Select Board - October 9, 2025

The October 9th Select Board meeting to order.

I'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

All right, first agenda item would be public comment.

For anyone who's interested, please come to the podium and say your name and address. Yes.

Good evening. My name is Kathy Marino. I'm from 6 Benjamin Street here in Dedham. Madam Chairman and members of the board, at the board's meeting on September 11th, My neighbor Monica Wilkinson spoke about two ongoing issues in our neighborhood. The first one being the creosote-soaked railroad ties. The strong odor from these ties continues to affect our area. Well, I understand that some of the ties have been removed. Many remain. I do have photos here, if the board would like to see, that were taken this afternoon, so you can see what's covered, what's not covered. The second item is the noise pollution from National Grid's operation. This noise has disrupted our neighborhood as well as nearby areas for almost four years.

The use of heavy equipment and unloading debris is extremely loud. The disturbance continues not only during the day but also in the evening and early morning hours, waking our residents to sleep. I am here tonight to ask for an update from you folks on these two issues. What steps has the board taken to initiate resolutions? And has there been any communication with either companies or the City of Boston? Thanks.

Anyone else for public comments?

Thank you very much. Appreciate your update.

Okay, on to the next agenda item, consent agenda. consent agenda. Oh, town manager, sorry. Town manager's report.

Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. I can provide an update on the MBTA site as well as the National Grid at the next board meeting, if that's okay with the board. There have been ongoing dialogue between us, the state, National Grid, and BTA. I can get briefed on that and bring it back to the board at the next meeting.

Thank you.

We do continue to monitor. I know that the health department- Say that a little bit louder. Sure. The health department goes down there frequently to check on the status of the ties. when they're uncovered, they are reminded that they need to remain covered. And unfortunately, it's a bit of a whack-a-mole. It seems like they cover them. the wind blows them off, but we'll continue to stay on top of that with the goal of having them removed in short order. But I can give a more detailed update at the next meeting. just following up at some comments that were received by the select board at your last meeting and that we also received via email about MWRA and the option to purchase that water versus using the Dedham-Westwood Water District wells. I have had conversations with the director of the Dedham-Westwood Water District

and I think I may have said it briefly at one meeting but there are calculations that have been made relative to doing that and MWRA water is roughly twice as expensive as well water and that would be a significant financial County. I think that's something that's on the radar of the Dedham-Westwood Water District Board. They're considering it. They've looked at many options as they plan out the of the future improvements to the district's infrastructure. I encourage folks to watch those meetings. I know that they've discussed it at various points, and certainly, this board, we could have a conversation with the Water District about their planned improvements in the future, and I can work with you, Madam Chair, to plan that if you would like to have them come in. Thank you.

Just another brief update, a matter of community concern. This past weekend, I know that many folks, their sleep was disrupted. by so-called street takeovers. And we've talked about that in the past here with the police chief. These were events where folks come into town, many of them are not from Dedham, in cars with loud music, and they will tend to congregate in parking lots and other areas in the middle of the night, play the music, performed some stunt driving, if you will. Other, just basically hanging out in vacant areas at nighttime with these cars, playing music. We did have... the unfortunate situation with the shooting earlier this year that was related to one of these street takeovers.

the police department is well aware of these, working closely with our neighbors and our neighboring law enforcement agencies to try and monitor and plan for these. There was a meeting a few weeks ago in Boston that the Dedham PD did attend together with Mass State Police and others to try and figure out a solution. This is a regional problem that is something of an issue because at times there were 200 to 300 cars. and that easily overwhelms local police departments. So there is a lot of cooperation that's happening between the police departments to try and not just push the problem onto our neighbors, especially from from Boston, where a lot of these tend to originate, and then they move out into the suburbs and continue down Route 1. So again, want to just acknowledge that we are on top of this problem. We're working closely with our partner agencies. The police department, I believe, is going to put out a communication to address this publicly.

And we will continue to work with our partners and neighboring agencies to see if we can find a better resolution than what we're currently doing, which is more of a a control and move along method to try. And they're looking to see if they could stop this from occurring altogether based on some social media data and things like that.

I don't know if I could. So on Sunday morning, again, not only the music from Millennium Park, which is in West Roxbury, but also the car racing and dragging up and down Route 1 and what some people have interpreted to be four gunshots, others are saying it was four It was for fireworks or firecrackers, but even with windows closed, it was audible. I spoke today with with Councilor Murphy's, Aaron Murphy's office, who represents a district-wide, and it's not only Dedham, it's West Roxbury, and I know we just heard concerning the noise that's coming from and National Grid down in the Manor area.

it's disrupting people's lives. And the most recent one, the one I'm talking about with the cars and the music is a public safety issue. because it's not only putting our residents, anybody who's out between 12, one, two, three, and four o'clock in the morning trying to go to work, you're gonna run into these cars racing up and down the VFW Parkway and Route 1. As you mentioned, Leon, we had the homicide. in BJ's parking lot, which was a direct result of 200 cars in the parking lot. So we can send out all the notices we want about call the police if you hear noise and all this other stuff. but we have to have action.

And when I talked to the councilor's office today about getting Dedham Police, Mass State Police, and Boston Police together, two weeks ago, two weeks ago, it doesn't matter, this is happening now. And we all saw what happened in the city of Boston this weekend. with the setting of a police car on fire, police officers being assaulted, injured, what happened down in Randolph, this is not going away. And if we don't start getting everyone together on the law enforcement and do it now it's gonna continue and I don't wanna see another tragic incident like that, young man losing his life in BJ's Park lot in Dedham because of this. So, you know, I'm asking that and I did tell the council's office, I'm gonna follow up with them again that I'm mentioning it at the meeting tonight, talking to you about it.

There needs to be a regional meeting and it has to happen next week and it has to be all the law enforcement within the region because it's gonna continue. These are organized efforts. They're organized on social media. They're coordinating where they're going and what they're doing. And it wasn't just in Riverdale. And it wasn't just in this West Roxbury. It started on Sprague Street. 200 cars on Sprague Street area driving through and then going into Boston. And then coming down, going down Washington Street. God help the people that are either walking or out driving and you have all these cars and motorcycles and everything else coming down and have one thing in order and that is to disrupt people.

and you know our police officers have a tough enough job and so I'm just asking that this be taken to the chief and get that coordination of a meeting because Boston, you're gonna be hearing it from Boston. And I did talk to Rep. Consalvo. about it as well. Today I ran into him in the hallway about the noise. And this is not just a Dedham issue, it's a Boston issue because what we're seeing down with the National Grid for years, that's Boston. and those residents have to be complaining too. So I don't know why it's taking so long to resolve these quality of life issues, but we have to, it has to stop. Thanks.

So, Madam Chair, I have to agree with you and thank you for saying what you were saying because as people know that are on this board and our town manager, chief of police, living in Riverdale especially, this has been going on for many, many years. And it escalated. it just worsened and this past weekend was beyond what happened in our town. But we've been dealing with this in little pods and basically ignored. And not ignored by the Dedham Police Department and I think you bring up a good point is when you have 100 people that are gathering and you have six police officers going there, it is a very, very dangerous situation for us. But I'd like to know not only having the state police together, but I'd also like to know our senator, our representative, they're well aware of these issues that are happening in our town. And it has to stop because our quality of life

surrounded by both areas, having it come over from the Charles River from the park, having it go racing up and down, music, the engines, and you are afraid. You're very afraid, right? it's not a safe feeling to have this going on in our own community. So thank you for what you said. Thank you for all the outreach. I think we need to have updates on this and that community meeting with the different police and also hearing What are the court systems going to do? What are our legislatures going to do? What's going on? It just needs to stop. And also social media, right? I don't know if you can stop those posts from happening. I don't know where that all goes, right? I don't know what our attorneys can say.

