wait for you good evening everybody welcome to the fourth was like meeting for november twenty sixth two thousand and thirteen for fox boys comedians sign up at six fifteen tonight the bourse selecting going to exactly session to discuss licensing matters seven fifteen will go back into executive session cost ability on the exact same thing executive session to discuss strategy regarding litigation matter a b c see appeals team alcohol wise as a matter present the issues that we have surrounding the splitsville how with the moon licensing process in the hopes that the board of selectmen will reconsider their position given the information that will be presented in the overwhelming support that has been shown to us throughout this process we ask on behalf of all of the petitioners that this board of selectmen reconsider their vote based soley on the original liquor license request submitted if i may i'll have the people who wish to speak  made with the craft organization over the creation of pitcher place ideal the town voted for to accept overwhelming pride a patriot place the town voted to change as owning bio's on the stretch of route one to allow the creation such a destination development it was in the sessions law acts of one nine hundred ninety nine chapter sixteen when we became a state economic development area along with the designation that came certain responsibilities one of those responsibilities was to allow growth such as patriot place to help support the investment we accepted this by a town meeting votes in one thousand nine hundred nine and two thousand six hundred places it's exceeded forecasted revenues by fifty percent in police calls twenty five percent lower than forecast it clearly the public safety issue isn't as bad as being a trade there was always room for point improvement but just because we might be having issues with one or two places that does not mean we st building the mom she fully airy and paper place officials have worked out a great policeman every plan to handle any additional issue splits bills would bring that is why it is so surprising to hear three of you say public safety as your reason for denying the liquor license it does not make sense it is more likely that some of you might be hiding behind a public safety stance as a way to leverage additional monies out of the craft organization and put your place i fully support the b o s debating the issue of vishal mitigation from p place but let's do it at an open meeting with factual be the focus and proceed from there we can have one or two rogues like men trying to impose their agenda without the backing of the entire board this is just bad business in that sense an awful president that will forever mention anybody individually to talk to us as a board please don't single out any board members with an opinion ok ok some think that having such a large amount of liquor licenses in one area is a bad thing but the opposite is just as plausible having all these venues together make it easier for the paid police details to oversee in any problems in the bud the b o s may have acted a little prematurely with three of its members citing public safety as the reason for the denial especially after hearing no issues from the chief who visited the venues before you turn away one hundred thousand dollars in annual revenue and up to one hundred twenty five jobs the very least you could have done was to visit the how of the moon in person our chief did and he's on record as saying that he thinks it would fit right in up there some are concerned about the additional seven hundred people at the patriot place but that is still far fewer than the thousand plus that showcase used to showcase live used to draw and they have scaled back their operation drastically all five of you are in record supporting splitsvill focusing on trying to change it they are the ones making the four and a half million dollar investment i'm sure splitsville did all kinds of research as to why they felt they needed the additional draw of a place like the moon it's their money let's tell them how to spend it but just wish him good luck and community are being caught up in the politics as existing between the town and the owners and developers of picture a place we would like to see that have the application which includes splitsville and how the moon received support manage the public safety in this town at the high level that is in the wrong place that this would work and we have seen little evidence that would contradict that opinion we ask you to show your face and your public safety officials and you constituents and considering brad this license it would improve the quality of life in foxborough contribute to our long term financial security and start to rehabilitate the antibusiness reputation our town has been unfairly again thank you very much thank you was i have say that i discussed this with my my daughter and she was just that kind of couple dies but she's just out of college she loves her out of the norm but she laughed at the thought that it could possibly insistence part of a bowling alley because that's just hundred sixteen year old son driving down the road where those people are all coming out of these places the other thing i want to say is i went to the meeting i went to the meeting back with them with the license and course drafted i voted for the twelve liquor license but  i count it now i think it's a simple natural arithmetic there are certain number of drinking establishments up there now if this is granted there were two more and right now there's more t v not the twelve we voted on they have really two distinct businesses in it both using the same liquor license to run two different bars what's to stop them from taking one of the other blocks down there any maybe there is a way to  walls between a building and putting in multiple multiple multiple multiple buyers all governed by the same corporate entity which is the technical license holder we could end up with way beyond what we thought we were getting when you the reputation or put their liquor license in jeopardy this unique concept will bring successful business business partners together if i were going to make a four point five million dollars business investment i want to surround myself with th would also want to have a great relationship with the community i was entering kind of that relationship involves being compliant with a lot of stipulations put upon them regard to alcohol service this restaurant lounge in bowling concept i profit in beverage sales hence the need for a liquor license or to to meet the business work and given the numbers we were told and i'm the first couple of meetings with splitsville being a seventy five percent of the which i know is very scary numbers because they're very lopsided but when you combine these two business sales trends and what you will end up with is actually a sixty percent true cost in a forty percent alcohol i'm sorry percent and forty percent alcohol so it is business together isn't that much of a difference people wise maybe different but what they are i know that seventy five percent was a was a born in your side why didn't want that come here that number will dramatically sales number so it is to the government's best interest to raise your food sales because that will bring your insurance down and i think it is our in our bylaws i would like a law that all the employees have to be served safe sat or been trained properly which also brings the a liability insurance down too so these are things that the business will want to comply with because it brings their costs down so when i also feel that it's not the board's decision as to what  make you feel more comfortable about living a place like  i would like to differentiate between entertainment as a family structure and drinking and i would like to see that separate and maybe to a certain extent you can have some food and perhaps some drinking but i creation i'm trying to understand that but people also have to understand that as a community we're going to have differing opinions about certain issues from time to time issues that we may feel very strongly about in the recent past we've got a very soon after some of john gray the majority of people in our town came forward and voted for these folks because they shared with them the same vision of our community and what its value should be we knew that we could count on them to for the sensible way to protect the sa believe that this election we're elected to have and have acted a full measure of careful consideration of this matter and a majority decided that the how the moon franchise is not an appropriate venue for our community and i don't agree with them that being upset some people which is a shame but the safety of our community is the first responsibility of our selection and i think that they have met that responsibility