of selectmen and vice chair to join us shortly but in the interest of time we have to go ahead and have our meeting the purpose of our meeting tonight is jim palmer's general management performance review here comes mark this meeting is a public open meeting and will be broadcast as usual the public can attend in person and we have people who are attending in person however public commentary will not be permitted as unanimously agreed by the light board in our last meeting phyllis and jessica preferred our prepared remarks for me thank you jessica  performance review period covers calendar two thousand and sixteen the meeting will proceed as follows the evaluation process to date has included a three hundred sixty degree feedback from direct reports m lab members of the municipal light advisory committee members that is so it's called minutes later two so we have time to complete our work here the review is prepared by like one members mark little and myself who are the only current members who were members during the calendar years two thousand and sixteen however select will be asking those questions of jim as well these items have been distributed to jim in advance of this meeting the light board members will present the finding of the three hundred sixty degree feedback as well as their review and comments just actually is going to summarize the three sixty review comments because we've already done that before and one meeting and perhaps i will ask town council to describe what's public and what's not public just so everybody understands because nina we're not only talking to the people in this room but it's being broadcast so we want to make sure that the public understands what we're doing the three sixty degree feedback was used as a tool to assist with both the preparation of the review again for two thousand and sixteen as well as goals for the upcoming year jim will be asked to make comments based on his review of the materials provided in i think within several hours of this meeting jim did provide us with a written response to the performance  reviews which he had received in in writing before from mark and i and then the three sixty as well so recommendations from light board members for goals in two thousand and seventeen may be offered at this time  im may offer his suggestion for goals the only action however the only action taken at tonight's meeting will be to finalize the performance review is generous and we're not making th the executive session we said that we were scheduling two meetings tonight for the performance review for two thousand and sixteen and to think about goals for two thousand and seventeen and also we agreed to im if that's what has to be if we decide to renew the contract and he agrees then we we've mutually agreed to another thirty days in in august so we would  discussed ok thank you so i'm going to ask you i'm going to ask just because just because you joined us and give the public a brief overview of the three sixty degree performance review behalf of town council ok so this is the three sixty review maybe you could tell the public where the research sure you are so typically a three sixty review is one that essentially rolls feedback from essentially subordinates up to the top it's a way to have others review you that normally you would have review usually it's typically your supervisors that would take you on so three sixty feedback allows that opportunity for others other than the supervisors to review an individual so this instance it was a little bit of a variance of a three sixty in that we did have some sworn at staff of mr palmer's review as part of the three sixty that we also had essentially colleagues which were elected and appointed officials and representatives as well so it's kind of a mix of those two groupings of people that participated in the three sixty process it is an anonymous process in terms of the forms coming in and don't have names attached to them so it's a good way for people to you know give their honest feedback knowing there potentially won't be any repercussions or anything to that effect it's intended to make people more comfortable and getting a three sixty feedback as you see from the information provided i gave you the summary of the three sixty in terms of where people scored mr palmer on the various categories which were self confidence people skills communication skills leadership skills and stress control there was about eight seven or eight bullet points under each of those main categories individuals rated mr i'll just go let me just jump in here and let people know that where you're booking out here is a  quantitative summary of what those three sixty reviews were in your mouth looking at the actual three sixty reviews themselves performance evaluations got into a sensitive area when it comes to public records most documents that the town handles are public records unless they fall within the exemption personnel records are such an exemption the actual three hundred sixty news and the notes and and actual written documents that were provided to you by the subordinates and coworkers are part of mr palmer personnel file and as such they're exempt from public records requests however your quantitative summary that the board is looking at at this point which is anonymized and and just has a number  totals for each of the various categories not considered exempt from the and i have reviewed that with mr palmer's counsel as well thank you for that nina in the end this reminds me in our last meeting there was a question about who the people were yes and filled out the  the peer of the board of us as you can thank you you're right you're right i stand corrected that's fine i think people know that anyway ok i'm pretty upset now i've made one mistake today it's not a mistake it's just detail essentially i read off every item in kind of where the general groupings were so i don't know if the bush of the board is for me to get a higher level summary at this point if you want me to when we do we did last time do you remember what we high and then the cumulative number of responses that were either below average very low and then not a clickable so again there was twelve copies of the three sixty provided we received eleven responses back which is a very