HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-02-08 Select Board Minutes Town of Reading
Meeting Minutes
Board - Committee - Commission - Council:
Select Board
Date: 2020-02-08 Time: 9:00 AM
Building: Location:
Address: Session:
Purpose: Brainstorming Session Version: Final
Attendees: Members - Present:
Vanessa Alvarado, John Halsey, Mark Dockser, Andy Friedmann, Anne
Landry
Members - Not Present:
Others Present:
Business Administrator Jayne Wellman and Town Manager Bob LeLacheur
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By:
Topics of Discussion:
At 9:18 am the Reading Select Board called to order.
A meeting packet for February 8,2020 meeting contained the following:
Attached please find two documents from Jayne (copied here)—the first are her notes from your
discussion at your previous meeting(document A below),and the second is her lightly edited
version of same (document B below).
Your meeting on Saturday will be 9am-noon at the Masonic Hall 110 Haven street(same
building as recent Veteran's Day breakfast). Doors will be open earlier—thanks to John for
working out this arrangement,your help is much appreciated. I will attend and record the
Minutes.
The following instructions from Jayne:
"Please come prepared with two nuggets about yourself that no one else present knows.
Amusing is good but not required. You will each get two index cards and then I will read each
item to the group and let you guess who this is. It's an amusing, relaxing thing to get in the right
frame of mind. Worked very well with Wakefield.
Then the discussion will surround the lists attached and be organized into these areas:
1. Finances&Revenue
2. Organization&Training
3. Infrastructure & Land
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4. Planning
5. Climate/Risk
6. Communications& Outreach
7. Strategy
8. Policy& Bylaws
Then we will break it down into what is short term and what is long term and who is responsible
—staff or SB. THEN we will prioritize.
After Saturday's session I will summarize and reformat. Ultimately the SB should have a list of
goals to start working on and an idea of how to start the ball rolling on a variety of initiatives(or
if they should even work on some of them). Others may be better achieved delegated to staff or
other appointed boards."
Document A:
Select Board Brainstorming Session:
Mark Dockser:
1.Like to consider the Community Preservation Act for the town.
2. Create point-persons for priorities and projects as we move forward.
3. Community enter into a discussion about a community center/senior center. It comes
from thinking about potential options looking at town owned lands, sources of funds
(veterans affairs, free cash, CPA, etc).
4. Town, Schools,RMLD, library board of trustees, with FINCOM all elected boards
meeting in joint sessions regularly. More vision-growth mindset and not just tactical with
the budget (NOT TO SUPPLANT—TO ADD)
5. Energy—electric vehicles in the town fleet, infrastructure downtown, energy efficiency in
systems (HVAC).
6. Get to the end of the Oakland Rd land discussion.
7. Find a way for our meetings to work more efficiently—with open ideas, presentations in
advance, consent agenda,make time more efficient
8. Improve community service feedback—how to give feedback to the residents and
businesses asking questions.
9. Anonymous polls to get feedback on how we are doing, and how we can improve,no
requirement to identify oneself(respondents).
10. Like to set long term economic goals and housing development goals for the town.What
is the plan that meets the needs of the residents and the businesses going forward.
11. How do we help residents and businesses thrive in this community?What role can the
Select Board play in this space?
Andrew Friedmann:
1. Respect for volunteers a. More on liaison roles
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2. Transparency a. Board work with the TM to increase the way decisions are made
in town-so that as much as possible the residents can see the decision making process and
there is a record.
3. Capital plan: community engagement in that process, solicit input, and decrease
surprises.
4. Try to become a Green Community-that will allow us obtain some funding.
5.This board and every board should start with the basics of governance-this goes
to the onboarding manual-what our powers and duties are,otherwise we risk not using
them sufficiently, or using them inappropriately.
Anne Landrv:
1. Goal of encouraging an inclusive community
2.We should keep on our radar screen-questions of school funding. a. School/town
spending, chp 70, funding full day kindergarten-be in conversation with other elected
boards and fincom as well.
