thank you everybody good evening today is evening is april sixteenth welcome to the foxboro border selectmen meeting i will go over the agenda briefly at six fifteen had met opened up our public hearing earl fifteen you know we met with several members of the library committee the library commission and they gave graciously gave us a tour for forty five minutes or apologized for being a few minutes late and they gave us an update on on the construction of the library at seven o'clock we will have some citizens input as we do every week and we just ask if you have something to say to come to the microphone and introduce yourself at seven o five we have a citation to be issued to lawn cloth  who is the who recently retired from the state force and will be honoring him there at seven ten we'll do a brief chairman's update at seven fifteen we have two items from sharon lawson the town planner in the planning board will be going over the town meeting warrant items that are remaining under the submission of the planning board and we will be entertaining a joint reappointment of john rhodes who's an associate member of the planning board and that will be on our town manager kevin pecos in your review as town manager and at nine o'clock i'm going to be going into executive session for two reasons review some executive session minutes that need to be released in reviewed and also to negotiate with nonunion yes before we begin i said isn't simple says its citizens input obviously that we've all heard about the tragedy at the boston marathon i'm going to forego any chairman's update this evening and i just wanted us to spend a half a minute or so in silent meditation terrible tragedy loss of lives for you know the children the residents of massachusetts and for  a race that invited you know eighty plus countries in i'm sure we all have our feelings of anger resentment whatever we want so if we could just spend thirty seconds to  just as a tribute and also just to remind people that our flags are at half mast and if you have a flag until further notice we're being asked to put our flags at half mast in memory and so thank you all very much so at this time actually i'll talk a little bit about at six fifteen we met with the board library they were gracious enough to give us a tour kind of the big picture items they're looking to open what the end of june beginning of july it's a fabulous building there's something in there for the seniors the young adults the children and a general public with meeting room so if you get a chance and i'm not sure that is going to be any pre opening but certainly in june and july i look forward to visiting the town in that group of volunteers spent a considerable amount of time and effort to bring it to that point so i'm looking forward to it so at citizens input is there anyone that wants to say so we just asked if you could introduce yourself your name and your address please process at the fox for fire department second i asked the review the hiring process in place in place at ford for a free apartment ensuring it is fear open biased here's my story during the last two hiring to foxborough fire after the first hiring i received a letter stating that i was on a short list of individuals being interviewed for the next round of higher at that time at the time of the next hire i was told by chief outfield that he would squash the list and a new point system had been put in place it can i interrupt you for sure i have a little bit of leeway on the on the open meeting law it sounds like this is in employee issue where you look to get a job and you weren't hired i can't have this at the open mike because it puts the town a little bit in liability if we don't have a response and it's a personnel issue so the two things that you asked for if you're asking for a document and us to review the process that's going on i would suggest if you could sit with kevin and put something in writing and then we can review it but to have you open mike talking about staff  why you weren't hired it believe me it doesn't do anybody any good it might you know for them for the minute but i just can't allow that to happen under the open meeting law look i hope you understand that i don't pass along what i have here that if you get this oh sure so kevin can i ask you when we get this to you and you can set up a meeting if you need me as chairman or one of the other members to sit in your just so we can understand exactly what he's looking for and so sure so you know you don't want to get a memo back to the to the board and to the g anyone else under citizen's input i want to read this it's an announcement to everybody beginning monday april twenty second the water department will be conducting a nighttime hydrant flushing weather permit this program is a two pronged approach to solve two problems the first of these is flow testing to enable the development of a computerized hydraulic model of the water system this model will give the water department much better control of the system and will answer many questions not the least of which is whether we can avoid expensive repair or replacement of the main street water tank we know that the flow testing will stir up sentiment in the system so conquer and lee we will flush the area where flow testing is necessary to remove as much sediment as is possible we will limit the flow testing to one night per week and will flush as necessary to clean up the affected area should it have brown water problems the necessary flow testing and flushing is expected to continue for several weeks thus we are widely publicised in the program our notification program includes mail flyers for every customer half page newspaper advertisements patch articles foxborough report articles and eye dynamic map of the town website on the town website that will be changed weekly to highlight the area to be flushed in the coming week so people will know in advance where the flushing i to take place in any particular week these articles and mailings include litigation measures that can be used by customers to minimize the effects of the flushing but police take note that there may be brown water issues calling in by customers will actually help the water department with the cleanup after flushing so please call in and let us know where and when the brown water problems occur this will speed up the cure thank you thank you roger so just  in and there's a lot of information and i know just about every citizen watches a slick meaning of life but if not just in summary how are you going to get the information out of the mail mail as you point every customer in the system ok frank's already done an maps dynamics can be changed every week but will an e mail go out to the people even if they don't go on to the web site will they receive an e mail you know what we do is we made arrangements with the chief of police use the reverse nine one limit you know on a limited would you mind coming up to the table you know some chief chief you want to come up also  an engineering project over in franklin and it was for a manufacturing building it was just about exactly fifteen years ago and we do permit projects we submitted to the town and then we kind of reach out to the neighbors to see if you know we cover all the bases and showed up at that meeting think i had everything covered i made a presentation and you stood up fifteen years ago and you said you were representing the state forest and i said well we're not in the state forest and he said well you can see it from the state forest by the time that we got finished with that project was thirty eight forge park up on top in the train station you had us move all the condensing units to the other side of the building you had us paint the top greens on you couldn't see it from the forest and you put us you asked us for which i thought was a boston office of the department of natural resources in the planning division i was a little bit younger than me and i had a great job but on a beautiful spring day looking out through the dirty window of the obvious building on to the roof below what pigeon crap i stuff all over it it just wasn't me i had to be outside so i left that job forest and we started a goals plan which is like a master plan for the far east and we've got a lot of local citizens on the committee  held public meetings in fact some of them right next wrong and from that developed a wonderful relationship with the various user groups the various town officials  conservation planning boards and it's gone on ever sence a wonderful relationship i thank you but the time in my life came where i was getting  i'm older now than i was like all of us and their time just came to retire i reached my retirement age and so i did  i don't miss to commute i live and hang on i know i'm kevin longer than you folks have a long commute i don't missed out at all i love laying in bed listening to the traffic reports in the morning but i enjoy my free time at home and be half of the time we appreciate it you've been a great steward of our asset up there between the walking trails and birdwatching in the motor cross it goes up there  counted on for many years i can think of more than one occasion where we've tapped his expertise to locate a trail or with some assistance trying to find somebody in the state forest or the best way to get to a fire or something like that  but he's always been there for us and we're very appreciative of all the time he spent here in town and we wish him well on his retirement and we have a citation from the fire department it reads certificate of appreciation awarded to forest and park supervisor f gilbert hills state forest for his dedication and professional commitment to excellence in support to foxborough fire department for twenty seven years dated april sixteenth two thousand and thirteen so i buy the  whereas after almost forty years of service to the commonwealth of massachusetts ron clark retired from the department of conservation recreation and whereas for twenty seven of those years ron was the forest park supervisor of the f gilbert hills state forest foxboro massachusetts and where as in the line of duty ron persevered in the goal of preserving and encouraging the responsible use of the state forest and whereas as liaison to the town of foxborough ron met monthly with concerned citizens of foxboro to deal with the issues of the management of the state forest and where as for the pleasure and edification of the citizens of foxboro ron regularly conducted tours of the state forest and whereas over the years ron has helped and encouraged members of the boy scouts of america in projects of merit and where as a supervisor of the f gilbert hills state forest run along with the dedicated staff and crew under his direction has enhanced the prestige of the town of foxborough because of the location of the state forest within the town and has truly added to the reasons that foxboro is known as the gem of norfolk county therefore the foxborough board of selectmen offers its in serious thanks to for his dedication to his position as forest and park supervisor at the f gilbert hills state forest to the benefit of the town of foxborough the board of selectmen also wishes ron cluff a happy fulfilling and well deserved retirement given the sixteenth day of april i said we have a pretty full agenda we have a couple action items if i could ask you to go to the action items i wanted to take one out of turn the senior officer noonan here for the diabetes road race this action i don't want to request by john hurley in richard noonan to conduct the thirteenth annual fox foxborough against diabetes road race on sunday june first two thousand and thirteen so you do have an going to have thirteenth year twelve years we've had no issues with public safety and it's we've had a very successful race not only with the involvement of the community but also of the local  establishments businesses and you know foxboro and the local community in general so i hope that we take our public safety very seriously and we hope there we are able to continue to have temporary road closures for our your application that you be putting up notice signs so that the neighbors know that the ripped in advance of the road will be closed for certain amount of time and that's really appreciated because i think that will help a lot sure i can give you just a brief overview knowing we're going to be doing two weeks prior putting or so in your package you have the application you also have a map and we also have seemed like it was a comparison between last year and this year references yeah on under ration and miles on public yes we made a significant change last year to cut down the amount of time that we're on public roadways will just be a north street to young and edwards and loop around and come back again so it's just one and a quarter  miles total of roadway the reason we did this we had of the five k last year which is totally on patriot undulate stadium property and it was such a hit with everyone running up the ramps and coming down on the field and finishing the fifty yard line that we incorporated that into the ten k which allowed us to not use as much of the roadways in foxborough so and at the end of that that's the night you