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Municipal Video Transcripts

The News Production System (NPS) was used to produce the Municipal Meeting Recaps. NPS, developed by the Wayland Post, includes the use of artificial intelligence and automation programs. These programs are used to record, transcribe, and summarize town government meetings and events. Municipal Meeting Recaps are reviewed and edited by Wayland Post staff members prior to publication. Many of the meeting recordings were produced by WayCAM, whose government on-demand recordings can be viewed at www.waycam.tv/government-on-demand.

212 Cochituate Road Advisory Committee

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Annual Town Meeting

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Watch with transcript (2 meetings)

Audit Committee

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Watch with transcript (4 meetings)

Board of Assessors

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Watch with transcript (16 meetings)

Board of Health

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Watch with transcript (11 meetings)

Board of Public Works

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Watch with transcript (16 meetings)

Capital Improvement Planning Committee

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September 16, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee02:01:22

September 9, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee01:53:37

September 2, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee02:19:20

August 31, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee02:20:57

August 24, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee01:17:05

August 19, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee02:06:04

August 5, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee01:11:47

July 22, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee01:22:15

July 6, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee

June 24, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee01:19:34

June 3, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee02:06:49

May 27, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee45:59

May 13, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee01:57:42

April 29, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee02:06:26

April 14, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee02:34:37

March 18, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee01:52:43

March 4, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee01:44:33

February 10, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee01:59:36

February 4, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee02:34:09

January 26, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee02:36:36

January 21, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee

January 14, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee

December 17, 2025 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee

December 9, 2025 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee02:04:02

December 4, 2025 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee01:20:40

November 13, 2025 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee

October 30, 2025 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee

January 7, 2026 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee

10-15-25 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee01:43:36

09-30-25 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee02:07:27

9/9/2025 - Capital Improvement Planning Committee01:26:15
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Community Meeting – MWRA Connection

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October 23, 2025 - Community Meeting - MWRA Connection

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Community Preservation Committee

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Conservation Commission

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Cultural Council

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Watch with transcript (9 meetings)

Design Review Board

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Economic Development Committee

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Watch with transcript (14 meetings)

ELVIS Committee

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Watch with transcript (2 meetings)

Energy and Climate Committee

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Watch with transcript (9 meetings)

Finance Committee

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Watch with transcript (27 meetings)

Finance Committee Appointing Board

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Watch with transcript (6 meetings)

Historic District Commission

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Watch with transcript (6 meetings)

Historical Commission

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Watch with transcript (13 meetings)