with intelligence and with courage you know some pretty disrespectful things and have written concerning this issue and i think that's a shame so harshly about it what i want to say to this i happen to think that all of our selectmen really good people we all have a right to disagree with them if we choose but we should do so respectfully and not of the  here lucky to have such a large amount of nonprofit groups in town that volunteer their time and talent and these groups depend on businesses to support them and monetary only as well as any kind donations of their services splitsvill night just like to say that i think when the board made its vote two weeks ago there was a lot of a lot of concern about how to move and to be honest with you i don't think the you guys really did your homework about how to move because i really delved into how the moon and if you took over the moon out of the equation you're still going to get the same building y'all said you love splitsville but you get to get the same thing the only difference is going to be the entertainers are going to be as nice i mean this is there is no other difference unless you can tell me what the differences because i did two weeks worth of research on this and i came up with no difference at all thank you the board like  if i can make a suggestion i know if i regret this is going in and it's not confidential i mean there's been an appeal from the craft organization so we're going down the path  of trying to sort this out and can take anywhere from a date who knows it is going to be an outcome it's going to be a long process if i can suggest we take two weeks marc and john meet with representatives of splitsville a craft organization maybe the application they can do something a little different something a little nicer something a little less some clarification on you know and  kampen ian i was surprised when she said that there was going to be a time when kids weren't allowed in there and mr coburn is saying something different so i took the time i did go to howl at the moon i spent a few hours there on a  saturday night or friday night there are misconceptions has been a lot of stuff in the paper but if we can take two weeks if we want to call it a two week where we consider reconsidering and then come back on december tenth we've had it that we would have a little more time to go through some of the stuff in if something can change in the application and oh there's a lot of stuff that was brought up about different size drinks and if there was some consideration of concessions that you and john could work out and bring back in two weeks and then i think would be in a little bit better place obviously when you've got a petition with a great amount of people signing it there's a mindset out there maybe we missed it maybe we didn't in fairness to the vote against it there is a lot of people that have come back to me that i think they're a little quieter they're not blogging but there are people that think the decision that the board made was a good decision so i think there are people on both sides but i think two weeks to get a little more information and then take a second look at it i think would do a lot of good not just for the board but for the town and on both sides and you know neither one of us are going away the craft organization in the bars in the restaurants in future development first the board and you know this is one thing that we're doing and we've got twelve other things before and after this agenda it would make it a little bit easier i think for two weeks of a reprieve and working together and then come back in the summer ten licenses for restaurants it seems that this board is consistent with last year's board it's you know again it's the concern that we're operating in a nightclub and that the focus is on alcohol you know it is takes me back a little bit when you have to sit up here and watch your fellow board members get slammed i don't blog i don't read the blogs i know we take the hits for situations  people don't agree with and nobody's taken more and it's not given me any place to sit up here in washington buddy get physically not physically assault poss will i understand the emotions get up and it gets frustrating but you know what it's pretty frustrated and there's a lot more things on the agenda than just one issue i had a good time i enjoyed myself i got out of the house and i felt like the older age fifty fifty year old padi but if i can say i went with mark and it was like picking the cable guy i was embarrassed ville representatives for the purpose of a better understanding in the purpose of some give and take concessions on both sides and come back to us on december tenth with a recommendation either to reconsider and not study any longer i know that the king philip towns that participated in that initial meeting did it together on their own and started their study to develop a unified communications center for the well for write them in plainville at some later time in two thousand and eleven they also had the town of franklin join with them so knowing that this was taking jason to us we did together with three towns that had shown interest at the meeting and i was able to secure for the community a grant to allow a feasibility the community the study took place with an initial meeting in december of two thousand and twelve it was concluded late june two thousand and thirteen some of the key factors that the study as well as a business plan for the operation of the rock the critical idea where blended agencies is not necessarily a savings of money but in the hands of service to the communities in our area although many of the communities would see an increase in the costs of operation in foxholes the one community that would have a slight reduction in our of the major issues i think one of the things that was surprising as a result of the study that our total calls to our dispatch center more mirrors nor would in terms of the volume of calls that we can handle i guess are one different speed are emergency calls account for fifty four percent where the daughter emergency calls forty six percent of the call volume  the study or the full study went into some detail about issues such as training as well as human resources and some of the key fi one location that was identified in the study would be behind our own public safety building the rock would have to approach the community to see if we had would be made available adjacent to the parking lot that's been built behind the auditorium again because of the cost the higher the consultant stated that it might not be feasible t read to the record at this time and also legislation that they'd held off the issue with the study because they had dissipated certain legislation that would allow rocks to be created would be approved however the session ended without any change and more just slay should for the establishment of these rocks the study also spoke about having a fifth community of ball and although myself and other chiefs had contacted some of our surrounding towns outside of our service district there were no particular towns that were interested in joining the group at that time based on the recommendations from the consultant and the effort that was put into it unfortunately at this time i think we would have to table the study to see if the necessary legislation comes forward and to try to identify other communities that might want to join us there is some talk amongst the original norwood walpole medfield that some of those towns that participated in the study at this time are not planning on going forward for their own various reasons so that is where it stands at this time if the board has any comments or questions during what could the state do in which that legislation could to do to make this different and make it more economically viable while it  would necessarily make it more economically viable but it would set up criteria to have a governing board of directors one of the suggestions from the full study is how to count be integers police chief of fire chiefs from ph of the communities full board of directors that board of directors representing the communities would hire an appoint director for the rock center as well as  support personnel and dispatched out the one benefit of having us our rock would be all the capital costs would be borne by the state system however the day to day operational costs would still be have to be split amongst the communities most usually based on population  we read this probably two months ago and you know at that time it was you know the consultant said at this point is on economically viable so you know your suggestion is to table until there is more from asian or another contiguous community might want to join well i think until we get additional communities that may be interested again feedback from some of the other