do the free fireworks anyone that wants to come in we want to be a huge community event i mean there i think we had over two hundred fifty residents that were participants and i think was well over fifty children that were part of the kids program and of course the fireworks afterwards sure and that's also gene he also with the corporate volunteers  street which i live off of so if you have beach street not that what are you doing for the residents what we're going to do if you don't want to the sheets here but basically through the websites will go through the local news outlets we're going to letters to all of the residents w we ideally would love to have the whole road closed source so there are no incidences but the chief will be there with his officers to make sure if we need to let someone in or out that we'll be able to do that we also have at that as the runners have completed the return on edwards coming that will open up the roadways as soon as possible and stragglers if we have walkers because we do have walkers involved we're basically going fifteen mile an hour i mean a fifteen minute miles two for pace and if they're beyond that we're going to have them walk on the sidewalk stage of the side of the road so we don't have to keep the roads closed for any longer than necessary ok and in my comment i was should have been more clear that the reason i said i'm often your street not because i'm opposed against but just to let you know there's a conflict that i'm living on the road that this goes by that's  ok so i am going to forego chairman update at seven fifteen we had the planning board to present the actually two things the autonomy of meeting warrants review articles  also there is a reappointment request for john rhodes he has been the associate member of the planning order and doing it a year term so starting to guess may first up until may first of two thousand and fourteen what i don't want to steal your thunder but you've got to let it sounds like a unanimous recommendation but you're welcome to speak with the board wants to speak first no i just i just like to say that i would like to continue with the associate member the letter was stated i've been on for quite some time i have a very well suited background we have a very good board and a very good staff and i'd like to continue to serve on the plenty board and serve the town in that fashion  questions on article nineteen incorporated the downtown within it and for the size of the project the funding that we requested at the beginning wouldn't cover the scope of what we would combine the two together so we've been supplementing it adding chapters to that process with some of the grants that we've gotten which is actually the lessen the amount of money that we've had to come in to requests for town meeting approval and we're going to continue to try to  an extension obviously with updates and reasons for doing so and we put the sunset in there to lessen some folks fear is that we were going to adopt a state law that we would be stuck with  what's the benefit of this what we're trying to do is to work and and achieve the affordability complex for the state hospital plan that we've all been working towards but in  very successfully done a lot of folks don't even know where affordable housing is because of the nature of the way that it's been done would like to continue to do that and the other thing is that the current prices because we're locked in with in our opinion extremely necessary if we're going to move forward with the state hospital and reach some sort of conclusion in our lifetime if it wasn't for the state hospital project would you still be doing this is it does it have  i mean i think if we if we saw that it was successful and that the town saw that it was successful there might be other opportunities going forward upper right now it's specifically to deal with commitments  affordability based on the number of units were supposed to be built so the developer would take that money paid someplace else in town and then do another unit there that's not affordable now they would put it in theoretically they would put it into a into this trust and the trust fund has a board of directors that includes members of the select better than others and they would make a decision about you know where they might locate a piece of land to build in a portable house my existing structure and make affordable housing out of the lot by utilizing some of those dollars but a dollar amount would be set for the value of each one of those homes that's that's supposed to be done or was rejoice opposed to be done right on site th and i've been attending the the advisory committee meetings in our you know for the different warren articles and when this was first proposed i was you know i was really in favor of  housing trust as a vehicle to put money online and far the but my concern was accepting state statute because of unintended consequences of state  mentioned it was because the information is gone and you know i've learned the first time it was presented i've learned something since and i've learned other things i just wanted to hold off on my vote maybe abstain on maybe hold off on the slickness vote until the next next week of a meeting next week only because i wanted to hear the presentation once again before the advisory committee you know before i meet up with a meeting next week well i'm asking if we could meet it because we're not that's something that a member feel strongly that they want to hear input from the advisory committee back to me i mean i would i mean i think it's an whenever you accept state statutes i think it's very important you should really feel comfortable if in your vote to accept it so that's the only reason i just wanted to hear one more time the information being presented if you you decide you know if the board decides to you know vote anyway i'm just telling you what i would do is abstain in my on on my vote i can i don't want to vote yes but i also don't want to vote no until i get the information itself that's now if we were you know as you know the the war in article gets through and voted there's going to be a recommendation from me advisory committee and the recommendation from the planning board divisor gets gets read if we do put off the vote on the twenty third how does that affect the publication of the documents that go to town meeting once already printed you know you've actually got the final warrant in your packages so there's no impact if this doesn't affect any of you know when we also we we've heard  to have another meeting if the pending get to the want tonight and you get through all of the executive session business then you pretty much wrapped up if you don't then having a clean up meeting probably would be a good idea so the board can finish all those personal matters want prior to the potential change of the board of the election  wouldn't i don't think you'd want to have issues like that hanging still right so  i guess this depends on how good the meeting goes tonight just the first bump of many or as to all i know i mean i feel i feel i feel comfortable if there is a sunset clause in this but i want to know definitely that the state statute allows there to be a sunset clause that's one that's one of the thing that's one of the issues that i have and i was hoping that that could be answered you know  you know so we said that dick said that he said to kill him and said it was permitted and we had talked about because we tried to go the route of the home rule petition and what we were told was exactly what you folks are just talking about right now and that at the end of three years then if there were assets still being held how would those be handled the border have to be board of directors would have to disburse th number of meetings were for housing and this was one of the recommendations that they made if you didn't have a specific zoning area in town or you didn't have a specific housing goal at before but you know before though those things were said we did eventually set one but you know that this is a way that a lot of communities have used in order to deal with situations like this so where they have opportunities to get people in the development community  contribute into it and then the board you know would takes advantage of it and helps to purchase land or homes or both you know in order to fulfill their complement of the guidelines by the state for affordable housing a board so independent that they could just be in control of funds spend money nilly willy wherever they wanted in any fashion that they wanted so we tried to come up with a compromise that would address both of those items and put the sunset clause in there and see you know how it goes an opportunity to try it out and hopefully it'll be successful if it is the town to make a decision about whether they think it's viable want to porton to continue it and if not then well you know what we would end if you have a sunset clause doesn't that the first time to have the sense was that the exhibit this exact wording with the santa clause the only reason we're here is because of the date it was incorrect in the news paper advertisement stating what day of the town meeting was and so we had a public hearing with the very same documents we didn't have standing room only for folks coming in and we you know went through the whole thing i mean the reason we embraced this was because we were where i would send and how we deal with the affordability portion of the state ospital and quite frankly  we researched this because of what we heard and thought it was a way for this project to go forward what will happen if this doesn't get passed if it's not adopted well go back and to the quandary of what to do and and  and you can't do it on your own because it's already set up for a state you have if it helps the board i can tell you a couple things about these trusts i don't know the answer to any specific question on songs that are not something we could find out before them or not no problem with respect to what these trusts do they're operated in quite a number of communities in massachusetts we have one and hang them and they provide a bridge between the public in the private sector in order to provide affordable housing and meet that ten percent goal of a little shy of it right now and this would probably hopefully get us of the ten percent why is the ten percent important well you might believe that the goal of ten percent is a socially good thing on the other hand you might also look at the fact that once you get to ten percent nobody can force a forty b on the community  which is a really good thing because generally speaking you know communities want development consistent with that zoning is the wishes of the people pass a town meeting they don't want forty bees that aren't considered  i can tell you that there's all sorts of protections built into the statute housing partnerships can't spend money without town meeting votes they're independent with respect to managing the property once it's either purchased with public money or it's donated from a private developer they manage the property and they run the finances associated with it and hang on if you go to the town hall and you go a little bit beyond it you see a  very large apartment complex which is owned by a religious order which the housing partnership bought and then funded the debt to buy it out of the rent receipts and it's actually running way ahead of schedule in terms amortizing the debt meantime i think they picked up one hundred plus units of affordable housing it was a stunning success in a very high end real estate community like hang on as you can imagine it's very hard to meet affordable playability can do is shave a few units out of something they can't get many but this allows much much better and in terms of numbers allows a lot more affordable units to be purchased so generally speaking these are extremely good vehicles to do it it's a combined housing development and it be with a real estate management board if you will and in hams case we actually hired a management company that manages it in the board just manage the manager and that's a lot of towns do so generally these are very very good things and i can tell you that they've been a stunning success all over the state of massachusetts there's dozens of them felt i can tell you that much i can answer jenny specific question but here kevin powers i don't want to address this article tonight for the simple reason that ad com has not yet voted on it so because i had come yet taken a position you don't don't want to get into the details tonight that said at tomorrow night said come meeting when this article comes up i and  another member of the advisory committee have done what i think could fairly be described as relative to a town meeting article some fairly extensive side research and we're going to be presenting that tomorrow night and  it touches on almost all of the points that have just been raised and to one degree or another i'm not suggesting that it would necessarily be conclusive is as is to one point or another but you know certainly you know as as as we spoke to folks and asked questions and looked into things you know there is still there