Needham Select Board, 3/24/26

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Recording in progress

calling to order the select board meeting for Tuesday, March 24th. This meeting is being broadcast by the Needham channel, by the town's YouTube channel and via Zoom and is being recorded for publication and later viewing presumably by the the observer, and I assume the local. If anyone else is recording, the time to mention that is now. We're going to start our meeting. This is a very monumental meeting. But we're going to start this meeting with public comment. And I know we have at least one. So Jody, if you want to come on up. I'm going to remind you to say your name and your address and try and keep this to about three minutes because we're going to be here for a long time tonight.

We love you.

Okay, Jody Rooney, 617 Central Ave. Good evening, select board members. Thank you for your service to your town, to our town, excuse me, especially you, Mary Ann. You're going to be missed. My name is Jody Ruding and I'm a Needham resident and I'm speaking in that capacity today. I want to note that I'm also an organizer of Needham Resists, a group of Needham volunteers dedicated to the preservation of our democracy. I am speaking this evening to express my support of the immigration draft policy provided in your meeting agenda packet that specifies actions that the Town will take should ICE decide to conduct an operation in Needham. We witnessed this winter in Minneapolis and elsewhere in the country the tragic outcomes of ICE agents violating the constitutional rights of Americans, in some cases resulting in tragic, unnecessary deaths. Specifically, I ask that you give serious consideration to the following items in your policy.

Prohibit Needham Police from assisting with federal immigration enforcement when a judicial warrant is not provided. require Needham Police to ensure that ICE agents present a judicial warrant to enter private property or take someone into custody. require Needham Police to show up on the scene of any ICE activity in town to de-escalate if necessary and or intervene if there are reports of or they observe federal agents using excessive force. Direct Needham Police to protect Needham residents should ICE agents apply excessive force to anyone in Needham regardless of their residency here. direct Needham police to defer federal agents, excuse me, direct Needham police to deter federal agents should they attempt to capture and remove U.S. citizens in Needham. and declare polling places to be ice-free zones.

Thank you for listening and for considering these requests to protect the residents of our community and all who work and live within it. And Mary Ann, we're going to miss you. Thank you for your service.

Okay, are there any other public comments this evening? Anna, come on up. Reminder to state your name and your address and keep it to about three minutes, please.

Thank you.

Thank you. My name is Anna Geraldo Kerr. I live on 42 Mosley Avenue. I've been a resident of Needham for 25 years plus. And I want to thank you for having this being you're going to vote in this immigration related law I want to thank you for making that effort to all of you to the chief but I think you need to do more and there is, I have to walk around with my passport card everywhere. My son is mourning. He had a day off from school and he said, I am not going to go to this place because there is ice there. This is what we are living in need of, some of us. So this is a start, what you're doing here.

But I will urge you to consider being more proactive. And what do I mean by this? to all of Needham to feel safe. You said it here, to take care of everybody equally. So what does that mean? What can you do to provide some support if something happens around town or neighboring towns that spills over to Needham. what supports can you help provide regarding mental health, social legal services? You don't have to reinvent the wheel. And there are services around town, the Needham Task Force, Community Council, and they're all doing their part, but I never see any of you around. ACLU was here? A few weeks ago, Lucy was here, and I didn't see any of you. I know you're busy.

I know you're everywhere. And I appreciate all the work that you all do. But how can town leadership be more present, not only with your Person, but also in leading the charge to make everyone safe. And I think I've exceeded my time. Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the room who'd like to make a public comment? Carol, is there anyone online? Okay, we appreciate those comments. We are gonna move on with our agenda to our select board transition. which is terribly sad, probably not for all of us. tonight we are speaking our appreciation for Mary Ann Cooley who's been a member of this board for 12 years and we have some folks in the room who are going to join us to say nice things about her. I had a one-year stub that I started with. All right. Well, I stand corrected. She knows everything. I mean, come on. So I'm going to call up our Senator Rebecca Rausch to join us first.

Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board, especially you, Marianne. When I first was elected, you were the only woman on this board. And that meant a lot to me. And you have been a triumphant leader. for women in elected office and politics in particular for the entirety of my tenure. And I am going to miss you very much. and I've really appreciated your insights and guidance and partnership in a great many things over the last almost a decade now. But I wish you all the very best in effectively the sort of completion of your retirement process. You're now retirement from public service.

to complement your additional recent retirement. it's a it's a great loss to our community to lose you on this board and also cause for fantastic celebration for all that you have done not just on this board but on others as well in other capacities So it is a great privilege to present you with this official citation from the State Senate. It comes in a fancy folder. There we go. Which is very exciting. And it is a package deal. I can see you're going to have a repeat performance in a minute. That one comes in a white folder. This one comes in a blue folder. It's very complimentary. We all work in partnership here. and it's a package deal you not only get the fancy folder and the fancy piece of paper but we also read it for you and for everybody else Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Senate Official Citation.

Be it known that the Massachusetts Senate hereby extends its congratulations to Mary Ann Cooley in recognition of over two decades of dedicated public service to the town of Needham. And be it further known that the Massachusetts Senate extends its best wishes for continued success that this citation be duly signed by the president of the Senate and attested to in a copy thereof transmitted by the clerk of the Senate. And it is indeed signed by our Senate president, Karen Spilka, our clerk. myself as the humbled state senator from Needham, dated today, March 24th, 2026. Congratulations. Oh, whoops, wait a minute, we missed them. We missed the moment. We have to hold this then, it's like a process here.

You hold it and it's like, yeah, it's there. That's terrific.

You know, paparazzi moment.

Thank you, Becca. All right. Representative Josh Charsky, come on down.

Okay. Select board, town manager, nice seeing everyone. Everyone in the room has joined us today. Marianne. I don't think I've known you the longest of anyone here, but when I was trying to get up to speed on issues within the town and in the community, I used to listen to a lot of these. I always took comfort in your voice. I thought you always sounded very reasonable and super well informed. A woman that I have a lot of respect for, who I think always carried herself with a lot of dignity. is just an initial impression that whether I've met with you here or at Bagels Best, I found to be true. So, you know, I'll keep it short. Congratulations on the retirement. and for all the good work that you put into this town over the years. I know it's appreciated by me and everyone else here as well. Let me get out my glasses. One of the best things of always being in a suit is that they're in this fancy pocket that's very available.

Okay, be it hereby known all that the Massachusetts House of Representatives offers its sincere congratulations to Mary Ann Cooley. in recognition of her many years of dedicated service to the town of Needham. The entire membership extends its very best wishes and expresses the hope for future good fortune and continued success in all its endeavors. And this is signed by the Speaker of the House, Ronald Mariano, and myself, dated today. So let's get a picture. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Representative. Okay, we're going to move on to a former member, Matt Borelli. Come on down.

thank you madam chair thank you board members thank you for the invitation the board and Mary Ann I do want to mention I do see around the room our former colleague Mo Handel is here I think Marcus Nelson in the back former Representative Garlick who neither of us had the pleasure to serve with would have been excellent but you have a nice group here and I know you're going to be She's here.

Yep.

She's here. My point is we never had the pleasure to work together.

To serve. To serve. She was before the two of us.

She was before the two of us. Right. So with that, Marian, congratulations on your retirement. And thank you for making this board better to serve on, not just better at serving. In fact, Marian's very diplomatic when I served with her. She's so diplomatic that she was able to say positive things about Wellesley, which is something that hadn't been done in this board or in this town since 1881. Mary Ann served for many years in the school committee before joining this board, and that experience and the relationships she built helped shape how we operated. Her connections to Citizens Group, professionals, elected officials, and so many others make consensus building a cornerstone of the board. And we know that you can't build consensus without respect. Marianne, the respect people have for you on this board and across the community isn't just broad, it's genuine. And that's a lot harder to earn.

On a personal note, I was lucky to serve on one of the best boards I could have asked for. And that wouldn't have been possible without Mary Ann. We also made a fantastic chair, vice chair team twice. She brought a strong but balanced approach to every issue. We had our agree to disagree moments, but those moments made our board stronger and more effective. Most of my board leaned a bit left, I leaned a bit right, but Mary Ann was our Goldilocks. She was always grounded in what was best for the town, and usually she was right.

And by right, I mean correct.

I also deeply respect Mary Ann's commitment to veterans, police, and all those who serve. That comes from a real place, growing up with her father, John, who served as a Naval officer for 21 years. That sense of service and sacrifice clearly shaped who Marianne is. Now Marianne, as someone who's already on this side of the table, I want to prepare you for a little board retirement. Yes, you'll still get the texts that say, call me when you can. Yes, you'll still be asked to hold signs for candidates. And lucky you, since you're now a free agent, you can actually ask people for money. In the best part, you'll still go to places where people think you're on the board and they'll give you an earful, only to be completely deflated when you tell them that you're now retired. Or you can just say, I'll look into that. The only difference is now you don't actually have to.

Finally, you will find yourself saying things like back in my day or when I was on the board, whether anyone asks or not. Marianne, you've been a great teammate, a confidant, a resource, and a leader. Needham is better because of your presence and decisions on the board. You will be missed. Until your next venture. Thank you, Marianne.

Thank you Matt and Kate Fitzpatrick is our last featured speaker. for the evening.

Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board, Madam Town Manager. So exciting. Strange to be on this side of the table. I come bearing cookies. I know you have a long night. It worked not for everybody, but my husband protested. Now you'll have to ship. We can do that. I worked with and later for Mary Ann for almost the entirety of my time as the town manager at Needham. The number of projects that we worked on and the number of meetings we attended are too numerous to even count. During Marian's retirement tour, you'll hear about all the amazing projects that went well, the police and fire stations, the schools, the contracts, the staff that we hired. I decided to focus on some of the projects that went sideways. and to share what Marian taught me as a result. I have to say after I brainstormed the list, I realized that Matt had a hand in every one of them.

