Select Board April 14, 2026

Y-A-N-S-A-D

I tried. One is stuck sort of open, but that's as far as I can get it to stick. I emailed Patrice and asked him to play along with it.

Okay.

Okay, now. Okay, Mark.

Okay, we are, good evening everyone. We are back in open session and as many of you know, we have amended our agenda to provide a public status update on 40 Oakland Street. The town received two pieces of electronic communication from the Commonwealth on Friday. One from the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, HLC. The letter did not answer any of the questions that we sent in our January 9th letter. What the letter did say is that the Commonwealth is pursuing housing projects statewide with a sense of urgency responding to the seriousness of the housing crisis. They're working with the town to try to build 180 homes on Oakland Street. to enhance the community and complement the town's housing and planning goals.

Those goals could be achieved by concentrating development of the units on and around the parking area. and permanently conserving the balance of the parcel which does not enjoy such protection today. HLC has had an ongoing relationship with some groups of Wellesley residents since early 2025. The select board did not know about this until September. According to HLC they have been responsive to our community for our request for community input and have adjusted their schedule to accommodate us. they anticipated our questions to pertain to planning considerations but believe that our questions exceeded the scope of what they expected.

The community has expressed a priority interest in clustering the housing development on and around the existing parking area with a commitment not to build on the rest of the property. which they are prepared to do. They are prepared to require the developer to offer a conservation restriction to a qualified entity of the town's choosing. and to require the developer to comply with our inclusionary zoning requirements of 20% affordable units. They said our questions on local permitting authority were answered in the regulations. If you saw our letter last week, you saw we had a lot of comments about the fact that we had questions about the regulations. and they are continuing to work towards a July 2026 release of an RFP. So that's what the state said.

The second letter from the Department of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance provided the 30-day official notice that Oakland Street has been determined to be surplus. by the Commonwealth for current and foreseeable needs and will be made available for disposition for housing purposes. DCAM will accept any comments regarding the disposition and use of the property until May 13th. the Select Board continues to discuss public input and all aspects of the anticipated disposition and the development. you know we've just come out of executive session. There have been multiple opportunities for public input and feedback since the select board's meeting in September. There were meetings at MassBay. We've held meetings, we've taken public comment, and we have received and continue to receive emails.

We now believe we need to hear from a very broad representative group of the town. And we are going to call for a special town meeting in May. and we'll put a non-binding question out to town meeting members. Of course residents who are not town meeting members are invited and will be able to speak. and the date is TBD. We just have to work on a couple of things for opening and closing the warrant and advertising and things like that. So for this meeting, we have scheduled 25 minutes for citizen comment on 40 Oakland. Three minutes per speaker. And I'm going to ask, please, if you can avoid repetition. We would appreciate that very much. After that, we will do citizen speak for items not on the agenda.

So this is the time to comment on 40 Oakland. and Corey has a list of people who've requested time. So come up to the table, turn the mic on and please give us your name and street for the record.

Our first person is Marguerite Chatelier.

I'm Marguerite.

My name is Marguerite Chatelier. I work in town, and I live at 11 Colburn Road, and I serve on the board of World of Wellesley, but I'm not here in that role. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. I was so happy to read the letter from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts dated April 10th regarding the MassBay project. I'm glad the state has agreed to preserve the forest and build much needed housing on the parking lot. This is a wonderful opportunity for MassBay to access funds to upgrade our state college. I know many in town who feel the same way as I do. I want to speak for what I believe is is the less vocal majority of our community. I want to urge a select board to engage in conversation with the state so that we have the best outcome for the community, a place that welcomes residents of all walks of life, but to do that we need to say yes to new housing and new neighbors.

I look forward to engaging in future community conversations on this project. Thank you.

Thank you, Marguerite.

Doug Youngen.

Are we live here? Good. Good evening and thank you to the Select Board for allowing me to speak tonight. My name is Doug Youngin. I live at 62 Oakland Street. I am the president of the newly formed nonprofit Friends of Centennial. Friends of Centennial was organized by a group of committed residents who recognized last fall that the proposed development at 40 Oakland Street is deeply misguided. Let me begin by clearing up a common misconception. We are not anti-housing. Wellesley has made real progress through thoughtful planning and community input in meeting important housing goals under 40B, the MBTA Communities Act, and other state requirements. We support well-planned housing. what we oppose is poorly conceived, top-down development imposed by the state without adequate research or local input. like what is being proposed at 40 Oakland Street. I want to make three brief points tonight.

First, this land has never been surplus. For over 50 years, this forest has been actively used and cared for by the town. Residents from Wellesley and neighboring towns rely on it daily for recreation and open space. Our legal team has developed a strong argument that this land qualifies as Article 97 protected land. And yet it has been labeled surplus, along with a MassBay parking lot that is full nearly every day classes are in session. the surplus designation defies common sense. Second, this is the wrong direction for high density, the wrong location for high density housing. The state's own agencies have acknowledged doing little or no site specific research on 40 Oakland Street.

yet they are proposing a 180 unit multi-story development with a four to five story parking structure located on a narrow winding road in a single family neighborhood. Oakland Street is already strained by commuter traffic from MassBay. tripling the population in this area is not responsible planning. There are also limited walkable amenities and the site does not meet proximity expectations for transit under the MBTA communities framework. In fact, it is twice as far as recommended even though the state said it is steps away from the commuter rail. Third, we need your help. The Select Board waited over three months for a response from the state, only to receive a message that makes one thing clear. The state intends to dictate what gets built and where. That is not how good planning works. Our community has spoken through more than 3,400 petition signatures, 500

residents displaying yard signs, countless letters, and appearances at meetings. Friends of Centennial is committed to pursuing this challenge through all appropriate legal channels. We have engaged Experience Council Hill Law to guide that effort. thoughtful housing strengthens a community. We are not giving up. In fact, we are just getting started. Please visit fransofcentennial.org to learn more and support our work. Thank you.