it was it was interesting and  at respectfully because because ad come hasn't voted on this and you know because you know because we'll be talking about it tomorrow night and also because you know i'm i'm not the one responded well you know given the amount of time that takes to get these things up and running and as he described it even even just to figure out for example  what would be necessary and what would not be necessary in a single family house based on income level of x number of dollars per annum and that sort of thing just the amount of time to get them up and running the three year period was not viewed by the folks we spoke with is a sufficient time period one of them remarked something to the effect of and again i'm i'm well you know it's it's it's a good thing that you know we it could potentially be really up because you're you're probably not going to be able to do much in that time where there's other stuff on other points but  call the state host to find out i just you know i just question of the likewise the question loud if you accept a state statute that's all i want to know a sunset clause just so that everybody understands exactly what that is is a provision that says that when you adopt a statute it automatically sunsets or becomes invalid in a specific period of time i can tell you that this to not have a sunset clause i can tell you that categor i think the question is being asses could the town repeal this at some point and because it's an acceptance statute the answer is always yes but here is your dilemma is kevin just said housing partnerships actually  hold title to property to real property assets and generally speaking affordable housing deed provisions run ten to twenty years so if the housing partnership  to hold title to twenty apartment units or to a building the dilemma you'd have is if you wanted to dissolve that in three years five years ten years whatever would you do with the asset you'd have to sell the assets now you've got an asset with affordable housing with it with a covenant on the deed that allows the rents to only be out a certain level and you're trying to sell it without restriction in place you might have a real market in problem so i  want why would you be able to turn that right over to the town have they the housing authority they have they have units that are affordable today i don't i don't know the answer to that question perhaps you could i don't happen to know  kevin may have information on that and i don't you know i don't know but that i don't know of any failed housing partnerships where or repeals where you have that problem and what i want to hear  since it's been asked and i apologize i don't have an answer for you is what is the answer that question what is the definitive answer to the question generally speaking i think the success has been so good with these that i don't know that that question has been faced you isn't one in there so that's that's one hundred eighty degree yeah i don't know what we just talked a little but i don't think there's one in the statute for the very reason that kevin is describing which is he's was going to ask a developer to do turn property question is the reason i had the same question i chose the remain silent because i thought i would just asked sharon a question but i don't know with a specific expiration date three years away and we're going to ask somebody for substantial financial assets i suppose a logical question for that person is going to be one of tell me he knows that we approve this would have my money go and i don't know maybe there's a covenant that provides for that and it says that money will go to the to the housing  town meeting so at least maybe some things could be answered before a town meeting because otherwise if you get if you have a town meeting water not go and people are uncertain of that they're going to vote they're going to vote no and i don't want a situation with town meeting because they're not quite sure that votes know if this is if this winds up being in being a good article that's why right now i don't want to vote yes i don't want to vote no i just want to get one more at a chance to get some information have my question answered and then i'm willing to support that when when sharon first brought this up and she talked about the statute and i told him my concerns about you know adopting a state statute that would go on for and then she said well what what about if we have a sunset clause or something and i said well to me then that makes it palatable because if it doesn't work out then it then it's done in three years and my question is let's assume for sake of discussion that you cannot have a sunset clause in that case this would be a change the fact of this would be a defective article so a motion that would be made under the article would simply remove no problem on the other hand if it's found that in fact you can have an expiration date either through a by law or be you know i know for a fact by the way that the time plan to talk to town council because i gave her access and i know she did that so i'm looked looked at this and he decided you can do it maybe there's a certainly there could be a way to do it and i'm not aware of maybe a by law maybe some other way point is i don't think you have a problem here because of if that's what desired he can do it in which case this is this is accurate as it's written or you can't in which case you have to change the motion but either way we can handle that problem i think so a only question is the sunsetting part of it in other words if the board is supportive of this concept or the only concern of the sunsetting then i would say to you i think you probably have enough to go ahead and vote on it one way or the other because we can resolve the sunsetting question where for instance you can make your motion to approve this as written and if it turns out it's going to get amended because you can't do this then i'll have to come back in front of you and i think we proved we approve everything as written regardless purchase a property and they put five units there five units of affordable housing if a developer goes in there in does one hundred units only twenty five of them are affordable so you get seventy five they're not assuming that we can you know we're under the ten percent so even here i don't have a problem with the state statute yes it's it's better to local to you can in my opinion you can control everything but this isn't a bad statute to adopt in my experience so even if it you know if you go through and says there's no sunset clause and you're stuck with it it's not a bad thing to be stuck with if you give us a tool for affordable housing and you know affordable housing gets the bad rap a lot because it's affordable housing we need it towns need it and that's where they have  it is what is that we need and there's an obligation on behalf of the development group down there to provide it and unfortunately two things have come up and one is that because of the cost of housing in that specific development area it's much more difficult to provide the affordable care and the second thing that came out actually came out of the master plan was when we looked when we mapped where the the affordable as well are around the town by far and large they're all she'll born into that section of town so we could continue when we could force it and say ok you have to build it there it's going to be more problematic it's going to take longer to develop the property we're at a point now where they're ready to move a little bit more quickly on some of their their lives their development idea and that would kind of slow it back down again or we can say ok the developer has come to us say let's come to a number for a value of what each one of those would be and i'll take that money and i'll put it into a trust for  purchase other properties when that money and you know will develop affordable housing then they could be under the management the housing authority or however that works somehow you know and they're trying to do it we're trying to do the right thing for the town help the develop er out of a quandary satisfy concerns about you know how long the thing will go on and get out we think it's a good thing wouldn't you know we're not trying to we don't want to force feed it to anybody who really doesn't doesn't like the idea but on the other hand we no because in order for the good developer whoever that person is is to allocate money he's got to sell product and in the same as when we go to release lots we don't release them all but we have to release enough so that the developer yourself product to meet his obligations to his project but also to the conditions of the town says so you know we don't think this is go be rushed to complete kind of a thing and as kevin said it's it's a it's a vehicle that we're trying to use to move forward if we don't get it you know we're not going to jump off a bridge over it but it will put us back as a community and as a project and we'll just have to see where it takes us t and ever since the beginning of the adoption of that by a lot it's just distances between structures for example front yard it said distantly didn't say front yard said back it said sit back between structures in the front so and the same thing on the side in the rear so technically you could have a house that's twenty feet from your neighbor's house you neighbor could put on additional on his side where he didn't have let's say he had thirty feet he put on a twelve foot addition the other neighbor couldn't do it first come first served and we've been having those problems out on highland farms that's an open space in other open space situations is just clarifies that instead of between structures i made second it under discussion i'm assuming you guys have seen this in your a city article twenty three to see the towel to amend the zoning by law to strike the word dimension regulations for residential use in every place with table four dimensional regulations for uses in residential neighborhood board recommendations and they were added really for clarity their non subsidized tip they just that they just gave guidance to the board when they were making decisions but there's articles twenty three twenty four twenty five and twenty six which was done twenty six was done because it contradicted state statute and it was never picked up so we just wanted whenever you have three attorneys on a board everybody sees it a little differently and charges double for it and as they all said that the language was very tortured  section five three it was a mess so this just clarified it cleaned it up doesn't change anything just give some guidance question made seconds for the discussion and a discussion and as soon you guys all concur with not that subset of the more colorful right motion was made to approve twenty three twenty four twenty five thirty six and  offer a question for the chair would do plenty would consider taking up to come and taking a position on it hopefully to support it so that you know per se it's not an article that you need to and would be prepared to come to the meeting if you'd like  has applied to it it averages about increases about twenty percent makes the whole book twenty percent more efficient energy wise it also applies to certain  residential certain commercial projects in the past some of the questions were asked to me they were good well what happens if i have an older house do i have to comply with the code if i come in for a building permit and the answer is if you would do it in addition the addition would have to comply not the old house some of the homes here are one hundred fifty years old you can't make them comply we will the massachusetts will be adopting a two thousand eleventh two thousand and twelve international energy code within the next twelve to eighteen months which in effect will make the energy code the stretch energy code required in all communities right now it's by local adoption it's not uniform throughout the state so whether you approve it now or approve it down the road if it's going to be here it's going to be here in some form right now by adopting it it becomes one of the requirements it's necessary for the green communities act well there was money available i don't know grant monies for that but it does make you eligible to for grant money so if i talk to now for us in the inspection department going to be honest with you it's a long unfunded mandate oh it's going to require extra inspections  to people in our department so you'd want to consider that but it's going to happen and we've got to gear up for it whether whether you vote for did not show i don't know how the what they're broke but we explained it to them and they did take a vote so this is like groundhog day all over again let's just wait my opinion i don't want i don't even want to as an article for a long i don't got you going to vote against it which is it's increasing the pricing for building grants from what's going to explain to me and mark and bill and all great deal more than about this than i would this is going to be the law sometime in the next twelve eighteen months anyways most of the changes that you would do to new construction or dishes