3. Planning around our big capital needs: DPW, Schools,Senior Center.
4. CPA adoption?
5. Economic Development broadly
6. Encouraging efficiencies in Town a. Town v RMLD
7. Setting goals and holding ourselves accountable
8. Accountability for ourselves: closing the loop for ourselves in responding to
residents and also how we ask TM and staff to look into things.
9. Reframing our liaison responsibilities-worth a larger discussion but interested in
seeing the liaison as a resource to other boards, commissions, and committees vs attending
10. Sustainability and becoming a green community
11. Open meeting law training for all boards, commissions and committees.
loon Halsey:
1. Self-Accountability:improve it with each other and to the public.
2. Property evaluations-what do we own, how are we using it,what will it look like in ten
years, and it should be open ended (should we change it, keep it, etc)? (Camp Rice Moody)
3. Step away and have a holistic evaluation of parking. Specifically, downtown-changed
successfully and productively what the state is looking for, what residents are looking for,
limitations-with everything on the table and what it might look like in the future.
Residential and commercial mix-bring fresh eyes
4. Seniors: strongly recommend that members continue to visit the Pleasant Street center.
They need representation from the board.
a. Survey the seniors for what they really want in a senior center, facilities,
programs, and services.
b. Community center: hear often a teen or community center-what does that mean
and what does that look like? Survey residents to explore this idea.
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5. Evaluate across the board how we handle recreation (looking at different entities
involved)
i.Facilities
ii. Opportunities
ill. Management
6.Realistic expectation of liaison responsibilities across the board.
7. Look at the endowment funds that are managed by a committee and study how to
proceed-and are there resources there?
Vanessa Alvarado
Economic development
1. Potentially moving the TM evaluation to follow the election cycle.
2. Gender balance on boards, committees, commissions-from a recruitment perspective to
identify if there is room for improvement.
3. Historical demo delay of 6 months.. should it be revisited?
4.Board would benefit from understanding our arrangement with the MWRA better
5. Free Cash-our use and working with FINCOM.
6. Reverse of 911 for text and phone calls
7. Look into how the town can be LGBTQ+friendly?Bathrooms, pride flag
8. Partnering with RMLD on infrastructure and sustainability issues as needed.
9. Property Evaluation-what are we going to do with it.
10.Meeting structure: format, frequency, how long people talk
11. Liaison responsibilities
12. Communications:how we communicate information out to the public? We can do
better.
13. Senior needs,beyond the senior center-do better soliciting feedback.
14.How do we facilitate communication between the BCCs
15. Climate change-field space-winters are going longer, and it rains now more in the
spring than it used to impacting seasonal sports and activities
16. Getting into the community more and being visible. What else can we do to get out
there more?
17. How accessible are we from an ADA perspective? Sensitive to the needs of people who
have additional needs.
18. Sign bylaws-should we reconsider?
19. Recreation space and management needs further evaluation
20.Veterans housing-and that falls into the capital projects and land discussions.
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Mark:Communications: take care of issues internally-not an open structure,being open to
issues we face, reporting them, and addressing them. Ie: Hate activities, and how to address
it. Progress is being made and more discussion.
Ann:under fostering an inclusive community:Public lighting of a menorah.Being more
inclusive of winter/December holidays.
Andy: Short,mid, and long tern economic development.What do we want the town to
look like in 5-10-20 years. Do better/advocating for residents rights when it comes to
development in their neighborhood, and that ties with economic development. Doing all
we can to advocate for the residents.
Vanessa: working with the state delegation more-is it something we want to do as
individuals or as a board (lobbying our state delegates...)
Struggle to meet with Town Counsel as a board unless it is for specific issues-Open
meeting law for executive session beyond what is already allowed.
John Halsey: several times we should work more closely with fincom or with the other
elected boards. FINCOM and School Committee have more influence on the budget. It
would be nice to find a way to have more input onto the financial stability of the
budget/town. More of a long term impact for the SB. Valuable input and direction and it
has a voice-that is the people's voice. Working well the School Committee and other
engaged boards. Make that clearer.
Document B:
Edited Select Board Goals
Mark Dockser:
1.Consider Community Preservation Act(CPA) adoption.