Mary Ann showed me the courage and a willingness to act when necessary. At her very first meeting in June of 2013, the board had to take a vote under an administrative order from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to implement a non-essential outdoor water use restriction. It is fair to say that this action was mildly unpopular. She could have abstained, not having been part of the conversation leading up to the vote. I know I probably would have. But she didn't. She trusted her colleagues, and she took the vote. Marian taught me that words matter. Taking the easy route is not acceptable. She worked to convince the other members of the board and ultimately the town to change the 300-year-old term select man to select board. Like so many other controversial topics, most people today don't even think twice about the name of the board, but it was not an easy conversation at the time. Marian taught me how to pivot.

Our beloved public safety project was gaining some opposition because of the need to install some communications infrastructure. It made sense to me to recommend that one be placed near the water tank. It was in the correct location and it was near another large structure. Marianne managed to salvage our public safety project by arranging a public meeting on a Saturday morning We literally decided this on a Friday and we leafleted the neighborhood and they came. Many of them came. I can picture us at the Council on Aging with inadequate mics and Marion carrying a mic'd, corded mic up and back. and she agreed to look into alternative options and she challenged us to do so and now our communication structure is on the dead of jail. Marian taught me that it was possible to have meaningful and important conversations in public and on Zoom with the right leadership. She and Matt and Marcus

shepherded the Nuwari process through a rocky period to the completion of a racial equity vision statement that was adopted by the town. Marian taught me persistence and ultimately how to live with disappointment. How many hours did we spend wandering the banks of the Charles River trying to acquire property for acquisition? Marian taught me to look for crazy, out-of-the-box solutions. She volunteered to serve on the Senior Center Exploratory Committee after the town had searched for a location for the Senior Center for decades. I just managed to read the report issued by the SCEC and remembered that Matt was also on the committee and neither of them were yet on the board. Marianne pushed staff once again to look for out-of-the-box solutions and now we have a thriving senior center on an MBTA parking lot. To me and to the town of Needham has benefited immeasurably from the truly countless hours that Marian has devoted to his residents, owners, and partners.

Her wisdom, historical knowledge, and pragmatic advice will be missed. Finally, Marian taught me how to avoid disappointment by reminding me that Hazel's is closed on Mondays.

Thank you, Kate. And it's great to see you back. So I'm just going to remind everyone very quickly about some of the things that Marianne has done. She was a town meeting member. She was on the school committee for years, 2004 to 2013, and then on the select board. from 2013 to present. So there is barely a thing in this town that doesn't have her fingerprints on it. True. She served on the Climate Action Plan Committee, the Future School Needs Committee, the Large House Review Study Committee, the Needham Unites Against Racism Working Group. the Quiet Zone Working Group, the Senior Center Exploratory Committee, the Stephen Palmer Reuse Development Committee, the Town By-law and Charter Review Working Group, the Transportation Planning and Review Committee, and others. Those are just the ones that we can remember.

it's an extraordinary career of public service. So I'm gonna open it up to my colleagues. I do wanna acknowledge that there's a lot of people in this room who have made a huge commitment on the town and they've all turned out for Marianne we can't have everyone speak because we're already going to be here until the small hours um but i i'd like to give my colleagues a chance to say something Kevin

Sure, thank you. Marian, you will be missed. I will miss your wisdom. I will miss your temperament, your humor, and I'll miss your good sense. You have given so much to the town and to this board. Sometimes I think the select board is like a ship and each member is a part. You are the keel. And on some personal notes, when I first ran, my first public outreach was a disaster. I cringe about when I think about it. But you reached out the next day and gave me some of the best campaign advice ever. I followed it to the letter and it worked magic. So thank you. and shortly after I was elected a long time Needham resident reached out to me and said, you can take Marianne's word to the bank. And I found that to be 100% true. And when I was vice chair, I sat ringside while you were chair. and it was jaw-dropping.

You know everyone, you understood all the connections and you worked so hard. after one particularly overwhelming chairs meeting. And it was sort of like a fire hose. And Slackboard was always in learning gear. because there's so much to take in. It was overwhelming, and I asked Kate Fitzpatrick, sometimes Kate Fitzwilliam to the Needham Observer, and I asked Kate Fitzpatrick, Do I have to know all this when I'm chair? And Kate laughed and said, God, no. No one does chairs like Marianne does. And so And finally, you have made it into the realm of Keane Family Law. During my first term, you gave me a bit of advice that was pure gold. And I took it to heart, and I use it on my kids. and Eileen uses on me. And when we do, we all think fondly of the wonderful and wise Mary Ann Cooley. So thank you.

Thank you, Kevin.

Like Kevin, when I started on the board, which was only three years ago, A wise person told me that the best thing I could do was to watch Mary Ann, but try to do what she does. So I have tried to learn from you for the past three years, and you've been a wonderful teacher. and you're an amazing person on the board and I want to bring up another contribution that you make that hasn't been mentioned yet which is I think you care so deeply for the institutions in this town, and you are always thinking of it. You are not only thinking about the policy debate of the day, you are thinking about the legitimacy of the select board how we react to town meeting all of those things which are so important for the longer term and it's easy to lose sight of that. And I think you always had that in mind and I really value and appreciate that. And I also will continue to think, what would Marianne say about this? What would Marianne do? So I'm gonna try to keep that in my head

in the future, but I'm gonna miss you terribly. Thank you.

We've known each other a long time. I remember when Jerry Wasserman died, you asked me if I was considering running for Select Board, and I said I would never dream of running against you. And that remained true for at least 10 years. I don't think I've ever told you what I admire most about you. The accomplishment that you made was outdoor dining during the pandemic. It was a really big problem. We were in the midst of a catastrophe and you made life a little bit easier for businesses and residents. And so thank you.

you're welcome. Yep, that was important. Thank you.

Thank you, Josh. I just want to say, Marianne's time on the Needham Select Board, is marked by steady and thoughtful engagement with some of the town's most complex issues. She's consistently been involved in shaping long-term planning to your point, especially around development, transportation and connectivity, housing and climate policy, and emphasizing the importance of trade-offs and building consensus I believe your support for establishing a formal climate action plan helps position sustainability as a core part of Needham's future decision making. You are practicality and collaboration. You do executive level thinking, but you also roll up your sleeves to do the actual work. And that's not a combination that you see that often. mostly you're an empathetic and supportive colleague and I will dearly miss you.

Condoleezza Rice said, there's no greater challenge and there's no greater honor than to be in public service. Thank you for your service.

Thank you. Am I supposed to open it or do I get to save it?

I think you could open it if you choose.

Should I open the card first?

You know, cards. You know what it says.

It looks like, oh, it's one of the blankets.

Not one of the blankets.

It's not one of them.

Like you, this is a one of a kind.

It looks like, wait, is it the new seal? Oh my heavens. Look at this, everybody.

So let's hope it's past a done meeting. Otherwise, it will be really special. If not, it's really a collector's item.

Otherwise, it will be really special. Oh my goodness. And I will savor the card later. Do I get to say something yet? You're the woman of the hour. Go right ahead. All right. I apologize. I know this is way too long for everybody. I just had my Wellesley retirement party last night and I had worked up a whole speech for that and then I had worked all day today and then I was in another meeting today and I got home and I literally had like 10 minutes and I thought Dear Lord, what am I going to do because yesterday went forever and I was in Peru so I wasn't writing speeches then. So I opened up my file and I thought, okay, I'm going to start and I noticed something. And so I've gone back to something from the summer of 2023. But let me start at the beginning, right?

I am a proud graduate of Wellesley College. And Wellesley has an unofficial motto, which is a woman who will make a difference in the world. And I believe firmly, and I've told people when I try to recruit them to run for public office, that I think you can make the biggest difference close to home. And I've tried to practice that in what I've done for the town here. I went back to our vision. Our vision is that Needham is a safe and welcoming town. And I think of you, Anna, as I'm saying safe and welcoming town. that people are proud to call home where neighbors care, respect differences and contribute to the global community. Now I participated in shaping that vision. It's a vision I believe in. We are not perfect, but that is what we want as a community.

So for that particular retreat, we had to create a number of statements for this I believe. And I'm going to say that I think those statements are the basis for common ground for our community. And so I'm going to read them because I think collectively, There's a lot that people will say, yep, that resonates for me and that is a part of the community that I want to be a part of and I want to work to improve and make better and sustain. I believe that people move to Needham for the schools. They stay for the great community. I'm also going to say these are in random order. You can never communicate enough. And people will not hear you until they decide they have a need to know. Location, location, location. You can't beat it right here. There's a constituency for every project.

The trick is to figure out what's a no. and there must be no's. Our fireworks are the best. Sometimes we can't get out of our own way. Do your damnedest to walk the talk. Be prepared to stick to what you think is the best for the town, but when the decision is made, go forward collectively. Don't look to government first to solve your problem. has its own wisdom. We need more public art. Climate change is happening. I no longer care about the debate. accounting for climate change causes performative bad behavior. Just observing. Housing prices are too high. I blew it on large house several years ago. There were too many concessions.

We now feel like we're on top of each other. That's not a good place to be. Something else is coming forward. I also blew it on performance space at the high school. We need decent performance space somewhere. Leading by example. but helping our committees understand what is expected of committees, what inclusivity and equity look like is also part of our role. People need to put their phones down when they drive. And they need to slow down and stop running red lights. We have lots of walkers and bikers. Most people are reasonable and say thank you. Got a few Eeyores out there. Please don't use children as props. Say what you think carefully, gently, and be willing to disagree. Remember that it's not all about you.

Be thankful. So the best government is boring government. I strive hard for boring. I wish boring for all of you. I'm always willing to meet and listen. That won't change even when I'm off the board. And I want to say that I'm grateful. for everything that I've learned from my school committee and select board colleagues over the years. I'm particularly grateful for the spectacular leadership of our schools in town over that same period. Steve, Dan, Kate, and Katie. There's a reason why Needham has a great reputation and it's primarily due to that management. So While I am off to my new necks, hopefully I'm going to come back to town meeting, I'm going to be cheering for all of you. Thank you.

Oh, how I wish that could be the end of the meeting.

Motion to adjourn.

Wouldn't that be wonderful? Yes. Thank you all. Thank you for coming.

