July 29, 2026 – Personnel Board – Video & Transcript
July 29, 2026 - Personnel Board
I will call the personnel board meeting of July 29th to order at 4.03 p.m.
This is both in-person and remote access, and we're in the Wayland Town Building.
The location for the meeting is wheelchair accessible.
This meeting is being recorded, and it will be made available to the public on WACAM
as soon as possible after the meeting.
We will have no executive session today.
Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025,
this meeting will be conducted in person and via remote access
in accordance with applicable law, and we will permit public comment.
When allowed by the chair, and we will,
persons wishing to provide public comment or otherwise participate in the meeting
may do so at the meeting location or in remote access,
and it's recommended that the public comment be limited to two minutes per person.
In the room, we have personnel board members, Dave Williams, Mary Ann Peabody,
and on line, we have Jill Zukerman.
Jill is taking minutes today.
Paul is unable to attend.
He just texted me unless we absolutely needed him.
I think he's working.
So I'll read the agenda for the public.
We also have Kate Ryan here, our Town of Weyland Personnel Director,
and Robbie Bullard is our Zoom manager.
And the agenda is our first item is a discussion and possible vote to recommend changes and or adoption of the new draft personnel policy A501.03 motor vehicle licensing,
and then followed by a discussion of remote work, telework, and or flexible work personnel policies for possible future adoption and implementation will be a general discussion.
Then we will have a discussion and approval of open session meeting minutes of March 23rd, 2026, and then June 24th, 2026.
May 20th, 2026 is not available, but will be available at our next meeting.
Then there is personnel board members reports and concerns, and then we'll set the next meeting date, and then we will adjourn.
Okay, so let's talk about the first personnel policy that we're looking at, which is the motor vehicle licensing, and Kate sent that ahead of time.
Hopefully, everyone had a chance to look at it. Kate, you want to walk us through that one?
Sure. So this is a brand new policy for us. It's still in draft form here.
So this really came out of the Registry Loan Vehicles has this program called the Driver Verification System, or DDS.
And this program, it's great. It's no cost in municipalities. Any employer can choose to participate.
And what it does is it tracks, almost in real time, the status of a driver's license.
So whether it's active, whether it's been, you know, whatever status is in.
And then it will, if you're enrolled, it will contact the employer to let you know if the status changes.
Now, however, in order to enroll employees who are required to have a motor vehicle license, whether it's a standard license or a commercial driver's license, a CDL,
we have to have we have to get their authorization, their signed authorization in order to enroll them in this program.
And it's really it's passive for them. They don't really have to do anything. They sign the authorization.
We sign them up into the system. And then the only thing that happens is we will get a notification like it's their license were to expire.
So the system would send me or HR an email, a notice. So it's right now we're kind of on the honor for this.
So anyone who's required to have a motor vehicle license, like our our CEO drivers, primarily in DPW,
if anything were to happen to a license, we rely on the employee to notify us.
So there's you know, this is just it helps us. It helps the employee.
It makes sure everything's make sure that we're all in in in compliance.
Does it let you know when it's coming due for renewal or not? Just after?
You know, I don't I don't believe so. Well, that's actually not true.
It will it will notify you within a period of time. I believe it's like a two week window.
So if it's about to expire two weeks ahead of that date, then it may send you a reminder saying, hey,
this license is about to expire. And that's actually a way for us to sort of communicate with an employee and say, oh, hey,
we're just checking in. We want to make sure that you have your license.
Does anyone have any questions or comments or input regarding this document? Yeah, I mean, I'm curious. What if somebody declines to enroll in this program?
You know, I'm not that's a really good question. I don't think we really thought that through. I'll have to take that back and think about it. But yeah, I mean, I wouldn't think it should be a big deal. But just in case, I would think you'd want to plan. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a good point. I think so. Part of this is that we all any of the positions that would be covered by this policy and required to sign this authorization there. It's a condition of employment for them to have and maintain a valid motor vehicle license. So if for whatever reason their license were to lapse, we wouldn't you know that there's an issue, you know, employment wise that we would need to address. So I don't know. It is a good point. I'll I would I'll certainly take that back and and think that through and maybe come back. Yeah. And I'm sure for any new hire, it would be easy that it would be a condition of employment. Agreed. Yeah. And it was it's even for department heads. So if they have to go from site to site in town, they have to register with this as well. I asked Kate if someone got a DWI within would that be reported to the town? So not necessarily. It would only be reported through a system like this. Like I said, we're kind of on the honor system. There's no way we would have known would know that currently unless someone were to come forward and divulge it, you know, to. So it's next year, say, if someone lost their license and hadn't told you, it would be notified, be notified of the system. And like I said, it's almost a 24 hour system. So they're, they're constantly updating it. Now, one of the limitations of the system is it only tracks Massachusetts driver's license. Okay. So if we have someone who lives in Rhode Island or New Hampshire, or something like that, and they have a Rhode Island license, they wouldn't, there's nothing we can do about that. But the vast majority of our employees do have Massachusetts licenses. So I think for me, is it a big, big expense or it doesn't cost because we're a municipality if there's no cost to the town. It's a fabulous program. And a lot of other municipalities are have already, it's only been around for maybe five years or so. So we're kind of late to the table, but I'm hoping we'll get this move forward. Part of the challenge is that I think we're going to have to work with some of our unions because it primarily impacts our teamsters. They're all, all of our teamsters positions require more vehicle licenses, um, our, our police fire, and then, uh, some of our AFSCME roles. So police and fire, they don't have a CDL though, right? Or no, unless they're driving the fire truck. If they have a fire truck, they have a fire truck? No, it's just fire. They do have to have a, uh, a class B, which is your standard password, but they don't have a CDL. Oh, that's a big truck. I could not drive. Yes. Same thing for the ambulance. Yeah, correct. Yeah, it's a little odd. Um, do you need a vote from us? Um, not right. I mean, eventually, uh, this is, like I said, it's still on draft and we're still, um, you know, we've presented this through all of our unions. So we're kind of working through that process. Uh, I was hoping for feedback. Uh, there's anything that you see that we may want to add. I think one piece of feedback we did get is what happens if we have someone enrolled in this and then we do get, uh, a notice saying that this individual's license has been suspended for whatever reason. Um, what do we do then? Is there a disciplinary process? So that's one of the pieces of feedback we've gotten. Um, Yeah. So it's going to say like what current state, like someone would share, this is what happened. And then you have a specific process from there, whereas Yeah. I And then have a conversation. Well, it, yeah, it really kind of depends on the circumstances and what happened. You know, for example, let's say there was a driving under the influence, a DUI. Um, it depends on whether it's first or second. It depends on whether you have a CDL or not. If you have a CDL, um, that's a whole, that's a completely different process because it's a federal, federally kind of, um, protect your man, um, uh, process. But, uh, on the state level, I mean, we would work with the employee, right? Um, they wouldn't be able to drive any town vehicles. Uh, I think in Massachusetts, if you, it's your first offense, they'll kind of give you what they call a, uh, I can't remember what it's called a special dispensation to continue to drive to from work until you go through a certain period of time and there's a court process and they usually don't, um, uh, take your license permanently on the first offense. So, uh, we would, we would work with the employee on that. What about the school bus drivers? Do we hire them or are they? No, they're contracted out. It's your first student. That's the name of the company's first student. And do they have such a system? I assume they do. Uh, I hope so. I, I don't, I don't really know. I, probably it's because they're all, um, CDL drivers, they're, um, commercial drivers. So it's a, it's a different level of, um,
licensure. So I, I imagine they do. Yeah. And as Jill mentioned, this would be great to have as part of the new hire packet, you know? Yeah. That's the goal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's the goal is to have this.
