Select Board July 21, 2026

Mm-hmm.

Okay, good evening. I'd like to call to order the select board meeting of July 21st, 2026 in the Giuliani Room at Town Hall Here with me from the Select Board are Vice Chair Tom Ulfelder, Secretary Colette O'Frank and Beth Sullivan Woods. I'm Marjorie Freiman. Kenny Largess is not here with us. but also here is Executive Director Megan Jopp and Assistant Executive Director Corey Testa is joining us by Zoom. Our first agenda item is Citizen Speak. As many people know, we reserve 15 minutes at the beginning of our meetings for public comment on issues not on the agenda. We ask that speakers approach the table, turn on the microphone and give us their name. And please limit their comments to three minutes. As these are non-agenda items, the board cannot respond or engage in dialogue.

But we will determine how and whether follow up to the public comment might be appropriate. I understand we do have someone here for public comment? Yes please come up.

My name is Deborah Wall and I'm at Massasoit Road here in Wellesley. I am here this evening to urge the select board and all town officials to slow down the process of site selection for the location of a proposed new fire station. On June 25th at the first and only community engagement meeting after the master plan was announced to the public on June 2nd, the project team stated they will ask select board to vote this September to approve a site location in order to proceed to a fall special town meeting, vote on funding of feasibility study. The timing of the first public announcement of the proposed sites on June 2nd, followed by a first and only community engagement meeting on June 25th

gives the impression the site selection for this project is being moved along rapidly after school is out and many Wellesley residents are occupied by summer plans. The June 25th presentation made it appear the proposed sites one or two situated within the North 40 in a densely settled residential neighborhood on Weston Road are almost considered a done deal by those working on the project despite numerous questions and concerns subsequently raised at the meeting. However, select board and the public must not lose sight of the fact that the third recommended site located on Washington Street next to the police station also meets response time criteria.

Participants at the June 25th meeting pointed out this location would form a municipal plaza, a model that exists in many Massachusetts communities. Site 3 deserves further exploration. At the community engagement meeting, there were many questions about the matrix or criteria used to assess and rank the suitability of various sites More information about the matrix and the weighting of criteria is needed. Wellesley is entering a critical period of capital planning with several major projects under consideration. Given the timing of these projects and the cost to taxpayers, these larger initiatives must be transparently presented publicly supported and prioritize investments thoughtfully.

A new fire station is a significant investment and not just a monetary one. The site location drives everything about the project It is a critical decision impacting not only the project but also the future of the town. Once built, any impacts a new station will have on its locale whether positive or negative are set and essentially irreversible. Given the crucial role of site selection to this project and to the town of Wellesley, I am here to urge the select board and town officials not to rush this through but to slow the process in order to take the time necessary to gain residents' confidence in the process, engage meaningfully with the community about all possible sites

to provide all requested information, to take the time to answer questions and address concerns. Thank you.

Thank very much for your comments. Is there anyone else here who would like to address the board? Okay, we'll move on to our next agenda item which is one of our favorite items. Which is to discuss and vote a police sergeant promotion so I'll ask the chief and the deputy chief to come to the front Good evening.

Good evening, it's a pleasure to be here. I'm joined by Detective Mike Mankiewicz and obviously Deputy Chief Renzella and we are here to recommend a promotional sergeant. By way of history for this particular position, this became available in May of this year with the medical retirement of one of our sergeants who had to go out on medical disability The process, however, started back in 2024 when we gave our promotional exam. We give this exam every two years so the results are good for essentially two years and if the board recalls, I've already brought two other candidates for lieutenant and sergeant before based on this previous exam. It's a three-fold process. The first process is the entrance exam That's a written exam that's given by a consultant we hire. Subsequently, anyone who passes that exam goes on to an assessment center. That assessment center is run as an independent assessment center it's run essentially by a

utilizing role players, scenarios and the evaluators are all for the most part Massachusetts police chiefs so it's very local to Massachusetts. and the final step in that process is an interview with the command staff. So, that occurred back in January of 2025, November 2024 to January 2025 when we brought two candidates forward. With this new open position we didn't have to do the first two steps they're already done so the final step was a formal interview with the candidate uh with our command staff and that consists of myself, the deputy chief, and our lieutenants In this particular case, we added an added benefit in my opinion. Deputy Chief Renzella came to me and suggested that we include some of our sergeants in the process So they were invited. We asked the Superior Officers Union to provide two sergeants, Sergeant Steve Atwood and Sergeant Mark DiCienzo Were part of that so they sat in on the interviews and also ask questions or part of the evaluation

we felt that the deputy chief and I felt that there was gets of additional feedback from line first-line supervisors that are out there every day and know all the candidates personally, and see their actions personally. I should say we all know them personally so six candidates participated in the process, six police officer candidates and they all did extraordinarily well as always. Competition for this position any position in the Wellesley Police Department is always extraordinarily Tate, and I don't envy the candidates as they go through it. And often my colleagues in other towns tell me that it's a nice problem to have when you have six candidates and any one of them could've been promoted and I was thinking about that tonight, and I thought that is true except when you have to be the one to make the decision. and but the flip side to that is, the candidate who does stand out amongst all those peers, all those excellent candidates is the one we're bringing forward tonight. And that is Detective Mike Mankiewicz.

Before we start down Mike's road I just want to have him introduce his wife and his parents, and his wife's parents.

My wife Sarah in black, my parents Steve, Nancy, my grandfather Jim, they're in my wife's family Caroline Aiden, Kelly, Terry and Joe right here.

Well we're delighted to have you all with us tonight thank you for being here

So, Detective Mankiewicz has been a Wellesley police officer for eight years. He actually came to us as a special police officer fresh out of college. He was going through an interview process with Lieutenant Shostet and myself We picked him up as a special police officer and then halfway through his background, a position opened up and we called him. He was on our list already and said how do you feel about switching over to being a full-time police officer? and I recall vividly presenting him eight years ago, actually nine years ago in front of the board because Chief Palicki at that time had me do it. So it is great to be back here on the same spot and this is exactly where he sat too. So Mike has been a police officer, as I said eight years. During his time in patrol he was a field training officer which is our first line supervisor for new recruits they supervise the FTOs, directly supervise a new recruit that's just graduated from the academy for three months and ultimately is

it's on the job training, but ultimately makes a decision whether or not that candidate will continue onto what we call solo patrol or be certified to patrol by themselves. Mike did all that. In 2023, we had an opening in our detective bureau and Mike went through a very competitive process which included a tryout at the time so candidate spends a number of weeks with our detectives working cases and he's evaluated not only by the lieutenant in charge of detectives, but his peers in detectives. Will he work out? Will a candidate workout? and as a result of that competitive process three years ago Mike was selected to be a detective. Mike has been in detectives since that time for the last three years furthering his education as well, but I'll get to that in a second. Conducting numerous investigations, assisting with numerous other investigations and is always the case

doing a little bit of work in Norfolk County as well, including with some of our mutual aid partners throughout the county and working on the MetroLEC both the child abduction response team and the Investigative Support Unit. And these are detectives when a town has something significant in a critical incident, detectives normally the town is overwhelmed or trying to do as much as they can so Metro will bring in extra detectives to go out and do all the follow-up work that's so critical in a rapidly evolving fluid situation. So, that's what Mike has been doing along the way. He also got his master's degree I knew I was going to say, in criminal investigation. He picked up his EMT as well. He graduated out of Westfield with both an associate's in business administration and also a bachelor's in criminal justice. So he has continued his education as well.

Currently, Detective Mankiewicz was selected to be the lead investigator for Wellesley PD in one of our recent homicide cases in which he's continuing to work. Which obviously has also been brought to fruition so... With all that, this Detective Mike Mankiewicz is who I'm bringing forward with the recommendation for promotion to sergeant.

Thank you very much, Chief. Questions?

Comments from the board? Colette? So it's lovely to see you here tonight and that's great to hear the summary chief of your engagement with the department and all you brought to us so far all the hard work that you've done and the difficult work that we've done. I do want to say to your family, thank you for giving him to us in service to the time. We really appreciate what that cost him, what that costs you so I wanted to say thank you to you all as well I really want to say that I really appreciated your educational background and all the experience you bring to the table. You're very well rounded, so very much in support and delighted to be here tonight.

Beth. So thank you for your commitment to the town of Wellesley and thank you It's truly impressive the level of commitment that you've shown and the growth that you had here. I must say it's really wonderful to see you here. You were in one of the first groups that I had the honor of appointing as a member of the Slack Board, so it's great to see the progress and it's How you've really become such a tremendous asset to the town. So I also would like to thank your family because people like Mike are what makes our department so special.

Thank you.

Tom?

As the others have said, thank you so much. I think that providing opportunities for upward mobility in the department is not easy in Wellesley. It's a great place to work, and I think it's fantastic when we have these promotional opportunities While your resume is excellent, what really was important is the chief bringing it to life tonight. I think in giving us a real flavor of who you are as an individual, I obviously somebody See somebody very young in front of me, which may be a comment on me more than it is you. But to really have a chance to have the feel for your life and your family and your dedication to this particular job. I think people make the mistake of thinking that Wellesley is, there's not enough action

I mean, and that is particularly not true over the tragic homicides that we've seen recently. But I think it's the community policing. It's the dedication you all have. It' s the way your interwoven into the community, into the school system that makes the Wellesley Police Department so special. And so I think that in the assessment process finding people with personalities that are consistent with those goals is particularly important. As Chief Pilecki used to say, do the right thing and we see the Wellesley Police doing the right things all the time So thank you very much for wanting to be here, for wanting be promoted. Again as others have said to your family we really appreciate it and congratulations.

Well, it's hard batting clean up when everybody has said what you want to say to such a stellar candidate. I too would like to thank your family. It is quite...it is hard on the families and we understand that detective will be on call, sergeant will be one call and it affects all of you and not just him. I think the thing that stood out to me most in the chief's recommendation was that another candidate for this position said you were the best one. And, you can't make that up and people don't say that very frequently they're often In a competitive situation, they want the position for themselves. But to recognize that someone else has the skills and should be in that position is quite remarkable and also going from a field training officer to an officer supervisor brings you to the next level with the people you've been supervising in the FTO position.