Dix.

okay our next agenda item is the discussion of the Babson College scholarships which will be led by my colleague Kathy Dowd

thank you madam chair so for those who don't know Babson College our good neighbor very generously every year gives scholarships to Needham students and those scholarships are based on need and this year They have proposed scholarships to three students. These are all sophomores and juniors. They are all coming back. Back to Babson. So they are getting a continuation of the aid that they have in the past. So we have the names here. Isabella Farisi, Rebecca Huang, and Mark Kudesman. And so... We're here to vote to validate that, but that is from Babson, Babson giving those scholarships.

and you and uh yes town manager yes i met i met with um

the Director of Financial Aid at Babson, Meredith Stover, along with our Deputy Ten Manager, Liz Rossi, and we discussed these applicants. These were the only applications that they had. And so they gave to everyone that applied. I would note for anybody who is listening if if you have a student know a student at Babson it is good for them to apply they are flexible it might be that you might not think that your child is eligible but they might in fact be eligible so it is it is a good idea to apply for that aid if they're you know if you have a Needham student going to Babson fantastic

Any questions? No, it's super appreciated. Babson is a top-notch university, and we appreciate the reflected glory and the commitment they make to our students. So it's wonderful. Thank you.

May I make a motion? Sure. I move that the Select Board vote to award the Town of Needham Babson Scholarships to the following applicants, Isabella Farisi, Rebecca Huang, and Mark Kudisman. Conditional pending application received by Babson.

second second all right um all those in favor aye all right motion passes excellent thank you Kathy The next item on our agenda is an update on the Pollard Middle School project. So we're going to welcome Hank Haff and Tina Stanislavski. And we're going to I'm going to turn it over to you all to brief us.

Thank you. We distributed the warrant article, which is zoning bylaw change. I don't know if you can pull that one up. So I'll briefly describe what the zoning by-law change is all about. It will include allowing in a single residence B district and middle school that can have four stories up to 60 feet in height. That's change from the current one, which is three stories and 45 feet in height. It will also allow for an FAR or a floor area ratio of 0.42. and a site coverage of 20%.

Now, included in that, if the school has four stories or 60 feet in overall height, then it must double the setbacks from the front side yard and rear yard within that district so that the building would not be very close to the abutters. And so that would increase it from 25 feet to 50 feet. But that setback would be for the building, not for parking and anything that's on the ground, groundscape. but there would still be a transition zone at 25 feet which would separate any new planting from those abutters. and then the final amendment is related to parking and the parking for the middle school would be one times the full-time equivalent of all teachers and staff

that are at the building, plus 20% for visitors. So that total, where there are 25, 230 spaces currently on that site. It would require, when it's sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, would require 260 parking spaces. to be accommodated on site. Those are the fundamentals of the bylaw change. uh it will be on hopefully with your approval be on a warrant article for this upcoming may town meeting annual town meeting and we have already been before the planning board twice made amendments the setback was one of the amendments that was requested by the planning board

and then they approved it I think to send it to the Select Board. Are there questions on that?

Do you have a question? I just had one. Maybe you're going to go through schematics in a second, or drafts. Yes. When you go through it, could you highlight where the four story portions are? Just so everyone knows.

Thank you.

I should say, as you get to become familiar with our zoning bylaw, you begin to understand that the calculation of height is complicated. and you go all the way around the building in ten foot increments and you calculate the average grade around the entire building and then compare that average grade to the highest point. now that highest point is the structural height of the top floor it does not include if there's an access door that go or stair that goes up to that rooftop that's allowed as long as it doesn't under the current bylaw. Also mechanical equipment can be up to one third of that rooftop area.

And solar PV is allowed on top of that as well. but any solar PV has to be set back from the edge of the roof equal to the overall height of the solar PV to reduce that impact, if any. But those are all part of the existing bylaw.

Okay. I don't have any questions about the bylaw.

All right. Are we good with that? Yeah. Okay. In terms of update, and after we go through the first slide, I don't know if I'll be able to share my screen.

We were going to give you the more updated version of this that we showed to the PBBC last night because yours is just a tiny bit behind because of when we had to submit it, basically.

Things have been moving rapidly. This project timeline that you see up on the screen right now, today we are in schematic design. We have completed feasibility. with the MSBA approval and got their approval this past month. We're deep in the thick of it, of schematic design. As we move forward, the next major submission to the MSBA would be that schematic design submission targeted on June 24th.

Can I just ask, because I know that The project design has gone through a lot of iterations. I think I recall hearing something about five stories. It sounds like it's gone down. Are we to the point where we can assume that this is It's fairly settled.

We're still moving program around inside the building a little bit. External. The exteriors is pretty subtle in terms of heights of things, I would say.

So you'll see some model images within the slides that we have. The elevator has four stops. How's that? but as you may know that site has a 30-foot grade change between the Harris Ave side and the field side back at the railroad and so the building HMFH has done a great job to integrate the building into that hillside and set the building back almost 300 feet from Harris Ave. And part of that, we still have two phases of construction.

which is necessary but the existing building is only 60 feet back so that gives you a sense of how far it is set back from from Harrison. We will be going through multiple presentations with the school building committee leading up to that submission including cost estimating packages in May also part of your package was the completion of the appointment of a construction manager at risk or CMR Bond Building Construction Inc. was selected in that process. And we value their contributions and the PBBC has worked with on several previous projects.

But given the scale of this project and the complications of Phasing and Logistics, PBBC felt it was very important to bring them on board at this stage rather than waiting until DD.

Now that they're on board, does that mean you've settled a maximum price with them?

Not yet. No. We have settled the feasibility, the phase one of schematic design only. and as we conclude schematic design we will have a project scope and budget agreement with the MSBA which will differentiate the total costs of the project, both hard costs and soft costs, and their maximum reimbursement amount. and it'll articulate what's eligible, what's ineligible, so on and so forth. It's not until we get in this in this sequence we will have to go through board approval in August after the submission in

June and then that will lead up to special town meeting in October and eventually the override vote in November.

and so when in that timeline will we know the maximum price?

The GMP won't be, well, we will know what our total project budget is with the project scope and budget agreement.

the contractor will do a cost estimate along with our cost estimators and then they'll reconcile and then that will be sent into the MSBA So they'll be using Bond's estimate for that number. But they won't do the GMP until we're finished with all the drawings at the end of design.

GMP. Where you see bid in 2028.

Probably a little after that even. Because they'll need to get subcontractor bids in.

As you know, we have to follow all of the Chapter 149A requirements, which requires competitive bidding of all the filed sub-bids. In the contract with the CMR, we also are requiring them to get a minimum of three bids from all the non-filed subcontractors. So that's site, concrete, steel, so on and so forth. The filed sub bidders represent about 60% of the total cost of the building, hard cost of the building. So that leaves about 40% to those other non-filed sub bidders. It's an open book process. PBBC will see all of that. And only when we have all of those bids in hand, we negotiate the final GNP.

Their fee is competitive with all the three finalists that we agreed. and their second phase of pre-construction, which will start in design development and construction documents, is also agreed with their proposal. and it is equal to almost identical to the other three firms that we interviewed.

just on this timeline will we know in the next couple months the cost or is it I think what Josh is maybe after is not the

We need to know what Needham residents are going to be looking at at their tax bill.

Once the estimates are done at the end of this period, you'll know the price of it.

at the end of, when is the end of the period?

Before it goes into MSBA.

So is that in August, I guess, or in July?

It's earlier than that. It would be. June.

I know this is a complex process but our concern is making sure that people understand what the impact is going to be and so that's I didn't mean to interrupt.

And then the goal would be to design to that budget all the way through design. So they'll still be doing estimates as we go through the CM and our estimators. and every time we'll reconcile and then we'll get to budget with VE if we have to when it goes out to bid we'll probably have add alternates in the cost so that if the bids do come in high we have a means to get back down to where we need to be So we can talk through the details of that more, but you should be able to know the price by June.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Yes, and the finance director has already done a tax impact based upon the school master plan budget. and is now working I believe on a budget for what was presented in the PSR. There's about a $30 million difference between those two. And we are still targeting as close as possible to get to that school master plan budget.

311 million?

That's our target. I can't guarantee that we're going to get there, but that is definitely our target.

but we're making progress on that every day. You know, we're working towards reducing costs. I think bringing the contractor on was a really good move and they can help us with that.

Fantastic. Okay, carry on. Sorry about that.

No, those are very important questions, and please interrupt us as we go forward. You will likely also see during construction documents there may be what are called early bid packages. and the early bid packages would be for long lead items. It might be an elevator. It might be steel. It might be foundations. geothermal wells those all might be early bid packages just because of the length of procurement in the length of time that it gets to put in the order and then receive it on site and place it within the building. We'll be defining some of those, but likely that'll evolve during design development phase.

and right now you'll see in the schedule that the anticipated schedule in PSR was two years for phase one and another two years for phase two. The architects have been working very hard to reduce them. And if we jump to the next slide.

This is a site plan. Let me take it away. So what we were able to do from the last phase is move more of the building into phase one. so originally we had the auditorium as part of phase two so now it's part of phase one in the bigger building and only the sixth grade wing is the second phase so probably the second phase will be able to be reduced We're thinking it's got a very similar layout to the seventh and eighth grade wings. So they've already just built two of those. So they should be able to build the third version of that quickly in the second phase. some of the other things if you had watched the presentation last night some of the things at the top of the page have moved around a little bit as we hear from abutters. As we meet with educators and administrators, we're kind of tweaking things to respond to all of the information that we're still gathering.

So right now the fields that you see off to the left are now more central to the page and we've broken up the parking so that there's a smaller parking lot along the right hand side and then a larger parking lot that kind of terraces down the hill on the left hand side. And by terracing those parking lots on the left hand side, we're able to we believe connect the bus loop up to Harris Ave so that we don't have to spend all of the buses through the neighborhood because we did hear from the abutters that that was going to be really hectic. So it'll be a one-way kind of travel in from Dedimav and then up to Harris through the site. How we do that exactly, we're still working through those parameters. um you can see underneath it that green that was what the old footprint looked like so you can see the change from the the previous version

also we've moved the loading dock which is shown right now on the right hand side you see that road that leads down from the larger parking lot to the building and We've removed that because that slope right there is really steep. And so we've located it on the other side and we've been able to get rid of all that pavement and preserve more trees.

and all of those were part of the abutters discussions that we've had at open meetings. So the design team has worked really hard to respond to those. And from a transportation's perspective, they've also looked at ways in which to align the driveways that come in and exit the site with the primary ladder streets that are on Harris Ave. To help with the traffic.