Housing Partnership

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HRDEI Committee

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Languageen
Karen Blumenfeld: Good evening. everybody. This is the human rights. diversity. equity and inclusion committee. retiring on August 19. At we're just starting 5pm I'm Karen Bell. the committee chair. and let's start with the roll call. and let's start with the people in the room. So the following people are all in the room. I'm saying this for the benefit of note takers. Heather. you want to start Heather Janot Mendler de Suarez: Pino present. Shadow members. Suarez present. Karen Blumenfeld: Mary Anne burkowski present. Denise Watkins present. Karen Lewisville present. and let's start with the people on Zoom.
Sarah Shtutin: Fair student present. Unknown: Mariam present. Asma Khan: as my Khan Maya Raj present. Karen Blumenfeld: Thank you. Maya great. Happy. Everybody's here. So we are missing ya Wu Tang and we're missing. Kevin Goodwin. I believe Jailyn will come sometime soon. Mario. would you get us started
Maya Raj: today. as we begin. we would like to acknowledge the following indigenous peoples on whose traditional homelands we live. work and gather today. the Massachusetts. the Nim Puck. the Wampanoag and the Pawtucket. We acknowledge their ancestors. particularly cartoon of the Massachusett tribes. who are steward of much of the land now encompassing Sudbury Wayland. Sudbury and Wayland. when European settlers arrived to colonize this place in 1638. we seek to understand. acknowledge and remember the painful. ongoing history of war. genocide and forced removal of indigenous peoples by European settlers. and We offer a living celebration of the indigenous communities who are not just part of the past. but will continue to live and make new history here today. may we all commit to deepening our relationships with indigenous communities and to begin their ally and to and to being their allies in working for Justice. Karen Blumenfeld: Thank you. Could you also read the short verbiage at the top of that page? If you don't have it all. I can just do it real quick. Thank you. Want me to do it? Yes. please. Okay. it's super quick. It's just anybody listening from the public who's listening to this meeting. Please note that items may not be discussed in the order listed or at the specific time. Estimated times are approximate in the agenda. All topics may be subject to deliberation and vote. and this meeting is being recorded. and it will be made available to the public on WayCAM As soon as is practicable. Okay. public comment do we can't really see no attendees. Okay. okay. so no public comment. So let's move to Agenda Item number three. which is discussion and possible vote to approve the July 15. 2025. meeting minutes. Does anybody have any comments on the meeting minutes draft? If there are no comments. would somebody please move to approve the July 15. 2025. meeting minutes. Mary Ann Borkowski: Marianne moves to approve the July 15. 2025. meeting minutes.
Karen Blumenfeld: Okay. Denise. Mary Ann made the motion. and Denise seconded. and let's take a vote. Let's start with Zoom. Folks. Sarah approved. You. Maria. you. Asma approved. Maya. I abstain. Abstain. Thank you. Is there anyone else who needs to abstain? No. that was it Okay. Thank you. Good. Good thinking. Maya. thank you. Heather. I yes. no. yes. Marianne. yes. Denise. yes. And Karen. yes. So we were the people in the room who all said yes. So that's a unanimous approval. Good. Let's move to Agenda Item number four. discussion and possible vote for HR deic Clerk. This is a little bit tougher without Yahoo. because he needs to be part of this discussion. but I think I feel comfortable in speaking for him. Asma. Would you like to say anything about this role following up on our conversation from the last meeting.
Asma Khan: no just excited to take it on and hopefully smooth sailing after a couple months with yo. who's AI assistance. Karen Blumenfeld: Thank you. Yeah. So I think what we're going to propose is not. I think we are going to propose that Asma and yalu share this role. that ya will is willing to take the transcript from our meetings and put it into a very rough format of minutes without he's not going to prove it or anything like that. He's just going to put it in a rough format and rough format and turn it over to Asma. who. who will? Asma. you will decide whether we're going to have a note taker. I think we just. we talked about that we would still have note takers for the next couple months. just to help. like Heather is taking notes tonight. just to kind of help as we transition into this new process. and then maybe over time. we won't even need that person if the whole AI thing moves from a slightly forest. So we'll probably have note takers through December and then revisit where we're at and see if we need that extra pair of eyes and ears or not. So I think. unless anybody has any comments. I would ask if anybody would move that Asma and yaw share the clerk role for for this year. Asma. does that sound good? Sounds perfect. Thanks. Oh. and there's yellow. okay. yeah. well. you have just been nominated. Okay. so Yahoo joined us at 6:10pm. and Yao. can you hear us?
Unknown: Yes. hi. Karen Blumenfeld: sorry. that's okay. So we're just talking about Agenda Item number four. the HR deic Clerk. And we just got to the point of saying that what we're proposing is that you. and as much share the role and that you would do the AI piece of taking that transcript that we get and turning it into a very rough set of minutes. and then Asma will work on the rest. Oops. we lost someone. We just lost Sarah. Alright. well. she'll come back. We lost Sarah at 612. I'm sure she'll be right back. And we'll have. we'll continue to have note takers. Oh. Sarah's back. Okay? So that that was one second continue to have no takers through December. and then we'll see if maybe we don't need no takers anymore. if maybe the process is so smooth by then that that we're good with just the two of you working on the minutes. So the proposal on the table. if it's okay with you. Yahoo is to to ask someone to make a motion to nominate you and Asma to share the clerk role for the hrdic for the year. Is that okay with you? Yellow? Yauwu Tang: Yeah. but so we don't need the new tape anymore. Karen Blumenfeld: Well. what we're saying is. let's keep a note take. Let's keep rotating note takers through December. and then let's talk about it in December and see maybe the process will be so smooth by then we don't need note takers. But we're not sure how the technology is going to work. so we'll. we'll try it through them this way. with note takers. Unknown: Cool. Okay. Janot Mendler de Suarez: so I so move. Karen Blumenfeld: So. John no is moving making the motion. and Denise is making the second. Let us take a vote. Heather. yes. John O. yes. Mary Ann. yes. Denise. yes. okay. Marion. yes. yellow Yes. Sarah. thank you. Asma. yes. Maya. yes. and Karen. yes. Okay. so we have unanimously approved yellow and Asma as the clerk. Thank you so much to both of you. and we will continue to work to make this as easy as possible for everybody. So thank you. Denise Fortin: Okay. so Heather Pineault: can I ask a clarification question please? So would you like note takers to send the notes to both of you after the meeting. or should it go to ya wo? What works for you both? I Asma Khan: think sending it to both of us would be helpful.
Yauwu Tang: For sure. I send all the minutes to the note taker so he can update it to make it the final draft. I Asma Khan: think the plan is that. yeah. you would send me the AI transcript. and then the note taker sends me what they have. and then I kind of review both and condense it. Into one document
Karen Blumenfeld: that sounds great. Thank you.
Yauwu Tang: Okay. you use the I. no. take a word. Make it final. Way. Karen Blumenfeld: No. the clerk. The clerk makes it final. And then as chair. I take the. you know. I Yauwu Tang: mean the note taker will take the shot. Heather Pineault: No. no. no. Takers. Take the note takers taking the first shot during the meeting to get any details. and then sharing it with you and Asma. but then asthma will condense the two together. Karen Blumenfeld: And the note taker isn't necessarily putting it into. you know. proper minutes format. They're just kind of saying who made the motion. Who seconded. like. you know. a few details. but they're not going to put it in in a format necessarily. Yauwu Tang: Okay. we can try. Janot Mendler de Suarez: Okay. the note taker is just taking notes. but as MA is. is creating the minutes. and then Karen does the final approval. Just have eyes on. Karen Blumenfeld: Excellent. Thank you. So Agenda Item number five is community conversation with district attorney Marion Ryan. So that was scheduled for October 8. but da Ryan's schedule has changed. and she has rescheduled for Monday. November 10. at 6:30pm and that works for Chief Berman. So we have given the heads up. the thumbs up. Rather. for that date. it works for both of them. I'm hoping it works for everybody Janot Mendler de Suarez: here as well. And will that be at the community center? Yes. it'll be Karen Blumenfeld: a great yes at the new community new council on aging community center. So November 10. 6:30pm is this new day. and I want to put forth to this committee the possibility of CO sponsoring this event. not only with our chief. but also with the Sudbury dei commission. who I have been in conversation with. and they're interested in CO sponsoring with us. and they love the idea that it's in the community center. which is like right on the Sudbury line. So it's pretty convenient for Sudbury folks as well. And they haven't voted on it yet on their committee. but I've I suggest that we vote on it and let them vote when they can have their meeting. And they will also invite chief. next Sudbury chief of police. to to also co sponsor. So this would be a co sponsorship between us. the Sudbury dei commission. and the two police departments. Pretty cool. and we have a room that holds up to 100 people. Not that. I mean. it'll be hybrid. so a lot of people come online. but still. we can accommodate a lot of people that way. very Janot Mendler de Suarez: exciting to co sponsor with Sudbury.
Karen Blumenfeld: So what I would like to do is ask somebody to make a motion to co sponsor the community conversation with Da Marion Ryan with the Sudbury dei commission and Sudbury Police Department. Sarah Shtutin: Sorry. I just have a quick question. Oh. sure. go ahead. What does kind of CO sponsoring mean? Is it co promoting? Is there a financial involved. and then are we going to invite because I think in the last committee meeting. we were talking about how the data is going to be for all of Middlesex County. Yes. are we going to be inviting other towns or just us in Karen Blumenfeld: Sudbury? You asked a question right before that. Oh. is there any financial commitment? No. the DA is coming during me. I'm sorry. Sarah Shtutin: what is CO sponsoring Karen Blumenfeld: So. yes. co publicizing. we would definitely look to them to publicize it in Sudbury. There's no financial commitment. If we all decide we want to bring snacks or whatever. we can work that out. But there's no there's no fun. We don't have any funding. I don't know whether have any funding. actually. so we can find that out. And police departments have funding. So the only thing I can think of is food if we want to do and yes. we will look to them to also promote it. And you know. our Chief of Police is a very open hearted guy who's probably going to invite people from other communities. and so I will need to chat with him and chief Nix about that. But I'm thinking we have room for lots of people. Many people will come online. I can't imagine we'd exceed 100 people. So I think probably we. we would open it up. but I. I. I'm not 100% sure of that at this moment. That's good. Yeah. Thank you. Who had Mary Ann Borkowski: a question? Um. well. we are co sponsoring. It is. is the police department sponsoring? Yes. we already voted that. Okay. so last I should remember. no. no. no. I should have said that last time we voted to go sponsor with the police. with our police. right? Okay. yes. So. so this would be to add on the Sudbury Commission and the Sudbury Police. And I remember Ed saying he was going to invite other people. and actually. even the freedom teams were. I think. interested in this. So good. yeah. So it'll be great. Karen Blumenfeld: We'll make it big. Yeah. who hosts and sets up the zoom? So Robbie. can I ask you a question in this meeting. Normally. we don't ask you questions like this in the meeting. But it's my understanding that the town doesn't provide zoom hosting yet over at the new council or an aging community center. Is that true? Do you ever host over there? No. I don't. Yeah. I don't. My understanding when I last asked. is that they don't send anyone from the town to do that Zoom hosting. Ed Berman is very conversant with how to do that. and I think he will take that on. I asked Jailyn to reserve an owl for us for the green line people. and Ed is planning to kind of back that up. Whatever his plan B is to make sure we have a zoom. Excuse me. an hour Heather Pineault: so people will be able to Karen Blumenfeld: attend remotely. So people can attend remotely. That's the idea that this would be a hybrid event. and Yauwu Tang: we should be able to do the Zoom ourselves. Usually allowed to do so. We Karen Blumenfeld: should do it. Be able to do it ourselves. I am not ever volunteering to do that. but if somebody here is interested in doing that. then we're we're welcome to do that. Yauwu Tang: I can help you. We all decide. does it consider to Okay? It Heather Pineault: would have. do you have an account that can have a not that many people join it as a webinar? Karen Blumenfeld: No. it would have to be the town. He would be doing what Robbie does with the town's equipment. Yeah. so. so I gotta ask Jailyn. Okay. so somebody asked about WayCAM. somebody asked about the owl. which we're talking about. but also the laptop up because I. actually. I didn't explicitly ask her for a laptop well. and Mary Ann Borkowski: you might want to just say 100 people. capacity Janot Mendler de Suarez: of 200 on and you will verify all this with Ed Berman. right? Unknown: Yep. with Ed Mary Ann Borkowski: and Jailyn. Just a few. just a few connections there. And Heather Pineault: it's the intent to do it interactive like this. or like to do it at where. like are they going to be here in Karen Blumenfeld: person? Da Ryan said she was coming in person. Heather Pineault: So are we trying to do it more as a webinar. where people are watching. or where people can get in. like that? Oh. good question. So that's just food for thought. Unknown: Yeah? So Janot Mendler de Suarez: webinar. she may want to offer a Q. a at the end. yeah. depending what Heather Pineault: she how she wants to do it. So or so. I've been in webinars where. you know. you can put the questions right the chat. in the chat if you have a question. but more just. how do they want to do it Karen Blumenfeld: right? And also. do we want to provide privacy. like. if there are people who want to come but they don't want to be seen. they might prefer the webinar format where nobody sees who's there. but if there are people who really want to get be engaged. then they then they would do it like we're doing right now. so that they their faces can be seen. and they could participate. Mary Ann Borkowski: I would worry about promising something when we are barely thinking that we can manage to do this. all of these pieces together. So I guess I would think that you can't really promise that. if someone's really Janot Mendler de Suarez: concerned. we can do just another question. Fred Berman. so that we have a sense of how it's going to go. It's not until November. Yeah. Heather Pineault: and if. if someone. they don't have to have their name pop up on the screen. Janot Mendler de Suarez: true. they don't know. it'll be important to know what da Ryan's expectation is. Karen Blumenfeld: Yeah. okay. I can ask a whole page of questions. yeah. I can ask that question. What they normally do? They might have a normal format. you're right. And Which reminds me. the DAs office is going to make the flyer for us. which is nice. And I created a little registration form. a Google form. so people can register.
Yauwu Tang: Another question is. does all the attendees is willing to be seen Karen Blumenfeld: by everyone? Yes. that is a question. I Yauwu Tang: think. not just the Zoom attendees. I mean the in person attendees. or we would hyper avoid that. Janot Mendler de Suarez: Well. yeah. well. wouldn't you always have. The option of not entering your name and leaving your video off. The Yauwu Tang: people on this. the people attending. all over the phone. That's easy to handle. So either for the meeting itself. the people speaker speaks at the meeting. Do you want them all those. those people want to be saved by everyone else. Do you want speak? Luke. Heather Pineault: so we could take. we could take written questions. And I guess that's a question for how the DA. I mean the Yauwu Tang: speakers. I mean the we Heather Pineault: have an owl. depending where the person is. they would then be visible on the recording. And are we recording it to play later as well? It Mary Ann Borkowski: would be nice to be able to record it. Karen Blumenfeld: but not the Q A. only. I would say only her presentation. yeah. not the Q. Denise Fortin: a. yeah. I thought when Sarah spoke that she put herself back on you mean. when she spoke because of the owl. it just brought her back up. Karen Blumenfeld: Oh. mean. right now. just now. yeah. I don't know. Maybe she lost her connection for a second. I don't know. Heather Pineault: Oh. I was saying. like when I speak. the owl turns to me so someone could see. So if we had somebody speaking and making a public comment. the owl would then show them up there. if they didn't want Unknown: to be smart owl. but. um.
Karen Blumenfeld: but But I do think we could probably take written questions. These are things I can talk to Yeah. her person about. and find out how they normally handle Janot Mendler de Suarez: these. Yeah. Denise. if you speak. you'll probably see yourself pop up here. Oh. okay. I Denise Fortin: thought she meant. I thought you met the people on Zoom. Would if they were blocked out like Sarah had been. and they spoke that. Karen Blumenfeld: No. I'm okay. Sarah has control over whether her video is showing or not. Yeah. okay. yeah. I see your Sarah Shtutin: question. Yes. I'm sorry. I'm just dealing with some stuff at home. but I'm listening intently. Karen Blumenfeld: We're so glad you're here. Sarah. yes. Janot Mendler de Suarez: and you don't have to share your private life. Sarah Shtutin: No. that's okay. It's totally fine. I already let Karen know. but my grandfather. who's 97 had a little issue. so she's here now with us and trying to figure things out.
Karen Blumenfeld: Thank you. So okay. so Can some I'll have a whole good list of questions to ask. to talk with both chief Berman. with Jailyn and with the DAs office about and we'll I'll know more for next time. Would somebody please make a motion you were actually about to. Denise. make a motion to co sponsor this program with the Sudbury dei commission and Sudbury Police Department. in addition to our own police department. which we've already voted to co sponsor. So moved. Thank you. So Denise moved. Is there a second? Second? Okay. general seconded. so let us take a vote. Uh. yalu. let's start online. Yauwu Tang: Yes. Karen Blumenfeld: yes. Mariam. yes. Sarah. yes. Asma. yes. Maya. yes. Okay. let's go to the room. Heather. yes. ADU. no. yes. Marianne. yes. Denise. yes. And Karen. yes. So we have unanimously decided to co sponsor. That's great. I will let Sudbury know. Um. the second item and is to talk about y'all. I'm just going to introduce something new to you. This just came up recently. so I haven't shared it with you yet. and that is that the following the Frederick. Frederick Douglas community conversation the week of July 4. there was a lot of interest in follow up conversations. It was really it was well attended. it was well received. And so the library has been in conversations with Dr Eden Renee Hayes. who had facilitated that event. that conversation. They've been in conversation with Dr Hayes and with the Wayland Museum and Historical Society to propose a four session conversation series called Conversations for change. to be facilitated by Dr Hayes. And the series would create a space where community members can explore sensitive topics. challenge assumptions. Systems and connect historical insights to present day realities in ways that lead to meaningful action. It's. you know. it's a series that's meant to foster honest and open dialog about differences and shared humanity. encourage residents to examine local norms. build skills and relationships and strengthen the town's commitment to inclusion and belonging. So it's right up our alley. and they have invited us to co sponsor. along with the library and the historical museum and Historical Society and museum. I'll just mention what the dates are. The dates are Thursdays in the it's in the fall. starting in the fall. Thursdays from seven to 8:30pm. I will it start four dates. October 16. November. 3. December. 4 and January. 15. And there are so dr Haynes has come up with a wide range of amazing topics to just really get some broad community conversations going. and I'll share the proposed four topics. One is George Washington's Farewell Address. 1796 the second is from the book. The sum of us just taking a chapter. chapter four from that wonderful book. The third is the town of Wayland. community life and engagement Executive Report. which we're going to talk about soon here tonight. And the fourth is local. historical connections. and just understanding how some things from the past connect with today. And they're hoping that if the series is a success. there could be expanded even further. So it's a really. really exciting series that I think is very much up our alley. And does anyone have any questions?
Janot Mendler de Suarez: Just so great that sparked traction on more conversations. Mary Ann Borkowski: on that people asked for it. yeah. that people wanted it. And and. of course. goes along with what the conversations could be later. So it's a. it's a one of the things we would want to do in response to the equity assessment. I can't imagine anything better than to be doing this and so happy that we didn't initiate it. but that another group initiated. you know. which says that we're we're doing something right in Tom. you know. So really appreciate it. Appreciate the library taking the initiative here. Yes. Karen Blumenfeld: anything from the people on Zoom.
