Select Board December 16, 2025

Yeah, okay.

We're good.

Good evening and welcome to the Wellesley Select Board meeting of December 16th, 2025. The meeting is being held in hybrid format both in the Giuliani room at Town Hall and on the Zoom platform. We'd like to welcome everyone who has joined us. The meeting is being broadcast live on Comcast Channel 8 and Verizon Channel 40. and on wellesleymedia.org and will be available for later viewing on Wellesley Media. Here from the Select Board are Vice Chair Tom Ulfelder, Secretary Colette O'Frank, Beth Sullivan-Woods, Kenny Largess, and myself, Marjorie Freiman. With us on Zoom is Executive Director Megan Jopp, and here with us and Giuliani is Assistant Executive Director Corey Testa. I believe Corey has a few people who've requested citizen speak.

Yes, only one asked in advance. Mr. Andrew Hoar. I'm sorry if I mispronounced your name. Just make sure you push the button on the microphone so people can hear you on the live stream. Thank you.

Ready to go? Great. I would like to start tonight by thanking the select board for your service, particularly this time of year. and also for the opportunity to speak on a topic that I am aware is not on the agenda tonight but is one that is extremely important to, I believe, all of us in Wellesley, which is the topic of MassBay Woods. My name is Andy Hoare. My wife Mandy and I have been fortunate to call Wellesley home for close to 40 years. We raised our three girls here and we remain active in the Wellesley community. We also walk in the MassBay Woods Centennial Park almost every day. I'm struck by the number of families and individuals who I meet on those walks, not just from Wellesley, but from surrounding towns like Brookline, Newton, Needham, Dover, Sherbourne, Natick, and Weston.

Make no mistake, make no mistake, this legislation passed regarding the state surplus property and the resulting potential disposition of the MassBay land has ramifications far beyond Wellesley. it has a direct impact on the close in communities west of Boston and for that matter any other community where the state may hold green space now newly designated as surplus property. in no uncertain terms, this act of legislation is an existential threat to some of our most valuable resources. I've been fortunate to be in commercial real estate in the greater Boston area for over four decades. Well, mostly four decades, probably better said. And I understand and appreciate affordability issues around housing, the state's overall budgetary constraints, and the apparent need to generate more revenue.

However, we have all seen firsthand the ramifications of bad policy on the environment and on the diminishing and irreplaceable resource that is our green space. I am quite certain the state has an inventory of excess property and perhaps the focus should be on an amendment to the legislation that provides for revenue generation and the opportunity for affordable housing without having a direct onslaught on our environment. Ironically, this legislation signed into law by Governor Healey flies directly in the face of her administration's sustainability goals. further any support for the proposed disposition of this invaluable resource for development shirks our responsibilities as stewards of our green spaces not just for generations to come but importantly for the flora and fauna that inhabits that pristine property.

and so I would respectfully ask the Board of Select People with the Wellesley community and neighboring towns standing strong behind you to aggressively pursue litigation to protect MassBay Woods and the legacy we will leave behind for generations to come. Again, thank you for your time tonight and your consideration on this important topic.

Thank you very much, Mr. Hoare. Is there anyone else who would like to address the board? Lacey Brandt Oh, sorry. I thought you raised your hand. Anybody else?

No. Okay.

Sorry. I thought you raised your hand.

Okay. That was the only person that signed up.

Oh, okay. Thank you very much. All right. Megan, we'll turn to you, please, for the executive director's update.

I just have a few things. One, so the Warren Building is coming back online after renovation. It is closed for the remainder of this week as our Health Department and Recreation Department moved back today. So our IT team was there. bringing on computers and phones. And so the building will reopen Monday, December 22nd. So they'll move back and then unpack this week and be ready for the public next Monday. also wanted to remind folks of the free two-hour parking which remains in effect throughout Wellesley's on-street meters through January 2nd and we would encourage all our residents to shop local this holiday season also for those folks a lot of people from Wellesley heading into the city in particular for some of the seasonal events and so just a reminder a section of the MBTA green line will be closed from the start of December 8th.

That's going to go through December 22nd for tunnel repairs. This will affect all stops from Kenmore Square to North Station. so the C and D branches are the most used by our Wellesley T riders and so they will only run to Kenmore Square so just a little heads up for folks to plan accordingly and then lastly you know tonight is the third night of Hanukkah I wanted to extend our wishes for a happy and meaningful Hanukkah to all who celebrate particularly during a time when recent excuse me recent events have caused pain and fear among our Wellesley residents, our friends, our family, and our colleagues. So may this season of light offer comfort, strength, and a renewed sense of community.

Thank you very much, Megan. Our next agenda item is a consent agenda. On the consent agenda tonight are four items. The first is to vote acceptance of anonymous gift from a local business owner to the fire department to be used at the chief's discretion. The second is to appoint Tiana Moreau as the permanent town accountant for a three-year term expiring on June 30th, 2028. The third is to discuss and vote 2025 Common-Vittler, Alcohol, Class 1, Class 2, Auto Dealer, Entertainment, Club, and Lodging House Licenses. the duration of which differs slightly among the different classes and the fourth is to discuss and vote new year's eve hour extensions as permitted by the alcoholic beverage control commission Meaghan, has anyone requested that an item be removed from consent?

No, they have not. All right. Turn to Colette for a motion, please.

Okay. So move to approve the consent agenda items.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Just had to make sure, in fact, we were all here. Okay. I'd like to thank Kay Marr for all of her work. all of you can't necessarily see our documents but there are pages and pages of all license holders and Kay works for months to ensure that all paperwork is filed in a timely basis and that all requirements have been met. So thank you Kay for all your work on this. Our next agenda item is an update. and annual update from the audit committee. So Megan, shall I start with you?

Actually, if Rachel's there, Rachel is the staff to the audit committee, or to Tim Egan, who is the chair of the audit committee. So maybe I'll turn it over to Rachel to just introduce folks.

Hi, Rachel.

Good evening, everyone. So we're joined by the Audit Committee and we're also joined by our auditors. And I will turn it over to Tim Egan, the chair of the Audit Committee, and we're going to provide an audit update for you all.

Tim, take it away.

Thank you, Rachel, for that introduction and thank you to the board for giving us the opportunity to report the activities of the Wellesley Audit Committee and to bring our auditors to the meeting to discuss the year-end audits as well. This year, the audit committee is made up of myself as the chair, Lacey Brandt as the secretary, and Three other members, Neal Camerano, Charles Cassidy, and Lori Silverstein have all spent a lot of time and hard effort, hard work, making sure that the town is being properly served by the auditors and that we're covering all the bases that our mission requires us to do. At this point, I'm going to turn it over to our town auditors, CBiz, Certified Public Accountants.

We've had a very good relationship with them, and we've had a good audit season, if you will, and I'm going to ask Laura Stone now. the director in charge of our audit to take it from here.

Thank you, Tim. And thank you everybody for having me. I'm Laura Stone. I'm the director on the engagement with CBIS. I know there's been a little bit of transition with our audit firm. We came to you as Markham last year. Markham merged with CBiz over this past year on November 1st, 2024. So we are coming to you as CBiz, but it is the same audit team, you know, consistent audit approach, same audit team. So I did just want to address that. that we are here as CBIS this year. There has been some changes there, but did not affect the audit in any way. So just a little bit of an overview of the audit process, audit results, and then just kind of go over our relationship with the audit committee and the meetings that are held throughout the year. But I first want to just start off by thanking everybody in the finance team and the audit committee. It makes for a very smooth process.

You know, Tiana, Rachel, Megan, everybody in all the departments of the town are so cooperative as part of the audit process. And it really makes for a smooth audit. All of our requests, you know, we ask a lot of questions. We ask for a lot of support. We ask for a lot of information. And they're able to provide us with what we need very timely, which makes for a very, very smooth audit. So I just wanted to start off by thanking them. thanking the team, thanking the town. It's always been a great relationship. So yeah, so we start off with a hybrid approach. So we, you know, kind of moved towards a hybrid approach since COVID times, but we are still in the field in person. A lot of the information that we get is electronic and it is done through a secure portal. So all of the town's information is securely uploaded to us for our review and our audit procedures.

and all of our meetings with the audit committee have been in person thus far and we do come on on you know on site for our site visit as well as the audit work at town hall we have a team that sets up sets up and hits the ground running with all the information that we go through So there are a few reports that are issued as part of this process. There are a number of reports that are issued as part of this process. One of them is the school end of year compliance report that typically is done last. So the FY24 Report was issued in June of 25 and then the FY25 will be issued February, you know, in the upcoming springtime going forward. and then we also do a separate report on the light department which was issued in November and we do a separate report on the the retirement system as well in accordance with para guidelines that was issued in October and that's in addition to the the large

annual comprehensive financial report that is submitted for the town, as well as the schedule of expenditures of federal awards. So it's kind of just an overview of our audit process. The annual comprehensive financial report is a significantly large report. It is about 160 pages. So there's a lot that goes into that report. And it starts with our preliminary process, which begins in the spring. So we come out in April, May, springtime, and we do a lot of upfront procedures. We set up our audit plan. We do our risk assessments. We tailor our audit procedures. in response to the risk assessments. We look at system of internal controls and the design and implementation of those controls. We review the budget approval. and I just wanted to point out on the slide here, we begin the test of major federal grants. As you know, the federal government was shut down for quite a while during the year that did delay them

submitting the final compliance supplement. So the final compliance supplement was delayed, which kind of delayed the single audit or the schedule of expenditures of federal awards. so that will get issued before March 31st which is the deadline for that report but it isn't quite ready yet because of the delay with that compliance requirement because of the federal shutdown the federal government shutdown So it's not going to impact the ability to submit the annual comprehensive financial report to the GFOA. It didn't hold up any of the other reports. just that schedule of expenditures of federal awards is going to just be delayed into the Federal Audit Clearinghouse by March 31st, which is that deadline. So I just did want to point that out. That's very common. It's going to be amongst all communities. Everybody kind of got delayed with that. So just wanted to point that out. But again, it won't affect any of the other reports that are issued. And then our year-end audit work begins in the fall, the September, November timeframe.

We obtain a trial balance file from the town, from the town's... that goes into the report comes from the town, comes from the finance department, comes from all the other departments as well. And we take that information, we do a significant amount of audit procedures on significant account balances, we do tests of transactions, we look at a lot of information that goes into the actual balances of the report there. And then we compile the report. We go over it in every stage of the audit with the audit committee. It was presented to the audit committee in November. We can walk through it step by step. Make sure everybody's comfortable with it. And the town has kind of the latest and greatest draft of the report. and that'll go to the GFOA. The certificate program is why you have an annual comprehensive financial report that'll go to the GFOA by December 31st. So what we're doing now is just kind of our math check.

We'll make sure that the checklist that's done by the GFOA, we do it as well to make sure that you're in the best position to get that award for the next year as well. You did receive it for the past ACFER. and hopefully you'll receive it for the current year ACFER. But everything's in position and we put you in the best position to be able to receive that award for the next year as well. kind of the results of the audit. So it's a clean audit opinion on all of the reports, the light department, the retirement system, the town's ACFR, no significant audit findings, you know, nothing that we feel we need to bring to your attention. Full cooperation, like I said, with management with all the departments. there were no significant audit adjustments. We do help with the gap conversion. So we take the budgetary basis trial balance files and kind of convert that to full accrual and to modified accrual for the financial statements. But that is, those are normal entries that are provided that are proposed to obtain GAAP compliant financial statements.