We don't make it efficient. I mean, I, I would think if somebody actually has a suspended license, that it would follow disciplinary procedures because it is, I mean, the policy says, uh, it applies to all town employees whose essential duties require driving while on duty. So if you don't have an active license, you can't perform your, your role. Yeah, correct. And I think, um, I mean, I can't give specifics, but, uh, in my experience, what we've, what we've done is worked with an individual. We, they were actually denote demoted to a position that did not require a license. They could continue to work. Their pay went down for a period of time. And then I think it was like a six or nine month period. Um, and then they were able to come back to us with a, here's my life. My license was reinstated and then we were able to move forward. So yeah, there, there could potentially be discipline involved. Yeah. Great. Okay. All right. So you want to wait until you get it completed before we vote on it or. Okay. Yeah. I mean, you can vote on it now or provide feedback. Uh, like I said, it's, uh, it's not in its final form because we're still working with our unions on this, but I think if it's not on its final form, we don't really need to vote on it yet. Right. No. Yeah. And particularly based on what your question was, Jill, what would we do if someone did lose their license? What would be part of the disciplinary process for it? It should be addressed in the policy or refuses to sign it. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yep. So I will, I guess I have one other piece of that is that, uh, for any of these positions that require a driver's license, we require as part of our background check, a driving history check. So we will, we will obtain a driving record history from, for that individual. They have to sign an authorization for us to do that to begin with for a candidate. So we're already, we'll already have that when they, when they sign on, it's just a matter of enrolling them in this, um, moving forward. Do you also do that? Like for department heads, like yourself, you have to have that. Yes. You do a driving check on yourself too. Okay. Well, I, I didn't whoever did my pre-employment did, but yes, we would do that. Yes. Okay. For every department head, even though it's just to go from location to location. Correct. Yeah. Right. Okay. Um, and the next thing we don't have anything in writing, but, uh, Kate did provide us with some things from other towns. Uh, Kate's been thinking for a while now that we need a, uh, work from home or remote work policy because there are people who do it, but the town has no policy for it. So she's been looking into that. Why don't you, um, tell us what you're thinking is we can tell you what we're seeing in the different sectors of which we work. All right. Yeah. So I think I wasn't here during the pandemic. I came in, in 2022. So it was afterwards, but there were there during the pandemic. Um, it's my understanding that many of our, at least our office workers, um, working in this building and some of the others did work from home a lot, not all of them, but quite a few of them. And so after that happened, after when people started coming back into the office, um, we've had sort of an informal understanding, um, where department heads sort of managed that amongst their staff, um, ensuring that there's always coverage in the office if they have a counter, like for example, or a treasure collect or something like that. Some of, some of those positions, those offices that, that have to be open during business hours. Um, so we'd really like to explore the option of having a more formal policy. I think one of the things that I struggle with, or I have been struggling with is that how do you do it in an equitable way? Since there are large portions of our workforce that can't work from home or public safety or, you know, DPW employees, some of our, our, um, you know, our inspectors, things like that. There, there just isn't an option. So, um, so we're, you know, we're still kind of exploring that. I think we have some, you know, documentation from the MMA, the Mass Municipal Association, um, sort of best practices. I've been pulling, um, similar types of policies from other towns. Um, and, uh, so, you know, we have like a, a very, very sort of big outline of a, of a policy at this point, but it's not quite ready. Michael wanted to, to sort of fine tune it a bit before we move forward. And then, but I, I'm happy for feedback, anything, what you're seeing out in the, in the workforce and the private sector and anything that we may, might be beneficial for us in crafting something moving forward. One of my questions is whether people routinely work from home or if it's when they're working on a project and they need quiet time. Um, because in the, in some of the organizations that I've worked with, they've had some issues with people working from home. And then when they ask people to come in on for a meeting, a mandatory meeting, the person will say, oh no, that's a day with my kids. Now my daughter works from home, but she has a daycare provider when her kids are at home. She doesn't try to do childcare and work at the same time. So how do you make that distinction? Um, I, you know, I don't, I don't think we've mapped that out yet. I think that's one of the things that we're still struggling with. Uh, you know, we want, so part of the, part of the challenges is that, you know, a lot of the workforce has since COVID has, has, you know, they're doing this right. A lot of private sector employers are just, are, are completely comfortable with work from home. Um, and so I honestly, I can't remember a time where I haven't had what I've had an interview with, you know, at least a sort of administrative type of function where, um, interviewee asks about work from home, um, because it's just, it's part of what the employment world now. And so it's, I think we're, we, we just haven't really figured that out yet for us and how, how to make it work. I, I mean, every work from home policy that I've ever worked on has had the, you know, you have to have a suitable workspace. Your workspace has to be free from distractions. You know, um, there is wording in there to say, you know, you're, this is work environment. It's not, you're not supposed to be taking care of your kids. And, um, so I think like any disciplinary procedure, Marianne, like if somebody were to say, oh, that's my day with the kids,
the answer is no, I'm sorry. It's a work day. And yeah. And I think the, the policies that I have seen, um, as well often, not always, but often have some sort of agreement where you, you map it out with your department net or your, your manager on what your, your set hours, like let's say you need to work from home every Friday or whatever, whatever it looks like. Um, and those are your times and you, and it, you actually sign an agreement saying, I'm going to like, as Jill had said, I'm going to be available during the hours and this hour, et cetera. And so the employees agreeing to it, signing an agreement to, to abide by those terms. And then there are some department heads who may not have assistance. Does everybody have an assistant? And what do you do in those situations? Uh, no, all of our department heads have assistance at this point. And then, but then the assistants may not be able to work from home. Right. And that's the, right. That's the channel of the people facing roles, the same thing in healthcare. It caused a lot of consternation in healthcare because the same as with our fire and road people, those people have to show up. So if you have every, a certain part of the workforce that does have to show up in order to do what they do for a living. And then some people get to work from home, then they can have some, there can be some problems. Yeah, I agree. I think there are also some