All right. so if there are no more questions or comments. can someone move to co sponsor the conversations for Change Series facilitated by Dr Ian Renee Hayes with the Wayland library and Wayland Museum and Historical Society. So Denise moved. is there a second? Second? Marianne seconded. Let us vote about the level yellow. yes. Mario. yes. SARAH Yes. Asma. yes. Maya Yes. Heather Yes. in the back in the room. Heather and Jen No. yes. and Marianne Yes. Denise Yes. Aaron. yes. Okay. so it's unanimous that we would love to co sponsor this program. So this is really wonderful. Excited about that. Okay. so let's do Wayland festival planning updates and let us know what's going on with that.
Janot Mendler de Suarez: I'll start with the positive. which is that. stepping back from all of the details and all the teams working on the different elements. it's really extraordinary that we have such strong. generous hearted collaboration between so many different departments and groups in the town of Wayland. all hoping to make this a an event that draws the whole town out To get together and get to know each other that said we are entering. what we what were you calling it the sprint? Mary. with just. I don't know. a month and a half to go. and we have a lot of things that we need to. People together. We will have a very dynamic performance schedule. We will have a very diverse community marketplace with community groups and vendors. and we'll have a nice artists and artisan section. I hope we'll have some great children's activities. And we are going to kick off an almost day long event with touch a truck. The parade will now take place with a loop within the town center. and when it arrives at the town green. that will initiate the multicultural performance segment of the festival. And we will probably have. I think we're going to start at 10am with touch a truck. and we will be going from noon to 6pm with stage performances and the marketplace Busy. There are food trucks that will be coming. and we're just trying to keep going with the fundraising. We have some very generous contributors. donors. local businesses who want to sponsor us. We're gearing up for how we're going to manage the publicity. good ideas. and we're. I think. nervous. but basically in good shape and moving forward on all fronts for Karen Blumenfeld: members of the public who might be listening. I forgot to mention the date at the beginning. over four Saturday. Janot Mendler de Suarez: October Saturday. October 4 at the town center. and starting at about 10am probably with the touch of truck. and probably the parade will start maybe 11. Get to the
details of the program as we get closer to the event timing. It's a lot of coordination with a lot of entities. And I also want to mention the Wayland 250 committee. as well as the Historical Society. who are partnering to make this a great event.
Karen Blumenfeld: A question somebody raised with me that when they Googled multicultural festival. not surprisingly. nothing came up for 2025 Yeah. Is it possible to put somewhere in there. formally multicultural festival as well? Google said Janot Mendler de Suarez: it would come up. It's not the same multicultural Festival. It's much larger. The elements of our multicultural festival are all embedded in the Wayland festival. We don't know. honestly. if this is the way that we will continue going forward. It's a big experiment. We're hoping that we will bring a multicultural experience and a broader community interactive experience to a much. much larger cross section of the community than we have been able to attract to the multicultural festival. so that remains to be seen whether we will continue in the same format or try to tweak it do a little bit better next year. or that we may go back to having a separate multicultural festival in the spring. or maybe we'll do both. Maybe we'll have the Wayland festival in the fall and indoor multicultural festival in the spring. We don't know. Okay. it's a learning by doing. So if Karen Blumenfeld: someone Googles festival 2025 hopefully at some point soon this Janot Mendler de Suarez: would come up. yeah. hopefully they will see Wayland festival. Yeah. Mary Ann Borkowski: it probably is more related to the fact that we don't have enough publicity out there. that's what. Yeah. Yauwu Tang: we'll have the website. All we should be able to we can add a keyword into our website Mary Ann Borkowski: is. is. I have no idea. What I'm asking. I'm using these words someone. I remember someone saying Facebook events. Create a Facebook event. then you can with that. I mean. right? Then you attach some keywords to it. What is the magic here? I feel like there's some magic that certainly I don't know. I understand how to do Janot Mendler de Suarez: but do you know about that? Asma. how it might work if we have a Facebook Wayland festival? Yeah. I think Unknown: if we're able to create Asma Khan: an event through Facebook. and then just in the description. we can add like. formally known as the multicultural festival. so what if it's in the wording. then it should pop up if someone's searching for it. I just don't know if that pops up on a Google search. If it's just Facebook. Janot Mendler de Suarez: yeah. but it's not really that. It was formerly known as the multicultural festival because it was also formerly known as the Rec and police department touch a truck. It was formerly known as arts waylands Expo. So it the Wayland festival is bringing a lot of events together. Everyone is on board with it being multicultural. but it's not the multicultural festival. Yeah. Asma Khan: I think maybe just in the description. adding it different. the different events that it's kind of including in one. So we'll add in. like. touch. a truck. whatever the events were. and then just include that in the description. So when you're searching it. it pops up Janot Mendler de Suarez: multicultural fair or multicultural marketplace. as Yahoo said. adding the keyword might be the that might do the trick. Sarah Shtutin: You can also like. for example. the Wayland community forum. You can create an event on the Wayland community forum and invite all of the members of the Wayland Community Forum. I'm not sure how that would come up in search results. but that's one way to create a Facebook event targeted Karen Blumenfeld: the two things. one is search results. That's one thing. but just getting it on Facebook is huge. So many Wayland people get their information about stuff through. as you said. the community forum. There's also a Wayland events page. So if we can get it onto Facebook as soon as possible. I think that's a great way to spread the word. Will there Asma Khan: be a flyer that's made. or is that does a seat the date? Is that the flyer. Janot Mendler de Suarez: right? So we're. well. we'd like. we'd like to have a more professional. jazzier looking flyer. That was just to save the date. So we'd like to have more flyer. or succession of flyers. as we get closer to the event. And we'd also like to have a lot more yard signs that could go up in different neighborhoods. So that may be question. if we're not going to have a committee meeting next month. Mary Ann Borkowski: say that next month.
Janot Mendler de Suarez: well. would it be okay before the next committee meeting for our meeting. for our meeting. before our next meeting. would it be okay if we send out an informational to committee members that we have printed yard signs. and if you'd like to collect them. get in touch with somebody or other and help to get them. you know. sprinkled into as many neighborhoods as we can. But is Karen Blumenfeld: there any reason not to put the Save the date on Facebook today? No reason can we get this thing going? Oh.
Mary Ann Borkowski: okay. okay. you can ask as much Heather Pineault: it's on our so if you know to look. if you just put in Wayland the festival. actually. as of three hours ago. Boston Central has it whatever that is. right? But it's called Wayland Festival. and if you look it up for the Wayland is full day of community. culture and fun for all exploring multicultural exhibits and marketplace and an artist marketplace. So that's on Boston central as of a few hours ago. arts Wayland. it pops up under them. and then. actually. it pops up under in Wayland. under. I mean. it pops up under ours as the 2025. multicultural festival. But there is no. there's. Mary Ann Borkowski: yes. you're not on the right page. Heather Pineault: When you search the town. pop this pops up on the town under us. That's under the hrdic. So I'm wondering. if we 2025 Mary Ann Borkowski: it's on our I don't understand. It's on our so whatever that we Janot Mendler de Suarez: need to get that point to. The question Heather Pineault: would be. if you search this. this is what comes Mary Ann Borkowski: up our but it is on our Web. Jailyn put it on. yes. Heather Pineault: yeah. If you go back to our home for it. it is there. right? But if you search it. there's an orphan for somehow. somewhere. somehow. that page is by itself. So maybe Janot Mendler de Suarez: blaming that. maybe that was a place folder that is. Heather Pineault: what's by itself. what's an orphan. I don't know where this Janot Mendler de Suarez: is. This is no information. You Heather Pineault: know where it's showing up. It's because we have this in the in the side column. We have a. We have a menu item for the festival. the festival. but we don't have that there. so we want to. we want to also put that flyer here. okay. Karen Blumenfeld: as well as on the homepage. Okay. yeah. Can you. if you look at the multicultural festival page. it has 2324 and 25 right on. So that Mary Ann Borkowski: picked up. I did do that. of course. wonderfully efficient and Karen Blumenfeld: sounds. yeah. Heather Pineault: so it's ready. but great. there found that for it. yeah? So. because that way. if somebody knew we did this and they went to our website and looked. then. actually. there is a link directly to it. right? Yeah. Okay. great. Mary Ann Borkowski: Thanks. Karen Blumenfeld: Just saying. Wow. Asma Khan: you were mentioning searching for it. So I just did a quick Google search for Wayland multicultural festival 2025 and so it says. The Wayland multicultural Festival in 2025 will be held on Saturday. October 4. as part of the larger Wayland Fest at the town center. Janot Mendler de Suarez: Oh. wow. And where's that? I don't know who wrote that. Asma Khan: but if you just Google it. yeah. it's an AI response.
Heather Pineault: No. you know why? It's because. oh no. it links me to Wayland. 250 also has it on their homepage. Oh. great. yeah. but they do mentioning a combined multicultural pavilion and artist marketplace on the Wayland 250 page also. So it's get it. Karen Blumenfeld: That's right. Wayland 250 is. like the 250th anniversary. Janot Mendler de Suarez: I think it's the country about a year Wayland has a committee. yeah. that's doing like. a year's worth of events. like the parade is part of the 2/50 and they're working with the schools on that.
Unknown: I have a question. Asma Khan: yeah. so because. like. school is starting in all that. is there anything that I can send out? Maybe. Janot Mendler de Suarez: absolutely. we also Maya. We. this student named Noah reached out to us. who's started something called serve Wayland. who's really keen to help with the festival. And I had told Noah that it would be great if there were. you know. people who were good at graphics outreach to maybe. you know. research some of the performers. and help us do a lot more publicity than we're capable of doing as our own just the committee and that there will be volunteer positions at the festival itself. that it'd be great. You know when school starts. for people to know that we'll need some runners to assist with the stage manager and helping you know the acts to be ready and in sequence. There's also that. There's also something that I just mentioned to Noah. the castle Brewing Company is going to be serving beer. It's a Wayland high school grad who started this company. but they are also serving free water throughout the festival. But the rule is that you cannot carry the beer off of the festival grounds. so you can't leave the green so it would be really helpful if we had. you know. like one or two students an hour. just walking around and in a friendly way if they notice someone who's holding a. you know. a beer. to just make sure that they don't wander off. because that is against the law.
Karen Blumenfeld: Directed so Maya saying. What can she do? Yes. Unknown: so it would Janot Mendler de Suarez: be helpful to to think about how you might like to get the word out. and we should connect you with Noah if you wanted to have some support. Asma Khan: Does this? You might know him. Is this Noah Goldstein by any chance? No. no. Karen Blumenfeld: okay. no. he has a different last name. Can we send her the Sega date flyer? It's no. yeah. Noah Spiewak or SP Yeah. something Janot Mendler de Suarez: like wax be West. yes. that's his last name. Heather Pineault: Do you know anyone at Wayland Student Press that could do an article about Asma Khan: it? I. I do. actually. so I could ask around if you'd like. Heather Pineault: and also that great sounds like. if you. if you can help get word out about meeting volunteers that could be communities. Service Karen Blumenfeld: hours. So it's so. yeah. they get community service hours. The question is. so Noah has this organization Janot Mendler de Suarez: that serve Wayland. which so he could have a few students. Karen Blumenfeld: and that's separate from the school and maybe separate from community service service credits. right? Janot Mendler de Suarez: But if they're Wayland students. any help they give for the festival and become can count as community service. Karen Blumenfeld: So maybe Maya. what if we connect Maya with Noah and maybe they can figure out how to work together? Yeah. will you do that? You want me to do that?
Janot Mendler de Suarez: I'm not sure. If I don't have Maya's email Karen Blumenfeld: address. I'll connect Janot Mendler de Suarez: Karen. Can connect you to Noah. Maya. okay. Mary Ann Borkowski: yeah. and I. I'll send. I'll send you the Save the date flyer. and that's at least give some background. Yeah. something to work Janot Mendler de Suarez: from. And Maya. you're welcome. You're always welcome to text me or call me. maybe Karen. just include my contact information when you do the connection to NOAA.
Unknown: well. I will do Janot Mendler de Suarez: Thank you. Thank you. Asma Khan: Another thought to that point. Maya and Sarah. you might have more knowledge about this than me. but I know last year for the harvest festival. when we did. we had high school kids help out. They get certain like points that build up to privileges. and so they're able to like build up depending on how many they earn. So I wonder if we can get in touch with the schools to be able to get like. be able to recruit more high school kids to be able to participate? Sarah Shtutin: Yeah. they get. I'm not sure about a point system. but I know I've recruited high school kids and they get community service hours. which. oh. okay. everyone has a certain amount of hours. I don't know what that is. that they have to get by the end of high school. So Janot Mendler de Suarez: and certify. as you know. our festival committee. the number of hours that the students who are volunteering. we had to sign something last Sarah Shtutin: year in a form. Heather Pineault: Sarah. is it possible in terms of this publicity. to get something else through the PTOs? You know what Sarah Shtutin: I was thinking about that while we were having this conversation. Let me take it back to my board. I know want to wear kind of two hats. My hat is part of this committee. My hat is part of the PTO presidency. And what we've continued to discuss. there's a lot of events. right? So how much do we flood our kind of publicity with all the events happening in Wayland. versus focusing on the events happening at Happy hollow. sponsored by the PTO? So that's something that we kind of grapple with. I honestly think that there's a huge overlap between members of the PTO and members of. for example. the happy hollow community. those who are on social media that they're also on the community forum. So I'm happy to post the flyer on the community forum. I'm happy to create an event on the community forum. inviting kind of everybody. I'm more than happy to do that. I just I've gotten a lot of requests to post something on our Facebook page. and what I find is that people are confused. Is this a PTO event? Is this. you know. are happy hollow people are going to be there? Am I paying for it? Because people contribute to the PTO. and then we have events which we fund through the PTO. and every single communication. if I were to include every event that people reach out to me for. then the communication of the actual PTO events that I run would be kind of lost in in the shuffle. so I don't know the answer. Mary Ann Borkowski: That's why they use the all school newsletter. and that's this kind of thing ends up in there. Sarah Shtutin: Yeah. absolutely. That is Mary Ann Borkowski: absolutely school newsletter. right? That is not in my school newsletter gets the all school Sarah Shtutin: Yeah. correct. corrections. So if you want me. I mean. I know less. I know you know Leslie corner. who does the all school news. So if you want me to send something to her. I think that's a great you know that has a library section that has kind of all the events that that she has a lot more flexibility versus the communication that comes from me that is very specific to the happy hollow community. right? Janot Mendler de Suarez: Yeah. So it would be that would be great if you could get it. you know. especially sort of a back to school timing newsletter. at least. That's. Save the date. But I'm wondering. you know. this is something just to think about. Would the PTO be interested in CO sponsoring? And again. what a co sponsorship would entail would simply be helping to get the word out. get the word out of. you know. families with children. and we should give you a little bit more information. I actually don't have a very recent update from the parade committee. but the idea behind the parade. which the Wayland 250 committee and the historical museum are kind of the drivers of was that they wanted to reach out to each of the schools so that the kids could have some kind of a float. or floats. sort of by school. so that each of the schools would be in the parade. and the parade is going to be led by the High School Band. and the band is going to play while they're in the parade. and then they're going to continue their set. When they arrive at the town green. they'll go up on stage and have a few more instruments. So the parade portion is a big. you know. family kickoff for the festival. because we're hoping we'll have lots of kids that really make the parade. But I'm not. I'm not up to date on where they where that committee is with the schools. and if they're working with art teachers or history teachers. I don't know. WCA.
Yauwu Tang: WCA women in Chinese American Association. They are working hard with the school kids. They are looking for them to participate in the dragon dance. to train them to operate the non dragon. They also. every year they get a lot of kids to help out logistically during the festival day. So we have quite a long list of participants. I'm pretty sure. So they are doing that till this year. Janot Mendler de Suarez: And the lion dancers are also Wayland kids who will be in the parade and then perform when they get to the green at the stage.
Karen Blumenfeld: You need anything else from us right now? Yauwu Tang: It's really a multicultural festival. but because it's combined with three festival together. Somehow these people will have the reservation to call it multicultural festival. because it's nice more than contains all other two called festivals. Or for some reason. the people started to call the boat the wing of festival. Instead of doing a multicultural festival. Janot Mendler de Suarez: we could have called it the multicultural festival. but everybody in the big collaborative group decided. including us. that it didn't have to be called the multicultural festival. that we thought it would be more concise to just call it Wayland Festival. and that the multicultural experience would be clear.
Yauwu Tang: Because the purpose of encourage and
Janot Mendler de Suarez: it's great that the message is getting out there. and that it's clearly the message that AI has pulled from the bit of publicity that we've started with. So that's that's a success. Karen Blumenfeld: 10 days ago. it wasn't there. so now it's starting to pop up. Yeah. it's great. Just like so such a huge thank you to you and to all the folks that are working on this incredible. incredible event. And just know that the rest of us are available to help on the day of you know. in any way that would be helpful. of course. and we hope Janot Mendler de Suarez: that you'll have a table. And Mary Ann Borkowski: yes. actually. that does entertain. What a perfect opening. We have to have a table. And last time. last time. we had the welcome table. and then I had a fabric table. We did some fabric crafts. but we don't. maybe. actually some of the things we're going to talk about later today. maybe that we can look at them to see about some handouts and what would be on that table. So. and Karen Blumenfeld: if we don't get to that tonight. we'll find a way next time. Yeah. Mary Ann Borkowski: we'll be a little more final. But yes. we're on. We're on for a table at. The event. Karen Blumenfeld: And one thing we'll be covering a table. So we'll be covering a table. and we can all help cover the table. And one thing I have to remember to do is pick up the banners from the town. because they're. you know. they're using our banners on the sign boards. but you need them for the festival. And I'm pretty sure I have a note in my calendar. but I'll just triple check that too. that I gotta pick them up and make Mary Ann Borkowski: sure. I'm guessing. that those festivals. those those time periods. will be done. Oh. Janot Mendler de Suarez: but I gotta get them. Yeah. guys out of storage. put them up. So beautiful.
Karen Blumenfeld: Okay. okay. thank you. Huge. huge. Thanks to everybody who's working on this. It's an amazing. amazing thing.