Audit went as planned, positive budgetary results, and everything was designed and working as designed.

Laura, can I jump in and ask a question?

Of course. Were any previous, you've issued comments in the past. Have all those comments been addressed and resolved?

Yeah, there was no management letter last year. So I know two years ago there was a site visit performed. Those issues were resolved or those items that we identified were resolved. There was no management letter last year. There's no management letter this year. We did perform a site visit over at the school department. We looked at their My Budget System software. No issues were noted. You know, the budget system over there was very well organized. It's a very comprehensive system. It's actually quite impressive. All that information, we were satisfied with the budgetary control process over there at the school department, the functionality of that system. was very well designed, very well implemented. So usually those kinds of comments will come out of site visit type items, but nothing that came to our attention that required any sort of writing or finding. Thank you. Yeah, of course. So as part of our process, we go through a lot of meetings with the audit committee. We go through every step of the way.

So in May, that's our first meeting with the audit committee. We go over the audit plan. So what our plan is, kind of the engagement team, we work through... How the scope of the audit kind of what we're going to do what our plan is if there's anything that that comes up that we need to address one thing that kind of came up this year. that was new is the new implementation of a new GASB. So a new standard came out as it relates to recording sick and vacation accrual. So we discussed items like that. And then in September, we review the municipal light plant financial statements, the retirement financial statements. And then in October, those reports get accepted. And then we review the ACFR to the town status of the ACFR. We do the single audit review, which, again, kind of delayed things. But we look at some planning. We're just unable to completely finish that. But we do talk about that as well. And then in November, we present the draft of the annual comprehensive report. We walk through it.

We make any changes that we need to, and then we're here in December presenting to the select board to kind of wrap up the process of the audit. Again, you kind of tested this, but no management letter, no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies. There was nothing that came to our attention that required us to communicate anything to you guys in writing. And just in summary, like I said before, it's a team effort and everybody in the town, all the departments are very cooperative with us. Like I said, we asked for a lot of questions, a lot of information, and all of that information was provided to us very timely. so I just wanted to thank everybody thank you for having us as your auditors and I'm just happy to take any questions if anybody has anything

Thank you very much, Laura, to you and your team for all of this work. We really appreciate having clean opinions on the reports. Does the board have any questions? Any comments? Beth?

So Laura, thank you. And you couldn't ask for a better report card. Do we have a schedule of deeper dives for individual departments that we are working our way through? I know over the years we've had specific situations, but do we have a broader schedule where each year we do a deeper dive in different parts of the town?

There's no set schedule. What we would typically do as part of our audit process or part of that planning meeting in the spring would be to identify any departments that the town or the audit committee may want us to look at. I'm happy to devise some sort of plan of attack on each department to see kind of what the next one up. But in terms of site visits, it would be whatever we're kind of directed to to do kind of that deeper dive on the site visit.

but that's definitely something we can talk to you about with the town is there a standard that you pursue with other municipalities is it more ad hoc as we've been proceeding or is it more systematic systematic

It's more ad hoc, so it's more just... whichever comes to the attention at the time not something that is consistently you know we go to this department this department this department it really is up to the town when there's some sort of you know deeper dive site visit it's really up to the town to determine kind of where they want us to focus our attention when it comes to that.

Great, thank you. I was just curious.

Yeah, no problem.

So I'd just add to that, Beth. So I'm the liaison to audit committee that every year, one of the first meetings, the scope meeting that we have with the auditors. one of the most important things is the management update at which point Megan will go through what's new and what's happening and where do we think that there might be an area for audit focus and so in the past years there was a lot of turnover and changes of systems at the Council on Aging so we look to Council on Aging. you know this year audit committee themselves wanted to do a directed look at the school budget process and so that was part of the focus we also had discussions towards the end of the year this year on the audit committee regarding the fact that there's likely going to be some system changes at the municipal light plant including interfaces with munis so

I think I mean there's there's certainly and there's some value to thinking about a schedule but I think there's more value to leaving it open to management and the audit committee to say these are the things that are happening in our community that we think it's worthwhile kicking the tires on and then having the bandwidth within the audit process to then look at that. I don't know, Tim, do you want to add anything to that or Laura?

My reaction is similar to yours, Colette. I think it's good for the committee to kind of know what's going on. What's going on in the town that year and things that are coming up to have the flexibility to ask the others to, as you say, kick the tires. And certainly this year with the kind of looking, stepping back and knowing how much the the school committee comprised of the you know the whole town's budget it makes sense to ask a couple of questions we're certainly not Auditing every item of the school committee, but it's nice to have that flexibility to be able to pivot when we think is necessary to react to things on the ground. So I would probably air that. as giving the audit committee more flexibility than not.

My question was more curiosity as opposed to having a specific issue or concern about it. So thank you.

Any other questions or comments from the board? So I'd like to thank the members of the audit committee, Tim, Lacey, Neil, Charles, and Laurie. I believe Tim and Lacey's second terms are up the end of this year. and we wanted to thank you very much for your service. We hope you'll stay involved with the town. We benefit greatly from your service. and hope you'll stay involved. And Rachel and Tiana, thank you both very much. You both had tumultuous years as well. So between the budget and the audit, it's a lot of work. and thank you all to the department heads who participated in the review and to Megan who sets the stage for the review. As Beth said you couldn't ask for a better report. So we're very pleased and appreciate all your hard work on this. Thank you all very much.

and one thing I would mention as having been in this business for a long time, our finance group at the town of Wellesley is very professional. and Megan is very professional and it gives us a lot of comfort when we're kind of assessing what's going on with the town to know that Rachel and Tiana and Megan really understand the ins or outs and they're able to give us good explanations. So the select board should be happy and proud to have these individuals working for the town.

Thank you, Tim. That's very nice of you to say. The Select Board tries at every opportunity to thank our amazing staff. We do realize how lucky we are and how hard they work. And so thank you to all of you for this wonderful report.

And I guess I was given the latitude to ask for our meeting to come to an end. That is the audit committee meeting. So I'd like to ask someone move for adjourn that meeting. No move. Second? Second. All right. All in favor? Aye. Okay. The audit committee has been adjourned. Thank you.

Thank you all very much.

Happy holidays. Thank you. Bye. Bye.

Well, good news is always appreciated. Our next agenda item is the public hearing and vote on modification of common Vittler and alcohol licenses. for an alteration of premises and change of manager for Fiorella's at 575 Washington Street. Corey, I think the meeting was noticed for 715. Is it okay to start early?

Megan, don't we have to start at the posted time?

So we posted it for a 6.30 start. We always post to the start of the meeting.

Yeah, I think we do at the beginning of the select board meeting.

Great, so we're okay.

Okay, and I see Kay is here. Thank you. Kay, I don't know if you were here before, but we extended our extensive thanks to you for all your work on the license approvals. I'm sure that's like herding cats to get all of the paperwork in.

I did hear that, thank you. And yes, it's quite a lengthy process that every year I'm convinced I'm not going to accomplish, and I do, so...

Well, we appreciate it. So I'd like to open the public hearing and explain that a public hearing is required to approve modifications to the CV and alcohol licenses for this alteration of premises and change of manager for Fiorella's and turn it over to Megan for a little bit more of an introduction.

So in this particular application, Marjorie, Fiorella's is expanding into an adjoining space previously occupied by Puppet Wheelies. So where those walls meet, there would be the walls would are down, essentially. And the space is opened up to expand the seating capacity. There is no change. Kay can correct me if I'm wrong here. There's no change in the kitchen area. It is for additional seating. So the seating would add... approximately 47 seats with regards to capacity to this area. And the staff in review, Kay has worked Hardwood, the restaurant owner, in addition to the DPW engineering division, the building inspector, and the health department who have all recommended approval of this expansion.

Yes, please come to the, we need you please to come to the table. The middle microphone is already set on, so you may speak into the microphone.

Good evening. My name is Donna Bond. I'm a resident of Wiswell Circle, and I had sent an email. And I appreciate the opportunity to speak to all of you this evening. My concern, as I mentioned in the email, is parking. Parking's an issue everywhere. even when you look at a house you know you don't get parking growing up in New York City I'm fully aware I moved here to Wellesley in 1988 I love the town I love to be able to walk to everything having restaurants but parking is challenging. It's congested in our area. Getting out of Wiswold Circle can be challenging and with increased capacity getting out on like turning right onto Washington we may need I make a suggestion of curb markings so that you know there's where the sign is there's also a fire hydrant often

you know people park bigger cars we had it addressed when Smith and Walensky was having that to make it easier to get out so I mean we can't we're not going to say it's going to stop but how are we going to do as we expand addressed the parking. So I'm interested to hear what we're going to do about that because I know we have limited spaces even downtown behind Shake Shack now that's only restricted to the shops there so even having friends come to visit me as the Man said earlier, Wellesley's a lovely walking town. It's a green town. It's a beautiful town. I love living here. But parking is, how are they going to address this? And having at what point if more space comes open will there be more expansion of restaurants? So being aware of parking. And then the second thing to your point about

and changing the kitchen with the waste with the how that's going to the fat and that how that's going to come out of there because I do know that six and eight years ago because Wiswell Circle is lower We even had this with flooding from Abbott Street years ago, and we've addressed our soakaways. How will that affect the grease and being there altering that space because it was always shops and things. So I don't know how they're prepared for kitchens in there. So those are our two concerns.

So I would imagine the DPW reviews the needs for grease interceptors. Megan, can you address those two issues?

I can. We require grease traps. It's actually one of our number one pressing issues. in attracting restaurants because of the cost of enhancements to that. In this particular vicinity, there's also a large grease trap that's shared by Smith & Walensky's with... The Popover Store and Spithwinski share a grease trap, and then there's a separate grease trap for this particular restaurant. With regards to parking, it is, you know, it's... Parking continues to be a challenge, but it is a commercial district. We do not have a restriction on the number of restaurants that can be allowed in the commercial district. We direct people to the public lots and the on street parking. Church Street tends to be a little light in terms of the on-street parking depending upon the day.

Certainly during church services, it is more occupied. We direct people not just to the Wappen lot for these particular restaurants, but certainly express the walking distance to both Cameron Street lot, the Tailby lot, as well as the railroad lot. And this particular area is actually also within walking distance of the Western Road lot, which generally is is open and we direct we try and direct a particular restaurant staff who you know tend to obviously arrive early prior to openings and tend to stay late to those further lots. And so I think that addresses those questions. I will turn to Kay to see if you want to add anything further, Kay.