monetary considerations, um, just in terms of like paid leave time. So for example, if I'm working from home to be there, you know, uh, sort of an intermittent, I have to be home for someone who's repairing my, you know, clients or something. Right. I can, I can work from home and be on my phone and, and be, um, uh, be there doing the work, but, uh, I don't have to use a personal day to do that, but our police and firefighters would have to use a, you know, a DPW. So what's the, how do you account for that? To make it equitable. Yeah. And so that's the thing that I'm struggling with. How do you make it equitable? I think that there's definitely that fine line and it's really hard to, um, like ascertain where that line is between the sometimes, well, but that's the function of your job is that the function of your job is that you're forward facing. So you have to be there at the desk to welcome, you know, members of the public, or you have to be ready to hop on the ambulance to answer, you know, um, I think that partially that is just the function of the job that you chose. And, and when, you know, again, it's, it's definitely that balance of also, if a senior manager has a bit more experience, has more, a bit more independence and kind of like self-drive to be able to accomplish things from home. And sometimes that is not as appropriate for kind of more junior employees. Um, I guess from my perspective, that's, uh, I don't know any clients of mine or anyone I've worked with like the last 10 years that require an office five days and all, uh, a week is something that didn't have an expectation. I think the things that stand out that you need to just recognize is kind of setting expectations of, you know, what days you're going to be working from home. Like, like for the, for example, I have a client that they have three days a week that everyone needs to be in the office and two days that they'll be hybrid. So it's like set expectations that everyone will be there. Everyone knows I need to be here for these meetings, unless there's a doctor's appointment or something comes up, but that way everyone can be prepared and know this is my commitment. Um, I would say that there's, I know of one that only requires that they require four days in office. Most have a hybrid of at least two days. Yeah. Something that just came up that I talked to somebody was interesting to me is that they had to sign a contract that they can't work remote for the first year, which I thought was a little aggressive, but it was, it's also kind of brings up the thought of, okay, maybe setting an expectation on the front end as to you getting acclimated to your role and saying, Hey, for the first, whether it's three months or six months, whatever it might be, we would want you to be in office full time. And so we feel like you're comfortable to have everything you need. Um, so something else just to think about, um, I would just also want it's going to help for job descriptions and help for being competitive, especially as you're sending, you know, other towns are doing much the same and having a hybrid policy. So not only are you losing people in the private sector, you're losing them in the public sector. And that makes a job more attractive to someone who may not have applied in the past to see that it's a hybrid opportunity. Yeah. And then when you talk about the rules that maybe don't qualify, you can also put that on the job description as to it's a full-time in office opportunity. So someone understands that on the front end, they probably would anyway. But I, I, I would say that I, like I said, I don't know of anyone that's five days a week in office and those that were, um, I've been with a company for five years and for 60 years before COVID, they were in office every day. There wasn't even the thought of being remote in the office. That's the way it is. And then when COVID came, even then they were like, we're going to fail, our whole company is going to fall apart because we're not in the office. And then coming out of that, out of COVID, there was then not just from an employee standpoint, but from the leadership standpoint, an understanding that it can be done. Everything that we thought had to be done in person and be done hybrid in some capacity. So I think, I think, and again, a lot of companies are starting to come back to the office, but not necessarily come back to the office five days a week, but those that were maybe fully remote are now transitioning to hybrid. And they can, again, even some of the work and the meetings can be done remote, but I think setting the expectation, not necessarily setting KPIs, but at least having something to say, just with your commitment, working remote, we want to keep you in that capacity again, but you need to make sure you meet these expectations or work quality, whatever I think. Yeah, I'm seeing some companies requiring people to come back full time, but that's the minority. I think most companies recognize that people have an expectation that they can work from home. Sometimes I've seen some go four days in the office and that making the teams each agree what day ahead of time they would take as their day. They don't all have to take the same day, but it has to be the same day each time. You can't be kind of lying. I would say it's a little bit different though, in government work, that there is more of an expectation that people are in office again, because you're serving the public. So there are a lot of front-facing roles that don't have the flexibility. I agree that a lot of the kind of private sector has gone more towards remote, but I know for us at EHS, I mean, during COVID, we still had probably 60% of our workforce was still in person because they had to be. The healthcare sector, the same thing. So it's, that's always been anything that's public facing as long as you, that has to be probably spelled out in, in the job, in each job description. Yeah. But that's why, like, oh, sorry. Just to emphasize with Kate a little bit, like it is a very hard balance. There are several roles that probably could be more hybrid, but it is very difficult when you are then also working with a population that can't be hybrid. Right. I was going to say, that's where the policy is so important though, because you can be transparent, whether it's the position and understanding the role and the requirements. It's everyone's on the same page. Everyone knows this role from the start is what the requirements are, you know, going in and those that are on staff are like, Hey, this is, I understand now, this is what I can do. This is what I can't do as opposed to now where it's a toss up. It's like, Hey, I'm going to kind of work Friday from home. And it's difficult because you don't have something that you have in your role or a division head role can say, Hey, this is what our policy is. This is why we go and I'm sorry if we can't. No, I agree with that. It is not. And we've gotten feedback from some employees who were like, well, it's not, can I work from home? Can I not? And so I mean, Michael has, you know, town managers kind of let department heads manage their departments as they needed, as long as there's coverage. But yeah, I mean, it's, it is, it's a challenge. Um, one of the other thing is that I did actually do a survey of other towns. I, it's not complete, but I've, uh, to, to see who has policies, who doesn't, whether they, uh, do it intentionally or not. And there are actually some quite a few towns that I found that don't have policies and it's an intentional choice because of this equity issue and how to manage. So that is also a choice is what I'm, but you, you sacrifice a little bit of your recruitment power and your, so, you know, it's a fine line. Like, how do you manage that? And how do they handle, like, if, if, uh, if there is no policy, when one person works in home more frequently