HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-09-09 Council on Aging Minuteso� orxeb
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Meeting Minutes
Board - committee - Commission - Council:
Council on Aging
Date: 2024-09-09
Building:
Address:
Purpose:
Attendees: Members - Present:
Time: 6:30 PM
Location: Berger Room
Session:
Version:
r<ECEIVEU
"MAIN CLERK
2625 JUI,_ 14 AM 9 4 1
Joan Coco, Rosemarie DeBenedetto, John Parsons, Karen Pinette, Marilyn
Shapleigh, Jean Prato, Nancy Ziemlak, Karen Janowski, Tony Lionetta, John
Saczynskl
Members - Not Present:
Karen Fotino, Deborah Small, Linda Connors, Sally Hoyt
Others Present:
Genevieve Wood, Mark Dockser, Donna Brewer, Joanne Wooldridge,
AnneMarie Bourque, Chris Kowaleskl, Nora Bucko
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Marilyn Shapleigh
Topics of Discussion:
Note: Meeting was conducted via a Zoom video conference call, as well as in person (Open
Session). Zoom link to meeting:
https.Ilus06web.zwm. us/j/827983035937pwd=PebQax6b77MF91ehVHrjdBUCsynkna. J
Meeting Called to Order by Nancy Ziemlak at 6:30 p.m.
Acceptance of Minutes: Accepted minutes for 7/22/24, 7/31/24, and 8/8124.
Select Board, RECAL, and RECAL PBC Liaison Updates: (Mark Dockser) ReCALC made its
final presentation to the Select Board Meeting; John Sasso did a great job presenting and
the presentation was well received. It includes a strong recommendation from the COA and
ReCAL that Symonds Way be selected as the new center's location. Next steps were
discussed: ReCALC sun-setted as of August 31". The Permanent Building Committee Is
now the lead on development. Nancy Ziemlak and Mark Dockser have been appointed as
temporary members for the purpose of the RECAL project. An Owner's Project Manager
must be in place before work on the schematic plans begins; Interviews are underway.
After an opinion Is formed by the Permanent Building Committee, It will make Its
recommendation on location to the Select Board. After Select Board location approval, the
schematic drawings (which are already funded) can begin --- hopefully by October. The
schematic drawings phase will take about 3 months (hopefully done by December/January)
and provide much more detailed cost estimates as well as more info on how the building
could be used, etc. Then we can share this info with the community. As much as can be
shared with the community, Input received from the community (we've had quite a bit
already, but there's quite a bit to go), that's what we do to put this together and take it to
Town Meeting and then to a taxpayer Vote. Pending negotiations for the OPM, Mark
believes it will be funded by the Permanent Building Committee with funds left from last
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year, TBD. At this point we are hiring an OPM only through the schematic drawings phase,
not through full construction. It will require going to Town Meeting to obtain any additional
funds for subsequent activities, and that Is typical for a project. In addition, Pickleball as a
great sport for 60+ (as well as younger) is under discussion and at some point the timeline
for how this discussion should proceed will need to be addressed.
Friends of Reading Seniors 60+ Update: (Joanne Wooldridge and AnnMarie Bourque):
Incorporated in February. Did a presentation at the Pleasant Street Center and had a table
at the Town Falre. Official launch on October Irt at Post 1917, by Invitation, and the COA is
invited. Hope is that these people will become sponsors and influencers in town to help
promote the Friends of Reading Seniors 60+. Joanne distributed a brochure they have
develope&and encouraged all to go to their Facebook page and share a "like". Their efforts
are being very well received, with a high level of gratitude for having residents age 60+
finally recognized and supported in Reading. They are also pulling together a website. An
article has been published In the Reading Post and Reading Recap; it will also be published
in the Reading Chronicle.
MVES Report: (Karen Fotino) Deferred.
Elder @ Human Services (EHS) Report and Trust Fund and ARPA Update and Noxious Odor
Remediation Update: (Chris Kowaleski and Jenna Wood)
• Review of the Elder Services Report included In the COA meeting packet. FY25 is off
to a really good start, participation numbers are even higher than this time last year
(which exceeded last year's goal). Next week the new AV system Is being installed
in the Great Room. All the State Reps are now doing office hours at the PSC.
