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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-11-13 Select Board Minutes OfAfgO Town of Reading n Meeting Minutes -, V Board - Committee - Commission - Council: 2M9 ,JAN 23 AM 10: 03 Select Board Date: 2018-11-13 Time: 7:00 PM Building: Reading Town Hall Location: Select Board Meeting Room Address: 16 Lowell Street Session: Purpose: General Business Version: Attendees: Members - Present: Andy Friedmann, Barry Berman, Vanessa Alvarado, John Halsey, Dan Ensminger Members - Not Present: Others Present: Town Manager Bob LeLacheur, Executive Assistant Caitlin Saunders; Elaine Webb, Linda Snow Dockser, Shawn Brandt, Robert Connor, Kaitlyn Mercurlo, Theresa Wiggins, Kate Goldlust, Amy Cole, Bob Holmes, AI Sylvia, Dave Maroney, Lori Hoden, Cadance Thomases, Anne Schwartz, Gina McCormick, Rebecca Liberman, Maddy Liberman, Tali Shorr, Sherilla Lestrade, Jeremiah Sanford, Mark Dockser, Anne Landry, Bill Brown Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Topics of Discussion: Mr. Friedmann called the meeting to order after getting a quorum at 7: 22 PM. Mr. Friedmann then Introduced Anna Ornstein to the room. She is a holocaust survivor the board would like to honor at tonight's meeting. Mr. Berman read the proclamation to Ms. Ornstein who was very excited to be here. Mr. Berman made a motion that the board approve the Certificate of Recognition for Dr. Anna Ornstein as presented. The motion was seconded by Ms. Alvarado and approved with a 5-0 vote. Dr. Ornstein then gave a speech to the room with regards to the town dealing with current hateful graffiti Issues. Her main advice to the board and the town was that keeping silent will not work. There needs to be resistance to these hateful incidents and we need to stand by each other no matter what. Discuss Action Items from Stakeholders Meeting Mr. Friedmann explained he came up with 4 proposed action items with regards to ideas from the stakeholders meeting. Action item 1 would create a new human rights board in partnership with the School Committee pending their approval. Action item 2 would appoint a point person to oversee and coordinate the protocols for reporting acts of hate or hate speech. Page 1 1 Action item 3 would require anti-defamation league training for the Select Board, Town Staff and police and fire departments. Action Item 4 would create a policy for Ethnic and Religious Observances and have the town and select board adopt this polity. ' Mr. Ensminger expressed concerns regarding the board's ability to create a new human rights board. Elaine Webb, Chair of the School Committee noted action item 1 requires collaboration with the School Committee but they have not seen this yet. She also noted we have a Police Chief, Superintendent and Town Manager working together to address these issues. She feels the School Committee doesn't need to change its policy to participate. The roles/ staff that are involved already are involved because of their positions not because of a policy. She feels this is being rushed when we already have HRAC. Mr. Berman asked why we needed a new committee when we have HRAC. He also feels action Item 2 needs some work to include more people that should be involved in that process. Ms. Alvarado noted a new board would be independent and not under the Select Board. Mr. Berman would still like to know how this board would act different from HRAC; what would they do differently. Ms. Alvarado feels it is important to get a new board established. Mr. Halsey noted Ms. Webb brought up a good point regarding the process. We already have a process in place for reporting and dealing with hate crimes/ speech. Yes, the process could be Improved going forward but we do already have one without creating something ' new. He also suggest going to Town Meeting to create an ad-hoc committee. Mr. Ensminger agreed noting Town Meeting would be the place to do this. Mr. Berman also agreed noting they could do this Thursday night at Town Meeting with an Instructional motion. Mr. Friedmann noted Town Meeting doesn't meet often enough and suggested creating the board now because they have the ability to. Ms. Alvarado feels going through Town Meeting will be too slow and since the board has the authority to do this, they should now. Gina McCormick noted a lot of towns do this as collaboration between Select Boards and School Committees. Bill Brown spoke up and felt very strongly about limiting free speech noting the board needs to change the wording of the document because they cannot take away his free speech. A member of the community spoke up after noting Mr. Brown has a right to