than somebody else and, and maybe they're both, you know, they both could do it remotely. Uh, that's why having the policy would at least say, you know, gee, two days a week, perhaps, you know, in these jobs, but that would be the maximum, or you just, as, as Jill suggested, maybe because it's a municipality, you say no, unless you're working on a project where you really need the concentration and to be away from everybody. Um, you know, I don't, you know, it's not an easy thing to have to come up with. And I do hear, I've been working on this for at least a year. So it's not, this is, and we're still, we're still kind of, you know, debating how to make this work. So it's, it's, you know, but we, we do have, we have to move forward. We either have to make a decision that we're not going to do it or we're going to do it. And here's how we're, so like, and that is the goal, right? I'm on another nonprofit board and it's the same issue. It's been a year and a half that, um, there's been kind of this round and round discussion about remote work policies. And again, it's, it's very difficult when you have some population that can't, right. And some population that wants to, how, how do you make that fair? Yeah. It was some organizations when it, when during COVID, when there were people that definitely couldn't, they gave additional benefits or something to the people that couldn't work remotely just for the short, for the short term, but it can't be a long term. Yeah. That doesn't sustain the long term. It's hard with a union environment. You can't then give extra, you can't give incentive unless they're bargained in. Yeah. That's the other, you know, challenge here is that we do have, we have five collective bargaining units. I mean, it would primarily impact AFSCME, because, you know, Teamsters, they, again, our DPW employees, they can't really work from home. They can't. You know, our police and firefighters, they can't work from home. Our library, there might be some, some positions that you could, there could be some work from home, but for the most part, therefore we're facing. So yeah, it's, it's a challenge, but more to come. And I, I appreciate, I really do appreciate the conversation and the feedback. It's, it's helpful to talk about this. And this is, this policy is from Wellesley. Is that the one we have so far that you've been? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for sharing this MMA best practices. This is, that was interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Is that, is that in here too? Yeah. So the other, the other part of this, so I feel like there's remote work slash telework, but then there's also the flexible work, which is, is, I mean, it's there, you know, you can do both, but they're, in my opinion, they're separate issues. And so one thing that we do do here is that we, a lot of our department heads have to attend evening meetings, like for example, personnel board or select board, things like that. And so there, again, there's not really a formal policy, but there's this sort of unwritten policy where our, it's not really a policy, it's just operations where our department heads will somewhat, will flex, right? Like if they have to, to work from 8am until, I mean, 9, 9pm to go to a meeting, they may flex the next morning, almost in a, they're not eligible for comp time, but it's, might be something that we explore either adding to this or creating a separate policy and how to handle those situations. So that people know what the ground rules are. Yeah, exactly. That makes sense. Um, okay. Thank you for sharing that. The best practices are here. Oh yeah, here it is. I say, great. That's, that's helpful. Yeah. Um, the next agenda item are minutes. Now, Dave is out, so we have to wait to, um, vote on them, but, um, uh, we could go over, is there any personnel board members reports and concerns? We'll take that item out of, out of order. Anything, Jill, that you have? I do not have anything. Okay. We'll ask Dave when he comes back in. I have none. Um, and so we can take a look at the minutes that we have. Uh, the first meeting minutes were from Jill. Um, they were March, uh, 23rd. I know it. Correct. I think they're the last page in your packet. I added them after. Sorry. Oh, I've, I've been going over them. So I have a copy here if you want mine. Marianne, I basically, uh, pasted what you had emailed me that the questions you had asked. So, uh, oh, okay. It should be familiar reading. Yep. The only question I had Jill was, uh, I don't know, was Mary Ellen not present at that meeting? Was she absent? We probably need to. I, I would assume no, I, I definitely would have had her in there if she was present. Okay. All right. That's probably the only thing that I saw that we would need to, um, to review.
And then, um, I, if I may, um, I think that, oh, well, you did do some of those. I, I just, I'm noticing some, uh, um, abbreviations and COLA and things like that. I think for minutes, those need to be spelled out. Yeah. Even JLMC. Yeah. Well, she does say JLM, joint labor management. Oh, she does. Okay. It's just, that's just a little thing. Yeah. No, I think that's right. Cause people reading them don't necessarily know the, so COLA designated. Um, Kate, are, will you change that before you upload them or would you like me to do it? No, I, I, I'm happy to do that for you. We'll just hold the vote on that. And the next minutes were Dave's, uh, June 24th. He did them right away. Um, I, I think I neglected to tell him that they, we have to have separate ones for executive sessions. So, um, and do you have any questions on the minutes that, uh, that Dave took Jill? Uh, no. Okay. Um, I don't see a step. I don't see anything for executive. Right. We can't deal with them here. Oh, you cut them out, cut them out. Yeah. He didn't realize it had to be separate. Um, but what we do need to have is a motion to go into executive session, which is, he has, he had that in the separate minutes that would go back there, but I think he, um, he understood that. So, uh, and then we adjourned directly and we, uh, and I had said that we would adjourn directly from executive session for that meeting. The only other question I had was, uh, under announcements and public comment, should we have, there was no public comment as a standalone sentence all by itself? It sounded like there was no comment on the prior sentence. Sure. Okay. I just, now, did he send you the document? Yeah, I have. Great. Thank you. So, you'll take care of that one? Yep. I'm happy to make it. And then when he comes back and we'll vote on them. So, he said he would only be a couple of minutes, but we'll see how fast. Um, and then we have to set the next meeting date. Now there was only one day in August, so it makes sense to wait till after Labor Day, I think. Yeah. And what policies do we want to try to get now? I know you have vacation. Yeah, I do have a vacation at the end of August. Exciting. Um, probably later in September might be helpful. It would give me a little more time to work. The 23rd or the 24th, does that work? Worked for me. Yep. Either is fine for me.
But can we do Wednesdays? Those are usually a little bit easier. Sure. Okay. Okay. Um, so since, uh, uh, I think Paul's not here, I, I'm happy to, I'm happy to send out an email just to make sure that everyone can get that date and then we can reschedule. Okay. Oh, but we can actually vote on the minutes without Dave being here because all we need is a quorum of the people who make up the quorum to vote on the minutes, right? I don't know that. I don't know. That's all. If we voted to approve the minutes and he didn't vote, that's two out of three. So we can do that. If we want to just do it for efficiency's sake, we can ask him if he had any changes. But we can't, we can't even really officially say he abstains, can we? If he doesn't say he abstains. No. No. Yeah.