Thank you, Doug.

Raina already knows she's number three.

Hi Raina.

Hi.

Thank you all for all the work that you do. Good evening, Raina McManus, 2 Mulherrin Lane. For many reasons expressed both here and at earlier meetings, as well as in written comments, the proposed development is not appropriate for this location. I want to focus on just one issue, the environment. DKIM intends to preempt Wellesley's wetlands protection bylaws and please don't be fooled by any suggestion that any development would be limited to the existing parking lot. No one has ever said it would. The most anyone has ever suggested is that the development might either mostly be limited to the parking lot, limited to the lands adjacent to or surrounding the parking lot, on and around that parking area or would only disturb a few acres adjacent to the parking lot. But if you look at the map or walk the property, you will see that immediately adjacent to that parking lot are wetlands and surface water bodies.

Any construction is going to interfere with those protected resources. and please also do not overlook that any such construction will be in Wellesley's water supply protection district and it's unclear if DCAM intends to honor our water supply protection district regulations. When conservation land is involved, especially when contiguous to our own Article 97 conservation land Centennial Reservation, . These developments are not self-contained. They will devalue recognized open space functions and values. Activities can and will have negative consequences on the interior of the land, which can extend to our centennial reservation. Two years of construction activity and noise will frighten and scare off wildlife. Where will they go? For the first time ever, the forest will be shaded during the day and lit up at night, confusing the circadian rhythms of living things. from vegetation to mammals.

Concentrated density of people will necessitate the use of pesticides and rodenticides, which are poisonous to our environment and especially to our essential bird populations. industrial-scale landscaping methods will be introduced in and adjacent to our premier conservation area. for these and so many more reasons, including the uncertainty of what development will occur on the open spaces on the campus across the street. This is the wrong location for dense housing. For the sake of the environment as well as the health of the community, and because biodiversity keeps all of us healthy, I urge you to do whatever you can to stop this inappropriate project. and I'd also just like for you to recognize that there are people here tonight in support of what we're saying but they've asked not to speak but if they could just raise their hands and let you know that they are here. Thank you again for all the work you are doing.

Thank you, Rayna.

Thanks, Rayna. Now we're going on to Zoom. Paul White.

Hi, Paul.

You're muted, Mr. White. Oh, still muted.

Here you go. Okay, I apologize.

Can you hear me?

Yes. I apologize.

Paul, you have two monitors on and you're echoing. Can you turn one of them off please?

Paul, do you have us on two different monitors or devices, a phone and a computer?

There you go.

Perfect. Thank you.

I apologize for that, but I'm pleased to tell you that I, in light of the comments that were just made by Doug and Raina, I have very little to add. except one thing that I think should be pointed out, which is that the select board went to enormous trouble to ask a series of very important questions. and the response that we received that you received from DCAM, I think illustrates something that is clear to many of us, which is that It has its own plan. It is not interested in getting input and it was, in my view, with all due respect, an exercise in railroading. the select board in sending that type of response. So I support and echo what Doug and Raina said. And with that, I yield. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Leslie Hanrahan.

Hi, Leslie. Hi, how are you? Is this on? Yes. Great, okay. To the members of the select board, thank you for allowing me to speak. Leslie Hanrahan, 5 Putney Road. After reading the April 13th letter regarding the notification of surplus property at 40 Oakland Street from the state, it's clear that the concerns of town and area residents have not been heard. instead the state appears to have created a narrative that does not reflect the reality of community input. According to the state, and I quote, through community engagement efforts, the community has expressed a priority interest in clustering housing development on and around the existing parking lot with a commitment not to build on the balance of the property. This assertion is deeply concerning because it does not align with what residents have consistently expressed.

at no point have town residents supported clustering housing on some portion of the parking lot at an estimated density of 60 to 90 units per acre, which is what would happen if you took half of the parking lot and used the other half for parking. Even the density of the nines is far lower than that which is being proposed adjacent to the 80 acres of forested land known as Centennial Reservation. residents have also never endorsed vague assurances that, quote, vast majority of the forest will be preserved or that development will occur on and around the existing parking lot. Wow, the balance of the property will be saved. What does that even mean? These phrases lack definition and complete protection of the land. Contrary to what the state thinks we said, residents have repeatedly and clearly stated that the 45-acre parcel is not surplus land

and should not be used to justify high density housing, the highest in town, in a location that will ruin natural lands. Over 3,400 people signed a petition to MassBay and the state expressing exactly this position. signs throughout the town echo the same message. This land is not surplus. The state has chosen not to recognize these concerns and has offered us a false choice. residents have consistently advocated for this land to remain protected as conservation land under the Massachusetts Constitution. not to be subjected to large scale housing development that would permanently alter its function and character. This land has many wetlands and wetland buffers and plays a critical role in recharging and filtering our water supply, managing stormwater runoff, supporting wildlife habitat, in defining and maintaining the integrity of our water supply protection district. It also provides valuable recreational opportunities including hiking trails for both the town and the broader Metro West community.