hate whoever but he cannot discriminate against people for the people they love or their religion or race. She noted something has to change because everything we have tried to do, in responding to the graffiti incidents, is not working. Linda Snow Dockser explained we need to figure out how to take steps to move forward. ' HRAC needs helps; it is going to take some time but we need to keep being proactive at the same time as well. - Theresa Wiggins noted she is going to start giving free education classes for parents on how to talk to their kids about inclusion and diversity. Page 1 2 Dr. Ornstein loved that idea noting we need education for not only our children but for our parents on how to teach their children as well. Mark Dockser note we need to get past all this procedural talk and talk substance. Mr. Friedmann feels the board needs to take action as soon as possible and asked for the feel of the board. After much debate on how to go about creating this board and who should be a part of it the board voted the following: Mr. Berman moved that, An ad-hoc committee shall be created to help establish a Human Rights Board and explore the recommendations that resulted from the Stakeholders' meeting on Sept. 25, 2018. The following representatives shall be invited to participate in this ad hoc committee. a. Up to two members of the School Committee (pending School Committee approval), or their designee(s); b. Up to two members of the Select Board, or our designee(s); C. Up to two members of the Human Relations Advisory Committee; and d. Up to three members from non-governmental groups that focus of Human Rights e. Town Manager or designee f. Superintendent or designee g. Public Safety representative h. Board of Library Trustees representative i. METC^ representative j. Clergy representative. The ad-hoc committee will sunset on November 30, 2019. The motion was seconded by Ms. Alvarado and approved with a 5-0 vote. The board then discussed who would be the two members from the Select Board to take on this task. It was a 5-0 vote that approved Ms. Alvarado and Mr. Berman as the Select Board appointees. Liaison Reports Mr. Ensminger noted the FCC just proposed a new rule that may limit funding of local access channels by cable companies. The town can send in a response to the matter if they wish. Ms. Alvarado made a motion to approve Mr. Ensminger to craft a response on the board's behalf. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a 5-0 vote. Ms. Alvarado attended another CPDC meeting that was discussing Meadow Brook's plans. Mr. Berman thanked our Veterans Agent Kevin Bohmiller for putting on another fantastic Veterans Day ceremony. He then reminded everyone that 'Shop the Block' is November 29. L Mr. Friedmann mentioned having a liaison for every major construction project to improve communication for the residents. Page 1 3 Review RSLL Gift for Sturgis Park Mr. Ensminger noted the Recreation Committee met tonight and Reading Softball Little League made a presentation to them on how they would like to make improvements to Sturgis Park. The neighbors are supportive of the project. Soccer wanted a short fence to ' allow them a better playing area. Ultimately, they approved the gift. Ms. Alvarado made a motion to extend the date on their original motion from their last meeting. Mr. Ensminger seconded the motion. Emily Sisson, Chair of the Recreation, noted the length of the fence Is Important as the original design would eliminate the ability to use it as a soccer field. The recreation committee authorized Jenna, the Recreation Administrator, to move forward as she found appropriate for the needs of the field. The board voted on the motion 5-0 to approve. Mr. Brown suggested naming the softball field after Frank Driscoll instead of the road name change that was originally suggested. A000intments of Boards and Committees The VASC met recently to interview new candidates for applications received for the Board of health and Cemetery trustees. There were 2 candidates for each board and enough open spots to fit them all. As recommended by the VASC; Ms. Alvarado made a motion to: • appoint Carl McFadden to a full member on the Cemetery Board of Trustees with a term ending 6/30/2020 • appoint Caitlin Salmon to a full member on the Cemetery Board of ' Trustees with a term ending 6/30/2019 • appoint Eleanor Shonkoff to a full member on the Board of Health with a term ending 6/30/2019 • appoint Lara Romanowski to an associate member on the Board of Health with a term ending 6/30/2020 The motion was seconded by Mr. Ensminger and approved with a 5-0 vote. Liquor Licenses Town Counsel member Ivria Fried