good response rate for a review in a survey of this nature we're pleased with that result that eleven of the twelve responded and then going through this the other thing to keep in mind is not all respondents answered all the check boxes here some left them blank for whatever reason i don't know so the first category being self confidence the first item is shows initiative nine people rated mr palmer average or higher one person rated not a political poll is confident in decision making nine people rated mr palmer average or higher one person not a clickable demonstrates a positive attitude focuses on an i can do it way of thinking ten people rated him average or higher one person rated very low expresses self freely and appropriately seven people rated him average or higher three people rated him below average or lower demonstrates a poised confident demeanor nine people rated him above average or higher and one individual rated him very low demonstrates a willingness to take risks when appropriate nine people graded mr palmer average or higher eight people rated him below average or lower demonstrates insight into how his or her emotions and behaviors affect other people for people rated him average or higher seven people rated him below average or lower effectively resolves disagreements for people rated him average or higher and seven people rated him below average or lower expresses genuine interest in other people five people rated him average or higher and five people rated him below average lower or not a clickable contributes to an atmosphere of trust three people rated him above average or higher and eight people rated him below average or lower builds others confidence and self esteem six people rated an average or higher and for people rated him below average or lower shows respect for other people's opinions and ideas for people rated ten average or higher seven people rated him below average or lower moving to the third category of communication skills listens for understanding eight people rated him average or higher three people rated him very low or low expresses information clearly and concisely eight people rated him average or higher three people rated him below average or lower demonstrates positive body language and voice tone seven people rated him average or higher four people ra him below average or lower persuasively compare his point of view six people rated him above average or higher for people rated him below average or lower seek suggestions an input from the total team five people rated him average or higher five people rated him below average or lower or not a political bull effectively prepares and delivers presentations eight people rated him average or higher three people rated him below average or lower effectively thinks on his feet eight people rated him average or higher two people rated him below average or very low next categories leadership skills used team effectiveness over personal advantage five people rated him average or higher six people rated him below average or lower not a political analyst others to be very minimal five people rated him average or higher six people rated him below average or lower coaches others to higher levels of performance five people rated him average or higher for people one person rated very low and for people rated not a  encourages in empowers others four people rated him average or higher and five people rated him below average or lower or not a political helps others you change is an opportunity for growth for people rated him average or hi works towards win win outcomes five people rated him average or higher five people rated him below average or lower are not a political values and acknowledges the contributions of others five people rated him high average or higher and five people rated him below average or lower or not a clickable follows through on his word for people rated him average or higher and five people rated him below average or lower or not  is approachable one under pressure six people rated him average or higher and four people rated him below average or lower or not a clickable takes action to resolve stressful situations five people rated him average or higher and five people rated him below average or lower or not a clickable controls anger in difficult situations for people rated him average or higher and six people rated him below average or lower or not a political responds appropriately to criticism for people rated him average or higher six people rated him below average or lower not a clickable maintains work life balance six people know nothing with even though that doesn't make a difference to the stipulation you know could be an e mail but this summary is a public document which can be obtained how they can request it through my offices and it can know i think for me this was revealing in the sense that you know we did have two groups and i think just from your standpoint there were there were two is it fair to call them trends yes so that both groups if we can say that because we don't know who reported what to whom because it's anonymous both groups think the gym has above average or very high self in again we don't know who filled out which form but we can we can conclude that that's something that we need to talk about the people's bills so mark what we're going to do now is you're going to go over your performance review ok and i should mention for the public this form jessica where did we get this form from that came i believe through our e p provider as a sample  three sixty right ok so the one we're using now however is a performance document that we use for the two thousand and fifteen performance document which is which is different right i believe so mark i'm going to invite you to go over your performance review then i'm going to go over my performance review and feuded by committee as well well first before we do that but i don't know  of the facilities of judgment as you know fully satisfactory to good i mean that's how we treat you get the job done to me the issue has always been keen to be your your relationship with your town departments and community relations as well it's always been a concern of conde apartments in another town of fifty four also don't believe the times to me are as fully transparent with