Dave will help create a safe space for marginalized communities in one of my calls I mentioned to him that I'm upset

206that the reaction to including Native American story um he told me about concord's 250 celebration forum and the stories about Native Americans narrative he committed to advocating for the Native American story in the committee if the town wants the last sentence here because Dave is not a habitual offender after he's been appointed now and seems to have a commitment to learn about safe spaces for lgbtq plus people and to do what he can to create these safe spaces I hope you decide to allow Dave lunger to stay on the 250 celebration committee at least as a trial period thank you thank you hi Alyssa Nicole School Street um I appreciate the apology from Dave I've had many conversations with him we do not see eye to eye on very many things but I've always found

207him to be respectful that being said I am a CIS woman I am heterosexual I am white I am not an immigrant I'm not an undocumented immigrant and I was horrified by what I saw on Twitter because of the community members in Acton who do identify with those groups um I am uncomfortable with a suggestion that this is a fitting appointment because the actin Minute Men were overthrowing a government and you know the celebration uh in they were overthrowing a tyrannical autocratic uh King to form a democracy and so the anti-democratic tweets are also pretty abhorrent I heard some folks say that we can debate we can have political discourse I agree with that but absolutely not up for debate is people's Humanity never this is not a left and a right issue this is

208not a conservative and a liberal issue absolutely not this is people's right to exist and it is people's right to feel welcome and the sense of belonging in this community I love historical events my family used to be part of the act and Minutemen we're currently part of Orchard housing Concord and Iron Work Farm we do a like dress up in lots of different kit for reenactments I have had people in this community come up to me to say I am so glad to see you because I wasn't sure if it was a safe place for me and my family they know that I'm an ally they know that I fight for racial Justice and equity and queer identity welcoming and belonging in this community so just seeing me them feel safe so I just

209want all of you to know that and all of you to know that as well that this is really really an important issue I don't have a recommendation for the board I just want you to be aware of those things thank you thank you if you're I think by 10 o'clock we will have exhausted all of the opinions in the room and so if you have something to say we've got about 15 minutes I'd be happy to give you a couple of those silicon Road oh wait um first of all thank you very much for listening to all of us sorry thank you very much for thank you very much for listening to all of us and all of our different opinions and letting us say what we feel are what we see um I

210just I want I did write but I just wanted to say that I hope you agree that provocative rhetoric matters it's dangerous the January 6 committee came to that conclusion today it undermines the capacity for people to work together propagating views that marginalize others and that promote violence and disinformation violates trust and I don't think it really belongs in a Community Committee I think that we can have different political opinions but when we threaten others or spread disinformation that's not okay thanks thank you on High Street I'm not great speaking in front of group so I'm a little nervous and partly why I didn't want to be rushed um but glad to have some time um so okay sure um so yeah um my wife and I live in Acton and we have 12 year

211old things we have 12 year old daughters um and um I was made aware of this and felt that I had to come here tonight um before before I came was around six o'clock I looked over Mr is it London or Lundgren um information and was incredibly offended upset angry my kids were with me I had to explain to them what a pedophile was explain to them the difference between homophobia and LGBT hate or amping anti-lgbt they couldn't believe it they wanted to come tonight we considered it we had to say that they weren't allowed and um you know I think until you see it from a family who is affected by it just by seeing it and then the idea that someone would be part of a committee that I might go to an

212event or a meeting like this and he would be on the board here it would be a laughing joke to me and I would feel so unsafe and my kids anyway it makes me feel that Acton is not a safe Town um I hear you talking about not having volunteers I can volunteer I can do the 250 Group whatever it is I work for myself um I'm I'm a small business woman LGBT owner I can represent Acton just as well as he could um you know I know that there's a lot of history here and that would probably be hard to get me onto a committee but I'm just letting you know I'm available um I have some of his posts here we're talking about anti-lgbt there's a picture of a trans Youth and they're

213making fun of him um saying he's like he's not a he him he's a who where um and there's a picture of women police officers with big padded butts and comments about that and at 6 30 they were what I wanted to say is that he apologized and said that he took his post down so this was around 6 6 30 that we saw these horrible things so I'm imagining what it was like before he totally took his things down so um I mean I can pass my computer on you guys can go he has a site on bit shoot Twitter um Facebook if me and my kids could find it in five minutes any of you can find it this is one that's racist it has a young black person says although it was

214more invisible I now identify as invisible I am transparent my pronouns are who where so that's covers quite a few groups if I was a young trans person or LGBT person or black person I would not feel safe knowing that someone on a committee posted things like this to try to create hate in our community or gain Community with the people that are like him so I think that's all I have to say I wish I could be more put together but I have to come up and say um about my experience do you have anything else to say you can speak better than me if you do but yeah the idea of like not making a change now and let's just plan for the future like that's something that people would say how many

215years ago 100 years ago oh he did one bad thing he apologized and now he's all better like it's gonna stop um anyway I I'm sad to hear that there's other people in this community who are here supporting him and friends with him and um I'm very disappointed that this group or whoever group it was decided to put him on a committee and if there's anything to do to take him off um or if I knew about this happening I would have been here then because he should not be in the committee in a town that I live in with my family and my other LGBT friends I I wish to I'd like to thank you for coming forward I know it was a it was a leap of faith and I appreciate you coming

216forward to your comments thank you okay uh Matt I believe we got some folks online I'd like to speak yes Mr chair the first is Jenna adachi Janet should be able to speak all right good evening uh Janet adachi Simon huppford Lane um I had prepared remarks that have been changing those I've been listening to everybody but I'm here basically to request that the select board leave Dave lunger's appointment untouched and trust him and other appointees to the committee to be the adults that they are focus on the stated mission in which they have and about shared interest and let them work toward that end the volunteer Coordinating Committee previously recommended his appointment and the select board approved it I honestly don't happen to believe that the Twitter posts and reposts that have since come

217to light should change his qualification to serve in the committee I'm not on Twitter or most social media other than Facebook so I wouldn't have known in the tweets but for the citizens that are flagging them and obviously I think that's the way a lot of people learned about them and I find that social media especially local social media is a real toxic Cesspool I discovered that in 2020 back when a lot of racial Justice activists in town were piling on a then select board member basically because they didn't think he was woke enough and I noticed that some of them have come out tonight so I avoid social media and other than the letter I wouldn't have known about these tweets I am concerned that some members of the select board might think that