No, that's it. I was just, how are the parking and how that will be communicated to people coming in because to your point, I know the employees, I know with the Some of the shops, the employees will use that long-term parking there for the day. So, and I know it is a challenge, but I guess how that will be communicated, whether it will be on their website, on their doors, or whatever, just because people everybody wants to park close and not walk and I know the lots that you're talking and that they're empty down on Weston Road but for us it makes it challenging to get in and out of our driveway and things have been addressed as having the mirror there and the Curb Markings. It's helped us tremendously. So we appreciate your, you know, taking the comments. And I came to hear what was being addressed, so I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Marjorie, I'd just like to add that in the beginning of next month, so at the start of the new year, requests for a proposal will be posted by the town. to hire a design firm for the Wellesley Square amenities project. And part of that includes explicit directions to whatever consultant or design firm we hire to study parking throughout the entire Wellesley Square commercial area. Witt, you're fine. Don't worry about it. Parking counts, what trends are currently, where there are stressors, where there could be places for you know, alleviation, additional parking, changed parking. We want the consultants to really look at this square wide. So we certainly are aware that it continues to be an issue. the Traffic Safety Committee is certainly including that on the list of things we want the design firm to consider.

Because I did mention I know that they drop off at food at both of those places and sometimes there's very large vehicles and I've had to go across them because they they park right in the road whether they could go around the back where parking is behind Smith and but human nature is to park where you can when you're in a hurry. We've all got to go for two minutes but I come and it's a safety issue when people are walking in the pedestrian crossing. And it's hard to see them when you're doing it. So I'm glad to hear that you're addressing it because it is a safety issue. Because I do walk. That's one of the things I love about where I live. I can walk to everything. It's fabulous, but safety.

And there'll be a lot of public engagement and community opportunity for feedback and input. So we will certainly, and you know, as a director, Butter, you'll certainly be noticed throughout.

Perfect. Thank you very much.

The Traffic Committee appreciates citizen input so they know where those particular stressors are and they can take a look at them throughout their process. Kay, did you want to add anything?

just two quick points first is certainly the deliveries I walk in that area as well as you know we Work down the street and I walk that area very consistently. And it's a challenge at all of our restaurants. They schedule their deliveries for certain times, but unfortunately drivers get stuck in traffic or they get stuck at other locations for longer or the delivery just doesn't happen on time. I've noticed this at other restaurants as well. So it certainly is a challenge and we do appreciate that that has been brought up. It's been brought up I think the last couple of meetings too. For the abutter's notice and the legal notice, I actually include the original description of premises as well as the alteration. So

originally we had received a comment about a change of hours this request is not for a change of hours and what we do notice is many of our restaurants will have extended hours but aren't necessarily open for those times especially with alcohol you cannot be open past your posted allowance so they typically ask for later hours and then if they close early they're fine they just can't stay open later The one last thing that I did want to mention for the board is we have talked to the owner as well as the proposed manager, Julie, and they would appreciate if the board could approve this license for the changes to include a caveat that they be able to serve food only in the newer section until the application is approved by the ABCC. They are going to post notices that it would be food only in that area until such time as they are approved.

The board did allow this similarly for the Was it Captain Martins? I'm sorry, I do forget. But we did do, oh, it was La Toscana's last year when they did an expansion. The board did allow for that. So I did want to ask that of the board as well.

So the servers will be instructed that if someone wants to order a beverage, they'll have to move to the older part of the premises until the license is issued for the newer part.

Correct. And it will be posted. And I do know that they have heavy traffic for some of the students on Wednesdays and Fridays at that location. so they are going to try and seat those patrons in the newer section.

Beth, so I also wanted to add that we had the traffic and parking group from the police department in and they are doing a renewed effort with our businesses to inform them that the town has an employee parking pass program similar to what we offer for residents so that it's discounted to be able to park in a town lot. So that's another. and the other thing is that the Church Street lot is I believe a private lot dedicated to the businesses in that block to help absorb it although as a regular patron of that block I know that parking lot can fill up pretty quickly.

Yeah, it does. And as I said, people will often come into Wiswell Circle to make U-turns to find parking. And we do have young kids that live in the circle, and they play in the circle. and there are signs that's posted so I mean it's just it's going to happen and you can't control it but just to be aware of you know communicating to people so they know where the parking is. Maybe I didn't even know as much as I walked for 20 years. I may not have been aware that there's this spot here or that there. communicating that on their website, in the store, and whatever way to put the word out. I'd appreciate it.

Thank you very much. Any further comments or questions from the board? Okay, I'll take a motion to close the hearing, please. Move to close the public hearing.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. So move to approve the modifications to the common victual and alcohol licenses for an alteration of premises. and the change of manager for Fiorella's restaurant located at 575 Washington Street, approving food only in the new section of the restaurant until such time as final approvals are received by the What does ABCC stand for? I know it's something Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission. Yes. Thank you.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Thank you Megan, thank you Kay, and thank you for those comments. It's always helpful to hear from the public on that. All right. And we wish Fiorella's the best in their expansion.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next issue is the annual town meeting preparation and we have several, the first of which is in Article 7, which is supplemental budget appropriation. transfers for legal and HR finance. So I'll ask Megan to introduce that, please.

Thanks, Marjorie. I'll start initially with the legal. I was just raising that for the board's consideration. So as the board will be discussing the hiring of special counsel, are just anticipation of our legal expenses exceeding those of our FY26 budget. I'm recommending that in the vicinity of $200,000 be set aside for legal services. That number to be determined or refined as we get closer to town meeting and the board gets closer to a motion. but to be on the conservative side, that is my initial projection. And so I just wanted to alert the board to that. I just wanted to add at present, I do think The FY27 budget would remain as is, and that would be funding a 26 supplemental.

So, Megan, you're anticipating a transfer from free cash, and then if there is surplus funds at the end of the year, they'd be returned to the general fund?

That's correct.

Okay. Any questions on that from the board? All right, and HR Finance.

I'm going to have Rachel help me with this. But so some of it is a little bit of a shell game. But so as we were finalizing the budgets on December 9th, right before our Budget Summit on the 11th and reviewing the HR budget. So I'll set the stage just a little bit about this halftime position. So in FY25 and years prior, What had occurred is there was a position that was a half-time retirement position, and that individual also worked about 10 to 15 hours in HR. and so that position in retirement at the start of FY26 went back to full-time at the retirement so eliminating

you know that that's a that full-time position is not a general fund budget it presented an opportunity where our finance department for years had assisted the West Suburban Veterans District on the administrative end of things on a part-time basis. and we would get an offset directly from the West Suburban Veterans District, a little over $36,000. It presented an opportunity to rebalance that HR position and move West Suburban Veterans District over to an HR professional. who has better understanding of benefits, sort of social services, assistance, et cetera, rather than being with a financial partner. I have to say it has worked out miraculously well.

That being said, and we had this discussion at the budget summit a little bit pertaining to the CUA bus drivers. So for positions, we always fund the full cost of the position. and then apply any offsets that are received. So when we did that modification and said, okay, we're going to keep our Halftime, Clerk in Financial Services, and take that other half position that was dedicated to West Suburban Veterans District and transfer it over, we actually didn't sort of align the funding for that. So as we've gone through FY26 to date, we've realigned the Financial Services Budget. So we don't have the funds to both sort of carry over the offset and carry over the funds. So what we'll have to do is get a free cash appropriation of the offset to HR.

and to make that position whole, apply the West Suburban Veterans District Offset that they did hire the position at the start of July in 2026 for all of FY, July 1, 2025 for all of FY26. We will have at year end the same amount that will be returned to the general fund and Florida Free Cash in the financial services budget. But the way the salaries are appropriate, we just can't transfer it. Otherwise, we would be short for the remainder. It would appear short for the remainder of the year and for subsequent FY27 projects. Appropriations. It would make it off balance. It is very convoluted, although it is actually a simple transfer. But I'm going to have Rachel try and maybe clean it up for me in terms of the transfers.

That was a nice overview. Thank you, Megan. I'll just add, we're approaching this as more of a housekeeping. So again, this offset which is carried in the West Suburban Veterans District budget. Again, that is its own separate entity. The housekeeping portion is just shifting that offset. which finance used to previously benefit. It would offset our total personal services. We're just needing to shift that offset over to HR because again now they're performing that work. and then as you're all aware we have reorganized the finance department as you know realigned the town accountant position which was approved by HR board and we've absorbed any costs associated with that realignment but because of that we're only able to shift the offset not the um the costs associated with that part-time position. So again, it really is a housekeeping.

And then to add to Megan's overview, so again, we would need would be requesting free cash to cover that halftime position in HR. But as you're all aware, the finance director CFO position was vacant that first quarter. of FY26. So from July to September, that position was open. So the finance department will actually have turned back to free cash for that first quarter, which actually is actually is More than the offset, which is actually more than what we'd be asking for that appropriation and for free cash. The end result is actually going to the expected return of free cash from the finance department given that vacancy of the CFO position is actually going to exceed

the free cash needed to fund the HR budget so again we view it as a housekeeping it's cleaner to approach you know the transfer and the offset this way but it is a bit convoluted to kind of walk through the steps but again and it will align the FY26 budgets to reset those so that when you're looking at your year over year, you can clearly see 26 compared to FY27 so that it kind of smooths the transition in the current year.

the only thing I'd add to that as well is we did go back and forth whether it could potentially be just a year-end transfer but we thought it was actually more transparent although convoluted to do it this way

So just a note, Wellesley pays the costs of the West Suburban Health Veterans Director which comprises five towns and that offset is the receipt from those other towns for their share of those veterans director services which is why we have the offset. it is convoluted I had to read it a few times but I see it's also housekeeping and then for going forward for FY27 we'll be all clean and ready to go straight okay questions comments from the board

Go ahead Beth. So I think I followed it all Rachel. Is there an extra half-time person now in finance because there's no the person that was receiving part of the offset is still a full-time person correct and we hired a new half-time person to replace the half-time retired Basically, the halftime that was retirement is now halftime for veteran service, right? and there's still a full-time person in finance. So finance is up a half a person because there's no offset of that half person anymore. Is that correct?

So correct. Finance is still retaining that Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor the salary associated with that halftime position has been reduced so finance is going to maintain that position it is currently vacant but we're wanting to preserve that within our department just given you know unknown future needs or future staffing needs we would still like to retain that halftime position.

And so let me just back up, Beth, one other point. So they have been running the since 2020 short. So we previously did have every position filled, but we've consolidated some of the work in particular to a I think it's Account Specialist to our Account Specialist position. In that instance, it just so happens the individual that we hired is great in terms of skill work. So she's been able to absorb a lot of the accounts payable work, which was previously a complete individual. And so she's doing the work of basically one and a half people. And so it's been remained vacant for that period of time as a result of it.

Yeah, I was trying to figure out the issue with the transfers is that then it won't leave the budget for finance whole for planning for the next year because we need to keep that additional half person right so although we have the offset left from not having a filled position. We need to keep the salary so that next year the budget is flat. Okay, so I understand that. My second question is, Benefits. So now we have two full-time people, right? Are we increasing our benefit costs?

No. So the retirement benefits are paid by retirement. So that is not a general fund hit at all. And so the benefits that were associated with the HR position previously remain in effect. So it's neutral from a benefit position.

Thank you. Okay, very good.

Thank you very much, Rachel. I'm sure this was all perfectly clear to Colette from the outset. Took me a little bit longer. Next, Uber Lyft Funds.