I know you understand these concerns. I know that very well. But after a full year of letters, public comment, and petitions, it's deeply unsettling to see the state mischaracterize community input in a way that suggests support for proposals that have never been suggested by the community. What the state is proposing is not what residents of this town want. I respectfully urge you to do everything in your power to have this land removed from surplus designation and to ensure it is permanently protected in its entirety. Thank you.

Thank you, Leslie.

that's everybody that signed up in advance.

Wendy Beck, can you hear me? Wendy Beck, 26 Oakland Circle. I represent ground zero for whatever happens. We've lived there for 35 years. We are in a catch-22 because of the state's current law without any adjustments, which it sounds like they are not interested in making. So we either have to swallow whole a new entire neighborhood Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor issue that there might be 120 cars of students that might have to use some parking spaces in that parking lot. I don't know where that came from, so you can correct me if I'm wrong. it will end up either being a tower to accommodate 180 units or the land will get spilled out into those 40 acres.

every single day if it's daylight I can look out my bedroom window and something is moving in the woods in human and dog form every single day, all day long. Crack of dawn, I used to walk my dog into the night. It is used constantly. and just the other day I was alerted to a barred owl staring at me. I live right up to the buffer which it's a little private way and we're gonna get swallowed whole right now. The street is only about eight feet wide. it's one lane in that probably the three acres are talking about the parking lot and beyond there was a barred owl staring at me and then there was a pileated woodpecker flying around. I've seen him year after year. There was a lot of wildlife just in that little expanse. I saw a fisher cat one day years ago and I thought it was an otter. That was the strangest thing because they run like otters.

and I looked it up and they need space. Everything needs space of these kinds of animals and they will be putting rodenticide, however you say it, around the apartment building. And there are tons of owls. Anybody that walks Centennial, you'll hear them every night. Rain horned owls. And you know the catastrophe that those rodenticides do. The owls eat the sitting duck rodents because they're sick and not able to Hyde, they get eaten and the elves die, and bald eagles, which is horrifying. Anyway, speaking for that little spit of land and those very mature, we have giant oaks there, those very mature trees. hopefully something can be done to protect that berm because they come down from the college, they go through that berm right across the street from my house and then up into the greater acreage of the 40 acres.

Thank you.

Is it still on? I'm sorry I didn't prepare anything, but I just thought of one thing that I don't think anyone's talked that much about. Please give us your name and street. Oh, I'm so sorry, Lynn Youngin, 162 Oakland Street. The Sisters of Charity, it's in the category of planning, like something will happen there soon. whether they sell, whatever happens, it's going to result in more there. They'll be closer to the forest, more building, more people, whatever it is. and I just think that that needs to also be considered with this, that Oakland Street and the surrounding communities will be dealing with more once that is done in addition to whatever else is done over at MassBay. It's not just what's going to happen with this. I think that Wellesley needs to consider just the overall planning of what that would also mean with the Sisters of the Charity. Thank you. Thank you for letting me speak without time.

Anyone else? Okay, we certainly appreciate all the concerns that you have shared with us. We take this very seriously. I hope you know from the work that we've sent to the state and all the comments we've made and the questions we've asked We're continuing to try to make inroads and we hope you'll continue writing to us and coming and sharing your thoughts. So thank you all very much.

Marjorie, let me just check. Someone just jumped in online. Ted, did you wish to speak? I just wanted to double check.

No, not on this matter. Thank you.

Okay, thanks. Okay, very good. Thank you all very much. Okay, so our next agenda item is Citizen Speak. Mr. Tai, are you here for Citizen Speak?

No, I'm just listening tonight. Thank you.

Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. In that case, we'll move on to the executive director's report.

Thanks, Marjorie. Just a few updates. The first is just a reminder, because I know it's ongoing tonight, that the work begins at midnight for some tree work, which we're going to have down in Wellesley Square. When you hear chainsaws tonight, we wanted to make sure you were aware of that. It has been noticed, but it is a bit uncharacteristic, but it's the best time that we can do that without disrupting the merchants. So just wanted to put a reminder out there. The other thing is tomorrow we're having the Wellesley Climate Action Geothermal Solutions for affordable heating and cooling. They are oversubscribed on that event tomorrow at the Village Church. So we look forward to hearing the outcomes of that. So I want to thank Barry Beth Martello and the Climate Action Committee for putting that on. I think there's in the vicinity of 140 people or so signed up, so it should be a great program.

The last thing, some fantastic news we'd like to share about our oldest resident, Mrs. Gertrude Gertie Hughes. So Gertie's birthday is happening, and Gertie will be celebrating her 107th birthday. So we love sharing this. That's on April 19th, but she'll be having an event over the weekend. So we did have a resolution, and we normally don't read these, but given the circumstances for Gertie, I'd like to read this on behalf of her. this is from the select board and thank you to Stephanie Hawkinson for assisting us with this so resolution in honor of Gertrude Hughes whereas Mrs. Gertrude Gertie Hughes will celebrate her 107th birthday on April 19th and is Wellesley's oldest living resident and an outstanding member of our community who throughout her long life has shared her wisdom, humor, creative and athletic talents with all who know her.

and whereas Gertie was born in 1919 in Flint, Michigan and was one of nine children, a witness to so much history during her lifetime, she first voted in 1936 for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and has cast her ballot in every election since that time. With her late husband, Frederick, Gertie enjoyed living in many states in the United States and spending five years in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Later in life, she brightened the days of others as a volunteer in the coffee shop at Newton Wellesley Hospital. And whereas Gertie is beloved by her twin daughters Joan Orr and Jean Fuhrer and their families, including grandchildren and great grandchildren, a natural athlete. She's a gifted golfer, bowler, tennis and badminton player. At age 70, she took up tap dancing performing in many local shows and wowing everyone with her high kicks. Her hobbies included gardening and sewing and she continues to craft beautiful needlepoint designs treasured by family and friends.

and whereas Gertie is the current holder of the ceremonial Boston Post cane, a tradition established in 1909 by Edwin Grazer, editor and publisher of the Boston Post newspaper, to recognize the oldest resident of each municipality in Massachusetts and a practice the Select Board is proud to continue. Now, therefore, be it resolved, we, the Select Board of the Town of Wellesley, Massachusetts, send our warm congratulations and happy birthday wishes to Gertrude Hughes for her contributions to our town and community and witness thereof. Set this hand on the 14th day of April.