218the Twitter posts alone are sufficient basis for sending the appointment along the lines of what Mr Snyder Grant said I assume there's no concern about Mr longer's having undue influence if he stays on the 250 committee given the appointees thus far Pam went Bob Ferrara and Bill Clower among others and the soon to be appointee such as Mike Dowling and Cadillac and Mary Price Maddox no shrinking violence among those people I should clarify at this point that I myself didn't care for a number of the tweets and retweets and would not defend them the post contained sentiments profoundly different from my own personal beliefs and we're just disrespectful of some dear friends and family members but I'm a realist and have enough life experience to know that there are people out there with such views

219and I have had to learn how to deal with that sort of thing I am Asian by the way you can't see that from my voice so I've had a life of living with bias well you know what are called microaggressions and I'm pretty tough about that and other things but anyhow I've learned how to deal with all of that sort of thing without getting angry or emotionally overwrought I I get even I don't get angry I am surprised at the highly emotional reactions of some select board members on what frankly is Town business and requires calm rational thought I appreciate Mr Snyder Grant's sensible approach and like him I do appreciate Mr wongo's apology and expression of regret for his posts I don't know him well but I know he has a strong personality

220and he's also male I'm married to one so apologizing was no easy thing to do I am disappointed that one select board member felt compelled to continue attacking Mr longer even after Mr longer apologized those select board members think that a person's social media posts are sufficient grounds for disqualification from service on a municipal committee that standard and fairness should apply to all candidates for all Municipal committees including the select board but if the select word is not prepared to embrace a general standard applicable to all then please don't create and apply an ad hoc ill-defined special standard for this one appointee such a decision could come back to bite the select board and I'm talking about litigation when select board members talk about the importance of diversity and inclusion they really need to expand

221Beyond race and ethnicity to Encompass diversity and inclusion of ideas and opinions it's only through diversity an inclusion of ideas and opinions that our community is going to make meaningful meaningful progress on the narrower area of diversity and inclusion that has been an area of Greater Focus everywhere since 2020 including on this select board you already know that I think public input is important for the diversity of ideas and opinions the same is true for members of Municipal committees whether elected or appointed and among whom the presence of diverse perspectives ideas and opinions will better serve the public interests please let Mr lunger's appointment stand thank you thank you Matt do we have another one yes this next one's from Nancy Cochran Nancy you should be able to speak um I agree wholeheartedly with what

222Janet just articulated and she took all the fire that I had uh I did stay throughout all of the uh people that were talking previous to Janet but I think Janet said the most important points that a member of the select board should consider when they're making a decision about uh keeping a person on a board or not and the other point I would make is this please the next time you have an issue of personnel that may involve um a court case for defamation of character please hold your meetings in executive session this has been an evening of hurtful comments on all sides and I think and I know there are a couple of guys on the select board that have a sense of propriety and patience with alternative ideas I marched in 1968

223in Chicago so I know how tough it is to be on the other side so please give your your ideas to Dave to have a chance to show what he can contribute to the 250 committee and then make other rules for yourselves as to how you handle Personnel on committees without subjecting them to this vilification in the the Arena of the select board meeting thank you thank you Matt who how many more do we have there are three more answers board members we're going to stop at 10 what was to continue gathering information I think we should hear the remaining three and that's it okay Matt let the next one in Adam nold is up next and I apologize if I said your name Rob hi uh Adam Noli Broadview Street and member of the

224finance committee um I just want to say this is really a tragic uh situation that we have found ourselves in but I think it's been a very nice discussion please do not land us in a First Amendment uh lawsuit that we absolutely cannot win um it's unfortunate but the courts always rule in favor of free speech and they always rule against people retaliating against others for using their free speech so as tragic as it may be I think it's a situation that you're stuck with at the moment thanks thank you next Matt Charlie kublick Charlie you should be able to speak can you can you hear me this time yes we can I'm good first of all remember what downtown Council said you don't have any standards for appointing people to committees but to remove

225them you must have a cause and you don't have a cause because the 250 committee hasn't even met yet so removing day longer would be a big legal mistake second the four members select board members who voted to not act on a concerned article which had nothing to do with the longer last select board meeting have nothing to be proud of you all sounded very much like you went to the meeting with your minds already made up and you had not heard from Mr longer you don't you didn't hear anything except the letter from a person but by the way I know both of them I know lawyer was sent to me I could have read it uh I had trouble believing it was written by the person who signed it but it's another subject

226the select board last meeting acted on an article which had nothing to do with day longer why did you do that well I was there's some speculation second I heard Mr Martin at the last meeting select board meeting say twice that Dave longer advocated the overthrow of the United States government by violent military force even if you extend suspend your credibility and look at what was said and done there is no such advocating Mr longer's comments I I'm not going to discuss the content first of all because I I'm not familiar with them I don't do Facebook or Twitter or anything else like that but Mr Martin made that statement which is an exaggeration at best deliberately false at worst he does that all the time and summary challenges it he said well yeah that's

227my opinion Mr Martin is more responsible for divisiveness in this town than anybody else I know it's time to stop Mr Martin and the rest of you who voted mindlessly on a article 2.3 people my going being one of them spoke very well had nothing to do with this why did you do that well I think we can speculate on the answer but the select board has did not come out as you know having higher standards than the people that criticize enough thank you last one man it's the last of Scott smyers Scottish realistic well thank you Scott smyers Central Street David Martin started out the conversation with some of the most severe accusations and exaggerated interpretations of Mr lunger's uh online post and David Martin is an embarrassment to himself and the town he's

228a bad judge of racism bias and Prejudice and it is deceptive for a recent example he lied to me during a public meeting about the timing of the Dei statement I question him how he could have released the statement before the police report was out he said that he didn't release it before the police report was out it was after but the dates on the two documents are in conflict with his statement it's not true going back further his snarky statements from a January 25th 2021 meeting where he smears members of the of the public um by identifying their racism Scott he says let's let's try to keep this on target please yeah keep Dave lunger on the committee and don't listen to Dave Martin anymore he's steering you the wrong way thank you thank

229you um I think at this point as I outlined at the beginning I will uh let Mr lunger speak if he so wishes and that would be the last public comment we're going to be accepting and we're going to discuss this in the board in public session okay uh briefly we have a situation of division and divisiveness I listened attentively to those in favor of me and opposed to me this evening and in the past week um I want I thank thank everybody that's on both sides I mean I was I listened attentively to all that was said and um I purposely made my comments tonight to be as I said in the beginning mending and healing I I don't want it I'm not even talking about all the you know the emails and that