was present to explain the Meadow Brook issue at hand. Mr. Friedmann recused himself for this part of the meeting because his children work there. Ms. Fried explained that we are here tonight to renew the annual liquor licenses. The board has to renew licenses as is if they submitted their renewals in a timely manner signed by an authorized representative. Any changes to licenses would not be done at this time. The emalls the board has been seeing regarding treating Meadow Brook liquor license differently than a veteran club license. Right now the Town just has one club license. If you did want to break club licenses down more, you could go through the process to do that. But at this time you only can renew Meadow Brook's license as is. Meadow Brook is going through some construction and once they are done they will have to come before you then for an alteration or premises for their liquor license. Mr. Halsey asked how the board could look Into getting package store beer and wine ' licenses. Right now they only have package store all alcohol licenses. Lt. Detective Rich Abate noted all the establishments did just pass a compliance test recently. Page 1 4 Ms. Alvarado moved that the Select Board approve the All Alcoholic Package Store Liquor Licenses for: • HT Reading Liquors LLC d/b/a Baystate Liquors, 345 Main Street • Raksha, Inc. d/b/a Square Liquors, 13 High Street • Jay and Ricky, Inc. d/b/a Ricky's Liquor, 214 Main Street • Anstasi Brookline Inc. d/b/a Reading Fine Wine and Spirits, 25 Walkers Brook Drive • Kajal and Kevin LLC d/b/a The Liquor Junction, One General Way • Pamplemousse Inc. d/b/a Pamplemousse, 26 Haven Street for a term expiring December 31, 2019 subject to the following conditions: All Bylaws, Rules and Regulations of the Town of Reading and of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts shall be followed, and subject to a satisfactory inspection of the establishment by the Town Manager or his designee. And Moved that the Select Board approve the All Alcoholic Club Liquor Licenses for: • Meadow Brook Golf Corp. of Reading, MA d/b/a Meadow Brook Golf Club, 292 Grove Street • Home Building Corp. d/b/a Knights of Columbus, 11 Sanborn Street • Reading Veterans' Association, Inc. d/b/a American Legion Post 62, 37 Ash Street for a term expiring December 31, 2019 subject to the following conditions: All Bylaws, Rules and Regulations of the Town of Reading and of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts shall be followed, and subject to a satisfactory inspection of the establishment by the Town Manager or his designee. And moved that the Select Board approve the All Alcoholic Restaurant Liquor Licenses for: • Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza of Reading LLC d/b/a Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza, 48 Walkers Brook Drive • Mecom, Inc. d/b/a Cafe Capri, 355 Main Street • CAC Foods, Inc. d/b/a Venetian Moon Restaurant, 680 Main Street • Pepper Dining Inc. d/b/a Chili's Grill & Bar, 70 Walkers Brook Drive • The Boland Group III, LLC d/b/a Fuddruckers, 50 Walkers Brook Drive • RARE Hospitality International, Inc. d/b/a Longhorn Steak House, 39 Walkers Brook Drive • Boston Foods Inc. d/b/a Zucca Italian Restaurant and Bar, 601 Main Street • Unagi Servers Inc. d/b/a Biltmore & Main Bar and Grill, 530 Main Street • KOK, Inc. d/b/a Oye's, 26 Walkers Brook Drive • Bistro Concepts, Inc. d/b/a Fuscilli's Cucina, 107 Main Street • RKR Corporation d/b/a Bunratty Tavern, 622 Main Street for a term expiring December 31, 2019 subject to the following conditions: All Bylaws, Rules and Regulations of the Town of Reading and of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts shall be followed, and subject to a satisfactory inspection of the establishment by the Town Manager or his designee. The motion was seconded by Mr. Berman and approved with a 4-0 vote. Page 1 5 Minutes Ms. Alvarado moved that the board approve the meeting minutes of September 25th, 2018 as amended. The motion was seconded by Mr. Ensminger and approved with a 5-0 vote. Ms. Alvarado moved that the board approve the meeting minutes of October 2hd, 2018 as amended. The motion was seconded by Mr. Ensminger and approved with a 5-0 vote. Executive Session At 10:21 PM Ms. Alvarado moved to go into Executive Session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining and that the Chair declare that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the body, and not to return to open session. The motion was seconded by Mr. Ensminger and approved with the following roll call vote: Halsey - yes Ensminger - Yes Alvarado - Yes Berman - Yes Friedmann - Yes Page 1 6