Yes. So and Sheila Page, our transportation mobility manager, is also here with us. So over the years, the town has received TNC funds, which is our transportation funds associated with Uber and Lyft. So the town receives 10% of the overall funding that's captured. And it's always a year in arrears. So in FY24, the town is receiving... excuse me, as a result of the FY24 TNC, the town receives $29,941. I will I late in the day asked finance to pull us what the previous years were. We also have more funds on hand from that because we have not appropriated from this fund for several years. But the fund has to be associated with transportation related matters. So here we are requesting $8,000 of that fund.

and that would be for educational programming in particular for our rules of the ride which is a new initiative that started about three years ago that's for middle schoolers and and sort of some bike safety tips on that and then our annual bike rodeo for elementary school students. and then also Transit Explorers for middle schoolers and adults to learn how to gain confidence riding the bus and or train. We also are looking to do an incentive program to encourage use of MWRTA services. and to do some safe driving traveling campaign targeted to drivers as well as youth walking folks in conjunction with the police department. So these are really for sort of the the softer efforts to make our roads safer and educational programming that Sheila has really been doing over the past year or so in particular traffic and parking but

also on just the educational programs with police and with schools. So a modest request from non-tax impact, but it does require appropriation from town meeting.

Hi, Sheila. Thank you very much, Megan. Is there anything you'd like to add to that?

No, I think Megan summed it up nicely. I guess I will add for the educational programming. We've had requests from parents on how for adults to ride, but ride as a family. The kids want to go out for a bike ride. Parents are a little uneasy. And so that's kind of a new initiative that we've talked about with mass bikes to get sort of a family class going.

Questions, comments from the board? Kenny?

Thanks Megan and Sheila. How do you judge or how do you get a sense of what the demand for that type of class would be?

That's a good question. I look back at Lexington and see what their demand is. But as I go around to various groups, I My position's new and people want to know what I do, and one of the things I talk about is educational programming, and that has come up several times.

The other thing I might add to that, too, is interestingly enough, the rules of the ride, the middle school route, that was actually generated from parents coming to... Collette and I when we were doing the mobility committee and we worked with police to organize that and it has had tremendous results over the past two years that we've we've done it and when we look at our middle school on good weather days in the fall and in the spring, we have on average about 125 bicyclists to the middle school every day. And the high school continues to grow because those middle schoolers continue to ride to the high school. so I think it's that that really that change in Wellesley as you go from you know fifth grade to the middle school where those fifth graders that a lot of parents want to start training them up for you know riding the bike to middle school which is

sort of a rite of passage in town right and it's important to for as a life skill as well whether they stay in town or not

It's totally off the top of my head, so forgive me. Is it possible to use this money to fund the COA bus drivers? It is for transportation.

We have funded in the past summer program bus travel for students. who couldn't afford transportation and that will be replaced by the van. I'd have to look specifically if it could fund salaries on an annual basis, which the $29,000 would not cover that. But it could provide some funding towards it I'd have to look if you could do salaries but how we use it for transportation bus services in the past was for summer camp to assist campers who couldn't afford transportation.

Thank you.

Other questions, comments? Colette? Sure. So I'm certainly very supportive of this. The rules of the ride was a parent driven Programme and the parent who really started that whose father was a police officer or a police chief her child has aged out and so having it being parent run and I certainly spent a lot a lot of time helping to set that up I think it's not sustainable if we want to address the needs that we hear and we hear all the time that parents, residents are concerned with biking behaviour and in my mind the only way you can really address the risks of biking behaviors through education. I've been working for more than four or five years trying to bring Safe Routes to School curriculum to the schools to the PE curriculum but for multiple reasons that has not worked and so I think we really need to partner with

and so on. you know the turnout and the excitement at that event was really great but I think it's the beginning and I think it needs to be professionalized and so I did have some conversations with mass bikes and I think you've continued those I had them before you joined they can offer specialized training on e-bikes and they have programs that they've been developing that are quite successful. and but it needs I think we need some funding to put behind it to start sort of institutionalizing that so I think I'm certainly very supportive of this we hear about bike safety all the time and I think that the

we've been really creative in our outreach but we need to formalize that and make sure it doesn't disappear and it shouldn't be parent dependent or volunteer dependent anyway so I'm supportive

The only thing I'd add too, because Tiana, who's so fast, just sent me the actual number we have from the current balance is $101,630.40.

Thank you Beth.

So thank you, Sheila. I really like out-of-the-box thinking. I had two questions. One is specific, which is can you explain what incentive programs are kind of what you're envisioning for an incentive program?

We did, actually last spring, we did a... Raffel to encourage people to to try out Catch Connect, try out the MWRTA Route 1, walk some of our trails, and there was a and so forth thing but I can't remember what it is now and if everybody does it they get put into a raffle and so it was for prizes and prints and In fact, I had asked the Wellesley Report to run an article. They felt like I was promoting a program and wanted to charge a fee, and I didn't have the money.

I solicited donations. for the prizes last year, which was fine, but it's a lot of work. And I don't want to rely on, again, volunteers and donations. So that would be one. Another would be we've talked with the Youth Commission, Maura Renzella, to run a program similar to the Transit Explorers that Megan talked about earlier. getting the middle schoolers on the the bus and you know how to go somewhere and maybe there's an ice cream treat at the end that sort of thing just to kind of get people motivated to try it out

And my second question I think is related to where Kenny was going. can we look at ways to provide more transportation to people that might need it? So particularly the seniors, and I know right now their bus is only available during COA hours, so it's not available on the weekends. doesn't travel into Boston for doctor's visits. So, you know, maybe funding some kind of a either just their straight bus or something that did further distance medical trips into Boston on certain days or some way to provide information enhanced transportation because I think it says reduce single occupancy vehicle trips so perhaps there's something we could do that would cut down on

that level of stress for people getting to doctor's appointments and help reduce to you know have a direct impact particularly with our seniors

Yeah, we can look. The state prints, each town is required to report out how they use the money. A very simple report out, so it lacks a lot of detail, but I can go through and look through the towns and see what else other towns are doing and see if we can... you know mimic what they're trying out.

I personally think with this kind of balance we should be able to do a COA transportation offset.

So I would just like to add to that. I think the COE discussion is a broader discussion. The COE are establishing a transportation working group to look at this. I think that the COE, the age funds which part of them are applied to the salaries of the bus drivers I really think there's a broader analysis needs to be done there in terms of when you spend a certain amount of money on a bus, what is the cost per ride? and is it efficient? Because if it's $20 or more, you should probably be investing that money in microtransit programs like Google Grandparent or coupons for Uber or Lyft. and so I think before we spend more money on the program you really need to evaluate is what they're doing effective and I think that that work is something that the COA wants to undertake and we need to give them the latitude to do that.

So may I just add too, so I mean, we have excellent transportation information online. So outside of the typical COA bus. and clearly Catch Connect is also available at no cost to seniors it'll come right to your house to pick you up and if you have any ADA accessibility issues Paratransit with both the MBTA as well as the MWRTA. They will do a transfer that will get you into Boston. But the MWRTA does have a hospital shuttle. The Boston Hospital Shuttle operates Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 830 to 6. you can check out all the information on that getting around Wellesley and beyond on the town's webpage. Catch Connect will take you to Newton Wellesley Hospital. Obviously we have the COA programs, but there's also American Cancer Society, the Road to Recovery Program, MassHealth Transportation Services, So we do have a number to get to medical, a number of different transportation options.

And actually some of this funding, exactly what we were just talking about, Sheila, people aren't aware of it. So some of it's an educational campaign. Getting to Boston or Worcester, obviously we have the train as an option, or getting folks to the T through Catch Connect or other services. So I do think there's a number of options that are available that people just might not be aware of.

Megan, it's a great point, and perhaps some of the funding should go to education about what is available for specific situations. I do respectfully believe that and we have used grant funding as a transportation offset and I think we have sufficient balance and I believe that there's clear data that seniors do need bus service so I just would like to add that into the Uber Lyft conversation, not to detract from Sheila's proposal, but to enhance it.

So we discussed when the COA was here last week that COA, transportation for seniors, is a very complex subject. and I don't think it's the kind of thing we solve with little pieces here and there. It needs to be a comprehensive program and whether it's a working group, a comprehensive education program and a working group, there are obviously a lot of resources that I would wager many people don't know about and that's certainly appropriate for Uberlift I would not agree at this moment to apply those uber lift funds there before we do a more extensive study of the possibilities.

Right, and there are grants available to COAs to pilot Uberlift-type programs, and so I think there's definitely ways to address it, but the COA needs to hire a director and needs to get that group established and really needs to tackle it from their perspective.

It's pretty clear that the seniors need more transportation, education and options and broader coverage. but the question of how to solve that problem is multifaceted and I think we should address it that way. Kenny?

I don't disagree with that we should understand what the need is understand how to address that need look at the various funding sources figure out how we can educate people about the different options available But I also think that applies to all of the things we talk about. We should be thinking about how we're spending money. And what I don't hear right now in this education piece, it sounds... Thank you for having me. I just don't think that's how they operate. So I don't know that spending $8,000 on something that's not measurable, I don't, do we have a safety problem? I know the e-bikes has become a thing.

but do we really have a traffic safety issue in the town I haven't seen any evidence of that maybe I'm missing something but I'd love to see some data that shows that we actually have an issue that we're trying to solve here and before we agree to spend thousands of dollars, throw thousands of dollars at it.

I'd say some of the people who have been coming to the Roles of the Ride event are families and parents that are worried and so when you do the training because the parents come to it and you know they're sitting there they're receiving the training then you go off on a ride and and part of it and from my experience is giving families the comfort that they can now let so these kids are right at the end of middle elementary school they're just or elementary and middle school they're at the age where they should be able to write it by themselves but there's a reluctance to let them write by themselves because there's a general fear that it's not safe to do so I believe it's safe to do so but when you I mean we heard I mean last night at planning, a planning board member who's a very experienced cyclist said she doesn't feel safe cycling in Wellesley. That's a perception.

you know people can disagree on that but I think this is a way to educate families, children and their parents to allow them to feel safe and comfortable biking should they choose to do so and there was a lot of demand for it.

Just curious what was the demand for that event?

So we could only run, based on the volunteers that we had, we could only have a class of 50. The first year we were oversubscribed, we were a waiting list. generally we had a waiting list every year that doesn't tackle the need you need more than one event and so if if and when my kids were little the rules the um The Bike Rodeo for Kindergarteners was a well attended event. It's not anymore. I think it's because of various reasons. It's planned on Wellesley's wonderful weekend. There's too many events on that weekend. Kids are scheduled even earlier than they were before. but we could do a bike, what do you call the bike garden, Sheila? You can set up a really fun event for kids that has obstacles and things to do. Maybe you can talk about that. But there is a demand. How many times do we hear on our email from people that are telling us it's not safe to even walk to school, never mind bike?