230went back and forth and the the original attack and so on I think that's water runs at a bridge water under the North Bridge but anyway um I think we need to go forward and um we need to heal and um I appreciate that everybody has come to discuss this and maybe this helps other people but however you decide now I am thankful for your support thanks thank you all right um discussion amongst the board does anyone have any points you'd like to raise Frank no I think Alyssa put it perfectly in that this isn't uh a liberal or conservative issue at all I I feel like this is um free speech versus ethical speech and that's what I have a problem with and I think that um I've made my decisions I am free

231thinking and make my decisions on my own no one sways decision making for me um and I I feel really strongly that we're all adults we need to be held accountable for what we put out into the airwaves and that's what I I feel like is is happening and I have a problem with that thank you David yeah I um you know I'm sensitive to a lot a lot of the comments I'm not looking for a Witch Hunt I absolutely agree with people that say when you're on a committee you can um uh you know deal with criticism back and forth um you know I I'm not concerned about um you know people saying the the occasional offensive thing um I think these things here are are different um I don't see how knowing that

232these posts happen someone else could serve on this committee who was gay or trans how is that going to work how could someone come before this committee who's entrance without feeling awkward right that's going to be very difficult here you know this is the only case that I'm aware of where people someone made such denigrating of remarks against gay and trans people and as I pointed out in my initial remarks and just reading his remarks doing people who are accusing me of a lot of things here but um I mostly based my comments on the things that Mr longer posted um and he he posted this you know I could read that his his I'll read it you know it's uh um he'd be post quote missing the p and pedophile should be at the

233beginning of P lgbtq again 90 of pedophiles are straight men there is no association in why someone would want to apply such uh imply such an association considering that it incites some people to violence is is beyond me um you know that's just that it's a terrible thing why why would what's the purpose in doing that and the second thing here which I pointed out in the beginning is um Mr Mr lunger made a number of uh you know uh editorial uh uh repos of things about that are against our country and original post advocating military action against the current government that are just incompatible in my mind with the Patriotic nature of this committee um so for me this is it you know I I don't see how this works thank you other comments

234images thank you um first I just wanted to thank people who spoke today especially people who do identify as part of the lgbtq plus Community because it could not have been easy sitting in this room or being online hearing some of the comments that were made and the discussions that were being had especially if you do identify as part of it and so for those who were here today just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart um for for being Really Brave um and for speaking your truth and I think that's the key thing is that for people who are not part of the community I don't think we have any right to tell people who are part of the community how to feel or how to take something as offensive or

235not offensive um and the reality is as the select board we may not identify as a part of a community but we have to do our best to empathize to see whether something said by some member of the community could be construed as harmful and then on top of that if we as a select board give someone a position or we appoint someone as part of a community or as part of a committee that's us essentially giving that person a platform to represent actin to represent this town and what do we want to be representing this town for so I kind of want to so I just wanted to lay that out and to also say that this goes beyond just one person this is something that I think exposes a really important issue that

236we need to have a clear code of conduct that really applies to all our boards and committees and that's something that we need to be working on and so what I propose is that we hold date we we hold this conversation um about whether to remove table and hunger or not and that's that's up to the board's discretion one of us would work with Town Council to draft up what specifically would be our cause like what is our cause for for a removal and then bringing it to the select board for a vote then so that we're just we're being really clear and intentional about on what basis are we essentially removing a person from a committee and then I think that the next step is really to create a more robust code of conduct

237that we can then work with VCC to implement but I'd love to hear from Town Council to whether that is an appropriate course of action um and if that's something that for example if I could work with you on drafting what a probable cause for removal would look like in this specific situation and then moving forward potentially working out what a code of conduct could look like I said uh yes that process works fine as long as those factors you mentioned um the specific factors for cause are then voted on by the select board so it's very clearly the agreed reasoning of the board as opposed to you and I going off and deciding why this is the case that's exactly what I was thinking was that one of us would draft it and then

238bring it to the board transparently on for a board vote so that we make this process as Democratic as possible I just a response image rate I think it's probably a good idea that we that we think about that um I think it's important that we move ahead with the matter at hand right now and I think you know working with the town manager and Town Council going forward um that sounds like a really good goal um but I I don't think that we should delay on this uh I think we need to get this particular situation resolved in accordance with the rules that exist right now I the any case Jim a few final thoughts um I'm I'm sure that we the board definitely has the right to remove people from committees um sure

239yes I am sure that yes we do indeed have the right to remove people from committees I think it's an excellent idea that we clarify that by by developing a more clear policy under what you know reasons we wouldn't wouldn't do that and uh that can be done um you know into you know if Dave what I heard him just say was that we would you know Dave would be considering would be continuing to serve on the on the 250 committee while we figure this out oh maybe that's not what he said that's not what you said no I I want to clarify that in this case that would be essentially holding off his appointment and so I would ask for a board vote to essentially hold off on Dave lunger serving on this committee

240until we would or would that be a removal of that from him from the committee my understanding is that the board has appointed Mr longer already as opposed to holding off on his appointment so I think that is a difference so you would be you were voting to remove him as opposed to to holding him in some Middle Ground um yes finish off um so sorry for misconstruing what you said um uh last full piece two two glass little pieces um I think it hasn't been said out loud in our hearing that um um Dave longer has been serving on the board of registrars for a number of years um six seven years it's it's a while um and that gives me some confidence that he has the ability to work I mean if someone

241was going to be mischievous about democracy that's where you would do it I mean this is where you actually approve petitions uh signatures on petitions for people to run for office or for people to put things on the town meeting warrant so the fact that he's been able to do that without complaints suggests to me that he knows how to you know set aside his personal views and get the job done um and the last comment was just uh he had all the animosity towards towards David Martin I mean I I get that he's he's quicker to judgment than I am but we we usually end up in the same place uh so it was really odd to hear people um you know sort of you know saying nice things about me and mean things

242about David when we we keep end up agreeing we just we have different styles but it's really odd just to see David attack that way and it's I I I I I I dislike it it's just makes me uh viscerally uncomfortable with people who persistently every time they come to the mic take a chance to attack one of the board members it's just odd but anyway um neither here nor there um that's all I had to say thank you Ryan so I I moved to remove Dave lunger from the 250 celebration committee second okay we've got a motion moved and moved and seconded the uh discussion Imaging foreign I wonder if so if we proceed with this vote um would then one of us be a point person for articulating um a set of reasoning