• Elder and Human Services has partnered with the Public Health Department to hire a
new nurse, Olivia Bartolomey "Liv". She will be at the PSC for several hours in the
afternoon, Monday through Thursday, as well as Friday morning. The remainder of
the workweek, she will be at Town Hall.
• Facilities has rerouted the exhaust system to the hvac system In the attic at the PSC
to locate the exhaust further away from the intake. When the heating season
begins, we will test the effectiveness of this In eliminating the odor.
• Chris and the PSC staff are trying to reduce the plastic water bottle use at the PSC.
The hope is to eliminate them. FIrst step has been to have Facilities install a water
bottle filler. They are also ordering pitchers with lids and jugs and paper or washable
cups to put on the tables. Also encouraging residents to bring their own water
bottles from home.
• Coffee hour after Best Exercise Is being arranged on Fridays In response to
participant request. All enjoyed the opportunity to socialize. All are welcome.
• Looking at alternative, larger locations for big events like holiday dinners. The
challenge is that when events are run at two locations simultaneously, staff runs thin
and logistics can be complicated. They are also looking at how to make best use of
volunteers to help. Kudos to the staff!
• The Trust Fund report is in the COA Meeting Packet. Please send any questions to
Jenna so she can direct them to Diane Morabito to be answered. The question was
raised as to where on the report we will see the funds available from accrued
interest. Jenna suggested that we ask Diane to come to an upcoming COA meeting
to explain.
• Around $165,000 is remaining in ARPA funds at the moment, some for programming
and supplemental programming space. Looking at vendor contracts to commit some
of it. Also looking to the Select Board for advice on any remaining supplemental
programming space funds. Funds must be encumbered by 12/31/2024 and spent by
12/31/2026. The intent is to have the $165,000 encumbered by 12/31/2024, but
the best use of the $80,000 supplemental programming excess needs to be
considered. Topic will be placed on the COA October agenda. How we will cover
costs after ARPA funds end (e.g., charging participants) will also be on the agenda in
October.
Page 12
Donna Brewer (Town Council) - Campaign and Political Finance taw, Ethics, etc and what
the COA members can and cannot do related to the new senior center;
• Important distinction. There are two laws the COA needs to pay attention to In
supporting a new senior center. One is Chapter 55 of the General taws - The
Campaign and Political Finance taw. The other is General taws Chapter 268A, the
General Ethics taw.
• All of us should be receiving a Primer on the General Ethics law from our Town Clerk.
It specifies that generally what we cannot do under the Ethics law is to use our
official position in any way to benefit somebody outside of the town's Interest or use
your position in a way that is a path that somebody who is not a town official could
use In a way that a non -town official couldn't.
• The reason why we need to know this is because the Campaign and Political Finance
Law does not reach what public resources or public outreach that we do for town
meeting. So there are certain things that the Council on Aging can do as members
(? Also COA as a whole?) In support of a Town Meeting Warrant Article that we
cannot do for a ballot question. So, for example, can we use public funds to ask
voters to support an article at Town Meeting? Yes. We can do that. However it must
be absolutely distinct from the Ballot Question.
• A summary of Donna's narrative follows:
o So, when the Town Meeting precedes the election, you cannot advocate for a
Position that's on a Ballot Question. You could only summarize or support the
Warrant Article, but It can't In any way mention or discuss or even refer to the
Town election that will come up afterwards.
o So, what If your Town Meeting follows the election? In that case you wouldn't
be publishing any Information about the Town Warrant Article until after the
election has occurred. Now I'm not sure that that is going to happen.
Typically the appropriation is made first at a Town Meeting vote and then the
election follows it, but keep in mind that distinction between what you can do
for Town Meeting and what you can do for an Election thatll be Important
going forward.
o But frankly most of this is going to be a joint process. That is we are going to
be looking to get support for the appropriation at Town Meeting and for the
Exclusion of the Debt at the Election. What does that mean? In general,
what you can do is you can support the Town Meeting Vote and the Debt
Exclusion question. You can take a position on that as a Council on Aging.