Well on behalf of the board, happy birthday Gertie. It's wonderful to hear all the things you're interested in and we hope you have a wonderful birthday with family and friends. Thank you very much to Stephanie. and that will be delivered to Gertie on Saturday. Okay, thanks Megan. The next item is our consent agenda. There are three items on the consent agenda. a one-day license for the Wellesley Historical Society member event on June 17th, a mobile food vendor license for Oath Pizza to operate at private events, and an amendment to the Lockhart restaurant entertainment license to allow limited decibel indoor only amplification of music. Unless there are any comments, I'll turn it over to Colette for a motion.

So move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Okay, our next agenda item is to discuss, oh, we're not discussing, we are discussing 140. We were originally going to discuss a modification to the development agreement, but I'll turn it back over to Megan because there's been a late breaking change.

So just prior to the meeting this evening, about 4 o'clock or so, I did have a call with the developer as well as his attorney, Lawrence Lee. And they have reviewed the plans, reviewed the special permit, and reviewed the challenges in potentially modifying the design for the project with regards not only through the review by the select board, but in particular the following review that would continue with the historical commission. and after consideration they formally withdrawn their application to amend the development agreement and will proceed under the existing terms and conditions of the I'm going to call it amended development agreement where the board had authorized the porch to be removed and then reconstructed and the applicant sought a special permit for the designs that the board previously approved. and my understanding is they will commence immediately with the renovation and addition to the property under the design.

Great news. Any questions or comments? I'm thrilled that the house is going to be retained. Look forward to seeing that constructed.

Megan, did they give us any sense about completion timing?

I don't know completion timing, but my understanding is they are literally going to be applying for permits, you know, hopefully by the end of the week. That's great.

Mr. Tai, would you like to comment on this, or are you just listening?

Thank you. No, that was what I was listening for. As some members of the board may know, I'm the HOA chairman at 148 next door and we've as many of our other neighbors and other members of the community We've been suffering with the way that house looks for the last two years since our community opened. We're just anxious to have anything done as it's been really tough living next door to it. So I'm happy to hear the news and I hope that they do follow through with it.

Thank you very much, as do we. Well, that's very good news. Okay, our next agenda item is board assignments. and as a reminder, since we're entering into appointment season, the first steps in our appointment policy call for board liaisons to reach out to the chair, not staff, but the chair, of their appointed boards, and to ask the chair about experience or expertise the chair feels the board could benefit from. and then the liaison should also discuss with the full board, select board to see whether the board has comments on experience or expertise that might compliment the existing board members. The Board has recently established two committees, the General By-law Committee and the Townwide Capital Planning Committee.

But before I turn to that, I wanted to recognize Beth for her continuing work with the merchants on community events. and formally reinstate her appointment as the select board's business liaison. That role for the public's information has the same function and parameters of other liaison roles. as a conduit of information between the merchants and the board. Policy decisions are made by the board and the staff will implement those board decisions. Any proposals for requests of department action or accommodations should go through Corey and Megan and Beth will share her updates with both Corey and the board on a regular basis.

I'd like to appoint Kenny to work with me on the general bylaw review committee and to appoint Colette and Tom on the townwide capital planning committee with Colette serving as chair for the upcoming year. The citizen member of the capital planning committee is also an appointee of the select board and will be discussed at the appropriate time. My understanding is that the goal would be to constitute both committees and have an initial meeting or two before the summer break so that when everyone reconvenes in September, schedules, expectations and norms are already set. Would you like to add anything to that, Collette?

Yeah, I think that it's helpful to let us, especially in this first year, do some work to get ahead of it. The first year is going to be the biggest step that we have. and I think it's really important as we go forward to think about leadership on those committees as a deliberative step in doing all that we can to have a meaningful collaborative process for all the planning that we're doing in turnaround capital. so yeah I think it's I appreciate you making those appointments now and give us a chance to get started on that work

Moving on to our annual town meeting debrief, we had four items on the agenda to discuss the order of the warrant. audio-visual challenges, separate motions for town and school budgets, and to set dates for the annual town meeting. So let's discuss the order of the warrant. As everyone knows, we had a motion to withdraw from the consent agenda articles that required appropriation until after the presentation of the town-wide financial plan. So my proposal for next year would be to do non-appropriation articles on night one after the ceremony and then begin night two as we did this year with Townwide Financial Plan, and municipal and school budgets.

And as this board discussed last year, I'd like us to consider grouping the rest of the articles by board or department. primarily for staff and presenters, but I think it will also help newer town meeting members see more of a full complement of what a board or department does as opposed to doing them in appropriations and authorizations and perhaps another section. and so those are my thoughts and happy to have other thoughts.