I feel we're not being responsive if we're asking for a small amount for training which I think training is the way to help people feel and be safe doing this this is a small amount to try and tackle that

And it's a challenge where education in every sector, you don't know necessarily in advance what the outcomes are going to be until you try it and you see what the outcomes are.

every year we ran that event we didn't get nearly as many girls as we wanted to because it was always the girls soccer or softball we got a lot of boys but it conflicted with girls and we got feedback every year like you always don't schedule it to suit girls so now if we had some extra funding we could schedule it one that suits the boys sports schedule and one that suits the girls sports schedule possibly

I love your optimism, Colette. I don't know how you schedule something to get kids to come to right now. They're just so programmed. So, Sheila, have you talked to the schools about this? This is for middle school kids, right? Have you talked to the middle school PTO or the teachers? anything about this because they are I think as a parent we want our kids to ride their bike safely. I'm in the bucket where I think there's a lot of space that's just not safe. I would not let my child ride their bike in a lot of spaces because just doesn't feel safe no matter how safely the child rides. So for me, safer actual routes.

setting aside hours where they could ride on paths or something like that is very appealing, but that's not this conversation. I'm wondering what the middle school tells us about their interest and likelihood for the kids. To Kenny's point, will they actually do this? Because as someone who ran the bike rodeo, It was wildly successful for decades, and then it no longer had any relevance or appeal. So it's not that it's not a fabulous idea. It's just, will they come? Is that how you get a kid to ride safely now?

I mean, I think I mean, yes, because I think a lot of parents don't ride. And so where are they going to learn it from? Because it's not happening in the schools because they're pulled in a lot of directions and we do have safe routes to school. and so they have some great programming and we can kind of pony up with that. My thought is is not to have a huge single event, but to offer many classes of a Thursday afternoon, a Saturday morning to try to meet more people's needs. have smaller classes but more often. I did speak with the PTOs last spring about this and they were all clamoring. In fact, the elementary schools Those parents are interested in not necessarily the tiny bike rodeo, but that middle level, below middle school, but when kids are first learning to ride bikes, they're excited, they want to get out.

and the parents is particularly who need the tools to help their kids.

And the fact that not every parent might be comfortable letting their kid ride is not a reason to offer it for the parents who are. So, okay. Let's move on to the MBTA easement.

So, and I won't go into much detail on this. We are actually going to have the MBTA come before the board on January 13th to make a presentation. this is an item that we previously had on the warrant for the special town meeting but we were not prepared to move forward with it but this is looking at an easement to install ADA accessible ramps at both the Railroad and Tailby parking lots. So along with our mini highs, we're now working to do ramps to get down to the mini high platforms. But this is also in preparation of the longer term Full accessibility work that will be done at the Wellesley Square Station and then sort of further down over the years. to the hills and to the farm station. So I was just re-alerting the board that this is something that we need to put on the warrant and you'll have a presentation in January

whether we get to town meeting it's still we're still a little iffy about it but we are working hard with MBTA to try and get there and I'll just have Sheila add anything I may have missed on that

No, no, I'm hoping they're going to come on July, January 13th.

So, Megan, the plan is to install the ramps in advance of the fuller ADA accessibility work. and the design of the ramps has been incorporated into the ultimate design or the ultimate design's not done yet? I mean, we don't think that's going to change, right, once they're installed?

Correct. And they really... work essentially if you're on Crest Road from Crest Road within the embankments to get to the parking areas. There are some challenges with this that we want to present to the board because obviously there's going to be a construction period which will take Parking Spaces Offline while they're doing that work. But it will be necessary to meet accessibility goals. Because right now the slope as you go up crest is obviously not something that meets ADA accessibility for our wheelchair-bound individuals. So it provides the correct slope down to our now ADA accessible platforms.

Okay, so we'll look forward to that presentation in January and see how far along they are.

Megan, will they bring some form of a map or a chart or something so we understand what they're envisioning?

Yes, they will have visuals. And I think it's important to understand not just the final product, what it'll look like when it's done, but also during construction, what aspects or areas of the parking lot will be Unusable as well as how the flow, the circulation patterns will have to be adjusted to accommodate that.

Tom?

Are we getting cooperation on our concerns architecturally? The initial vision of this that we saw clearly looked as if they were taking a one size fits all solution. and placing it in this area in Wellesley. And it was horrendous. I mean, it was absolutely awful. And I know that we were going to begin to push back and ask about that, but are we getting a response?

We've gotten some response to that, but the work potentially would be reviewed by the design review board to try and enhance the aesthetic appeal.

Marjorie, have we seen those designs? I don't recall what Tom's talking about.

We can send you what we have received for preliminary plant.

It was a few months ago, it was preliminary, but let's... I assume they'll bring everything they need when they come in January. Mm-hmm. Okay, and the next is to discuss co-sponsorship of a zoning amendment.

I'm actually going to turn it over to Sheila, who's got a couple slides for the board.

Hello, everyone. I didn't say my name earlier for the record. I'm Sheila Page. I'm the Transportation Mobility Manager. and I'm here to ask you all to consider sponsoring a proposed zoning bylaw amendment. And this amendment would support the sustainable mobility plan and the Climate Action Plan. The purpose of the zoning amendment is to support alternative modes of transportation, support EV use, support our treed character of town, and also codify in the zoning what we already do in practice. and while we're in there, condense and clarify a few things.

Importantly, this zoning changes really starts from supporting these plans that Wellesley has adopted. So the climate action plan, one of its goals is to reduce transportation emissions and a strategy is to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles and promote Low Impact Transportation Options. And similarly, in the Sustainable Mobility Plan, it also talks about promoting low impact transportation options. meaning we need to make biking and walking and EV scooters more acceptable in town. And accelerating the shift to electric vehicles. and supporting EV charging.

The Sustainable Mobility Plan talks a lot about developing a culture of walking and biking and a lot of that starts in our zoning, because developments as they come into town, they have, as you all know, a large impact in how the town looks, how the town might circulate, and also kind of shows sort of what's important to the town as well. And it's important for developers to see this all up front. so for in order to kind of develop a culture of walking and biking we need to make We need places to park our bikes and places for people to store their bicycles. We already asked developers to do this now, but we don't ask them until they've drawn up their plans in a

applied for the permit. So it would be helpful for everyone involved that they know up front our town's expectations. and so the zoning change would include a section on bicycle parking requiring both short term meaning you know out by the front door some U-shaped bicycle parking Bicycle Racks, as well as long-term bicycle parking. And this would be both for multifamily and commercial uses. And by long-term, it's usually a more secure area where only the tenants can get to when it's covered. so that people feel safe leaving their bicycles there overnight. And like the zoning for car parking, we're specifying the size of a parking space and the aisle width. so that these bicycle parking areas are usable and functional.

and then also we are so currently right now building code requires depending on the building's use requires in a new building between 10 to 20% of the parking spaces be EV ready. And this includes wiring and equipment. We're asking for the board and the town meeting to consider that 50% of the parking spaces be EV capable, meaning if they're already building it, they might as well get the conduits in now and plan for that space that's needed, the extra switchboards and that sort of thing. but no wiring or equipment is included. That's where the expense really is. And so that just kind of future proofs our developments so that we can accommodate EV mobility devices or cars. Another aspect is Wellesley loves their trees.

We all know we like looking at them. It kind of cools our pavement. They're really important for storm water. We already require trees in parking lots. However, we don't have any requirements of these expectations of how these trees will grow. If we're requiring these trees, we want to make sure they have the opportunity to grow and make nice shade canopies. so we're requiring a certain depth of quality soil as well as a planting area size and I don't think Most of when parking lots are designed, it's often easy for the designer to then leave a space out for the trees. And we do see that around town. in our parking lots.

But they often don't, when it comes time to planting these trees, they often don't provide the proper soil in these kind of planting areas. and then in addition to all that there's some kind of smaller things that we already do and that we want to again kind of make sure it's clear up front. in our zoning we allow for unbundling the parking meaning meaning a commercial space they can charge for rent for the indoor space and they can also charge rent for the parking spaces outside or charge tenants, I mean, or charge customers. but it's not clear that that's allowed for residential uses and I think that's important for that to be in our zoning so that

so that developers know this is a possibility because this is a tool that we can reduce housing costs as well because then somebody coming in is going to pay for one or two cars rather than or maybe no cars they won't be paying at all whereas some families have more cars and so it kind of then the people without cars are not really subsidizing then the parking. The next is that we've often asked and particularly in the nines development agreement we've asked then if they're charging for a parking space that for in particular the affordable units they get a parking space included in their rent but if they want a second or third parking space they would have to pay for that. So we would put that in the bylaw.

We also want to clarify that stacked parking is allowed. It's already used in town. in many of our new developments. It reduces the parking footprint, enabling more room for other things, ideally more housing or more open space, more amenity space for the tenants or the commercial tenants. and it's not clear that stacked parking is allowed and what would be good is having it in the bylaw up front so developers just know as they're thinking through possible projects and whether they want to invest in our community to understand what the parameters are. and then the other one we have in the parking section of our bylaw, we require outdoor lighting and it's a very kind of broad statement, you know, no overshine.

not bright, that sort of thing and that's all it says but meanwhile we have a whole separate section on outdoor lighting that is quite robust and is very good and so instead of kind of repeating halfly you know one one spot we want to point them to where we where it already exists in our bylaw and then finally we have we want to clarify the parking plan review process It's kind of convoluted right now in the zoning. We just want to clarify that the parking plan review process is kind of in concert with the PSI and the site plan review process. So I wanted to... So Town Council has reviewed the zoning language. I believe it was in your package as well.

I've received some great comments. from the planning board last night on some of the zoning language building staff and planning staff and select board office staff have all reviewed this I expect to I'm here tonight to ask if you're willing to this town meeting. I also want to add this is sort of a beginning step of looking more at all of our zoning and how we can be more upfront with the developers. more up front with our residents so everybody understands kind of what Wellesley as a community wants to see in these developments.

and to make our zoning better support these plans that we've committed to and also it'll help with our economic development as well because we want people to understand what kind of community we are and what the parameters are to move into our community. So that's it. I'm happy for questions.

Okay, so to get this on the warrant as a zoning bylaw amendment, it needs to be co-sponsored by the planning board and select board? Or just planning board?

Megan?

Sheila can answer, but it needs to be co-sponsored by the select board, either or it could be a citizen's petition. So Sheila reminded me that for zoning articles, it's got to be select board, ZBA, planning board, or citizens petition.

So any one of the four independently?

Yes, we don't need planning to co-sponsor. We could sponsor it unilaterally.

OK, so the question is whether the select board wants to sponsor it. So the question is, do we want to put it on the warrant? Do we support it? I'm not at the point yet where I'm clear enough on all the provisions. I have a lot of questions about whether I would vote to support a town meeting, but the question is whether we would sponsor it to put it on. Town Meeting. So in order, we have a decision. Are we going to put it on the warrant? Are we going to vote to support it? Those are two different things. Sheila, my first question is you said at the outset of your review that there are certain things that you ask of developers in site plan or later in the permitting stage, but not up front. are they required now or how much of this is new requirements?

The bicycle parking is new. The EV, the 50% would be new. The soil depth for the trees is new. and actually the planting area is new as well but not the need for trees. The rest is really kind of already in there a little vague and we want to Straighten It Out. Yeah, I guess the unbundling the parking. I'm trying to think of how that language is. It says commercial and it's silent on residential.