Okay. so we'll take a breath. and then we're going to move to number seven. and Robbie. if we have a guest who's joining us. yeah. she's here. I know. but we want to make her a panel. Is she a panelist? We Janot Mendler de Suarez: can move her over. Yeah. welcome Dr Renee.
Mary Ann Borkowski: When this picture was taken. right? It just went dark. No. oh. just went dark. They all have masks on. So during covid. that's when that picture was taken. The good old days. time to update it.
Karen Blumenfeld: Oh. welcome. Oh. hey. So Dr Eden Renee Hayes is here to join us. and I'm going to introduce her in a second. I want to lay a little groundwork here for what we're about to talk about. So the Wayland community life and engagement Executive Report. which in the past we called the equity assessment. So just want to put this in context. It's called the equity I mean. the community life and engagement Executive Report was produced by Dr Damon a Williams and the Center for Strategic diversity. leadership and social innovation. which is the acronym is CSD. LSI. for any members of the public who are watching that report. can now be found on the Select boards web page under the tab called external reports. And joining us tonight is Dr in Renee Hayes. a dei consultant and Wayland resident. whom the town hired as a thought partner to help bring this assessment. this huge assessment. to life and throughout the whole process from the very from day one. Dr Hayes has worked closely with the town manager and me. providing incredibly thoughtful guidance and direction and just really helping bring this thing to life. So I want to thank Dr Hayes for that and for being here tonight. And you already know some of the people here. You may not know some of our newer folks. but we're really happy to have you here. and I want to say one more thing to set the table for this discussion. which is so the report was prepared for the town of Wayland. was really prepared for the Select Board. and the Select Board was hoping to talk about the report at one of their meetings this summer. but wasn't able to fit it in. It's now scheduled on tentatively. for their September 2 meeting. September two. So ideally. the HR. deic. we would talk about this report after the Select Board had talked about it. But the reason I put it on tonight's agenda is because I won't be able to be here for the September meeting. and I didn't want to wait. you know. another. whatever. two months to talk about it. So if we're comfortable moving forward with this discussion. recognizing that. you know. it's not our place tonight to talk about what the Select Board should do. they haven't even had a chance to talk about this report. So you know. it's our place to talk about our takeaways and what we might consider doing to follow up. And I just want to make sure everybody's comfortable Mary Ann Borkowski: with that. That good when you say you're not going to be here. you're not going to be here for the second. I can't Karen Blumenfeld: be here. No. I'll be here on the second. but I can't be here for our ad meeting on I think it's. yeah. September 16. So. and I didn't want. just selfishly. but also because I've been so closely involved with it. no. yeah. I didn't want to have it come up at that meeting. So anyway. here we are. So if everyone is comfortable with that. then let's talk that. Sound good? Anybody have any comments before we again? Alright. let's get to it. So let's get to it. So we all. you know. we have. What did we have till about roughly 725. we don't have look we could spend hours and hours and hours talking about this report. It's really rich and deep. So this is a beginning. I thought we might start with. you know. what were some of your key takeaways? What did you notice about it and about the report? And if there's time. we could talk about some things that HR DIC might do to follow up. But for sure. we're going to keep talking about this. And as as you heard before. one of the library program topics will be this report. so there'll be lots more opportunities. but let's start with key takeaways. What did you notice when you looked through this report? What sort of what stuck out for you? Yeah.
Unknown: um.
Janot Mendler de Suarez: I I have a perception that we that we have a lot of problems in our school system there. there's a there's a long history. and the history includes. unfortunately. a considerable bit of litigation that is frequently connected with diversity. equity and inclusion issues. and when issues come up there. there is usually no transparency about the process and very little information about the outcomes. Karen Blumenfeld: Can I interrupt for one second? What did you see in the report? Janot Mendler de Suarez: So what I saw in the report was a gap. I was hoping that I would see ways to address the disconnect between the schools that operate almost as a sub community within the town. and the larger community. And the larger community would include the rest of town governance. including this committee. we had a very nice attempt to collaborate that kind of fizzled. and also the continuing. I think it addresses very nicely. the Continuing compartmentalization of the Metco program and the Metco families. all of those recommendations. I'm very happy to see. But I think at the level of the the school system. which would be the school department and the school committee. feel as though there's a there's room for some further examination and recommendations. Thank you. Karen Blumenfeld: Others. yeah. Sarah. yes. Um. Sarah Shtutin: I want to piggyback a little bit off of that. I think I'm familiar as a PTO president I and the board and I have A lot of conversations of how to enable Metco families to better participate in our programming. So I don't know if we want to take a few minutes here. but I'd like to just share a little bit of what we do do. and a little bit of some of the discussions that we have. I don't know. Karen. if that's if we have time for that. Or if people are interested Karen Blumenfeld: in Renee. what are your thoughts
Unknown: to address Jenos concerns. just reminding us all that this was I'm connecting the two. So to Jessica Jenos concerns and this was an a community engagement serving have having to do with the town. There were different ideas about what would happen with the with the school. It is true that the schools would need a separate equity audit and would. Need to invest in something like that in order to be able to be more reflected. And we do also see that expressed in the roadmap itself. which is on page five of the summary. And we see it's a smaller point down. kind of like in the lower middle of that page that that we agree. and now it was also brought up by by different participants within the survey that. yeah. the schools need to be addressed in the same way they and so that that is reflected. It's just this type of a survey would it requires a completely different type of a survey in order for the connection between this the schools in the town to be to be more more reflected in there. And in terms of Sarah's a comment about trying to discuss what's going on with the PTO and the Metco program. I really leave it to to the HR deic committee to discuss whether that's part of this discussion or not. It sounds to me like it's not directly related to what's going on with the equity audit. but it is an important discussion to have.
Karen Blumenfeld: Well. I guess my instinct not wanting to turn any topic away. but My instinct is. if we go down that path. we won't really get to keep dissecting the report. And I'd really like us to just talk about our observations. about what we've learned from the report. Sarah Shtutin: I agree. but I also. and I hear what you're saying. that maybe there's another report that needs to be focused on the schools. but I think I have some like some say in things that I can do today to help. include the Metco families. I just don't know what it is more that I could do. I mean. because you're saying we need another report that could take X amount of years. and we do spend a lot of time talking about how to include Metco families. We do have things that we do to include them and make make our programming more accessible. but I don't. I don't know what else we can do. So that was just my observation. because Metco. you know. it is very specific to the schools. We have. Metco families within happy hollow. and it the Metco theme is woven throughout the entire report. And Medco is specific to the school system. right? So I don't. I don't know I want more concrete things that I could do today. because I do feel that there are barriers to entry for Midco families to participate. and as many of those as I can break down. I want to. but I just don't know exactly what to do. More than what Janot Mendler de Suarez: we're doing. Are the roadmap recommendations helpful to you? Sarah. um. I mean.
Sarah Shtutin: you mean like the strategic recommendations. or like this page five. Janot Mendler de Suarez: or like recommendations on page 23 Yeah. PAGE 28 page 28 Yeah. yes. PAGE 28 and I appreciate Eden Renee that the I mean this. there's not a whole lot of information. It just says that there's a need to do. you know. an audit for access and inclusion across school programs. So I understand now that that's kind of the placeholder that addresses my larger concerns. It's in here. Yeah. Heather Pineault: because the thing that jumped. one of the things that jumped out at me and. and part is because it. it wasn't a school audit. was that it. there was a focus. as you said. Metco came up regularly. and a lot of people forget. We have students of color who live in Wayland as well. who also don't. also have experiences that aren't. aren't great. and that did come up a little bit. not in terms of students per se. but the differing experiences of how much belonging and people felt was different depending on race. not only but for adults. I mean. that happened as adults. but I also. when we talk about Metco. I don't want us to forget that we actually have a lot of students of color who aren't in the Metco program. and Metco has. Its own issues as well. In terms of like. there it's a both end. I guess I would say. Sarah Shtutin: Yeah. to me. those two issues are potentially co mingled. but somewhat separate. you know. from Metco families. Every time we have an event. we provide child care to bridge the gap from between when school closes and when the event starts. so that they don't have to go. you know. into Boston and then have to come right back. We have transportation for our events that is provided. you know. we had a vice principal opening. and there were medical families that were part of the process to help select the new one. but unfortunately. they were only able to make it to one of the meetings. I don't know how to facilitate that. because you're only able to. you know. interview two out of the seven candidates. then you're not really a full participant in the process. You're can't really have a say. because you didn't kind of interview everybody. So yeah. I yeah. that was just. I would like some concrete things that I can do at a very small level with just my school to help these families become more involved. I can't convene like a school town met. go working group. I have a very small area of control that I'm trying to make changes to. Anyway. that was my only observation. Sorry to I had a visceral response. Mary Ann Borkowski: Thank you. I don't want to discourage you from. you know. it taking what ideas may be here that are prompted and continuing to work. like. you say. through an area. that you have some controls over. right? And. and. I mean. I had. you know. thought. because it did come up a fair number of times that. you know. we don't have a lot of not that we can't reach out to the superintendent. but we don't have a lot of control over what the schools are doing. but we there is a medical director. and you know. we can work and try to support It town. interaction with the medical families. and provide support as community members to programs that the Metco director might like support on. So there is that possibility. and Sarah Shtutin: every school has a Metco representative. right? I think the happy hollow one is shared between happy hollow and loker. but I talk to her. you know. regularly. Yeah. Karen Blumenfeld: Marianne. Have you shared your role with CO with Sarah? Like. maybe the two of you might connect offline at some point on these topics? Yeah. Mary Ann Borkowski: So Sarah. I used to work a lot as a Medco community liaison. and so kind of goes back a number of years so. but maybe there's some opportunity to we can still add to think about some of the things that we used to do and and work with Latoya about that. But the. you know. one thing that I picked up from this report was that. of course. the same message that. you know. there's nothing new about the fact that people who are are not the majority culture have. I don't feel like they belong. and it there's insults to who and who they are in various ways throughout our town. And you know. so and I always think. and it's always easy to think about schools. and I don't want to. Sarah. you know that is. you have anybody who has a power. you need to use it in in terms of where you see. we could improve in terms of equity and inclusion. But you know. it's not just our schools. I mean. our kids are coming out of our homes. and that it happens in our homes. It's happening in our town. It wasn't my friend who was she didn't walk into the schools with her kids. so she did have issues there. But you know. she was being insulted when she was. you know. in the stores. So it was her as an adult. be insulted by another adult. And so the key. you know. that's a huge opportunity and obligation for us and to address that. and think about how we're going to address that. If it was easy. it would have been cured. It's not easy. yeah. so we have to be creative about how we're going to try to address this and try to. you know. if we don't have a direct link to the schools. not that. then we need to show that we can lead and have our. you know. the adults we affect. and have them bring that message to the schools. And. And we can show up at school committee meetings too. and and state our whatever our issues may be at any particular time. But I don't want us to think that we don't have anything because we can't talk to the schools. There's a lot we there's a lot we need to be doing with us and that. and they bring it up so But anyhow. so I've just. my takeaway is that I'm just here it is and and we have to confront the fact that the very act of that we're talking about training our our town staff to be more sensitive. And. you know. it's just hard to be still just talking about that. that we have. you know. that you know. but you know we don't have. So what would that look like? So let's get our staff so that some people feel like they're treat you know that that they're being addressed. and their issues are being addressed. just like the white. heterosexual person standing next to them. So
Yauwu Tang: I think it's still a long way to go. We just have to work on it slowly. I don't think that this can be done overnight.
Yeah. it's this big issue still there. We just need to do another education. a lot of cultural understanding and the acceptance of each other. Truly acceptance is not on the table. Most. A lot of since it's on the paper. look like this. accept each other that we bring hard and still not really to the time level God's created. That's the direction we need to go. It's 200 people really feel comfortable to beat each other.
Denise Fortin: Sarah. hope you can hear me. I just wanted to say that I think it's wonderful that you just want to jump in and start doing something at your school. The schools that you represent. So I just think it's wonderful. And I wanted to let you know that. Sarah Shtutin: thank you. I feel like I have this. like you said. you know. narrow time frame and narrow focus. and we're just. I just want you guys to know that we talk about it a lot. and we we liaise with the Metco representatives to try to see how many families want to attend. So. for example. even the World Fair right. we can reach out and say how many families are interested in attending this. We can work with the boosters to hire a bus to go and pick families up. to facilitate transformation transportation from Boston. And it's there is a financial investment in that. which is something like. again. we talk about it a lot because. right. we have to. like. I think. for for the. not the boosters. but just having a bus go and make three stops in downtown Boston for one of our events was like $450 and I think we had two or three families raise their hands saying that they would be interested about a month and a half before the event. But closer to the event. right? You have to get on this bus. They have to spend all day in Wayland. It's not very flexible. and then they go back on the bus. So closer to the event. things came up. and none of them ended up coming. And I don't know how to sort of break those barriers. We even said. like. if you change your mind. let us know we can pay for an Uber you know. like. what are those barriers to you coming to an event on a weekend? Heather Pineault: Do you and I asked this question? Haven't been a PTO President myself. so I totally hear you and and have been in your in your situation. Do you have any Metco parents on the board? Sarah Shtutin: We do not have any met co parents on the board. I will go further to say that I don't think I've had any met co parent volunteer for any event. even things that can be done remotely. like being a room parent. which is just a lot of kind of coordination. but not a physical presence. We don't specifically target or not target the medical community. You know. we send our communications to everyone. We usually use social media or use the weekly newsletter. which goes to. Everyone or room parents emails that goes to everyone. and we equally broadcast those opportunities to everyone. In the end. is it mostly parents that have flexibility with work. that are able to come on a random day to attend library. for sure. but there are absolutely opportunities that are remote. that we just haven't had a lot of engagement and and as I mentioned. we had a vice principal candidate. There was a medical representative on the board. She was able to attend the first meeting remotely. whereas the rest of us were in the room. And after that. because of her work schedule. she was just not able to participate further in the conversation. Unknown: Yeah. if I can know for a minute. just one of the ways that we can encourage a welcoming environment is to make a targeted ask and say. Hey. we would love to see you here. like to the demographics that we would like to see more of. So sending out a blanket message doesn't say you're looking for me. It says you're looking for somebody. and that's where communication can break down. And instead. give the impression that. okay. we just need a warm body. and rather than we really would enjoy having your voice added to this conversation. to this event. to whatever's going on. and. you know. explicitly pointing out we we understand that there's barriers as it relates to to distance and work schedules. And we would love to be flexible and work work with you. And have to wonder what the work schedule. especially since that person is not here. like. how much was the planning around the the individual interviews around. like. this person's work schedule to ensure that they could participate? Just. I don't want us to come into a conversation that ends up with. we. we like. we think we tried and Mecca wasn't there. Like. I have great relationships with with my co families. and I just they. I just. and that's how my friends. my my my kids. have friends that are of. of. uh. basically. like friends of color. and how they can better able to really navigate what's what's going on. I mean. we moved here in the in the middle of the school year a few years ago. and it it was a Metco kid who was who went up to my son and said. Come on. play with us. We should be doing exactly the same thing. And in saying. like. saying. hey. like you. you're just sitting there. Come on. play with us. Sarah Shtutin: I completely agree with you. And to be fair. the the interview process was not something I had any you know. stay in. It was driven by the principal. so I don't know kind of the details. And in terms of sending a targeted communication to the Metco families. The truth is. a lot of the opportunities don't include any particular input or voices from any of the different communities. but it. it lets you be more involved in whatever is going on. So then you feel like you kind of okay. you know what's happening. You've been involved in the planning. Maybe even you're more able to participate.