I know what happens when I go for a business call. I think it's going to be two seconds, but it's a long time. Uh, well, I think that's true because, uh, I remember that the town clerk told me, uh, Jill, when you hadn't gone and sworn in at the town clerk's office, that we could count you in the quorum, but you couldn't vote. So that would mean that those remaining in the room would get to vote, right? Right. That does make sense. Yeah. It makes sense to me that because it's really, and we can ask him if he has any changes. It's just to accept the minutes. So can I have a motion to, um, accept the minutes of March 23rd as amended? So moved. Okay. And then I'll second that. I just can't make a motion. Um,
all in favor, since we're remote, I have to have a roll call vote. Jill. Yes. Marianne. Yes. And
Dave is out of the room. So I'm going to record this as motion passes. Two yes, zero noes, zero abstentions. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. And then, um, the minutes of June 24th, 2026, we've made one amendment. So can I have a motion to, uh, accept those minutes as amended? I move. Okay. Thank you. And I will second. And so I'll take a roll call vote. Jill. Yes. Marianne. Yes. And Dave out of the room. Okay. And we have a potential next meeting day and you know, uh, that's in the end of September. And, uh, as long as it works for Dave and Paul, that's fine. And if we needed to do it on the 24th, Jill, are you okay if we have to move it? Okay. Okay. I'd be okay to Kate. So if you can just check with them and see, uh, and that would be at four o'clock. Okay. There being no further business, may I have a motion to adjourn? It's 4 44 PM. And I so move. Okay. Thank you. And then if we can get any additional, how many, we still have a whole batch of policies. I'm sorry, Marianne, do you need to take a roll call vote to adjourn? You don't even need, you don't even need a vote to adjourn, but we usually take one. The whole town does it. I don't know why. So we can have a roll call vote to adjourn. Jill? Yes. Marianne, yes.
Does anyone have any questions or comments or input regarding this document? Yeah, I mean, I'm curious. What if somebody declines to enroll in this program?
You know, I'm not that's a really good question. I don't think we really thought that through. I'll have to take that back and think about it. But yeah, I mean, I wouldn't think it should be a big deal. But just in case, I would think you'd want to plan. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a good point. I think so. Part of this is that we all any of the positions that would be covered by this policy and required to sign this authorization there. It's a condition of employment for them to have and maintain a valid motor vehicle license. So if for whatever reason their license were to lapse, we wouldn't you know that there's an issue, you know, employment wise that we would need to address. So I don't know. It is a good point. I'll I would I'll certainly take that back and and think that through and maybe come back. Yeah. And I'm sure for any new hire, it would be easy that it would be a condition of employment. Agreed. Yeah. And it was it's even for department heads. So if they have to go from site to site in town, they have to register with this as well. I asked Kate if someone got a DWI within would that be reported to the town? So not necessarily. It would only be reported through a system like this. Like I said, we're kind of on the honor system. There's no way we would have known would know that currently unless someone were to come forward and divulge it, you know, to. So it's next year, say, if someone lost their license and hadn't told you, it would be notified, be notified of the system. And like I said, it's almost a 24 hour system. So they're, they're constantly updating it. Now, one of the limitations of the system is it only tracks Massachusetts driver's license. Okay. So if we have someone who lives in Rhode Island or New Hampshire, or something like that, and they have a Rhode Island license, they wouldn't, there's nothing we can do about that. But the vast majority of our employees do have Massachusetts licenses. So I think for me, is it a big, big expense or it doesn't cost because we're a municipality if there's no cost to the town. It's a fabulous program. And a lot of other municipalities are have already, it's only been around for maybe five years or so. So we're kind of late to the table, but I'm hoping we'll get this move forward. Part of the challenge is that I think we're going to have to work with some of our unions because it primarily impacts our teamsters. They're all, all of our teamsters positions require more vehicle licenses, um, our, our police fire, and then, uh, some of our AFSCME roles. So police and fire, they don't have a CDL though, right? Or no, unless they're driving the fire truck. If they have a fire truck, they have a fire truck? No, it's just fire. They do have to have a, uh, a class B, which is your standard password, but they don't have a CDL. Oh, that's a big truck. I could not drive. Yes. Same thing for the ambulance. Yeah, correct. Yeah, it's a little odd. Um, do you need a vote from us? Um, not right. I mean, eventually, uh, this is, like I said, it's still on draft and we're still, um, you know, we've presented this through all of our unions. So we're kind of working through that process. Uh, I was hoping for feedback. Uh, there's anything that you see that we may want to add. I think one piece of feedback we did get is what happens if we have someone enrolled in this and then we do get, uh, a notice saying that this individual's license has been suspended for whatever reason. Um, what do we do then? Is there a disciplinary process? So that's one of the pieces of feedback we've gotten. Um, Yeah. So it's going to say like what current state, like someone would share, this is what happened. And then you have a specific process from there, whereas Yeah. I And then have a conversation. Well, it, yeah, it really kind of depends on the circumstances and what happened. You know, for example, let's say there was a driving under the influence, a DUI. Um, it depends on whether it's first or second. It depends on whether you have a CDL or not. If you have a CDL, um, that's a whole, that's a completely different process because it's a federal, federally kind of, um, protect your man, um, uh, process. But, uh, on the state level, I mean, we would work with the employee, right? Um, they wouldn't be able to drive any town vehicles. Uh, I think in Massachusetts, if you, it's your first offense, they'll kind of give you what they call a, uh, I can't remember what it's called a special dispensation to continue to drive to from work until you go through a certain period of time and there's a court process and they usually don't, um, uh, take your license permanently on the first offense. So, uh, we would, we would work with the employee on that. What about the school bus drivers? Do we hire them or are they? No, they're contracted out. It's your first student. That's the name of the company's first student. And do they have such a system? I assume they do. Uh, I hope so. I, I don't, I don't really know. I, probably it's because they're all, um, CDL drivers, they're, um, commercial drivers. So it's a, it's a different level of, um,
licensure. So I, I imagine they do. Yeah. And as Jill mentioned, this would be great to have as part of the new hire packet, you know? Yeah. That's the goal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's the goal is to have this.