243or or just kind of compiling some more detail as to why the board um is is voting and it potentially um passing the removal of Dave longer from the committee would that be okay with people just to kind of have that in writing and if so I would be happy to do that and present that to the board just so that we have something a little bit more concrete as to our reasoning um but yeah you know yeah Mr chair I'm as I said before I'm happy to um work with the board member to um I guess draft a written decision I do think it would be best in behooves the board if they um State their reasons for their vote tonight and then that gets memorialized in the decision as opposed to the other

244way around good idea David I'd be happy to stay you know I thought we State our each state our our reasons now for for our voting doesn't get included in the minutes sounds good let's start with Mr Martin the okay let's show your reasons first and we'll do a vote okay this is under the discussion I'm going to I'm going to be voting yes um because I um think that um uh Mr lunger's history is is clearly against our our statement on respect for all and because um a number of his posts are clearly to me anti-patriotic in a way that's incompatible with the 250 committee thank you Fran I'll be voting yes and for all that we heard this evening I I find it um the post his tweets and other posts to be

245not in line with a community you know being appointed to a community committee um also I I think there's some confusion between free speech and just ethics thank you I will vote no um for the reasons I stated earlier I think it's possible to serve on a border committee with other folks that you disagree with I feel the comments that someone made as a private individual should not be used against them at a later point when they have been seated on a Town border committee I believe there's a serious First Amendment rights issue here I think it's a sets a very bad precedent that by doing this we open it up we could examine previous comments made by any member of this board or any other board a committee appointed by us and depending upon

246the uh the political point of view of the select board those people could be kicked off and we could work our way right through every board and committee if you so wished and I think that's a really bad thing to do Jim I'm going to be voting no um and the reason is that when I imagine a policy that we can all agree on I think it's going to be um I'm concerned there's a decent chance that it won't cover this particular case of um you know posts posts on Twitter um yeah I and I'm I'm much more comfortable with the notion of um having the people of the committee um you know work work with work with the you know the people that have been appointed um of the people on the committee who

247wrote to us or spoke to us um all were either in favor of having Mr longer on the committee or were like yeah you have a tough decision to make good luck amateur thank you um for me I will be voting I um for me it really comes down to at the end of the day that the public messages and at the end of the day that's what it was it was social media messages that were publicly accessible to everyone so therefore they are public messages um to me um and and to we've heard from other people as well um those incited fear and violence those were comments that were discriminatory in nature and I think that's the fundamental reason for why I will be voting I today to remove um Dave lunger from the

248250 committee and I do want to note that for me I only became aware of his public messages after we had this board vote to approve him and so for me seeing these comments seeing the evidence um for me after that fact was cause enough for me to want to bring this to a board to reevaluate that decision um so I do want to make that clear thank you Anita yeah just to clarify for the board where you've had emotion in a second now you've had deliberation I do want to be clear about the rationale and kind of summarizing the rationale for the yes votes um and is it fair to state that um you each are voting yes because you believe that speech that you've seen in the social media posts is violative of

249the board of selectmen's um uh conduct statement I'm not a statement of respect for all thank you and that this speech was discriminatory or hate speech as opposed to speech you didn't like or agree with I just want to make sure that we're making that distinction um so if you could confirm that that is correct by by perhaps amending your motion that would be great so um uh I'd be happy to uh to amend my my motion to say that uh oh you made the motion sorry so I I amend the motion to I mean I view this that the Tweet says hate speech that's um where I'm coming from yes sorry well I I always think of the change okay so moved and seconded we've had discussion all in favor of uh trans motion

250we to remove Mr lunger from the 250 committee for the reason stated will you say I I I'm all opposed say nay nay abstentions all right decisions made uh three to two to remove Mr lunger from the committee thank you now on to the next discussion um item seven Mr manjarati review responses to the request for interest RFI for reuse of 3 and 13 School Street and discuss next steps um thank you maybe you can hold off just a moment till the some of the room clears okay a few folks thanks folks move um we we do have some business we still have to conduct thank you so um members of the board thank you I think it was two Town meetings ago uh or maybe it was one the town meeting authorized us to

251dispose of the property that's located at three School Street which is a former fire station most recently used as a civil defense building in storage and after two unsuccessful attempts to find someone interested in the property this year our economic development director Julie Pierce and a few other staff worked on a plan to do another RFI a request for interest to solicit infra interest from the community and this time we included 13 School Street as well 13 School Street is the small commuter lot Reserve parking area that is just one space our is further down School Street with a private property in between them and we brought that to the board and we sent it out for interest we received two responses they were too far two entities interested in discussing it further uh this

252these properties and before I go into the details I just want to make sure that the board understands the difference between an RFI and RFP an RFI is simply a request to know what you're thinking at RFP could be a binding contract that results from it so what we've done here is not would not result in a binding contract until we did an RFP at a later time so with that being said the two entities that express interest in the properties uh one was the actin box plural Islamic Cultural Center they had proposed to use the garage space or the the Civil Defense building for their warship and other community activities and philanthropic efforts they appeared to be more interested in leasing it than than buying it but I think they'd be willing to discuss

253the tent with the town uh if the town was interested in that path the second group was a real estate development group called Cebu Seabrook real estate and they are proposing to build a 20 rental unit mixed-use development that would include senior housing indeeded space dedicated to a non-profit use which in their proposal they suggested that may be the food pantry the active food pantry they are working with the the property owner of the property in between these two so in between 3 and 13 is actually a property that's nine School Street you recall that property received a site plan approval from the slack board to do I think it was eight units and that was kind of the test case for the board saying hey you should do all electric remember and so that

254that property is fully permitted ready to go and anyways this developer is interested in a project that includes all those things so we met last week or maybe it was yeah last week to review the proposals we actually had a chance to talk to the two different entities about their ideas and the next step that we have here this evening is for the board to give us feedback on what it wants to do here we have a few options and what we are recommending is that the board considered declaring the 13 School Street property Surplus and no longer needed for municipal use and then seek time meeting authorization to dispose of that under conditions that the board deems appropriate one of those conditions could be that existing commuter parking is replicated for example there are