Okay, I think we can go to the next. So these are three views of the model. The first one on the left is what's existing there now. It shows the modulars with a white dashed line around it. Those are going to be removed. before any of the construction starts. They might even be removed sooner than that because they're having some issues with them. They're failing. They're just really old. And then phase one builds the bulk of the building. and the existing school remains in place and in phase two the existing school comes down and the sixth grade wing is built. Next. and these are some of the floor plans. What we've been able to do, Hank alluded to it, we've sunk the whole building down one story.

so from harris ave the sixth grade wing will be two stories so the neighbors will see a two-story wing and from the back side of the site that will be three stories but it's sunk down into the you know where the fields are now So that really will be only like a one-story building when the neighbors are looking out over it. And I'll show you some site sections. The layout. So where's the four-story component? it's because it's you'll see in the sections but the the lower floors that you can see in the first floor plan those two wings that stick out those are three stories and then up above on the upper level there's two stories and so it averages out to be the four stories yeah you'll see in the section it's a little complicated to understand but it terraces down very nicely with the slope of the hill and it sits in there really nicely so there's two primary entrances to the building

you'll see on the first floor on the left hand side that's the secondary exit where the kids will come in off the bus loop that we were talking about and that leads you into the hub which is that Levy, Levy, and then on the second floor the purple square that's the gym so the gymnasium is going to be in the one story up but because of the slope of the site you'll be able to have access to grade from the gym both of the seventh and eighth grade wings are identical they have two teams per per floor plan and then they have some darker orange colored classrooms those are the special education classrooms and then green is any support space for teachers. So those stack all the way up and repeat. The blue squares are vocational technical spaces.

So things like engineering and robotics, fab labs, those types of things. You can see on the second floor plan also that the first level of the sixth grade wing is starting to show and that's only got a pot on one side because it's buried into the hillside on the other side. So that's one way where we're taking up the site a little bit more efficiently than we did in the last plan. And this will save us money because we're reducing cut and fill on the site and we're reducing the retaining walls that we need. So the more we can do that, the more costs that we cut. All right, you can go to the next one, please. Thank you. On the third floor, we have the main entrance from Harris Ave. So the kids will come in from the front. That'll also be the parent drop-off loop. and they come into the same space as the kids coming in from the bus loop down below. Everybody can gather together in the hub.

That'll be connected with elevators and stairs in that zone. Next to the entrance on the right is the media center and that will be part of the heart of the school. The kids use that space now a lot in the existing school so the new media center will be front and center. on the third floor plan you'll see the last of the seventh and eighth grade pods so they get a single pod on either side and then there's rooftop outdoor classrooms for them facing south and last on the right, the fourth floor plan is the last of the sixth grade wing.

Does that make sense? It does. I have a question. I don't know. It's more of an educational question. So looking at this, it looks like six, seven, and eight are all equally separate from each other. When people talk about a school within a school for sixth grade, how is that influenced? So how is sixth grade different from the others, if at all?

so the sixth grade has a similar layout to the others but those students will stay in that pod seventh and eighth grade will share and they'll move kind of back and forth between the two wings because at that level they wanted to start getting them ready for the high school experience, right, where they're changing classes and they're moving around the building a lot more. So the plan is that they will be able to move back and forth between the two different wings.

All the specials are grouped around that hub. So they'll be able to go out to explore those specials.

and they all move as a group so all the sixth grade will be in art together or you know so they they don't kind of mingle in that area and the same will be for the cafeteria they'll have three lunches a grade level lunch each so they won't commingle in the lunch they might commingle the seventh and eighth grade if they decide to do that Okay, next. So this is just showing how the new building kind of terraces into the hillside. The first shot looking northeast is from the railroad tracks looking up the site. and then the shot on the right is looking at the sixth grade wing next and then it's very similar. This is just the completed version of that without the existing school in it.

Next.

and then last is the site sections. So the top site section is cut through the hub space so you can see how the top of that roof is like equal to the houses that are on either side because it's really sunk down into that valley. and then the bottom section is cutting kind of through the middle of the school if we turned around you'd see the sixth grade wing behind you that's the two-story wing but we're looking towards the neighbors on the other side in this I think that might be all of my slides. Yeah.

yes we we've already spoken about the CMR coming on board and Katie I don't know if you wanted to address the lead-up to The schedule for leading up to the Orrin article, but that was also distributed as part of the package.

I think the only thing to note and it's in the schedule that's in your packet is we have the zoning amendment going to the Maytown meeting of course the final funding bonding request to the october town meeting and then the ballot question to the voters the select board vote to put the ballot question on the ballot would occur at your July meeting. And so we will have the final estimate that comes at the conclusion of schematic design, but we won't have the final MSBA project budget agreement in place that's consistent with my understanding of how it's been on on many MSB projects, including Sunita. But this will be the first time, I think, for a number of us. So I just want to flag that. And I think if there's any questions along the way on the timeline, let me know.

I had a question about the override. So I suggested earlier that perhaps there'd be a separate override question for the auditorium if we wanted to rent it out, because I think it would have to be bonded separately. That's my understanding.

So our Deputy Time Manager, Director of Finance did talk to Bond Council about that. And the level of rental would be kind of de minimis enough that it can be included in one question. And so we would do one question. Thank you.

I should also mention that we will be a LEED building. We're targeting LEED gold. Sustainability is important to the town as we and we will be meeting the specialized opt-in code which is now adopted by the town. There are many opportunities we'll be exploring. Likely it'll be a geothermal building, similar to PSAP, which is geothermal and has been functioning fine for 10 years. 12 years. And in addition, I think we mentioned this to the FinCom at the last meeting, There are a variety of grants that we will be going after with our sustainability manager and with the design team.

including IRA, direct payments for the geothermal system, which isn't just the geothermal, it's all the heating within the building. and any utility incentives that we can get. The rooftop solar in the IRA is no longer available. That expired this year.

where on the site will the geothermal wells be located?

That's a good question. We're looking at two different sites right now and we're going to have the CM price the two different alternatives to see which is more cost-effective. So it's either going to terrace down the hillside or potentially be on the fields adjacent in DeFizio.

Oh, on the DePazer site. Yeah.

In the outfield of the Warner field. We are also looking at temporary lay down space and temporary parking for construction. and potentially for teachers after phase one opens down at that area just because separating school operations from construction operations and The CMR is working through this logistics as we speak. We had a lengthy discussion today and we'll have another one tomorrow.

Do your thermal wells disrupt what's on the surface?

Not when they're done, no. They'll be covered over. There won't be any sort of anything popping up. There'll be a manifold that you can get into off of the playing field, but... Nope, they wouldn't disturb it at all.

This is fantastic. I think it's such an improvement over the existing. and I think we rename it the true hillside school because you've built it so much into it just slight I love looking at these plants I spent way too much time but The stormwater garden and the topo, I see where it is in front of the school proposed, but that's also the highest elevation be after it sort of drops off on either the right or the left? Is there a reason for that or just do you want that in the lower part?

That's actually been moved in the new version of days and we are thinking right now that it will be at the lowest level. It's kind of where the tennis courts are right now at the bottom of the site. but we're still working through stormwater and what that looks like. I think we're gonna have to do a couple different versions throughout the whole site. We may even have to capture some of it on the roof. Potentially we're looking at something called a purple roof. The site is just so constricted that we'll need to be able to find every square inch we can to meet the stormwater needs.

Thank you.

I just want to compliment you on the creativity that you've shown in dealing with the abutter's concerns and really trying to look for cost savings. everywhere. So that came through in your presentation, and I really appreciate that.

Thank you. We're going to keep working at it, too. We're still gathering so much information at this point.

I don't really have very many comments, but it's interesting to me to think about the fact that this is set so far back from Harris for what essentially from Harris will look like a two-story building. So I appreciate all the work you've done to create that view and to minimize the impact on the neighbors. And I think it looks like a wonderful solution. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for the work on this. I think the question of cost is important to all of us, and not just for this project, but because of what we have planned in the future. at least in our debt financing was 148 million so we have to make sure that there's enough money for that and It goes along, in my mind, to the welcoming and inclusive nature of the community as well. People need to be able to afford to live here and we don't want the tax burden to be so much that people can't afford to live here anymore. I appreciate your efforts.

Yeah, we understand. We'll do everything we can to get it down as low as we can.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate the update. Have a good night. And I assume that the most updated presentation is available on the website so that people who want to check out the changes can do that.

Yes. and if you look at the Zoom meeting of the PBBC last night, you'll see that presentation and a presentation that Bond gave to, the CM gave to the committee.

okay the only difference in the plans is the auditorium and the gym flip sides in the building inside so when you're looking at it if you see that that's the only thing they're still at the same levels as the plans I presented okay great well thank you very much thank you appreciate it

okay our next agenda item is local law enforcement's role in immigration so we're gonna welcome the chief Chief John Schlittler, and Chris Heap, Town Council, our own Katie King, Town Manager, and our own Kathy Dowd, Vice Chair.