us as you need to be you know informs us when we ask and then only at a minimal level that's my point of view it's always been my concern ok so now i'm going to read my performance review of jim and jim has had a copy of this and we did this before in january ninth for two thousand and fifteen and now this is for two thousand sixteen so leadership and management qualities overall i think jim does a great job at that i rated his self starter functionality as good he operates with a high degree of energy and drive i should also mention that i've been in the back coordinator for the board for the last two years i stepped aside this year so adam could learn the the light to partment this is better i'm more enthusiastic you're sorry jim you're reading my functions as a self starter and setting high personal standards i find him to be outstanding in that regard function as a defect member of the work group gaining respect and cooperation of others for me it's a tale of two cities i rate him as outstanding with regard to operations and then with regard to the town as a member of town management needs improvement in the i think this is a consistent theme that we're going to see election for providing effective leadership and direction to the staff i rated jim outstanding and he does have the support of the light apartment staff we've received a memo to that effect maintains a work style which is open to constructive suggestions here in this case i have a tale of two cities again outstanding as general manager of the light department but needs improvement as a member of telling me with regard to evaluate programs in practice is policies and procedures and personnel effectively one of my first questions of jim when i came on the board was does he have a job descriptions and the answer is yes how many positions all of them do you have policies and procedures for all of your your employees and the answer is yes so jim runs a tight ship that way with regard to establish is clear vision and direction for organization again tale of two cities outstanding for the light department and needs improvement as a member of town management monitors current budget in operational data to it sure continued success of the organization same here outstanding at the light department level and needs improvement with regard to him as a member of town management judgment obviously jim judgment is good with regard to  as an overall assessment the biggest risk that i saw when i came on the board was completing the substation they still think as far as i know that's the largest project the town ever in gauge and you brought that in under budget i don't think it came in twenty seven million and you don't under budget i think you king and we will formally but that's still substantial and it's about twelve percent under budget so good job on that but again i see that as needing improvement as a member of telling management again make sound and timely decisions outstanding and each and prudent for the same reasons handles problems professionally outstanding in meeting treatment for the same reasons challenges motivates and evaluates rewards employees and managers toward the achievement of goals and objectives i think that's clear you can talk to anybody on the staff and that's the way he's viewed with regard to knowledge and skills great jim so thorough knowledge and understanding of operations as outstanding you were the chief operating officer for four years before you became general and i was the director of office for four years before you became gentlemen that is proven in steward of physical and financial outstanding intice a page trends in opportunities affecting organizational operation in develops an appropriate and timely response in this case i rated him outstanding at the light department level but needs improvement as a member of telling management we can talk about that if you do your response with regard to community relations is an effective liaison between the municipal light board town department in belmont light i rated that is and satisfactory it's something we're going to have to deal with fully satisfactory because they see that it's kind of a mixed bag but i still think overall just for the town and for the light department that it's fully satisfactory now with regard to new goals which is something that we're going to discuss the goal number one for me is that there needs to be an improvement of communication between the municipal light board the municipal light advisory committee in the town departments that's number one so we need to understand how we're going to do this and develop a plan goal number two is a report on the rate base analysis major projects expected date for accomplishing this going how is it going to be accomplished and milestones and that's where i stop just on those on those three goals and with regard to the projects i'm referring to the substation and i'm referring to the upgraded just a few chanst from those of the projects i'm talking about so that completes my review which i think is positive on the one hand at the white partner level are standing with regard to building out the substation project but we definitely have a problem with communications between the light board the town departments and yourself office i was just clarifying that mr palmer is welcome to read his statement if you would like or make any other comments in response to what you've heard here this evening you're not limited to just reading your statement ok good thank you right so i guess i'll start out by thanking thanking the board for you know their consideration on the on the on the taking the time to fill out the review that was nice of you thank you so i guess i could i can read off the statement wasn't prepared to do that but i might make sense based on what i've heard today so i'll start with with with the the memo so two thousand sixteen was a was a year full of challenges and accomplishments with the organizational improvements multimillion dollar one fifteen k v transmission and substation project in its final stages of construction a new enterprise resource planning system into implementation the rollout of a ten year capital master plan the completion of the smart meter project the launch of several community supported demand side management