255several other conditions that the board could put on a on an RFP sale uh the second thing that the boy can consider doing is directing us to do a formal RFP to then actually create an opportunity for a binding contract to dispose of those two properties and the idea would be that we would do that before town meeting so that town meeting when they ask why do you want permission to sell this land we would be able to say definitively what what the proposal is an interesting conversation occurred during this review in that there was an interest in the property that we acquired a few years ago 19 and 21 Maple Street which is right next to the train tracks which is uh formerly owned by Gordon Richards there's interest from a few Community groups

256and actually using that if there's interest in the town allowing that to happen so we actually thought it would be good for the board to consider that as well so those are the those are the next steps and I look forward to any questions or comments about uh what What's proposed here with these rfis thank you um I'm sorry I would also mention that I believe the entity maybe the entities that submitted may still be here although I don't know that they're still here I think they were here at one point if there's any questions for them okay thank you um yeah it was an interesting review of the uh of the hour of the responses um I would certainly be in favor of moving ahead with it um I think I'd be more most

257interested for the 3 and 13 School Street to be able to move ahead with the sale of those properties rather than a lease um I think it's it's probably the best interest of the town just to get it done and I think whatever can be done there to enhance not only some housing but certainly any kind of commercial activity um in the building um I think you know we kind of kicked that around in the committee that it would be nice to uh to provide uh some more either retail or restaurant space there in addition to the housing so I I think lots of things are open um the second point that I will I'm very interested in my recollection is that when we purchased the the Maple Street property uh the town did state

258that it might be leased out in some fashion and I believe that that can be done without further town meeting action I think we can just it's really controlled by the town manager and I think that the select board could probably weigh in one way or another whether or not there should be some sort of a long-term lease I think it's really important that any lease that we get into has very strict terms and conditions and we don't get into a situation like we had on Main Street that was sort of an open-ended deal but I would certainly be interested in in hearing the uh comments from other members of the board David um thank you um so um for me I would be in favor of declaring the parking lot on School Street Surplus

259only for a development that added to um revitalizing self-active and to me that means is that if if it's a development that has residential in it that the first floor of that development be um shop space could be you know your commercial space retail space it could be eventually so you know be restaurants or little shops or it's probably only room for two maybe three um uh small small shops there um to me that you know asking them to provide them the replacement parking for commuters that would have been a big issue for me several years ago but now is um not in not so much of an issue even though the the MBTA says that for ridership they don't believe will come back for two years still that's that's 25 spaces out of our

260about 500 total I would certainly I think that's a work it's a worthwhile investment to uh sell that property in order to get the um the retail space at the at that corner in South Acton um the the old fire station or Civil Defense building is probably not big enough for the Islamic community center folks they have enough people now that it it would probably fit but just barely for for them and they'd have no expansion room and as and as um John said they're looking to lease until they find kind of a permanent home and um we would rather that you know from the town's point of view sell that I think it makes sense to sell that along with um the uh the the parking lot property and um ask that any development

261include that um the the old Civil Defense building and how they use it in spite of their development is that it also could be retail space it could be community space for the the um the residences uh that would be above in this development they talked about actually having what they caught um I forget that there was a term for it but the kind of space where they might put a rec room or a community room or something that and they were thinking of putting that on the one as one of the things on the first floor of their building to me it makes sense kind of make that in you know as part of the Civil Defense building and then to use the new building for shops I think to have enough space for

262um they are talking about um uh um elderly housing um market rate elderly housing but um not expensive you know and the parking needs of those residences are probably not two cars per apartment which is our standard so they could potentially get a very variance there and that then the excess parking could be used for the shops um um as far as the Maple Street space goes we can lease it now right now release it to the paramedic crew from Emerson um to me that space is a candidate to lease to the Islamic community center folks they have an acronym called a brick I don't know what it stands for but um the the um I think it's big enough for them um the the other um people in the mix here are the the

263the food pantry who they've kind of outgrown their space they um it might work out that they could either be as part of that first floor on the 9 to 13 um Parcels on School Street as one of the shops or they could you know alternatively depending on what things work out they could also lease the the old Gordon Richards Building so um so I so to me at the bottom line is if we're going to do an RFP I would like to guard it in such a way that the or or try to figure out how to um if we're going to declare that parking lot has Surplus in order to to sell it and we do it in such a way that we move some of the goals forward for um uh having

264some shops in South Acton thank you comments from other board members images um yeah so um for example if we did decide to declare 13 School Street Surplus and and we decided to move forward with an RFP process um and we we highlighted that we want it to be um you know wanted to be part of the revitalization would that would that require it to be commercial or like how would it work with the like for example the Islamic Cultural Center because I'm assuming that's not for commercial like what they do is not commercial so I don't how does that get navigated I don't just my opinion I don't think the Islamic Cultural Center fits in the um three to 13 School Street row I think if there's a space in South Acton for them

265I think that that would be the old Gordon Richards Building and if they if that turns out to not be for them you know I'd like to see us do whatever we can to find them you know a space um uh but you know they have a heart it's a heart even though they have money to lease or buy that it's it's hard for them to to find a space I mean the ideal thing would be that old church for example um that they could turn into a Islamic cultural center but um I don't think it's to me it doesn't fit right in that it doesn't fit in the um uh physically doesn't fit in the old Civil Defense building and it doesn't really work as part of the first floor in some uh a

266building with houses you know it's Apartments um so but I think it could work on the other side of the tracks no implications there I live on the other side Jim yeah I think I mostly have questions um so declaring something Surplus property is that a select board Vote or a town meeting vote select poet declared as Surplus and the town meeting authorizes you to dispose of it it's a two-step process okay um next question was for I mean anybody who understands this because I don't um the uh the failure to thrive of commercial operations in that little area of South Acton it seems like we've had some businesses come and go uh you know their sewer but something is not sticky about that space those spaces around there so I'm concerned I guess I'd

267want to understand that before I'd want to require that you know there'd be commercial businesses in that building because I don't want to create a a situation that's going to fail so if anybody has any understanding of that I'd love to learn more about that I I don't have an I don't I can't analyze the what happened there in the past but but I can just say that the benefit of an RFP process is that the board could identify goals it wants from the disposition and for example retail space could be one of them and proposals that have it in that would be ranked higher than the ones that don't and you could have five things that you want out of this and you take those five things someone that's highly ranked on all five