communities after reviewing the study is there might not be the political will power now  communities to continue with the project thanks for the that was really my question is about you know can you get replacement communities that something you'd wait until the legislation have to see what the legislation is going forward also to see if there would be communities that would want to participate in the study was comprehensive about that we have the the architect is done the work in terms of setting up what should be a lot of issues have been identified whether it's the placement because of where we are centralized that have potentially and that would be a key factor for getting other communities perhaps to be involved but again i don't think it would take war if indeed we wanted to resurrect the sop aeration to move forward with it thank you jane yeah i'm from what i've read in the study also there was a concern that there would a lot of funding would be needed from the state in from the federal government in at this time that is not forthcoming because of legislation and programs so i agree with you that this probably should be tabled you know until the funding aspect is is more concrete and and to see what the towns now that are willing to participate see what they do in the future  better if we do it maybe but the resources and the cost in the studies seems somewhat overwhelming so it always comes back to every town does their own thing unless the population is so small then you end up with regional schools and  things like that but from a in this is what it seems like it always comes back to from a town perspective from fire and safety you know it's not broken in foxborough could it be better maybe but do you see a big b going through this long process or do we just say leave well enough alone i think the system that we've developed here in foxboro the facility that was built was specific building the communication systems we designed it for the future of foxboro with quite honestly a limited thought to changing or regionalizing and the system even though you know we perceive ourselves as up a bedroom community and much smaller than all with again the number of calls that we receive into the dispatch center there's only a few thousand less than a much more concentrated and populated community at normal so we're able to handle that and i think that's because we've got a very talented staff that works in the dispatch center to make sure that both firemen and police officers get the information they need and that we respond appropriately to the calls that we do get from the community and so on that thought if there was a call from outside the community plainville or you know if there's a larger situation we more first responders to other communities or they first responders to us because we don't have the facilities and staff actually the rock would be a separate entity that all the nine one one calls the business calls would go into them and they would not necessarily have a foxborough dispatcher or sharing dispatcher a local dispatcher they'd be a dispatcher and would be looking at screens to determine which emergency response for that community based on the call that they get so it's it wouldn't be a dispatcher from each town getting all the calls but so she she's been active in the hospital committee as well so she would like to speak on the issue maybe clarify for the board position or committee and the chief is also them involved with it as well so hard to the point where we saved the town over seventy thousand dollars off of our insurance bill and we did that because our charge as the last control committee is to investigate every accident every incident every workman's comp case that is filed with the town and find solutions so that they're not repeated you know if if there's an accident in the cafeteria at the schools because someone slipped on the floor you know it's a case of providing rubber proof matting and we do we're very active we work very hard at points from any policies that we've put in place for snow removal on our roofs we receive credits off of our insurance bill at the end of the year so we're always looking for ways to minimize not only for our town workers to keep them safe and to ensure that there are no accidents but we're also looking for new programs  to help our town to save money and one of the issues that came up was was the fact that we had people parking in our parking lots overnight constantly day in day out and it really comes into play in the winter time when the highway department is trying to plow the lots and it's not just the town building it's the schools i know that i spoke to bill you school department will be also voting on this the placement of the signs he has suggested it are insurance company meets with us during these meetings and they strongly suggest that we put these signs in place the reason being is it's a very large parking lot a town hall when we have any good amount of snow pushing that snow into banks is a difficult thing for our workers to keep up with but when we have cars that are parked along the edge of the parking lot it becomes even more difficult last year we were unfortunately we had a residents car who was parked there that was damaged it cost us a good deal of money we not only you know it not only cost us money through the insurance company but we lose points so that the end of the year that seventy thousand dollars that you know we receive lived off of our bell their share you know that's diminished so we don't want to see that happen we worked very hard to try to get as much as we can from what my offers us on credits back so it has been discussed at numerous meetings that the placement of these signs at not only school locations which bill you now has designated but the town hall in the library and at the council on aging vicki has a very difficult time over there she has people that are parking their cars and it's small area it's very hard for our guys to get in and plow and it's not only difficult for them it's dangerous for them at some point  so we're here tonight and i we discussed this at the last meeting edmee like to speak a little bit about the telling situation because it would be his department that would be enforcement  and certainly when we have snow occur within the community the officers sometimes forced to talk cars now a lot of times we will try and find though the owner of the car is if it's a resident in the immediate area  that the officers will have them called we'll go door to door doors but very often sometimes we don't have a media person that we can contact and we are forced to talk it becomes more problematic when people specifically don't park on the streets but park in one of our public parking lots that prevent the safe snow removal operation from taking place so that you come in in the morning and the lots properly plowed which poses a greater risk i think for the employees that work there as well i think that if the signage does go in if the board votes this again i think between the hours of one m and six a m we shouldn't have cars in the lots that might pose a problematic issue especially right now as we're going into the winter season and i know that sandra mentioned she spoke with biljana i also had a conversation with the superintendent of schools on this matter so that the school committee could be made aware of it questions moon to one no i mean i  put this in place obviously you know we we are impacted by what the event that happened last year so you know ideally you want to avoid that from happening again but i think especially with insurance companies suggesting that it's important to consider and i'm sure even for the residents with their insurance companies you know for them to know that their vehicle is being parked on their own property i'm sure is beneficial for them instead of a state of having a parked in a municipal this is ben advertiser advertising but in our packet i think this is the third time and i think last time we didn't vote on it because it was knowing there was some people you know the same thing comes to my mind at the i go school has there been any opposition or anyone in maybe for the record please not that i haven't seen you for i am richard pearson the associate exact director the m i a first of all i'd like to thank the board for accommodating your schedule to allow us to return just a few weeks after a visit with you last week to support your approval of the the opportunity to have our super bowls again at the stadium and as i stated to you at that time we're very excited for december seventh we now know who those twelve teams are that are going to be participating in the six super bowls please don't ask me every single one because i'm of i can remember them off the top of my head but it's going to be an exciting time for the first state championship here at the stadium