to your home or things you would do anyways i mean who wouldn't put energy efficient windows in insulation you have to buy coal and it is nothing to do with the conversation you have to fall the code book which is almost the same thing what i town the power none of the grant is to that is to the town for town building energy retrofitting street lights lamps whatever we do it the grant isn't to the homeowners or to the developers it's of the to the f town buildings and once you secure that grant then that opens the grant program so we can apply for additional grants or continued improvements energy improvements i think add c did vote in favor of this correct no you voted against it one zero no not in favor seven opposed ok my apologies i so they go i think now you've got a pretty clear picture terms of what's at stake i think on the other grand side because i have worked on a couple projects that the window is so short right now because it is as bill said it's an unfunded mandate that you know that window is very short there is no grants the states not giving out there were on the street will close out the grant program when they made the stretch called the law anyway logic suggests and a long history with federal and state grant programs suggests when they provide grants to cities and towns to do something they don't give you the next year that's what i was saying to you because it's the the town grant one hundred seventy odd thousand it we can get is guaranteed it's in the current budget if we adopt this grants for homeowners developers i don't know anything about  that i don't know what i'm talking about the projects they have are municipal projects and they were denied they're denied there's you know this is not is not you talking the second grants not the initial grant the initial grant is a formula grant you do the five things you get the money so you say in foxborough automatically gets that amount of money that's what they told us now the additional grants that i think is what you're talking about members said then this pool of money gets opened up for you maybe those grants i don't know or what the status of it is i'm sorry again i didn't know this was going to be on the agenda bill you don't have any reason to though that level of grants  originally when this first came out the ridglea were first came out that grant money was made available to them it was it was a motivating factor to become energy efficient it seems to be less and less is  t be we become closer to the fact that we are going to be accepting this more difficult that's what i mean or it's i think you may know the status of the grant program  you talk about only if you're not going the green communities regional coordinator for massachusetts department of energy resources in short he is the individual responsible for implementing and conducting this program in this part of the state  d former or on leave had come member john gray and i sat down with seth pickering a little under a month ago and had a rather wide ranging discussion with him about both the stretch code and the green communities program i can touch on the details of the stretch code if you will if you like but since the question right now seems to be about the green communities program i'll just skip right to that agr it's it's not known at a time at the time that a town adopts the various items that are involved in the green communities program and there are five of them and it's not known when the town adopts those five criteria whether there will be any money made available to the town the green community program municipalities do not receive just large block grants of money to use on appropriate projects as the town feels as appropriate instead green communities municipalities once initially qualified most then go and apply for every single grant amount on a program by program basis in other words every single initiative that the town wants to undertake using potential green community program funds is subject to a separate grant application process and may be allowed or denied on one project irrespective of other other initiatives by the town so merely being a green communities program in a bee is no guarantee that any funds will be available for any initiative he actually had to make the application of the five and wait for it to come back it's not an automatic process right and you know manager as is the guy with the knowledge and certainly he was and he's responsible for implementing it i can answer other questions about any of those two because as i say we talked with him about almost all aspects eat thanksgiving  nobody has one if there's one out there we want to discover and we did a pretty far reaching search will rain have one it work and provided that to us which is very close to what you see here very comprehensive at by a bunch of town officials police chief social service slashed the away director some other folks off fire chief and cetera and all of pretty much pass judgment that they think it's a good good piece of work i think it's a good piece of work too and we all are hoping that it's on point in terms of what you were looking for this is basically an awareness and reporting policy for time employees how to be aware of what are the warning signs of sexual abuse in children and what should you do if you suspect that and that's basically what this policy is and as you can see it's quite comprehensive in terms of  you know being hopefully helpful to town employees so that if they suspect something they know what to do and it gives them a way to do it and do it in a manner that does not subject them to any potential liability for making reports so that that's the balance you're trying to strike and i think it's a good policy so up to you if this meets with your with your approval  looking at this and it doesn't say sexual abuse just about anywhere in this document it talks about malnutrition neglect fracture of bones emotional injury if you see some you know bruises burns lacerations lack of supervision he says if you find something you go to the resources within forty eight hours they report it doesn't say anything about police how do recognize anything about sexual abuse and i'm wondering if this just on a scale of one to ten this is the exact opposite of what i was expecting and i apologize for not giving it if this is emotional injury by abuse or neglect or boiler plate which you know it's good to have but it doesn't say anything about volunteers coach you know it's people working on behalf of the town that spending time with children or  using with a sexual base overview at all on this you know what i'm told by the experts is that having separate policies on physical abuse sexual abuse is many forms of abuse doesn't make sense because you could have twenty policies dealing with different areas of child abuse so so if we have one policy that's fine that's that was the point oh that is there's nothing about sexual abuse in here that i'm seeing at all section two point one atheist second paragraph  includes the commission of a sexual offense against a child but how do you if the notion is how do you recognize it to be able to report it then you know a sentence talking about everything else i this this doesn't do anything for me of working in the town and i see little joey being abused by a teacher or an athletic director or something it doesn't even tell me to go to the police it says you know go to someone with an eight hundred number and then forty eight hours later you know there's a specific reason for that with this policy proviso is a safe way a lot of people frankly are very reluctant to go to the police that's the reality whether we like it or we don't so what again what i'm told by the experts is that if you if the policy only says to an employee go to the police then a lot of people won't do and so are they have what i mean it's let me finish and so sexual abuse physical abuse any kind of abuse will not get reported because people are afraid and if you think about it for a moment  because it is the nature of people who abuse children that they tend to be highly credible people in the community that's how they get to do these crimes if you accuse that person then most people are very worried about their own liability and so they would tend not to do it so you've got to create a procedure that makes it safe in liability free for the employee or you don't have a policy this worth the paper it's written on because they won't follow it i mean does anybody in this day and age not understand that if you think a child is a victim of sexual abuse that you shouldn't call the police of course you should everyone knows that doesn't happen rarely and that's the reason so what we've created here is a policy where you go to a safe official a cut out the h r director the department head and you report it they then have the responsibility to take it to the police but they're protected by the town liability insurance where somebody else may or may not be so we've created a situation with this some safety here a cutout literally called a cutout that's what it's called between the reporter who suspects the abuse and the police  has to take the legal action on it this is a very specific construct it is not an accident and i am not an expert at this and if you want experts here then i would bring them back for you want to different night and they could tell you far more about this than i can i only know what i've been told secondhand if you will unfortunately directors on vacation can be here tonight we needed to get this scheduled i know was very high priority for the board so we put it on but i don't know enough about this nearly to be able to guide you through involved questions about it i can tell you a certain things but that's not in as much as you might like who prepared this right if if it's a boilerplate from something you know that the the need for the other direction was to let's address the sexual abuse reporting policy and not find sexual abuse anywhere in this other than one line that's below malnutrition from birth and it gives it's under the indicators section  reporting over the compliant child has bizarre sophisticated or unusual sexual behavior or knowledge child a child is sexually provocative child is poor peer relationships overly adaptive child is inappropriate the adult is in a properly adult or inappropriate infant tile that is the definition of behavioral indicators of what sexual abuse sexual abuse know not according to this in mind as you're going through all abuse situations that we would want to bring forward some of the signs that there has been sexual abuse come under this category behavioral indicators i mean one thing when i read through this one thing i was right away went to is the importance of training for all employees to have more explicit information  you know these types of behaviors so that they can actually be prepared for what they would be seeing and see examples through training you know there are video training modules that you can provide we can't to employees we've already done some training with all ton of police have taken the darkness to light program there are very many communities factor maybe not of an os where that's actually happened but in terms of doing more training we have to have a policy in place in order to train them on the policy because that's the next step the policy needs to be very specific and i think that you know that does a couple towns out there that are dealing with the same situation that that we are  and i know you that you asked me to work on this but kevin and the h r director had you know kevin told me at the last meeting that they've got it down pat and it would be in the next packet so i didn't get a chance i don't know chance to sit with kevin but i didn't and when i was reading through it you know when i when i read a statement you know the staff is not required to report cases to the law and so was that well when i just when i read that you know it just it flashes a big light like you don't have to and this is exactly what we need to get away from we have to we have to state what we mean and mean what we say and  other people the hugs program is doing something to do to present to the town the sexual violence prevention at every age and stage and that's happening on may eighth home middle school i think that's you know that's a really good start not you know hope to see more of this kind of stuff but of this display model of this came out of the group truthful larry this came out of our whole effort to create a program this it's just i'm limits in what i can physically do as one person say and i was more than willing to like you know i would have taken some of it does whatever i need to do but you know it seemed you were all set with it from you know what i now you know you talk about not enough time kev and i have about like you know depending i have you know two weeks so this is something that's important to me that i you know i would you know experts do things that's you know well it does a reason they do it i just said it you can put a policy in place and you can tell the employees all day long you will do this but because there was no way to check if they're doing it or not you can't force it i mean you can say to the