I acknowledge everything you've said and the Chief of Police has certainly taken this very seriously. I mentioned the meeting in Boston a few weeks ago. There was a meeting this week of Norfolk police agencies that involved are also federal agencies here in Dedham at our community room where they talked about this issue as well. I know that they're working to try and seek a resolution. Again, the reason why they're bringing in some of the federal agencies is because of the social media activity and the stronger tools that they have to analyze the data. This is being largely driven by spontaneous social media calls that will direct folks to go to certain places and then move from there. and I think that the idea being that if they can figure out who's behind some of this stuff, they can hopefully root it out and stop it.

We can certainly set up more meetings and I will report back to the board because this is a serious issue and I know it is affecting a lot of residents and we want to we want to make sure that we're protecting our officers as well because again that's a big concern so I can certainly report back at the next meeting and hopefully we'll have some further information the chief also met with Town Council yesterday and talked about Boston has recently passed an ordinance that makes a little bit gives the police department a little more teeth to enforce some of these things. So we're looking at adopting a bylaw that's similar to that. here locally. And so I know KP Law and the chief are working on that as well. So trying to come at this from different angles, and I'll report back.

Madam Chair, just one quick thing. This might be a stupid idea, but I know that there's also that Metro team where for all the police departments in the kind of like 95 belt that work together, something maybe to discuss with the chief because it does sound like a... difficult situation when you only have six offices on and there's hundreds of people gathering. Thank you. Thanks.

And that actually concludes my report, but I'm happy to take other questions if you have any.

Thank you. Other questions, comments from the board? Thank you for that update.

Okay, now on to consent agenda.

Move to approve the consent agenda, including banner for Dedham Junior Women's Club Annual Craft Fair Block Party, Stony Lea Road, 1025-25, 4-7, Lincoln Street, 1031-25, 6-9 p.m. Gift Acceptance, $11,000 from Petruzziello Properties for Council on Aging, Holiday Party, Approval of Signs for MBACC Winter Open Studios, 12-6-25, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Second with discussion, please.

Yes. Thank you. the signs, so I understand that Winter Open Studios wants to put up signs and I appreciate the list that came into our packet that had all the sign locations. I'm just getting a little bit of concern on what them taking them down, right? So I don't know, I'm sure you've driven around town, you just see them, they're just popping up, they stay up, they miss them, so, you know, any... guidance for them to let them know? Because I know it said it's going to come down right away, but what's right away mean? Do they have seven days? Do they have two weeks? I think we need to kind of tighten that up a bit on when they need to come down because there are ones that are just sitting there and you know and I know that we don't have the resources to have our employees driving around and taking down all these signs. That's not something I'm interested in asking.

are employees to do, and I'm not asking for citizens to get out of their cars either, but if we can come up with some sort of an email that goes to them that they have to sign off on, that they'll be signing them off, and I know mistakes happen, but we need to tighten that up a bit. That's all. Thank you.

I think that's a good point and also just flagging that is that could be something that could be incorporated into our policies that when there are public signage put up around town that there's X number of business days or whatnot that they need to come down with. So in order to get approval for these, that there's a policy to support that. Thank you. So flagging that for... future policy discussion. Thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing a motion and a second, all those in favor say aye. Aye. And opposed, no. Consent Agenda moves forward. Next up we have Conservation Commission candidate statements.

Madam Chair, joining us via Zoom this evening is the incumbent member, Lee Halfrey. Conservation Commission has a meeting itself in a few minutes. Our second candidate is unavailable this evening. He'll be at our October 23rd meeting. Okay, thank you.

Hello. Welcome, Lee.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Feel free to share. Thank you for applying for the Conservation Commission role. that this is not new to you, if you could just share your continued interest in the commission and your engagement with the commission and meetings in your past service.

Thank you. I will present my application for renewal with pleasure.

This is, I think, my third term on MacDonald.

questions that the Conservation Commission is designed to address. We have you, I think, are all aware that the Commission over the past several years Space and Recreation Subcommittee to the ComCom Committee. Brown, and I'd like to continue that experience and contribute what is now a pretty substantial

Thank you. Questions from board members? Hi Lee, thank you.

I have a couple questions. Could you repeat what you said that the goals of your committee are? What are your goals? You were saying what you were working on?

So I use the term sustainability broadly. You probably know that certainly when I joined the commission Leon, stormwater management, and the addressed questions of permitting around new construction sustainability issues were taking on the full range of concerns that a town like Dedham would have as we think about climate change and the way we respond to it.

Okay, can I ask, how do you gather that information of what the community wants?

Well, some of it is the Commercial Activity. Okay, all right.

And you don't have, I saw that you do have a time constraint, but it has to do with your job, et cetera, and that.

Thank you. Appreciate your answers. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions from board members?

I just want to say thank you for serving, our willingness to serve a third term. It's a big commitment to serve on the conservation committee. The meetings are long and I'm sure thankless, so I appreciate that you're willing to serve.

That's good.

Well, that's good. And that doesn't mean they're not important, just that I'm sure it's a lot of work. So I appreciate your willingness to serve a third term. That's all.

Thank you. Thank you. My pleasure. Take care.

Other questions? All right. Thank you so much for zooming in for our meeting tonight and presenting your candidacy. Thanks. Okay, and the other canon is coming later in the month? The next reading, yes. Okay, excellent, thank you. Okay, next agenda item we're flying through tonight. Discussion and vote. Select board designate to the facilities master plan steering committee. We formed the steering committee governance, approved the governance and the related RFP in September and our requirement is to appoint a select board member to the facilities master plan work steering committee.

Anyone interested in the role or interested in nominating someone for the role?

So Madam Chair, I'll nominate Dimitria.

Okay. Second. Hearing a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. All right, well, Nippo, we're suppressing your vote tonight. Thanks. Dimitria did vote yes. I did. thank you for stepping up. As you know, this is such an important opportunity and process for our entire town. and I know that you will do a stellar job of shepherding this very large process through. So thank you for that. time commitment, energy commitment, and management of that process. Thank you.

Looking forward to it. Looking forward to getting it going. Excellent.

Okay, next we have a public hearing relative to proposed changes to license fee schedule. We had a presentation of those fees at our last meeting.

So yeah, go ahead. So this is really the public's opportunity to offer their opinion on the proposed fee changes. If the board has any further questions, Nancy or I can certainly entertain those. but as a public hearing, this is really an opportunity to hear from the folks who would be affected by these changes. Great, thank you.

I'll open the public hearing. Any members of the public wish to speak on the proposed changes to the license fee schedule. Is anyone here for that this evening? Anyone online? Hearing none.

Move to close the public hearing.

Second. Hearing a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Hearing is closed.

move to approve the adoption of the new fee schedule for all licenses within the jurisdiction of the select board effective immediately and to be implemented for 2026 renewal.

Second the discussion. I just have a quick question. Did we receive, I have not heard that we received any negative feedback on it

We have not. It was advertised two weeks ago in the Dedham Times, and it was sent through our new OpenGov licensing software to all license holders. To all license holders. Thank you.

Hearing a motion and a second, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, no. Thank you. The fee schedule moves forward. Next agenda item, we have updates from our town clerk, Paul Munchback, and our building commissioner, Ken Cimino, but we can start with our town clerk.

I think we should flip a coin, Matt and Jane.

We've been getting these. I know. We do need to bring a coin and start that.