So it gives a longer relationship between you and them, and more for you to use to develop and mentor them. Which is really a wonderful thing too. So I join my colleagues in welcoming you and thanking you for your service, and asking if there's anything you'd like to say.

I appreciate you guys for your time tonight, and thank you for giving me this opportunity as everyone here is today. like you guys mentioned, family the support I mean everyone here tonight it means a lot. It truly does and i wouldn't be able to do without them so thank you for your time

So move to approve the promotion of Mike Mankiewicz to the rank of Wellesley Police Department Sergeant effective July 21, 2026. Second. All in favor?

Aye. Now we can say congratulations, sergeants.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Congratulations, well deserved.

If you want to get it.

To the family members, you're welcome to stay but we understand if you want to go and celebrate with Mike. Thank you.

Parking just opened up outside. Now there'll be parking.

Yes, yes. So our next agenda item is to discuss and vote firefighter appointments. So we welcome Chief Mortorelli, Assistant Chief Dijon Domenico, and the candidates you're bringing to us tonight? We'll turn it over to you, Chief.

Good evening, thank you for having us. Here we are yet once again and I know I say this, I joke about it every time and I always mention that this is such a, it's such a special occasion for us. It's such as special event and it really is anytime we have the opportunity to welcome new members to our family, to the community, it's you know, it highlights what we do. I think so the hiring process as we know everyone that was involved, it's a rigorous process. It's very time consuming but I think that what we've seen in recent years, it demonstrates that it works because the type and the quality of the candidate that we've been able to onboard shows that. And I don't see why these two candidates would be any different so with that a group comprised of myself chief retired Chief David Soar and human resource generalist Haley Redish

and members of the local 1795. We reviewed applications, credentials and other such things for the position of firefighter. The candidates interviewed met one or more significant consideration criteria. Two candidates were chosen by us to extend a conditional offer of employment, the first candidate is Exander Marku Alexander is a Wellesley resident and a graduate of Wellesly High School in Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Alexander is Massachusetts certified emergency medical technician and is currently employed by the Dover Fire Department where he responds to 911 emergency calls as an EMT basic.

Good evening, would you like to tell us whom we have with you tonight?

Yes, I have my father Max and my wife Alyssa.

Welcome, thanks for being here. So I'm gonna go first now because I didn't get to go first last time and I'm very interested Xander in how your experiences from volunteering and construction and real estate have led you to the fire department.

Yeah, I mean it's very different jobs. I feel like I have a very wide array of Jobs on my resume, but I feel like that's a good thing. I'm able to connect with different people from different walks of life and yeah.

Great comments, questions? Beth.

So thank you for selecting the Wellesley Fire Department. It's always nice to have two local individuals that are picking Wellesly. I'm curious how you picked the fire department as a career choice because I know one of the things we've heard from the fire leadership is that they're doing more meetings with the high school to educate people about fire service as a career path. And I'm wondering if you were engaged in any of that or how fire came to you as a carrier choice?

Yeah, I always thought about it growing up. I haven't been to one of those. I wish I did. I always kind of kick myself for not trying to get into it sooner. but yeah I grew up around, I had family friends that are firefighters and yeah just Seeing them and their career path and listening to what the job is like, it just really intrigued me.

Welcome to Wellesley Fire and thank you for selecting us.

Thank you.

Thank you. I just my comments are really for both of you, I think serving on this board we become unfortunately very well aware of the increasing risks for firefighters that it's not just sort what you think of in responding to actual fires and those types of calls, but the toxic substances the risks to your health and what you face. So I think your commitment, your larger commitment to the community but your commitment to service is particularly meaningful within the fire service and something that we all, whether it's a hopefully never experienced health incident at home when you're there or whether it is an actual fire. or whether it's the assistance that you provide in the community, the senior Thanksgiving dinner.

The commitment that the Wellesley Fire Department I think has had to the welfare of the entire community has allowed the entire community to embrace all of you. And so, to come in at this stage with this department which I think is just have taken off so well over the last under your leadership, Chief. But over the past several years I think it's an entirely different experience that you're starting out with and I really want to thank both of you for your willingness to serve, and take on the responsibility that you'll carry within the community.

I just wanted to say, I was delighted to see your name in the package tonight. I remember all the little Marcuse from Sprague so go Sprag alumni and I hope we see more of the Marcuse coming through. but congratulations and welcome to the fire department. It's lovely to see your name, your background is really interesting and diverse. I mean, I know you have your construction background, but it was also nice to see ministry background as Tom alluded too there's a lot of social work and firework as well, love engagement with seniors and people in the most difficult and challenging times of their lives. And to have that experience I think will be really helpful in rounding you out so welcome lovely to see you say hi to the rest of the family

Definitely, well good to see you too.

And thanks to your family members as well we understand public safety whether in the police or fire department is a sacrifice for everybody involved. And we appreciate that you have come to us and want to serve in Wellesley, and we thank your family members as well.

Thank you

Do you want to do one motion both together or are we doing... Would you like me to introduce Henry and then we can do the motions together?

Sure. Hi, Henry.

So our second candidate is Henry Galani. Henry is a lifelong Natick resident and a graduate of Norwich University where he studied business management and played college football. Henry is also a Massachusetts Certified Emergency Medical Technician and is currently employed at Brewster Ambulance as well as the Dover Fire Department where he responds to 911 emergency calls as an EMT basic. Henry also has a background as an electrician where he spent years working as an electrical apprentice at his family business. I'm going to turn the microphone over to Henry

Hello.

Hi, Beth you want to go first this time?

Sure, well I'm gonna say thank you for choosing Wellesley Fire. And it's... I was particularly interested in your electrical background because I think as we look at the kinds of issues that are emerging, that having a really deep knowledge of electrical service is really valuable. And so I found that particularly compelling and I'm excited to see your career Bloom in Wellesley. Thank you.

So again, when I was looking through your resume one of the things that really jumped out to me was there was a comment in there that you had delivered compassionate care to patients and families in crisis situations which As I mentioned earlier, you're often seeing people in the worst moments of their life who are really needing someone that's calm and compassionate and caring. And so I'm really appreciating that in your resume and as Beth mentioned, the electrical background is always a nice flag for us to see that's something you bring to the table. So again very well rounded a background especially with your experience already in this type of world so we're delighted to have you here and it's lovely to see you tonight thank you

I was also intrigued as your work in restaurant bar situations because you need to be aware of egress. and Crowd Control, and how you're going to manage people in a very challenging environment. You're gonna be able to get them out safely and how are you gonna do that? So that added to the electrical experience really brings a lot because you never know what you're going to encounter. You don't know where you're gonna have to get people out from or how they're gonna get out and conflict resolution and problem solving is a big part of the job. So that was nice to see as well. Is there anything you'd like to say?

No, just thank you for this opportunity.

Okay. moved to appoint Xander Marcoux and Henry Gilani as firefighters of the Wellesley Fire Department effective July 21, 2026 pending successful completion of the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy medical physicals and physical abilities tests, and a one-year probationary period.

Second.

All in favor? Aye.

Thank you.

Thank you, Xander. Thanks for being here. Congratulations.

Thank you everyone. Thank you for being here

Okay, our next agenda item also involves the fire department and that's to discuss and vote joining a class action lawsuit regarding fire truck antitrust litigation and PFAS turnout gear litigation. The board has seen the background. Multiple municipalities have filed antitrust lawsuits under the Sherman Act, against the three largest fire truck manufacturers and their industry trade association, alleging that they engaged in a long-running conspiracy now over 10 years. to coordinate pricing, limit production and create artificial shortages in the fire apparatus market. As we know, the cost of fire engines has more than doubled and delivery time has gone from an average of one year to four years.

and Chief Mortarelli attended a virtual meeting hosted by a law firm which is handling the class action lawsuit. and Wellesley has purchased three apparatus which qualify under this litigation since 2016, which allows the town to join the class action. I met with Chief Mortorelli and Judge Hank Naughton, who is now a partner at Napoli Law Firm handling the case last week to discuss the litigation in greater detail. and Chief Mortarelli, I think will return in just a minute to see if there are any questions. Are there any comments or questions as the chief returns to the room? Beth? Chief, I gave the introduction to the fire truck litigation. Oh thank you.

I am thrilled to see the initiative in joining a class action lawsuit. As the person who's presented three fire trucks at town meeting, I'm very aware of the fact that costs have gone up radically the lead time is excessive and I think it is appropriate of the town to pursue this litigation. My questions were more about the selection process of the firm to partner with. I just wasn't sure how we selected this particular firm, although in looking at what was publicly available they seem like a very strong choice and rated as a leader in this particular lawsuit. So I'm very satisfied.

So Chief, how did you come to meet Judge Naughton and learn about this lawsuit?

So, and I'm just shooting him a quick message because I know he was- Or are we early? Yeah. Well, I'm not sure if we are or not but- Oh sorry. I know that the judge had a couple of different meetings he was bouncing back and forth with. So, I originally met Judge Naughton through FCAM So FCAM really was the association that did a lot of the due diligence, the research. This is one of those situations where for years it's been the topic of conversation and it was one of those things as if, but what can we do right? There was a lot of talk and a lot hype. But really, what can through some of the research at FCAM they landed on Napoli. They started doing, like I said, their research and litigation. And the judge will be able to give you exact numbers but different municipalities around the country

they're hoping that the majority of all or even all of Metro Fire will get on board because like I said no matter where you are, you can't hide from this. Everyone's experiencing the same problems unfortunately and it's you know, it is what it is. We have to do our best work around it and whether its changing schedules come up with redundancy plans but we're all trying to work together as we navigate through these really are uncharted waters

and many more.

A couple of the things that I learned in our conversation last week were that not only are you waiting longer to get the fire apparatus, but that forces you to use older machinery and equipment. for some of which replacement parts are no longer available, and they're not as up to date with safety equipment. So it puts our first responders at a disadvantage relative to having the fire apparatus that they really should have after a year or a year and a half. So even more reason, Tom anything?