Okay. And I assume by unbundling for affordable tenants, There's also an understanding or a requirement that you can't then add it back into the rent if they get their free space. You can't. increase the rent and give them a free space?

No, right, right, right, and so for affordable units, the rents are approved by EO, yes, HLC, yes, as well as the town, so the the parking shouldn't boost up their rent.

So we have the ability as a town to regulate that aside from HLC?

if it will it depends on how the affordable unit comes about okay but yes it could be in our on our regulatory agreement okay I'll open it up to questions from the board

Marjorie, just to put a finer point too on one of your question, I apologize for interrupting. If we look at our site plan recommendations, I just want to address your question maybe slightly differently. We are requiring people to do this as part of site plan, but it's towards the end of their, you know, so it's, they're not installing it at the end. Inception of their design, which is where we would prefer it. But we are conditioning these projects. We conditioned 194, 196 Worcester Street to have bike parking and EV parking. We conditioned the other more recently, I'm trying to think of the 49 Walnut had a condition for bike parking. I forget the EV condition on that. So to your point, we are requiring people to do this, but it's been conditioned through either site plan or traffic review or sustainability review.

So it would still be reviewed at that point, but developers would know upfront that it's going to be a requirement. Correct. It's just the percentages that have increased. of EV ready and bicycle spaces and size.

Yeah, because right now our zoning doesn't require any bicycle parking. But the PSI process kind of talks about bicycle and pedestrian comfort issues. and so under the PSI we say oh hey you know if we're going to have bicycle comfort you need some bicycle parking spaces. I would say from my experience of being here and in my other communities about half the developers are a lot of them it's an amenity that they want and are already putting it in some who are less interested they might squeeze it in the you know odd corners that you might get in a parking garage kind of thing to you know meet the letter of the law whereas some I think the Cedar Street project they made a bike tool room and everything in theirs

and the increase to 50% EV ready. Is that based on current demand or projections?

That would be so it's so right now it's 10 to 20% EV ready, which which technically means it's wired to six feet of the car. This would be EV capable, so we're just laying the conduit. And so we're not asking it for chargers to be installed. So it would be then the choice later on as demand rises with the developers, I mean with the property owners, that it's easy for them to accommodate their Tenants, whether it's commercial or residential. I see. Thank you.

Other questions, comments?

Go ahead, Tom.

I thank you for that clarification on the EV charging. I'm very interested in Boston. I've seen a number of new developments where there's parking. and I believe a lot of them approach it in a similar fashion. So if you're the first owner in a new project, for example, the wiring is there. but it's on you to buy the charger for that space if you want to activate EV charging because you have a vehicle. In a building Like the one where I have the space, you'll never see EV charging unless it's absolutely required by the mayor because the cost to retrofit... a 1960s building for EV charging is astronomical and way beyond almost any economic justification.

So I think it's a very interesting path to go down to simply require that those spaces are readily convertible. to an EV charging in that location.

So when I was reading through this in preparation and I did watch planning's discussion last night, which was really helpful, I think for me it's really important to recognize that most of this is codifying what we already do. and I'll say from my experience every project that comes to us I'm always asking the question where's the bike parking can you do bike parking and I want to take a little bit of a step back you know I have four bikes in my garage, five. One of them is very nice. I don't bike all the time, but I want to have them there so I can bike. We use them all the time. My kids bike to school every day. with me and you know I also have experienced condo living same thing with four bikes where I didn't have bike storage and so I'm hauling them up the stairs into my entryway where I smash my ankles against the pedals all the time covered in bruises eventually had to you know pay myself to build a storage space which is was

much more expensive than had it been developed into the space originally because there was some development space just not enough also had the experience in condo living there about trying to price out sort of EV charging after we'd just redone the car park and it was eye-wateringly expensive and I wish we had had the foresight to put in conduit because then it would have been something we could do with a lot easier and so I think what this is trying to achieve, one of the things I wasn't so familiar with but I'm very comfortable with almost everything that's in here because we're doing it already and we're asking these questions all the time. and I do think it's important to put it in earlier in the process so it's just built into it and we can rely on that and I think these are important amenities for people who are living in condo style homes to have so that if you want to walk or bike around town, you can do that.

I've spoken to a lot of residents in multifamily in different places, one of whom couldn't drive, relied on cycling. cycled to Needham for her medical appointments but didn't have storage in her home and was either leaving it outside in the rain which wasn't allowed by her where she lived and so she's kind of dragging her bike into her home which was very small. I think we need to think about things like that as well and these are you know this isn't new these are things that have been flagged in our plans since 2020 and I'm maybe more familiar with them and others because we've been ticking off a lot of things in these plans. This is just another one that we can really get to. So I think that these are really... I'll go back to some of the lighting and the trees in the car park. Before I was even involved in town government at any point, I came before this board about...

Lighting at the car park in the parking lot at the Volkswagen because it was really ugly and shining in our house. and when they were redoing that we really advocated as a neighborhood could you put more trees in could we have better lighting it would be really nice if that was just part of it and everyone wanted that everyone wanted a nicer looking shaded car park to look on and so I think that there's I think there's really maybe we might work through some wording maybe there's maybe one or two elements of this that you might see and we'll look at that a little bit harder but does that mean I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater I'd like to get this on the warrant so that we can work out the last pieces that we have to but it's not new we've been talking about these elements for a long time and it's part of our practice I think so I'm interested in and putting this on the warrant.

And if planning feel more comfortable to co-sponsor once they've had another discussion on it, fine. But I do think this is something that is important to the plans that we're trying to advocate for. Tom.

You know, I think there's another important reason why these requirements need to be made apparent to the developer up front, because as the discussion has raised as a point, When you're picking construction finishes and the and other types of things that you're designing into the units to get to the very end and find out that there are further expensive elements that are required. I think if I were building a development, I would want to know what the total cost drivers were as part of a production function and trying to define what the ultimate cost is that I'm targeting for the units. So I think that is actually really very important. And I think we're also at a point where

you read about we're very close to a breakthrough in terms of range on vehicles as they... are developing new battery technology where we're looking at going to 800, 850 miles on a charge and faster charging. So I think there is likely to be a willingness to see a deeper penetration of EV vehicle acquisition that will make this type of change in our bylaws a smart one in retrospect.

Any other comments? Kenny?

Thanks again, Sheila. So I'm on the Climate Action Committee, and I voted not to support this, putting it on the warrant. I'll start with, I changed my mind. I do support putting this on the warrant with a giant caveat. And like I said before, I want to really understand what the cost to do this is and what the actual benefit measurable benefit that we're going to have what will do we have any projection about how it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions what is the benefit we can state it but I would like something that's measurable in terms of cost every one of these regulations that we impose on a builder is going to impact. There's a giant discussion in the town, in the state, and the national level about affordability.

And every time we put a new requirement on a developer, the developer's not paying that. The developer's passing through that cost directly to the consumer and this will not in my opinion help affordability the question is how much will it affect affordability maybe it's a de minimis amount and the cost does outweigh the benefit the benefit does outweigh the cost but maybe not. But I don't think we should be making a decision about this bylaw or any other bylaw unless we truly understand what the ramifications are of that. And just one example about the EV demand. Ford just took a $19.5 billion charge against their earnings because the demand for EV was significantly lower than they expected it to be. So I think we have to be really careful when we do these things. and think hard about what the overall impact is going to be. Good intentions.

are obviously a good thing. But if we don't know what the cost of doing that is, I think that's dangerous. So I do support putting this on the warrant, but I'm not saying that I'll support ultimately I don't know what the right terminology is at this point, but actually putting this to town meeting for a vote. And I have not looked in any detail at the actual bylaw changes, so I will revisit that when the time comes.

If I could just say I think it's good to look at the cost of doing it but also the cost of not doing it because later adding these things is, in my experience, vastly more expensive so that might be helpful as well.

I also think town meeting deserves an explanation of the cost, the additional size requirements, and in order to enable them to vote constructively.

Margie, just one more question. What vote will this require at town meeting since it's arguably creating a more restrictive zoning environment than currently exists?

It requires a two-thirds vote, yeah.

Beth? So thank you for doing the thinking on this. I am not ready to support this because this is our first exposure to it. I didn't I don't think this was on our work plan and I don't understand the impact of what's being proposed here. I don't understand like how we picked 50%, what 50% means, how we picked a lot of the data points that we're moving to and many of them are new. So we've had concepts in the area, but a lot of the recommendations that are being proposed here are new requirements for a builder.

you know part of it is I don't think of us doing zoning bylaws like I understand we can but I feel that something like this that has a long-term impact on both the businesses and the residential development should have a lot more vetting because I think when we put something on the warrant, it implies that we support it. I recall one other time in town when it was put on the warrant and the board voted not to support it. I thought that was... Weird. I'll go with Weird. So I feel like this would need more development more analysis and then be brought forward I just feel like it's not ready for us to put an imprint on I do think it would be helpful

if the board that reviews projects and gives them their permits was supportive of this. And from what I saw last night, it was also their first exposure to it. So putting something on that has not had the benefit of the boards that would be responsible for evaluating projects, I think, is not... putting something forward with our strongest foot. Not that it's not got good ideas in it. I do have some specific things... When I saw it and I read the purpose, I was kind of excited that we would be doing something about what we struggled with on the Walnut Street Project because it said that it would contribute to pedestrian and bicycle safety.

it didn't see anything that contributed to pedestrian and bicycle safety and it was something we deeply struggled with on the last and other project that we looked at because there was no safe passage and we had no tool to require the developer to implement safe passage. for me that would be like a home run if you could figure that out in here so that that was probably my biggest thing I have a lot of other questions and comments but those are my like high level issues that and I'm happy to talk at length or Marjorie if we want to as more development is done. I just don't think we're ready yet.

Tom, did you want to say something further?

I think Kenny, I read that article too about the charge that Ford was writing off, but my understanding is that they're writing off an F-150, a truck. vehicle is really where they're across the industry has been a minimal benefit of EV capability and I think that Ford has been struggling with vehicle reliability across its product line. So I'm not sure that Ford writing that off and changing direction where trucks are the major component of their sales is as reliable as looking at what's happening with Tesla or Toyota or vehicles that are far more reliable in terms of their performance and the benefit of EV technology. I also think that with regard to

I agree with you that requiring various components to development and construction in town can have an impact on price, but they're also targeted price points for any apartment or condominium in town. And I think that by looking at adding these requirements sooner, What I think we're more likely to see is that there's a price point that the developer is headed towards for the ultimate product that he's building, and they're making other choices on the way in terms of the... Are we doing hardwood floors or carpeting? Are we doing molding around the ceilings, the level of cabinetry in the kitchen? and appliances that we're building.

So I think there are other ways to include goals that town meeting is requiring of the community in development and in real estate development work and looking at how developers are trying to accommodate that without significantly increasing the price point of the ultimate product.