268is the one that the town would probably want but if if there's a mix of of you know a split and the board the town would then decide which one is in the best interest of the town to move forward with so if if retail isn't going to work the the development process would let us know and the RFP process would say I can't I'm sorry I can't do it I can do one one thing but I can't do four for example and then we would know so that's part of the other reason that I think it would work to to explore okay uh next next things um I'm fine with declaring the parking area Surplus that makes sense to me to create a I'm so pleased that we might actually be able to do

269something with you know the Civil Defense building it seems fine and appropriate to me to include the other Parcels nearby to make that happen um uh one question I have is um did the the person who the the group that was excited about doing market rate senior housing did they articulate why like why senior housing did they think that would be more acceptable or you know it's not like it makes them more money or less money I this was confusing to me I'd much rather see you know a housing that was deeded for affordability but I don't know you know if that would attract any interest hi I'll take a stab at that one from the from the review that we did in the discussion uh they felt that this would be good for senior

270housing because it's for folks that are downsizing these would be one bedroom units at least in their proposal although it was very clear that they said this is just a preliminary they wanted feedback so one bedroom units um probably be spaced for one and a half Cars per per household so that sort of fits in the senior model excellent location for folks that are that are downsizing but might still be working in Boston great location for uh for Transit also it's a great situation for folks that have retired but still want to take advantage of the cultural opportunities like getting on the train so and folks that don't really want to have to worry about a yard they don't have a raft of kids you need to tell them to go out in the lawn

271and run around for a while so I think it it kind of fits in that model of sort of a a downtown situation I think the other thing that's important is looking at the demographics of the town is that we have a rapidly aging population in this town and indeed in the state um and there's going to be more and more demand for senior housing um you know our numbers in this town the the numbers of of families that are all seniors far exceed the number of families in town that still have kids in schools so I think you know there's a demographic trend that uh that they've picked up on and for those reasons I think it works good uh I believe although I haven't looked at it closely but it was sort of

272a similar sort of development that has recently been put in um in uh in West Concord again next to train station um because folks have got the opportunity of using the mass transit not have to worry about driving a car David you you might have some thoughts on that too yeah I I think I think that's that's all um correct um you know there are two things about that space that are different so in the time that I've lived in South Africa right I can I walk I can walk to there I do walked there right um and the the only shop that's that's there um is Erickson's feed and grain and that's the only shop that's really ever been there except for a very short time the um old post office was a takeout

273Chinese restaurant um but other than that there has been no business in in South Akron so except for maybe some The Woodworking Shop and things in the bottom of exchange Hall um but it's not a retail thing right um and so there there's no place that I can even though I walk a lot if I want to walk for a half gallon of milk I walk to the other end of High Street I walk to the Stop and Shop but um if there was a bodega there I'd walk there right um well sorry sorry just two quick things I think physical space has been a problem and and that includes parking I think you know the exciting thing about this is that for many years there was this fear that the highest and best use

274for South Acton Village is going to be a parking lot and I think it's a nice opportunity that we've got to try to turn away from that and bring it back into more of a you know hopefully a somewhat more vibrant Village kind of what I remember back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth I would also mention that we're actively engaged in the salt act in a village planning process and and we I talked to Kristen about this who's who's leading that effort and she said actually an RFP like this would give us good data for the planning process because it would it would be real time real um information about what is feasible based on who's willing to do what in this in this area so uh it's I think it's an interesting um thing

275to consider and you know the I think the three to the school Street the old fire station I think has been in the way of not a bad way but realistically it's been in the way of anything else that you want to do there because it was always been a town property kind of with the with the corner spot if it weren't to be that way perhaps it would open up opportunities for the rest of the parcel to the rest of the parcels to to feed off that corner spot with some vibrancy I mean it was a vibrant fire station at one point but that was a long time ago foreign I think I think I'm in favor of asking the manager to uh to proceed with with drafting up on RFP that we can

276take a look at um and interact with with whatever members of the board you feel is appropriate certainly keeping in mind obviously our economic development director our planning director um and move ahead number one with the three to 13 School Street and I'd be willing to to take a motion even to if it's appropriate to declare 13 Surplus um and then I think the second thing that I'd I'd be very interested in is similarly developing a lease process for the Gordon Richards property and you know we can move ahead in two tracks and you know one might get done and the other one might not get done but I think it's it gives us some exciting opportunities um and certainly we always want to take commentary from folks that live on School Street thank you

277Alyssa Nichol South Acton Village I'm a little concerned about the timeline because it's I'm not clear on if you declare these properties Surplus and then do the RFP process and then maybe town meeting approves that in the spring is that all going to take place before the South Acton visioning process is completed because I I thought that I don't know what the timeline is on that uh so the South Acton Village planning process I don't think will be completed by town meeting uh okay to answer that question and I I think that a proposal like this I don't think would would be built before town meeting oh sure I mean I mean even if it's approved the timing it would take a while to kind of get sorted out so um I think the ask

278a town meetings authorization and then we would have a purchase and sales and it would move forward and then they would begin their permitting because it's not permitted right they permitted a nine or an eight unit building but just because they got the RFP doesn't mean they have a permit so right it's not going to happen that quickly they I think this sense of urgency from from our perspective just because we've tried a few times to do this and I think uh we actually have two interested parties this time it's the first time we've had two parties at the table and so I think we wanted to try to move forward to to advance this issue which is something that needs to needs to happen at some point okay so thank you for that I

279would agree that it needs to happen at some point but I am very concerned about the the timeline um because the South Acton Village master plan I'll do my broken record line again it was last updated in 1994 a long time ago decades ago so I was actually expecting and hoping for sort of a unified vision for that area including the Gordon Richards I should not call it the Gordon Richards property 1921 Maple and this area the Civil Defense building and the parking lot and the parcel in between as well as everything else in that area so to declare its Surplus and then go through the RFP process which I understand provides valuable data I think is putting the cart before for the horse I'd really like to see the visioning process happen first before

280we give away a parking lot that the town built that is currently serving the community and has served the community in the past right now it's my understanding that the South Acton Congregational Church you know pre-pandemic was using it for their Community offerings Narcotics Anonymous yoga classes dance classes there was originally some thought to having it be available to exchange Hall and the current owner I assume will not be owning it forever and so you know taking away that parking lot removes an opportunity for that building to have access to parking across the street or if the parking is somehow reconfigured and is only serving the residents and not you know the commercial development that we have eventually want to see revitalizing The Village um you know we've had a lot of attempted commercial entities