Tom, why don't you go ahead? I'm sorry.

Judge Naughton is in the waiting room he just mentioned.

I was just going to ask, my experience with class action suits is that you really don't have multiple firms that you choose from. There tends to be a firm which captures this market

That's correct. This was the firm that was presented to us and I will say just quickly as we're waiting for the judge, one of the reasons why Wellesley was able to stay ahead of this is because we do have our mechanic certified in E1, which all of our trucks are now. A lot of cities and towns don't have that. And they're the ones who will really experience a lot of issues exchange in apparatus back and forth with other cities and towns. Luckily, we haven't had to do that in a number of years since we've had Steve so that's really kept us ahead of the curve.

Hi Judge Naughton thank you for joining us

Thank you for having me. Please call me Hank.

Oh, Hank. Okay. We've given a brief introduction to the litigation itself and I shared with the board a little bit about our conversation last week So I just wanted to see if there are any other questions. Go ahead, Colette.

So I had some pretty detailed questions that I sent to Megan. Did they get answered by town council or do you want me to bring them up now?

They have not been answered by council yet. Do you want me to go through these?

Both of them are about the agreement with the law firm, right? That's right. So Hank what I think the board is able to do tonight is agree in principle that this is a lawsuit we are very interested in joining. We have a couple of legal questions about the representation agreement and Megan has told us that we could take a little bit more time to make sure we understand the provisions in that agreement. before we vote to sign it. But I believe we have consensus among all of us that in theory, we support the litigation itself and the antitrust claims, and Wellesley joining the litigation. So Chief, I hope that's okay with you.

Absolutely. Thank you.

confirming that I definitely feel that way, yeah. Okay good and I think those were the bulk of our questions we're just not as familiar with class action litigation as we are with regular litigation So we just wanted to understand a few of the more complicated provisions in the representation agreement. But Hank, it's nothing personal I hope you don't take it as a kind of rebuke, but we just want to make sure that we understand what we're agreeing to.

Absolutely. No, believe me, I've been both in politics and a practicing attorney and a judge and in the Army. I've taken a lot of shots over the years, so... Fair enough.

Okay go ahead Ben. So I'm wondering could you give us an overview where you are now in terms municipalities and cities in our area signing on to this class action suit. And as our chair said, I am incredibly supportive of us pursuing this.

Well, I appreciate that. And as far as municipalities that have signed with us were well over 20 probably about 25 and why I kind of have to think for a minute because i'm looking at a dozen emails, either to or from on inquiries with other communities in Massachusetts that are very interested in this. So we're probably at the 24, 25 mark. What we're doing is as soon as a community signs up and we asked them to start gathering the information I've provided the chief with the initial questionnaire that will help us gather the basic information to start compiling a complaint.

Our strategy and our goal here is to file complaints as they can on a rolling basis. to individually, because we feel that once we get to a critical mass of plaintiffs in this case the defense will start talking settlement as opposed to going all the way to trial. That is our strategy, that is our thought that worked for us in the PFAS litigation by lining up hundreds and hundreds of complainants from around the country And we feel once we get that critical mass, and that's a magic number. I could say 200. I would say 500. It's really what is we feel is going to put the pressure on the defendants in this case to come to the table and really start Talking Turkey. And we honestly, and I can't reveal too much

there have been some preliminary discussions already. So, excuse me one sec. In Massachusetts As I said, we've got 25 in the Door, and I know a few more came in. And when I say in the door, I mean signed retainers that have come to me. dozens and dozens out there spoke to. The really cool thing about this litigation is when I was heading up the PFAS water case, that took a lot of education. I mean months and years of education to boards like your own, to water superintendents, to town managers just city managers The beauty for me of this case is it takes almost no education. Every fire chief I mentioned at two they know all about it.

And clearly, they know much more than I do. They're educating me. So I hope that answers your question but we've got a trainload of communities in Massachusetts I represented over 100 in the water litigation and uh i have high hopes that we will that just a hundred in Massachusetts about two thousand around the country I have high hopes that we will surpass that number with this case.

Thank you. And I wouldn't be surprised for you to reach A point where that incentive increases because under the Sherman Act, plaintiffs are entitled to treble damages. So the more plaintiffs, the more potential liability they're looking at and the more they really might want to come to the table sooner.

Speaking as a recovering politician, I also think just between us they're going to want to try to resolve this before 2029, before we have an administration no matter what side of the aisle it's on that may appoint a Justice Department and a Federal Trade Commission, that go back to doing the things that more historically and traditionally Justice Departments and Federal Trade Commissions do. meaning looking at monopolized industries and possibly companies that should be broken up.

Okay, so I think the next step is for us to share our questions and take another look at the representation agreement. And then we will... Our next meeting is on Monday August 17th and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to bring it back and have a decision for you at that time.

That's great, I greatly appreciate if i can provide any further information about myself or the firm and or about this particular case in the interim, that would be helpful. Please feel free to have the executive director reach out or the chief reach out. Chief knows how to get a hold of me. And just let me say I look forward to working with you.

Thank you, we may take you up on that. Is that okay Chief? Absolutely. Okay very good thank you both very much Hank I know you have another meeting tonight so thank you for joining us

No, this is it reminds me of my day as a rep when I used to. I represented six towns out here in central Mass and I'd be running from select board meeting to select board meetings so brings back good memories and mediocre memory. But with you guys, good memories.

Brings back memories. That's all you need to say. Yeah, exactly. Okay, well thank you very much. It was nice to see you again.

Thank you. Good seeing you.

Thank you, Chief.

Thanks, Judge.

Have a great night.

Okay our next agenda item is the consent agenda Oh, I'm sorry. Executive Director's report. Sorry, Megan.

So you have just a couple comments and then we do have a citation for Wellesley Media that I'm going to actually turn to Tom on but before we get to I just wanted to do a couple of reminders. First, I wanted to thank the Wealthy Square merchants for a wonderful July jubilation this weekend it's another fantastic year. We thank them for all their work, they plan for these events all year that I think the planning probably for next year has already commenced and thank the board for you know their assistance on free parking along with the police department and Department of Public Works who provide a lot of assistance for that event so we're thankful that it was a great time for them. also wanted to just remind folks it's a little late, but I still wanted to remind folks that tonight there are closures from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m on I-90 and I-95 interchange. The ramps will be reduced 12 foot lane widths There's more information on town's webpage.

This should be the last night of this. We are expecting additional work this summer, so we'll try and keep folks updated under our news and announcements. The other thing is we are in transition for our online payments for parking tickets and the appeal services, so they're currently unavailable. but those are expected to be restored July 27th. Mail-in payments and in person payments are still accepted during the transition, and we wanted to just again remind people that we're now at the police department our parking clerk is now at 485 Washington Street within the police department as soon as you walk in, sort of on the left. It's no longer at Town Hall. and so the police have also set up to ensure no one's negatively impacted during the system change. They've extended the 21 day period to pay or appeal a parking ticket without penalty.

So for all citations issued between June 29th and July 15th, the deadline to pay tickets is now August 10th Last reminder is that we continue to be in a level two drought. There is substantial information on the town's website, but just you know the highlights all outdoor irrigation using sprinklers or automatic Irrigation systems is prohibited. Hand watering only is permitted, and that is hand watering of lawns, gardens, flowers, basically the can, that's it. and that is only before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m., so no midday watering. People can be fined for watering, so we do want to remind folks of that. and after those updates, I just wanted to turn to Tom. We have a citation for James Joyce who is also joining us so James if you could just come up James does not know what this is about, so we want to surprise him a bit.

So Tom I'm gonna turn it over to you.

James, thank you for joining us. We've worked together for 10 years and it's been an absolute actually longer than that. It's been the absolute pleasure Tonight we celebrate James Joyce's 20 years as Executive Director of Wellesley Media Corporation, our community's public educational and government access television and digital media station. A familiar face to residents, board and committee members and municipal staff James directs the town's local cable broadcast including public meetings community programming and On-Demand Video Services. James is also an award winning producer, he has collaborated with many individuals and organizations in Wellesley on local video programs including Wellesleys This Week a weekly news program that aired in the early 2000s highlighting community events and town issues

and local historic documentaries, such as the story of Memorial Grove which won a second place award in the Historic Documentary category. from the Northeast chapter of the Alliance for Community Media. James also supervises a staff of editors and videographers who help produce news and sports video pieces on events and issues important to the community. Together, they cover special traditions like the Wellesley Wonderful Weekend the annual Wellesley Needham Thanksgiving football game, Town Veterans Day and Memorial Day ceremonies. They also record and televised town meeting in addition to weekly board and community meetings, and many other events throughout the year.

James is also committed to higher education and is an instructor at the BU College of Communication, and is a valued mentor to Wellesley High School TV video production students and other young professionals working for Wellesley Media. On behalf of the Select Board and the Town of Wellesley, I extend heartfelt appreciation and congratulations to you on the 20th anniversary of your tenure with Welleslia Media Corporation. Any change? I also want to say we have two documents. We have from the House of Representatives a citation and if I can read that, be it hereby known to all that the Massachusetts House of offers its sincerest congratulations to James Joyce in recognition of 20 years of dedicated service to Wellesley Media Corporation and the residents of Wellesly.

The entire membership extends its very best wishes, and expresses the hope for future good fortune and continued success in all endeavors given this first day of July 2026. Ronald Mariano, Speaker of the House. And we also have from the Town of Wellesley the certificate of appreciation presented to James Joyce, Executive Director Wellesley Public Media in recognition of his 20 years of service educating and engaging the public through video and digital media, shaping our town with community and government programs and sharing local stories to help us better understand each other. July 21st, 2026. James, thank you so much. Your dedication is remarkable.