You can also take a position on that as Council on Aging Members. What we
cannot do is something that was suggested which is publish Flyers or some
kind of outreach and send It to every voter. We cannot use public resources
for that kind of mass mailing.
o You cannot as Council on Aging Members you cannot get involved with any
organization through its fund raising. So for example, if our Friends Group
wanted to send out support, try to raise money to do a mass mailing to all the
voters In support of a new building and they needed funds. Of course they
are going to ask for funds to do that. You cannot be Involved in that fund
raising activity either as a Council on Aging Member or as an individual name.
So, for example, if they wanted to publish an ad In the newspaper asking
people to send and provide money to the Friends in order to support efforts to
get the Town Meeting Warrant Article passed or the Debt Exclusion passed,
you could not be on that advertisement in the newspaper even in your
Individual name.
o Can you publish a letter in the newspaper In support of it? You can if it is just
under your individual name but not using your official title. So you could not
Identify yourself In that letter as a member of the Council on Aging.
o Can you use public buildings for meetings in support of it? Yes, the Council on
Aging can use Its Senior Center for meetings to support the Warrant Article or
the Debt Exclusion question. However, that space needs to be made
available to anybody who would like to hold a meeting that would be opposed
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to the Senior Center. So long as it's equally available to views on all sides of
the question, then public building space can be made available.
o Can an elected official use staff to analyze the effect of the project? Yes, but
the analysis can only be distributed at an official meeting. Again there are
things that you could do that you could publish through official meetings. You
can make Flyers available at an official meeting like the one you're holding
now, so that members of the public if they attend your meetings they can
take it away with them. You can make it available to members of the public
that ask for it. And you can put it on your website. But it cannot be otherwise
distributed generally so long as it has been generated and printed using
public resources.
o Donna will put together FAQs with these examples after we finish tonight.
o A lot of the questions she is discussing also apply to the Killam School
Committee.
o Question... say a COA member as an Individual wanted to fund lawn signs.
Could she or he do it? Yes, you can use your own personal money to fund
lawn signs. What you can't do is participate In a fund-raising activity of some
outside group and they're the ones who raise the money to print the lawn
signs. You can do it yourself personally, Yes. Question: so, I couldn't ask the
Friends for the money but I could give the money myself? Answer: Yes.
o The Trust Funds available to the COA are considered Public Charitable Funds.
And typically gifts that are given to us are given for the purpose of some kind
of ... usually they will say they are to be used for programming or they're to
be used for perhaps buying equipment or supplies or something but typically
the gifts are not given unrestricted. Even if they were given unrestricted
though, you could not use It for this purpose because they are considered
Public Charitable Funds.
o Our message is going to have to get out through official channels, not
through mass mailings.
o What about at our booth at a public event. Q: Can we have Flyers out for
people to come by and pick up? Answer: No. We cannot. Again. This is back
to distributing it publicly disseminating it that way to voters and that is not
permitted.
o Q: Our role is to advocate, Inform, and educate. So in the past the COA and
other committees at these booths, they have flyers about their committee
and what their committee does and things that need to be done. But you're
saying we cannot pass out any educational material? Answer: "About this
project." Q: Can you be more specific .. about what project? About voting?
Answer: Yes. So again, you have to keep the focus Is on a matter that's going
to come up before Town Meeting and will be a matter on a Ballot. If it were
just a Town Meeting Warrant Article, remember the Chapter 55 doesn't apply
to that so you could put out materials just about a Town Meeting
appropriation that you were seeking money for something. However, in this
case, our Town Warrant Article is going to be contingent upon the passage of
a Debt Exclusion Question which implicates the Political Campaign and
Finance taw which means that you cannot publicly disseminate information to
the general public In support of that project. That Is what the SJC has told us
and that's what the law has been Interpreted to mean and it is indeed
frustrating.
o Q: But we are not looking for funds. We are not asking for people to donate
funds. We are telling people that much research has been done and the senior
center is too small for the number of people in programs that need to happen
to service Reading residents. But what I think what I'm hearing you say is we
can't even say that? Answer: Correct, because that is in support of a new
Senior Center. You can, even if it's as factually objective as you can make it
what you are trying to do, the only way that information can be disseminated
It through an official meeting, in response to a request for Information, or
disseminated at a meeting that you specifically hold to discuss the project.