Karen Blumenfeld: So I'd like to suggest. because I hear that you are trying hard to do this work in your sphere of influence. which is what the best that all of us can do is to do what we can do in our own spheres of influence. And Sarah. I just want to sort of wind up this part of the conversation. Absolutely. Yeah. you have Heather. who's a past PTO president. You've got Marianne. who's been involved in Metco for more years than she's willing to say. and is still involved very closely with Metco So and. and. you know. Dr Hayes. who is also here. but I. you know. use the resources in this room. but. but let's do that offline. Let's Sarah Shtutin: do that. I'm sorry. yes. thank you. Let's treat that as Karen Blumenfeld: like school business. not HR. DSC. business. per se. so that you can get guidance and support from people in this group who have relevant experience. Sounds good. Thank you. Yeah. go ahead. Janot Mendler de Suarez: So there's another really interesting recommendation in this report. and I'd love to get a little more insight on it from Dr Eden Renee. So there's this idea of potentially changing the name of the human rights. diversity. equity. inclusion committee to community life and engagement. And it seems to me that you know. like one of the. The objectives would be to attract a more a more diverse. more diverse perspectives to actually join and serve on this committee. I think it even says in the report somewhere. even people who are. perhaps. you know. against dei and that was super interesting to me. because precursor to this committee. we had the former town managers. what was it called. Racial Justice Advisory Committee. and there were a number of people on that committee who were not particularly for having a diversity equity inclusion committee in Wayland. although it was the recommendation of that committee to establish this. And I just. I thought that was a really insightful recommendation that. you know in a way. Yauwu Tang: we we need Janot Mendler de Suarez: to be reaching out to people who don't like this committee to understand how we can where they're coming from and how we can actually do better. But I thought even Renee. since we have the privilege of having you with us. maybe you could shed a little more insight on that recommendation and how it could. how it could enable this committee to do better. to shift the language around. what we call it. Unknown: I'm not sure that a language shift is going to do very much if the the mission stays the same. if the the content of what's discussed seems the same. I i in workshops. I've been playing a little game of hot and cold to you know. like a hot you're closer to the answer cold. you're really far away from it. With participants just quickly to just to highlight how old the concepts of dei are. And I'm just going to tell you upfront. dei is it started in 1865. 18. I want to emphasize like that. This is before 1919. 65 and meaning people do start with that. like. in playing Hot and cold. oh. it had to be in like. the 60s. maybe the 70s. like. Nope. you're actually super cold because you're. like. 100 years off. And that's the thing is that the like. what we now call Dei. or may call something else soon started a very. very long time ago. but then the concept itself. it still remains unchanged that there are groups that are treated differently. And we need to be thinking about how it is that we can do our best job in order to support them. I mean. when I when I was young and my mom worked for the Social Security Administration. it was called sensitivity training. Not too long after that. it was called tolerance. And I think we know the problems with with calling it tolerance. because that that feeling around we're putting up with someone. So the name dei has changed. like so many different times over. over a lot of years. So changing it again doesn't change the the mission. So I just if a Rose was not called a rose. it would smell identical to the way it smells now. Janot Mendler de Suarez: Yeah. here in Wayland. the first town wide racial healing workshops were actually funded by the police department with. as you said. sensitivity funding. And when was that 90s we did that? Oh. my goodness. Unknown: yeah. since sensitivity training was was a 90s term.
Karen Blumenfeld: I think the way the consultant in may correct me if. if I'm wrong here. But the way they framed it in the end was. if it feels right or necessary to change it. here's a possible way to change it. But they weren't saying you should do this. Do Is that your read on it also. yes. Unknown: they were responding to a national trend to change the name of it. especially with certain political and legal factions going afterwards. I can also say that I attend trainings myself. I don't just just give them. I. Make sure that I'm up to date. So I one of the ones that I like to follow is a really important. you know. and well known law firm that's actually based based in Boston. They they focus on employment law. and what they found is that there's so much attack on an acronym that what you could do is just turn the acronym backwards. so IE. D. and then you would be less likely to be found by whoever searching for for Dei. And that just highlights even more like changing the name is just changing the name. If you're keeping the mission. then you're still doing. doing the work. And if some big notice comes out. the HR deic is now this new name. the people that you're looking for that are anti dei may see that and say. oh. okay. it's the same thing still. but
Karen Blumenfeld: it's something to keep in mind. Yeah. yes. Mary Ann Borkowski: there's so much here to talk about. and I'm afraid that we cannot do justice to my thought is when I look at this is to over the next few meetings. is to look at. there's a recommendation. one. two and three. and that we really try to drill down on each number and come up with several action items that we could do. For example. you know. one was a statement. you know. has come out with a statement on inclusion. and we have a statement. this effort to have a statement on racism. I don't know if we want to. actually. when you read it. it reads like inclusion. but. you know. one of the recommendations might be that we ask them to. you know. just speak it again. you know. put it out there and that. you know we're in Fay. and look it over and that. you know we continue to support this and say. say that out loud. Karen Blumenfeld: So I love your idea of at subsequent meetings. taking a recommendation at a time. you know. one in September. one in October. one in November. But aren't there? Are there Mary Ann Borkowski: deeper than that? But yes. and then then we go back and revisit them and find more that we can do. But it's a. you know. I just don't want to. We can't. you know. we want to. We want to come up with some action items. and maybe not tonight. because I think we're. we're. you know. we all. I don't know about you. but I was the two hours I spent reading this. There was a lot of things that came up. but. but. you know. to think to. you know. add. devote a certain amount of 15 minutes of each of the next for the meetings for the rest of the year to and see if. at least at the end of each one of those. we would have at least one action item. if not two or three. Heather. were you going to Unknown: respond to that? I was. I just have one thing really quick. if you don't mind. I'm sorry. I just wanted to piggyback off of Marie Marion's point about about doing a statement specifically as just my professional advice around reinvigorating any type of statement around inclusion. is that to not just leave it at us as a statement. because statements tend to be read as performative. like you're just putting words on a page. So it's always. always follow up a statement with these are the actions that we are taking in order to to follow through with the values that we are stating. Janot Mendler de Suarez: Thank you. Sorry. I was thinking. yeah. I was thinking. Heather Pineault: sorry. oh. thank you. I was just wondering if we might want to start the cycle after the Select Board meets. so that we can know Karen Blumenfeld: because they're meeting September 2. okay. and our next meeting is September 16. so that's exactly what should happen if they don't meet before the September 6 meeting. I completely agree we should not have another thing until they have a chance to talk about it. Yeah. Janot Mendler de Suarez: but along the lines of. you know. statements being performative. And. I mean. we have statements. it's always good to refresh. But I was thinking that. I mean. it's. it's not a recommendation that we are committee do a statement. It's that the town make an official statement. So the role of our committee could be to identify. go through the whole. the whole report. and identify those. perhaps initial actions that every single town department could embrace. and we could help to broker. getting. essentially the signatures of every single town department of getting everyone on the same page. Karen Blumenfeld: Can we put that on those? Up on the What's it called? The parking lot. The parking lot because we don't want to be making recommendation. We don't want to be going there tonight. We want to let the Select Board talk first. But let's put that in the parking lot. I for sure. Mary Ann Borkowski: Do we want to be at the some of us I can't come on the second. but the that a few of us are at that meeting. So. Karen Blumenfeld: yep. whoever can go. should go if. if you're planning to go. let me know. because if we're going to have a quorum. I might need to do something about that. No. I don't need to. okay. because we're just going not unless we're having a conversation to listen. So it's fine. yeah. yes. But also keep an eye on the Select board's agenda. like. make sure you look at the agenda. because in case they change it don't show up at the meeting. you know? Yeah. All right. So anything in Renee. would you like to say any final words before we we move to the next?
Yauwu Tang: I think I let them those recommendations and cities. we as a group. we could study it this month. and this come on some idea. to see what we really can do to have one small step forward to those is a big goal. I don't think we can do the to everything or even make it too big. that we need to have the steps when we would see resource recommendation. what we can do next year. within This year. to move forward a little bit. I think the more people I wish this a bit more. because when I first of all training. I feel much more challenged than with who had at the multicultural festival. because now we face a bigger. bigger crowd. So I think that's good. because that is who we can learn of different things that can truly understand how we can move forward to truly EDI. So I suggest we study these the next September we share this all ideas. Karen Blumenfeld: Yeah. thank you. And in Renee. did you want to say any final words before we wrap this up? Unknown: No. I'm just glad that we are finally at this point and and that we are committed to moving Karen Blumenfeld: forward Yes. and to keeping on discussing this. because it's very rich. and we can't get through a road map in 25 minutes. yes. exactly. So we'll see what the Select Board conversation is like. and then continue to think about what can we do as the HR DEP. so thank you for reading this. because it's a it's a big read. It's a heavy lift. There's a lot in here. website updates. Do we is there anything. or should? Can we skip over that?
Mary Ann Borkowski: I just wanted to. so let me see. I was thinking. Oh no. I guess. I guess there isn't anything. you know. I've made some changes already. and I could just say that before the next meeting. we'll probably have more stuff about the festival. So Tom and you know it. I don't expect that it would be controversial. So just be talking about the festival and and whatever's happening in it. So that's what will show up on it. We do have a the next three statements are old. all in September of 2021. so. yeah. I was going to look them over. They were simple statements. But on the other hand. you know. it's an opportunity to think about what we should be doing now. and actually. well. we have the equity audit. so I guess so let's think about next. next meeting. what we're going to do about that. So maybe there that should inform when we're reading those statements about what should be in there and who's at the table looking at them. So
Karen Blumenfeld: thank you. The next item on the agenda is the HR deics Annual Report. which is every town committee and this board has to write these annual reports that get compiled and for the whole town. it's just a two page thing. And what I was Heather and I were talking about it and wondering. we will need to review a draft by the September meeting. A draft has not yet been written. And I wondered if. There is. The way we put this report together is to look at we have a format. and we look at all the minutes from all the meetings from the past year. and then we pull out items that are relevant and put them in the categories where they belong. It's really a list of bullets pages. Those of you working on the festival. I'm not asking you. I'm asking others. if there's anybody here who would have time and availability in the next two weeks to help put together a first draft of that report to go through those minutes and put together bullets as a first draft. Use chat. GPT. Heather Pineault: and all the minutes are. all the minutes are on the town website. so I did it last year. and you just click through all the minutes. just to Janot Mendler de Suarez: use judge the draft. yes. it will start with. Yeah. whoo. Yauwu Tang: I could try the chat CBT to see if I can do something similar. Are Karen Blumenfeld: you willing? Are you willing to do Janot Mendler de Suarez: that? It would be brilliant. Yeah. Oh my god. Yauwu Tang: I tried. Okay. I'm willing to better. You know. that's the next month is kind of challenge. because the Karen Blumenfeld: thing and it would need to be done in the next two weeks. So that's Yauwu Tang: okay. maybe someone else.
Karen Blumenfeld: What if I ask you for guidance of the best. most efficient way to do it. on chat GPT. and then and you could guide me how to do it? Would that Yauwu Tang: work? Yeah. okay. Karen Blumenfeld: I will do that. I know how to use chat GPT. but I don't. but I've not fed that much information into it before. so that's my question. But okay. we'll talk offline about that. And is there a way to get it to Heather Pineault: format and similarly. since it's a Tom.
Karen Blumenfeld: yeah. alright. okay. ongoing business. September meeting. Just want to encourage people. if you have So. Heather is going to lead that meeting. I won't be here. So if you have meeting topics. please send them proposed topics. Send them to Heather between now and September. Heather Pineault: Yeah. because I mean to be what we talked about was that we really didn't have anything specific other than the festival coming up in October. and Karen Blumenfeld: table. our table. right? But Heather Pineault: do we need a meet. Like the question was. do we need a meeting? Versus here's what we need. please show up. like a directive. not a conversation. Is there something that we need to all come together for Mary Ann Borkowski: scoping the September meeting? Is that what you're Heather Pineault: suggesting? Yeah. because as we were going through the agenda. like we don't. we didn't have a clear agenda item. other than the festival coming up. Karen Blumenfeld: continuation of the and now about the report? Yeah. Mary Ann Borkowski: I guess. um. well. but the if the town Select Board can has their conversation. I think we need to have that. You know. we can't. We can't waste a meeting by not having a meeting. I think
Karen Blumenfeld: if the Select Board goes ahead and the annual review report would have to get reviewed. Okay. we have to Okay. So I know September is a super hard month for everybody who's back to school. both teachers. parents and others. So maybe the meeting can be shorter. if that. if that works. to try to really keep it up as tight an agenda as possible. Yauwu Tang: anything we need to do. for the principal is. anything we need to approve.
Mary Ann Borkowski: we're gonna have to think about what's on the table. Yauwu Tang: Do we need to approve any budget?
Karen Blumenfeld: Oh. her budget
Yauwu Tang: last year.
Karen Blumenfeld: You need to talk to Heather. Oh. okay. yeah. because Denise is the new Treasurer. and so I suggested she talk with you. not this moment. but Tom so you can hand over the responsibilities to her so she knows what to do. Yeah. Heather Pineault: and at this moment. because we're not doing any of the money for the festival. and we don't have any money. maybe we don't have a line item or anything at the moment. Karen Blumenfeld: so Okay. so we're not managing this of the money. No. Heather Pineault: not that I've heard of. Mary Ann Borkowski: Okay. that's why we running it through our Denise Fortin: Wayland Karen Blumenfeld: and then the money from the town that the town allocated. What happens to that? What happens to that?
Janot Mendler de Suarez: We would have to
Unknown: and. well. don't have Janot Mendler de Suarez: to vote on that. The monies would be things that can take us. like a 30 day payment. whatever. so we could have a vote. Karen Blumenfeld: okay? But didn't we vote? Did we vote before? Or actually Janot Mendler de Suarez: we voted ahead to approve the Indicative budget. I believe. last year. So. Karen Blumenfeld: Yeah. but I think we need Heather Pineault: to always voted. We voted specific expenditures. But did the town give us specifically the money. or did they say they will cover it? So I'm not sure it has to go through us. if it's going through Mary Ann Borkowski: the Tom Wayland. and the Janot Mendler de Suarez: invoices go to the town. For the town. 9500 ticket items like the stage intent should be invoiced to the town way on stage. Yauwu Tang: The manager this year last year is give to our committee with the money go to our community this year. sounds like Chris is the one. Janot Mendler de Suarez: No. the town money Yahoo is is earmarked for the festival. Heather Pineault: But not it's not our festival specifically anymore. It's multiple Karen Blumenfeld: groups. So yeah. Yauwu Tang: human rights first year. inclusion Janot Mendler de Suarez: committee for first inclusion committee. Arts. Wayland isn't a town entity. and that town government entity. so the invoicing for those big ticket expenditures would need to be invoiced to the town of Wayland and the. you know. the tent and the stage mental probably have. they probably require a deposit and then a. like. 30 day invoicing. So that would work. Karen Blumenfeld: So the question. my question is. at the September meeting. do we need to vote? Denise Fortin: Probably. yeah. yeah. probably need to vote. So. and that'll be Karen Blumenfeld: important. somebody will need to work with Denise. who's the new treasurer. to kind of because. because we could look at last year's meeting minute meeting agendas to remind ourselves how we did those goals. Yeah. yeah. So I should
Heather Pineault: so. but 100 that the committee needs to agree on the town's paying. right? And if it's possible to get a few large items. and we can do it in one vote that we approve the town. Yeah. Janot Mendler de Suarez: right? Yard signs. Mary Ann Borkowski: yes. right. Some publicity. some banner production. Yauwu Tang: winning. The signs. few members for our members to design in charge of for our table. who is working we have people from our community to work on for our table to desire to collect all information Karen Blumenfeld: we're talking about the September meeting. and what do we like? What do we need to vote on or talk about at the September meeting? So. so. if there's any so. so. just so Heather knows when she creates the agenda. Sounds like we're going to have to vote on some budget items. and you'll work with Denise to figure out how to put those on the agenda Janot Mendler de Suarez: and what. yeah. we just said the committee table at the Yauwu Tang: committee is the table. We need to load anything with that. We just
Janot Mendler de Suarez: need to come up. Just need to talk about it at the meeting. Unknown: How to do it. right? What we're going to Karen Blumenfeld: do? Okay? Thank you. And then just a quick reminder. good neighbor. Day. September 27 the library hasn't told us if they need our. you know. bodies on the ground to help with anything. but I'll email. are we co Mary Ann Borkowski: sponsoring that we are Janot Mendler de Suarez: co sponsoring. and that's 11 to one at the library. Karen Blumenfeld: 11 to one September 27 at the library. Good Neighbor day. It's a it's a Saturday. yes. Okay. And then any announcements and topics not anticipated 24 hours in advance. or whatever. 48 hours in advance? Yes. so Mary Ann Borkowski: the there is a limitary discussion putting being put on by the Hopkinton Freedom Team and put together by Yauwu Tang: through our a local
Mary Ann Borkowski: creator of these events. Shaheen aktar so and she sent me a copy of the flyer. And we're not co sponsoring it the so I'm asking. Can we put that on our Facebook page? It is being. being it's a part of the artful connections the social justice lens events where artists offer music. poetry readings and spoken word. And this is about the book The lemon tree. Me with two speakers having happening in hoppington.
Karen Blumenfeld: So the lemon tree is a book about an Israeli and a Palestinian family. And these. these community conversations have been going on around in various towns. and I'm not sure of the answer of that. and I don't want to give an answer on the Mary Ann Borkowski: fly. okay? Karen Blumenfeld: I feel like I need to think about that Mary Ann Borkowski: a little bit. Yeah. well. it happens on the 16th. That's 16th of September. so and so. I don't know well. and I don't know if we'd come up with a rule Karen Blumenfeld: it's not an event in Wayland. you know. it's a Hopkinton event. So. I mean. we've been. we've been putting on facebook event. We've been putting on our Facebook site. Wayland. events that are not ours. but Hopkinton. I mean. it's a little far. so I'm just not. I don't know. I don't want to answer it on the fly. Well. it's Heather Pineault: interesting conversation for us to have about how much we promote. You know. why or why? Why would we. or why wouldn't we? Why Karen Blumenfeld: we have our criteria for Heather Pineault: for CO sponsoring. co Karen Blumenfeld: sponsoring. but this is a different thing. yeah? Well. Mary Ann Borkowski: site. yeah. we know what we be a co sponsorship or on Heather Pineault: the Facebook page.
Karen Blumenfeld: Don't know yeah for posting to Facebook. My instinct is offhand. is to say no. in part. just because it's far away. but also because it's the type of topic that we would spend some time discussing before doing something. Mary Ann Borkowski: right? So not an announcement and topic not anticipated. like. for
Karen Blumenfeld: example. if you were asking if. if lemon tree discussion were being done here in Wayland. we would put that on the agenda. and we'd talk about the pros and the cons. Because it is. it's about a topic that's a difficult topic. It it has religion involved. Like. we would be looking through our criteria and thinking about it carefully. We wouldn't just say. Oh yeah. let's do that. Thank you. Okay. any other topics not anticipated? Okay. really. really appreciate the thoughtfulness of this group and your willingness to tackle difficult subjects in a public forum. which this is. even though it feels like just us. it is a public forum. So just so much appreciation to everyone here. Mary Ann Borkowski: Thank you for leading us.
Karen Blumenfeld: So would somebody move to adjourn? Let's give someone else. attorney to make a motion. How about someone online? Would somebody move to adjourn? Yahoo is moving to adjourn. Is there a second? Online?
Denise Fortin: Second? Karen Blumenfeld: Thank you. Asma is secondary. Let us vote Yahoo. Yes. Yes. SARAH Yes. Maryam. yes. Asma. yes. Maya Yes. Heather Yes. Jen No. yes. Marianne. yes. Denise Yes. And Karen Yes. so the meeting is adjourned. Thank you so much. everybody. You.
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Select Board