The sheer number of hours that you capture when we were in the middle of COVID someone once said that we had more nights of town meeting than any community in Massachusetts. I'm not sure whether that's a compliment to the town and our process, but you were there along with Brian DuPont, our IT director making sure that our government was open and transparent to all who wish to be involved. And for that, we're deeply grateful as that's our commitment too. So thank you very much. Congratulations. Thank you.

Since Stephanie's not here, can we take a picture with the board and James in the citation?

Thank you.

I just want to say thank you for the support. of everybody, my board of directors have been great. The town has just been very supportive with everything we're doing so it's been a big help and I have a great staff as well obviously couldn't do this alone, so. But thank you. I appreciate it.

We've come a long way since having each of our meetings on CDs that we picked up after the meetings

Yeah, I was looking at pictures of our first town meeting and we were like pulling pieces of equipment from... So yeah, we have come a long way. It's nice to look back you know see where we've come and we still have a long way to go. By the way, we're getting that HD channel it's all set up from Comcast I'm just waiting for them to give us the number and then we can publicize it

So we can say that we're ready for our close-up? Is that what you're telling us, Mr. DeMille?

By the way, I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Wellesley Media more broadly and its board. And I had a conversation with Peter Marks, the chair of Board of Wellesley Media today, who absolutely congratulates you. He couldn't be here tonight and there were conflicts with other board members but our appreciation not just to you, but to Wellesley Media and the role that the board takes in enabling your mission to be fulfilled. So thank you both to you and to Wellesey Media.

Absolutely. All right, thank you so much. Have a good night.

I just had one other thing. So we also just wanted to recognize a resolution that the board had provided in honor of Helen Belitzos, who had just turned 100 on May 31st. So I just want to read that for the public. This has been delivered to Ms. Belizos at an earlier event On May 31st, excuse me. Whereas on May 31, 2026 longtime Wellesley resident Helen Belizo celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded by family and many friends having lived a century with integrity care and dedication to work and family. And whereas born in Boston, Helen moved to Wellesley with her husband John who was an athletic coach for Wellesly Public Gold and settled in the Morses Pond area where she's been a beloved neighbor for 70 years, delighting everyone with stories of earlier days of the pond when boats and water skiing were regularly part of life on the water

and whereas Helen is known for her sharp financial knowledge, she built a successful career at a Boston financial firm briefly taking time off when her daughter Debbie was born then returning to work in Boston and taking the commuter rail everyday until she was 76 years old, always dressed up as is her signature style. And whereas when asked about her remarkable longevity Helen credits her long and active life to one simple philosophy, keep working. Now therefore be it resolved that we the select board in the town of Wellesley send our thanks warm wishes and gratitude for her many contributions for her many contributions to Helen Belisa on this milestone birthday. The select board and witness hereof set their hand 7th day of July, 2026.

So that's the third resident who celebrated more than 100th birthday in the last two months. That's quite special, that's great. Thank you very much Megan. Okay, now our next agenda item is the consent agenda on which we have six items tonight. The first is a common bitler and entertainment license for the new Indian and Nepalese restaurant Ranj Mahal at 27 Grove Street. Approval will be conditional upon receipt of approvals from the building, fire and health departments The next one is a takeout CV license for Bespoke Coffee Cart to be operated within the studio. It's a reapplication for a prior existing license, and the health department inspections are complete. The third is an expenditure from the Special Education Stabilization Fund to New England Medical Billing which seeks Medicaid reimbursements for the school department and the school committee has already approved the expenditure.

Both the School Committee and the Select Board are required to approve it. The fourth is appointments of Ben Hampton and Jenny Smith as traffic officers, Louis Gueptis as a crossing guard, Paul Criswell as the town's representative to the Norfolk County Advisory Board. and Susan Clapham as a member of the COA board, all of which appointments shall expire on June 30th, 2027. and the final one is to designate town meeting members of the bylaw review committee as special municipal employees under Mass General Law Chapter 268A. Unless there are any comments, I'll ask Collette for a motion. So moved to approve the consent agenda items.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Okay, our next agenda item. I just have to get to it. is a public hearing to vote off premises retail specialty food, wine and malt beverage license for Captain Martin's at 279 Linden Street. We have David Himmelberger here as counsel, and David would you like to make some initial remarks?

I'm joined here tonight by Roy Martin, who is the proposed manager. He is the manager now at the fish market if you will. As you know Captain Martins has been a beloved and longstanding stalwart in the town. A year or so ago we were before you to seek and receive a license to be able to serve beer and wine within the adjoining restaurant. This is now a request to be able to sell beer and wine for off premises at the fish market. The stores are in the same building, but there is no internal and others. We have submitted the paperwork, shown

retail portion of the store in which the beer and wine is proposed to be sold. And I'd be happy to answer any questions that any of the board might have.

and I should note that the public hearing is open. I probably should have opened it before I invited David to make his comments. Roy, thank you for joining us Just note for the board that the hours of operation requested are consistent with the other hours for the holders of these licenses in town. That is correct. Megan, anything else?

No, I was just going to remind you to open the public hearing. Yeah. I will just say that the staff has reviewed the application and is supportive.

Any questions or comments from the board?

I think it's really terrific news, because with the addition of produce and all the seasonings and oils and the Fish, it's a one-stop shop for your full cooking experience of a seafood meal. So I'm very supportive. Okay, I am as well.

Collette? Oh, motion to close the public hearing first.

So move to close the public hearing.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. So moved to approve the off-premises specialty food store wine and malt beverage license for the Captain Martin Seafood Holding Trust Doing Business as Martins, located at 279 Linden Street and to name Roy Martin as manager of record for the license. And to approve the hours of operation of Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 6 PM Saturday from 8 a.m to 5 30 p.m and Sunday from 10 a. m to 5 p. m

Second.

All in favor? Aye.

I will just say for the record, Roy, we probably reiterate our request that you reopen for breakfast. we all enjoyed the breakfast a lot and it would be great to be able to go to Martin's for breakfast as well but we understand yeah okay and your new homemade sodas are terrific Great. Well, we're thrilled to have you here and best of luck with this new part of your endeavor. Thank you very much. All right, our next agenda... Oh we're really ahead aren't we? Okay. Oh she's here? Oh she is in her office. luckily for us the town clerk's office is directly opposite this room so we will invite her in she's going to give us an elections update for this year

and this is Town Clerk Casey Cato. Thanks for being here early, Casey.

and it's awfully wet outside, nothing else to do right? Good evening. Thank you for having me on your agenda So we are about to go into 2026 election season. So I'm gonna just take you through a few slides and we actually have a warrant at the end as well, to sign off on. So a couple of votes that we're going to do tonight So I'm going to walk through the elections that we're going to have this fiscal year, which is really mostly 2026. We had the state primary election, which was September 1st It is before Labor Day. So that's a little bit unusual for us, but it's because Labor Day is so late. And so we'll have that. The challenge Early. People consider it's still summer, so we'll see how turnout is. It's also – and we'll walk through the ballot in a couple seconds but there's not a lot of – there are some contested races but not a

The state election midterms also known as mid terms is November 3rd, 2026. We have our special town meeting a week after that so it's going to be busy fall and then our annual town election March 2nd so pretty much the same as usual. The primary is, these are all the different races that are on the ballot this year for the both the Democrat and the Republican, actually just the Democrat ballot has a contested race for the Senator in Congress. For the Governor's race, the Republican race is contested For a lieutenant governor, it is not contested on either party. Actually this year we only have two parties, Democratic and Republican. Because of the lower number of registrations in Libertarian and Green Party they no longer have a separate ballot Allen. So this year it'll only be two.

The other thing to note, actually before I take you through which are contested and which aren't is for the first time ever they have switched the colors so now the Democrat ballot will be blue and the Republican ballot will be kind of a pink salmon color. So it was very confusing, it's because historically way back when the colors were set the other direction and then the party switched colors. And so it took several decades for this state to catch up, so we're there! So I'm hoping that'll reduce the confusion. As I said on the Lieutenant Governor, nothing's contested on each ballot. Attorney General no contests, Secretary of State no contest there Treasurer, no contest. Auditor, no contests on either. On the representative in Congress

There is a contested race in both, for the Democratic ballot only but in both districts. So we're split into the fourth congressional and the fifth congressional. And that happened in 2022 was the first time we saw that based on the 2020 census, and then the redistricting that happened there. on the, so Representative of Congress we have some contested races. On the Councilor, on the Democratic side we have a contested race. Senator in general court, we do not have any contested races. Representative and general court Democratic side we have actually representative in general Court is not contested in either Register of Probate is not contested. County Treasurer, county commissioners are not. So we hope people will turn out anyway.

So for this election, we are doing vote by mail early voting in person and Election Day. And those are all required by the state so the State Votes Act in 2022 requires all of that and it's very statute driven So the postcards have been mailed out by the state. They hit households in Wellesley probably about Thursday last week, however we had about 2,500 voters in Wellesley who had already requested in January February March time period ballots by mail for all year long So many of ours we already had taken care of. So not everybody in Wellesley received a postcard, so many of you may have if if you did not already request a ballot for the year, you received a postcard saying would you like to. If you already requested it, you did now so we are getting a few calls where household one person will get it and one person isn't and we're like, that's because you're all set.

So but that for us makes it much easier because the volume of postcards coming in is fewer because we are already on top So we hope the ballots will be mailed around August 1st. We're supposed to get them by the end of this week, we haven't seen them yet and the Republican ballot because of some challenges to the nomination process took a little bit longer to get to the printer. So those got resolved in court at the end of last week, and they're now at the printer So that's what's going on with vote by mail. We still, in March we're a heavy vote-by-mail town. About 50% of our voters who turn out vote by email and it puts us in the top 20 towns in this state as a percentage. So early voting in person, we're still required to do it for this election it's for six days So starting on Saturday, August 22nd. And we will be open...