So Mark had talked about you doing community outreach meetings where you
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are going to have a meeting to invite people to attend to hear about the
project. You than can talk about the project, share information with the
members who show up at that meeting, that's going to be one of our official
meetings. But what we can't do is a general outreach of dissemination of
information to the general public using public resources and public funds. Q:
But we weren't using public resources or public funds. I mean the flyers aren't
printed by the town, they aren't paid for by the town. Q: What can we do?
Q: Our purpose is to advocate for seniors. But how can we go about doing
that? We have all these restrictions? Q: 1 think at one point when we met,
we could use official channels like the town website? Can you go into that a
little bit? Because we can utilize that right? Answer: Yes you can utilize that.
And the video we put together is on the town website on our page to explain
about why we need a new senior center, the limitations we've had, support
for It. We can do that. We can do that advocacy through town sites, through
town resources. But not outside of official meetings or the official website.
Q: Can we do it through RCN? The video showing on RCN? Answer: No.
Q: So again, can you tell us what we can do? We do want to advocate for the
seniors in the community. And for us that means advocating for the building
but how do we make the differentiation? Answer: So what you need to do is
you're going to have informational meetings that you're going to set up where
you're going to be inviting people to come. Q: When we're saying
Informational meetings, could it be similar to a campaign meeting? Inviting
the town? Inviting people? And showing them the need and all the stats on
why a senior is needed? Answer: Yes. Q? But what if we wanted to do a
lawn sign? Answer: If you go to Staples and you print up lawn signs with
your own money, you can do that. Q: And not discuss it at a meeting?
Answer: You can discuss it. The question is public resources and public funds
... that's what you can't do. No, If you are talking at a meeting like you are
now, and saying "hey you know I'm going to be printing up lawn signs using
my own money and I'm going to share it with my neighbors and if any of the
rest of you want to do that go ahead and you can do It too". You have a first
amendment right to use your own resources. What you cannot do is use your
position as a member of the Council on Aging to gain access to public funds or
public resources that others would not have access to.
Q: And If we were to do lawn signs, are we restricted on the text of how It
reads If we were doing It privately? Answer: If you are doing it privately, you
can put whatever you like on your lawn sign. But you can't put Council on
Aging or anything or our website or anything like that. Exactly... it's got to be
totally private for you.
Q: Part of our obligation Is to educate the community and to inform. So, if we
put out mailings that said do you know why senior centers are valuable and
summarized key things and if we put out things that said do you know what
services are provided by our senior center, those things are still all right?
Answer: If what you're describing doesn't have any mention of a new senior
center and it doesn't have any mention of a vote or anything, you can do
that. And in fact I think you already do that through your newsletter. And you
make your newsletter available to everybody. Q: And there have been
mailings from the Council as well. But we could continue to do pure
informational educating people about the aging process, need for social
services in general and things like that. We can do things like that? Answer:
ABS (? Absolutely?). Q: Would we be able to talk about the statistics and
say currently we serve X number of people but there's a need to serve
another Y number of people. So can we, It's basically a way of saying, data
saying that the current senior center is too small for the number of programs
and people interested in participating ... we're not saying "vote"...we're saying
here's the data ... if you as a town resident are happy that the poor seniors
don't have enough space and we have to meet out In the clubhouse in the
back with the fireplace ... Q: and people are dying of loneliness ... Q: can we
state the facts saying here's the current situation but not ever come out and
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say we're looking at a new senior center? Answer: No. Unfortunately. The
Office of Campaign and Political Finance Is just really rigid on separating out
the advocacy you can do as a council through official resources and what you
can disseminate to the general public and that is the line that they draw.
o Q: What kind of restriction would there be on the coffee hours we're running?