281in addition to a Chinese takeout they served ice cream my family was down there we walked half a mile to get ice cream every single week um unfortunately we you know didn't give them enough business to stay in business the tattoo parlor used to be a convenience store so we would walk to the convenience store so the villagers walking there cannot support these commercial entities one of the main challenges for that area is the lack of parking and also the ridiculous Street configuration that looks like an Asterix with you know School Street and River Street and High Street and Railroad Street and nylander and Maple Street and Main Street all you know coming in now and of course the the traffic that's heading from South Acton or from Maynard you know to to Kelly's Corner

282area and the schools as well as to the commuter rail parking so this just seems premature and I understand we need you know to get something there eventually but I'd really like to see the visioning in place before thanks thank you thank you thank you David so right now um um the parcel in the middle which is nine School Street is permitted in all ways they could start construction tomorrow right and um then if they if they start construction tomorrow if they decide that this this additional process and so the the the person who owns the property in the middle has to sell it to the the bigger development if it goes you know across all three buildings um if that's not going to be salable you can just go ahead and build date unit

283Apartments which has also been approved by the HTC and everything again it could start tomorrow um and then we're going to end up with as the old Civil Defense building that we still don't have a use for right and we we've been trying now for years to find someone to use it but it's a funny building and it could be used as part of a larger project um but not probably if it's separated from everything else right so if there's an apartment complex in the middle that it can't be used and so you know I think there's an opportunity here for something um nicer I was kind of disappointed when I mean the person who owns nine School Street it's their property they can build by right under zoning there but then to me we

284don't get what we need in South active so we have this opportunity but we can't wait you know we have two people who are interested now and so I I think we should move forward with it um myself thank you um yeah I surprisingly I'm 100 in agreement with Minister Martin on this one um hi I appreciate you know one of having a comprehensive plan but I don't think we can wait five years for a comprehensive plan we keep kicking this can down the road and I I think it's important to move ahead with this so um I would accept a motion uh to ask the town manager to draft an RFP um and bring it back to us for our approval I think kind of got a sense of what we're looking for John

285um if anybody would like to make that motion so moved any of a second moved and seconded uh to the manager and draft up an RFP and bring it back to us for our review and hopefully approval uh Jim in the form of a comment before we vote um I I would it seems like there's a possibility uh that would make more sense to me to to clear the parking lot Surplus and wait on issuing the formal RFP until the planning process has gotten farther um you know these are the project I you know people who are developing project ideas often have a lot of you know irons in the fire at once they know sometimes things take a while you know if we say oh it's sorry we have to finish this comprehensive community

286plan process that we're really in the middle of uh it might not go away I'm also really fine with the notion of starting right away with the lease process on 19 and 21 and maybe that will help simplify the rest if if one of the proponents jumps on the 19 and 21 Martin Street then that would be that would be great thank you I I think that'll be a subsequent motion I'll ask for and and also a motion on declaring 13 Surplus images instead of declaring it as Surplus and I I do think that um I think the time is of the essence we do have two proposals that I think would be both really good for the space um especially with you know its proximity to um our public transportation the commuter rail um

287so I actually so I I do agree that we should also vote on the Surplus but I would be willing to vote on um having uh a draft of the RFP uh for review for the select board I would be willing to vote on that too okay thank you David yes so um I'm I I understand if uh you know I'm in favor of the going forward with the other RFP but if the um the other members of the board are not I would rather not declare the parking lot Surplus to me they go together um uh you know uh Ms Nichol pointed out some uses for the parking lot already to me I don't want the town to give up that parking lot unless we get something that we've been you know asking for

288for years for to revitalize South Acton which is you know some shops there um and so um we had now have someone who's willing to make shops there so I would I would give it up for that but not just give it up and then let's see what we might do so I I would propose that we hold off on both or do both okay um first off we've got a motion that's been seconded desk Town manager to draft up an RFP and bring it back to us for comment uh all in favor of that motion please say aye opposed abstentions Okay so first one is passed the second one identity and emotion to ask the town manager to move ahead with an RFP for the lease of the 19 through 21 Maple Street property

289second or I'll make that motion okay sorry I'm getting tired made can I offer um some kind of amend Amendment which either says uh especially or targeting a non-profit um there are a couple of non-profits interested uh the two non-profits who are interested are the uh a brick Islamic community center and the food pantry I think if we get into leasing it to commercial those two will be pushed out you know or could be pushed out and I think they're both good and maybe another non-profit is good but so I would just like to see the focus on nonprofits to start with um that's just maybe that's just me um Jim if you want um if you want to not take that motion Amendment um David what about a um an RFP that um you

290know assigns positive points to non-profit without um you know preventing some fabulous coffee shops from moving in there sure um but yeah but because we talked you know okay so the the that we would have an RFP about the leasing there that would you know say well extra points for the first sure are strongly considering yeah yeah yeah yeah let's be fine with that okay I'll second that thank you all right so we've got it moved and seconded uh to ask the town manager put together an RFP for a lease uh accentuating uh non-profits um further comment from the board hey all in favor of the motion please say aye aye opposed extensions thank you uh next I would entertain a motion for the select board to declare 13 School Street to be Surplus and

291to bring this forward at town meeting for approval and I would note that this does not mandate that we actually sell it but at least it gives us the opportunity and we declared three School Street sir plus what four years ago and it's still sitting there so I think it just gives us a a tool in our tool belt so if anyone would like to make that motion so moved second moved and seconded discussion all right all in favor of select boy declaring 13 School Street to be Surplus please say aye aye aye opposed abstentions I'm still abstaining okay uh Mr manjarati do you you have what you need uh yes so I think what we'll do is do rfps that present some options for the board to then finalize because there's a lot of

292variables that we could include in there so I want to make sure that we're on Target and might not be the right time to start that out right now thank you you know words missing it 10 past 11 is probably not a good idea um next we'll move on to uh item eight discuss the annual town meeting and date to close the warrant foreign good evening so in your packet we placed a timeline the usual timeline that we've been putting in there for a few years this is a list of events and meetings that are crucial to developing a town meeting Warren um town meeting voted to move the annual town meeting back one month so this in 23 it will be May 1st will be our first night that's the first Monday and then