I'll do that in a second. I have the whole schedule next and then we have Election Day on March 1st. I mean September 1st, sorry. So early voting in person, we're required to do it for both this primary and the state election. There is no reductions in hours that we can do for the primary. For the state elections which is a two week period where are allowed to reduce the number of hours there. But this year we're back at town hall, so we're very excited to be here. We will be in the Giuliani room for the setup. We'll have some voting booths here. But because we are here, the nice part about that is that for the days that we know will be really light turnout will cover it with our staff. So I won't need to bring extra people in because what's wonderful is IT has set everyone in my department up with a laptop We can hook into the network from this room and print over at our printer.

So it's as if we were working in our office, but when a few people come in to vote in person, we'll be here. So that's nice. We're offering it August 22nd, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., that's also the last day to register to vote. So anybody can come in and register to vote. Most of our voters, most of our residents are already registered voters they typically do it through the RMV when they move here or change their address, or when they're 16 and getting the driver's permit. They preregister. So we tend not to have a lot of in-person Voter Registration, but some do. And then we'll be offering—we are required to offer at the same hours that the town clerk's office is open and staying up until on the last day till 5. So we will be open 8 to 5 that entire week. So stop by and visit us!

Okay, so polling places. We are returning to all the same polling locations we've been at for the last few years. A and C are at Upham B is at Sprague D and E are at Warren F and G are at Dana Hall, and H is at Tolles Parsons. What's nice about this round is that it's actually before school starts so from getting access to the buildings it's a little bit easier a little bit less impact on the classrooms and programming so that'll be but it also not be that big of turnout honestly. So It wasn't going to have that big of impact at the schools. November 3rd will be busier, but that's something to consider. Okay, so I believe you were sent the warrant in advance. We actually this time just a note it we're just voting the warrant which you have in front of you which has the contests and the polling locations

We do not need to vote early voting in person because we're at Town Hall. Two years ago, if you recall, because we weren't at Town hall, anytime we're not offering early voting at town hall then we need to have a select board vote and support from the Board of Registrars. Since we're here, there's no vote required.

Do you want us to take that up first before you go into the alternative locations? Sure. And actually, if you have any questions on this as well. Are there any questions?

I'm just gonna renew my desire for us to get back into the schools at some point, just because I think it's great civic modeling for the families to see voting. I know it's more complicated for the schools but I just think it's something we should keep thinking about how to do with the schools.

So move to approve the September 1, 2026 state primary election warrant.

Second

All in favor? Aye.

Thank you. So a little background on the next section. The state is encouraging us to have a continuity of operations plan as well, some of it is for incidents response if there's some big event that happens election day, but we're also doing it in preparation for election day. So in the event a building went up burned down not that any of this is going to happen, but this is why you plan for it. So if something happens we know how to react and actually the upside of COVID is we learned how to pivot pretty quickly on the election side and so that really helped make this process much easier in terms of what do we do if we can't be at a location and we need to move. The state law, they're encouraging us to have a plan

on another statute, however says to move locations you need to do it 20 days in advance of an election. but if your building burns down the day before, you got to do what you gotta do. And so the state has asked that we have a vote and a public discussion of alternative locations ahead of time just in case. So that it doesn't, if it comes to the point where we have to make a move at the last second for some reason It is not a surprise in terms of the location. So it's been a public process, just about having transparency and that spaces weren't selected for and so forth, alternative reasons. But that it was thought through. So the spaces that I've listed out are all spaces that have spoken to the building owner, main building user

Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor which is now fully ADA accessible, MLP Garage, DPW Garage and High School. And the reason why they're selected is that there are different parts of town So if it's a one building failure, or loss of one building. If it's at the east end of town we would probably use Schofield so if Warren couldn't be used we might use Schoffeld however if it was at the west end of town we might use Town Hall so because the intent when you're making that decision is to have the least amount of disruption for the voters and to make it easier for them because they'll go to the original location, but how do you get them to the next one and not make it as challenging?

which is also why in part of the plan, we thought about what kind of signage you might need to put out there. getting shuttles, although most of our voters drive to vote. Some don't and so do we have a shuttle that could take them from Warren to Schofield? What's wonderful, I mean the town has two shuttles, two vans. Council on Aging and Rec Youth Commission have vans and both organizations have said that they would be, if it gets to that point, they would absolutely be helpful. So that's all part of this plan that we're doing. But the van piece you don't need to vote on, but the building locations need to be discussed right?

So Casey, can I ask you a question? Sure. These requirements to have the alternative locations, those aren't funded mandates are they?

No. No, it's encouraged. And if we were to do it, we really should have done all this work up front. So and the incidence response plan is highly encouraged. There's no law that says that we have to have one. But it's no different than I think IT and fire and police have all developed incidents response plans. what do you do if, so for example we lost power in a building which is also why my research the data on who has generators. Some of our buildings do, some of them don't. So some of the alternative locations have generators so that would be helpful.

And will these alternative locations be publicized in advance or only like the day of? How will people know to go somewhere else?

If we had to move, we would... We would probably do a reverse 911. We would do social media, we would do signage, we'd probably do the light boards that we use for elections anyway. And how long do you need to set up a polling location? We can set one up relatively quickly. We set up five locations in probably half a day, and so for just moving one location we could do it pretty quickly like an hour maybe. So it can be done pretty quickly, and we've done enough setups now. And alternative setups but it's also thinking about okay in those spaces what would it look like? And so in the incidents response plan having a layout of what it would be.

so that when or if anything were to happen, you pull out the binder and you are more into implementation than thinking of what ideas. right? So Deep Schofield, we actually have been running an election at Schofiel before. It was a location before COVID. The MLP Garage we ran that as a location for about a year and a half during COVID. So we had precincts A, B, and C there so we know we can do it there. We've had three precinct you might be able to fit a fourth in there What's nice about MLP garage and DPW garages is they're quite large, so you could have several precincts there. and then the high school, that would only be if it were a situation where let's say we lost all eight locations. Power outage for all of Wellesley.

So they have a generator, most likely if there were a power outage and all these doom-and-gloom situations that we hope will never happen but let's think about what would happen if, what would we do if? if there was a power outage through all of Wellesley, they probably wouldn't be school. right and so the high school really is a great location if there's no students in in the location because both the gym and cafeteria it's difficult to access without when the kids are there and not have an interaction with the students. But given those kinds of circumstances, the school administration is happy to support the effort. which is what we saw at COVID, right? And in that situation Babson was great. We had all eight locations and so we also know how to run an election with everybody in one location

but it depends on what the circumstances are and what kind of sizing you need. And so some of this is just putting some thoughts to where could we go, what would we need to do ahead of time? And then you make decisions in the moment So questions?

So move to approve the following locations as alternative polling locations in the event of an emergency. Schofield Gymnasium, Municipal Light Plant Garage, Department of Public Works Training Room and Garage, Wellesley High School, Police Station and Town Hall.

So actually, I shifted it a little bit. So on the revised one is town hall and we don't have the police station in there.

I'm going to strike police station for my motion then. Thank you.

Second?

all in favor aye thank you and actually as I'm developing this incidents response plan um I do want to think the fire department and Health Department for their help and thinking through, because they've developed an incident response plan for the whole town and continuity of operations. And so there are some similarities to it in how we have to think about this and hopefully we never have to use it.

Exactly, and they're also good for detail-oriented people because you have to make small decisions in a lot of different situations so thank you for doing all that Okay, our next agenda item is to discuss the public engagement plan for North 40 and I will turn that over to Colette.

Okay, thank you Marjorie. So before I take up this get into the detail of this agenda item, I do want to note that to highlight a piece of information that was in our board packet tonight. and that is at the request for funding for the fire station feasibility study has been deferred until annual town meeting. So back to the public engagement process for the North 40 So in April of 2025, the policy subcommittee at the direction of this board drafted a template for public engagement process that the board could follow in the future. Marjorie was the chair of the policy subcommittee at that time. And she noted, and it's in the minutes of that meeting, that the board might wish to use this or a similar process for some of the major initiatives and priorities on the horizon involving community engagement such as, and at the time you were doing the strategic housing plan, the North 40 and the Morses Pond building project. So that was what we discussed in April 2025

The template includes stages of public engagement. It includes identifying key stakeholders and gathering feedback at critical moments throughout the process So given that we had invested some significant time in drafting that tool, I used it to help us plan for the public engagement regarding the North 40. as we anticipate finalization of the conservation restriction and consider potential future uses of the North 40 including a fire station. In the packet is the public engagement outline in its totality, an excerpt from the outline assuming a Charette-style meeting for public engagement with my initial notes and responses to the questions asked by the public engagement outline, including some questions for the board's consideration. So a very high level. The public engagement process proposed in the packet, it's aimed at gathering broad community input via an in-person meeting.

And the way it's envisaged is with two main components. There will be mainly a staff led presentation to kick off, with what I'm going to call a sense of level setting and background information, particularly regarding the intent of the purchase which just as a reminder 50% was always identified as being open space. and 50% was always identified as being for other uses. I thought it might be helpful to discuss in that overview the previous public engagement processes that we had engaged in because there's been significant public engagement along the way and also then the next section of the meeting would be a Charette style engagement with workstations for various uses, potential uses of the North 40 for the conservation restriction asking for public feedback on the location of the conservation restriction, on the on the potential uses and citing of those uses.

and so one thing that I would like to ask board members in this discussion to think about tonight is a joint meeting with the NRC to discuss potential land swaps as a separate topic and then also to discuss the financing proposals that are included in the recently approved Land Conservation Plan. So as a reminder, during our January 2025 retreat I was chair at the time. I asked pretty much this board for authorization to discuss the possibility of land swaps with the NRC and I was given that authority I did ask the NRC chair at the time, it was Michael D'Ortanzio to take that up with his board. So the NMC noted immediately noted the interest of a select board in a potential land swap, and they held several discussions over the course of 2025.

but they were unable to come to consensus on a position statement regarding the North Forties so those discussions did not advance at that time. I have talked directly with leadership of the NRC and the CPC about this agenda item tonight, so the public engagement process for the North 40. So they are aware that we are having these discussions and I did make the NRC chair aware that I was suggesting that we talk about the potential of a joint meeting with the nrc and what the topics were so the land swap and the financing arm of the land conservation plan is a separate topic So CPC leadership is very interested in this public engagement process. And they're very engaged in the outcome and moving the conservation restriction forward as part of that process. So, that's pre-work that has been done. In the packet, it is part of the meeting materials we received

Board members were asked to give feedback on the outline for public engagement, including a placeholder for dates for public meetings. and the dates for the public meetings were probably going to be either Thursday October 1st or Monday, October 5th. It's potentially We could hold them on September 14th or 15th but there's a high possibility that those are going to be back-to-school nights. So I do think it's important that we set a date because the communications team will immediately begin advertising the dates. And it's our goal to vote the conservation restriction by the end of the year. So with that, I would really like to take feedback first on the outline as tailored for the North 40. And then following that we can talk about the dates for public engagement.