I thank Madam Chair, fellow board members, our manager, Nancy, and Tyson. Paul Munchback, Dedham Town Clerk, here to make a presentation in front of the select board. with a department update. One of the things that I wanted to mention that I've always felt that the character of the town is defined by the residents that live in it, that live here, and the employees that support it. And that couldn't be any more evident, I think, here at Town Hall with the employees and the dedication and commitment from all the departments, and especially our town clerk's office. I've always said that the town clerk's office is sometimes the heartbeat of local government. It's the first interaction that most residents or outside residents have with local government. we take that very seriously in our office. We are the focal point when you're walking in the front door.

And we try to resolve problems before they go to the other departments if we can, even if they're not even and other problems that are within town hall or local government. If it's something that we can help the residents with, we try to do it or any outside people. I'd like to introduce you to some of our team. They're not here, but I just wanted so you can always have who's in our office and working. So you can go to the next slide. Of course, I'm the town clerk. My certifications are I'm a certified municipal clerk within the state of Massachusetts. I'm a notary public and a justice of the peace. My assistant, Kristen Morse, who's been with us for 13 years, is also a notary public and a justice of the peace. And then we have two election specialists, Anita Nyland and Jeanette Gibbons, that have been with us for many of years. and very experienced and very committed to the town of Dedham.

We have a Board of Registrars, which is appointed by the select board with its representatives from both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Democratic Party is represented by myself and Cheryl Schoenfeld. And the Republican Party is represented by Robert Zocker and Elaine de Grandis. Elaine de Grandis will actually be stepping down at the end of this year. the Select Board will be appointing a new Board of Registrar from the Republican Town Committee at some point. One of the things that I did want to mention is I've been the town clerk for over 19 years, going on my 20th year. And every day has brought some new challenges within my position at Town Clerk. I feel that town government, that there are procedures and policies that must have to be met before making decisions, and I believe that the town clerk's office has met those expectations.

I will still continue to follow in the direction of the town manager's office. We work with them consistently and I follow his lead. when moving forward. And we'll make sure that the town clerk's office is meeting the town fiscal budgetary needs and the needs of the town moving forward. So now the next question. presentation, so what does the town clerks do? So we just don't do elections and town meeting and birth certificates. Some of our core functions, for the town is that we're in charge of vital records, all the vital records. Marriages, births, deaths, those were all in our office. The election administration, state, federal, local elections all come through our office. and those are regulated by federal and state laws and those are the guidelines that we follow and local bylaws that we follow also. The annual census, once again, state mandated.

We're trying to keep Outlook on our population. Everyone looks for the street listing book, as they call it, the nosy book that is required. And what it is is that we get that information and they get the jury information from the information that is sent out to the residents on a yearly basis. It's mailed out to every household. And we've asked, and the residents have to reply within a certain period of time so we can upload it and document it. So we mail out about 11,000 of them, a little bit over. But some of the biggest changes that is time consuming is that we with those that will return, there's about 5,000 changes, whether it's someone adding on, subtracting, a change, an addition of a young family member, and those are all and put it by hand for those. So it's time consuming, but we try to keep it up as accurate as we can. on the town census on the bottom.

We also have our dog license application, and I'll talk a little bit about where we're moving forward with that. The public records management, we're always, we're in charge of all the records in the town, whether it's town meetings, election records, whether it is minutes of meetings, any filings, whether it's our vital records that we keep on file, and those are permanent records that are kept in the town clerk's office and in our safe. Ethics training and compliance. So the ethics training is required by state law. The employees is administered by the HR department and then elected and appointed officials. We do that through the town clerk's office. It's usually on a two-year window where they can actually take the test online right off the website. the officials are no longer required to turn in their certificate to the town clerk's office.

It's just managed at the state, so for the knowledge. We're in charge of business certificates, dog licenses, marriages licenses, town meeting, just not the recording and getting the quorum and helping out and working with the town moderator and with the finance committee and with the CEC, with the town manager's office. but we also work because we are actually taking all the records from the town meeting, taking those and whether we are working with the Attorney General's Office on getting zoning bylaws approved, general bylaws, working with the legislature to get certain special legislation approved, all those requirements working with if there's borrowing for our budget or we work with the Department of Revenue and with the collector's office. Those are some of the other town meeting responsibilities that our office has. the oath of office.

No one can take the oath of office, whether you're an elected, appointed official, a firefighter, a police officer in the town without taking the oath of office, town meeting representatives also, so we're swearing those officials in all the time. One of the things that goes unnoticed in our office is the genealogy research. We have some of the oldest records in the country, back to 1636. We work with the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the Museum and Archive. with various other historical organizations throughout the state and individuals doing genealogy research with the books that we have throughout the year. And it's one of the... great jobs that we have there to see the people's reactions when they see how old our records are and how they're preserved. We also do one of the other licensing that we do is we do underground storage permits. Those are for all the gas stations you may see, all those licenses are regulated.

They're done by the fire department. They're state regulated. We just do the processing of them. and as I mentioned earlier the preservation of historical records as we have some of the oldest records we have the original covenant as I've mentioned in the past it's one of the records that the Smithsonian came to us over a decade ago wanting to take the book with them to the Smithsonian. At that point, I did not let the book go because for 360 plus years. The clerk before me kept it here, so I'm keeping it here. It did come in and take a lot of pictures and take a lot of documentation of those records. I put in just to kind of give you where we're at for the 20-25 vital records marriage intentions 95 marriages we did 95 births 296 debts 370 Those numbers have increased because of the facility up at New Bridge.

It's a little bit like a hospital, so there's a turnover. And the dog licenses, which we have 1,731 as of today. One of the other notes that I have in the big green is the $47,658, which is something that we're proud of. It is a reimbursement secured by our office. It's an election cost certification that we work with State Auditor's Department and the Division of Local Mandates getting reimbursed for the extra costs of unfunded mandates at the time, so we budgeted for it first, whether it's extra staffing for mail-in ballots, for postage, whether it is for certain products that we need to conduct the elections, so that they will be efficient and within the state regulations. But in this year alone, we received $47,658. That money goes directly to the general fund, but it's

a little more than 12% of our budget when we're going in. So I try to present that more to the Finance Committee to say on certain years where we have big elections, the money that is are approved by the FinCom town meeting and the town manager's office. We fight to get some of that back, and the state auditor's office has been very good. to the town of Dedham. The next slide is a look at some of the numbers. The population, if anybody's asked, so it's 25,364. That varies from year to year with new residents moving in and some residents moving out. This is from the federal census. So the federal census is done every 10 years. It's the 2020 federal census that actually goes into effect in 2022. That's how we get the town gets its districts, its precincts. So we're regulated by federal and state law on keeping each district under 4,000 residents.

But it's also how your congressional districts and your Senate districts and representative districts were all done through that federal census. So it's a big pot. Back in the day, the select board would make a lot of the determination working with the town planner's office. on putting together the local census in the districts that has been taken over by an independent agency through the state. So the pressure's not on making those determinations. people say, my neighbors across the street live in precinct five and in precinct four, that's the state determining that. So, Over the past year, it was a busy year coming up. We did six elections, and so I put just some numbers out for you. The presidential primary, we had about 30% turnout. Town election, we had about 23. state primary, 19%.

It was a small turnout for the state primary that was in September. Presidential election was lower than we had four years before, but we're still at 77%. A special tech town election drove 28% of the the voters from the town, and our town election in the past April was about 22%. Big change that we've had over the last, probably eight years or so, I'm voting on 10 years, is the introduction of early voting in person and mail-in ballots. So I put down just a couple of numbers for the early voting since the presidential. We had 2,605. residents come in person, early vote in person here at Town Hall. The numbers were still good for the special election. It's interesting because they were consistent for both the special election and the town election. We had 705. for the special town election, and the town election we had 698.