as you know about the m i a probably from the many years we've sat and presented to you  were a nonprofit organization that serves two hundred twenty thousand plus student athletes three hundred seventy two members schools we offer thirty three m i sports what you also probably know in having discussed this with you before is that all those many sports that we offer many are subsidized in whole or in part by three of our larger sports being football ice hockey and basketball so the revenue that we generate from those those large sports really help to fund cross country meets  different events throughout the year that actually probably operate in deficit and so every state every piece of revenue that we can we can gain in and put together to support those sports is really important to us and so we've come to you every year asking for your consideration to waive the extra service tried to get service charge that has been on your tickets we we also if you don't know this already we don't charge tournament registration fees to our association member schools so once they make the tournaments whenever that is in each of the three seasons they are entered into the tournament based upon their record with no extra fees that we charge them we have lost over the years some federal grants that have really helped us and support our education  over the many years we've had a little bit of rollercoaster and fluctuation in those all those profits and all those all those things we need to support and the document i just gave you the there is our is our foundation document of who we are as an association those are the five pillars of athletics education athletics that we work to support each and every day at the association of wellness sportsmanship leadership community service and coaches education and everything we do revolves around that and that's what we are looking for to to support each and every day with all that said we have appreciated your your efforts and your consideration over the six years to waive that fee and as you discuss this waiver the discussion of the fee i would like to propose to you on behalf of the association  of member schools that to thank you for all the years of waiving the fee that maybe you consider a reduced fee as opposed to two dollars to fifty five cents of which is probably what is contracted are out there on record that you would consider one of the reduced fees that you have already approved for other other organizations here at the stadium we would suggest maybe a dollar forty seven fee which is already active as you have approved for the revolution i believe that's in the contract you have the revolution and maybe some other events as well and maybe that would be a  fair understanding and a fair gesture are or or request of you and understanding in appreciating what you've done for six years but also understanding in appreciating what we're trying to do for educational athletics in the students of the m i ok part of understanding the the flow of money is really to say to go back to the root in the thing is right i'm assuming that the ticket prices are still the same as last year fifteen for an adult and twelve for  child they are ok in the craft organization still donates the stadium did i mean to the craft organization they must incur some costs that you have to reimburse them for all the cost and ran it through you know the attendance would be roughly thirteen thousand seven hundred to perhaps close to twenty thousand based on the weather and who's playing in proximity etc so that would represent roughly thirty five thousand to fifty thousand dollars to the town the the balance of that if you took the two fifty five out of the fifteen on the twelve there would be twelve dollars and forty five cents and nine dollars and forty five cents which would flow to the m based on our licensing agreement with the stadium any a vent that sells a ticket the town is the event holders all gated with one title they're all gated to pay the town two dollars and fifty five cents so just just use the scenario the two dollars and fifty five cents a check arrives and randy puts it in the bank by waiving this fee it basically it sidesteps one of the mechanical cash flows if that check came to the town the town could then be benevolent and then say i would like to donate this amount of money to the m i a and i just see by waving it that sort of it's it's a donation and i know the past boards have been benevolent and they've said that's how they want to handle it the trouble is if you look at the m i a you're yury i guess a quasi public as asian you are nonprofit but it but in fact the these private organizations that are involved in it as well and if you look at debates on this thing for a number of years about the legality of this this transfer if the if the monies were put into the town coffers and then extracted from the town coffers and given to a nonprofit that flies in the face of the state constitution the you know it says you shall not do this and you know and i think there was an opinion by attorney a few years ago which there was you know on one hand on the one hand on the one hand i actually read the state constitution today it's very different from the u s constitution but i wonder you know how do you reconcile this based on the fact that the cash never really has flowed to the town and then a town never really had the ability to you know act in a benevolent gesture to make a direct donation to the m i a because i view it as is is that just without that mechanism of coming to the town and going back oh i certainly can't reconcile the legality of it in the research you've done because i don't i don't know that and i don't understand legalities and i have read the constitution so ok your presentation to the board is your presentation to the board about that now and again i again i don't think and you know the town when the the stadium lease was established i'm sure the folks who negotiated the didn't imagine maybe they did high school football games being there but they never caught that out they said you know any any time you sell a ticket that's how it is obligated to get that money and it was then they looked at that well again you i presented our association what we do i you know i you can do the math on what two dollars and fifty five cents is for a fifteen dollar ticket or a twelve dollar take and what a dollar forty seven is it's twenty one percent on a twelve dollars ticket at seventeen percent of the ticket price on a fifteen dollars ticket which is a pretty high percentage of those very low low cost tickets so you know i think you can do the math on all those and it's really a decision for you as a board whether whether this opportunity and this this offer would work for you and whether you understand and are able to support the endeavor and the direction of what our association is trying to do i told you already that there are twelve sports that are you know always operate in deficit in the highly funded from the organizations so that's what we've tried to do each and every time we try to offer a great venue for our students to come to jot stadium i certainly we certainly hope  expect that when that average of seventeen thousand people which is what the averages over the past six years come to town that they will also you know visit the restaurants and and then spend some time in the town too so we're hoping that we understand that that foxboro has to has to raise taxes and and raise money and hopefully that our fans will do that for you as well too and that the opportunity for reduction in fee while i was to continue some of the programming that we do and you had said the adult forty seven that we currently do that for the revolution that's my understanding yes when did the begin and what were the circumstances by which we accepted them i think you probably know all the contracts i do believe there are multiple there that i believe there are probably multiple fees and surcharges for different contracts that you have with the structured it is football games and regular soccer games meaning not international events are that lower amount and then any other event is at a higher amount so it's always been that way it's not been so to discount forty seven didn't didn't escalate over the years if it it did it's it was a lower amount you know because of the dollar you know when the police went into effect in two thousand and one and it's escalated to a dollar forty seven just like the two fifty five was a lower number at that point it's escalated over time as well my point is that the the ticket fee for the regular season soccer games has never been discounted that's just the the way that the lease was structured from the beginning it's the same fee for regular soccer as it is for football and always has been so weird we're talking about a high school suitable we're talking about a dollar forty