I will lead us off and I will just remind everybody what brought us here. So at the end of January, Chief Schlittler kindly came in and gave us an update on our policies and practices with regard to immigration. And at that point, we had a discussion in the board about how we wanted to go forward. We noted concern in the community about ICE and Border Patrol's actions across the country and how Many in the community are concerned with violations of human rights and constitutional rights. and that it would be prudent for us as a town to anticipate what might happen which we hope might not happen but you know anticipate

what might happen here with ICE and Border Patrol and really review our policy and make sure it's clear. So I'd say there were a couple of goals here. The first goal is to ensure that any cooperation with ICE does not exceed what is really strictly necessary to comply with the law and to preserve public safety. We do not want to be facilitating actions that may violate human and constitutional rights. that's the first the second is that our police officers will have clarity in what they ought to do in any given situation and then the last is that the public will have clarity on what they should be able to expect I will say there are constraints here, very serious constraints of law. The law says that we may not obstruct ICE or impede them in any way. And so that is a constraint that we are operating under.

and the other constraint is one of common sense really of public safety right the the first job of the police is to keep us all safe and so it is possible that with some of these policies they can have unintended consequences and make it so that our police cannot do what they need to do to keep us safe. So those were constraints that we were operating under. In terms of process, no need to recreate the wheel when many neighboring communities have already addressed this issue. So the starting point was looking at what other communities have done. Smith, reviewing those policies and then considering them for here. And the advantage of that is that you already have had some community discussion there. those communities police departments have looked at those policies as well as their own city and town legal departments have looked at them so we thought that was a good starting place

and reviewing them to see well how do they compare to our current practice because in many cases we already do what those policies say and then if they aren't our current practice is that something that we think we want to adopt here, whether it's that it is enforceable, that it is consistent with public safety and something that makes sense for us. So I would just lay that out as sort of the groundwork and turn it over to and whoever wants to go through the details.

I'm happy to take it from there. I thought what would be most helpful obviously we've done a deep dive as the Vice Chair has articulated and I think our goal for tonight is to just walk through each of the clauses, share a little bit of thoughts from for what's before you see if there are questions and then not to have you kind of take it up until the future. at meeting at your discretion. So why don't we just walk through and I think if the police chief or town council want to add anything as I articulate, please just chime in. And in hindsight, I am wishing I had numbered each of these classes, but here we go. So the first is the town of Needham will treat all persons equally enforce laws and serve the public without consideration of immigration status. I won't read each of these in full. But this is an equal treatment clause that is current practice in law but important to state up front.

the next that Needham Police Department shall not initiate investigations or law enforcement action on the sole basis of actual or perceived immigration status. Again, that they are enforcing criminal actions, public safety matters. The third, Needham Police Department shall not enforce federal civil immigration law. The chief discussed this with the board at your January meeting that that is not the role of local police. The additional sentences in this section referencing Section 287 agreements is a very particular partnership that the federal government asks local County, law enforcement, corrections institutions, sheriff's departments to engage in MOUs where you really do deputize your local law enforcement to do immigration enforcement. So this would prohibit us from entering into those MOAs with ICE.

The next item, the Needham Police Department shall not inquire about the immigration status of any victim, suspect, arrestee, 911 caller, or other member of the public with whom they have contact unless it is relevant to a criminal investigation or otherwise required by law. the next sentence is that the department may inquire about a person's country of origin and this is a that is available to community members so that they have the availability of counselors if they were to need it and request it. Chief, if you want to add anything to that component.

Yeah, it's consular notifications. Individuals from certain countries have rights with the consular if they're detained or arrested. So we make that contact with the councilor so that they can provide services to that individual.

I presume it's also useful if the individual says they're actually a U.S. citizen. Right? I mean, that they could, if somebody's being detained and you were to ask what their country of origin is, right? And they indicated that they were a US citizen. That would also be useful information for you in addition to the consular question if they were not.

Yeah. although we're not asking about immigration status. I think maybe one way to think about this is if any of us were arrested in a foreign country, what would we do? we would contact the American consulate for support. Hopefully that never happens. But that is what you would do. So the converse is true. If there were somebody from another country who was arrested here, they might want consular support. and that is the purpose.

So this will come up during booking if they're arrested. We have a series of questions that we ask during booking. One of them is not their immigration status. One of them would be origin of birth. and the reason that would be so that if they are from somewhere else and they're not a citizen that they have the right to contact their counselor for legal services. and so that they can get the people their rights that they want. So that's what that's for. It's not an immigration status, but they have rights under consular notifications.

The next item when the chief was in in January discussed the Commonwealth v. Lund decision in 2017. And this was the kind of major component that that case established. The Needham Police Department shall not detain any person for any length of time based exclusively on an immigration detainer or administrative warrant. And the length of the detention shall not be extended when they would otherwise be entitled to be released. So we have someone in custody for a criminal reason and we only keep them related to that criminal arrest and no longer than would otherwise be necessary. The next item, the Needham Police Department shall not initiate contact with ICE to disclose the length of time a person is expected to be detained with an exception that communication would not be restricted if it's a criminal matter. that's at hand.

And would we then, if we, as I understand happens, if someone is being booked, whatever, I understand that we can receive contact from ICE asking if that person is in custody. Would we need to answer that question?

Yes, so technically what happens is when we arrest somebody we do a fingerprints of the arrestee and those fingerprints go into the FBI DOJ and then so usually what happens is ICE will be able to see that and they will call us. and we will say to them that that person is in custody. We don't want to interfere, obstruct, or get in the way of their investigation. If we lie to them, don't tell them the truth. That could be one of the consequences for our officers. okay so no comment is not an option for us no i mean that's what we've looked at i we've gone back and forth we spoke with our legal counsel um and you're toeing the line I don't want to put our officers in a position where they're going to end up in federal court.

We want to comply with the law. I'm just trying to understand where that boundary is.

And to be candid, this provision is one where other towns have drafted more. no comment type policies but we did discuss that at some length when we were preparing the draft and we were concerned that no comment or an affirmative you know false answer would obviously be pretty close to obstructing a federal investigation so the drafting that we ultimately agreed to bring to the board was one that makes perfectly clear that the department is not going to affirmatively reach out to ICE but if the phone rings we felt it important that the officers in the department be allowed to answer the phone.

would there be a scenario like you say they're here we have them you know detained get here fast we I mean are you doing are you coaching them like how much are you timelining them

No, so we can't, we're not going to provide that. Basically what happens is when they're arrested, they're either going to be held, the bail commission will come in and say you're held to the next Session of the Court, or you'll be bailed. So they'll call and say, is that person in custody? Correct. They know that person is custody by the fingerprint hit that's gone into them. and they say they're arranging for bail and 9 out of 10 times they're not going to get there by the time bail comes and releases them. But we cannot detain them any longer than is necessary.

And have we seen any circumstances in which other towns who may have chosen the no comment route, I'm not suggesting that we don't tell the truth, but have we seen any instances where towns who have chosen the no comment route, has that been tested in any

Not that I'm aware of.

No.

I don't want to be the test study.

I don't especially want to be the test subject either. I'm just curious how that's gone.

What's the protocol if you do a fingerprint and you find that they have a warrant or

A criminal warrant or a civil?

I guess I don't know. Either I'm asking because I'm not sure.

A civil detainer is something that we don't enforce federal law. We can't enforce federal law. We cannot detain or hold on a civil immigration Detainer. If they're in our custody, it's because they violated mass general laws. If there's a federal warrant, then we can detain on a federal warrant. depending obviously depending on what it is and depending on who it's from whether it's FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE whatever it might be so if that case would happen then it would be would have to look into a contact that department and say this person is in custody, we see that there's a criminal warrant. And we would tell them, hey, this is probably going to be held. The bail commission is probably not going to let them go because they have an outside criminal warrant.

If I could just for anybody who the background would be useful. The difference is that the criminal warrant has gone before a judge. and the judge has found probable cause that a crime has been committed. The civil detainer is issued by an ICE agent, not by a judge. There is no probable cause. It is simply that they believe that the person is not here legally, has overstayed their visa or something like that. It is a very different process and path. And those, you know, per the Lund decision, we can't entertain those.

Okay. The next item, which is the second full subsection on the second page, the police department shall establish a process to provide that upon receipt of an immigration detainer or a non-criminal administrative warrant for a person in custody the department will provide the person with notice of that immigration detainer so the person that we have in custody would then know that an immigration detainer had been issued for them and so the policy would have the department establish a process for that.

Can you just talk about what that actually means?

So if ICE emailed or faxed us an immigration detainer for somebody that The police department already had in custody for violating mass general law. A Needham police officer would make that person in custody aware that they had now an immigration detainer issued by ICE. so that they would be aware of that situation for themselves.

If I could provide some background on why that is relevant. Because the federal government has been enforcing immigration law more strenuously than it has in the past. There are a large number of people who have been in this country and have been pursuing, for example, an asylum claim who because of the different ways that the government is now interpreting the immigration law may then be on a path to removal and not actually know. So there have been cases like this where, for example... Even think about the young woman from Babson. I was thinking about her. And she was not arrested, but... She was a graduate student here in Somerville and

her student visa was revoked without her knowing it and then she was a detainer was out for her and she was put on a path for immediate removal she did not actually know So this is happening to some people and so if you were in our custody you would be informed. that there was an immigration detainee. It sounds crazy that you wouldn't know, but in fact, people don't always know. Well, the young woman from Babson didn't know that there was... one for her from when she was a child this has happened so it is valuable for the person to in fact know this okay thank you

The next section in accordance with the US Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act, the Needham Police Department shall assist immigrant victims of crime with their U or T visa applications. And this is consistent with an existing policy that we have and also aligned with police accreditation standards. the next item in the event that the police department has advanced knowledge of a planned immigration enforcement by ICE or other federal officials the section would require the police chief to make all reasonable efforts time allowing to both ask agents that they be visually identified and also that the police chief or designee would request a copy of the immigration detainer administrative or judicial warrant so that we at least are making sure that we're asking them to do those things if they're in this community.

The next... Just a clarification on that. When you say visually identify themselves, It seems so silly that I have to ask this. Is that a one-time thing? I mean, because there are agents that wear masks. Is that something that this is meant to prevent?

are they supposed to be labeled as ICE?

they should have identification identifying them as law enforcement yeah and then this says

Immigration Detainer Administrative or Judicial Warrant. I mean, I thought, I guess I thought we weren't entertaining

immigration detainers this is a federal enforcement operation so they're going to be they're going to be enforcing federal law which would be the civil detainer we're just asking for if there's time that they can provide us with the information so we're aware that what's going on so they're going to be able to enforce federal law it's not we're not enforcing it but we're looking to see what kind of documentation they have and if it's whether civil or judicial. So we're looking for the information before they go out.