And we did those over a two-day period on the Saturdays and Sundays, and we were able to do that right, obviously, at Town Hall. We did it at LaFoya, so we thought those were terrific numbers, and those have stayed consistent from the numbers we've had in the past. Town Meeting, I threw some numbers in on that. as I've mentioned in all the meetings past that Dedham has had the highest percentage of turnout and representative town meeting throughout the state. Towns called myself or a moderator and the town manager asking what we do to get the percentage of Representatives to our town meeting and how we've got them done efficiently and effectively in one evening. So the last three town meetings, the average was 234, which is an 86% turnout. which I think is terrific.

And there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes where it's the select board, the boards and committees, our town manager, our assistant town manager, and the finance committee putting together procedures to make that happen. And like I said, a district chairs with many review. some updates on what's coming up. So we have the mini town meeting that will be Monday, November 10th. Then the fall town meeting will be after that where myself, the public communication director and the town water have been working with the district chairs with meeting with them on they're looking they're very engaged looking for better ways to helped make those more efficient and which will hopefully make town meeting a little bit more efficient. With the introduction of electronic voting, we are getting some more accurate votes on more of the issues that

are being discussed, but we still, the district chairs want to see if they can help make a town meeting a little bit more efficient. 2026 coming up. We're going to have the election season almost already starting. And so the annual town election will be Saturday, April 11th. The spring annual town meeting is Monday, May 18th. State primary, the governor just signed off, will be before Labor Day. So it's gonna be Tuesday, September 1st. The state election, which will be for the governor's race, all the major offices, local reps, and Senate races, is Tuesday, November 3rd. And then the fall town meeting will be determined by the select board at some point. Our town elections are always the second Saturday in April. Our town meetings are always the third Mondays. The fall annual town meetings are determined by the select board and this provision that if there was not

any items to take up, that's something that at a reasonable amount of time, I think it would be August, that the select board could determine that we don't need that at that point. One of the other slides that I want to do is some of, the partners that we work with. It's just like, I mean, we regularly collaborate with other town clerks, right? So we're always talking with other clerks, keeping up to date on what they're doing, what their fees are. We've been putting our fee schedules under the town manager's direction to look at our fee schedules and we try to do that every couple years, but we're focused in on it this year. And we try to work within those limits of what they do and we do, knowing that each town is a little bit different. But we work with a lot of state agencies and other local governments. The Secretary of State's office, obviously, with the election division, the public record division. We also work with the information technology division.

my staffing, including myself, have to be cybersecurity certified, so we have to take online testing for that before that we can, and we take that every year to make sure that we're in compliance for using the state computer. We work with the Attorney General's office, not just for providing them with the information from our town meetings and working with them, whether it's some changes or information, but we work with the Open Meeting Law Division. any of the open meeting log complaints will come through Townsville Clerk's Office and we try to resolve issues with the committees, the boards, and the state prior to it going to the next level because usually there's a simple solution for, it's usually an educational, no one would believe it's doing anything on purpose, just an educational procedure that we need to be put in place to keep everyone in compliance. Campaign political finance, once again, part of the election

Responsibilities, State Ethics Commission, State Auditor, I just mentioned the Division of Local Mandates with them, getting reimbursed for election cost certifications. The Department of Revenue we work with, through the gateway after the town clerk's office where the town clerk has to certify the tax rate and make sure that everyone's in compliance from the assessor's office. and through the finance department when those numbers are putting in when the board is setting the tax rate. Department of Vital Records is another obvious one. We're doing the marriage, births and deaths. and those were always changing with updates with the state law changes. State medical office and the state medical examiner, people don't realize that with the death certificates, we have a lot that are pending, all the whether it's a marriage, birth, or death that come through our office, they have to be itemized and specific because those are permanent records.

So if we see anything that's fault-proof, read everything, whether it's the medical examiner's office or the Department of Vital Records, those records will get sent back. So we're always verifying them. State lottery is mostly with the raffle permits. State legislature is anything to do with special legislation. It mostly comes out of town meeting, whether we're looking for a charter change or doing acceptance statutes. or do any other items that we need state approval from. And the Norfolk County government, we do work with the Registry of Deeds on a daily basis with approvals that come through the Zoning Board of Appeals are making sure that they have the right information. So, moving forward, that the town clerk's office with the Board of Registrars will continue with its community outreach regarding elections and voter registration.

Voter registrations changed over the past couple of years where we used to go to the assisted living facilities, we'd go to the high school, but now they have online registration, your automatic registration for voter registration when you renew your driver's license, or you do any transaction at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, which is another state organization that we work with on a daily basis. So some of that has changed as far as the, not the outreach, but it makes it easier for residents to register to vote. We'll continue, as I mentioned earlier, the town clerk's fees. There's going to be fees that we've done a study in just this past couple of months on our clerk fees. that will be increasing some of the fees and we'll do exactly what the Select Board did tonight on having a public hearing and putting out our new fee schedule and hopefully that keeps with the changing times.

what I cost and then we'll be implementing we've been working with the public communication director Amanda Smith on much what like the I'm sure Kenny will mention in the building department is OpenGov which is online licensing and that hopefully will Expedite would be more efficient so we don't have the residents have to come up or mail. It'll reduce probably the number of phone calls that we do. and we'll be able to do some online payments and we'll continue to maintain our level of service budgeting that we go in with. I work with the town manager on a daily basis on making sure that at the fundings within the budgetary needs of the town, and that we'll still continue to get our grants and reimbursements, whether they're federal or state, to offset any of the costs that are not within our budget.

and one of the other things I just wanted to mention too, and I'm gonna mention the public, the Director of Communications is the record, through our record request portal, Next Request, we get dozens of public record requests a day. That includes the police department. They have their own department through the schools, but they'll come through our portal and then we'll send them out. and prior to getting the portal in place and up and running, which has been now probably about four or five years, we are up to date on making sure that we're in compliance with the state regulations and providing a service to the residents or outside community that are looking for public records that we can provide to them. And I think that's been a great asset and a change for the town.

We don't can probably adhere to that because it was something that we had been working on for years, but I think it is now functioning relatively efficiently. So that's it.

Thank you. Thanks. Questions, comments from board members? I have a quick question.

First, thank you for all this great information and I know so many people appreciate how accessible you always are to those of us on boards and committees, but especially the public considering running for office or getting more involved, we can always get answers from you. One just out of curiosity. So you were talking about some of the documents you keep that are really historical and have significance. Do we have the technology, whether it's climate controlled or things to preserve that kind of stuff, either internally or is that part of what we partner with the Dedham Museum and Archives on?

So we partnered with the Dedham Museum and Archive on sharing documents and regulating. Our safe is controlled climately and we've got shelving that we actually purchased and we took over from the deck from 26 Bryant Street that is built specifically for Old Records. And we've worked with, we had an archivist that I think is now on staff now from the Public Library that came over when she first started and did an analysis of all our public records and helped us out with the shelving and given us materials that we can help preserve them and we have money in our budget every year that we do a couple of books a year and we always do our vital records through because there's not a lot of binding companies that handle Geological Records.

But yeah, so we are one of the many towns, but I couldn't say many towns, a few towns with many abilities to maintain our records. and that was taken into consideration when we were moving from 26 Bryant Street over to 450 to make sure that those records would be preserved and that we would have the proper equipment to make sure that was there, so yes.

Great, thanks. Thank you.

Other questions, comments from board members?

Just thank you. Probably the most comprehensive overview of the clerk's office that I have seen. Great job. Oh, thank you. Great job.

Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Yeah, no, it's a great job. As I mentioned earlier, our staff takes pride in the work, and like I said, I meant that, that the community is... and the characters focused on the residents that live here, but the employees that serve it also, and the town hall employees. generally can speak for all the employees here. They care about the residents and the town. And it's under great leadership.

That's great. You know me, I've got a few questions. Sure. And on the back of the fact that you gave us so much information, so I've been kind of jotting down notes here. And I had some questions to ask you as well, too. Quickly, on the records, following on up on what was said, are your records, do you are they stored digitally? Like just your everyday records of birth certificate and all that. Do you have that so?

No.

No.

So we do have some older records that were put into leaves of fish. but those records have to be now transferred to an updated system so that we could keep them. We've gotten some cost on it and it's over $100,000 because of the amount of records that we have. We were hoping for the Community Preservation Act a few years back because that would help fund some of the preservation of our records and digitizing of them. So we are currently working with different vendors on getting them done for free. So it's almost like a grant process that we're looking at, but it's different organizations. And when that gets to that point, we'll work with our assistant finance director, Ronna, and put together a package that we think is fair and reasonable. And we'll have a look at all the information to see if we can get that.

But we're at some point looking to digitize at least a majority of the records. records for vital records. While they're not digitized in our office, they are digitized through the state. So there are births, deaths, and marriages up until 1928, 1971, they're still going back. But for as far as our town records, minutes, we'd have to do a comprehensive study, which is what we're looking at now.

All right, the other question too is the select board and town manager's office, right? How can we better support your efforts around your internal systems, right? And interdepartmental improvements and electronic communications and things like that. is there anything that can be done to help you be more electronic? So that's the wave of the future.

So we're currently working on that. So when you say electronically, we're working with Amanda Smith and like we said with OpenGov that will do the online licensing for not only just licensing but requests for vital records we'll be able to do Roughly Permanent to Online, Dog Licensing.

How about internal communications though, like inter-department ones? Right, do you have any?

Yes, so we currently work with the planning office, so we're on OpenGov currently with that, so we're doing applications and when we're doing approvals, that's under OpenGov too. So we're currently working on that. So before they would... someone would get their application stamped in, they would bring it over to us, we would stamp it in, we would then send it back to them. So we no longer do that. So it's done electronically, it's filed. I read through it, I approve it, we print out the copy, we store it, we take it, we file it. So yes.

So it is done that way.

Yeah, so the OpenGov is something that's that is in place and I'm sure it's being phased. So the first phase was within our department was working with the planning office The next phase is what we're working with. We'll be working with the building department on, say, business certificates for home occupancy permits for the businesses that a DBA is there working out of their home. They need certain certifications. to make sure that it's zoned correctly. That would be the next one. Well, probably not the next one. The next one will be getting our dog, the dog licensing, the vinyl records, and some of our licensing on, because we're just in the middle of that. Okay. I'm trying to think if there was any other comments. We're currently online with the Board of Health electronically on the burial permits and the approvals for the death certificate.

So while it's a slower process, and some of the process with some of the other departments is because the state made some changes. It's like with the Department of Vital Records, they both, when they put in a new program system, now we had to redo the way we did procedures before. So it took a little bit of time, just on the turnovers.

That's been a lot of... Evolution, since you've been sitting there and continuing to move forward.

We still have to maintain a hard copy because we're the record keeper. But as far as processing, we are currently doing internal. Internal. Yes. Great. And it's through OpenGov. And so far it's been working fantastic.

Excellent.

all right thank you thank you thank you I just want to say thank you Paul great job always super accommodating as a resident every time I've needed something from your department is you guys have been great and then as a elected official as well, getting us information, working with us to get what we need done. Always appreciate it. Terrific department. Everyone's great, and all the employees are great. So really appreciate it. Can I ask one question though? Sure. You said that you have two notary publics there.

Yeah.

So if someone needs something notarized, can they come or that's just...

So that's a great question. So in the past, we did provide that service. So there was a case where the, so we notarized, and so forth. documents within town hall at the notary. So when there's a cemetery deed or there's information certifications, whether it's a town clerk certification or a notary, we do that internally. We used to provide the service of an outside. The difference was that the town does not because it's not a requirement for outside of the town to do notary services, the liability is on just the notary if there was an incident.

tend not to do, we still do them, we don't charge because we have no fee schedule for it and it's not authorized by the town to provide notary services but So the answer is we do provide notary services within the town. We do provide some services outside the town, but we do not do it as like a public service at this time. Thank you, Paul. I didn't want to talk around but it's it's and the reason is I can give the background on it there was a town clerk in another town that was doing it on their own they were providing a service taking a fee for themselves and there was an incident where they had sued, got sued so they went and thought the town would support them and the town says no because it's not a providing service that we're doing so at that point I think it was Jim Kern or Bill Keegan at that point said, and he's one that brought it to our attention, said that we'll just try to keep it internal.

Outside of Town Hall, we can still provide services, obviously. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, thank you. It's such a well-run office. Our elections go seamlessly. Appreciate everything that you do. And I just want to encourage for anyone who's listening, who's interested in historical documents. The records and archives that we have here at the town of Dedham are I mean it gives me chills just even thinking about them. It's such a privilege to be able to safeguard these documents that date back to the 1600s and to be able to see some of these treaties and documents and signed with blood. You've shown that to me. So for anyone who's who's interesting, or any student groups. I mean, it's such a privilege to have this as such an old town here. So thank you for safeguarding those. And I really appreciated your comment that you

serve now, but there's a history of 360 years prior to you and that you take that responsibility with such honor and service. So thanks for doing that. Oh, thank you. Yeah, it was really interesting to see some of the data relative to voting, both the registrations. voting rates, et cetera. Just out of curiosity, someday I would love to hear just how that's changed over time, what influence has early voting or mail-in voting had, what influence has online registration had in terms of registration rates, how that's evolved over time. It's just a curiosity and not a specific request.

I can give you a quick answer. So the early voting mail-in ballots have not changed the percentages through the years, whether it's local, state, or federal elections.

Interesting.

So it's the same number of voters that are coming out. They're just coming out in at different venues, whether it's in early voting in person, whether they're doing mail-in. And with the state elections, they have even mailed out postcards to every household with a registered voter. And then if you did not reply or just checked off one of the boxes, they will mail out another postcard just as a reminder. So even reaching out to the voters has not changed the percentages and even with our local elections, with our even contested town meeting races, which most towns don't have, they're looking for town meeting representatives, and our residents are very engaged and involved. elections over maybe the past decade have gone up 600 or 700. But that's, I think, because of the engagement with town meeting. But the turnouts are still the same.

And the turnouts are always higher when you put a ballot question on, no matter what the question is. the questions that turn out will always be higher. And that's consistent over, say, the last 30 or 40 years. Wow, interesting.

Yeah, that's interesting. Yes. Thank you. Is there a follow-up to that? Is it a binding question or just putting out a non-binding question?

So we've had a non-binding question on the rail trail and we've had a binding question on the schools. I guess it's tough to compare apples and oranges with it because the non-binding question was after COVID. So we had that election in June, but we had 6,200. and yet for the school back in February, we had less than 5,600. But consistently with...

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay.

All set.

Thanks. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Building Commissioner Ken Smino. Good evening. Oh, I just said good evening, sorry.