I mean I think I try and reflect back on what it was we were trying to achieve with the structure that we had planned for this year. I do think it's really helpful for town meeting members to have a little bit of runway so you have town-wide financial plan which is talking about the current year and the out years and then the budget for the current year in the same night because the way that you vote on the current budget might be affected by what you see is coming down the pike and I just think it's I mean the intention was to be helpful to town meeting members to let them have a full picture and a chance to have all of that done in one night with the same body being there. I think it's a great goal and I think this is a good plan to achieve it. I'm looking at what happened in town meeting this past year. Townwide financial plan took an hour. Supplementals took 15 minutes. There's a break for 15 minutes. The municipal budget took about 17 minutes.

The school budget took about 80 minutes. That's including questions and deliberations and things like that. So it is possible for sure to do all of the big budget financial in one night. And I think it's a really good goal to try and achieve. and so I'm very supportive of thinking about what can be put in night one for the ceremony. The ceremony and resolutions took 30 minutes. So with that and everything else, we need to put more things in night one. I do think it's a really good idea to have the board presentations put together. I thought it was a great flow to have DPWs of having almost owning a night. I thought that was very effective so that's where I am.

So I actually think it's too overwhelming to do the town-wide financial plan and the budgets. Town Meeting at its heart is a business meeting and I think when you have a business meeting you set the table first and you give people the big flyover of where we are and where we're going and then everything flows under that. I think Maybe we could have gotten them both in on one night this year. I don't think we can always count on that. I think it is fair to people to give them the high level town-wide financial plan, let it sit overnight, and then the next night do the budgets. So I actually think having a little space and I'm trying to think how many non-appropriation things we have that would fill up one night and whether that would yield

Well, we have HR classification and salary plans, revolving funds, authorizations, other things, bylaw changes.

Enterprise Fund.

Yeah.

Yeah. Just for me, I think there's a logic to having the town-wide financial plan first as a business meeting and then doing the budget separately. I do think we want people to be have the time to absorb the town-wide financial plan and although I mean, it was an excellent, excellent document. It's also a really long document and it doesn't arrive through no one's fault. that nothing arrives very much ahead of town meeting. And that's despite best efforts. So I think it's unreasonable to expect that people are gonna have waded through. And I thought Megan did a really excellent job setting that high level view the slides were great and everything told the story really well but separating them I think is advantageous. Tom?

I think it's important to remember that where this started, the concept of reordering the warrant, is because the duplication in the presentations was tiresome. between the town-wide financial plan and the budget. I don't think it's a matter of absorbing, needing to absorb one piece. I think frankly the town-wide financial plan absent the graphs and charts is an extremely readable document now, far more than it was when I was first on this. Board. So I do think people can make their way through that. But I think the whole goal here is to be able to adjust the presentations so that the flow from the town-wide financial plan through the budgets allows for shorter presentations with less duplication and I think that's what captures town meetings attention and makes this and so on. Move faster.

Thank you, Kenny.

So I guess conceptually I think having all the like the financial plan and the budgets in the same place at the same time makes a lot of sense but I just did Colette's math and so that's 240 minutes so if you start at 7 o'clock we're going to 11 o'clock under that. And I think that will have a negative effect if we did it the same way where the school is in those four elements. So ceremony, townwide financial plan, town budget, school budget, The impetus for the school budget was to have a robust discussion about it. And I feel like just looking at the audience, you start seeing people leaving at 10 o'clock. By 11 o'clock, I think there's a lot of people who are checked out on night one. So while I do conceptually think that makes sense to do it all together, I just don't know logistically if we can pull that off.

I think what you're and that's because I've got it all well it's not that I've got it all on one list but you would be taking the ceremony away so the second night would be only so it'd be an hour financial plan for the 10-minute financial plan basically just over an hour for the municipal budget just over an hour for school so that's like you know like three something hours you put your break in that's a town meeting night I personally think that would be fine if you get rid of the ceremony which

I also think could be shortened significantly. Really, really significantly.

I also think that this was the first year we did the Townwide Financial Plan and the budget. And there may be 10, 15 minutes that we could further streamline those presentations. and maybe check in with Megan a little bit more about what the chair says because I did say a few things that Megan was going to say too. Okay, Mark still believes that the two pieces of the budget need to stay together, and I think that's very fair, both for the people who are hearing it, the people who are voting on it. and on the same night. So we can give this feedback to Mark. Next, audio visual challenges.

Archie, can I just one question on that presentation? Yeah. So would we still have the actual appropriations go after capital plan and budget? Yes. I think that logic made a lot of sense.

The only thing on that you just need to consider potentially is the order of the consent agenda.

Right.

So we're not in the same situation we were today.

Can you do two consent agendas? So if you broke the financial stuff up from non-financial. You could.

You absolutely could. You could have two articles of consent, one non-appropriation, one appropriation. Or we could do the consent agenda later.

Yeah, I mean, the other thing I was just thinking about when you were just reviewing that is, so the bylaw requires us to give it orally to town meeting, which we can look at as part of the general bylaw committee, but... We could film that in advance. I mean, we had the 10-wide financial plan completed at the start of March. We distributed the letter to all residents, which had the link to that. So every resident technically had the link to the Talmud financial plan well in advance of the advisory report that included that. So we could prepare because we have to prepare the presentation essentially for advisory committee and so in terms of you know that overview so you could do a more succinct presentation potentially at town meeting but you could do a fuller presentation and have it recorded just throwing that out there

Well, and that would only require taking the requirement of an oral presentation at town meeting, because it would still be presented to town meeting, but the AV, audio-visual presentation would be in advance. which gives people more time to digest it and read it it's just a thought yeah

I think that's a yes and. You could do that so people who like to, there are certain people who like to prep beforehand. Give them a chance. And then some people like to hear things twice or more. And so you can listen to it once and then you can listen to it in the meeting.