seven to fifty five to fifty five because it's another event it's not ok it's not n f l football and it's not  voting the way i do fifty right now for because i didn't quite understand it the first year now i do but i do value very much what you bring to the communities in massachusetts and i look at the situation as you know we have an agreement with all of the tax payers in foxborough everyone pays their real estate taxes we have an agreement  that with the stadium that provides us with payment in lieu of taxes and so as i would not feel that we have the authority as the board of selectmen to waive any individual residence taxes  i would you know equate this to a similar situation where for this particular event the payment and lot of taxes is how the town gets their revenue and  so i guess because also municipalities cannot be in a charitable cannot take charitable actions by law i would i would view that or suggest respectfully that the discussion be between m a and the stadium organization to determine if there is a way to affect that two dollars and fifty five cents in that manner organization for donating the use of gillette stadium for the upcoming football games and i do not believe that my it should be the entity requesting this waiver the donation of the use of the stadium to my or is a decision made by the craft organization knowing full well of the lease agreement between it and the town foxboro the agreement provides the town with two dollars and fifty five cents per ticket per vent in lieu of real estate taxes and that's the key in lieu of real estate taxes the two thousand and fifty five cents per ticket is money that belongs to the town as add a residential and commercial real estate taxes that are paid to the town by homeowners and business owners that is a fact regardless of any arrangement made between in my when this issue came before the board last year i asked the my representative what would happen if the waiver were not granted he said that no matter what maya would keep one hundred percent of the ticket price so that my fourth time looking at it and i think the first couple times i think that the decision was made or there was a when you come into a town or the gillette is it someone number of years and then you reconsider and then do another chunk of time so this is the first year of a of a new series is that correct i believe the original contract contract was for three years three years and then there was another three years so yeah this would be a new series that ok so so part of the reason that i  last time was rather than pull rug out of something that was already started from my predecessors on the board i was kind of on the fence going which way or the other in the way that my mind worked on it with it was sure there's a lot of benefit to the town because you bring a prestigious event in my it does a lot of good stuff when you bring business into the town and it's just it's it was a feel good thing to do but i do understand the  value of it that is not money coming into the revenue stream for the town so i gave a lot of thought of this and i got phone calls and e mails on probably which side and stood people to go on  this but i did pick up the back in two thousand and eleven we asked that same question to our legal counsel and the question was do we have the right as a board to do it and there was a memo that was given to us back in october in november of two thousand and eleven so two years ago and the answer was yes and no it it's a charity so it fits under the charitable organization criteria but this things in the charity like private schools in other entities that might not so there was seven or eight bought items that our council gave and at the end they reference back to our lease with the stadium and it says under section five  yeah i think it said that the selectmen do have the ability to grant a waiver to a nonprofit so it isn't our ability to do it so we're not overstepping the bounds or we're not doing something that we don't have the rights to  do so then it kind of you know i'm reading this recommendation from the attorney saying there's no case law or it's it's unique and it's really up to the select and use your best judgment so i don't think there is a right or wrong answer on this in listening to my fellow board members and his good points on both sides and what i was going to ask where this is a second term is there consideration for lessening the burden of the taxpayer on  some of the some of the money that was given up if you want to put in that term so the so if typically we're asking through the pilot of the lease agreement for two fifty five and you're willing to come to one forty seven it's not quite a fifty fifty split but the things i think we struggle with is trying to make things work from the businesses from the tax payers and from the general let's move forward with something that works for the town and i think that's a good concession for this board to consider since the offer was made in there's no concise answer from our legal counsel and if you remember last year we asked our town manager he gave one answer the year before he gave a different answer so i'm willing to consider i'm willing to vote for a reduction down to one forty seven in welcome maya back to the town again because i think it's a good program and i think the benefit that you serve to the users of my the different sports and the ones that don't get the recognition like the football or the lesser sports they struggle and in my does do a good service and a good job and in the big picture schemes of what it does to the town yes we're giving up some potential revenue you're looking attitude to because i would wave it as i do every year because it to me it's about the kids and it's always been about the kids and i mean bring the monetary value to it and that's why their money is kids vacuumed up into the general fund  dyer fourteen hillcrest number three it's sometimes a misconception that renters don't pay property tax but of course the people who own that complex pass the property tax on to us and i've seen my ranting crease more than it good because the people who are who own the complex are paying more than they should because the board of selectmen has had a great deal of large us in years past but when i want to give to a charitable organization i like that choice to be mine and not made for me by another group a dollar forty seven sound small but a quarter of a million dollars in taxpayer men money has been given away by the board that's a lot of money and i don't think it should be minimized of course the m i a does wonderful things i can name you numbers of charities that do wonderful things and that you would all feel great about supporting i just don't want you giving my textile or away to them without my say thank you oh and by the way i teach in a high school not far from here and i have many high school students who are athletes and their supply them with i pads i pods and i phones and they have unlimited texting and i'm sure those same parents can afford to fifty five when their son or daughter plays in a state or regional game thank you mr chairman and members of the board for allowing me to speak on this issue i would underline to you the two hundred fifty thousand dollars that's been given away over the years before this year you know what would have been town revenues to do things like maybe i said a bit of the tax rate i take care of some things i figure that's that's a quarter of the amount of money that the town donated to build our beautiful turf field for example  have their hand out right away when it comes to the gate front any tournaments they get their share before the gun goes off to start you know the event so i don't want to run off with the idea that they are  know a really charitable organization in the sense that we would think of a charitable organization athletics are wonderful you know and it's a great thing but it doesn't mean that foxboro has to go above and beyond and giving away money that should come to the town you know in support of the anymore than the time to give away money to any other charitable organization it just doesn't seem right i think that was an accurate reading of the the state constitution that was the great alluded to before aside from the legal opinion that was expressed by a previous time council so i would ask you folks who have said that you're going to vote favor of this to think about it again and i want to thank the people who've chosen to vote against you thank you but just a quick follow up on this and i don't want people to think that we're giving away tax money just willy nilly like this we have a lease agreement that was negotiated through the selectmen it to all the different committees that looked at payment in lieu of taxes ok so there's an organization up there that doesn't pay taxes but they get ticket