police any case of suspected sexual abuse or any other form of child neglect or abuse you will reported to the police and guess what they want that's the reality so if you have a policy that says that you don't have a policy that's worth the paper it's written on now this is what i'm told if you have a policy that gives the employer a place to report this where they can protect themselves from the liability of being the accuser of people who carry great status typically in a community that saw these predators do what they do then you have a policy where you are a likely to get a high compliance rate know things and will make the report you've got to give them some safety so again if it was everybody knows these days that if there's a child being abused you should call the police i'd call the police you'd probably call the police but not everybody is going to do what you and i do is this this is a revelation don't everybody doesn't everybody understand they said though a lot of people know about abuse and don't report it we all know that and so with this policy is designed to do is to get through that reality and create an opportunity for people to report this in a safe way well if you fail to provide  opportunity folks then you get a feel good policy we can all give us a pat on the back because we think we've got something good i e everybody will report to the police and you don't so do you want real progress but he just wants something on a piece of paper that makes us all feel like we did something when he was this is the only right here because i'm going to bow to the low my top right now we need an expert kevin you said you're not an expert you tried to pass this along and he's saying here it is our h r persons on vacation i'm not an expert but  figured out i can't figure it out in either can anyone on this board i'm going to call in an expert we're going to talk about it and we're going to get something that is worth this piece of paper and i think because you know this is a feel good thing and this is not what we're looking for we're not looking for someone on the back and say you know we've got burns we've got lacerations we've got malnutrition and here's a forty eight hour hotline with an eight hundred number this is useless to me this is not what we set out to do and it's not going to be a checkbox on something if we're going in the wrong direction and we've asked kevin to do something that he's either not qualified to do or it's out of reach because we're asking for the wrong thing and shame on us but i don't know that kevin doesn't know that certainly our age our person you know i'm not even going to get going with that this was a priority it was set to get done by the draft is nowhere near what we hoped for and i'm not sure why we're not getting it back but i say we table it and we get somebody in here that knows specific as this is a specific don't have any action at all in fact my preference is to get somebody from the outside literally parents of somebody from the outside that that's qualified and i'm not saying you're not because you're a town manager this is an expert piece of that we would hire a consultant perhaps to do this is that what you had in mind because that has never visited in one mention oh we might not know what we need well i guess i think what we do know at this point is the staff did the best job they could  with what we thought was a good draft and you know and that that includes a great deal of contact that those staff folks have with all the people again we can't find a town that's got one of these we can't find one this probably went out t it yet if the board wish i certainly would be happy to hire a consultant i'm sure there's somebody out there who will do it and have to have the consultant meet with the board to get a clear understanding of what the board would like and then pay for a policy to be prepared more than happy to do that but that's not what you asked for initially and i had a perhaps i'm on a clear understanding of what it is you had in mind i think what we asked for was to come up with a sexual abuse reporting policy and with that with very clear what we got back was a child abuse reporting policy that has everything else in my opinion except what we asked for it's in here watered down with everything else but it doesn't have the emphasis that at least i thought it needed to have and and again i'm not coming down on you know this town managers there's an h r this is a specialty item if you're in if we can't you know you shouldn't be in a position to know everything about everything but this is a specialty item and i don't think we have the expertise and certainly with our h r person here there's a void right now because that's is something that would focus on this a little bit more closely than a town manager with this this really goes outside of the expertise of any staff person i would say chief a lier is probably the most knowledgeable but i think it is the most knowledgeable in terms of the crime as opposed to how to write a policy for employees it really is remarkable that we weren't able to find a policy more on point with some of the city in town but i think that says something too much exactly sure what it says but we literally can't find anyone that has one now so the mouse miscible personal association and home energy association please use o c a ssion and i think vicki reached out to the social social service lash an asian association so that if that doesn't touch every city in town and in the state it certainly got the bulk of them and nobody had one so i think what we're doing here is we're creating something that may not exist at this point and we certainly would be happy to do that that's not the sense of what the mission was that i thought you'd communicated to me and one of the point please understand the staff did the best job we could we care about this too deeply and so if we've come up short please don't feel like it's through any lack of effort or any lack of caring we care about this just as much as you do trust me so i apologize if we came up short but we will go higher i will find an expert who will hire that person or find some money in the budget or randy will find someone in the budget and we will pay them to develop this policy and we'll do it just as fast as we a governmental agency so that we don't have to have to pay for a consultant but run this by them this is a draft this is not anything that i don't know if it works on vitamin that i have to i mean i'd like this and that maybe that might be the first i don't know what i missed between jumping out of bed and getting my clothes on and getting here but something's not right ok there's been a long period of time that this is come before the board and having worked for ten years in social services and having dealt to with and not having formal education i guess that says that i can detect sexual abuse in children i knew it i felt it i knew it and i brought it to my supervisors and i worked for ten years for pine street in in a women and children's program you don't need to have a ph d kevin i'm sorry you don't have to have a doctorate in social services to know when a child has been abused there are indications that you can see and you formulate so i understand that people are afraid to come forward and state that because they're afraid of the repercussions against them but what i heard before i jumped out of bed with inappropriate and with an adequate for the town i don't know i don't know what lorraine gave but i know that there's a lot of information out there and still somebody didn't do their homework and i am appalled to think that we're at this point right now facing all the allegations with the sheehan situation that this is what we're this is all we could come up with give me a break give me a break let's let's do this and i just want to please jim just let me finish because i ran and got dressed to come up here this is not adequate for what the town is going through right now and obviously it has meant a says jim it has just it has just skimmed the top of the topic there is a lot of information out there and i will make sure that you have it i will make sure the h r director has it and anybody on this board will have it i will contact kind street in tomorrow and i will make sure you have the information by friday chairman i pretty sure that i truly do but i'm not sure if i get that information that it's going to make me an expert in the subject of fact i'm quite certain it isn't what we need is a subject matter expert someone who truly understands this you know there are communities that have gone through this is communities right nearby they don't have a policy and they've had town employees who are in prison now in two cases that i know of because i was personally involved in reporting one of them but that town doesn't have a policy and i had a town ploy that was a predator then why we're not going there yet kevin finish i don't know why those why these communities don't have a i don't know why there's a complete vacuum here of communities with a policy i can tell you that this represents more than any other town has that we know of if we've come up short again my apologies to you we didn't skim it we had a lot of work from working on this for three months if we didn't get it on point to what you want then we will work harder around it but the board has an over than just saying that you want you coming down tonight if i were going for them as i said before kevin is not the right person because he's not trained it jim i'm going to tell you right now i'm just going to tell you one thing right now i am not going to let this stop that's why i'm going father than this if i have to go to the papers i'm going father than this because you've had an opportunity to to investigate every single solitary lead that you could possibly could have to get the information and me i care about this is much as anybody else to set the record straight that kevin has been working with us since day one when this came out anybody else report an abuser to the police anyone else here i did i have to kevin and i'm not going to wave the flag i'm going to end this right now right ok kevin's been working with the police the police are wrapping up their investigation this is probably one of the most emotional issues that has come through the town and it's a tip of the iceberg or it's over i don't know the police of finishing up their stuff what we asked for was a sexual abuse reporting policy but we got back i don't think addresses it i think the reason it doesn't address it because it's a it's a specialty item these days that we've learned from generations of crap that's been going on and it's come to the point now where it's it's in our town and i wanted done right i don't want to ask kevin because he's not qualified as a sexual abuse reporting policy expert person is not an expert we need to find someone in here that can tell us from their day to day operations it's not an office employee handbook it's not a mass municipal association because those are the same groups that have let it go on thank god ten twenty thirty years so i'm not going to go back to the to the same group that's letting it happen i'm going to have somebody come in here that's an expert on it and they can tell us i don't want to get i don't want to say kevin is not doing his job because kevin has gone to every meeting that we've had with the police and we're waiting for the police to come back with report kevin took a direction from us to put something together and he's at the position where he doesn't have an expertise and in we asked him to do something that he just doesn't have the expertise so if everyone can calm down a little bit we'll put it back on the agenda once we reached out to get an expert that can help us because we need to help ourselves right now and none of us at this table are qualified jim and i can i just ask i just want to ask that as part of when the expert is identified that when they develop this policy that they still include to some extent all forms of abuse because i think the idea was to model as i understood was to model this after you know we have mandated reporters as employees of of the town and so i think the hope was to have all municipal employees educated in aware so that any type of abuse could be addressed so you know only it's the sexual abuse is the one that's at the forefront but i think all forms of abuse are important to educate our employees and so i just want to make sure that that is still included as we give direction to whoever the consultant this think is and i think that's that's a valid point and let's have that can be a direction but let's hear back from the consultant to have to say  the education is the critical thing that's the critical and the one thing i want to say is it needs to be mandated mandatory and you have to report it whether you're in fear of losing your position with the tow action items that we can go through quickly before we get into the last items item number two interoffice the minutes from march twenty sixth voice l from the historical commission and e mail in there or that one was actually she resigned in two thousand and ten and the other one was in october two thousand and twelve so these are