2. Create'point-persons' for priorities and projects.
3.Discussion of Community Center and/or Senior Center. a. Identify options from town-
owned lands
b. Identify sources of funding
4. New Joint Sessions of elected boards-SB,School, RMLD, Library Trustees,etc.with
FINCOM.
5. Energy efficiency in town fleet,infrastructure, downtown,facilities.
6. Oakland Rd land discussion.
7. Efficient Meetings-consent agendas, presentations in advance
8. Improve communications responding to residents' and business' questions.
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9.Anonymous polls/surveys soliciting feedback on town and board services.
10. Development of long-term economic goals and housing goals.
11. Role of SB in helping residents and businesses thrive in Reading?
12. Communications-transparency around internal issues.
Andrew Friedmann:
1.Respect for volunteers.
2. More work on Liaison roles.
3.Transparency-around decision making process with SB and Town Manager.
4. Transparency for Capital Plan-solicit community engagement.
5. Pursue Green Community Status.
6.Training and On-boarding for elected and appointed boards.
7. Economic Development Vision for 5, 10, and 20 years.
8.Improve resident advocacy with neighborhood development.
Anne Landry:
1.Fostering an Inclusive Community.
2. Working with School Committee to fund full day K and support educational funding.
3.Capital Planning for DPW, Schools,Senior Center.
4. Adoption of CPA.
5. Economic Development planning.
6. Encouraging efficiencies in town, including RMLD.
7.Setting SB goals and introducing accountability measures.
8. Improving responses to residents and working with TM and staff to review items.
9.Reframing our liaison responsibilities-resource for other boards vs attending every meeting.
10.Pursue Green Community status and sustainability.
11. Open Meeting Law training for all boards, committees, and commissions.
John Halsey:
1. Adopt SB accountability measures.
2.Property Evaluations-inventory and planning.
3.Downtown Parking-taking a holistic planning approach.
4.Seniors: Improve SB communications with Pleasant Street Center clients.
5. Survey seniors for interest in facilities, programs, and services.
6. Survey residents for interest in a Community Center.
7. Evaluate recreational resources-facilities, opportunities, management.
8. Liaison expectations.
9. Evaluating endowment funds managed by committees.
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10.Improving communication and collaboration with School Board and FINCOM.
Vanessa Alvarado:
1. Consider moving Town Manager evaluation to follow election cycle.
2. Evaluate and improve gender balance on boards.
3. Consider revisiting historical demolition delay of 6 months.
4.Improve understanding of MWRA relationship.
5. Working with FINCOM on management of Free Cash.
6.Use of Reverse 911 for text and calls.
7.Improving how to make the town LGBTQ+friendly.
8. Partnering with RMLD on infrastructure and sustainability.
9.Evaluate property assets and planning for the future.
10.Improving meeting structure format.
11. Liaison responsibilities.
12.Improving communications with the public.
13. Solicit feedback on senior needs.
14. Improve communications between boards, committees, and commissions.
15. Climate change resiliency—e.g. field space.
16. Improving SB visibility in the community.
17. Evaluate ADA accessibility to the public.
18. Consider sign bylaw revision.
19. Evaluate recreation space and management.
20.Veterans housing as part of capital projects and land use discussions.
21.Increase collaboration with State delegation.
22. Evaluate Town Counsel
As the February 8, 2020 meeting began,Jayne Wellman handed out the following agenda:
February8,2o2o
9:00am Call to Order
Welcome and Introductions
Attendance
9:aoam Team Building
93sam Organizing For Success
Identifying Meta Goals
9:45am Reading Goal Mapping
Individual Goals
20:00am Evaluating Other Goals
2o:1sam Prioritizing
10:30am Break
10:4Sam Long Term Strategic Planning
11:20am Measuring Success
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11:50am Next Steps
iz:oopm Adjourn
Recommended future session:
Roles and Responsibilities of Reading Leadership
a) Charterreview
a. Select Board
b. Town Manager
b) Board Self Assessment
c) Board Ethics
d) Supporting"Team"and Building Trust
Jayne also handed out a document titled Reading Select Board:Select Board Ethics and Protocols in
draft form(attached),as well as edited goals(shown above as Document B).