prices they come back to the town ok it's not a dollar for dollar it's not a cost value whatever it's a green meant that was worked out with a lease that said if we do this then it's good for the town part of that lease agreement that says the selectmen has the ability to from time to time a grant for a charitable organization a waiver ok that's all in the formula that was put in the lease so maybe the lease was off maybe the  projections were off but it's not let's start in go in a direction in there's no flexibility so maybe this charitable step that we're taking is contemplated in the big picture of having a large national stadium in our in our town when the lease was written there wasn't a turf field and i'm glad you brought up the turf field again but the turf field is there now we're having many more events that was intice a painted from the lease agreement so we have an n c double a games we have in college games we have in concerts because things change and there's a lot more used to that stadium now we can go back in redo the lease but it gives the ability for the selectmen at this table to decide if it's a worthwhile charity and it's something they want to do we can vote yes or no but it's not taking away tax money it's not violating the state constitution because that's the steps that this town voted on just like they vote on every warrant article that gives ability to either to the voter or to the selectmen so that i think that's where i'm coming from and i don't want people to come back that says the tax bills are going to go up because we voted on this of restaurants and of course a stadium so it's a million dollars almost this year correct me if i'm wrong in extra revenue to the town so by bypassing this you know we're still getting more and again here we are making a been potentially making a benevolent donation to private schools and you know that what i read in a lot of there was it's very clear that it has to be a republic  what what i'm going back to his we asked that specific question to our legal counsel can we do it and that's what we paid the money for and i came back all that indians today yet so the attorney came back and said you know there's nothing in here that he says that you cannot do it so so if the attorney came back and said you can't do it because it doesn't meet the requirements of whatever then i would say well we made a mistake from year after year after year and will correct it this year but that's not what i'm hearing as a lot of on the other hands on the other hands on the ok exactly all of that and so i think that's why i'm saying there's no case law it's unique it's whatever you want to call it but there's no definitive right or wrong and because there's no definitive right or wrong i think with the lease agreement it gives us that ability to use our judgment in an applicant that his getting a full waiver is not coming back and saying look we know it's in probably i can't speak for you i don't know why you're doing this but i know you sat at that chair last year and the year before and you hear people like denis not speaking and i'm not saying a bad term but there is people out there that says ok guys it's our money it's a time money don't do it so i think this is a nice gesture that we can meet in the middle in move on and then recognize the larger benefit that you are going to get the meals tax you are going to get the the patrons and you're going to get the goodwill and you're going to get a positive experience yes there might be some parts of that nonprofit that the pieces that make it up might not fit the bill but unless someone tells me that nonprofit is not a five a one c three recognized by the state it's a nonprofit and that's you know feels a nonprofit so it is the challenge that you brought to the thinking process and to the table when you had to make these decisions in the past and although the money would be well used by organization and that a full zero waiver would be the most valuable we thought it was the right thing to do for you for the town interests respect all that you have to do so that's why we came specifically with that and that was exactly our goal mystery appears in the n y a a should not even be requesting waiver you get one hundred percent of your ticket price that was told to me by the person who heads up the organization before so you really have no ability to request this to request this waiver this this is if if the stadium if the craft organization decides to donate the facility to you that's a wonderful thing that's a decision that the that the organization is making to donate this to you but they also have a have an agreement with the town of foxborough it's called payment in lieu of taxes in other words the town gets two dollars and fifty five cents per ticket and that's the agreement that was made in they don't pay real estate taxes they paid on a tip i pay real estate taxes you pay you know we think businesses pay taxes so that's why i'm their their their giving their including the payment in lieu of taxes that should ordinarily go into the to the town as part of their donation well like the lady said you know donate all you want but you know i don't donate money that belongs to me and that's why that's that's been that i have never understood why the town has voted to waive waive it i'll make a motion to allow reduction in accordance with our lease agreement dated january first two thousand to reduce the ticket price for the my events for the super bowl from two fifty five down to one forty seven second secondly discussion discussion second ok no more discussion under discussion and i can i just ask has anyone picked up and i'm not saying this in a negative way but the original lease agreement and read it from the beginning to the end so you understand that there are provisions in there for charitable so ok in that it's an option that's not that we have to we don't we don't have to do anything but it's in there for what i and stood and i think i understand the results or they are you know i mean we have the ability to to make a benevolent gesture we do and it's been done in the past however i'm looking out for the interest of the taxpayers throughout the town who don't have an opportunity to come and have their taxes reduced and agreements an agreement no matter who the proponent the way the who requests we have to on of the agreement now you know benevolence is one thing i mean i've known richard forever and all the great people however we have to look out for the best interests of the taxpayer and that's that's where i'm going and i understand that and i think we're going in this exact same direction i'm looking at it from a larger picture i'm looking at it from the meals tax i'm looking at it from  you know who knows if we're going to come again next year i'm looking at from the restaurants the retail the whole you know buying gas in the center i'm adding up those pennies and you know to cut your nose off to spite your fifty thousand dollars that they're going to get from the net that's that's after the money that that's over it correct but i'm also looking i mean it's time to get ready to go in a circle but we're doing you know if you look at the big picture of the meals tax and the property tax and all that stuff to put it all in the equation i think i think we do an injustice only when we're looking at you know the morals of do we give back this amount when we're losing pictures of the of the of the hopping ok the reason why the state of massachusetts put i believe ninety million dollars in infrastructure to the highway sixty how much sixty nine sixty nine million dollars infrastructure in the highway is because for the for these tournaments well that's very that's very generous and that's very nice of them but still when we have an agreement they have an agreement this town that we get two dollars and fifty five cent p real estate that does anyone know why they put that clause in there was anyone else on the board when they came up with the lease agreement that the slackman have the ability to provide relief for five a one c three is this is the same thing but i put names to it for me just take it back a little bit this is something that i think is probably one of the more important things that i've been trying to accomplish on the board since i've been here going back a year plus we all know about what happened and it's still going through a process but william sheen spent considerable amount of time in this town twenty plus years school recreation scouts and that's being handled police chief and the f b i still working on the who know knew what when and where in the legal part of it but the one question that came from a lot of the victims was how how the hell did this go on for so long and nobody said anything and how did it go on for so long and it didn't come into the light so for the better part of a year the selectmen