Oh, good evening, Madam Chairman and members of the board, town manager and assistant town manager. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak to you this evening in regards to the building department. Paul Munchback is a hard act to follow, so I'm going to give you a more abbreviated synopsis of what we do in the building department. Everybody calls me Ken Cimino. I am the building commissioner. I have two other building officials that served with me, James Sullivan, the building inspector and code enforcement officer, and Fred Johnson, the assistant building commissioner.

they both support the building inspection role in the department both with reviewing and approving plans and permits and also doing inspections. We have Gail Capone as our administrative assistant. Gail leads our office in running the day-to-day operations as far as administrative work. working and assigning permits through OpenGov, our permitting software package, which we've handed down since 2023. We have Common Daliocono, the electrical inspector. again inspects all wiring in the town and also works with Eversource and issues of power outages where

Power is damaged or suspended to try to get that power restored. James Craig is our plumbing and gas fitting inspector. and Jim. Again, inspects all plumbing and gas fitting within the town. One of the things in our transitioning in the building department is the seal of weights and measures, which is currently being done by James Sullivan. is being transitioned over to Norfolk County as part of a recent town meeting action. We are transitioning right now the

We're finalizing the fees and also the bookkeeping basically through OpenGov. So we're using the OpenGov system and the weights and measures through the county. kind of dovetailing into that. We, again, have been using OpenGov now since 2023. We transitioned on March 15th. 2023. So we've been using the system now for a third year now. It's been a complete game changer as far as the way we do permitting in the town. gone are the piles of plans and piles of paperwork that we receive on a daily basis. That's all been replaced with people sitting out there

places of business and filing out their applications and we're able to review them, comment in the permitting system. digitally, so all the comments, notes, any questions we may have, any questions they may have is all in a digital form that we can refer to at any time during the permitting process, and certainly after the permitting process, when the permit's issued, the inspections are made, all those entries are made into the system, and then finally the permits are closed out. So it has been a complete and it's just, I can't even describe how wonderful it is to have this system in place. It was a long time in coming.

I had been advocating for it for a number of years with some limited success. Thanks to the hard work of the town manager and the town manager's office. We were prioritized to make that happen, to make OpenGov happen. Not only has it been a complete game changer for our office. It's the Board of Health, the Conservation, Stormwater, Planning and Zoning, Zoning Board of Appeals, Engineering Department, Public Works, Town Manager, are all using the system. We have united permitting now in the town of Dedham. That is a game changer.

We have completely now have the ability to not only have all the other departments in real time review applications that have other sign-offs, but they also have access to all the permit records so if they needed to look at a building permit or if I need to look at a Board of Health approval, or a license that the town manager may have issued, I can look at that in real time and see what the status of that permit is, or that license is. It makes my job so much easier in being able to effectively understand where everybody else is in the permitting process and in the licensing process. So that has been just

I'll say the highlight of everything I'm going to say this evening. As you're probably aware, we've been issuing a lot of permits. We continue to have strong permitting. During fiscal 2025, we had 1,067 building permits issued. 287 roofing, siding, window replacement permits, 930 electrical permits. 426 plumbing permits, 281 gas printing permits, 86 mechanical, 74 sheet metal, 18 tent permits,

60 signed permits and 13 trench permits for a total of 3,242 permits during fiscal 2025. There's a lot of activity that happens in our office. Not only do we do all these permits, we do the inspections. Again, we keep all the records for all that. and the other thing that we do that is equally important is we do periodic inspections for places of assembly. The schools, the churches, the daycare centers, the restaurants, the theaters, the large apartment buildings, they all get inspected through the building department. I was at Hebrew Senior Life today that complex.

We do an inspection of all the buildings in that complex, all the large apartment buildings and the other health care facility and the assisted living. We go through that building, the entire building from the basement all the way up to the attic and check all the means of egress and all the means of egress corridors and all the life safety systems in that building. That's just one of the things that we do on a daily basis through the building department. Some other highlights. We have some projects, the town of Dedham projects that are currently ongoing. One of them is the town green. We issued the permit for the canopy portion of that project, the phase two, yesterday. Very happy to see that moving forward.

We received the application for the incinerator and smokestack demolition. That permit is being reviewed at this point and is close to being issued. I wanted to go back and just briefly talk about Opengaard again. So when we transitioned from Hennegaard to Opengaard, We transferred 50,000 permits to move over from the old system to the new system. When we were using Energo, we were using it mainly as a data processing system. whereas we were taking a paper application, we would transpose it over into the digital format and issuing the permit digitally through Energo.

But it was not an open system. It was closed to the building department, so there was no public access to it. Unfortunately, there were no plan records that were uploaded into that system, so all our paper plans we have in an archive currently. in the building department. Our archive has literally thousands of plans from buildings that have been constructed all the way from the late 1800s all the way up to today. We also have building permit, paper building permit records that go back to 1941 to today. Those building permit records are all again in bound paper form.

We receive record requests daily to get information regarding those records and we try to fulfill those record requests to either by providing the plans themselves or, in other cases, to scan and provide scanned copies of the paper permits and applications inside. that does take a lot of time and effort to do that in some cases and we're continuing to try to worked to try to digitize some of those records. Now that we have OpenGov, it's

it's clear that having all those records in a digital format would be a benefit to not only the people of the town of Dedham but also people that are looking for information outside of the town. The last thing that I wanted to tell you is that I am, as you probably heard at the Springtown meeting, I've been planning my retirement. After 39 years, It's definitely time to start something new or do something new. As a little history, I started with the town of Dedham back in 1986. as the assistant building inspector.

That position was created as a result of the growing of the building department at that point in time, the town meeting through through the executive secretary's office, created that position to assist the building commissioner at the time to help support the department. I served in that role from 1986 to 2005. in 2005, the building commissioner at the time was injured on the job. He subsequently was out for an extended period of time in 2005, the Board of Selectmen at that time appointed me as acting building commissioner until 2006 where I was appointed building commissioner after his retirement. I served as building commissioner from 2006 to 2025, and I

anticipated retirement date is December 31st of this year, 2025. It's been a pleasure and an honor to serve each and every member of this board the town manager, the assistant town manager, all the people of the town of Dedham, all the employees that work in the town. They've got a family to me in many, many ways. There's been a lot of changes in this town since I started in 1986. Some people in this room may not have even been here. It's been a while. Some really great changes. I can think back to 1986.

We had a building moratorium on residential construction because There was a question about adequacy of water. Subsequently, they were able to figure that out. That moratorium was suspended, I believe, in 1988. the town continued to grow. But during that time, the town started looking at a lot of things. One of them was the lack of a planning department in the town. When site plans were approved by the town back in the 1970s and 1980s, it was basically to show how many parking spaces you had and to satisfy that requirement. it was very little in the way of looking at the landscaping or any other aspect of the development. It was basically to get a parking space count.

And our bylaw was structured to require larger than what would really be required, or I should say needed, parking for the properties. and in some ways it was used as a tool to try to limit development. When the town kind of looked at this and said, you know what, we're really not doing things in a constructive way for our town. they decided let's start really planning the town and providing a planning department that can really make effective change in the development in the town.

That was done through over the years where the planning department grew from two individuals, basically an administrative assistant and a town planner to the department that they have today. which supports both the building department and all the other departments in the town. It's, again, a completely different perspective of how we do things. compared to what we did in 1986 when we were using development, using approvals to limit development. Today, we look at it as trying to find a development that best serves the town. And we work in all the aspects of the development to try to find the best way that that development can work for the town. Completely different perspective on how we do things.