programs and i have attached the two thousand and sixteen annual report that's in the in the town meeting  january two thousand and seventeen both board members acknowledge all of the major accomplishments of delmon life general manager but have expressed concerns with the journal mentioned relationship with top government officials employees and i agree that my relationship with our government officials employees has been more challenging over the past several years generally since the april two thousand and fourteen selectman selection to a large extent disputes concerning the authority of the light plant manager to make hiring and other personnel employment decisions prior to that time i had dealt primarily with the municipal light advisory board or am lab and lab was formed in two thousand  dissolved by the p o s in two thousand and fifteen i think the reason the structure worked well was because i was able to interact with the members of m lam on like deposit matters without them being distracted by all the issues that board of selectmen under the under stand of lea had to deal with them i have also create a vehicle to help me deal with other town apartments this all changed when emma was dissolved in two thousand and fifteen this essentially left me to deal with the town departments with all the support and advice from the m lab and unfortunately  coincided with the most intense period of the development of the transmission line and substation project in a number of areas i felt that several other town apartments were inhibiting my ability to continue to implement the li department strategic plan and manage the substation project without the m lab i believe the like the problem was not able to get the full attention of the board of selectmen due to its other numerous municipal obligations all the information the b o s was receiving was coming from other town departments which information i believe was not entirely accurate i think my frustration with the scenario resulted from the deterioration of communication with intent to flushing out the root cause for the strained relationship with top government officials employees thank you jim to me results of the three sixty feedback review were not unexpected even though the reviews were anonymous i believe my direct reports gave me very favorable reviews and members of other town departments gave negative reviews to be frank i was shocked at the degree of virtual in the negative reviews  i think there may be two solutions to the current state of affairs first madison there's been a long history of relationship problems dating back to two thousand and five between past and present general manages a belmont light in town government officials employees under independent governance the relationship between the general manager in town government officials employees will improve i believe the general manager can function more effectively with a permanent like commission to assist in developing an overseeing like partner strategic plan the structured commission should have written guidelines to ensure that the board members have a comprehensive understanding of the board's roles and responsibilities the guidelines should also contain information related to light departments and the board's purpose and structure including mission vision statements tonight the board members thinking the second suggestion i have to change the current relationship between the light department and other town departments is more of a personal level as i mentioned earlier reading some of those three sixty reviews was quite a shock i think it's time for all of us take a step back and rethink the situation we should put aside our personal acrimony and listen to the other person before reacting think a little bit before firing off gut reaction email usual objective should be for the betterment of the town and its residents and i'm willing to go more than half way to reach out to town town department officials to address their concerns and work toward  lly respectful productive and effective interpersonal relationships benefit both like plan and the time just want to make sure i had something that articulated my point for the  no i'm not going to do that tell me what time it is that it's seven o'clock  i don't disagree on the governance issue and i'm not certain that was i know that things seem to have taken the guide sideways since two thousand and fourteen when a you took office but you were around back then you know what i'm talking about tweet and so you you had witnessed it so that was in can be in complete turmoil and at that point in time when i stepped in and i met with  various folks on the boards you know i had seven folks that i know i ten people who i reported to when i took over the operation and i sat down and i built i built the trust with  and all ten and i built a trusting relationship with the town officials that was shattered there was this was going on back and two thousand and ten if you remember and i had to rebuild the trusting relationships with external parties like like ever source of stuff to bring this project back online so one of the main things that i pride myself on is people skills that i get poor marks on but that's that's not the story i do don't agree with the way the three sixty review was done but that's my preference i reprieve built these trusting relationships everything worked pretty well because i followed the guidelines that i was given which was report em lab reports like one and i followed that those guidelines with be on the standing that the government structure review committee right was working on  they were studying the town government and they were going to make a recommendation that was leaning towards a separate like commission that was going to be presented in april of two thousand and thirteen that got stopped in two thousand and twelve two thousand and thirteen december bonded money for the substation project if they want to hold off on this until a project is done all the projects done but i guess the point i'm trying to get out is past and present and in two thousand and fourteen we lost a very experienced individual rob jones of step down he understood light and he he was working with and lab and to create the strategic plan i was working on he knew