293what we do is we calculate the warrant posting date being 14 days prior to the start of the annual Town election the town election actually being the start of the whole town meeting process and it's a unified warrant um so what we want to ask is that the board consider announcing the opening of the annual town meeting warrant and consider a date to close it you don't have to choose a date to close it tonight but it would be helpful and choosing that date is just a balance between allowing reasonable time for Citizens petitions to come in and then allowing the town time for Council to review those petitions for us to assemble the warrant and move articles around as the board wishes and and for the Committees to actually make recommendations on those petitions

294and all the other articles that you have to consider and do you have such a date in mind I do um looking at the calendar we have about 16 weeks from now to the posting date um so when I look at the calendar the middle of February specifically February 15th would allow for four meetings of the select board three meetings of the finance committee and probably three meetings of the planning board to consider all those articles and petitions so my thought was the close of business Wednesday February 15th it to to open it now and to close the warrant on the 15th would provide about eight weeks on each side of that okay um I would accept a motion to open the town meeting warrant uh at 11 30 pm on December 19th okay okay

295if you insist um 8 AM Tuesday December 20th be the opening date and the closing date would be close of business Wednesday February 15th that would be 5 PM so moved moved in a second oh second moved in second further discussion all right all in favor of those dates in the motion please say aye aye posed abstentions okay we're set number nine consider improving licenses for Holy Grail Frolic and Detour and rap scallion Mr manjirati thank you our team uh several members of our team have been working with these four businesses to try to get them where they need to be for their renewal process we're pretty close Lisa am I correct that Holy Grail needs to be deferred yeah so Holy Grail isn't ready if the board is having a meeting on the 30th

296that would be the uh the time that that has to be in by um Frolic and Detour I believe is in the same category Lisa um rap scallion has submitted a septic plan and a permit to update their septic system which is one of the requirements that we had for them they've also made several of the safety measures that Tom wolberg has had requested of them and so I think at this point we'd be comfortable with that one and we're very optimistic on the other two that they'll be ready in a few weeks okay thank you thank you David so I moved to approved in all alcohol beverage license for rapscallion and a common Fiddler license okay second moved and seconded to approve section 12 all alcoholic beverage flooring license and common visual licenses for

297a rap scallion all in favor say aye aye hosed abstentions okay and guess we'll see you on December 30th to talk about the other two consent items item 10 approve extension of the reduced parking rates of 25 per month for all reserved commuter parking spots through March 31st 2023. item 11. approved meeting minutes October 17th November 21 and December 5th 2022. 12 reappoint Lisa Wojcik as Town accountant with a term to expire on February 1st 2023. 13 reappoint Eva scoradic as town clerk with a term to expire on July 1 2025. item 14. approved Teresa O'Leary as a temporary Town Treasurer effective immediately item 15 approved James fuccioni as a full member of the planning board term to expire June 30th 2027. that sold that one and 16 approved Karen O'Neill's a full member of

298the open space committee turned to expire June 30th 2025. item 17. approved Mike gowing Suzanne Peterman and Ann Cadillac as full members that 250 committee turns to expire September 30th 2026. 18 approved Mary Price Maddox as a full member to the 250 committee as representative from the acton-box for school district term to expire September 30th 2026. 19. approved Dr raka Singh as a full member of the Board of Health current associate member term to expire June 30th 2023. item 20 accept gift Recreation Department for fifty dollars for Mary Lou repucci towards funding the lgbtq plus pride festival in 2023. accept gift Council on Aging one hundred dollars from Susan hunt towards the Council on Aging gift fund item 22 accept gift from the Acton Lions Club for two thousand dollars in merchant gift cards at

299fifty dollars per card for distribution at the discretion of the community services coordinator item 23. approve refund request of eighteen hundred dollars from Cemetery division for two unused plots to Karen Broderick I'll accept a motion to approve consent items 10 through 14 inclusive and 16-23 inclusive so moved and the second second moved and seconded all in favor of that motion please say I I opposed abstentions okay to our held item Jim um Tara raised some issues around James fuccioni I've had a number of conversations with him text email exchanges and a phone conversation and both Tara and I have done some web research I'm not concerned about him becoming a full member a terror race one question which was uh gee why would we skip over an associate member and make dreams fuccioni a full

300member so the last associate member we had on the planning board was Michaela Moran and she's been already promoted to a full member so we have no Associates so we wouldn't be skipping over any existing associate members um the other concerns that were raised were about James's Association through his through the healthy aging collaborative with the smart growth Alliance which used to be a a separate alliance with you know elaborate membership requirements it's now basically a project of mapc Terror raised a concerned that since James spoke at an SGA SGA conference back in 2017 that his organization must have been a member of the smart growth Alliance since that was the excuse that they gave Tara for not allowing her to give a presentation so it turns out that was just their excuse James and

301the healthy aging collaborative are not members of the smart growth Alliance as far as I've been able to determine and so even if they were I wouldn't see that as a disqualifying point because the smart growth Alliance is basically it's a reform organization you know they're not proposing um the kind of comprehensive changes to you know prevent further development but they are saying well assuming we're going to have development let's make it let's make it have the you know the following properties let's have it be compact let's have it be near public transportation let's have it you know make sure it develops a mix of affordability and and doesn't just simply create more you know freestanding market rate single-family homes so I I'm I I'm not I don't have a concern about the smart growth

302Alliance as a as a uh you know a special method for making sure that Builders build more buildings I see it as a reform organization um so that was that was what I found so far um but it could be there's a member of the public who has some thoughts Tara um yes uh there's uh first of all the star throughout the lines if you look on their page is about new building promoting new building they got the Mata zoning and the so-called housing choice that is now a gentrification issue all over the state but the third question the other question about James in particular was the um whether his organization is funded by the Boston fund or any of these large uh not non-profit granting organizations that come from construction money so did you

303ask him about that because I feel like that's a conflict of interest if it's the case um I have not investigated the full funding of the healthy aging collaborative so I object to his appointment on the grounds that you don't know where his money is coming from and that you have a member of the public wishing to investigate where his money is coming from thank you thank you um I will entertain a motion to approve um item 15 approved James fuccioni is a full member of the planning board term to expire June 30th 2027. so moved second moved in second moved and seconded further discussion all in favor of approving James puccioni a full member of the playing board please say aye aye opposed abstentions thank you I'll accept one more motion I moved to

304adjourn we got a second second moved in the second dude all in favor say aye aye opposed extensions thank you very much [Music]