In summation, I'd like to say that we've done a lot of great work over the years. There's a lot to be done. As I'm departing this year, the town meeting appropriated funds to do a building department evaluation. That evaluation will be a positive step forward in improving operations in the building department. like all things. As you can see, I use my paper notes here. I try to be into the digital age as much as I can, but I am a product of the 20th century in many ways. and hopefully through the evaluation, not only will we continue to improve our digitalization of the building department in all that we do,

but also work to improve the way we operate and also with the continuing increases in activity and the challenges of what we do today with the sophistication of both our building codes, our energy code, and our zoning requirements. All those things have gotten to be significantly more complicated, I'll say, versus when I started working back in 1986. I used to issue a building permit on one sheet of paper. Today, there's probably 15 to 20 separate documents, multiple pages that would support an application.

All that takes resources. It takes knowledge and experience. And hopefully in the future, the town will continue to be served. by the personnel that work in the building department. All of my employees work very hard to make the experience in the building department the best that they can. At this point, if you have any questions whatsoever, I would be more than happy to answer them for you. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Ken. Board, questions and comments from the Board?

I can start. I don't have a question, but just congratulations on your retirement and thank you so much for that historical perspective. That was really interesting to hear how things have changed and all the different aspects that you've been part of. back with my professional hat on, I interacted with you quite a bit on some of those yearly inspections and building projects and I just really appreciate it. It was very clear that your focus was always safety and that you were really focused on solutions. It never felt like the goal was punitive. It was how do we work together for a solution and I saw that clearly and always enjoyed working with you. So thank you for that and congratulations.

Thank you. or Madam Chair. I just want to say also congratulations, Kenny. Thank you so much for my time on the board. you've always been great about communicating with me and taking my calls answering questions being honest with me whether we agree to disagree I think most things we agreed on but there might have been a couple over the years we didn't but I always appreciated the responsiveness and the insight and very much helpful for me as a select board member whenever these things would come up. So thank you for that. Thank you for all your hard work as a building inspector. It's a tough, tough job to work in the building department and getting tougher. and it's a job where you can't make everyone happy because of the nature of what you do. So I really appreciate how the department works as a resident. I really appreciate how the department works whenever I've done work on my house, which I've done obviously quite a bit of.

You guys have been great in terms of getting inspections and understanding the challenges I face of, you know, doing work in my house with four kids, you know, and trying to get things done quickly. And we all know those inspections can be roadblocks. for getting these projects done and you guys have always been so accommodating so thank you for that and I look forward to working with you for the remainder of your time here with us and wishing you the best in the next steps. Thank you.

Thank you, Kenny. Thank you for everything, and I'm sure we're going to have you back here. I'm speaking where I probably shouldn't, but you're 40 years of service or more than that, right?

So it'll be 39 years, three months.

393, yep, I mean, that's a lot of service and dedication.

September of 1986 is when I started.

And all the changes that you have seen, right? I'm sure some of them are good, some of them you may say, hmm. maybe we did it a different way but I think things are moving along and it's interesting when you said that you have to look at zoning codes and environmental codes there's a lot that goes into it How long the permitting is now and everything that you have to know, right? Yeah.

I mean, as you know, the town has been working over the years to have a higher level energy code than the base code for energy efficiency in the town. certainly when that happens. It's certainly a higher standard. It's also in some cases a financial expenditure. to have that higher level of energy co-compliance. But like in all things, you weigh the benefit versus the cost and hopefully the benefit over the long period is the result. As the town continues to move forward and as the state

continues to move forward in becoming more energy efficient and energy independent. We'll continue to see that evolve over the years. Again, the building code and the energy code and the other life safety codes continue to evolve. When I first started working for the town of Dedham, we were working with the fourth edition of the Massachusetts State Building Code. We're now under the 10th edition of the Massachusetts State Building Code. So I've gone through seven editions of the code. Again, those are documents that you read, you study, you understand, along with our zoning bylaws. We've continued to make improvements in our zoning bylaws. Certainly we've had changes. Some of those changes have been

I'll say positive changes. Some of those changes may, in some people's perception, maybe not so much. But we grow as a community. And we change as a community. One kind of interesting thing back in 1986, the largest building that I could build as a residential building was a two-family house. biggest building I could build. Couldn't build anything bigger than a two-family. Today we allow all different types of apartments, assisted living, all those different types of housing. Accessory Dwelling Units, all those different types of housing that really, in many ways, provide alternative means than the traditional single family house. some people welcome that.

I think overall, I think it's a positive change for the town because it provides a more diverse housing stock for the residents of the town to enjoy. So I think over the years, the town has looked at that need and has fulfilled that need through the zoning bylaws to allow for that in a very well-regulated fashion.

Thank you. Other comments?

So Kenny, long time.

Thank you very much.

I believe I was sitting here when we appointed you building commissioner. back in the day.

I believe that you were one of the five.

Yeah, I was one of the five. Long time, and as you said, a lot has transpired in the way in which government the town of Dedham government interacts with not only staff and employees, with our community and businesses, and a lot has changed. And as you were talking, and I know you didn't mention names, the names were running through my mind of who was here at the beginning of our planning department, who was sort of the architect of moving things forward. And we had some really amazing individuals that were forward-thinking that really did a lot in order to get to start the process to get where we are. So just thank you for, I don't have any questions about anything you said today.

but just to thank you for your many years of service to the town. and you know in the building department when people come with plans, saying yes is very easy. Very easy to say yes to anything and somebody leaves happy. But saying no sometimes is difficult but it's the right thing to do. and it's the right thing to do because you're dealing with the safety of an individual, where they're gonna live, what they're gonna do and there's not only the building code but bylaws, they're there for a reason and it's for the safety. And one thing that anybody would always tell me about you, Kenny, is that you were tough. But you're fair, you're honest, and you're a straightforward guy who would follow and work with people so they could get their job done safely.

So that's an amazing compliment that I heard over the years for you. take that with you.

Thank you. And again, it's been a pleasure and a privilege, really. The town's been a family to me for all these years. That's really, really something that I really cherish. It's been my life's work to help the common devil. I appreciate it. Thank you for your support.

Thank you, Ken.

Yes. I mean, we're so fortunate that you have dedicated your service and time and taken your responsibility. to heart. We all have experienced that in different ways, whether it's in our own home or how you have managed other building and development that's happened around town. So thank you for that service and taking us through how that has evolved over time. And that's a lot to keep up with current needs and current changes. And we all appreciate that you have been dedicated to a safe and lasting community through the decisions that you've made and wish you the best during this transition in your life and wish you amazing things after your service ends. Thank you, Ken.

Thank you. Thank you all.

Have a good night. Enjoy the rest of your evening.

All right, thanks. Thank you so much. Next agenda item, we have follow-up discussion with the Sustainability Advisory Committee relative to climate leader community distinction, status, certification.

Hi, everybody. My name is Rana Monadorfer. I'm the Assistant Finance Director, and I'm here tonight on behalf of the Sustainability Advisory Committee, and I'm joined by Leo. from the Planning and Zoning and Natural Resources Department. I won't keep you long because really it's in the interest of self-preservation. I have a flight to catch. Well, I want to do a good job for DSAC and I want to do a good job for the town of course, so I will do my best. I did create a follow up memo based on the questions that you had for me the last time, dated for October 1st. and so really we're sort of at the same spot where the goal is to hopefully get the decarbonization roadmap adopted which is just a list of suggestions that was created through a technical assistance grant

for potential energy efficiency projects, and the second part of this, which is the zero-emission vehicle policy. I hope that the memo has shed some light regarding the exemptions for the ZEV policy and any concerns. that the board may have, but I'm happy to take any questions you may have. Otherwise, I was just gonna run through my memo once again.

Thank you. Do we have questions?

You know, for the sake of time, I do have stuff, but I will wait until later on and have a conversation with you. I do have a few follow-ups on your memo, but for the sake of... moving things along, I'll have a conversation offline.

Absolutely, thank you.

Other comments or questions? Is she going to review the answers?