exactly what we were doing and have a confrontation with maybe this is typical with a misfire like part of i don't know you can manage to have a confrontation with all of them and not work with them we have serious concerns about the work that you did you could work on the  on the transmission project but that at the eleventh hour you know as we were executed documents whatever source it was a misstep as a relates to the taxing of language around taxing all of that property you can share that information with the board of assessors they had comments on it and credit to see that that at the time sat on this board you know found that issue we had to go back and revise it so i think your collaboration skills for at least since that point in time have really diminished you need to one learn to work with we need someone in this role reminded that right now for some reason i don't know why you find your challenge and difficult to collaborate well i do collaborate with the town department as one example is the the pieces in that we just completed we've been working with the town collaboratively since two thousand if i ask if i'm working with two parties and i ask party a do you have a problem with party b and they say yeah i've got a real problem with them because that person is defensive he's hard to get along with there she's hard to get along with i find it very difficult to work with that party and then i and then you if you ask party be a party piece of well no there's no problem but that's not the solution because party a definitely has a problem and if we were dealing let's say with one person you know who is in this position these are the you would come back to talking about you know i might be willing because i've done this before to suggest that the board consider a facilitator you know somebody to sit with the two of you and to figure out you know how to resolve whatever the conflict is whether you thought there was a conflict or not because the other party thinks there is a conflict in and just you know he said he said or he said she said it's not going to settle it but in this case mark was right and he's correct in his his perception there there's a problem with virtually every town department these are the now i would prefer to think of it as a communication issue if you don't mind i think that's the best way to think about it and so the question for me becomes how to how does it get resolved because if it's with one person that's one thing but if it's with seven or eight people and that's a different that's a different discussion and it's something that's going to require change on everybody's part but it will also require most certainly change on your part you're going to have to somehow figure out a way to do this more successful i don't it could this really becomes you know the other thing is i've only been on the board mistake what we did was we changed the name that's right from the advisory board for the committee we didn't like we didn't to roll in because we had we had an individual who had been on the board for ten years and was the chairman of like board and you know was preventing residential solar from coming into existence so we decided that we would reduce the optics of there there the advisory board from a board you know to a committee right and if you think about that and you understand the town we have a recreation commission we have we have a c p a committee we have a variety of committees that address different issues and what they do is they deal with the public and they deal with the departments and then the committees come to us and make recommendations right if that's how it works so you have you have a committee that's in place in i 've never in the last you know since we know made that change as far as i know you and i've never had a conversation about the fact that that committee wasn't functioning i've never had that conversation i didn't know that that was a two thousand and fifteen when the board met and changed the name to hell back ok and at that point in time that war didn't meet it didn't meet again it didn't meet for a very long time because the folks that were on it were upset about the way they were treated and they didn't get together and meet so the board did not get together for quite a long time and then when they finally got together and the directive that i was given that all they were going to do was the environmental programs or came to the operations a light department it was strictly my relationship with the board and those are in the meeting which was that was arctic over fifteen  putting a lot of weight behind has never been performed by this town ever before this is the very first time as well make sure the public knows that mean i think now it's time for you know we wanted you know you take your time we're going to finish this conversation i'm not concerned about the start of the board's thank you mr chairman time on this for the public i mean this is the twenty sixteen review that we do every year and it's always retrospective to the prior year but because we're talking about a contract which would could be multiple years i think that you have to look at more than just two thousand and sixteen we're talking about the contract but we're not talking contract and i understand that so i guess i had a bunch of questions about some things that happened in the last six seven months or so one of them which has been in the press a lot in europe you're quite aware  overly simplified but on the grounds that d p doesn't have the right to regulate immunities correct so and i understand that but that never went through the life or through us and as a policy matter i felt like that it should i mean in fact honestly i don't believe we were told about it it won't happen in february of two thousand and seventeen until we find out about it found out about it maybe a few months ago from outside sources months after it happened i start to wonder if that had been given to us if we ever would have known it one signed off and made it possible had it been brought to us we would have agreed to your conclusion i don't know we never had the conversation and it seemed a bit outside of your purview to be making those sort of policy decisions and binding the town on things when we have a climate action