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Carol Martin: Good evening. Carol. Can chair the Select Board. I'm calling the meeting of the Select Board to order for Wednesday. September 24 2025 at 6pm It's a hybrid meeting. although we are physically in Wayland. town building. Select Board meeting room. One may watch with the meeting link that can be found on our calendar pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2025 this meeting will be conducted in person and via remote means. in accordance with Africa law. this meeting may be recorded which will be made available to the public as soon on WayCAM. as soon after the meeting as is practical when required by law or allowed by the chair. Persons wishing to provide public comment or otherwise participate in the meeting may do so by in person attendance. by accessing the remote meeting remotely. as noted above on the Wayland calendar. we respect request. Why I'm rushing today? Public comment be limited to two minutes per person. So the agenda for tonight is going to include announcements and public comment. and approximately 610 we will have a joint meeting with the finance committee and the school committee to discuss the fiscal year 2027. project task force strategies that will be followed by a discussion review and possible to request of the finance committee make a recommendation on a possible debt exclusion vote. We will discuss review and potential vote to amend the town of Wayland non union employee sick leave policy. We will discuss review and potentially vote to issue a bands versus bonds. and also the vote on the DEP reclassification of the department come with works facility at 66 River Road. There are no topics not reasonably anticipated 48 hours in advance. and hopefully at six. 735 hopefully 730 we will adjourn. So do we have. I would like to recognize that in the room with me this evening. we have Bill Whitney and Doug Levine. So Mr. We are joined by Anne brensley. She's on. I see that I'm here my there. Good evening. joined by Anne bransley. remotely. Mr. Fay will not be able to join us this evening. We are also joined in the room by our town manager Michael McCall and remotely by our assistant town manager. Kelsi callous Spirlet. All right. so are there? Is there any public comment in the room. I see But is there any online? No online. Okay. Is there any announcements?
Unknown: Okay. I would just note that the today's edition of the central register has the request. request information with respect to the property at 212 Cochituate road that has been put together by the 212 Cochituate road Advisory Committee seeking responses. Finally. later than October 16. the notion being to just alert experienced developers and service providers of housing for people with disabilities to get a sense of what they would propose For the site. the committee would then review that. I think. help inform recommendations that would be made to this board in the spring. after which the Board may wish to issue an RFP more specific. Carol Martin: that property. Thank you. Um. Mr. McCall. did you have any announcements? Michael McCall: Nothing specific. Madam Chair. other than to remind people. week from this Saturday will be our Wayland festival. I encourage people to check out on the website. Be held over at Town Center. and it will be a combination of the arts Wayland festival and multicultural festival. as well as touch a truck events. So it should be a good time. And it's my understanding for Mr. Reynolds. it is rain or shock. Carol Martin: I was also going to speak to that and but one thing that I'm not sure I was able to ascertain was what time is the parade. the 258 parade. I saw different times. Time was like 10 to four or something. I didn't tend to six and stuff six. But does anybody know what time the parade is running those things? Okay. well. guess what? Maybe we'll find out and announce that on Monday night as well. So anybody else have any announcements? Okay? So. So we are running about five minutes ahead. and I wanted to. I'll move down to number five in the path of here. but I need Mike to come back and do this agenda item. So do you think if you have to leave me. or Would you. could you talk about policy Michael McCall: school committee called. They were nearly and they thought we may be meeting up there. but I said the hybrid was down here. so they're on their way down. Carol Martin: Okay. so within five minutes. and we were wondering if you wanted to speak to number five. discuss review and potential vote to amend the town of Wayland non union. really sickly policy. which is in our packet.
Michael McCall: So what I am asking the board's approval here is for a single amendment. not a complete rewrite of the policy. So last spring. a town meeting. we repealed the bulk of chapter 43 which was our former personnel board bylaws. we repealed some language. we put in new language. and one of the things was that. after reviewing this. it appeared we had policy inside the bylaws. so we chose to remove the policy. and the intent was to integrate it back in and update our policies and put them on the website. Currently. our website is showing a an older policy on vacation buy back from the year 2000 there was a vote from the personnel board and an amendment to the bylaw in 2016 changing the numbers. And the intent was that we would put that back in the policy. It hadn't yet happened. And we had some people approach retirement that would some under that the 20 years of service and one over 20 years of service. speaking with town council to ensure we weren't violating any policy. And now that we don't have the bylaw. they recommended that I have the board make this one amendment with the understanding that we will go back with the you know. consult with the personnel board HR and update the overall policy. But because I have people before me right now who are in the process of going through retirement. we want to ensure that we don't treat anybody unfairly. and would like to have this amendment. I have received some feedback online from some folks that said that other items need to be changed. We are aware of that. but for the purposes of handling the individual or individuals before us. we just need this minor and
Carol Martin: more just one second. All right. any questions from the board. what we're trying to accomplish here we went to the next we'll be trying to switch one actually. hold on with us. Yeah. Did everybody understand what Michael was saying? Does anybody else have any questions on what's trying to accomplish here? So we're really not approving the policy. We're just making a couple amendments. and so maybe on the bottom it would just say a Select Board amendment. September. 2425 it's crossed out. and then the amounts have changed. right? Michael. just. we're just. Michael McCall: we're putting the the lines from the 2016 bylaw into the policy. and we'll display it on the website and then follow it so that we've treated the retirees fairly that we're going through the process. When this happened again. this I did consult town council about how to deal with this. We thought this was a fair and equitable solution. please. Unknown: I think this is fine. You did get an email. however. that pointed out in the fifth paragraph that presently reads. When a permanent employee retires or dies. his or her beneficiary shall receive so if the permanent employee retires but does not die. presumably. he or she would receive pay equal and likewise. if the permanent employee dies. So I might just change the language slightly to reflect that correction. Michael McCall: Am I to interpret that if you were to pass this as Mr. What you would like that you would leave me to craft that language with Council. to clear that up. Is that what you're suggesting. Unknown: sure. or I can propose language. but I think if we could authorize you to work with council. To address that and to I would move that we would approve this change subject to that correction. which we had asked the manager to make. in consultation with Tom Council. Carol Martin: Okay. great. Thank you. So now in discussion. are there any other questions from all the board members? Doug Levine: I just noted that we received an email from the personnel board. but she had mentioned that she connected with you on the phone Carol Martin: before I had read the packet. which I clearly stated. but and I have Michael and I have had a couple conversations about this. and I think he has explained that he will this was an oversight initially. We're just correcting something so the policies in place and that he will. uh. adjust the language and go back to personnel board. right like me. Michael McCall: we will try and update the most recent version to put this in there. in I can consult with Miss. She believe afterwards from the personnel board would put the last policy was that maybe one going back to 2016 the 2016 language does appear one place in the website. and then there is a link to an older policy. So we have to clear that up same time. So this Carol Martin: actually is an issue we've brought up on other things. and that as we are hoping. we go forward. and Michael actually is just going to indulge me for a second. It's actually got a plan in place I'm hoping to implement where we actually end up starting to update our website. So this kind of issue. where things are in two and three places. will go away. All right. If there's not any further discussion. I'm going to have a vote. We have to be roll call. because Ian's persist. I mean. so may I ask that was Bill and Dave. okay? Bill. yes. yes. Dan. yes. Thank you. And Carol. Yes. Motion passes four zero. Michael. thank you. Madam Chair. Okay. our pleasure. So we now we'd like to do is have a turn our attention to the main purpose for tonight's meeting. and it is. I want to thank the board for coming in at such short notice. and I do apologize that we weren't able to get the full five. full five members. but we've got four of us. so thank you very much. So we didn't have a joint meeting. Finance Committee and the school committee. as I mentioned earlier. to discuss the FY 27 budget task for strategies. including. but not limited to recommendations regarding financing River Road and a borrowing and DEP plan. Doesn't say it on the agenda. but we are inviting Mr. Kevin me to join us. who will make the give us a slide presentation. But before you do that. I want to recognize the school committee. and in particular the chair Miss Gibbons and beyond. call to order. Or do you need to call to order? We're all set. You're all set. I want to mention there's a chair here. If there's a school committee member or somebody wants to sit over here. Dr. bless. there's one next to me. You want to anybody wants to move up from the school committee. that's fine. The slide deck. I believe. is hard copies there. although it's going to be up on the screen. And for the Finance Committee. I believe they don't have a quorum. but I want to recognize Phil Judy seems to chair him. and so method. and am I good for Unknown: that? Yes. thank you. Carol. Carol Martin: Thank you appreciate it. and think then we're good. So Brian. we normally. as I mentioned early in the when we put together the slide deck that we ordinarily like to have a few slides and have more time for discussion. Very every full slide. DEP. excuse me. yes. since usually when there is a school committee meeting. people have like. two minutes public speaking. This is a Select Board meeting. and we've had public comment already. So am I okay? Yeah. we have it on the agenda for after this portion of our meeting. Unknown: This after this up there. we'll have public comment. That's fine. just asking. Carol Martin: Okay. so I want to ask the board. do we would. It's 21 slides. and we do. Everyone know watching that the slide deck was changed slightly. and I think the current one is version six is going is in the supplemental packet that came out today. So if you're trying to follow along. that's what. yeah. what is the board's pleasure? Do we? Do we want Ryan to run through the whole deck? Or do we would like him to Unknown: anticipate the presentation I'll probably get through this in 12 minutes. Would you like him to stop as I go Bill much more discussion about the topic. Carol Martin: All right? The floor is yours. Brian. I figure out where
Michael McCall: Madam Chair. if I may. I'd just like to think of some introductory remarks. First of all. I want to thank you the members of the board. the school committee. the Finance Committee. the audience at home. as well as the other members of the community here this evening. as you know. Mr. Kevin and I have been working hard over the last couple of years to deliver balanced budgets to the community within our current Levy. The last few years through level budgeting. and last year. working in collaboration with Dr Fleischman. we were able to make some cuts in the end. which ended in some reductions in staff. and we delivered a balanced budget in both FY 25 and FY 26 due to an unexpected down Tom in our health insurance numbers. we wound up with some excess levy capacity at the end of last year. and Mr. Kevin and I felt that we might be able to go one more year without having to come to the community for an override. And we feel we've been responsible and good stewards with the community. and we've. I've instituted a hiring freeze. We again working with Dr Fleischman. we tried to be responsible with our budgeting. and as we have in the last two years. we put together a budget Working Group shortly after the end of the fiscal year. many of those members are here this evening. Madam Chair. as you know. you've been part of this group. Mr. Kemeny. me. We've had Dr Fleischman. as well as his business manager. Christine Patterson. We've had Phil judici from the finance committee. We've had representatives from the school community. including Aaron Mueller and Aaron Givens. the chair who's here. We've had past members of boards. including Kathy Steinberg and Brian he and what we set out to do is to see where we would be for FY 27 starting some modeling. Mr. Kevin worked with a lot of the department heads to get some preliminary numbers. and from the outset. it started to look like we were going to have a more challenging year than we had in the past. We use some of our worst case scenario numbers. putting in 12% for health care. although we had a better year last year. we put in some numbers. get conservative estimates for state aid. and when we came down to it. it appears that we may have a $1.8 million shortfall. after which we set out to look at some strategies which we have shared with the board. We have two different strategies of helping to close that gap. One. converting some existing levy debt to excluded debt in the other some refinancing of our bond anticipation notes and bombing of some of our debt. I will say that the town has not had to have an operating override in over 10 years. We have to go back to 2013 and some of the reasons we have been fortunate is we had some new growth all the oxbow rivers edge by another name. We also were a foundation aid community for a period of time. so that helped us with our state aid but we've had some changes since then. We haven't experienced the new growth that we have had in recent years. We went back to being a minimum aid community. and we haven't really had the fortune of the new growth. as I said. but that's been compounded by dramatic increases in some of our non discretionary expenses. such as our health care. our pension. our OPEB. which is Other Post Employment Benefits for our retirees. So we've had this perfect storm of events that has unfortunately led us to eating into our levy capacity. And for those who don't know. we're allowed to raise our taxes each year under Proposition two and a half up to our levy capacity and over time. without the new growth increasing two and a half percent. we've come to the point where we've hit that. that threshold where we can't raise taxes without looking at some of these other strategies. Unless we have some change in our new growth. changes in state aid. we foresee this to be a potential problem for the next few years. And so as we work with this budget task force or budget working group. we felt prudent to come before the three boards explain where we are and what our financial picture looks like for the next couple of years. And so momentarily. I will turn this over to Mr. Kevin for further discussion and to walk you through these slides. But this is a projection. It doesn't mean it's certain that it will go this way. It could break our way some years. some years it could go the other way. but we have to start acting now. I've had a lot of. Conversations with the budget working group as well as individuals on that about what we can do. and we want to work together with the community. with this particular group. and possibly create a task force to look at what we will need to do if we have to call for an operating override. And the strategy that we have worked on Mr. Kevin and I. is that we would like to avoid an operating override this coming fiscal year for a multitude of reasons. One. all of us are going into collective bargaining. It would really help us with our numbers if we could settle our contracts and know what we need to ask from the community. Two. we may be looking for a debt exclusion next year to do some of the repairs on this building. Three. as many of you know. we're facing a potential $38.5 million project to join the MWRA to deal with the PFAS in our water. So there are reasons why we think it would be beneficial for us to get through this year. focus on those other large financial tasks. and then put together a thoughtful proposal for the community. which may be a one to three year override. so that we can work on other strategies down the road. looking at how we can encourage new growth. taxable new growth. because a lot of people see growth in the town. but some of the large projects come before us. nonprofits. some of the schools and the religious institutions. how we can better manage budgets. how we can take advantage of technology and other ways to generate revenue. We've already tried some under the leadership of the board. as well as Mr. Kevin and my staff. looking back at our licenses and fees. We also have some new staff that have come on in facilities and IT and we want to look at how we are doing our purchasing. a closer eye on some of our large software contracts. So there are things that we we can do to help minimize these but we want to get through this upcoming fiscal year first. So on that note. I will hand it over to Mr. Kemeny to walk you through the presentation. which has been the culmination of the work so far over the summer. looking at these strategies and the FY 27 Unknown: budget. Mr. Kemeny. good evening. Brian Keveny: The presentation tonight really is to the efforts of this working group that we put together. We even met this morning. and we find this project without everybody chipping in that Mike just alluded to this project. this presentation. I wouldn't have been brought to be so I'm going to go through the slides. Stop me with any questions. Sometimes I go through this and I don't get questions. But if you're confused with something or want clarity. please just ask. So the very first slide is really our group's intent to set to show the status of Wayland financially. Now let me explain what this graph is saying. On the far left hand side. you see the stacks in black. Those relate to fiscal 23 to 26 where we had surplus levy starting in fiscal 27 through fiscal 36 you see red negatives on the bottom of the red. you see blue that relates to the DPW debt service that's funded by levy debt. On the very far right. you see the black going up back into the black. That means that the Middlesex retirement appropriation is expected to be fully funded. So we are expecting Middlesex appropriation to fall off the budget in fiscal 37 so this graph here is trying to display exactly what Wayland is facing in the future. I know we here to talk about fiscal 27 but this is really the real issue that is going on. Carol Martin: Are we successful signed out. Do we have to stop?
Like clockwork. it happens every time I think Unknown: what he's doing is he's starting the other end of the building.
Zoom Zoom is working fine. If that helps Brian Keveny: you see it. okay. yes. hopefully you can Unknown: see the screen. Well. yes. I can. Okay. so. so let's. let's keep Brian Keveny: So this graph is an effort to show folks exactly the condition of the town. We're heading into years of structural deficits where expenses are exceeding revenues.
Carol Martin: Kelly. this. since you can't see that. there's some hard copy over here if you want. Sorry. Brian Keveny: Brian. so. Uh. also you see in fiscal 27 it's the smallest deficit. That's what we're here to talk about tonight with the Selectmen. To have two options in front of them. Michael described before to alleviate an override 27 but you can clearly see. in fiscal 28 through 2636 it's going to be impossible to fund a budget without overrides. We simply don't have revenue streams coming in with new growth. state aid. local receipts to offset the growth and expenses. So structurally. we have to come up with solutions that are going to solve the problem in the next 10 years. As Michael said. our hope was to get past 27 and then develop a plan to develop structural improvements to our structural deficit. This graph here is the efforts of the group to show in one screen exactly where we stand. and this affects the town of school and the unclassified budgets. This graph was developed by projecting out expected increases in expenses on the town budget. the school budget. unclassified. We did projections on the prop two and a half. and we looked at the new growth areas. So all these bar graphs really relate to numbers that we're going to get into a little bit later on the screen. But this was our best effort to show the folks what we're really looking at. What we're really looking at here is beyond 27 we're looking at really to 36 to come up with solutions. though. we don't have to go back to the town every single year for overrides. whether that's a single override or a monthly year. So that's really the financial condition of the town. So any questions on this graph?