Team Building
Jayne then asked participants to write two things that nobody knows about you on two index cards.
The Board took turns trying to associate what was written to the writer,generally without much luck,
but with good humor.This exercise went on for about twenty minutes.
Organizing For Success
Next Jayne turned to the Edited Select Board Goals.She asked members to classify all of their goals
into categories, by placing tabs with the goals onto white papers hanging on the wall representing the
following categories:
1) Organization&Training
2) Infrastructure &Land
3) Finance& Revenues
4) Planning
5) Climate& Risk
6) Communications&Outreach
7) Strategy
8) Policy& Bylaws
9) Other
Jayne then handed out colorful sticky dots. Members were instructed to match up colors with the most
important short-term and long-term goals.
The Board then took a fifteen minute recess.
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Reading Select Board Goal Setting
Draft
February Session
Executive Summary
February 8, 2020 the Reading Select Board gathered at the Reading Masonic Lodge with the
Town Manager, Bob LeLacheur, and Jayne Wellman, Business Administrator,to work on phase
2 of goal setting. At the time the board included Vanessa Alvarado,John Halsey, Andrew
Friedman,Anne Landry, and Mark Dockser. At a prior SB meeting each member identified a list
of goals they were interested in pursuing. At the retreat members took their goals, now
transcribed onto Post-It Notes, and placed them in one of eight categories developed by Ms.
Wellman based on the identified goals: Organization &Training,Communications&Outreach,
Infrastructure& Land, Planning, Climate& Risk,Strategy, Finances&Revenue,and Policy&
Bylaws. Each category was broken down into a grid of Long-and Short-term goals with the
responsibility of Staff or Select Board. Each member chose where to place each of their goals.
Later in the session members then reviewed the placement of all the goals and were
encouraged to use additional notes to comment on the topic(placement, disagreement,
responsibility), and also to initial goals with which they agreed. Finally, each member received
three stickers to identify their SINGLE biggest priority,their top short-term goal and their top
long-term goal. At the end of the day Five#1 priorities were identified along with four short-
term goals and five long term goals. Only 3 items out of nearly 70 goals saw any disagreement,
showing that while there are many areas the Select Board wants to work on, there is broad
agreement and collaboration among the board members.
Next steps should include identifying and sorting goals of new members, a full review and
discussion of the goals in general and confirming the priorities,then developing a strategy to
achieve primary, secondary, and tertiary goals.
SUMMARY OF GOAL PRIORITIES
#1 Priorities:
• Fostering an inclusive community(#1 priority)
• Also Planning&Strategy: Evaluate Recreational resources:facilities,opportunities
and management. (#1 Priority)
• Sustainability(#1 priority and short-term priority)
• Evaluate Property assets and planning for the future (#1 priority)
• Economic Development Vision for 5,10,20 years (#1 priority)
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Short Term Goals:
• Improve SB Visibility in the community
• Also Planning: Downtown Parking—taking a holistic approach.
• Improve communications responding to residents and business concerns(x 2)
• Survey Seniors for interest in facilities, programs, and services
Long Term Goals:
• Training and Onboarding for elected and appointed boards
• Capital Planning for DPW, Schools,Senior Center
• Develop of long-term economic goals and housing goals.
• Encouraging efficiencies in town including RMLD
• Training and Onboarding for elected and appointed boards
2. ORGANIZATION AND TRAINING
Select Board Goals:
Short Term
• Adopt SB accountability measures(M. Dockser asks for clarification).
• Create point persons for priorities and projects
• MEETINGS:
o Efficient Meetings:Consent agenda, advance presentations
o Improving meeting structure format
• LIAISONS:
o Liaison expectations
o More work on liaison roles
o Liaison Responsibilities
o Reframing our liaison responsibilities-resource for other boards vs attending meetings.