This is a different circumstance than the above. So if you start at the beginning of this, it says, in the event that the police department has advanced knowledge of a planned immigration enforcement by ICE. or other federal. So you imagine ICE is coming to Needham to do something. Our police would not be enforcing this, but ICE would be enforcing their own Detainers, et cetera, which they are allowed to do and which we are not allowed to impede or obstruct.

So we're looking for information for us, for their operation, what they're going to be doing, where they're going to be going. What documentation? So our officers are aware. So if we're there, we'll get called down to this, that we're aware of what's going on. So we have all the appropriate information before something happens.

And to be fair, Chief, I think it's not clear to us whether that information would be provided to us.

Correct.

Right. So I think people need to understand that. But responsibly, you're asking for it if you are made aware. But what we're seeing in other locations is that information is not being provided to local police.

that's I don't I can't speak to that but from what I'm hearing in other parts of the country I haven't heard anything from in Massachusetts but that there's not cooperation or any information being passed on.

But it should still be a request. It's a request.

The more informed we are, the better we'll be prepared.

The next section in the event of federal immigration enforcement operations in town, including a surge in ICE agents or other federal officials, the Needham Police Department shall ensure, consistent with longstanding practice, that established de-escalation protocols are used to protect all persons present including without limitation peaceful protesters and law enforcement personnel. Thank you. The next is regarding the use of town property. The town manager shall decline any requests for use of town property as an unpermitted staging area, processing location, operation space or any similar purpose for federal civil immigration enforcement operations unless there's a valid court order or judicial warrant.

in this section there is the last sentence provides that the Needham police station that the section shall not prohibit the use of the Needham police station when the public when the police chief determines it to be in the best interest of public safety so again trying to understand all of the hypothetical scenarios that we may be faced with that the chief can make a decision in the best use of related to public safety regarding the police station.

I have a question about this one, and this kind of relates to your question about requests. So this presumes that there's a request to the town manager.

Yes, which there might not be.

What, whether it's ISA or anyone, what recourse does the town have or what would be the process to handle it? There were no requests and we found that they were using town property.

so in the immediate we don't have any recourse other than to ask them to leave but i don't know if you want to speak to the legal recourse we could run into court and attempt to get an injunction

but that even that can happen quickly but that could is unlikely to happen quickly enough to get anybody off town property in the span of an hour or two that would at a minimum require you know the better part of a day. So if it's a multi-day operation, the courts could offer some relief. If it's a two-hour operation, I'm not sure as a practical matter what relief the courts could offer.

The next section, federal agents without a judicial warrant are allowed to access public areas of town buildings to the same extent as members of the general public. to the extent a federal agent or agents without a judicial warrant requests an entry into a non-public area of town building, this section directs staff of how they should handle that. they should ask a federal agent not to access the non-public areas inform the agent that they are not authorized to respond to the request and they will immediately notify the highest ranking supervisor on site the town manager shall issue relevant guidance to all town employees. We did issue guidance in April of 2025 on this matter and particularly had a lot of conversation about some town spaces where are they public are they private like the pool or camps and this is discussion that the schools have had at length as well

and so that guidance does exist but if the board were to pass this policy we of course would always take a look and refresh it and make sure it doesn't need to be updated in any way.

So Katie, I think that would be helpful, and I would actually love to re-see that advice at any rate. I guess I'm not going to be here, but somebody should love to re-see that advice. because I was sitting here as I read this one, trying to be sure, did I understand, are classrooms considered non-public? and behind the counter in the assessor's office and the controller's office are those areas nonpublic, you know, how just basically understanding how we think about that.

So we actually run this exercise quite a bit for First Amendment auditors as well, people that go town hall to town hall. asking about can we record staff and so in those exercises and understanding what people's rights are for those audits. We do talk with staff and train them about what is public versus private space. So something like a locked office suite would be a non-public area of this building. whereas this room is always public the hallways are always public and so there are some differentiators and I would just say to the school's question they have a separate policy and analysis that they have gone through for within school buildings. So I won't speak to that.

All right. it would be helpful just to know what that is I mean it seems to me when parents come into a school I think you can come in as far as the office without requiring permission to go further but just would be useful to understand

actually yeah can we talk about polling places as well is that in here um particularly well polling places period but particularly we still have one school that is a polling place do we have any have we discussed how that would work

We didn't discuss polling places explicitly, but I think I would defer to you if you think otherwise. I think this already speaks to where polling places are accessible to the public.

yeah I mean I suppose in most cases they're town buildings and so they would have the same public private division as normal business hours but in the one case where we are still voting out of school i know we're working on changing that for the on ongoing but we are still having one until we make that change, what's the story there?

The golf club is private. We vote there, right?

But when you're voting, it's a public place, right? I mean, you're not entering a private place to vote. It's a polling place.

I do think it's Katie's right that the same analysis would apply as to town hall. If a portion of the golf club is open as a polling station on an election day, believe the answer would be that the public portion of that area would be accessible without a warrant. Whether that's the entire polling area or just sort of the the public area where you walk in and out I want to think about I think the same rules would apply to a school you know if a portion of the school is being made open for the day to polling that would be publicly accessible without a judicial warrant but that wouldn't open up the entire school to public access for the day

The next section is about annual reporting. So the Needham chief of police shall include in the regular annual report that is provided to the select board the following information for the prior 12-month period. A, a statistical breakdown of the total number of civil immigration detainer requests lodged with the police department organized by the reasons given for the request. B, a statistical breakdown of the total number of individuals that the police department detained on the basis of an ICE criminal warrant issued by a judicial officer organized by reason supporting the detention. and see the total number of individuals transferred from police department custody to ICE custody. and then the last two items are first that nothing in this policy shall be interpreted to require or permit obstruction of federal immigration enforcement and nothing in this policy shall prohibit the Needham Police from asserting its own jurisdiction

over criminal law enforcement matters.

I think that last one is really important because I think what we're dancing around is the fact that some law enforcement officials can commit criminal offenses. And we want and expect that the Needham Police Department to protect residents from those offenses.

yeah I mean I the hard part is with some of this obviously if we see it a violation of mass criminal law, then we could act within our jurisdiction to do so. But there is Supreme Court cases and case law which really dictates what we do. about arriving in the middle of a dynamic situation and having the knowledge of what happened prior to determine. But if we clearly see a reasonable, articulable violation of mass general law, then we could act within our jurisdiction. And we also have a duty to intervene, too, if we feel that there's excessive force. Generalist 6E under post, we have a duty to intervene. and that would extend to federal law enforcement. We still have a duty to it to be.

Thank you. Yeah, we slightly relate to that and back to point X. about the issue of, you know, public safety around an ICE event, you know, assembling, mobilizing. The police would be there. but how are they facing like are they holding the people people you know citizens residents back or they we're keeping the peace we're outside we're not right we're not involved no no i know but kind of like, do you have your back to people? Are you facing ICE or do you have your back to ICE?

I couldn't really answer that. It's kind of hypothetical. I mean, I think we'd be at the situation and the situation would dictate and what our behavior be if there's nobody there nothing going on and then we'd be at a distance okay and then if obviously if something changes and we'd be there to keep the peace right because i think optics matter i mean if you were seen

with your back towards ICE facing people, it looks like you were working with ICE. If you were doing the other way, it looks like you, you know, I think there's, I don't want you to get brushed with a broad brush.

But if we're looking in, they could say that we're supporting ICE and ignoring them too. So I think it's hard to talk to a hypothetical like that. Our officers are very well aware of our job. During those efforts, it's to keep the peace, and that's... the people involved, the law enforcement, and all the residents that are there. We're there to keep the peace and to protect everyone.

Right. Okay. Yeah. No, just It's not trying to circle back, but if you're facing the residents, suppose, perimeter around whatever, are you not seeing excessive force that ICE might be doing? Would it be sort of like, oh, I have my back to them? and I think that might be, I know it's hypothetical. I know every situation's dynamic in the individual.

But like it is. The situation's gonna dictate it. If there are people there that are trying to impede intercede or go after the federal law enforcement, then our job is to keep the peace with them to keep them back. Yeah. none of that's happening then our attention is going to be in the general area so the situation is going to dictate itself on on what it is okay thanks

You know, all of this is hypothetical, right? This is the challenge and we're hoping that It really doesn't become an issue here. I do worry about what happens at polling places, and I guess I would hope that the board has some other discussion about preparation for that. and how the community might be supportive of people exercising their right to vote safely leading up to the fall. So I think that's the one comment I would make. I support everything that's in this policy.

We do have police officers at every polling location. Obviously we'll reaffirm the message of what we're there for. And that's the right to protect people's right to vote.

If we implement this as written, how would this change your current practices, if at all?

It doesn't. This is what we're doing now. The Lund decision and Mass General Law and Case Law really dictates what Massachusetts law enforcement does. So we're adhering to these practices already as what we do. So obviously with the issue of you know town property and so forth that's kind of out of our realm but the other legal stuff that is what we're doing now

I remember you saying during our last meeting in January that Massachusetts is very different from Minnesota. We have different protections. It sounds like I'm comforted by if that's true, that makes it sound like what has happened there is less likely to happen here. But I'm still very concerned. I don't know how to make people feel better than say that we're doing everything we can already.

Well, I'll note that it's not I mean I agree with you. I would note that it's not our typical to walk through our select board policies clause by clause. I think the point of doing this, and I want to express my thanks to this group who has put this together and who has taken the time to listen to our residents and to assess the national situation and so on. The reason that we're going through this in such detail and having this conversation is to let people know, our residents, the folks who work here, anyone who comes through, that this is a priority. And we actually, you know, it wasn't something that we were doing. We inserted this into our very long priority list.

because we know it's so critical and because we know people are thinking about it and we want to reassure residents and I think the best thing that we can do is make a substantive policy statement with this policy and do that publicly so that people can feel reassured to the extent that we're able to reassure them because I mean let's be honest life is what it is we can't we can't prepare resonance for every eventuality.