Actually, Sheila, I had two other things I wanted to add. One is, and I could be misreading this, but I think the way this is structured, we're making the affordable units more expensive. because if you are one of the targets that we are hoping to attract in affordable units are younger families, say. they're likely to have a vehicle and so instead of getting the affordable rate that would include parking now we're mandating that you can charge extra for parking. So I think it makes it less cost attractive to take an affordable unit here than maybe somewhere else where it's bundled. I don't know if that's true or not but that's how it struck me so if you could look at that because I don't think we would want to

make our affordables more expensive than they have to be. And the other is a question about whether some of these things are amenities that a developer who's in touch with the market, which I think our developers are, would include without regulatory requirements. Because for me, if you're a developer and you're in touch with the market you're going to read the tea leaves and do certain things so I'm not sure we have to be so aggressive at legislating all of this I would rather we and so forth. Thank you. Those are the other two thoughts I apologize I forgot to include.

Sure, thank you. We're not mandating that the parking be unbundled. We're just making it clear that it's an option. It's already clearly an option in our zoning for commercial. And we wanted to just add residential properties to that option.

Is it unbundled in the current affordables that we have, or is it bundled?

So at the nines, anybody who moves in there rents their apartment and they rent a parking space. in the affordable units they rent an apartment and they get one parking space in that same rent and that rent's been again approved by the state and the town.

and for our stacked parking, we have a lot of, I know we have it at Terraza and because it was a big discussion at the ZBA, I thought that was our first stacked parking.

Terraza, Belclair, the new one I think at 690 Washington has stacked parking as well. Yes, and back there as well.

Okay, Megan, do you have anything you'd like to add at this point?

No, I mean, I think, you know, the town itself, when we do EV spots, we add the equipment for future installations. We did that at Town Hall. We did that at the middle school, we did it at Hardy and Honeywell, the conduit. Sorry, I was drawing a blank on the name. We do that as a matter of practice because in the long run, it's going to save you money. You don't have to tear up the parking lot again. So again, I actually see that as a cost-saving measure for the future. And interestingly, you know, the stacked parking, I agree with it reserves open space, but it also is very easy to make that an EV charging center as well within your existing parking field. So I think a lot of it's common sense in terms of what the expectation is for parking.

I think the secondary step to this, which Sheila has been working with planning, traffic committee and others on, is then looking at the actual parking requirements, which in Wellesley are really high. And to me, that's actually the cost driver, not these aspects. but we'll certainly proceed with how the board wishes to move forward or not.

When would we need to make a decision, Marjorie, in terms of putting on the warrant? When would we need to make a decision?

When do we need to make a decision? And when is it going back to planning?

I don't have a date on when I'm back to planning.

Yeah I don't think they've set a date to invite Sheila back.

Okay, so I agree with Beth that this is our first reading and I'm not quite comfortable voting whether or not we as a board want to put it on the warrant yet. unless everybody else is comfortable and wants to do it. I also would like to see further development through planning. Megan, how long do we have to decide?

On my schedule, we're currently looking to potentially sign the warrant on January 13th. So arguably the board can add or detract something. Anything. Select board can add or subtract anything until the date of signature.

Okay. All right. So my recommendation would be that we at least hold for a second reading and that we submit all questions we have to Sheila. and ASAP so that she can expand explanation, get any further data she wants. and I do appreciate that you're also going to take it to other boards, other bodies because I think there will be others who have some input as well and I'd like to see it further developed through planning. Megan, do we need to make any other decisions on town meeting tonight?

No, the only other thing, if there was anything that we did not discuss tonight that the board wants us to take a look at, I just wanted to present that opportunity. I did not include in tonight the standard fare, which is our expectation in terms of sort of the required items on the warrant, which we'll review when the draft warrant is either at our January 6th or certainly when the warrant's prepared for January 13th.

Okay. All right. And we're holding January 6th for a potential meeting. Right now, the items on the January 6th agenda could be pushed to the 13th. but I've asked Megan to hold it because we just don't know yet what might develop between now and then. So at the very least, if we wanted to, we could review this again with Sheila on the 6th before we have to sign the warrant on the 13th. I want to thank you, Sheila. I totally support the objectives of the bylaw changes. I just need a little more time with it, and I think it would inure to everybody's benefit. to get some questions and answers developed before the board makes a final decision.

Sure. Thank you very much for your time.

Okay, our next agenda item is to discuss and vote the Town By-law Review Committee. I made a few changes and sent them to town council for review. Kenny had a couple of questions. The first change was that I said that the bylaw review committee would be subject to the town bylaws articles 1 to 7. and I did that because I wanted everybody to know that it's subject to open meeting laws, agendas, notice, minutes, all of those things. That was the only reason. other than saying, you know, you should do this, you should do this, I just linked to the other bylaws. I thought it was important that when the bylaw committee and town council are reviewing Testa, Ulfelder,

Kenny had also had a suggestion that some form of cost benefit analysis be applied. I'm not sure whether that would appropriately be the purview of the bylaw review committee or maybe advisory.

it certainly should be for town meeting I'm not sure we need it in here so what I was thinking so I wouldn't view this as everything because some of it just doesn't apply but on use the one we just went through which I understand is zoning and has nothing to do with what we're talking about but when you're imposing obligations on citizens or developers maybe that made sense 50 years ago but maybe it doesn't now and as part of the analysis I think we could phrase this in a way that it's at least a consideration It doesn't necessarily have to be a full-blown study because some of it's going to be obvious. The benefit's huge and the cost is de minimis, but I think that should at least be highlighted to who's ever...

Okay, we could do that. And the reporting vote to town meeting on any bylaw or bylaw amendment on I thought town meeting might want to know what transpired in the bylaw review committee and if there were considerations like those that advisory highlights, either pro or con. or any concerns within the bylaw review committee that it be appropriate to share those with town meeting.

So you're envisioning this committee actually

speaking in front of town meeting not necessarily it could be in the article write up just that it be shared with town meeting are there any other questions other than that it's just ordered differently and everything else is the same as we talked about last time.

So in terms of establishing this, is this a bylaw or just a standing committee?

I think it would be a standing committee established by the select board.

Okay. And the reason I'm asking that is, and this is probably from the last agenda item, we've been working on the Townwide Capital Planning Committee I had been thinking that that would be, you know, we were considering bylaw amendments for that, whether to establish it or just to review bylaws. I should have brought that up in the last agenda item that I had certainly been working under the premise that we might have bylaw amendments to establish a capital planning committee. even if it's just to describe the committee, what it does, its membership, et cetera, things like that. So I didn't think about that in their last discussion.

Well if the bylaws are ready to go to town meeting before the bylaw review committee is ready to review them and make recommendations we shouldn't hold them up.

in terms of worn articles. I should have brought that up in the last agenda item. That's a potential. if that committee is going to do its work starting after the end of this fiscal year it's either a standing committee that we run for a year and see how it goes or we put in some pretty simple bylaws to establish the committee. So that I did not think about that to bring that up in the last item.

Megan, what would be the downside of running it as a standing committee for the first year before we bring bylaw changes?

there's no downside to it um I mean obviously it's easier to tinker right with a um non-bylaw committee you know that's through policy with the select board if we're working to refine it it's obviously more challenged to go to town meetings to continue to amend bylaws okay

which favors running it for a year and seeing whether we need to make any amendments or changes to the process before we bring bylaw changes.

Okay, so I'll keep working with that direction then. Okay, thank you. Tom?

I think that these are two, this is apples and oranges. The capital planning process is ultimately one that I thought we would codify as a bylaw change because it needs to be empowered in a very different way then the bylaw committee. The bylaw committee to me is absolutely obviously a standing committee on an ongoing basis. I don't even see that they're comparable.

they're not Tom but it made me think I should have brought a potential one article for bylaws for the Townwide Capital Planning Committee up under our last agenda item and this just made me think about that but we can take that up in another meeting and discuss it but I take Megan's point that if we run the Townwide Capital Planning Committee for a year as a standing committee. You get experience. You think, oh, I want to refine that thing or that thing. And you take one more polished attempt at a bylaw. to describe that committee. But that's maybe something we can take up another meeting. OK.

If I could just add to that, the other consideration is I just so happen to look it up today. But the powers of capital planning were transferred solely to the select board in 1989. And so the other question is if would give up any of that power. And so the townwide capital clinic committee, just literally thinking out loud as part of that, it could also be that we want that as... just an advisory committee solely to the select board in terms of planning that because the power of capital, the capital improvement plan solely rests with you.

I always thought the capital planning committee would be reporting, I mean, you know, to the select board. I need to think further about that I did not contemplate passing on that authority so it even more and other reasons to keep it as a committee for the first year and making any adjustments necessary. Okay, are there any other comments on the town by-law, Beth?

I have a few have we talked to the town moderator is the moderator feeling that this is an appropriate role I've talked to him a while ago I have not talked to him with the latest iteration

Are you saying appropriate role for him to sit or for him to vote? Appropriate role for him to sit and vote. I think it's appropriate for him to sit I'll get his opinion on whether it's appropriate for him to vote and the way I look at this committee it is a select board

It's basically a subset of the select board. Two members of the select board, executive director, assistant executive director. And then we have one town meeting member. That is a subset of the select board. and so I'm a little confused about where we're going with this committee because we started out initially saying that we wanted a committee to look at ensuring that our bylaws were compliant with state law and up to date and kind of intelligible that way. The way I look at the list of requirements, it allows for a fairly wholesale review and amendment of any part of the town bylaw. Right.

And any town staff.

So it's kind of a town government study committee run by the select board.

It's not town government study. It's bylaw review. and any member of town staff, any board, any designee of a committee or board will participate when they bring something to the committee or the committee or anybody else refers Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor and the entire committee chooses the town meeting representative.

But there's how many members? Two, three, four, five, six members, right? and four members are select board staff and members. It's the select board.

Well, I think you're implying that the executive director and assistant executive director vote solely in favor of interests of the select board. And I'm not sure that's a fair characterization.

No, I'm implying that they're part of the select board.

Well, they're general government services.

They report to the Slack Board.

So are you saying you don't support this? That's the question. I mean, this is our fifth review of this committee.

So Marjorie, what in here prevents this from being a full review of town government structure. Where is the piece? I didn't see the line.

Nothing preventive, but that's not what it's being established for. I just didn't see that definition in here. Well I didn't think it was necessary to say you can't review town government structure. It's a committee that's going to review, have public meetings, notice minutes. Everybody can participate in the meetings. They'll take citizen speak. Again, this is like our fifth review of this.

I'm just surprised that the questions on the membership are coming up now because this hasn't changed, certainly not since the last week.

I think I've asked consistent members.

There was no, from my recollection, there was no constructive feedback at our last discussion, but I wonder if... You know, if the executive director and the existing executive director were ex officio, would that help?

I'm not sure as part of the town's senior staff that they should be excluded from consideration and input. Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor

it goes to advisory it goes to town meeting it's the first step and I think when we discussed this the last time on this point what Tom had raised was the last unified plan had essentially tasked each body with doing this work and it wasn't getting done. And so therefore creating a committee to get it done is the solution to that. and so I think if we don't create this committee to do this work, we're standing still again. And I think a town government study committee is, I don't know was it 18 months of I don't know how many people working 24 7 on it this is not the same thing this is identifying sort of inconsistencies inaccuracies update anachronisms inefficiencies in the town bylaws and a sort of um on a structured basis.