plan which requires us to which the town overwhelmingly approved to reduce our reduce our carbon emissions by eighty percent by two thousand and fifty two then be signing off on something which looks opposite to that and then i'd also notice that you did send out a memo someone wrote a letter to the editor to that effect obviously nothing to do with us it was someone wrote a letter to the editors people can do and then you sent a memo to defending that which was dated the date we had the power outage which i would say probably wasn't the day to maybe issue that that memo optics wise the there are other issues with regard to the assess more than one meaning that it was that it was being held up by your department the assessors weren't getting the the documents from ation that they needed we also had and i'm on the permanent advisory permanent audit committee rather and we had the meeting over into the late department not that long ago to go over the audit the auditors were there and they were there and i was there and the auditors were complaining about how they did not get what they were looking for and they issued this internal control report we're going to be discussing more tomorrow but intro control report talk about significant deficiencies that during the audit depart depart out of process but the auditors that experience significant delays obtaining requested audit documentation but not light did not have the necessary information from the town to complete several months a month they counting procedure resulting the department being unprepared for scheduled audit field work and it seemed that the permanent audit committee meeting there was some back and forth between the town of the light department is pointing fingers as to what happened so i mean it's seemed to me that sort of an internal control problem i understand that there is a that there is a defense of the defensible position that your department has as to why the information wasn't provided but it just like that was yet another very i think open example of what mark and jim been talking about about not getting along with other groups in town where even if you're right it doesn't have to be you know head to head combat like that  and i know that looking at prior because obviously i wasn't on this board but it's not like i haven't been involved in town affairs the work committing other things and i watched the net metering dispute that happened certainly i'm well aware that the collaboration with the rest of the town departments has been something that's been sort of an ongoing issue and that it came up even recently and i won't go into the details about it had to do with an executive session we had with h r and all about the like to part like department coming in with the town on some small matter or a few months ago and you didn't want to do that and again it's a question like martin said it's not a matter of like we need a memo no one with the powers are just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to do something and we've had issues with department heads in the past where i think over the years where people have had this sort of you know fife don't silo attitude is not gone is not gone well and i think that's sort of where we are right now  the other the other issue had to do with the amount of clean energy percentage that belmont has like sort of because i'd asked you at the permit audit committee you know basically what's our percentage of the comes from renewables you know more in that in that correction and i went back and i took a look and i think you told me to go take a look at the at the website and i looked at the website for the belmont light under portfolio the page is blank yet it was blank today when i find when there was anything with any content on it at all it was january sixth two thousand and sixteen which is over a year and a half ago that there was anything that stated what our breakdown of renewable energy is since then since we've been in this process provided this to us which showed shows the breakdown on various years but then when i go back and i look at prior years archived websites from the light department i mean i did numbers don't match so i guess going back to two thousand and twelve twenty fourteen twenty fifteen and i was able to find off of archive websites and then looking at the the d p document that you provided that you signed onto it talks about the goals for two thousand and twenty one for the various towns to have carbon free generation and it shows belmont in two thousand and twenty one getting to fourteen point six percent which is and then but however going back on the old websites and looking at the chart you provided here were like twenty fifteen is fourteen percent twenty sixteen is sixteen percent if that's the case how can two thousand and twenty one's goal be less than that so i guess i'm just sort of confused by some of this some of it may be substantive some of it may not be substantive but it's a matter of communication as markets suggested certainly the public wants to know what i think are renewable energy but it is i think that's not an unreasonable thing to request no i i think you know i kind of respond now or not but i want you to yes you know ok so i guess first and we would have appreciated ok as the belmont light board and i don't i really don't care what any other town did i'm not interested very much and so you might but feather's story but in the other time on camera i don't care what other because jim it causes trouble in the community and that's that's what we're talking about in terms of communication these kind of things can be handled if they're handled in an open communication environment with transparency but they can't be handled if you think that you need to take something on your desk on your own in other businesses people in banking they like to prove amendments to loan deals on their own i always said no and they said oh you don't trust me so we'll no we don't trust you we want to help you why would you want to stand alone on this and it seems to me that this is the kind of thing that causes trouble in your world with other with other departments and with us you know there's no reason to take that on your desk you know if you  you're doing something and you think gee the board