But we're going to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I would like to add, though, even though These policies don't reflect a difference from practice. There are a number of things here that are prohibited that we might not actually be doing, but that would be possible to do without these. So for example, The one X that says the Needham Police Department shall not initiate contact with ICE to disclose the length of time that a person is expected to be detained. That may not be our practice now, but neither is it prohibited. This rule would prohibit it. That's very important. Now, the reason why it's important to me is that should there be somebody who kind of took it upon themselves to cooperate with ICE, this now prohibits that. So I think that's important.

Similarly, even though ICE can come and essentially, they can do a lot of stuff. And I'll just back up and say that I think a lot of the deference to Federal Law Enforcement that's baked into court decisions is based on a long history of people doing the right thing. And so now we're in this space where they're not doing the right thing and the system is kind of going tilt because the system can't handle it. But I will say that, you know, prohibiting the town manager from giving permission is something. Again, it hasn't happened yet, but it is a prohibition and it is a statement that we don't want to do it. and we don't want to have this cooperation. So I think these things are meaningful even if they are not a departure from current practice because they are prohibitions of things that actually would be allowed today. We don't record the information. This last X with the A, B, and C, we don't record this information now.

So even just for the public to know you know, how many times, you know, have these civil immigration detainers been in here, the criminal, et cetera, right? How many times have people been transferred? I think that is something New, that we will be able to see. So I think that there is more here than might. And it's not a contradiction to what the chief has said, right? It is not a change in practice, but it is a prohibition of things that actually would be allowed today.

Thank you for pointing that out.

And I would just say, I think the other thing is, this puts all of this in one place. Again, so that makes it easier for residents of the town just to understand what possibly might be anticipated or expected. So we didn't have that before and I think that's useful as well.

So I will note that we are not voting on this tonight as our practice will at least wait but given the timing will probably not be next meeting, I would imagine.

I will defer to you and maybe we can have further conversations. Your next meeting is a blockbuster, but it's your agenda. It's your agenda.

I would say that anyone who... feel so inclined, could drop us a line, give us your feedback. This is still a work in progress, but I think I feel quite reassured and I appreciate the attention that in particular this group has paid to this issue.

just one last thing I think from a policing standpoint as the message we've always said um we're here to protect everyone regardless anybody that lives here comes into town we're here to protect their rights

Thank you. Heidi, I would just say while I hear you saying it's really not necessarily maybe required to come back at the next meeting, I guess personally I feel some more urgency rather than less urgency because I feel like we don't necessarily know what the coming days are going to bring and that unpredictability says to me that it's valuable getting a document like this in place

That's fair. We're going to have a new member. And there's a lot to get that member up to speed on. So I just want to... be logistically practical in my Marianne way. But we'll try. We'll try. We'll discuss the agenda.

just looking at one last thing just to say another thing that is not prohibited today is entering into a section 287 g agreement which is very significant right yeah i think this is a step forward

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Before we move along.

Move.

I will recuse myself. Thank you, Mr. Keane. So we have a motion to move the consent agenda. We have a second. We have a recusal. Do you have any comments? All right. Then all in favor? Aye. Motion passes. You can come back, Kevin. Thank you. Okay, moving along, we're going to go to our 2026 Annual Town Meeting Warrant Update with Katie King, our Town Manager, and Dave Davison. Come on down.

Hi. I want you to know that I described you just very, very recently as a genius. A genius. I just thought I'd start this conversation off that way.

That's a great start. Great.

Pressure's on.

So tonight is your last meeting before the warrant goes to print. We have about 100 people proofing it at this point because there's always a typo and something. did want to talk through just the substantive changes. So we'll continue to make commas and dashes and typo corrections before the end of this week. but the most significant thing that's happened is we did get free cash certified and we made some took a look back at items that we were not able to fund in advance of knowing our final free cash number So I want to see if the deputy town manager would walk through our recommendations that are currently reflected in the warrant that's in your packet.

Certainly. So as the board is aware, when we presented the preliminary capital plan back earlier in the year, There are some items that we had identified to be funded by debt that should we have sufficient free cash that we would recommend funding it by free cash rather than by debt, which frees up capacity for future years. And to that end, the most significant changes is that the improvements at the Center for the Heights, which was originally proposed to be financed by General Fund debt within the levy limit, or in other words, the 3% threshold, will be funded by free cash. The other thing is we had a warrant article for improvements to the high school HVAC systems.

and in particular one of the items that drove the cost up on that is the roof that needs repair as well. So it's a critical capital item that needs to be addressed. and in this case we're able to recommend that the funding for that is in part from various cash capital articles that have closed out that the funds are no longer needed that are appropriate towards the project. Some free cash with a balance which is a lesser amount than the the amount that we were planning to borrow for the Center for the Heights, $1,665,000, which is less than $1,780,000. would be borrowed by debt. The other

Clarifications is on the fleet, which the town manager did to prize the board about at your previous meeting, is there's a tractor that is in critical need of replacement that was not being recommended as a primary replacement in tier one.

Thank you.

We have put that tractor in for replacement and as a result to lower the impact of the cost that we backed out one of the vehicles that was being recommended to be replaced. as a result of that, the general fund cash capital is $43,200 more than originally intended. A couple of other items that we had to do is the capital facility fund. We've revised our policies and we're working with the Finance Committee and one of those policies is that that no less than 2% of the actual certified free cash would be appropriated to the fund.

we were estimating free cash at the 15.7 level and at that time we were looking at $314,530 to be appropriated. Now that we have the actual free cash number, we updated the warrant and the amount that would be appropriated is $346,718, or $32,188, which the Finance Committee has already took a vote to recommend adoption of doing that. So those are the broad overviews of the changes to the financial warrant articles from that which you were working with previously. Certainly I'll answer any questions that you have.

Sure. A little bit of an outlet. The Riverside Park Field House. How? 50,000? Yes. Okay. I'm thinking of Ridge Hill. The house at Ridge Hill was so much more.

A couple of factors. One that is true, it was a much larger building. This is a much smaller building. Secondly, Ridge Hill did not end up costing us that much. And in fact, the surplus from that project is helping fund the high school project. That's one of the funding sources that's being transferred to the high school HVAC project. 50,000 is a conservative number. It's an old building. Hicks, an old toilet facility. So there could be unexpected costs to deal with hazardous materials, whether that is whether that is lead paint or asbestos. Certainly decommissioning sewage is expensive and unfortunately another reality is if there happen to be any pests

that would need to be eradicated. We don't know the extent of any of that. And hence, that is the amount that we are setting aside. Hopefully, if it comes in less, then those funds would be freed up. and again that was also presented to the Finance Committee at their meeting last week and they are recommending adoption of that.

Two things. One, just a big thank you. I noticed that you budgeted the entirety of our free cash to projects. I know that's not the standard practice in the past. I think I appreciate that because I feel like the money is being put to use and not being carried over to the next year. So thank you. Second is a question, now that we know the free cash and we're budgeting, do we know with the annual time meeting and what the special time meeting is shaping up to be, how that impacts our 3% limit if everything were to pass under debt?

The what is currently in the warrants and what we're recommending will work into the 3% for adopting. as the board is aware I'll be updating the outlook in terms of future capital plans stuff but these projects would work within three percent the issue is those costs, how much are they limiting our future capacity? And that's a different discussion.

and the quiet zone was moved to the special town meeting and we are still working to get to a final number. Any comments?

Folks?

No. OK. And sewer cash capital?

Yes, sewer cash capital was withdrawn. And that's because what was certified for retained earnings is insufficient in order to cover those expenditures. So we have to defer those. and neither is one that we would recommend doing borrowing for. The Goss level for an organization of our size wouldn't make sense. are those items being deferred will that have a negative impact on operations they in the case of the analysis of the building the the pump stations DPW is going to see what they can do with their existing resources that do any immediate identifying work. That was more of a look at the facilities for future capital investment. So let's see what they can do there. The vehicles, we're always moving vehicles around.

Our annual replacement list is endless. always succeeds our ability to meet that list. And in this case, we can't meet the sewer cash capital vehicles but we're not concerned that that will materially impact the operations pre-OPY27.

Final things, just to note, this warrant reflects the final votes of the Community Preservation Committee on the articles that they were reviewing and the final planning board language on the zoning-related articles. and we've started to insert the positions that the Finance Committee has taken to date.

Madam Chair, I make a motion that the Board vote to approve the final 2026 Annual Town Meeting Warrant subject to technical corrections to be made by the Town Manager, Town Council, and or Bound Council.

Second. Any more discussion?

No. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes.

Katie, when does it go to print again? Friday.

and so at your next meeting we will have presentations from the planning board from citizens petitioners and the board will start taking positions on articles

and go on to the next yes I just, I know I had seen a typo.

Oh, great.

In the special I saw one.

Well, no, in the annual.

No, the special has a little extra time, so.

In the annual in Article 41. Okay. A typo, two typos. exist in the citizens petition which is which says The last paragraph before inserted by, it says evaluation of the current town lane plan or town lane hybrid plan.

Oh, instead of two.

Which should be two and two.

Yep.

I will make sure that that's my error and not the petitioner's. This language always reflects what was submitted, but I believe that was my error, so I will correct that. Thank you. This is why you need 100 people proofing.

OK, moving on. So the next thing is to close the special town meeting warrant.

just to highlight a few changes since the last version we have received a citizens petition before the deadline and those signatures have been certified by the town clerk so that petition is now added to the warrant We've removed a couple of placeholders that we no longer will need you to consider. The removals were the capital equipment stabilization fund. We're not recommending any appropriation into that. We've removed line item transfers for the general fund operating budget and removed line item transfers for sewer operating. So those have been deleted. There is a line item transfer still in the warrant related to water. and other changes. We've updated the amount for PEG, added details on our unpaid bills and added the $50,000

amount for the Riverside Park Fieldhouse demolition and adjusted the figure for the Stephen Palmer tenant relocation program. to $200,000 to reflect what we think we would need for the balance of that program starting July 1 of the fiscal year. so there will be more shifting on this there is still in the special some placeholders so you meet again on April 15th before the special goes to print so next meeting will really be the final final which are the placeholders that might change between now and then so the planning board has not concluded their process collective bargaining is in process and open space appropriation was a placeholder as well okay and the quiet zone is that we don't have the number the number is going to change working

Yeah, the committee's hoping to meet, or the working group's hoping to meet in the next couple of weeks.