So just to clarify Colette, the first part of this meeting would be an overview but we're focusing then more immediately on the CR.

Yeah, so I think the way I'm envisaging it is there'll be... And I did. I think we all attended the land conservation charrette that the NRC ran, it was very similar. There's a bit of an overview presentation and then there were several workstations that people could attend. And I think one of the work stations would be Here are the proposals for the conservation restriction, but there's some flexibility. The CPC has given us an outline that could be at certain levels outside the aqueduct, it could be a certain level outside the vernal pond what's the feedback on that? We've got so many acres to place, where should they be? What do you think of these locations? Is there other feedback? So that's one station. So we can get public feedback on the conservation restriction before we finalize that

but I do think and I've gone back to, and I think it might be helpful for board members to look at the visioning work that was done when we were considering purchasing the North 40 because a very similar engagement process was conducted at that time. which basically asked the public, what would you like to see and where on the North 40? And there were different groups. They broke it into basically working groups of how many people in each group and each group said, oh we think that this use might be good there and this use may be good here. I would propose but it's up to the board slightly different construct where we'd have a station that said okay you're considered in fire station here's two locations what do you think about those two locations? What else would you consider putting it and then we've also got, there's a number of uses for the North 40 that were cited when we made the purchase at town meeting. Recreation, enclosed recreation field recreation community center bike paths you know

Housing, there's all sorts of things. Solar panels, there was all sorts that were considered at that time. An ice rink, a swimming pool so some of those things have been dealt with elsewhere in town but I think it's, we made certain there were certain I'm not going to call them commitments but there were discussion threads that happened at the time Time meeting was a price of the option to buy and what the discussion was around what the potential uses would be. There's a lot of public feedback in those potential uses I think we have to bring them back up again and say, OK what now? And where would you put those users? And get some public feedback on that. That's how it's constructed in my mind.

So what I'm thinking is we have the proportionate share of the CR. We have the AUL, we have aqueduct In order for people to say where they might want to put something, they also need to know where they can't put it. Correct.

I do think that we'll need topographical maps because obviously the AUL, nothing can go on there. The AUL is agreed upon use limitation it's a former site where is essentially a dump that has been remediated. There's the Southern Six, which is the portion between the train tracks and Route 135 as you go towards Wellesley College There are some restrictions on that use in the purchase and sale agreement. Then there's, you know, there's a Vernal Poll which has its own particular regulations that surround that. There's the suggestions for the conservation restriction there's already those things in place so those things are somewhat off the table and then I think the topography is going to be very important about you know, what's the lay of the land and which parts have trees on them and which don't So that would need to be available each station, I think we would do that.

Way back in 2025, Megan had prepared several maps for us if we wanted to use them in the discussion. But really what we decided to go to in that discussion was At that point we were working with the CPC to ask them to give us a recommendation for the conservation restriction. The recommendation they gave us was quite extensive. It exceeded the proportional amount that the CPC would do from the funding that they'd given us, and a lot of that was driven, their ask was driven by pieces in the North 40 that the NRC felt were high value. and so at that point we wanted to explore well if the NRC feels those are high value would they consider swapping for other land in town that we might consider to be high value our board never had a chance to discuss the NRC couldn't come to us and say okay here's pieces we can put on the table. Our board never got a chance well do we find that those are value to us? Do we want to

exchange them, are they more valuable than the North 40 and the purposes that we bought the North 44? We have not had that discussion.

I think that obviously the public engagement process is very, very important. I think we've learned that through the one engagement opportunity we've had about the fire station and I also think that the idea of engaging the public about the conservation restriction is a wonderful idea. I had not thought of that and I think having a sense beyond those who are sort of close in to the decision about how they might envision use of North Floridian, where the conservation restriction might be. would be very instructive and really very helpful. My concern is that we somehow I think it's important if we're going to be talking about the fire station as well that we construct a process where the public

is aware that we have heard the concerns about the fire station and that we are going back in a separate parallel process and evaluating the site evaluation in The Matrix, that we are making a good faith effort to look at the various options for siting the fire station. And the reason I say this is because what I would not want to see, what I'd prefer not to have happen is the meeting really experience a lot of people showing up in order to say, my principal concern is I want the fire station anywhere but here? and that is a lot of the theme that runs through people's input on the North 40. So it is perfectly reasonable to have the fire station as a consideration, and to engage the public

and to hear, but I think the public needs to see that we have already heard the concerns and are working on them because we have many other things that we want public input for in the public process, engagement process about the North 40.

and I completely agree, Tom. And I'm hoping that by our next meeting we'll have... We're working on facts and frequently asked questions for the fire station public engagement, which has only started. This is in the beginning of its public engagement process and it'll be a long public engagement So there's a lot of education to do and as we get questions in, being thoughtful about the answers. When we had the public engagement process, I certainly had in my mind a lot of answers that evening but I didn't think it was appropriate to stand up and answer them without really doing a very thoughtful job having them drafted by staff and have a full and well-constructed response to the questions that were raised. I think we do have good responses for questions, but we just got some work to do to put that out there

and so there's a continuing education process that will happen on that but it's one of several things we need to get feedback on I don't think that we can do things, we can't unpick things separately and take the conservation restriction on its own. And take the fire station on it's own and take recreation use on it so on and take housing use on its on, take open space delineation on its one and then think about one of the conversations we've had all along is, should we have a full plan for the North 40 or not? and we've differing opinions on that, a full strategic plan might not be achievable right now but having this charrette and having people, and us think about well if we were to do A B C D or E over the next 10 15 years

where would we do it so that when we take an action whether it's a conservation restriction, housing, fire station recreation you're not taking an action that ties your hands in the future so that you leave yourself some flexibility for unknown needs because we will always have unknown needs and things will always come up in the future. One of the reasons we bought this land was to allow us to deal with the needs of the municipality as well as open space.

I do think, I really support your statement that we don't want to take individual uses in isolation. I think it's important to provide the public with an experience similar to what the boards go through when they look at this property which is we don't want to go down individual uses and then have We need the public to experience having to make choices and prioritize various uses in various locations on the North 40. So I agree, I think that's important.

Thank you. Beth? So Colette, thank you for doing so much thinking about this. It was really helpful to have it all laid out. I had three thoughts. One is, I think we need to talk about fire and fire location and fire needs in advance of a charrette on the North 40 because I do think that although the presentation recommended the North 40 as the primary site, I think if that is out there and we have a meeting about the North 40 in advance of talking about the fire department Location and really going through the matrix and thinking about why sites were considered or not considered I think it will really handicap any bigger thinking about the North 40.

So, I think we've got to get our timeline lined up so we can have a fire station and fire station needs and location broader discussion done in advance of this. The second thing is I think it would be helpful for us to have a dialogue about what we're thinking and what we'd like to learn, and what some hypotheses are so that we go in all on the same page about what theories we're positing and what ideas were using as springboards so that everything gets covered to the maximum extent we can. and the third thing is that the Charette model I think has real advantages. I think the liability that can happen with the Charettes model

if it isn't partnered with dialogue about why people are thinking what they're thinking we're left with a lot of dots and sticky notes on maps. And then we have to draw our own conclusions, and I think we have allow in the format of the meeting to let people explain why the maps are presenting the way that they are.

Okay? Beth, so when you say we, you want a couple.

Oh okay.

I think we haven't moved recently. Take another picture at the fireplace. So when you say, when you're suggesting coupling conversation with choices

How would we best do that? So I'm saying not necessarily coupling it, but us having Oh, I said two things. One is in the Charette it could be small group discussions with the maps and then the group discussing why they put the notes on that particular, so maybe it's not a station but each table has a series of stations. or it could be that people get up and move through stations but the group discusses why they did it. I just think... We've done both experiences. I think we've done the housing, we did the first round of housing where people sat at a table with the Lego pieces but they talked about why they did what they did and we've done the stations where people just put the dots on it. And I think NRC did the one with the dots, and it was hard, I think...

it was hard to really know what people had been thinking so that's what I was saying Marjorie somewhere the group needs to have a discussion about why they're doing what they're

Yeah, I understand that. So I did have a thought on that and I didn't think it should be the group because people in the group might not agree with themselves and I think that's okay. What I think could be combined is a dot and a post-it So, you know, you can put a dot where you think the fire station is going to be and maybe you put a number on your dot. This is dot one and this is post-it one explaining dot one. Why did I put it there? Or, this is dot one saying I think the conservation restriction should be here for these reasons. And you've got a posted two to go with that so that that's one way to let individuals, people can talk to each other and they do at the stations but I think that gives every individual the chance to say what they want to see rather than, you know sometimes strong and we've all had this. And I can't remember which, I think it was in the housing

the housing trust, recent engagement that we did that they asked people to kind of make their own thoughts first before they had a group discussion because sometimes a strong opinion sways the whole group. and that we don't want that. We wanna hear as much as possible of different opinions, in my opinion anyway.

Yeah I just think it is helpful and helps bring people together if they are allowed to talk to one another as opposed to just write it down because some people do right and some people don't. And I feel like we leave learning on the table by not allowing people to build community and speak to one another.

This is a great conversation, and we'll have to talk about how we achieve that in the best way maybe each station is staffed by someone who's taking notes you know the way we do the dialogues but there's a lot to think about.