so further discussion of the resignations i was in favor right in the last one conflict bob bob cutler had given us of information on appointments of additional election workers with terms do his self review and he presented it and then handed it to us in writing from that point if you wanted to meet with kevin one on one go back and forth with kevin between a little second and today i had asked the board to take their and you were given an opportunity to give narration and then this one through five and lorraine was going to put those together and i had asked lorraine it's a little different this year because linda and i are up for election and i didn't want to take the responsibility of summarizing everybody's thoughts so it s lorraine to give a summary and her words of all those i ate items collectively from of all of us and go through all eight items one at a time in her words just so we're not hearing forty different paragraphs we're hearing just so lorraine did that she handed it out to the board there's a scoring  from each category and it's tallied up to at the bottom and that score comes with i think the categories are it's a rating between one and five one being unacceptable to being conditional requires improvement three being satisfactory meets elections expectations for exceptional general exceeds like comes expectations and a score of five is outstanding substantially substantially exceeds lecterns expectations this will be the third review that we've given kevin it's part of his record as part of the town's record and then per contract in june june of two thousand and thirteen is when we have to move into the fourth year and the board is going to meet to talk about is this something that we want to do extend kevin contract for another duration if we take no action automatically gets extend extended so this is something that we're going to talk about in may but this closes his contractual obligation for the two thousand individual reviews are public record and anything that we're going to speak at the table present is public record thank you ok so every member of the board provided me with either written or typed comments which  accompanied each of the sections that kevin was evaluated on what i did was take all of the written comments and consolidate them under each category so one of the documents in front of you list by section with the school for verbatim what everyone's comments were and compiles them all so what i'm going to do is read through the summary the description of each topic that was kevin was evaluated on and all read verbatim some of the comments just to enhance you know my summary comment  so starting with supervision the criteria that kevin was evaluated on is does the town manager adequately supervise department heads appropriately delegate promote competency of staff ensure collaboration and efficiency hold people accountable manage conflicts etc supervision of employees has improved over the past years kevin has directed department has to attend management training as part of corrective action plans and performance improvement he should handle personal issues in a more timely fashion and communicate potential personal issues in a less threatening manner i'm just going to read some of the specific comments that i've summarized for example the hiring of the new age our director should take some of the discipline issues off of his plate good to see that each department has taken an active role in the goals and objectives process process threats to the board selectman of the unionizing of nonunion employees because of a situation is not what could be called good supervision skills kevin has addressed performance issues including separation of two employees timeliness of addressing personal issues can improve so these are just some of the examples verbatim what was provided that resulted in the summary that i've written under the category of leadership does the town manager inspire and or effectively influence others act a slice of li adaptable have effective interpersonal skills demonstrate a high regard for personal ethics offer practical innovative ideas does he have the courage to deliver bad kevin has to demonstrate innovative thinking in his proposal for a merit based review process for employees he needs to complete the necessary steps for review and approval of the final program in an implementation plan by the board selectman the process should not be rushed is a strong negotiator with good interpersonal skills for bargaining and has bargain for items that will improve the financial viability of the town kevin has demonstrated highly effective leadership during times of crisis kevin has used hyperbole as a tactic to influence the board selectmen attempting to use scare tactics does not help the board with decision making  just some specific comments we have taken steps to replace the automatic step and provide merit based review process for employees the success of the system was to have a robust process of new documentation and review merit plan is still in development there are times that kevin becomes an advocate for issues i give him great praise for leadership during times of crisis especially during storms we've had i'm concerned about the two step a plan that set up the evaluation process who implemented before the program was completed under execution a policy does the town manager understand the by laws and ordinances of the town and cause them to be fairly enforced the experience and training of the town manager route with respect to municipal law is as is expected and  kevin should focus on quoting policy slash law correctly during public presentations to support effective board selectman decision making given has many years of experience in the laws and ordinances of the town although there have been instances where he has made statements directing that may not have given the total picture is an example of one of the comments kevin attends meaningful continuing education programs focuses on innovation is another comment for that under community relations does the town manager work well with citizens to properly handle their issues or complaints is he readily available to the public does he address their issues timely does he take the time to understand the political ramifications of issues kevin has made himself available to the public with drop in hours and meetings at the senior center kevin should take more time to understand the political ramifications of issues like the excel electronic sign proposal for the common kevin should more consistently respond to all citizen contacts outreach to the community was excellent during storms under economic development the criteria is does the town manager work well with developers while protecting the town's interest as we work to increase the town's tax base through economic development or other revenue suggestions given his work positively on issues such as sewer billboards and communicating with the craft organization he successfully worked with a tiff team to negotiate an agreement with invests invensys his recent proposal for an economic development initiative is a good first step for business prospecting development of the i am a finance proposal was an important complement kevin should be careful to work with input from planning water and sewer and board of selectmen when considering business partnering with developers with poor track records effective communication of business i would like to hear updates from kevin directly when discussions meaning discussions about economic development when these discussions take place so as to keep the board in the loop and offer their opinions  economic development is a topic that is less affected by a town manager on boards like me as much as it is with economic factors and efforts through the various planning and zoning boards however the best foot forward has been taken by time manager coming off the volatility of this board with the casino issue and that is appreciated larger issues in front of the community relating to developments such as sewer billboards communicating with craft organization have been as positive as can be expected the town manager has juggle through these with some successes and some failures along the way and that is expected alignment with the board of selectmen how well does the town manager function under the policy direction of the board of selectmen does he communicate often enough in appropriate detail in advance of us reading things in a newspaper is he open to new ideas does he return phone calls and e mails on a timely basis does he meet with us individually as needed time communication and addressing various opinions on the board are satisfactory alignment with five independent elected officials is difficult but overall is fine kevin can improve in this area by taking time to learn more background on issues that are potentially controversial pre meeting package should include complete information so that board of selectmen members are fully prepared for discussion kevin should avoid shooting from the hip with answers boards like when members should be informed of information that will appear in the papers financial management how well was the budget prepared did it include innovative ideas was input sought from all applicable sources were budget presentations easily understood how well does the town adhere to the budget is the board of selectmen updated regularly on the monthly financial results does he listen to the advice of the board this categories a driving factor in performance kevin's along with our finance directors efforts to bring stable numbers forward are appreciated budget forecasts money on hand capitalization of past and current projects or well done performance was outstanding with savings made through the insurance loss control program developing the i am a finance program significantly decreasing health insurance cost through planned redesign were important accomplishments improvements and monthly reporting financial results including specific impacts related to changes for example such as the consolidation of the d p w would also be helpful to the board despite a heavy task load in tight time schedules kevin managed to keep making progress on goals and objectives some are more successful than others most notable insert invensys to if identifying the finance plan for the i m a streamlining services health plan redesign and finance plan for town hall renovation replacement kevin is very busy and should delegate and should work to delegate certain tasks in order to be more responsive to requests by the boers like when for information or analysis  i'm not chime in with any additional comments because it seems like i think i've kept kashrut it but if you feel that i've left anything out please jump in ok so the town manager's finest finest accomplishments working with finance to bring forward balanced budgets during economic instability for a third year in a row understanding the important invensys to request immediately and directing a process for evaluation and settlement coordination communication during storm and power outage disasters significantly reduced health care cost develop finance programme for the i am a strong negotiation skills  measures three strongest points ability to juggle numerous tasks financial management slash innovation innovation strong go sheet or with the unions in businesses three areas for improvement work towards a better understanding of foxborough sense of community history of topics and acknowledgement of local efforts consolidating presentations ensuring consistently detailed and accurate information is presented to all boards committees and the public continue to improve visibility a town hall now on the last page of list of the scores for each of the categories supervision score was thirteen leadership fifteen point five execution of policy fifteen community relations fourteen economic development fifteen alignment with board of selectmen eleven financial management sixteen and execution of task sixteen total an average to two compare to the evaluation criteria when average comes out to two point nine so bringing that to the closest criteria would make that three point zero which is a satisfactory rating overall to meet selections expectations and then we have a section here for town manager comments and then for signature by a representative of the table listening to the public review in front of everybody but an opportunity to see the dispute this or or argue reinforcer i have an opportunity to talk about it you don't have to well i appreciate all the board's work you think everybody did put a lot of time and a lot of good commentary here i continue to be somewhat perplexed by what appears to me to be a ever changing standard for my performance the contract requires the board to look at the goals and objectives which were set up there just is not a consensus and that's going to have to go to another year but many of the comments that are offered actually the vast majority of the comments that are offered have very little to do with the goals  board had done a five supervision leadership cetera and we was set up goals in each of those areas and the board the challenge for the board and for me was to translate from the commentary