All right.

I'm sure the typo I noticed here was on the citizens petition title.

Oh, yeah. In the special?

In the special, yeah.

I got that one, too.

Oh, Charlie. Charlie.

Thank you.

Yeah, what is that?

Did you know the spiggly red things don't pop up under caps?

Also, in the same... In the same article, there's a space where it's inserted by. It's just not noted who is...

yes i have a note out to the petitioners it was a group and i just wanted to confirm the primary because just the first person is listed so as soon as i have that confirmation i will update that

Can I just request a clarification in one of the article informations? So for the Stephen Palmer tenant relocation, can you clarify if this is for the tenant benefits and not for the rent, not for the current landlords? Absolutely. Thank you.

Okay, so...

So Chair, I move that the board vote to close the warrant for the May 11th, 2026 special town meeting subject to minor technical corrections to be made by the town manager, town council, and bond council.

Second. All right. Any more discussion?

All those in favor?

Aye.

Motion passes. All right. Thank you. um next is 193 garden street Town Manager.

Great. At your last meeting, you heard a presentation from Michael Todoldi and his attorney, George Genta, regarding a local initiative program, a 40 proposal. for 10 units at 193 Garden Street. So this will come back before the board. One of the requests from the board to the was to do community engagement. That has started. It's underway. We've received some communication from residents, and part of that is a number of questions that are process-related. And I think we don't do a lot of... not just 40Bs but really a local initiative program a friendly 40B where the process is a little bit different in communities who have exceeded the 10% of affordable units required under state law compared to communities that have not exceeded the 10%.

So when we do bring this back, which I have it scheduled for April 28th, we will also provide I think just maybe some more level setting on what the process is how this works because the vote of the select board comes early and really kicks off the whole rest of the process as opposed to the select board being the concluding vote on it. So we'll build that out a little bit more for the board for community members to make sure everyone's clear about what would be ahead if it's a project that the board wants to advance into the state process.

And I would just note that I think that's important because it is likely that a number of future projects will be of this type, or at least you should hope that that's the case, right? This would be a good thing. for the town if there were more projects of this sort coming forward.

I guess I'd just like to to reiterate in sort of less formal language, to say that when petitioners come to the select board first, it's mostly a vibe check. Do we want to hear more about this project as we vet? It is not coming to the select board for that discussion is not approval of a project it is a we want to hear more go ahead and do all of the other steps that are required because those will determine the shape of the project and the course of the project but it's a question of are you interested do you want to hear more does this meet with a vibe check it's not there's a there's a goodly number of of other requirements and as you noted during the discussion

boards with whom you have to check in and more designs that need to be processed and so on this is this is do we do we want to move forward to those stages that's all not like an approval yes or no binary

And there are projects that come forward that you look at and say, that's not what we want.

And I hope that we have clear criteria. I mean, maybe we can't. being explicit about everything because we don't know what's going to come but I don't want it to be perceived as we're approving the ones who based upon the applicants we like and disapproving ones of the applicants we don't like that that's that's the kind of thing I think having clear criteria dispel that that Perception, if that exists. And then I guess on the lip, when it is a lip, it is partly our projects. We're joint applicants, essentially, to the state.

at the end of the vetting process, yes, but not at the beginning.

But even during, because in prior lips I've seen at the ZBA it being presented as an endorsement by the select board.

something that we should talk about. Yes. OK, fantastic. So we'll get some more details on how that process is to work in our next meeting.

OK. Next up, the select board has policy SB admin 002 regarding executive session minutes. And under that, I do a periodic review of prior executive session minutes to determine which should remain where it warrants continued nondisclosure, either all of the minutes or a portion of the minutes. And for those that I deem that there's no longer that it is no longer warranted to have continued non-disclosure that we release them. So I've completed that periodic review and just want to announce the executive session minutes that will be released tomorrow. So a full release of executive session minutes from February 14th, 2023.

from April 25, 2023, from August 12, 2025, from September 9, 2025, and from November 25, 2025. and then also to notify a partial release of the executive session minutes of December 2, 2025, January 13, 2026. January 27th, 2026 and February 24th, 2026. Until the next review. Excellent. Town Manager's Report, I will just take a moment to say that Marianne, on behalf of myself, all of the town staff, thank you for your leadership, your support. You will be very sorely missed. That is the last word I have on town manager's report. Thank you.

All right. Playing the role of Kevin Keane tonight will be myself. Not wanting this meeting to end. That's not the right page. Number six. OK. Our next item is an appointment to the registrar of voters, or a registrar of voters appointment, I should say. This is for discussion. basically Needham has a board of registars of voters that would be the town clerk and three additional members and these members are are recommended by the political parties established in town. tonight we're looking at a vote to appoint a registrar of voters as recommended to us by the Needham Republican town committee and they have provided us with a letter recommending three

appointees. We need to appoint one.

And Madam Chair, I was a little confused by this letter. So I called the chair of the Needham Republican Town Committee today to clarify. These names are listed in order of preference.

Yes. Correct. Thank you. Helpful. Yes. And so I guess it would be my... Yeah, I found the letter confusing too.

I found it very confusing. And I also say the... The title of the town clerk looks like a letterhead because they centered it. I thought, wait, why does she use this letterhead? And it's not, it's just a addressing of the town clerk. but it looked like Tana Needham. Oh, yeah.

The way it's centered, that's a little confusing. But ultimately, we need to choose one since I think it was my thought that we would go through the list as listed, one, two, three. Since you've confirmed that, that makes it very easy. So I guess I would ask for any discussion. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

As long as we understand their preference, I would suggest we go with their preference. I agree. That was what made sense to me.

Okay, then I'd welcome a motion.

move that the board vote to appoint Dennis Onigro as a registrar of voters for a three-year term to expire on March 31st, 2029.

Second. All right. All those in favor? Aye. And the motion passes. um okay committee reports just go from one end to another all right you gotta do trivia bee i wasn't at the trivia bee

Josh, you can do tourniquet. We lost. We did not lose.

That is not a piece of trivia. But we didn't win. It's a fact.

I'm not sure what that is.

Who knew that koala bears had fingerprints like humans? not us all right uh okay uh envision Needham we uh actually had a meeting Avery Newton uh who's a committee member did a great analysis of the um the survey results. It was really very interesting. and the survey was interesting. I could go into details, but I think everyone should watch the meeting. There was a lot of data and stuff that came out, so it was very interesting. So go check it out.

Hi, Kathy. The Minuteman committee met last night and we had, through scheduling reasons, not, we usually meet twice a year. We'd missed one. So there was a big update there. The good news is the current enrollment of Needham students at Minuteman is up to 63 and it will continue to increase because the senior class is 10 and they expect a freshman class next year of 17. they took all applicants from Needham and actually from all the member towns. Eight out of the 10 Needham grads this year are going to two and four year colleges and the other two are going to the workforce. they have, which I think this is a great idea, they have a new after school program for sixth and seventh graders to get them familiarized with Minuteman and they provide transportation. and they do have seven Needham students doing this.

This is because their thinking is that by eighth grade, it's kind of too late. you know that they they want to be able to give the students a flavor and the parents of the minimum experience earlier so that by eighth grade they can make this decision Our assessment is going to be $2.5 million. This is up 14%. the increase is really driven by enrollment our enrollment on the four-year rolling average that they use to do the assessment is up 18 percent so that is why This is the other side of the coin of the greater enrollment, which is positive because it's a great experience for those students who choose it.

Do you want me to say anything about trees? We can leave it to you.

You could say something about trees. I will repeat it.

Okay. We met to discuss the forum that's going to happen tomorrow, and I would encourage everyone to come to the forum tomorrow. All right.

Okay. I did not have any committees that met because I was out of town, fortunately, and so nobody met while I was away. But I did have office hours on Friday because, you know, One more time. It just seemed office hours were necessary. So I did meet with four sort of people or groups of people. First was related to Envision with a group that came to talk about two-lane and four-lane plans and have a conversation about that. The second individual came, had some questions related to the quiet zone. I heard from somebody at Needham Housing Authority related to the tenant groups and what was going on with the tenant appointment process. and then the president of the league came to talk about the league's annual meeting.

So that was my last office hours.

so I'll just say just I was at the same meeting with Josh, but I'm going to say it a little bit louder. Tree Forum! Last public forum on trees before this project gets handed over to the Select Board. Tons of information, really informative, fabulous slides that will be presented 7 p.m. Powers Hall tomorrow night, Wednesday, the 25th of March. So be there or be square. oh thank you i had it open away um and then i guess i would just mention that we have our the we have No, no, no. That's too far in the future. Never mind. Apologies. Okay, so...

I am going to move that the select board enter executive session pursuant to exception three to discuss Ryan v. McCullough, U.S. District Court case number 124-CV-11111, where the chair declares that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the town's litigating position. And this chair does declare. and then also for B, exception three to discuss strategy. with respect to collective bargaining with the Needham Firefighters Local 1706, Needham Police Union, the Police Superior Officers Association, and the Needham Building Custodian Trades in Tibetan Association. where the chair declares that an open meeting might have a detrimental effect on the town's bargaining position. And this chair does declare and C, Exception 7, Mass General Law, Chapter 30A, Section 21A-7.

to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law or federal grant and aid requirements, namely Mass General Laws. for the purpose of reviewing any undisclosed executive session minutes from 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 to determine whether continued nondisclosure is warranted Specifically, the executive session minutes of March 26, 2024, September 10, 2024, February 25, 2025, March 11, 2025, April 22, 2025, June 10, 2025, December 2nd, 2025, January 13th, 2026, January 27th, 2026, February 24th, 2026, and March 10th, 2026, and D. not to return to open session at the conclusion of the executive session.

Second. That's all.

Any discussion? All those in favor? We need a roll call vote. Oh, that's right. We do. Kevin. Aye. Kathy. Yes. Josh. Yes. Marianne. Yes. And the chair votes yes.