So here is a bullet point of some of the things that are affecting the town. and I go through them. Wayland is one of 14 communities in Massachusetts that Moody's has rated as a triple A community. We have strong financial disciplines. and we continue to spend at or below annual budgets. meaning that we don't fully expend our budgets. we return unspent appropriations in the form of free cash. so we're able to find. for the most part. capital. So don't. we don't fully expend all of our appropriations. we continue to need to fund on unfunded pension liabilities. As I say. middle such retirement funding is still 10 years away. So we're expected to be fully funded to 2000 at 2036 however. in the past. Wayland used to get a 3% increase in the assessment. then a six. and that was historically how it went. 3636. they've changed that now to six and nine and a half. and six and nine and a half. So our appropriations. from now until it's fully funded. will be at a greater percent than what we've seen previously. So Middlesex wants to be fully funded in 36 and the only way to do that is increase the assessments that all the member communities are going to pay. We're minimal. We have minimal commercial sector where 95% of the town revenue is dependent on residential tax. Now that residential tax figure. if you compare that to peer towns. Wayland is one of the highest. So on tax recap. we have residential tax. commercial. industrial and personal property. Our residential number is at the high end in comparison to our pier towns. I relatively have a high tax rate compared to peer towns. albeit a medium tax bill. So our average tax bill is more comparable with our peer towns. We have uncertain state support. and we have federal challenges that were apparently unknown at this point. We have uncertain employee costs with Tom school labor unions still unfilled. and we still have the fire contract that's not been settled. which goes back for 2425 and 26 so Michael is currently working on the labor contracts. and they all expire at the end of this fiscal year. Health care expenditures are uniquely uncertain with one time savings taken in fiscal 26 and again. here's another one of our largest budgets that typically runs 10. 10 million. 9 million. Unexpectedly last year we got an increase of less than 3% the year before we got a 10% so this thing is very volatile in our budget. In our projections. we're counting 12% it may be a conservative number. maybe too high. but given what we've seen in the past. we're currently carrying a 12% number. That number is not going to be trued up until February. But for now. purposes of building our budget. we're going to maintain we also have a pending substantial $38 million investment with the MWRA that affects everybody's tax bill in the town. whether it's in water bill. whether he paying taxes you're paying water bills. Fact. the matter is. it affects the family's finances. So if we move to the next file. any questions on that. sorry. I'm going to go through. Is estimated revenue. We're going to go through the 10 year financial forecast. We're going to talk about the fiscal 27 budget forecast. and we've included a lot of the slides that we're going to present tonight in appendix. I'm not going to go through the details of a one of them. however. it depends upon the group's preview. If we want to talk about some we will. but I'm going to go through the slides. allude to the appendix. If you have questions on there. we're certainly happy to answer them. So the general fund revenue really comes from these areas. Here it is real estate and personal property tax. state aid. local receipts. And we get transfers from enterprise funds and revolving funds. and every once in a while we get a grant. It's one time revenue that we use to either allocate towards a capital project or some other endeavor. Those are two and five between this next slide here is a slide I've used for probably over five years running. Now it seems to work well. so let me just show you what the intent here is. on the left hand side is really the prop two and a half calculation. It really starts with last year's priority. a number which was 89 point 3 million. To that you add the standard two and a half percent prop two and a half increase. new growth is highlighted in yellow at 400.000 for this reason. in our original forecast. we were carrying well over $500.000 for new growth because we got it last year. The assessor has come back and said that that trend now is around 400.000 so we originally started our budget group in July. we were carrying over 500 we've now brought that down to 400 we'll get into new growth in a bit. But that's an important barometer. because new growth goes into the prop two and a half calculation. As you bring in new growth. it increases your ability to raise the overall prop two and a half max limit. And we'll get into that a bit. So the next highlighting one is important. It's the annual Max levy limit. It's at 96 point 2 million. That's the number we're projecting. Is the most amount of money Wayland can raise in fiscal 27 tax recap is 96 point 2 million. State aid is 99.5 historical. we've always gotten additional state aid. It hasn't been a year where it went back or we didn't get anything at all. Every single year. we get additional state aid. mostly that's in the form of chapter 70 reimbursement. There is a appendix in the back. if you want to take a look at the trend. But in our forecast. we're projecting state aid will increase about $250.000 a year. We don't want to be too optimistic on that and put in too much. and then stay come back and keep us at a more level amount. so we're conservative on that one. The next one is. is local receipts. The number in there is 6.1 that that's a good story. A couple last year. the town. along with the Selectmen. put in increases on a lot of the fees that the Tom town is sold. and we're seeing the higher volume come in. So that's a growth area for the town. However. every time I get to the tax recap with Dor. they only let me go up amount at an amount that's reasonably above what we actually brought in the year before. I can't go to dor and say I want a 10% increase on Luke receipts. The only way that's going to happen is if I can prove I had that in the prior year. So they only want to take last year's actual which will be fiscal 26 and only let us go up about two and a half percent. That's why it's important to have a very good fiscal 26 that's why we put in the rate increases. we've had good growth of multi vehicle. The last couple of years. We've had new growth. or not growth. but we've had good results from an investment income. That's for the most part. because we've had a borrowing of the COA of $11 million and as that project was being built. we put a lot of that money into investment vehicles to income. We're not going to have that kind of revenue going forward. because we're simply not going to have that kind of money laying around in a bond. So that brings us to a total. Total is. sorry. we got 1.4 million. but transfer some of the funds. you know. we appropriate about 2.5 million of free cash. So we're looking at about 115.000.000.9 Unknown: in total Brian Keveny: ability to fund budgets in 27 new growth. This is a information dor the Wayland Post ran this. I believe. a week ago. or maybe a few weeks ago in the paper. On the left hand side. it shows that Wayland was ranked 312 in new growth. Now. the metric here is they take new growth as a percentage a priority. so they get a level playing field with all the different communities. Every community is not the same. You know. Wayland is not the same as Wakefield or Quincy. So the. The barometer to level everything is that new growth as a percentage of prior levy the willow rack ranks 312. out of 365 on the right hand side. in comparison to AAA. Towns were ranked last. Cambridge is. you know. approaching over so they're Cambridge. for example. their new growth is 3% of the prior we all know Cambridge has a lot of industry and new growth. but hopefully this metric kind of levels things if you take a look at it. So what is comparable? You could probably take a look at Weston. like. what is more comparable to Wayland? Weston? Maybe Cronkite. probably not. Brookline. maybe Winchester. I wouldn't say Belmont. So when you look at the AAA communities. and when Moody's raised these because of certain metrics as well. they don't rate Wayland is AAA community because of its new growth. They don't do that. However. if you want to compare Wayland comparison to our other AAA towns. That's one metric. You can use any questions on that. So here's the local receipts. I talked about it briefly. I wanted to keep this as a slide. On the left hand side. you see the different areas of local receipts. Mostly that's right in motor vehicle. Motor vehicle drives the bus on local receipts. just like in state aid. Chapter 70 runs is drives the bus. That's the biggest revenue stream in state aid is chapter 70 on the right hand side just shows. basically our projections. we're expecting sustained good growth in local receipts. mostly because we continue to see good growth in motor vehicle Plus. we're hoping that the increases on the fees really helps the town. So as we get into the forecast. So the forecast that we're going to go over is a 10 year revenue and expense forecast. We're going to estimate the surplus deficit and surplus and deficit and levy. We're going to estimate the tax levy and the year to year tax increase. We're going to talk about the enterprise funds and revolving funds briefly. and we're going to get into fiscal 27 revenue and expense forecast. which includes the total town. school and unclassified budgets. and now we're going to talk about the fiscal 27 revenue deficit. We wanted to first start with this graph here to really show you what the town has been doing since 2016 to 2026 so the growth rate over 10 years is 4% the growth rate in the last five years is 4.61 the years between 2016 through 2020 for example. one 4% it was a little bit less. So historically. the town has been around the 4% average. If you go back to 10 years. this is what we're averaging our projection. When we see it is over five. It's over five because we're carrying big assumptions on some of these items. We haven't had a single year in these years where health insurance went up 12% so this is where the town historically is actually budgeted their expenses.
Michael McCall: And for those who want a little more explanation in the tendency in the appendix on slide number 17. you can look we broke out what our retirement and our payroll and health care. So you can see that healthcare is been on a steady increase. and that is what has been lifting up our overall budget numbers these last few years.
Brian Keveny: So this next slide is a take from the very first slide that we went over. A lot of the numbers you saw on the first slide came from this chart. Obviously. it's a very busy job. but I'm going to point to the important areas. You have 11 years here that have projections. and their projections based on assumptions and spending. Again. we have health insurance at 12% pension is going from 6% to 9% and back to six to nine we're carrying general insurance at 10% we've mapped in here debt service. Right now. currently. we have a capital plan that only covers the next four years. so I put in some assumptions on what the capital expenses may be. instead of them having just fall off the chart completely. That's unrealistic. So there are assumptions in here on debt service. We probably missed adjusting the excluded debt portion. because there's going to be debt service in the upcoming years. It's going to be funded by excluded debt. But that won't materially change what we're looking at here. So you're looking at five years. and the first highlights in red and yellow are the area percentages. Now we. Went over slide that was less than 5% always keep in mind. we've got some very conservative numbers in our expenses. We don't have labor contracts. Then we have some of our unclassifieds at the high end than they've ever been. The next row to look at is you the tax increase. This does not have anything related to the MWRA. This is the town budget. You see them around 6% you know. 5% five and a half percent. So I wanted schools done school. This is a this is the budget. So the tax rate theories. based on our assumptions. would be around these amounts. The next important number to look at is the third from the bottom. where it's highlighted in red. is deficit those numbers there. starting with the 1.8 leading to the next number next to it. which is 2.4 that 2.4 number is dependent upon the town voting an override of 1.8 the year before. So this is very much a hypothetical analysis each one of those red years you see. there would have to be voted as an override amount in order to generate the override total for the next year. One number is dependent upon the other. So in a perfect world. every one of these numbers would be voted as an override. and these would be the right numbers. but we all know this is a forecast. and the next series of numbers to look at is highlighted in green. Those are the numbers that are the debt service related to the DPW facility. Those are currently in our levy tax bucket. If those are moved to excluded. a new adjusted number in the first year would drop from 1.8 to 1.1 in running across we have about 4.3 million left in debt service. So the story with that project is. not only does it help 27 it really helps. The subsequent years right out to fiscal 35 it's going to either be included as an override number or be excluded from our override number. depending upon if we move from levy to excluded debt. Unknown: It was also a Moody's recommendation in 2018 Brian Keveny: Yeah. in movies. Movies has always encouraged the town to always fund large capital projects by exclusive from prop two and a half by excluded debt. So this chart here ended up being the first graph you showed. This is where those numbers came from. And I'll stop here because anybody has any questions. because it's a busy schedule. and I only want to highlight a certain areas. because they really tell the story as to the next 11 years of spending Unknown: the DEP w if there debt goes down each year. Is that. because there's a constant payment. principal and interest is based on Yes. prior years principal
Carol Martin: balance. what's the dollar amount the budget's going to increase from FY 26 to 27 Brian Keveny: I think 5.83 based on this. it's the top number. 5.83
Unknown: Madam Chair has dollar amount. Brian Keveny: If you dollar amount. sorry. that's all right. To me. it's in my one Carol Martin: of my 40s. I thought I saw. And also. could we have the what was the tax? The dollar the dollar amount increased from 25 to 26 I wrote you these questions. I didn't see the answer. And what was the and what's the was the year over year tax increase. percent? See this? One's six is this looks right? Six. fine. I thought I saw six months seven early the Brian Keveny: tax increase. I don't have the dollar value. The tax increase would be six points as what would be Carol Martin: 6.6 and then for this year that we're in for 26 How much was it always much less than that. It was. I've seen it on another chart. You have three. Unknown: three years. something like that. 4.3841 Brian Keveny: well. we our recap will be down. It will be lower than expected. because we got a little bit more stated. It's slower than what went to town meeting. because our assessments came down and we got a little more stated. I should have brought that number in front of me. Maybe remember call. these are just assumptions. The worst case scenario. these are assumptions and spending. right? The worst case? No. no. I am not assumptions on the revenues. More set in stone. There's not a lot of flexibility on revenue.
Carol Martin: Anyone else have any questions? Ellen. anyone sorry. so we're
Brian Keveny: getting in the fiscal 27 forecast. as Michael briefly talked about in his opening remarks. All the collecting buying projects expire the end of June. We don't know all labor contracts right now for 2728 29 that's why it would be important to try to get past 27 and really being planned for long term structural plan to get out of our deficit situation. But they mentioned Michael is currently trying to resolve the fire contract. We have assumptions in our this projection right now. but we don't ultimately know what that's going to be. We have unknown revenue increases in state aid. and which means that we're carrying $250.000 but you never know down the road that they start pulling back some of that state aid that's really unknown at that point. we won't know our state aid number until January. We won't know our health insurance number until February. So as we compile the budgets initially. we're assuming certain numbers. and they're all going to be trued up at the end of February. when we get all of our numbers in. But we also have. we have a issue with new growth. Right now we're carrying $400.000 so again. the drivers of the 24 self insurance. pension. general insurance. and we need to maintain a provision for labor contracts. And we don't know that number. but it certainly will be a cost driver. When we did our projections for this. this assumption the town and the school. our expense sides were very low. I think. I think the town expense budget is only supposed to go up like 2% in an environment where there's inflation. Christine has done a nice job on her expense side. We'll speak to a bit. But you know. the biggest driver lately in the school budget has been special education. But if you take specialization out of it. they've done a good job of bringing down their expenses. The school budget. as I just said. is really driven by unknowns in special education.
So what we did do is go into this trying to do a budget without having to have other needs. And as group met. and we've met over 10 times. over 10 times on Wednesday mornings. from nine to 11 consistently. we've come to the conclusion we can't produce a budget under the levy. unless we have these three things on the screen happen. The first one is. as we present it to the Selectmen. is to have the residents re vote the DPW levy debt as excluded. That that would involve them calling a ballot question in November and the residents coming out and supporting moving that from levy to excluded. As I said. it not only helps 27 it helps you through multiple years. The next one. as I presented to the Selectmen. was that were to issue. we're planning on issuing $60 million of bonds. One of the ideas that we came up with was to only issue 8 million of the bonds. The 8 million would be for the water department. What we can do is issue bands in November and have those bands bond anticipation notes for the people. okay. bonding notes. which we refer to as bands. The town has issued bands in the fact. in the past. currently. we actually have two bands. outstanding bands. help towns through periods in between an appropriation and then actually getting the funding that it's a it's a bridge of money until they do long term some towns ban a project. completely finish it. and then they know exactly what dollar value to bond. So they actually borrowed exactly what the project ended up spending. I've seen some towns do that. but you can use bands for different reasons. So we looked at this option. and I went true with our advisor. hilltop securities. And the plan that was presented to the Selectmen was was as follows. in November. we issue bonds for the water department. We issue bands for the general fund projects. which in which means that in November 26 those bands would expire. and we then issue them long term bonds we would only have in our fiscal 27 budget. Interest payable. Now there's a cost to doing this. As I told the Selectmen. you're going to be paying interest on those bands between November 25 in November 26 and we calculated the amount around $140.000 that's assuming that the interest rate would be 4% in November. Currently. bonds are paid selling at 4% so if you take a look at one of the slides in the appendix. it's basically a what if scenario. What if we what if we don't issue bonds in November at 4% what if we waited until November 26 and the rates were 3% well. that interest expense kind of goes away because we're going to pay longer term at 3% it's simply a hypothetical. Nobody knows what the rates are going to be in 20 in 26 but it's good to talk about. We know that the bond rate is going to be 4% in November. Don't know what the bond rate is going to be in November. 20. Six. If you take a look at different scenarios. maybe when we get to 26 and we issue long term bonds. we'll issue them at a rate less than 4% but nobody knows that. but I wanted to put the table in there just to show you. yes. we may pay interest expense. but maybe we won't. and nobody in this table knows for sure what that's going to be. So the last bucket would be. Michael McCall: you need to say. but by doing that and paying the interest only. that frees up the 800.000 Brian Keveny: Yeah. And one other important thing I didn't mention is that these projects during the time period between November 25 and June 26 they need funding right now. Some of the projects have funding in the form of bands. The majority don't do our allows the town to do advancing from the general fund. That basically means the general fund can transfer money to capital projects without approval at Tom meeting. It simply involves the Selectmen approving that and signing a form. It's a no interest loan from the general fund to the capital account. The money must come back to the general fund by June 30. So it's not like the general fund in the number we calculated was about 6 million. free cash is expected to be certified around 12 million. That's what we're projecting. So the way it would work is that after do our approves the town's free cash. the Select model would have approved to move 6 million into the capital count. That immediately brings our appropriation that we can do a Tom meeting to 6 million. Because we've restricted six we still have plenty of free cash to fund any projects that we want to do with town meeting. But remember. the money comes back to the general fund at June 30. It's not lost by the General Fund. and it doesn't affect the town. Towns have done this in the past. You can either do that or you can issue bands. So that was presented to the Selectmen as well as part of this option to move from bands to bonds. so we've gone over that with them. I went over with our bank. I talked to the one of the directors of dor because it's been a while since I did this. I just wanted to make sure I had my ducks in a row. and I I did it once before. And he says. All you do is you fill out the form. explain it to select men. everybody's on board. And you do it in the money. I say it comes back to the general fund. It is not lost money. It comes back to the general fund. So those are the three things that they need to happen. And lastly. the third one. even with these two. we still need cuts on the town of the school to balance a prop two and a half percent balance budget. It's these two projects alone. Based on these four project assumptions. will not bring in a budget under proc tool. Now the town of the school still need to do additional costs between three and 500.000 we think that's manageable. So that is a presentation you have the paperwork. Is a series of slides that we've included in here for you folks to this one I put in here. if you have time. this really maps out the first column where we stand. the agreements move from levy to excluded. how that affects only the do our calculation. And then we have in here the use of him. which actually affects expense. which brings us to our ongoing three to $500.000 problem. which is in the bottom right. And again. this is that incremental assumption on interest. I wanted to put in at least have a folks to take a look at it. So that's they have this slide in yet. because in the top right. there's brightest guys on the sun coming school. Unknown: The top right Brian Keveny: came from my believer. obviously. in the river. So I think I found the right slide. I see the rainbow. brightest guys in the cheap truck. That's our presentation. Carol Martin: Thank you. Brian. thank you. Michael. I want to just ask Aaron real quick. Are you short on time? Here? Are you till 710
Unknown: you can call until 710 Carol Martin: Okay. so we have to ask questions fast. because we got 15 minutes. and one of my board members has his art style at 730 which I'm started at six. So who would like to start the questions? Normally. we start at this level. but why don't Aaron. would you like to start the questions? Or would you like us to
Unknown: anybody from my board have questions?
Carol Martin: Would you say the 300 500.000 Unknown: cut? Is that Carol Martin: shared among the school. or is Brian Keveny: that each of we didn't help an allocation we just knew generally? You know. we have an ongoing problem that could be three to 500.000 it could be 600.000 Unknown: it's shared. Okay. I actually have a question about that number as well. Is that based on numbers from what fiscally in 26 you're cutting from that. or you're cutting from like a 4.55% over fiscal year 26 Brian Keveny: it's. it's based on the school budget in fiscal 27 Unknown: Okay. so like. what was kind of put out as a so what does that look like from a percentage Brian Keveny: we in the school but for 27 the school budget is up 5.5% Unknown: so. okay. yeah. okay. Brian Keveny: so we have a conservative number up there. And Christine is still. you know. as we know. she's relatively new to the district. just trying to get the schools up and running. So we have in there a 5.5 number. I just wanted to clarify where it was. We lost you a four point. I forget the number right under five. Under five. we have 5.5 Unknown: right now. We would. of course. try to get under five well cushion.