Okay, work for the bylaw review committee already. Okay, so AV. Megan, what would you like to tell us about AV?

So I mean, I think there was a couple of different issues going on. I think we'll continue to work on the tech component of it. Wellesley Media, it was not the equipment on their end. I think the challenge was the sound board. and so we'll certainly work and I think they've tried to work out some of the kinks on it with the staff and I think there was different people there each night so from which is fine, but I think they all had, from the school staff, a taste of the issues so they all to help us try and correct them. So I think we're at a point where we can come to consensus on how it best operated. The other major issue which Brian DuPont largely identified is the speaker that sits on the stand.

So when we heard it the best, I would say night one, is when we heard it great because the speaker was focusing more on Mark. So when the speaker changed more to the audience so they were hearing it better. I know for us, it was really challenging to hear as well as, and then some on the far side of the audience. So that speaker that is particularly for Marc, we think we're gonna either replace it or move it or, and I don't recall, because we were trying to recall, I don't remember the prior moderators having that. and so that we do think is throwing off the sound projection because you have it going in two ways and keep in mind the stage is really meant to project not from the floor to project which is also causing some of the issues. So they have been really evaluating this, but we think that speaker is actually one of the major

and so on. So, we either can reposition it, maybe have it come from the side or the back because of the angle from where the audio was being relayed. So and James at the later meetings was bringing his own equipment as well to try and resolve some of the issues. So, you know, the goosenecks obviously work better. and I think we've resolved it in terms of having a higher table. Poor Dave Cohen is so tall. But I think it actually made the microphone closer to everyone's mouths to do that. We'll continue to evaluate that. But the speaker is the issue, because if you might recall, too, even when we were at the middle school, which we really haven't had that many sound issues, except for one member, there was like one speaker blown one time, but that was fixed. there still was some garble and that's when we had started implementing the speaker.

So it's either the connection with that or just the variability in the sound sort of going back towards the stage and then from the stage that we also think is causing some of the issues.

We should get a remote control raising and lowering

We're hoping actually to have something like that here at town hall. I think actually Glenn has ordered it so that it's ADA compliant actually so that we can have it rise and fall.

I've gone back to Time Meeting to watch it a little bit to catch one or two things. Actually, when I was trying to work out how much time he spent on stuff. sometimes even when you were as chair was going to the podium when you made the motion to lay on the table you could barely hear it and so I don't know if there's some testing we do beforehand on like does it work for the audience? Does it work for Mark? Does it work for Wellesley Media? That needs to get done.

The main issue with testing is that sound changes dramatically in an empty auditorium than when there are 200 town meeting members. sitting in the auditorium. It really dampens and tamps down on reverberation, echo, all that so it's hard to test how the system is set up before town meeting gavels into session. maybe we can talk with the AV people ahead of special town meeting about doing a quick sound test for like five minutes before we actually start the business when town meeting members are sitting down just to see if they can make last minute tweaks to positions of either speakers and or microphones. but that's the only way because we did ask Jonah, the sound guy at the high school about doing a sound test on night three and he was like, there's no reason to because it's all gonna change the second time meeting starts.

Could we get 150 kids to volunteer to come in for a little bit?

Couldn't you have them test it when they have some type of assembly and note where they're putting everything and whether or not it worked?

I think that's a better idea.

Yeah, but I think when they do it, it's that front speaker because it's unique to the moderator. But we think we've... I don't want to say we, IT, and James, and the sound, all the sound, the auditorium team, yep, the tech people at the schools, I think have identified some ways for us to improve it.

I just have to say James was an amazing trooper. When we thought we were going to have to move out of the auditorium, he's like, that's fine. I'll bring my own soundboard. I'll run my chords. I'll stand in the little alcove here. I'll do whatever I need to do. He was great. He really was very accommodating. He would have done anything. Beth? So I agree this.

there were no any town meeting members that didn't have a really frustrating environmental experience with the audio and each night it was different right so there was no predictability, better on television some nights, better in person some nights. It just changed so much each night and I felt horrible for all the tech people because they all were trying so hard. For me, I think there's a bigger issue about the space in the high school because the layout of it I think doesn't give a sense of community. So when you look out, it looks empty. I'm sure Colette you saw this. When you look at town meeting on television, it looks like there's no one there. There are 200 people there, but it looks so vacant.

And I think at the break even, there's not as much of a vibe. And then the ceremonial piece, It's really cramped. People speaking, it's a very... The ergonomics of it seem challenging. I would like to have a look at going back to the middle school. And to Megan's point, we haven't had as many acoustic issues over time that we've had dramatic issues but we haven't had persistent issues and I just think there's a lot to be said about a space that drives people to feel more connected to one another

There's a lot of issues, right? There's parking. James, it's much easier for James at the high school. There's a lot of logistical questions and of course the one that none of us can control is the school schedule. which is why we're setting dates a year in advance so we can kind of preempt their or influence their scheduling so that we can have town meeting when we need to have it.

I'm just thinking Marjorie about our special town meeting. and we really do want a sense of community and a sense of teamwork and a sense of working together to get somewhere and I think I don't know if it's the slope or the tightness or the way those aisles are, but it does have a tighter community feeling and it may be something worth exploring. Okay, Tom?