We don't make it efficient. I mean, I, I would think if somebody actually has a suspended license, that it would follow disciplinary procedures because it is, I mean, the policy says, uh, it applies to all town employees whose essential duties require driving while on duty. So if you don't have an active license, you can't perform your, your role. Yeah, correct. And I think, um, I mean, I can't give specifics, but, uh, in my experience, what we've, what we've done is worked with an individual. We, they were actually denote demoted to a position that did not require a license. They could continue to work. Their pay went down for a period of time. And then I think it was like a six or nine month period. Um, and then they were able to come back to us with a, here's my life. My license was reinstated and then we were able to move forward. So yeah, there, there could potentially be discipline involved. Yeah. Great. Okay. All right. So you want to wait until you get it completed before we vote on it or. Okay. Yeah. I mean, you can vote on it now or provide feedback. Uh, like I said, it's, uh, it's not in its final form because we're still working with our unions on this, but I think if it's not on its final form, we don't really need to vote on it yet. Right. No. Yeah. And particularly based on what your question was, Jill, what would we do if someone did lose their license? What would be part of the disciplinary process for it? It should be addressed in the policy or refuses to sign it. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yep. So I will, I guess I have one other piece of that is that, uh, for any of these positions that require a driver's license, we require as part of our background check, a driving history check. So we will, we will obtain a driving record history from, for that individual. They have to sign an authorization for us to do that to begin with for a candidate. So we're already, we'll already have that when they, when they sign on, it's just a matter of enrolling them in this, um, moving forward. Do you also do that? Like for department heads, like yourself, you have to have that. Yes. You do a driving check on yourself too. Okay. Well, I, I didn't whoever did my pre-employment did, but yes, we would do that. Yes. Okay. For every department head, even though it's just to go from location to location. Correct. Yeah. Right. Okay. Um, and the next thing we don't have anything in writing, but, uh, Kate did provide us with some things from other towns. Uh, Kate's been thinking for a while now that we need a, uh, work from home or remote work policy because there are people who do it, but the town has no policy for it. So she's been looking into that. Why don't you, um, tell us what you're thinking is we can tell you what we're seeing in the different sectors of which we work. All right. Yeah. So I think I wasn't here during the pandemic. I came in, in 2022. So it was afterwards, but there were there during the pandemic. Um, it's my understanding that many of our, at least our office workers, um, working in this building and some of the others did work from home a lot, not all of them, but quite a few of them. And so after that happened, after when people started coming back into the office, um, we've had sort of an informal understanding, um, where department heads sort of managed that amongst their staff, um, ensuring that there's always coverage in the office if they have a counter, like for example, or a treasure collect or something like that. Some of, some of those positions, those offices that, that have to be open during business hours. Um, so we'd really like to explore the option of having a more formal policy. I think one of the things that I struggle with, or I have been struggling with is that how do you do it in an equitable way? Since there are large portions of our workforce that can't work from home or public safety or, you know, DPW employees, some of our, our, um, you know, our inspectors, things like that. There, there just isn't an option. So, um, so we're, you know, we're still kind of exploring that. I think we have some, you know, documentation from the MMA, the Mass Municipal Association, um, sort of best practices. I've been pulling, um, similar types of policies from other towns. Um, and, uh, so, you know, we have like a, a very, very sort of big outline of a, of a policy at this point, but it's not quite ready. Michael wanted to, to sort of fine tune it a bit before we move forward. And then, but I, I'm happy for feedback, anything, what you're seeing out in the, in the workforce and the private sector and anything that we may, might be beneficial for us in crafting something moving forward. One of my questions is whether people routinely work from home or if it's when they're working on a project and they need quiet time. Um, because in the, in some of the organizations that I've worked with, they've had some issues with people working from home. And then when they ask people to come in on for a meeting, a mandatory meeting, the person will say, oh no, that's a day with my kids. Now my daughter works from home, but she has a daycare provider when her kids are at home. She doesn't try to do childcare and work at the same time. So how do you make that distinction? Um, I, you know, I don't, I don't think we've mapped that out yet. I think that's one of the things that we're still struggling with. Uh, you know, we want, so part of the, part of the challenges is that, you know, a lot of the workforce has since COVID has, has, you know, they're doing this right. A lot of private sector employers are just, are, are completely comfortable with work from home. Um, and so I honestly, I can't remember a time where I haven't had what I've had an interview with, you know, at least a sort of administrative type of function where, um, interviewee asks about work from home, um, because it's just, it's part of what the employment world now. And so it's, I think we're, we, we just haven't really figured that out yet for us and how, how to make it work. I, I mean, every work from home policy that I've ever worked on has had the, you know, you have to have a suitable workspace. Your workspace has to be free from distractions. You know, um, there is wording in there to say, you know, you're, this is work environment. It's not, you're not supposed to be taking care of your kids. And, um, so I think like any disciplinary procedure, Marianne, like if somebody were to say, oh, that's my day with the kids,
the answer is no, I'm sorry. It's a work day. And yeah. And I think the, the policies that I have seen, um, as well often, not always, but often have some sort of agreement where you, you map it out with your department net or your, your manager on what your, your set hours, like let's say you need to work from home every Friday or whatever, whatever it looks like. Um, and those are your times and you, and it, you actually sign an agreement saying, I'm going to like, as Jill had said, I'm going to be available during the hours and this hour, et cetera. And so the employees agreeing to it, signing an agreement to, to abide by those terms. And then there are some department heads who may not have assistance. Does everybody have an assistant? And what do you do in those situations? Uh, no, all of our department heads have assistance at this point. And then, but then the assistants may not be able to work from home. Right. And that's the, right. That's the channel of the people facing roles, the same thing in healthcare. It caused a lot of consternation in healthcare because the same as with our fire and road people, those people have to show up. So if you have every, a certain part of the workforce that does have to show up in order to do what they do for a living. And then some people get to work from home, then they can have some, there can be some problems. Yeah, I agree. I think there are also some monetary considerations, um, just in terms of like paid leave time. So for example, if I'm working from home to be there, you know, uh, sort of an intermittent, I have to be home for someone who's repairing my, you know, clients or something. Right. I can, I can work from home and be on my phone and, and be, um, uh, be there doing the work, but, uh, I don't have to use a personal day to do that, but our police and firefighters would have to use a, you know, a DPW. So what's the, how do you account for that? To make it equitable. Yeah. And so that's the thing that I'm struggling with. How do you make it equitable? I think that there's definitely that fine line and it's really hard