Michael McCall: although it uses the word cuts. There may be other ways to interpret that. as indicated before I didn't send out an email the department heads about a hiring freeze. As we have turnover. there may be some positions we choose not to fill so we wouldn't be spending that money. and we may postpone filling that until we get through FY 27 and know what our numbers are. So without truly cutting position. we don't fill it. We're realizing those savings to help us get through that that year. But there may be positions we just do need to eliminate. So it'd be a combination of things Brian Keveny: I would ask Dave to say again. the importance of deferring the Override to next year and getting past 27 you said. why is that important for the school to do that? You talked about that in the budget. Unknown: Sure. a couple of reasons. Brian. the certainty of planning. It's very hard to do a budget when we don't know what our revenue is going to be from an override. That is really hard to do. And when you start creating a budgets and B budgets and C budgets. the instability that it leads to. and I've certainly had to do that. and what you end up having to do is show the positions you're going to reduce. and think about excellent new teachers who will leave. And it just creates a lot of instability. That is the most important thing. Number two. obviously. in collective bargaining. to not have a sense when you're putting together a budget. where you are in terms of planning. So it creates certainty. both from a uncertainty. both from a financial and a human resource side. as opposed to certainty. I think that sums it up. Brian. yes. Carol Martin: I'm gonna see if the Select Board has any questions. Doug Levine: I've got two brief questions. Brian. so the first is. we're assuming a worst case scenario of a 1.8 and same million dollar short call. What is the range? If that's the worst case scenario? What is the best case scenario? If we have higher local receipts. higher state aid. how much does that fall? Well. it Brian Keveny: really would be the delta if health insurance came in less than than two digits. if it was. say. seven or eight. That is set in stone. Middlesex. we already have our assessment. so that's. that's a hard number. The only other thing would be. if the collective bargaining amounts come in less than we have in our projection. we have a number in there that we think is reasonable. If the if the collective bargaining came in less than that. that would bring the number down on the revenue side. reasonably on the state side. you can really expect more than 250.000 you can expect growth in the local receipts. But again. that's only about that's. that's not a material number to you know. two or 300.000 it's a good thing that we bring in more money in the local receipts. but to get. get from your $1.8 million down to a better case scenario. it's the jury still out there? Because we don't know what our new growth is going to be on the tax recap in December. which rolls into prop two and a half calculation. which then adjust all these numbers. stating number in January. in the health insurance so I can't really answer that. because those numbers would are key in bringing this problem about Doug Levine: I asked the question. though. because there there are two. I call them mechanisms. and that last slide. 700.000 800.000 and if we just passed one. it doesn't answer the mail correct. even if we had a best case scenario for a budget. Shortfall. Brian Keveny: If we had one of them proved right. we'd still be in a difficult situation. Budget. generally. Unknown: Doug The one thing I would add also Brian. I'm thinking this past year. there were significant swings in health insurance. depending on what plan you I mean. we were quite low. Think of the GIC. which was historically high. as you know. Doug. and so just given that swing. that's why you don't want to. you know. there's some uncertainty in that particular area. For sure. you don't know till January. Doug Levine: And then my other quick question. Brian was on the first slide in fiscal year 37 the budget swings by $10 million combined from the negative to the positive. and that's all as a result of us funding the retirement liability. And that's done. It's that many millions of dollars. Carol Martin: Yes. um. do you mind if I hop into because I have the same one? So this is interesting. There were a couple slides in here originally that talked about this. and you'll have to help me with the correct wording. Brian. but it's we pay a pension assessment every year. but then be for a number of reasons. which Brian can explain probably another day is a very long report. everyone in the communities in Middlesex retirement is being assessed by what they call it unfunded liability. and waylands is 58 million correct. which we're paying out over these 10 years. Brian Keveny: You hit me with these numbers. I have to go back and check essentially. it's substantial. I think. I think it's 58 to 60 million. Carol Martin: So that's really and those slides were in here. So when you asked me. I saw what's coming up. I didn't see it. But. um. I would really like if Doug doesn't mind if I hop in on his question too. I really. I had sent you a question. I'd like to know what's our unfunded liability for the this amount we have to pay this additional for 27 and then 27 to 30 just out of care. Brian Keveny: We don't we only have that. We only get from two years. So we have from Middlesex 26 and 27 Okay. so post that on their website. They write the unfunded liability on 27 to 60.000.058 Carol Martin: to 60 minutes. Do we have to pay in 27 to what is it? Two additional million? Brian Keveny: I have that hard number anyway. It's it's in my Unknown: calculation. every two years.
Carol Martin: So we pay the regular Brian Keveny: ones. 7 million. We pay some. I'm sorry. 7 million. and Carol Martin: change the 27 Yeah. but that. Inc. what's the what's the amount in blue? Because that's the additional amount. Brian Keveny: The amount in blue is the levy debt related to the DPW. Carol Martin: Yeah. No on this slide. yeah. see that we have in the screen? All right? I think what I like that number? I can get that. I think that sounds like you would like that as well. What is that amount? I think it was in the prior version. It showed the pension and the pension liability. and that's in the operating budget. correct? Yes. the liability. yeah. So I'd like to know Unknown: Yes. Christine clarification that it is based on the actuarial study that is posted on the Middlesex County website. They dictate the amount that we have to pay. irregardless of what our unfurling liability is. They identify because they have adjusted their payment schedule. So that number changes every actuarial period. and so we know what we have right now and what the payment will be for 26 and 27 then it will go through another cycle of the actuarial and they will recalculate our unfunded liability amount. So that's a changing. moving target. So we don't know that. Doug Levine: but it has to end in fiscal year 37 that's what's Unknown: that's what they say. Or the town's fully funded portion. Brian Keveny: Okay. state may have mandated them all pension funds to be fully funded by 2036 some are already. you know. 80. 90% funded. Middlesex right now is a 50% fund. So right now. as we sit here. we're between 50 and 60% fully funded in 10 years. that that number needs to go to 100% Fund. and the only way to get there. Brian Oh Hurley. he did a nice job. I've taken the fiscal 26 and 27 assessments that we have. and actually developing an amortization out to that which runs. and we have that number embedded. So every two years. like Carol. like Christine. said. We get that assessment. but they we've got a long way to go from 50 to 100 in a very short period. Carol Martin: So my question is. that's an operating expense. right? But I'd like to know the dollar amount of that for 27 I think that's the number you and I are looking for. Maybe you can send that to us. right? I don't want to monopolize all the time. I'm going to go with care to there are. although they haven't called to order. there are members of the Finance Committee who speak as individuals. like just for. So April or Pam. Unknown: yeah. so I'll just put a an exclamation point on the overall presentation. We've got financial challenges in front of this. the town. It would be great to get through fiscal year 27 without having to go to an override process. but we've got a lot of education to do. to help the entire town community. to really understand our financial circumstances. identify all the efficiencies that we can and really take steps to sort of implement those efficiencies and communicate it. because we're going to have overrides in the future. It's just right now doesn't feel like the right time to try and put one through. especially if there's levers in front of us that we can all get behind to do the bands and do the debt reclassification. So I'm strong. individually. strong. supportive of the overall plan here. and I don't have any other questions at this time. Carol Martin: Okay. so because we're speaking as as individual residents. would you like to give your address for Unknown: the Oh yeah. seven deer run Wayland. Thank you. And we're Carol Martin: looking for questions so April or Pam. Miss Kelsi. do you have one? Okay? And Bill. yes. I know I forgot to respond. I went that way. Sorry. Sorry. let's see
Brian Keveny: so the the assessment of a 27 is 7.3 million. Unknown: Middlesex County retirement Brian Keveny: 7.3 million. We already had the unfunded liability Carol Martin: portion is 6966
Unknown: 27 this is part of the actuarial study. Yes. she wants to know. what's the difference year over year? Is that what you're asking? No. yes. they don't give it to you that way career. But the amount. the assessment that we will be including in the FY 27 is 7.3 million. right for the middle sense. county. what it was for FY 26 was 6.8 million. Carol Martin: There you go. 6.8 so it's 500.000 Brian Keveny: and for another day. we talked about doing a pension obligation bond. but that's. that's another night's discussion to address the Middlesex issue. Carol Martin: Mr. Whitney. I'm sorry. Brian. the 802.000 Unknown: for the bands. is that net of the 100? Yes. an interest. okay? William Whitney: And what happens if we do the issue the bands in lieu of 8 million in bonds. and we. and we there is an unsuccessful vote on the reclassification of the TPW facility type. Brian Keveny: Yeah. that's a good question. because do we proceed with just winning the bands and the bonds and bringing down the budget in 27 by 800 we wreck even we recognize as a group that. you know. we still have to make a cut of over a million dollars. and that would be very challenging. A lot of things would have to break our way. So that's the it's sort of like. which do you want to pick? Do you want to just if we don't get involved? Do we just call it a day and ask for an override because the cuts will be just too insurmountable? Or do we take the 800.000 savings and deal with a million dollar problem? That's the information we have at this point in the budget development. Unknown: So and you mentioned a November election. Brian Keveny: well. you would have called ballot question Unknown: right in November. in November. before November. or November. which is kind of a month away. yeah. 3030. we think there is sufficient time to educate the electorate as to the importance of voting For this thing in a month would be a challenge. Doug Levine: That's the latest you can have in the election. at Michael McCall: least 35 days from when it's 35 days from when the Select Board calls the election. The clerk actually asked for 45 days. And if you go back. and I was looking at today with Madam Chair. the policy is when. as we have presented a request for the board to consider a reclassification the debt under Proposition two and a half in your policy. we have to request a presentation or opinion from the FinCom. and they have to Give it to the board and you. according to policy. cannot vote to have the election until one week after that. It has to be one week. But there is a timeline so well. Unknown: a question. I guess. for the elected officials here. which is. how do we feel about taking this to the voters in a month? The. For 45 days. can kind of sufficiently robust public information campaign be developed and get the word Michael McCall: out another community in March. we put on a debt exclusion for a fire station. They voted to put it on the ballot. I think. in March. and then managed to get it to pass. Interesting you're looking about. because Unknown: this is. this is much more esoteric. I think this is not saying we need a fire station. This is. we've issued the debt. We've been paying it all along. We want to pay it out of a different pocket and why is that a good idea? Michael McCall: All we can do is an informational campaign. We are limited under Proposition two and a half. We we the town staff cannot. I'm not Unknown: suggesting there would be an advocacy campaign per se by but individuals can speak to their neighbors. can have coffees. can have Q and A's put together. and that takes time and organization understand. Doug Levine: So that goes back to the question. why do you have to have this election November? Can you have it in December or January? What is the latest that we can have it to allow for more time for Carol Martin: education? Hey. it's April. but we don't want to do that. What can we do Doug Levine: it in January? Giving us several months? I Brian Keveny: guess that's a question for Michael and the town clerk. If they didn't want to do it in November. could they do it in January? But then keep in mind. we're right in the middle of budget
Unknown: development to to the question I had. so there seems to be a lot of discussion of having the bands approved as soon as possible. What is that rush coming from? Brian Keveny: It's coming from. We're doing a movies call on October 7. Bank is finished our official statement and ready to go to bidders in early November. October. so the states and the stage has been set town to borrow $16 million in November. So we've done all the paperwork we've gone through one council. all those three groups are now looking at us and saying. Okay. we're ready to go. What is Wayland doing? So we really need a decision no later than your next meeting on September 29 on the bands. because I have to inform the bank what we don't have asked him. Can I have a two. three week delay? And that's not realistic. is everything on your side is in the queue. Unknown: So if that. if that happens. so we've spent 140.000 without knowing whether the debt would be reclassified. so kind of at risk. right?
Brian Keveny: Well. you go back to the sensitivity analysis. and it's better in a year from that. That's like you can speculate on that Carol Martin: Susan for one second. I just want to make sure and were you. were you finished? And then I'm not Unknown: really. because I want to understand this a little better. So what you're essentially saying is that we're all set up to do the bands. and if we miss this window. then. and they're all essentially saying. What's going on here. and if we miss the window. then we have to essentially start over. Brian Keveny: No. um. no. So we're all set to issue $60 million in bonds. Yes. the bank knows that we're looking at this option. We're definitely going to issue 8 million in bonds. That's a surety with the water department. November. the options are issue $16 million in bonds. or issue $8 million in bonds. an issue with a balance in bands. which is a short term loan. Okay? Carol Martin: And we also have. I did send out a meeting up to the boards. and a couple meetings ago. We also have some bands that have to be paid off by November. So this Brian Keveny: expiring? Carol Martin: Are they having the meeting in I think it's October 7. It takes a couple weeks to do the paperwork so they can issue the bands in time. so that we can take care of the ones that need to be reissued and a left. so that decision we have to make by the 29th so that Brian and hilltop can proceed. Period. how's that proceed? Period. sorry.
Um. meeting. Because any anybody from the school committee? Okay. we all said. I'm sorry.
Unknown: Please let me know. I also think it's easier to explain. I'm sorry. I think it's easier to explain the fact that.
Like financially. the DPW facility. more than likely should have been excluded from the levy at the jump. and it's more of an appropriate reclassification for that than anything else. That's an easier lift to me than to ask people to approve. you know. be it maybe a smaller one year override or and then knowing that the next year you're going to approve another larger. three year potential override amount. and that there's. there'll be more certainty around collective bargaining. etc. when we come to them for like an ask on an override versus. let's do a little dribble here. and then we'll do another bigger one in a year.
Carol Martin: I will tell you. I think I mentioned this. You might have been at that meeting. I actually was on the Finance Committee when that project was recommended for debt exclusion to the Select Board. So we went before we did the presentation. as we will ask this current finance committee to make presentations per code. I guess there was policy to the Select regarding debt exclusion on the ballot. ballot questions and the select what at the time. felt that we had an a lot of unused levy capacity. and they wanted to reduce the unused levy capacity. I believe. I'm sure this will come out as we go through this process. Should we go that path? They wanted us. the town. to make more mindful decisions about budgeting. and so they use the 12 million. 11 million. whatever it was of that levy capacity. okay. Brian. Will you hand them? Can you just start it? Because it was you just came in February and I had just stopped. yeah. so I think that was the reasoning of it. And I'm sure that when this. if we go that route. that will. that will be part of the conversations. Well. be revisited. So. okay. yes. yes. Unknown: I was just gonna say we kind of need to. We don't Carol Martin: know you guys got a problem. Yeah. anyway. so you don't need to adjourn or anything. right? No. we'll just start there. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you everybody. Presentation. Appreciate it. Thanks. Michael and I'm
Unknown: going to drop as well. Carol. Carol Martin: thank you. Thank you. April. and I think Pam left as well. Hi. Anne. all right. Exit. Would it be appropriate for me to ask some Unknown: questions the voters see seeing on the ballot in November. if it can be get. if it can get on the ballot by then. are they just being asked to reclassify DEP talk to another Yes. being asked anything about the band? No. no. no. that seemed like such a hard asset. We're just going to fund it from a different pot. Michael McCall: Yes. so it moves it into a different pot for the calculation of your levy capacity. Unknown: Got it. I think that was in the paper. the Michael McCall: paper. and we would work with town council that you would be shell the voters to win. and. you know. reclassify the existing debt. and we'd give the amount from levy to excluded debt. Carol Martin: Thank you. right. We only have about 10 minutes left. And the one I guess I'm going to ask thanks for it as if you would like us
Michael McCall: to go to number four. Yes. considerably. Have the updated. but I believe number four is one. Carol Martin: although we have not made any decisions on either of these. and I am going to ask when we get to the next one. if the sense of the board is to wait until all five of us are present on the 30th to take These 29th so for Mr. But we've also been asked to consider asking the finance committee to make a recommendation to us on the 29th regarding the classifying of the levy debt to excluded because. as I mentioned just a few minutes ago. that's part of the process that we have if we're considering a debt exclusion ballot question. We then request a presentation from the finance committee. so then they would have an opportunity to vote on it on the 29th and then they would probably come in on the sixth to make the presentation. because they have to make a presentation to us. I believe. on ballot on debt exclusion. So. I don't know what the success. but it is a Michael McCall: like they may be meeting the 29th maybe they make it earlier. and they come in that. I don't know how it will work. I think that'd be up to Mr. Unknown: Judy's. All right. Well. all right. I'd like to offer motion to for the Select Board to request that the Finance Committee make a recommendation and give a presentation to the board regarding the request. request by the levy debt to excluded debt for the Department of Public Works facility at 66 River Road. Thank you. Carol Martin: Any further discussion? Okay. so let's have a roll call. Unknown: and that's pursuant to the board's proposition to invest policy in the Select Board meeting. just for Carol Martin: and that's what you said in your motion. that it was pursuant to the boards two and a half the Doug Levine: boards two and a half. Unknown: I think that's superfluous. but accept the friendly amendment. Feel better. All right. that was not part of my motion. All right. then I'm going Carol Martin: to Anne. yes. Doug. yes. Bill. yes. Carol. yes. that so that motion passes four zero. So Mr. Manager. if he would be so kind as to draft a memo to do it. That's a letter floating around. But I thought that was a little more formal than we need here. because we aren't actually. we haven't. We've kind of. yeah. so do you want me to send it on? We can talk. We'll talk about it. All right. that sounds like a plan. I know that Mr. Levine has a hard stop here shortly. and I did want to ask before we we can discuss any of these that are on the table. if you want to do that. But I also want to ask if we. if. again. if. what's the sense of the board? Should we wait until Tom is also present and on the 29th before we consider votes. Doug Levine: The 29th is acceptable. according to Brian. for approval. if we so approve for the bonds to Vance. right? And on the other one. I still don't understand when that would have to be actually decided. Michael McCall: I think as soon as practical. when we first flipped the memo and introduced this formally to the board. we were in August. And the theme the thought process. then. was. most people have it in their minds. They come in in the first week. the first Tuesday of November. So the thought was. shoot for that date. Can you go later in November. even to early December? I'm sure we could do that and leave 60 some odd days or more for some type of informational campaign. Is Mr. Kevin. He said. the closer we get to our requirements under the code to recommend a budget to this body and then hand over to the FinCom. we need to have some decision. because then we would be looking at going through the same process of requesting an operational override and then having to come Back and having to have the board ask the FinCom make a presentation go through that. and you'd be then looking at the spring annual election. so that you would have time to campaign for an operational and if we didn't get the votes to put it on the ballot or something. then the worst case scenario. I guess. is that whatever happens with the bands happens. and then you're looking at some significant cuts across the board. That's always the last resort. And my philosophy is town manager is I'm supposed to present every option to you folks and then follow through on whatever. however the chips may fall. as Mr. Whitney alluded. even if we were to put the question on. it still may fall. but. you know. it could fail. and then we would then either have to see. you know. if we could make some adjustments. and if we couldn't. we may have to come back and then ask this board to consider an operational over Doug Levine: is there some minimum threshold of votes that you need for turnout? Because I imagine turnout will be pretty low on this one question. I believe Michael McCall: that it is just a simple majority of the people that turn out that day. I do have a link to proposition two and a half elections. It's a primer. and it does go over some of this in the Q and A. I believe. So I can circulate that to the board Doug Levine: if you haven't. I think we should probably have substantive discussions about both of these on the 29th Unknown: on the agenda already. Doug Levine: It's that agenda planning. Carol Martin: But we. we've we. our intent was to finalize it tomorrow based on if we needed some other items. you know that came from this meeting. So and are you okay here? Because I think we're just about ready to wrap up. unless you have something else you want to add. or I. Unknown: No. I am. I'm actually doing a lot of absorbing of all of it so. Carol Martin: so I think you missed it earlier. because I not should be online. I do want to say it again. I thank you all very much for coming on such short notice. and particularly this particular week. appreciate it tremendously. And so. having said that I would Doug Levine: entertain and move that we adjourn the Select Board at 727.
Carol Martin: and then Anne. yes. no. yes and call. Thank you. Kelsi. thank you.
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