might want to know about this in advance if you can get it right that's that i fully appreciate your point of view right and i agree ok that could have been handled a lot differently and like i said to steve kornacki at the l back meeting ok when was there an opportunity for me to meet with the board and talk about regular business that's part of the governance problem jim ok our government's problem has led to the fact that we don't need to have five put together over the past two three years at least schedules so that we can meet periodically to go over regular business right we haven't followed through on that do you seventeen years ok we meet with him every year on this but ok we asked him last year t j gee chief what is it that changed over the last seventeen years and he said you pointed at the fort it's us right you know we got elected sometimes people when sometimes people lose right so if you're if you're the police chief or if you're the fire chief you have to deal with that ambiguity at because nobody's going to hand it to you that's part of the you part of the job when your general manager the world is uncertain you know suit it's something and that's where this judgment question comes in and it's not it's not so much a complaint as it is a request for improvement you see my point you know in other words if you're the police chief or the fire chief and the board of selectmen is changing every every year basically or every two years you have to figure out a way to manage that so that if the anything goes wrong it's not blamed on you it's you know it you know in fact you're have to look for solutions and creating problems right so that's what i want to talk to you about i want to talk to you about how we're going to move forward on this because we cannot continue the way we're working you know we can't have the tension in the town i don't agree with you about the governance side of it because i wasn't chairman marc was chairman sam he was chairman i'm chairman now you have my phone number you have my e mail you you can e mail me and phone me whenever you whenever you want the light board committee has talked to us on numerous occasions about how to work with you we've talked with you about how to work with others and there was a recent light board many committee meeting where they the minutes are coming out they have been approved by the committee but they ask you i believe and correct me if you don't think this is view how can we work with you better and i think what did you respond to them when when they said that you know i don't remember ok their take away was that that because they didn't have the correct charter that you couldn't work with them and as i said the minutes haven't been approved yet i don't think it was it wasn't but it's there's nothing wrong with the governance that we have the board  is the board of selectmen the light board committee is the like board committee there are a point and it is true that we're we're looking into we have a committee that we've formed now through town meeting to look at increasing the number of  thank you so the point is we're trying to do to improve the governance at the board of selectmen level by increasing expanding the board of selectmen your comments to say that there's a governance problem for the light board and you point out your history that you know in two thousand and five whenever it was or two thousand they were going to appoint a commission then they decide they couldn't because of the project so all of that's ok with me as a new board member because i know these things are in big us you know but that doesn't mean that you you you shut the rest of the world off and do what you do you still have to work with everybody else when we walk out here tonight just we're still going to have a white board and we're still going to have a light board advisory committee which is in place in and working and we'll get those minutes to you so that you can understand what your response is they they've had they have a charter they've asked us for twelve things that they want you to do and we want to include that in this dialogue going forward so we have in my performance review we have goals as long as i get the right performance review here number one is improve communication with a municipal light board that would be us into adam's point why not tell us ahead of time that you're going to send a letter out don't say a word please the meanness of a light advisory committee you know stephen all those people  no one in this town government is your replaceable because ralph's not there anymore so what work with the people who are in then in town department you need to repair your relationship with the people in th town departments both both mark and i said that this communication problem is unacceptable we cannot go forward with this in place so i'm going to ask you to consider what was said tonight and to give us a proposal on how you think these communications can be improved and i'm willing to work with you i'm willing to talk to you about it but it's something that you need to come to us with a proposal on how you think it can be done and then we will think about whether that makes sense or not that's not fair enough nina do you have anything to say and if you come back if introduce yourself first so i'm telling you now so i don't have to tell you when you come to the microphone cut on behalf of town counsel's office the only thing i would like to know what we have discussed in the country that on july thirty first at the deadline for this is monday next month because we need to we have to move this along we've already extended it once you know the circumstances and so you know there are other things going on to tell and we need we need to get this resolved but it has to be resolved in order for us to go forward so that is that six years i've been dedicated to the town the betterment of the town of belmont and i've helped the town of belmont save them millions of dollars in the process and i just think that you know  i've done a great job here and there may be some hard feelings with some folks in town i did i will accept my responsibility as part of that but i'm only one half of the conversation and like i said i can't do it unless other people want to work with me ok we'll