goals which if i accomplish those would correct deficiencies that's always what an employee wants as i read the comments  find very little that talks about those goals in each of the section but i find a lot of subjective commentary which is hard for an employee to accomplish what an employer wants when the employer you doesn't know what it is the employer wants now the written goals is a statement by the board and it says here's what you want me to do but i think the board continues to have some difficulty evaluating my performance according to the goals and instead enters a lot of subjective commentary some of this i frankly don't know what it means and so i don't know how to do these things better and other things  indication of meets the board's expectation lives outstanding substantially exceeds expectations three three is doing at the time the town of foxborough has a composite rate increase with respect to employee health insurance over four years which i think is a negative number we're still putting this coming year together how much sure what your expectation is with respect to employer health insurance pretty much everybody else is having continuing to have substantial rate increase certainly two zeros in a negative number and a three i would submit to you is extraordinary and yet no one on the board found that extraordinary we are one of thirteen left for the fiscal year we are one of thirteen towns in the commonwealth of massachusetts which did not find it necessary to levy the entire prop two and a half allowed tax levy as you know we took half of the levy and used it to reduce the taxes and bond thus saving the tax payers their proportionate share of four hundred thousand dollars thirteen towns in a convent out of three hundred fifty one but nobody finds that extraordinary profit liability automobile insurance cost containment as that last control program was set up and while the board made favorable comments on it we were the best  but again some board members felt that the performance scenario just just met expectations of those of us and for no one said fine it's unclear to me given those accomplishments that  and i report of those to you i basically said all i can but there doesn't appear to be favorable recognition of those accomplishments or perhaps perhaps a board members minds that is just acceptable that is what should be happening i would submit to you that those accomplishments are not what should be had those are extraordinary as measured by very objective criteria i e what the rest of the state is doing unless those are the goals i'm not sure so i'm confused what it is that you want me to do to be better aligned with you so  you know when you look at the definitions under each section you know see the highlighted area under for example number six align it with the board of selectmen which do number six how well does the town manager function under the policy direction of the board select select from does he communicate often enough in appropriate detail in advance of us reading through this and the newspaper it was the same definition that we had last year so you know i think it spells out what the expectation would be the examples given underneath are you know some examples but i think the idea is to you know hear feedback from the members as to how your performance is viewed the importance of the loss reduction program the success of that the development of that you know really good in the financial area execution of tasks which is these goals and objective s being executed i'm not sure how to write a goal like these examples underneath number six which is really the intangible performance aspect is what i think we're struggling with here and so i think it it appears to have crept into many of the categories some aspects of the alignment with the board's lead and so i think maybe that's i'm hearing you say that that's what your final disappointing that's exactly what it's exactly the same because as i look at some of the categories and what's been accomplished in the goals and then i read the comments that have been made i find a lot of the comments are completely unrelated to the goals and so i'm sort of wondering well if i'm supposed to be accomplishing these goals in a given section but i receive these comments from individual board members and then a very low rating to go along with it you know i'm really left at a loss about what it is you you want me to achieve  i think it is an overall comment it is exceptionally difficult to work for five different people that's the career i chose and so i'm not whining about it i'm just making the observation it exceptionally difficult to do now the way their time managers try to bring some sense to that is to say to the board give me some written guidance that indicates what it is you want me to accomplish and if there is if there is a problem that we need to work i'll give you example last year the board said that i was inaccessible enough to the public and i remember saying back to you i thought that was a fair criticism because i knew there were complaints about being able to come see me this year the staff and i concentrated on that area such that no citizen of this town not once not a single instance as a citizen of this town called here and i got no return phone call in twenty four hours or an appointment just as fast as i could get them in and i can always accommodate their schedule in my schedule somebody wants to meet with me but they have a job so they can only meet at night and so sometimes it takes a little bit of time but there hasn't been a single instance where any citizen has been turned away not one but this could criticism in here that would suggest  i wonder if he wants to see me they come see me when i'm not in a meeting which is three quarters of my day i want to sleep you know the instruction is fit i meant fit the person if they like to come in i have people knock on the door all the time consider this as an option you know if you would spend time one on one to review the specific concerns that you have now that we have the comment was typed up and you know if there are you know certain comments that you want further explanation to be able to understand where it's coming from i think that's important you know that we would clarify that for kevin so you know i'd suggest we consider a one on one in case there are any you know specific comments they're identified by the individual so you know you know who they are attributed to and you know that way to see is there something that perhaps we don't know if you don't was on a suspect i don't think one on one is going to do it because you're five folks with strong feelings about things and that's you don't run for office if you're not a strong willed person and you have five different perspectives on what you want to accomplish and how you want to accomplish and so as you look at some of these you can see some very dramatic  differences between you on the very same performance you all look at the same performance area and some of you came up with a one hour or two and somebody came up with a four and threes it's clear that the board itself  has some issue with respect to articulating to the need for you is a board won't do done i can't satisfy five individual people it is physically impossible but the board continues to hol accountable to five different standards of five different people the whole idea of doing the goals was for the board to discipline itself to articulate what you want accomplished as a group of people will be at some of what you want may not get accomplished but it's a process of compromise and then to give me something that says here's what the group wants as opposed to five individual people i mean if you look at the comments look at the variation here no town manager no matter how gifted he or she is can satisfy what each of you as individuals wants it is not possible i can't do it and you couldn't kill it no one can do it so i'm trying to understand what it is not only what you want done but how you want it done but every year we go through this process and the identical problem occurs which is it continues to be five different standards not a singular standard and so why is the person trying to carry this out for you really end up every year being somewhat dismayed i mean here i am thinking gee you know this past remember the year we're talking about july one of last year to today or last week so here i am thinking boy it was a good year and but the but the record reflects on adequate performance so i guess where my confusion is is in not having clarity with want to get into the specifics either you know last year we took apart the contract and put it back together on the debt and i think your concern was we have a very spreadsheet like objectives and it was forty of them but yet last year we rated you on eight things financing did you relations in alignment with the board and all that stuff so we took all of those goals and objective had broken down and put him under those eight categories ok good luck trying to find five people that are going to be all on the same page that you know maybe over in disney world where you know it's a different but here in new england we've got elected people and i'm sure you're used to that there's no way you can please everybody there's an issue that came up last meeting somebody is upset because a year ago someone holds a grudge someone from the ad com has got somebody else's year from the planning board from a resident you look at all those items for for instance on item two we've got leadership now we've got one two three four five different subcategories each one does the time manager inspire into effect of lee influence others actis and so that's the definition and here are all your items below it so you go through those you can address every single one create and save budget conduct over time complete you know all that stuff from the year that we've been working with you we come back and say leadership is a good leader with all this in the background and we give you our comments if we give you a comment on every single item in here and it's just not manageable so i think what you got was an honest opinion from each person they say it does kevin show strong leadership here's our honest answer you go on to the next one and then collectively it get an average i think you very you know maybe it's the system and i remember we did this right after the casino era you had one former selectman that had you at the worst and you had one selectman that had you at the top they balance each other out and you get somewhere in the middle at the end of the day  you know that i don't think it's going to be stroking your ego because i don't think we can ever get there unless it's super super work but you're going to be average because that was what five people balance out now you know the finance issue was probably one of the stronger points and you got the highest rating on that stronger than the other ones so in order for you to get a super super rating everybody has to be up there and we're not all there and you know that's part of the system that was codified in a legal document that we required last year because we had a user agreement a contract so that's where we are with it if you want specific examples on financials sometimes you get put on the table there was some great budget discussions and we came about on finance and some of things i look at financial as how do we get there we had a fire department set of permit fees that were i thought were out of the roof sure we can make a lot of money but that's not good finance when you start to go in that direction so maybe that brought my lower score down a little bit even though we were getting to the dollar how do we get there if you know last year was you know the meals tax  seniors felt threatened because of the way you got there in the presentations with a dollar issue so financial is not just all dollars so if you get a lower score there's other things to consider on that i think we did the best we could taking those forty items times you know five or six here responses to each item put it specifically in a category that we had to do because of the contract in rated it so all of those items have all of the background of all those issues and at the end of the day have five independent people saying how do we feel about our time manager in this category and we give it to you and wanted two sentences you know if you had a board of three people your scores ma deviate a little bit but i you know i speak to you know different members you know jenny might be very upset about one issue and it doesn't bother me when it comes down to putting it on paper you're going to get you're stuck with the flavor of the day in the topic of the day and i shouldn't be any surprise you know overall this feelings how you doing this specific items that you know are the topic of the day and at the end of the day we have to put it all in one document it's three pages from a year's worth of work you know and you know and it's a difficult process to have to have this discussion in the public it's difficult for you and you know and i'm sure you can understand the certain things that we're fired up about but we don't want to put down a paper