I think we did a charrette at Honeywell School for HHU that was more similar to this model, if I think back to that evening. And we had tables where there was much more discussion taking place. Am I remembering that correctly?

Yeah, there's multiple ways you can do the charrettes but they all basically revolve around the same premise right is so conversation and then prioritization of those comments. So how it worked, my recollection at HHU and we can find that Tom. Was that there was a discussion and then the particular group which was very diverse in terms of how you just were basically who you sat with is, it's who you set out there. then they were asked to prioritize sort of their discussion and various points on the questions that they were given. And each table had someone similar to what we've discussed here you know taking notes to try and capture the full conversation but then the prioritization had a deliberative nature to say like, okay everyone sort of had to best point for their engagement and their thoughts. Okay but if you had to try and build consensus just among those very few people that were at the particular table How would you do that?

And that's what we did, to your point Tom at HHU.

That's ultimately what we want is informational feedback, not just something that's visual. We want context we want understanding we want explanation so I think if we somehow don't incorporate that they're going to leave

We're going to leave unsatisfied. They're going leave unsatisfied, and we won't be narrowing and reaching any kind of consensus I think. So it's just something for us to further consider. So those were your three thoughts? Those three things I think are the most important. Thank you, Ben.

So can I just talk...I think what might be helpful is to have staff help us. I think staff have done, especially with your planning background a lot of this and can we heard what we're looking for here? I think we're all on the same page with what we are looking to give us a recommendation for some more detailed fine tuning about how the Charette will work. I think on your second or your first point that we need to talk about fire locations and needs, I completely agree I think then in that case if the public engagement is in October, that gives us September to have those discussions. and I think that's appropriate, especially since we're working on the FAQs and facts and public education on that. So I think... That would lead me to take September off the table for the public engagement and I think in terms of us having a dialogue about what we're thinking, what would like to learn.

put that into the outline but if there's more that we want to add to that then I think we take that up at our next meeting with the fine detail of what Megan and staff can see well here's a Charette Plus model, and then we also get Kenny's input to that. It's just slightly more mature proposal. And then kind of separately I'm

are incredibly supportive that we are not ready to bring the fire station forward at special town meeting. I'm just curious how that decision happened because we didn't talk about it.

I want to say the development team, that's not the right word. The working group made that determination because we don't think that we can provide the board and the information publicly until the fall based upon our commitments at the previous meeting. So to then provide the board that information in addition to having the public engagement, it gets too compressed with advisory and the notification to move forward.

So it ultimately just instantly pushes us to ATL. I think it's absolutely right decision, I think we should get that information out quickly to the community that you know based on feedback and consideration the board has determined or that working group, whoever. I mean, I think this board all agrees that a decision to proceed with feasibility has been deferred until annual town meeting. It sounds like where we are right now. or has been deferred and will not be taken up as special. However, we want to characterize it I just think it would be really valuable to have that response out there

So we just learned that in our packet, and that's why I led this section with that statement. But I think that if we are going to I think it would be helpful to do a package of information on this saying, here's we've deferred it. Here's the public engagement dates. Here is a public engagement style. if you want more information, put your email on the whole things. I think we can deliver a whole package with that and obviously the communication team.

So Colette for me, I would get that out right away because we told people were going to give them in September a communication plan and I just think it's incredibly responsive.

We'll get that out. So am I hearing from the board that the public engagement is either October 1st or 5th? that will have discussions in September about the fire station location and its needs, and The Matrix, and obviously the FAQs. What about support for a joint meeting with the NRC and the timing for that? I thought it would be helpful to have that after the Charette. and I've talked with the chair of the NRC, what I think they will do is have a discussion at their meeting about the fact that we're having a charrette. What are their thoughts on this? Where do they stand in the North Board? Do they have a different board now? They didn't come to consensus in the position statement, can they? Is that appropriate? What did they think about the land swap? How were they going to move that forward?

So I've given the chair heads up that we're having this discussion tonight so he can have discussions at his board to be prepared, A for the charrette but B to respond on a joint meeting and what topics but what do you guys think about that?

Having our joint meeting after the Charette will give us much more information to bring to the NRC meeting.

For me, I don't feel a need to schedule a joint meeting on that because we don't know if that's something that is a timely need or not at this point. it's a tool in the toolkit depending on what we decide about other sightings. So to me, it seems preemptive without knowing exactly

Unless the NRC has something to offer us.

I guess if they have something that they are not particularly attached to,

I also think it's becoming a public issue that people want us to discuss it. Tom, do you have thoughts on that?

How does that relate to a joint meeting?

So if we were ever going to engage in a land swap, we would have to know if the NRC A. Would entertain it and B. What would they offer? And you know, we can't discuss it in an abstract until they've said yeah we would swap something with you.

I think it's reasonable and important to do the groundwork about a potential, but I think We need to develop what the substance of that joint meeting would be and what our goal is in terms of the questions and answers, and whether it's timely.

I also think it's important, this issue has come up and we need to answer the question. And part of the answer is how long would something like that take? and so here we are. I mean, I asked this board for permission to even engage in a conversation with the NRC in January the NRC had multiple discussions and by June had not come to consensus. So, the idea of a land swap could take years years of public health issues for the fire department, years of escalation costs. But I think we owe an answer to say A, NRC are interested or they're not interested. This is what they'd potentially put on the table. Is that of use to us? Are we interested? and this is how long it would take. And these are the costs of that process, both in terms Health, and tax dollars in terms of escalation and delay.

I'm hearing the question. I think it deserves a somewhat thoughtful answer.

Collette, I guess where I am is I think a land swap as a discussion only makes sense if you know what you're swapping the land for. So if you're swapping land to put facility type A on parkland, the current parkland for swapping parkland versus facility type B or facility type C I think knowing the facility type would make a big difference in that conversation so I feel like NRC saying to us conceptually we'd consider it but we'd have to know more. I don't know where to go with that, where I think if we went to them and said NRC, we really feel very strongly that we want to put the fire station where you currently have parkland. Are you willing to swap? This is what we've got in our portfolio to swap with. and until we're there I don't feel like it's worth the conversation.

I want to get a little more concrete about what we're thinking before we have

I understand, so in terms of us having to talk about the fire needs and its location might help shake out if that's even something for the fire station is worthwhile.

I guess I feel like we're talking about fire location and fire need. I think we have some work to do before we have the land swap discussion, that's what I think.

Okay, anything else on this? So I'm just going to say that we're just going table the joint meeting for now until we get further along.

So we just discussed that September is too crowded and busy for a public meeting for the North 40. How is September going to be better for the fire station?

well because it's back to school night and things like that. Our board does its work, we're meeting every single week.

No I know but for the community to come if it's not a good timeline for the community because of back to school night and I believe the important religious holidays are also in September. I'm just curious how we're going to get the fire station meeting in advance.

I don't think that was the only reason not to, if we were We were thinking at the time that we needed to do September because we needed a November town meeting. We don't need to get to a November Town Meeting, but that doesn't mean September isn't a good time to start the discussion again when people are back

I think there are two components. There is the board discussion and a public meeting. Right, so I am talking about the before we have a public meeting the staff needs to know a direction from the board on how to proceed on this so I think correct me if I'm wrong Colette that's part of the discussion

to support this. The public needs to see us working and responding to the concerns that have been voiced That doesn't need complete public availability as if we were going to do a public engagement meeting.

And that has to happen first.

And the public's gonna be well aware of whether we're talking about it and what we're taking about.

agreed. Just to be clear, I absolutely support that. I thought we should have some kind of a public meeting on fire in advance of a public meeting on the North 40. That was my proposal.

I heard that you needed us, the board to talk about the fire location and needs in advance of the North 40 public engagement.

But both are true. and you don't have to respond right now. I think that there are issues to think about, but I just think we need to lay them out because to have public engagement on the North 40 in advance of having public engagement and Fire Location, I think actually Tom to your point also is going to limit the open-mindedness of how we look at thinking about the North 40.

But I think that depends. I think it is possible for the board to have significant discussions and as Collette has outlined, the initial phase of a public engagement meeting on the North 40 to deliver a synopsis of what the discussions have been as it affects the fire station. I'm not commenting on whether there aren't other permutations that would work very well or be preferable, but I think it's possible if we can't do to arrive at a public engagement on the North 40 and deliver information about what we've been discussing.

Okay, so let's see how it develops. But in the meantime thank you for all your very hard work on this. Both issues are very important public engagement on both issues is very important and we know that CPC is also eager as we are to complete the CR. Okay, so Megan you'll put out the notice that the fire feasibility will be delayed beyond Fall Town Meeting

Yes, we can put that up. Sure. Okay.

All right, our next agenda item is a policy subcommittee update. We have one more draft of the naming of public assets policy We had relatively few comments and changes after last meeting. And Colette has circulated, Megan has circulate the red line and the clean version. Are there any further comments?

My only question was did we circulate this to entities that have experience with public naming, to get their feedback on it?

So we talked about that at our last discussion. So this is a policy just for us. Once we have finalized it, I'm happy to circulate it for them if they'd like to update their own policies but I think this is the policy just

I just thought that they might have some learning, that they could look at our policy and give us some guidance if there were things that they had learned along the way because they've been through it.

Well, I will say that when I circulated the first read, I had a link to all the policies in town. Ours is by far the most developed

It's just we haven't done it, so they've hit things that worked and didn't work. So that's just a comment.