Long Term
• Evaluate Town Counsel Access
Shared Goals:
Short Term
Respect for Volunteers (I would make this ongoing and shared between staff and Select Board—
A. Landry).
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2. COMMUNICATIONS & OUTREACH
Staff Goals:
Short Term:
• Survey residents for interest in a community center
• Anonymous polls/surveys soliciting feedback on town and board services
• Improve Communications between boards, committees, and commissions
Select Board Goals:
Short term:
• Communications:transparency around internal issues(Question;what does this mean?)
• Improving communication+collaboration with school board and Fincom (Agree but need to
respect independence)
• Role of SB in helping residents and businesses thrive in Reading
• Transparency around decision making process with SB and Town Manager
Long Term:
Shared Goals:
Short Term:
• Improve resident advocacy with neighborhood development(what does this mean?AL)
•
Transparency for capital plan—solicit community engagement
• Use of reverse 911for text and calls
• Improving communications with the public
• Supporting low-income residents
• Seniors—improve communications with Pleasant Street Center clients
• Solicit feedback on senior needs
• Improving how to make the town LGTBQ+friendly
• Fostering an inclusive community(#1 priority)
3. INFRASTRUCTURE AND LAND
Select Board Goals:
Short Term
• Property evaluations—Inventory and Planning
• Oakland Road Land Discussion (A. Landry believes this is a long term goal)
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• Also Planning&Strategy: Evaluate Recreational resources : facilities,opportunities and
management. (#1 Priority)
• Discussion of Community center and/or Senior Center:options of location and funding sources.
(A. Landry commented to bring staff on as part of the conversation).
Long Term
• Evaluate recreation space and management (A. Landry notes will also need staff help).
4. PLANNING
Shared goals:
Short term:
• Recreation?(or Recreation Committee should address)
• Downtown Parking
• Evaluate Property assets and planning for the future(#1 priority)
Long term:
• Economic Development Planning
• Economic Development Vision for 5,10,20 years(#1 priority)
Select Board goals:
• New joint session of elected boards with Finance Committee
5. CLIMATE AND RISK
Shared goals:
Short term:
• Sustainability(#1 priority and long-term priority)
• Pursue Green Community Status
• Energy Efficiency in town: Fleet, Infrastructure, Downtown, Facilities
• Pursue Green Community Status&Sustainability
• Climate Change resiliency—eg—field space.
Staff Goals
Long term:
• Cyber Security
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6. STRATEGY
Select Board Goals:
Short Term
• Evaluate and improve gender balance on boards
• Setting Select Board goals and introducing accountability measures
• Recreation/Rec Committee 1^? -Point of discussion
• Increase collaboration with State Delegation
Long Term
Shared Goals:
Short Term
• Improve understanding of MWRA relationship
• Improving responses to residents and working with Town Manager and Staff to review items.
• Partnering with RMLD on infrastructure and sustainability.
7. FINANCES AND REVENUE
Staff Goals:
Long Term
• Veterans housing as part of capital projects and land use discussions.
Select Board Goals:
Short Term
• Working with FINCOM on management of free cash.
• Work with School Committee to fund full day K and support educational funding.
■Consider Adoption of Community Preservation Act
Shared Goals:
ShortTerm
• Evaluating endowment funds managed by committees.
Long Term
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S. POLICY AND BYLAWS
Staff Goals:
Short Term
• Evaluate ADA Accessibility to the Public
Long Term
• Consider sign bylaws revision
wonsider revisiting historical demolition delay of 6 months—
Select Board Goalst
Short Term
wonsider moving Town Manager evaluation to follow the election cycle—
Shared Goals:
• Open Meeting Law training for all boards,Committees, Commissions
POINTS OF DISAGREEMENT
• Consider moving Town Manager evaluation to follow the election cycle (Point of
Disagreement-1. Halsey disagreed with the concept, and A. Landry added Reconsider
timeline/process generally)
• Consider revisiting historical demolition delay of 6 months—(Point of Disagreement—J.
Halsey disagrees with the concept and who is responsible).
• Consider Adoption of Community Preservation Act (Point of Disagreement with J.
Halsey)
On a motion by Anne Landry seconded by John Halsey,the Board voted to adjourn at ia:osom
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