I actually was going to raise something else and want to, but I have to say on this, I squarely agree with Beth. I think it is a much better experience as the community of town meeting at the middle school and I realize that there are some negatives associated with it, but I don't recall having the level of physical discomfort that people were having at the high school, at the middle school. I don't think we were having the same audio visual issues at the middle school. I think Beth's right on this point. But I was going to raise the HVAC. I was having conversations with Joe during the day before each night. There was only one night that it was uniformly comfortable. in that hall, I was watching people put their jackets on. It was physically just uncomfortable.

Now, I think part of this is, I don't know why we're not roping off some of the seats on the side. and instructing people to sit in the middle. I think that would help. I mean, what Joe's doing is logical. which is setting the hall to occupied, but it's not occupied. The white people are spread out and therefore it overchills. and I think it's very difficult for people to make it through a whole night if they're physically uncomfortable to that extent.

We should take note of all of these considerations and we'll have to balance and see what's available and what works the best for the most number of those considerations and town meeting members.

and I just want to raise the point and touch on a little bit Marjorie but we have had a survey before where time meeting members said they preferred the high school for a number of reasons I know people have different opinions on that and we did have somebody really fall and really hurt themselves at the middle school

And I do appreciate that, Colette, but we had an earlier survey that preferred the middle school.

So, I mean, people have different opinions. It depends on the group. So, I mean, there certainly might have been audio issues at the middle school, but there's a lot of visual issues at the middle school.

Right, so we're probably never going to get something that everybody loves, but we'll try to get it better for the most of the factors that we need to consider. separating school and town budget motions. For me, because enrollment is dynamic, and we're always going to have an examination of shared costs and direct costs. I like seeing them separately. So I would support keeping the two budgets in separate motions going forward. Others?

Marjorie, I agree with you and I think it was the first year so we didn't have a lot of conversation but that doesn't mean there won't be conversation on either one moving forward. I just think it's a good chance to take a break and talk and then let people focus on the next thing. I thought it worked really well. Now we know how to do it. I got a lot of positive feedback about the chief speaking. And I think if you think about what happened with the enterprise fund presentations, and the chief speaking. I think there's a desire in the community to get a little bit of education about what's going on with the departments and put a face on the, Facility. And I would urge us to look at not long presentations but just like a quickie on what's new.

I know it's not a budget thing but what's new or what's changed or what's something in the key departments where the community places high value on them and we want that kind of sense of trust and loyalty.

I think that's something that Mark Kaplan would like to raise at the all board.

So I like the separate presentation. My question was just for staff now that we've figured it out. I know it was a heavy lift in the first year. What's the maintenance of that going forward?

Well, now that we have the allocated how we would break up the budget based upon particular line items, obviously subject to change based upon programmatic needs. I think it's easier to employ. I do think as we evaluate the year-end breakout, I think some of that likely would, that agreement MOU that we have with the schools would likely need to be enhanced a little bit to make sure that we continue to capture everything. We broke some things out. We obviously went down to a very fine level. but you know once you establish the forms and I really want to thank Paul Manganaro for spending a substantial amount of time on that along with Rachel and Tiana we have the process now. And we work that out with all of the departments. So I think it's easier to each year, it's no different than once you have the forms for the capital budgets or the main budgets,

like you know how to fill the form out now.

So I would like to see that going forward and I just wanted to add to Beth's comment about the chiefs. I did also have a couple conversations on that and when actually I think Margie was with me When I was sharing with the resident who was asking me that we had the chiefs come in and update us quarterly for a pretty lengthy discussion, that resident really appreciated knowing that and was going to go and watch those meetings. So I think what we could do is, maybe send a blast out a periodic blast to meeting members when we have things like either department heads or chiefs or like you know last year we did a thing where we had the boards that we appoint come and speak to us I think it'd be helpful to let time meeting members know them because I think the presentation by necessity needs to be focused on appropriation But we have 20 minutes, half an hour conversation with the chiefs about what's happening in the department, which I think is much richer.

and then our questions and back and forward adds a lot to it so I think that we need to let time meeting members know when that's happening and saying heads up you know this this is happening this the quarterly updates happening on this date we encourage you to watch it to get to know the chief Chiefs.

Because the chiefs are so busy, Megan sets the schedule for their quarterly updates far enough in advance that we should be able to include it in the W. You know, heads up, folks, the chiefs are coming in two weeks or whatever.

And we even could, I mean, to Collette's point, do a targeted email to all town meeting members from the select board office. to let them know the public safety update when our legislative delegation comes to do their update. But to that point, I think it's a good idea.

That's a good idea. Tom?

I couldn't agree more. After the fact, we can send out a link and the fact that it was done. One of the reasons I am so supportive of this idea is I am very wary. We have spent a lot of time creating efficiency within town meeting. It really is going backwards. to begin to have individual departmental presentations. And I think you have to be very leery of assuming that it can be done in five minutes, for example, just to pick a number. because sometimes you're going to get in trouble and it's going to end up with a lot of misunderstanding and the need for a much longer presentation than was ever intended. So I think trying to make the community aware of who's coming to our meetings. For example, we could have notified people of the discussion about the DPW campus feasibility.

That's a significant expenditure for an expensive project. People might want to watch it either live or later. So I think we could be doing more of this about our meetings with upcoming agendas.

The other thing that does is it gives people multiple exposures to the department in terms of what they're doing, which they can then relate to the budget presentation or the budget that they read. Oh, I see this is the result of them doing this, or this is the cost of them doing that. They can pair the two together. If they see the presentations in advance of town meeting, they can put them together. That's a great idea. Okay, so we like to split budget motions. ATM 2027.