through different committee members tried to put together sexual abuse reporting policy and it was somewhat of a failure in the reason it was a failure is because we went to quote town government and not a slight of any one particular person but we asked for a policy to be put together  a document and we would review and it kind of fell short in throughout that year there's been a lot of people that have been getting together and going to seminars and sessions into the state house in meeting with victims trying to figure out is there something together already that another town is done to recognize that there is a prevalence in any town of of child abuse  so what i'm proposing here is is a different approach with some goals and objectives and i'm asking the board to consider appointing a committee in basically the golden objective of the committee is to raise awareness that there is circumstances where children are abused in an op or to kill case on town property in the objective is to come up with a code of conduct some training of organizations in a protocol of reporting and you may ask why are we doing it we have a tremendous amount of property we have feels recreation facilities camps schools that invite groups and sporting events in there's not a lot of checks and balances so over the year we've been meeting with different groups so i'm bringing you as it is seven sectors of the community  i'll go through a quick public schools recreation public safety religious institutions town staff residents and private educational institutions so reaching out to have a representative in each one of those sectors to meet together bring in their expertise come up with policies that basically says if you want to coach in this town on our feel that the town owns you have to go through some type of protocol you have to go through a little bit of training some awareness some dues and some don't and at the end of that exercise of putting this group together i want to run it for a year and then we would vote on this at that it was a warrant article at the following year similar to appoint a conservation commission or appoint an historic commission this commission would be a child safety committee in briefly the seven people that we've been working with in that want to work on these separate sectors for instance on the public schools actor superintendent deb spinelli said she would be very willing to assist and i look at the school as a group that already has an entity and they do training very well and they have protocols so we would probably learn from that from recreation was probably the crux of a lot of the potential stuff with kids  downs from the board of recreation from public safety detective tim a leary who is a detective now used to be a sergeant of youth crisis officer and has been dealing with kind of the liaison between the kids in the school from the religious institute passed a bill dudley from the union church from the town staff vicky lowe who is the director of council on aging who already has a lot of protocol set up for the seniors and in a lot of the institute category which was a former selectman and she's very involved with the foxboro junior chamber of commerce so i'm asking the board to consider this draft that i put together which i won't go into the details but they have the power and duties of serving without compensation the duration their objectives and then come back to us in two thousand and fourteen the end of december with a written report that evaluates the program and come up comes up with a recommendation to move forward for i guess codification of for final and ackman of this so so they're going to develop the program they will develop the code of conduct the training in protocol in reaching out to up doing it almost to the point where we asked human human resources director tom integer to bring us something in fairness to them there is no something that has been done in other towns so it was kind of a you know the chasing the tail out there you know it's just to be yeah i think a committee dealing with this is a whole lot better than a piece of paper i think that's i think that's how we got to this point because it's a community issue and i think the community has to be aware of it in kind of help themselves on this and that's what this is about jim you would go into someone on this topic i went to a seminar it was it was a seminar that was made up of a bunch of different professionals and and it was something that wasn't coordinated spur say with all the different departments but we were the only town that was well represented for instance there were people from the big brother big sister group because as you can imagine it's prevalent that it is in that area there was all different new support groups and stuff but there was nobody from a town that collectively said this is something that we want to address and i think that we foxboro was recognized very well for doing that and i think if we get through this year and come up with this program i think it's going to be something that other towns will be very willing to to listen to and use it's good to see fox for in the lead on this and i think i think it's very worthwhile and there's been a lot of good ideas and i end up being the spokesman but you know i see linda while sitting here she's from day one has been working on this bill dudley this this afternoon mark and i sat with  norfolk advocacy group and there's a lot of nonprofits that are just dying to commit and help us but nobody to cut us put it all together in one place and i think this reaches out to far ends of every area of the town and puts right now what this says is by december thirty first this group after having met over the years period will come to the selectmen with a written report and they could say look the goals and objectives are perfect was staying with it well they could say we've been meeting for a year and we want to broaden it or reduce it but come up with a committee that is pretty on target from a year's worth of work and then i'd like to bring it to the town town meeting to and acted as a committee that has standing and is an hour by law jim i think the child safety committee that i really like all  components that comprise that  i think i could envision as you come to bring forward recommendations that we would involve labor council for review and one thing i just wanted to suggest again to consider in the goal   but where we have you know our recreation department again to me is our killie's heel i'm not comfortable with waiting for a year to have policies in place which already exist just concerned that it's going to the direction that it has and it's a valid concern and we've gone back and forth you want to put restrictions that might not have legal standing we're not putting it i'm not speaker and he said ok how many of you are mandated reporters and you know raise a hand how many of you had training on it how many of you had read the the requirements and it went from you know ninety percent to one person you know in the last it's fluid in this training anyone can quote n g l whatever but in i'm not picking on foxboro but if you go to any town most of the people that amanda take mandated reporters might know they are but have never had training or they don't do it yearly like they're supposed to so what this committee does is just basically it's a gentle reminder from the miscible part to the recreation to everything and there's a lot of energy and excitement to finally get something going that's comprehensive so i think at the end of this exercise if the people in town that are supposed to be mandated reporters don't know if they are this committee through website through seminars through pamphlets they'll find out pretty quick so just my concerns where we have a recognized area that are mandated reporters that if there's a way to again there are policies that exist out there that are used by people who are mandated reporters i'm concerned that we go for another full year without policies or procedures in place for mandated reporters seen you still going down that avenue this is used to move forward for the future so you're still working it's so if you ask and we had the discussion with someone that is a professional in that and it was a no brainer of course they are the way we now view and he has said that they are dead we have believe that they are i believe they are so that so the recognition the training the the the checklist that they've gone through it is so if you go over to the school department and this is why i'm excited that deb spinelli is going to be on this if you go to the school they've got those checks they've got the training over the summer they know exactly who is  in the other areas of town might not be there i don't know but this committee with debbie on it is going to bring that knowledge to vicki low and is going to say well