So just as a reminder, this is our third discussion of the policy. The first read was on May 19th. The second was on June 8th and at that time Beth you asked that the scheduled vote be postponed because the item had briefly been removed from the posted agenda A more recent version of the naming policy with a very brief red lines that we had talked about in the June 8th meeting was circulated to board members. I have received no comments or questions. So, I do feel now it's ready for a vote. The... And town council reviewed it again? Town Council reviewed it, just summarizing the changes that we discussed in the June 8th meeting. One was to have in the policy section the revocation language to have that more closely mirror the language that was in the appendix which talked about topics for naming rights agreement. So that was amended in the policy section under step four, language was slightly changed there just to make it clear what we were talking about

Under the procedures in step five for the function design and placement, we took out a statement about the Design Review Board's process because that's our bylaws. It's not needed to be in the policy. It is something we do. and we just cleaned up some wording, just to make it clear that actions we take will be documented in the minutes. That's it really. So I'd like to ask for a vote on that tonight and then after we vote on it, I'd take this to the Historical Commission and ask about their interest in compiling a register of named assets with the associated history, perhaps in conjunction with the Historical Society. And if you need a consultant for that I've already talked to town council CPC could potentially fund that. I think it would be a really interesting project, I really had to sit on my hands when I was doing this policy review not to try and compile that register myself, it's kind of fascinating

but I think it's something that the Historical Commission and or the historical societies should do with historically trained staff so they can footnote the history of assets. I think would be really helpful for all of us, not just the select board but all boards in town to have that register so it's broader than the selectboard. It encompasses school properties, library properties and NRC properties. So I do want to, I just asked the board and I'm happy to do that in connection with you Beth as your liaison to the commission but

That could be a very broad public interest because people walk by things that are named all the time and they might like to know who the person was or why it was named this way.

And it'd be really helpful for us when we name things, to have that history

and it's perfect for CPC in the Historical Commission.

It's actually like what we did with the memorials for the veterans, and people really embraced that kind of listing of where all the monuments were and who the veterans were that were being acknowledged.

So I'll work with you to find a time bath. Okay, so I'll ask you for a motion. So move to approve the naming of public assets policy.

Second. all in favor aye okay our next agenda item is administrative matters Megan we have Corey we have two sets of minutes

Yes, and we had very, very minor ministerial grammatical edits submitted by Colette. Otherwise no other edits submitted

Okay. So move to approve the minutes of May 15, 2026 and July 1, 2028 as amended. Second. All in favor? Aye.

Okay, the next item on the administrative The next item is changes to the charge to the Wellesley General By-law Review Committee. The full committee met and read through the charge, and had some specific requests for changes the first conversation we had was okay so is this committee recommending to town meeting or is this Committee recommending to the select board and and I explained that my intention was everything come through the select board, and the selectboard determined whether it was appropriate to place on the warrant. So that's the one, two, third bullet point clarification. And because we made that change, we wanted to clarify that any recommendations the committee makes

to the select board first would be submitted to town council for legal review. And before it goes on any warrant, and the last one was that Mass General Law Chapter 39, Section 10 controls all procedures regarding citizens' petitions because citizen's petitions are handled differently then articles that are asked to be placed on warrant by boards. And we didn't want to confuse citizens, we wanted it to be clear to them the process that they needed to follow and it was different than warrant articles.

Beth? I was confused by the recommendation to the select board of all changes. I thought that recommendations of the bylaws subcommittee were going to the relevant boards so if there was a recommended change in the bylaw relevant to the Board of Public Works that recommendation would go to the board of public works and if there is something for Rack, or NRC. It would go to those boards and they would make a determination about whether it was something they wanted put on the warrant so I kind of that the addition of to the select board to me implied that all changes would come through this board as opposed to through the boards which are governed by that particular bylaw. I think that's what we agreed to.

Well, the practice will be to include any boards or committees or departments in the framing of any amendments or proposed bylaws. So presumably they will have to decide that they want to do it before it comes to the select board for consideration to be put on the warrant. I mean, we said that we wanted to review everything that was one of the conditions, that this board said everything come through us.

Yes so I guess I thought everything was coming through us that related to us and everything was going through others that related to them. So the additional language to me had the implication that it's not receiving this support or endorsement of the other board. So I don't find the addition to the select board necessary, because I think it's implied that they are an advisory board so they are advising the boards who are governed by those bylaws.

So how we had the discussion, sorry I don't know why the lights are doing this. How we have this discussion and Marjorie please or Cory Correct me. We looked at it as the general bylaw committee is a committee of the select board so not of town meeting. So they're going back to the select board with all recommendations but as part of that, as part evaluation and how the group initially is systematically going through and then going to break up and other, you know either procedural or bi-department comments. We will be engaging so the general bylaw committee will be engaged let's say and DPW. We noticed something, the General By-law Review Committee identified something in the Board of Public Works section That would be a communication and discussion with the Board of Public Works as to a recommendation on how they see that operating.

And in fact, whether there could be a proposed change not necessarily aligned with that. I think the recommendation would come back to the Select Board and then the Select board wouldn't necessarily universally put that on the warrant, I think that would then necessitate a discussion from the board on how you wish to proceed which could be either a secondary study, a subcommittee just staying with the Board of Public Works to work on that or Okay, that's a big enough item where we might want to put that aside for a town government study committee or a specific town meeting study provision. But I think that determination on whatever has been identified by the General By-law Review Committee would be ultimately reviewed and discussed by the board on how you wish to proceed. Nothing coming back to the board is an automatic onto the warrant without the board's full agreement.

Gate, the existing bylaw that any board can put an article on the warrant. It's just that this board wanted the opportunity to review it in case we want to discuss it further or study it further. Thank you for the clarification.

I do think the previous bullet point says invite to participate in committee discussions, town staff and the chair or designee of any town body having jurisdiction over any particular bylaw provision under review, so they're involved in the process.

Yeah, I don't see any possibility of usurping the power of the underlying board to which bylaw applies. By virtue of the structure of our government and the power invested in town meeting why would you possibly go through a revision of a bylaw that affects another board and take it to town meeting without their full approval?

Okay. and then Marjorie, can you just? I support the idea that citizens petitions go through a different process. I didn't understand why the sentence was here. Is it to accept, like exclude the citizen petition process is not covered by the general bylaw review?

Exactly. If citizens want to bring something about a bylaw, they have to go through a citizen petitions process not bring it to the bylaw review committee.

which is the same as what a board could do anyway, right?

So I just didn't... Right. It doesn't affect their ability to bring it a citizen's petition. It just points them to the process that controls the way they do it.

Okay, and so this is not covered within this because we said general bylaw review. So the ZBA falls under us right? And it appears that there may be some planning land use bylaws that are maybe not as clear as they could be and are causing problems right now. If that was to be addressed, is that something the by-law review committee could look at if raised? Or is that we would say has to go through Planning first or citizen petition first. I'm just asking for clarity.

This is not intended to touch zoning at all. It's just town bylaws.

Thank you. I think we were clear on it, but I think is a question that's out in the community. So I think it's good that we clarify. Yeah.

It's general town bylaws. Thank you. And thank you Colette. The last thing that I didn't mention was that one of the members felt very strongly that there was no reason to have a supermajority vote. We put that in at the request of one of team members discussing the process for the committee, but the committee voted that majority vote was sufficient. That no other board requires a supermajority and it's a recommendation as you said to the board so we all agreed that it be a majority as opposed to two-thirds.

I'm very pleased to see that, I did not agree with the supermajority and I think that's a great change

I thought the two-thirds was because it was six people, so four was two thirds. So when you clarified that it's of those there, it's a majority.

Yes. So move to amend the general bylaw review committee charge.

Second.

All in favor? Aye.

And the last administrative item is to vote temporary library parking at Cameron and Megan gave us an updated map, I'll turn it over to you.

So the library is going through some repaving and some minor modifications to both the back lot and the underground lot. and so in order to maintain parking capability given the volumes they'd be looking for 20 parking spaces. The map just identifies where we would sign them for library parking in the Cameron Street lot, and those would be from July 27th through August 21st approximately four weeks.

Can you tell me those dates again Megan?

The dates are from July 27th through August 21st.

I thought the map that I saw had outlined 10 spots vertically and 10 spots horizontally.

Hold on, I might be able to put it up. It was in the lower right-hand corner.

How many spots is it?

It's 20. Hold on, I'll put it up. That is so... I must not have printed?

It was in the email that you sent us for sure.

Yeah, and I have it right here.

How many spots are being displaced by the parking lot?

So they're doing it in phases, so not every section will be completely offline during the time period. It'll be about half and half, so the estimated number was 20. Hold on, let me just show you.

and Megan, when we voted the school spaces are those recalled now until the solar project happens?

We just don't need them at this point because of the delay. I don't have dates appropriated yet for that Sorry, now you can see them here. I don't know why it's in print. So here they are.

And so this temporary parking is for, I'm just trying to get right the motion, it's for library staff, construction staff?

Anyone using the library. We've left it open for either staff or for patrons.

Okay, no other questions. So move to approve temporary parking for members of the public using the library at the Cameron Street lot as depicted in the map dated July 26th 2020 July 21, 2026 for a period from July 27th 2026 till August 21,2026. Second. All in favor? Aye.

Megan, I would only ask that if they have any advance notice that the project is going to be delayed they let us know because now we're talking about voting and school's going to be starting so if they have any slippage just to let us All right. Our final agenda item is an executive session Under Mass General Law Chapter 30A, Section 21A. So I ask a request of motion to enter executive session under Mass General law chapter 30A section 21 A3 to conduct strategy with respect to negotiations with the Wellesley Freed Library Staff Association and Wellesle Free Library Supervisor Association Wellsley Firefighters, IAFF Local 1795, Wellesley Police Patrolman's Association

as I declare that having such discussions in open session would have a detrimental effect on the town's position.

So move to enter executive session under Mass General Law, Chapter 30A subsection 21 A3. To conduct strategy with respect to negotiations with the Wellesley Free Library Staff Association and Wellesley Free Library Supervisor Association, the Wellesleys Firefighters IAFF Local 1795 Wellesley Police Patrolmen's Association, and to invite Executive Director Megan Jopp, Assistant Executive Director Corey Testa, Police Chief Scott Whittemore, Fire Chief Steve Mortarelli, Human Resources Director Dolores Hamilton Library Director Jamie Jergensen and Library Trustee Chair Marla Robinson to join as the chair has declared that having such discussions in open session would have a detrimental effect on the town's position Following the adjournment of the executive session, the board will return to open session for the sole purpose of adjourning the meeting.

Second Beth?

Aye Tom? Aye Colette? Aye And I vote aye as well