because we don't embarrass anyone we don't have the full story i don't spend i say what i started to write on the range i ended up taking it back as i wasn't quite finished i don't spend a lot of time in town hall and i don't do it for a reason because we've got to evaluate and we don't want to get personal relationships with people in processes because i want to be able to objective look at it from far away as a result my ears are in tune to staff complaining people complaining you know you complaining about different board members a different people it we all take it the best we can and in the end i spend a lot of time you know people focus on it we do the best for you if it's not what you want for you've got the individual you know that's why  provided you to individual has their comments you know meet with them during the week but you know we already had the one step kevin gave us his best foot forward responded it is what it is if this follow up that you can go back and forth for that for the next one but you know i don't think we can keep going back and forth to for him to find out why we wrote a certain comment and then to redo it if that's what we were thinking of going in the direction you want to go to we're going to draw the line and say it's done put it on file you know learn from it or grow from it and then move on to the next one a little long winded but no good but i can pick up on that one kevin when it comes aligns with the board number six a lot of times we all get along real good up here a lot unionize again or i'm telling you they're going to do it they're already talking about it he's steering the board knows let us take the imported you have put on the table now we'll have the debate when you get more involved with the debate and you get passionate about it  chairing the board then it becomes you know about alliance with the board it's not working well to my eyes your job is to give us all the information you have and let us  is not to be part of the debate you've already stated sometimes your restated pov six times in a meeting and and that's what makes things i e appear sometimes it's not all you sometimes directed at you like tonight but that's one calling i can make on that and i think my comments were fair they were never personal i think if you look at the average towards all together you have five people coming up the same score pretty much if you drop the high in the low it's still the same score second that all the way it always gets rid of the it gets rid of the worst opinion  financial management in economic development those were what i ran to the highest on i think you have an outstanding performance in those areas i think and you know obviously in the strains that were listed those are listed as your strengths by all of us and you know i think that what mark is saying is you know i'll just try and paraphrase a little bit i think that you're passionate on your passion about issues brings your political side into the discussion and that ends up i think sometimes being problematic so i am often interested in your political you know interpretation of something but i think maybe it's something better that is spoken about not at this table you know and if people some members may want to hear it some members may not so maybe just having that as something to consider when you are discussing information with us you know knowing that we're coming to the table if that is carved out everybody has the option to find that out from you independently so you know i think better to keep that close well i think would be fair criticism would march in which you didn't i think there's a fair number of passionate person that pays you great dividends that were probably harder than most people would because frankly this is my job and it's my hobby too so i work weekends and don't mind and don't ask for anything any recognition or anything for that you know no i do but it's also that passion is also something that comes to the table as you said sometimes in inappropriate ways being too strong willed with respect to making a presentation past the point of where perhaps i should and i think that's fair because i know i do that fewer incidents than others to much conversation was a fascinating one with respect to that that's for sure again we all have our passions govern that was you know that was my passion coming out and you know next week it will be you know not but th and i respect criticism like that because at the end of the day i think that's on us i think is thoughtful i think it's it's intended to be helpful and that's what i preach she from the board and when any employee appreciates an employer is helpful criticism criticism that's intended to identify weakness and allow you to get better at it and that's the kind of criticism that you know i can do something with  category of supervision and these things are going to volunteer at i think you need to realize that one when we have that header of supervision and it says  time in or out or adequately supervise department heads and that whole thing i think that when you give us your update if you keep that header sort it in mind when you're when you're filling out your spreadsheet of you know what's happened and i mean if something is complete it's completed but you know you might want to say like you know i worked with r and you know his crew and and we you know we had a little you know we worked through some issues or something and that way it gives us the leg oh he did he you know he didn't just do this on his own and he way you have a better understanding of how we're going to gauge you i mean you can say that you know why you know i did all of these reviews of of employees ok you know but how did you do them you know that kind of that kind of thing you know just i think that's what we're looking for is how you did it how it was handled and and that kind of thing you know i don't want you to write a book because there's not enough room and lorraine gets smaller and smaller on a spreadsheet so it's going to get more and more difficult but i think if you have a better understanding of that's what we're looking at is the main subject would be you know if it's supervision of its leadership or its community relations we're looking at the big picture and so i don't you know i don't take time to call you every day to say i you know everything ok i'm assuming if something bad has happened you know we judge ourselves but that's the only way we know is by what you say and as you are you know what early is that in the year that if you see something in one of those reports that's a message that somebody will say something so we can not wait till the end of the year and find out why don't we want to go  what i'm saying is all you know those reports have all been delivered but i haven't had any feedback on and i know you all busy why didn't i didn't feedback on because i didn't want to get into an open meeting law situation if you were going to believe it or a report that you because yeah the problem is with such a giant sort of goals and objectives in the sense you suspect big body of work your folks and just basically a line or two to report on each one of those sometimes i feel i wish i had more room to write but then and now i'm trying to do i get the work done to do i spend all my time writing reports so i try to bullet it but i think if we have a discussion at the table when you have an opportunity to say what does this mean or are you really doing this that's well here's a good example there was is a goal in here for me to present you with an increased fire alarm fees you set that goal i didn't know when i presented it it went over trying to think of the proper metaphor proposal up and it was pretty clear after one discussion that you were interested and i did i did send you a memo and say that's off the table get over drawn it reading or that's what you said doesn't need to be  we've had this discussion before when the time manages reports one month they were monthly right you know just to listeners yes we've taken a day to do it so we specifically said we're going to go completely it was going to be on the agenda to discuss so this is just yet monthly just gets to be bored and sorry in terms of trying to get it done and and with members taking the time to look at it with every falls you've got going on to write all right let me just i just want to cover briefly if you pick up his the board shall review and evaluate the town manager every year on or about march first but in no case later than may first so this is why we're doing it now said review and evaluation should be based on the goals of jack to develop jointly by the board in a manager further the chairman of the board shall provide the town manager with summary of written statements of the evaluation of five children adequate opportunity for the time manager discuss his evaluation with the board and it's part of the year time management personnel file  chapter verse and section as in here so that's what we did tonight yes and this is what we have to do in june in italy during the month of june the board time manages cell define the goals and objectives which they determine necessary for the proper operation of the attainment of the board's policy objectives and shall further establish a general priority among those various goals and objectives and the goals should be reduced to writing they shall generally be attainable within the time limit specified and within the annual operating capital budgets for the town etc if you remember last year we took those goals and objectives in we got rid of things and we had a candid discussion is is it important or is it just you know so we got rid of it yeah yeah yeah and we went from sixty down to forty maybe it's time in june we had that discussion and figure out where this is going to go now that a section five section four on the salary  noted in five of this contract should be the basis for the board so we just did was we gave him an evaluation pers contract and on section b it says we shall consider a pay raise now it's doesn't have to be until july we want to do this tonight with the current board or do we want to wait till june up till july to do that question is this something that would come under the category of contract negotiations that we would uncomfortable either way whatever would have the board comfortable with that's frankly easy and you know compared to this guy's available next to it i do want to make one request and appreciate what mark said because we're the specter seller adjustment of any a really appreciate of the board would take that up prior prior to election for tourism number one if there is a personal change on the board that putting a new member in a bad place and jenny i'm sure you remember that last year because you had a very decision to make based on somebody had never worked with so it's really the reason the evaluation in the contract is written the way it is is so that you find folks w do it the people that have worked for will make that decision secondly if you should decide favorably in any way that needs to get budgeted because my budget is not to july because just like we do with other contracts i can review making i can look at a police car jees contract not having worked with them for five years and still give an educated opinion on a merit or or a bonus based on in i think we've done a very good job of putting those three years and paper right on paper so it's in his personnel file so somebody coming in and can give them you know something you can give them a salary adjustment and sometimes that's better because they have a set of fresh eyes that they can look at their whole perspective and not have baggage from the year before they are bad in may because the board members of congress i don't think that's the dates in there is sensitive to the election in the salary is and is not and i think i was i remember a change in those dates for that reason that i mean if people are comfortable for next week we can do it next week we have another you know instead of doing executive session tonight do we have anything else that we have to do tonight kevin you know you get through the war  review but not the review it's just that the discussion with respect to salary adjustment are not one to those in the fire chief that's discussion on the contract and in the case of the minutes you will not run into the rule in the sas or the i e we won't have at least three that were physically here but still i think it's better to clean that up because i've gone through all of them  know that's what i'm saying and you won't want to do that we will discuss the so called where it takes three to adopt the minutes if you don't have three that were actually here you will have four no matter what but i'm just suggesting if you can take the time i don't think it'll take you a lot of time because most of them i think are pretty much he's easy to release and my take is fifteen twenty minutes to go through me but at the end of the day it'll get it done i was frankly shocked when we went through here in the office to create the last column for you except that iran accepted and found that we had almost a year's worth of minutes that hadn't even been accepted which was fully so and that's