our accounts on aging and they believe the council aging has the same issues that should we do with the children so that's this kind of brain storming people together would then go back to cindy in kind of coordinate back and forth such a catalyst i think is greater and i would just question before because he would the group is trying to reach out to to mandate that people who work at townhall that don't deal with children be required to do these things you know i'm just i'm just throwing caution here that there's certain a place you can't mandate you know kevin did his thing last year be careful when you mandate things to people who are not three good idea i think it it's sixty of bob's concerns that he had but more importantly i think it speaks to jim's concerns that he's had over the past month and i think this committee is a really good first step and i selectmen to adopt the foxboro child safety committee protocol put a hand up today dated november twenty sixth with specific appointments to the seven people on the c or whatever awards repeal the game laws for this state of massachusetts so i would suggest this board write a letter urging ha state senator because a couple but the state senate can still say no they can still say you know what i know there was a petition and they say they want to put on the ballot they can still say no so i think signatures in everything and then he goes before the legislature and the legislature votes whether or not it goes on the ballot and so the legislature can say no  but i'm not sure if this goes on the ballot because i thought this legislation had to go before the supreme you disha the supreme judicial court is that in my mistake and i'm not sure there were two i don't know you were there were been landslides a cancer cell for two and you know what i think if this is something they're great want to be on the ballot well here's a chance to put it on the ballot and hopefully the legislation does that legislators i mean so i and then we did this board directed dick element as our counsel to reach out or to let penn national reach in and kind of negotiate back and forth no i haven't we haven't got anything back from dec i know he's been working his legs been trying to negotiate with them and you know what he's looking for is a little direction from this forward because what he's been talking to them about is just social impacts i guess and other ip questions have been raised by the racing a committee and i know that you've raised the water issue so he's curious as to you know where you want him to expend his energies towards this agreement and you know we're going to be soon approaching the  deadline and you know then that it's going to go to arbitration you don't have a breach so you know he hasn't made a lot of headway with them because you know she will probably tell you from reading the agreements the other towns have agreed to wait  know he's made some overtures to them about a fund to you know take care of any social ills and have monies available to the town but you know there are other issues you want him to address now would be the time to do it i think just from my overall volved overall view of the thing i don't know that there's a lot of concern about the traffic because most of the traffic would be on route one and four ninety five maybe some additional traffic on some of the side roads but i think the biggest areas of concern would be major highways it could you know deal with the traffic but you know the  and then the water issue that i have talking to roger hill he's not overly concerned about that he's more concerned about a forty b project that would be across the street that would have more impact on them water then you know of the size of the talking about now if they go to expand it they would have to come back and talk about some of those issues so he wasn't overly concerned because he thought the d p would you know be able to mandate you know control  water issues and something of the size that they were initially talking about would not be a huge concern but that's he was a decision the board has to make to give him some the offer but you know i think i'm right here for any reason offered three hundred seventy five thousand you know you're looking at what they were talking about is what that was mitigation for i think things that i don't agree with that i think should be more but i think it's a good starting point this is this is what i'm thinking about when we sat down with penn national from i mean my i look at it from from my expertise  if there is such a thing even though i don't do the gambling when i bring a project into the town they look at it and they say ok study the traffic study the lighting study the noise studying the fencing we hire experts and we do a traffic analysis and we say ok this is where we are at a starting point for all these different sectors and then this is we think we're going to be the impact and that's the mitigation now and we sat with penn national this is when they first came in and i looked at the report that plane ridge did and i think the general understanding is look we all gamble at some level we buy scratch tickets our community there's no nobody there's no communities that you know that doesn't do that so there's a certain percentage in each community that already has the base line up here if you bring in a casino or slot house that level that percentage is going to go up to here in a certain radius in this reports and numbers to support it and i talk to this about the town manager in plainville and i think it's very reasonable to say ok there is going to be an impact in what is that impact on to be now the game the committee started looking at that to quantify and qualify discussion i had with the time manager plain bows it is reasonable that if you are going to be impacted this should be some mitigation to the gaming commission says that when we sat down with penn national penn national said you know we have these programs we do training there is going to be impact but if there is an impact it's covered by whatever fees that the state that we pay the state so my feeling in what i said to them and it hasn't changed i don't want to be chasing my tail a year from now or two years trying to find out what our baseline is that baseline needs to be studied whether it's sitting down with vicky lowe and saying ok these are the people that are in our town that are impacted by losing the mortgage because of gambling or something that study needs to get done we don't have the money to do the study so i think penn national has to come to us rather than us chasing them and saying we will do this for you we will study this we will provide what if we can study we'll recognize that that increase percentage can manifest itself in these departments and here is mitigation i do not want to weigh in and i think what they were saying is once it's built sixty days later the look at it sixty days later the paint is still wet and is not going to be any impact from gambling addiction you're going to see that three or four or five years later so you know if they don't want to come to us you know what's there to you know if you go down and download the reports from north attleboro and read them this some things in there that i think we would be interested in but i think it misses the boat on the impact from the social side i think we have to continue this conversation to the next meeting because year i don't number two is a request by the fox for jaycee's permission to hang banners around the common and why all is a very next the next is a donation to the conservation commission and this is a gift acceptance and it's  thirty one two thousand and thirteen but it's really going into january first two thousand and fourteen and this is for an extension of operating hours from one a m to two a m in order to host the new year's event on the summer of or actually on beginning on time they can just keep going oh i dunno let's read this carefully because it's request for a one hour extension of operating hours think of it pass we didn't extend the drinking it is two separate things the operating make that stipulation that's the most second over the internet not not to be picky about it but i think the reason that we have done in the past was that extra hour where you can eat and relax  and not leave right when revolver drops and hit the road the last action i don't comes as a letter from candace la chapelle who was resigning from the stadium advisory committee so i'll move that we tina motion reject the session i move that we end our regular session and enter into executive session it's now ten minutes or ten oh thank  you to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with nonunion personnel which you conduct collective bargaining sessions of contract negotiations with nonunion personnel board and library m i a s a m f t a f t a f l c