to, um, like ascertain where that line is between the sometimes, well, but that's the function of your job is that the function of your job is that you're forward facing. So you have to be there at the desk to welcome, you know, members of the public, or you have to be ready to hop on the ambulance to answer, you know, um, I think that partially that is just the function of the job that you chose. And, and when, you know, again, it's, it's definitely that balance of also, if a senior manager has a bit more experience, has more, a bit more independence and kind of like self-drive to be able to accomplish things from home. And sometimes that is not as appropriate for kind of more junior employees. Um, I guess from my perspective, that's, uh, I don't know any clients of mine or anyone I've worked with like the last 10 years that require an office five days and all, uh, a week is something that didn't have an expectation. I think the things that stand out that you need to just recognize is kind of setting expectations of, you know, what days you're going to be working from home. Like, like for the, for example, I have a client that they have three days a week that everyone needs to be in the office and two days that they'll be hybrid. So it's like set expectations that everyone will be there. Everyone knows I need to be here for these meetings, unless there's a doctor's appointment or something comes up, but that way everyone can be prepared and know this is my commitment. Um, I would say that there's, I know of one that only requires that they require four days in office. Most have a hybrid of at least two days. Yeah. Something that just came up that I talked to somebody was interesting to me is that they had to sign a contract that they can't work remote for the first year, which I thought was a little aggressive, but it was, it's also kind of brings up the thought of, okay, maybe setting an expectation on the front end as to you getting acclimated to your role and saying, Hey, for the first, whether it's three months or six months, whatever it might be, we would want you to be in office full time. And so we feel like you're comfortable to have everything you need. Um, so something else just to think about, um, I would just also want it's going to help for job descriptions and help for being competitive, especially as you're sending, you know, other towns are doing much the same and having a hybrid policy. So not only are you losing people in the private sector, you're losing them in the public sector. And that makes a job more attractive to someone who may not have applied in the past to see that it's a hybrid opportunity. Yeah. And then when you talk about the rules that maybe don't qualify, you can also put that on the job description as to it's a full-time in office opportunity. So someone understands that on the front end, they probably would anyway. But I, I, I would say that I, like I said, I don't know of anyone that's five days a week in office and those that were, um, I've been with a company for five years and for 60 years before COVID, they were in office every day. There wasn't even the thought of being remote in the office. That's the way it is. And then when COVID came, even then they were like, we're going to fail, our whole company is going to fall apart because we're not in the office. And then coming out of that, out of COVID, there was then not just from an employee standpoint, but from the leadership standpoint, an understanding that it can be done. Everything that we thought had to be done in person and be done hybrid in some capacity. So I think, I think, and again, a lot of companies are starting to come back to the office, but not necessarily come back to the office five days a week, but those that were maybe fully remote are now transitioning to hybrid. And they can, again, even some of the work and the meetings can be done remote, but I think setting the expectation, not necessarily setting KPIs, but at least having something to say, just with your commitment, working remote, we want to keep you in that capacity again, but you need to make sure you meet these expectations or work quality, whatever I think. Yeah, I'm seeing some companies requiring people to come back full time, but that's the minority. I think most companies recognize that people have an expectation that they can work from home. Sometimes I've seen some go four days in the office and that making the teams each agree what day ahead of time they would take as their day. They don't all have to take the same day, but it has to be the same day each time. You can't be kind of lying. I would say it's a little bit different though, in government work, that there is more of an expectation that people are in office again, because you're serving the public. So there are a lot of front-facing roles that don't have the flexibility. I agree that a lot of the kind of private sector has gone more towards remote, but I know for us at EHS, I mean, during COVID, we still had probably 60% of our workforce was still in person because they had to be. The healthcare sector, the same thing. So it's, that's always been anything that's public facing as long as you, that has to be probably spelled out in, in the job, in each job description. Yeah. But that's why, like, oh, sorry. Just to emphasize with Kate a little bit, like it is a very hard balance. There are several roles that probably could be more hybrid, but it is very difficult when you are then also working with a population that can't be hybrid. Right. I was going to say, that's where the policy is so important though, because you can be transparent, whether it's the position and understanding the role and the requirements. It's everyone's on the same page. Everyone knows this role from the start is what the requirements are, you know, going in and those that are on staff are like, Hey, this is, I understand now, this is what I can do. This is what I can't do as opposed to now where it's a toss up. It's like, Hey, I'm going to kind of work Friday from home. And it's difficult because you don't have something that you have in your role or a division head role can say, Hey, this is what our policy is. This is why we go and I'm sorry if we can't. No, I agree with that. It is not. And we've gotten feedback from some employees who were like, well, it's not, can I work from home? Can I not? And so I mean, Michael has, you know, town managers kind of let department heads manage their departments as they needed, as long as there's coverage. But yeah, I mean, it's, it is, it's a challenge. Um, one of the other thing is that I did actually do a survey of other towns. I, it's not complete, but I've, uh, to, to see who has policies, who doesn't, whether they, uh, do it intentionally or not. And there are actually some quite a few towns that I found that don't have policies and it's an intentional choice because of this equity issue and how to manage. So that is also a choice is what I'm, but you, you sacrifice a little bit of your recruitment power and your, so, you know, it's a fine line. Like, how do you manage that? And how do they handle, like, if, if, uh, if there is no policy, when one person works in home more frequently than somebody else and, and maybe they're both, you know, they both could do it remotely. Uh, that's why having the policy would at least say, you know, gee, two days a week, perhaps, you know, in these jobs, but that would be the maximum, or you just, as, as Jill suggested, maybe because it's a municipality, you say no, unless you're working on a project where you really need the concentration and to be away from everybody. Um, you know, I don't, you know, it's not an easy thing to have to come up with. And I do hear, I've been working on this for at least a year. So it's not, this is, and we're still, we're still kind of, you know, debating how to make this work. So it's, it's, you know, but we, we do have, we have to move forward. We either have to make a decision that we're not going to do it or we're going to do it. And here's how we're, so like, and that is the goal, right? I'm on another nonprofit board and it's the same issue. It's been a year and a half that, um, there's been kind of this round and round discussion about remote work policies. And again, it's, it's very difficult when you have some population that can't, right. And some population that wants to, how, how do you make that fair? Yeah. It was some organizations when it, when during COVID, when there were people that definitely couldn't, they gave additional benefits or something to the people that couldn't work remotely just for the short, for the short term, but it can't be a long term. Yeah. That doesn't sustain the long term. It's hard with a union environment. You can't then give extra, you can't give incentive unless they're bargained in. Yeah. That's the other, you know, challenge here is that we do have, we have five collective bargaining units. I mean, it would primarily impact AFSCME, because, you know, Teamsters, they, again, our DPW employees, they can't really work from home. They can't. You know, our police and firefighters, they can't work from home. Our library, there might be some, some positions that you could, there could be some work from home, but for the most part, therefore we're facing. So yeah, it's, it's a challenge, but more to come. And I, I appreciate, I really do appreciate the conversation and the feedback. It's, it's helpful to talk about this. And this is, this policy is from Wellesley. Is that the one we have so far that you've been? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for sharing this MMA best practices. This is, that was interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Is that, is that in here too? Yeah. So the other, the other part of this, so I feel like there's remote work slash telework, but then there's also the flexible work, which is, is, I mean, it's there, you know, you can do both, but they're, in my opinion, they're separate issues. And so one thing that we do do here is that we, a lot of our department heads have to attend evening meetings, like for example, personnel board or select board, things like that. And so there, again, there's not really a formal policy, but there's this sort of unwritten policy where our, it's not really a policy, it's just operations where our department heads will somewhat, will flex, right? Like if they have to, to work from 8am until, I mean, 9, 9pm to go to a meeting, they may flex the next morning, almost in a, they're not eligible for comp time, but it's, might be something that we explore either adding to this or creating a separate policy and how to handle those situations. So that people know what the ground rules are. Yeah, exactly. That makes sense. Um, okay. Thank you for sharing that. The best practices are here. Oh yeah, here it is. I say, great. That's, that's helpful. Yeah. Um, the next agenda item are minutes. Now, Dave is out, so we have to wait to, um, vote on them, but, um, uh, we could go over, is there any personnel board members reports and concerns? We'll take that item out of, out of order. Anything, Jill, that you have? I do not have anything. Okay. We'll ask Dave when he comes back in. I have none. Um, and so we can take a look at the minutes that we have. Uh, the first meeting minutes were from Jill. Um, they were March, uh, 23rd. I know it. Correct. I think they're the last page in your packet. I added them after. Sorry. Oh, I've, I've been going over them. So I have a copy here if you want mine. Marianne, I basically, uh, pasted what you had emailed me that the questions you had asked. So, uh, oh, okay. It should be familiar reading. Yep. The only question I had Jill was, uh, I don't know, was Mary Ellen not present at that meeting? Was she absent? We probably need to. I, I would assume no, I, I definitely would have had her in there if she was present. Okay. All right. That's probably the only thing that I saw that we would need to, um, to review.
And then, um, I, if I may, um, I think that, oh, well, you did do some of those. I, I just, I'm noticing some, uh, um, abbreviations and COLA and things like that. I think for minutes, those need to be spelled out. Yeah. Even JLMC. Yeah. Well, she does say JLM, joint labor management. Oh, she does. Okay. It's just, that's just a little thing. Yeah. No, I think that's right. Cause people reading them don't necessarily know the, so COLA designated. Um, Kate, are, will you change that before you upload them or would you like me to do it? No, I, I, I'm happy to do that for you. We'll just hold the vote on that. And the next minutes were Dave's, uh, June 24th. He did them right away. Um, I, I think I neglected to tell him that they, we have to have separate ones for executive sessions. So, um, and do you have any questions on the minutes that, uh, that Dave took Jill? Uh, no. Okay. Um, I don't see a step. I don't see anything for executive. Right. We can't deal with them here. Oh, you cut them out, cut them out. Yeah. He didn't realize it had to be separate. Um, but what we do need to have is a motion to go into executive session, which is, he has, he had that in the separate minutes that would go back there, but I think he, um, he understood that. So, uh, and then we adjourned directly and we, uh, and I had said that we would adjourn directly from executive session for that meeting. The only other question I had was, uh, under announcements and public comment, should we have, there was no public comment as a standalone sentence all by itself? It sounded like there was no comment on the prior sentence. Sure. Okay. I just, now, did he send you the document? Yeah, I have. Great. Thank you. So, you'll take care of that one? Yep. I'm happy to make it. And then when he comes back and we'll vote on them. So, he said he would only be a couple of minutes, but we'll see how fast. Um, and then we have to set the next meeting date. Now there was only one day in August, so it makes sense to wait till after Labor Day, I think. Yeah. And what policies do we want to try to get now? I know you have vacation. Yeah, I do have a vacation at the end of August. Exciting. Um, probably later in September might be helpful. It would give me a little more time to work. The 23rd or the 24th, does that work? Worked for me. Yep. Either is fine for me.
But can we do Wednesdays? Those are usually a little bit easier. Sure. Okay. Okay. Um, so since, uh, uh, I think Paul's not here, I, I'm happy to, I'm happy to send out an email just to make sure that everyone can get that date and then we can reschedule. Okay. Oh, but we can actually vote on the minutes without Dave being here because all we need is a quorum of the people who make up the quorum to vote on the minutes, right? I don't know that. I don't know. That's all. If we voted to approve the minutes and he didn't vote, that's two out of three. So we can do that. If we want to just do it for efficiency's sake, we can ask him if he had any changes. But we can't, we can't even really officially say he abstains, can we? If he doesn't say he abstains. No. No. Yeah.
I know what happens when I go for a business call. I think it's going to be two seconds, but it's a long time. Uh, well, I think that's true because, uh, I remember that the town clerk told me, uh, Jill, when you hadn't gone and sworn in at the town clerk's office, that we could count you in the quorum, but you couldn't vote. So that would mean that those remaining in the room would get to vote, right? Right. That does make sense. Yeah. It makes sense to me that because it's really, and we can ask him if he has any changes. It's just to accept the minutes. So can I have a motion to, um, accept the minutes of March 23rd as amended? So moved. Okay. And then I'll second that. I just can't make a motion. Um,
all in favor, since we're remote, I have to have a roll call vote. Jill. Yes. Marianne. Yes. And
Dave is out of the room. So I'm going to record this as motion passes. Two yes, zero noes, zero abstentions. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. And then, um, the minutes of June 24th, 2026, we've made one amendment. So can I have a motion to, uh, accept those minutes as amended? I move. Okay. Thank you. And I will second. And so I'll take a roll call vote. Jill. Yes. Marianne. Yes. And Dave out of the room. Okay. And we have a potential next meeting day and you know, uh, that's in the end of September. And, uh, as long as it works for Dave and Paul, that's fine. And if we needed to do it on the 24th, Jill, are you okay if we have to move it? Okay. Okay. I'd be okay to Kate. So if you can just check with them and see, uh, and that would be at four o'clock. Okay. There being no further business, may I have a motion to adjourn? It's 4 44 PM. And I so move. Okay. Thank you. And then if we can get any additional, how many, we still have a whole batch of policies. I'm sorry, Marianne, do you need to take a roll call vote to adjourn? You don't even need, you don't even need a vote to adjourn, but we usually take one. The whole town does it. I don't know why. So we can have a roll call vote to adjourn. Jill? Yes. Marianne, yes.