One other thing I thought we should think about, which is the use of electronic voting. I thought there were a lot of places where it made a lot of sense just to do the voice vote and I personally like that it instills a little more energy into the room and it kind of moves certain things along. I think we should maybe look at using it a little bit more because you don't know how many people are there at the beginning and the end and I think Looking at the cadence of using the electronic voting a little bit more just so that we have some accountability is worth thinking about.

That was one of the original purposes of getting it. I also would like to raise getting attendance published. It used to be in the townsmen. I think it's really important for residents to know which of their town meeting members are attending town meeting. from fall to spring over their term. It's very important.

On that point, and this is not my idea, somebody else said it to me, and I don't remember who, but and I don't know if you can do this or not but can you put on the ballot the percentage of attendance of a town meeting member who is up for re-election?

I don't know if you can do that.

I would want to know that.

I don't know. We can ask Casey for sure.

Or it could be published after town meeting and again before elections.

We had the conversation a bit today actually because interestingly I think the town clerk would say we should eliminate electronic voting because Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor Jop, Largess, Sullivan Woods, Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor Testa, Ulfelder, Wellesley, Councilor Walsh, but we can certainly ask about the, for the

Yeah, because I think there's a huge percentage of the town that's not paying attention. That may show up in vote, and I think that would be information in real time that would be very interesting.

The problem with doing it on check-in is that people leave during the meeting, right?

I'm sorry. I was just going to say it's a very interesting idea, but I'm wondering. I don't know the answer to this. if there wouldn't be some strong challenges based on, you know, there's a difference between the woman, excuse me, the person who just decides I'm gonna go to Arizona for a week in the middle of town meeting, that's just my time to play golf, versus somebody who's ill, I mean, who has COVID. So I don't know how you differentiate between the 75% attendance in the person where it's legitimate or a public health issue versus not when it's published on the ballot.

well that's why I said from meeting from town meeting to town meeting because you could get a pattern and if town meeting members want to know I mean they could I mean if residents want to know they could talk to their town meeting members.

I'll say that when I ran for town meeting the town's been published it and I looked at it to see I mean is there anybody you know doesn't go everybody attended attendance like fell off during COVID it's never come back so I know people can be sick but I'll tell you when I looked at that everybody attended what during one of the votes we had 180 town meeting members was 25 percent down

That's a lot. Over 200 much. No. Maybe the last night. Yeah, the last night.

Okay, so annual town meeting is March 29th, 30th, April 5th, 6th, 12th, and 13th at a location TBD for ATM 27. the fall special town meeting is November 9th 10th and 16th at the high school and if folks are tuning in After the beginning of our meeting, the board is going to schedule a special town meeting in May to get input from town meeting members and residents. on their preferred course of action or actions with respect to MassBay and 40 Oakland Street. Mark and Madison would both like to speak at the all board. So I will send Mark the draft tomorrow. We spoke with Tom and I met with Madison this morning so we know what he wants to say.

but I'd prefer not to paraphrase Mark and let him say it the way he wants to say it. Our next agenda item is administrative matters and we have four sets of minutes.

So on three sets of minutes, they were very, very minor edits. There was one edit pointed out to me that might require some discussion on... February 24, 2026 minutes on line 113. There was a proposed strikethrough, but another board member wants to keep it in. that's the only thing that might warrant some discussion otherwise it seemed like it was just ministerial line 113 on the February 24th 2026 minutes

That was me that requested to keep that.

The winter supplement?

No, this is the February 24th, line 113. It's the right before that. So the board members appreciated the comprehensive planning, but requested time to review the detailed proposal as it was received just prior to the meeting.

109. I guess the other edits bumped it down. Sorry. 109 in your packets.

It's 1.13 in mine. Sorry, Corey. So that was my comment during the meeting because I would have given comments during the meeting, but I didn't have time. And I have actually reminded me that I need to send them in formally. I've given informal comments to staff, but I'd prefer to keep that in. It's fine. Okay. So do you want me to make a motion? So let me just see. Move to approve the minutes of... Let's see. April 6th, 2026, April 7th, 2026, February 10th, 2026, and February 24th, 2026 as amended.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. All right, our next agenda item is an executive session. I request a motion to enter into executive session to conduct strategy with respect to bargaining with the Wellesley firefighters. Library staff and supervisor association and the custodian unions as I declare having such discussions in open session may be detrimental to the town.

So let me just find my motion. Reed. OK, move to enter executive session under Mass General Law chapter 30, subsection 21A3, to conduct strategy with respect to negotiations with the Wellesley Free Library Staff Association and Wellesley Free Library Supervisor Association and the AFSME Local 49 Custodian Association as the chair has declared that having such discussions in open session is detrimental to the town's position. and to invite Executive Director Megan Jopp, Assistant Executive Director Corey Testa, HR Director Dolores Hamilton, who I'll also be inviting.

I think library is likely still on but you can add in case they're available to jump on Marla Robinson and Jamie Jergensen.

Library Director Jamie Jergensen and Board of Library Trustees Chair Marla Robinson to executive session.

Second.

Beth?

Aye. Kenny? Aye. Tom? Aye. Collette? Aye. And I vote aye as well. So we will come out of executive session for the sole purpose of adjourning the meeting. and our next meeting is, could be April 27th.

Our next scheduled meeting is April 28th at the moment.

Okay, next scheduled meeting April 28th and then May 5th and May 12th is the all board meeting.

So I need to actually, I forgot to put the, to exit executive session for the sole purpose of adjourning onto my motion. So I'm adding that in, Corey, sorry.

Brown, and I'm going to pass around the formal resolution for Ernie.