Would you just briefly discuss the questions that you shared with us in the memo?

Absolutely. So one of the questions that we received was sort of how does this certification align with what Dedham is currently doing? really the the climate leader community certification is is really green communities 2.0 but on steroids it offers more money for the same projects that we would try and do under green communities. For example, for an energy efficiency project with green communities, we would get up to $200,000. but with the accelerator grant offered through this certification, we would get up to $1 million per application. Even with a 10% match, that would still leave us at a very advantageous position. The commitments that we made in 2010 when we became a green community are still here today. We have to follow them.

We submit our annual report every year in order to remain in good standing. and similar to this we would recertify every three years. So if we were to pursue the full certification and It ends up not being something that is advantageous for us after all. We can always just opt out. It's not unheard of. Since becoming a green community, the town pledged to reduce its municipal energy use by 20% within five years. And we've done a really good job at meeting that pledge. which included LED light, street light conversions and HVAC upgrades, insulation upgrades, and a variety of other projects.

Additionally, we have committed to prioritizing fuel-efficient vehicles when we purchase vehicles, which is something that we continuously do. Police, DPW, facilities, . Fuel efficient really here just means replacing old vehicles that are running up a ton of gas, running up a ton of emissions because of their age. and purchasing new vehicles that are naturally going to come more efficient and up to date. Another question we received is, will this be a financial burden for the town? The short answer is no, there's no cost for joining. By achieving this designation, the town would access additional state funding opportunities for clean energy infrastructure and climate resilience projects. and as we've seen what is initially an opt-in by the state becomes a mandate by the state later on.

So this would be a great opportunity for us to gain access to these funds while the Poole of certified communities is small. Another question we received was, will this increase electric bills for the residents? No. The CLC certification does not require the town to electrify everything immediately, nor does it mandate any action that would directly raise electric bills. and then there was another question about what funding does the Climate Leader Community Program offers. We have two items. One is the technical support grant, $150,000 per applicant. and the technical support is for studies, engineering, things of that nature. And then the other part is the accelerator grant, which is really for the construction.

another question was what happens if we don't pursue the certification and it just simply outlines you know what we would stand not to gain from not joining. We would still be a green community, and we would still pursue those grants. And we've done a very good job. We've been awarded $428,000 to date. that's pretty good considering the funding limit and the fact that we're competing with 296 other cities and towns every time we apply. and another question we got was should Dedham wait for the new facilities master plan to become live and adopted before we adopt the decarbonization map, roadmap, and the answer is no. Again, the roadmap is a list of suggestions that we can mix and match based on our capital improvement plan that we have, funding at the time, what projects are coming up, and if the funding can be applied to these projects.

the facilities department will continually ask for HVAC upgrades, window replacements, insulation, weatherization, all of these things require funding. Finally, there was there was some concern about the ZEV policy and how it affects departments such as public works, police, fire, and schools. And I simply just reiterated the exemptions that are stated in the policy. So that includes DPW, heavy duty vehicles, fire, pumpers, engines, again heavy duty vehicles, and police. there was also sort of the question about what about non-heavy duty vehicles like an F-150, what happens then? We have plenty of options and the green communities coordinator and the grant both have been very flexible with the town of Dedham. We've worked with them in real life.

When we applied for a grant for two F-150 Lightnings, they became unavailable, and we were able to replace them with different vehicles, and it was not an issue. Unfortunately the DOER does not allow for contingency languages for future budgetary constraints, but they will work with communities on a case-by-case basis. and then finally there was a question about how do we get more level three superchargers and we just sort of outlined some of the grants that are available currently that we could pursue.

Thank you. Questions, comments?

Where are you going?

Mexico City. I'll stop thinking about EVs at the time.

I have one quick question. For the chart that shows the grant limits, is that per year or over the whole time?

Per application. And I think that they have about $52 million. So once all of that funding is exhausted, then...

It applies many times if just per application.

Yes. And just a quick note, because this was asked by FinCom, the source of this funding is not federal. This comes from a special allocation from rate payers. I forget the naming for it right now, but...

Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Thank you. So that funding is not affected by anything that is happening at the federal level. So we would not be left on the hook because funds would not get clawed back or canceled.

Thank you. Other comments, questions?

So, thank you for your detailed follow-up on it. And I do have a lot of questions, but I will wait until the next time that we discuss this. at a meeting so that I can ask you those questions. But the 428 that you said to date from around when?

2010, when we became designated.

2010. Were those matching grants as well, or...?

No. However, the green communities grant are reimbursement-based, so we would spend the money first, then we would get reimbursed. But no, no matching.

Okay, so the other one you're talking about, the $1 million grant, does the 10% grant match?

Yes, so if we have a project, let's say, for $400,000, then we would just need to find $40,000 in order to match that, which is not unreasonable, and we would be able to find that in, for example, the facility's operating budget, let's say if it's an HVAC project.

I'll get my questions over.

Thank you. This is a very complex plan with long-term impacts. So yes, there will, I think, be continued questions. One thing that I'm realizing while I'm sitting here I would be interested in doing my own research for is return on investment for this. And I don't just mean dollar for dollar, like what do we get back from a grant versus what do we, the additional added expenses for some of these certification requirements. Long-term, I mean, we all know, we're all experiencing climate change every day, and it's hard to pretend it's not looming over us. And so when we look at you know, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, what costs will we incur as a result of climate change and what kind of

what kind of commitments are we probably, frankly, already, not as a town, but behind in avoiding this crisis that's looming over us? So that's just something that I think is worth my own research and understanding because it is obviously difficult to look at real-time expenses which are meaningful to people. while also considering the significant costs that I'm at this point handing down to my kids to deal with it when they're adults. just thinking that through.

Thank you. And if I may say two more things. The first is that I recently attended a conference out in Worcester with Jeremy Rosenberger and the conference was organized by MAPC and it featured a lot of our regional planning associates and other planning directors out there. and something that they spoke about which really stuck with me is that for every dollar spent now on climate, climate resiliency projects, energy efficiency projects, anything to address sort of that future that we're moving towards saves a potential $13 later in damages mitigated. I will find that included in my next memo. And then another thing is while I'm gone I definitely don't want to stop this process because I do understand this is a lot of information and Long-Term Impact, of course.

So please send any questions you have in advance to the town manager, and then I'd be happy to sort of get that going at least so that the next time we meet we would have a more robust discussion, I hope. But really, thank you so much for having me here again. I'm really excited to potentially get this going, and I really appreciate you taking the time to hear me out.

Thank you so much, Rana. Thank you. Yes, thanks for staying late. I would be nervous if I had to.

There's nothing more important than the environment. What time are you leaving? 11, I think, potentially.

You don't have four kids with you, right?

No, does my husband count?

No, I'm just kidding. Have a wonderful evening.

Thank you so much. Enjoy. Thank you, Leah. Thank you. Thanks. Okay.

Thank you for staying, too, bud.

Appreciate it. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Approval of minutes?

Most are approved the following meeting minutes, 7-16-25, 7-21-25, and 9-25-25.

Second.

Hearing motion is second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. and I just want to mention that I really appreciate the work that the town manager's office has done to get us up to speed on these minutes. It was a lot of work and you move through A year's worth of... So I appreciate getting us up to speed. Thank you so much for that. Okay. All right. On to old or new business. Anyone have old or new business?

Happy 8th birthday to DT4. Knows more people in Dedham than I do. I'm not joking. I can attest to that. Well, you've seen with the parade, right? Yeah, absolutely.

All right. Motion to adjourn?

So moved. Second.

We're going to have a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye.

Aye. Opposed, no. All right. Thank you.