And the discussion we had the last time was we're getting good at this stuff in terms of policy subcommittee. We're getting good at members of a committee doing a lot of legwork, bringing it to a committee to have review, go through a process. and then it goes to town meeting to decide I mean I think we need to move forward

I used encroachment as a recent example of the policy subcommittee. The policy subcommittee would not consider deciding issues of encroachment without including the NRC director. and I would posit that the same would go for this. The way I've seen it play out in a couple of communities is that different articles are assigned to different members of the community of the committee and they work in concert with the department heads board committee members to whom those bylaws pertain to say is everything working as published? Is this how you enforce it? Is there any need for review? Do we see inconsistencies in the language? Does Town Council have any concerns about it being enforceable or contrary to other applicable laws?

So it's intended to bring everything into consistent form and language, make sure it's enforceable, and according to current practice. That's the intent of the committee.

So move to approve the general bylaw review committee as amended and to authorize Chair Marjorie Freiman to make any final ministerial edits that may be required.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, I see Chief Mortarelli is here from the Fire Department. Thank you very much, Chief. We are now going to discuss and vote minor modifications to the Fire Department hiring general order. and I also thank you for sending your email with some explanations for that as well. So I'll turn it over to you.

Thanks, Marjorie. Members of the board, thank you for having me this evening. So the objective here was simply to clean up an outdated Hyrum Policy. The policy was put together in 2019. And really, all we were doing is I wanted to go through, as I do with all of our policies, we have nearly 100 policies in the fire department. and we've recently been going through and updating them so that the members our new members coming through have a clean baseline of what to expect and while we were going through the hiring policy I noticed there were some inconsistencies of what the process actually looks like now. So again, minor changes, but I just thought it was a good time to clean it up so that everything was consistent.

Other than that, I mean, I know I sent a summarized version of an email so everyone could take a look at it. And I know Megan had sent a red line version of the policy. I can go through the changes or if anyone has questions Margie whatever in the interest of time however you want to go about it I'm open for questions thank you chief I know Kenny had some questions so I'll first turn to him for those questions

Yeah, so Megan and I ran through these today earlier and none of these were intended to be substantive changes. I was... This is the first time I've read this, so I just had a few questions about conflicts of interest where there's a family member involved. I thought there was some language that was superfluous because if there's a family member involved it is almost per se a conflict and so I suggested taking that language out updating it for the possible new 35 mile requirement. We did talk about file cabinets and apparently we still are using file cabinets for hard copies. and some cleanup. One of the deletions deleted the term, the defined term residency. And there's another provision in there that talks about the defined term residency. So kind of just cleaning that back up.

there was nothing really substantive it was just me reading it yeah yeah okay those are all those are all valid points Meg and I discussed them and I agree with all of them um it really just just cleaning that up so we can do that and then Bring it back to the local to the executive board just so they can sign off on. Great. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions from the board?

No, I support all of these. I guess the one thing I would want to make sure is that Megan and the chief both knew that if anything came up in this process that seeking council support is supported by the board that you know if there ever gets to be a tricky hiring thing. I know it escalates up to Megan but I think as a board we are supportive of them seeking support from labor council if there's anything complicated.

Okay, anything else? So move to approve the modifications to the fire department hiring general order as amended.

Second.

all in favor aye thank you chief thanks everyone have a good night thanks chief

Okay, our next agenda item is to discuss and vote special counsel. As many people know, the board held an executive session last Thursday night. the contents of which cannot be shared publicly but the board has identified special counsel to assist with the MassBay development proposal and our item tonight is solely to approve the engagement of a law firm for that purpose.

Move to approve the hiring of Phillips and Angley as special legal counsel for the town of Wellesley and to authorize Chair Marjorie Freiman to sign an engagement letter on behalf of the select board.

I'd like to add on to that that communications with the law firm and execution of the board's direction will be handled by Chair Marjorie Freiman and Member Kenny Largess.

I second that Can you explain that? I need to understand what that is

I think we need a process for working with the law firm and knowing which members are going to coordinate with the law firm and how that's going to work. And I think it makes logical sense to have Our chair and our newest member who brings a new perspective partner on that.

We explained to special council candidates last week that their points of contact would be Megan and me. and that's the proposal to engage special counsel to have contact with Megan and me for this purpose.

I would add Megan to the motion that I added on to and it is an active motion.

Okay, so the motion to amend the motion is on the table. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed?

Nay.

Okay. Nay. Right. Okay. So we move back to the original motion.

So we have a motion. It's been seconded.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed?

Aye. Could you explain why we can't have two members working with council?

I didn't say we couldn't have two members working with Council. The points of contact are with Megan and me. As with anything else, things that need to be discussed with the board will be discussed with the entire board in executive session.

I just want to Warren, everybody that we're getting perilously close to discussing litigation strategy outside of executive session. So I would recommend just being careful of where we go with that.

And I want to clarify that this is to engage council for advice. This is for no broader purpose than that at the moment. So I was being very clear that this is to engage special counsel to assist us with the MassBay proposal. That is where we are now. And any further discussion will be held with the entire board in executive session. Our next agenda item is administrative matters to discuss and vote minutes and approve the minutes of November 3rd, I believe.

No edits were submitted.

Okay.

I have one small typo, line 10. Select. Select. That was my bad. That was my big thumbs typing. I can make that. I saw that as well. Okay, Colette, motion please. So move to approve the minutes of November 3rd, 2025 as amended.

All in favor? Aye. Okay, our next agenda item is the chair's report. We met with advisory this morning and they will hear from library and NRC about their budgets tomorrow. The chair has completed his review of the 10 year school public records, shared it with his officers and plans to share it with the entire advisory committee on January 7th. We met with the schools. The superintendent's budget level service came in just below 3%. School committee asked that they prepare a couple versions of the budget. A version that came in exactly at 3% includes $26,000 of strategic initiatives in it reflecting an 18.5 FTE reduction.

which Nikki told us are filled positions, not previously unfilled positions. They include teachers due to enrollment at the middle school and the high school, Marshall reductions to try to bring class sizes up a little bit towards guideline and address decreasing enrollment without cutting courses entirely. in other words to offer potentially fewer sections but not eliminate a course. It also may include paraprofessional cuts where students are moving out of district or their ed plans are changing. or they're moving among schools to support staff movement. The principals came in with FTE reductions and were sent back for further reductions which they then provided. and the schools holding budget summits for the next two days. They're working with FMD on funding options for solar on Hardy and Honeywell.

and the Air Conditioning Feasibility Study for Bates, Fiske, Schofield and the Middle School and will likely vote on the AC option tomorrow night. and we also spoke briefly about the possible mobilization of a new school building committee with their new projects on the horizon. there's extensive work proposed for several schools. The school is talking about a new preschool and FMD director Joe McDonough has suggested that they start mobilizing thinking about a possible new middle school which currently has an end of service life projection at 2046. the last school building committee and facilities plan ran for about 12 or 13 years. So Joe suggested it might not be too early to start considering that.

and the schools are releasing an RFP for an updated demographic and enrollment study that will support that work in the coming weeks. So I also have an update for the public on MassBay. Megan, Corey, and I met at the State House last week with Secretary Augustus and Matt Walsh from Housing and Livable Communities, Backey, Deputy Commissioner Abby Vladeck, and Project Manager Maggie Brown from DCAM, Dr. Bedell, and MassBay Board of Trustees Chair Alyssa Povich, Peish, Senator Cream, and members of their staff last Thursday. The meeting was convened in response to this board's postponement. of the townwide visioning session and our statement that the town had been given conflicting information from different representatives of the Commonwealth.

Secretary Augustus kicked off the meeting saying that he knows that many meetings have taken place, that they are trying to advance state goals of more housing and climate environmental issues. and that in his opinion it could be a win-win from the state's perspective. Very importantly, he sees this as an opportunity to preserve the conservation area that residents seem most concerned about. Again, from the secretary, they see this as an opportunity to preserve 39 or 40 of the 45 acres which are the forested area, the prime area of concern that we have heard extensively about in meetings through emails. Emails have gone to the governor, the secretary, the commissioner.

and they are seeing this as an opportunity to preserve 39 or 40 of those acres approximately. the vehicle for that preservation has not been spelled out yet but that is directly from the secretary they will look to find a developer that would commit to keeping that land undisturbed and available to the community and to provide legal protection on the land against any future developments Thus, they would be concentrating the development on the parking lot area with not more than 180 units. Both the Secretary and the Commissioner reiterated several times that they are fairly firm at 180. Meagan, I, Representative Peish, and Senator Cream suggested they really should think about being more flexible, that it's a constrained area.

We need traffic mitigation measures. It's an area of big concern to the residents at that density. and that we are continuing to consider that as a number that's too high. the secretary said that multiple kinds of housing would be acceptable whether it be age restricted, senior housing, workforce housing, family units, but that he expected they be self-contained living units. In other words, not a bed for short-term rehab. Senator Cream expressed her view and Representative Peish's view that they are solidly behind the town and support the town in these efforts 100%. I explained that litigation is not the town's preferred method of resolution, but the level of emotion in town is running very high.

and the board will explore all options to protect the town, the residents, and to comply with the statutory requirements that we've complied with 40B, ADU, MBTA, and several new projects in the pipeline that will add additional new housing units. I think they understand that we postponed the visioning because we did not feel we were on solid ground in what we were representing to the residents. and we left it that the town will discuss collectively points of concern, questions and issues that we would like confirmation of in writing. in order to support rescheduling of that visioning. We also suggested, told them fairly clearly that we need probably four or five months

to complete the visioning, the analysis, the synthesis and working with them to fashion the RFP before that RFP is released. and in response to Megan's question about how residents would be sure that what was proposed was actually developed, The commissioner said that there are controls in place. There is a reversion clause in the statute that permits the state to reverse course if a developer moves in a direction inconsistent with that which was agreed to. The mechanism of reversion was not detailed. We now understand that the regulations will be promulgated by the end of the year.

for review, and basically closed our meeting with both Representative Peish and Senator Cream reiterating their very serious concerns about 180 units. of Housing Production. The commissioner said that's what the statute creates as of right. And he appreciates that We, the board, are under enormous pressure, but that he did not anticipate bringing down that number of units. So the work continues and as soon as we have further updates, we will be working together on what to send the state and awaiting their confirmation in writing. to see whether we're still comfortable with scheduling a visioning session. And happy for people to continue to write to us, send us questions.

That is basically all we know right now. But I felt we made some progress in some areas and no progress in other areas. But our work will continue. Corey, Megan, is there anything else you'd like to add to that?

Perfect summary.

I'm just going to say that was a perfect summary.

Okay, so residents should take some comfort in the decision maker's secretary level confirmation. that they are not looking to develop the forest. They're looking at what might be a little bit of land beyond the parking lot but preserving the 39, 40 or so acres of the forested land and the trails. So that's all we have tonight. I want to wish everybody happy holidays and best wishes for a happy and peaceful new year. Our next meeting is not scheduled until early January and the agendas will be posted as soon as they're prepared. Thank you very much and good night.