Answer: You can talk about it at the coffee hours. You cannot just make
Information available at the coffee hours like a Flyer for them to pick up.
o Q: So we've been publishing letters to the editor. Are those allowed? Answer:
As the Council on Aging, we can take a position. As the Department you can
take a position. Publishing In the newspaper is allowed because we are not
using any public resources to do that.
o Q: So, can we do a mailing if it Is not using public funding? E.g. it is funded
by a private individual's check. Answer: Then what you have to be careful
about, and I will not be advising on this, is that people who engage in
spending money on matters that come before Town Elections then have to go
and look at Chapter 55 and see if the Campaign and Political Finance rules are
going to require that some kind of filings be made with the Office of
Campaign and Political Finance. So just because people are spending money
privately doesn't mean that they don't have obligations to the State to report
on the money they are spending.
o Q: If the COA sends something to the newspaper, does that have to go
through the Town first? Or can they send it directly? Answer: The Council can
send it directly. That's a matter for the law. Whether Town policy would like
It to go through the Select Board is a different matter. But certainly the law
is not going to require that it go through the Select Board.
o Council is always available to review anything we have a question about
before we do it. And even if the answer is "no', they will work with us to see
if there is a way we can accomplish our goal.
o Q: As Individuals, attending a large group activity, making it clear that you
are speaking as an individual not representing any group, can we update
them about what's going on... even using a lot of statistics on what we want
to achieve for a senior center? Answer: Sure as an Individual. And as a
private individual you can ask for support. You are not using your official
position.
o Q: Can you fund raise as an individual standing up before a group? Answer:
No. Because we cannot divorce the fact that you are a Council member.
o Q: As an Individual can you ask people in a group if they would like to put out
a lawn sign? Answer: If you printed the lawn sign with private funds, you
can distribute them, but you cannot tell people to pick them up at a COA
meeting. Also, can speak to people at a Senior Center event, but you cannot
distribute your private law signs to them at the Senior Center. And at that
event at the Senior Center you cannot ask people If they would like to have a
lawn sign. You might be able to distribute them outside. But we are best
served by trying to preserve clean lines between our Individual I'
amendment rights separate from our roles as COA members.
o Q: At the Town Faire, we shared information about the senior center and the
process that is expected to go to Town Meeting in the spring. We did not ask
anyone to vote or support a view. Is that allowed? Answer: That's getting
pretty close to the line of what the Office of Campaign and Political Finance
says you can't do. Q: But there was no money involved in printing the Flyer
with the QR code on it. Q: Even Pleasantries ... those are free ... is there any
Issue distributing? Q: if we printed up flyers without use of public funds and
went to the Burbank Hockey rink (a non-public building) and distributed the
Flyer to Reading Residents without mention of our COA role, is that ok?
Answer: Yes. So long as It's divorced from any mention of the COA.
o Q: Can spouses of a COA member do anything they want? Answer: Yes. As
long as the spouse does not Identify himself as the spouse of a COA member.
o The League of Women Voters document that comes out before elections Is not
restricted because the League of Women Voters is not a public body.
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o The Friends of Reading Seniors 60+ can also do a lot of things but they
should check to see if they need to do any State filings.
o Q: Can we send the video to Town Meeting members ahead of the Warrant?
Answer: No unless there is no reference to the Warrant being contingent on
the Ballot Question. (i.e. limit it to the Town Meeting warrant) Really tricky to
separate this. - talk to Counsel on how to do this.
o The Office on Campaign and Political Finance website has a terrific publication
that helps explain all these issues. Highly recommended.
Chris Kowaleski recommended that we write down all ideas and send them to Donna.
MCOA Conference Attendance. Motion made to allocate up to $860 from Burbank for
COA members to attend the COA conference on the Cape in October. All approved.
W-9 (Jenna Wood): If you are requesting more than one reimbursement and It's
repetitive, you are required to provide the town with a W-9. It's only an expense to the
town, so no tax implication for us. Just puts us in the system to be reimbursed. Must
provide a receipt and take a tax reimbursement form to the vendor because we can't be
reimbursed for the tax if It's charged.
New Senior Center Outreach Discussion deferred.
Motion to adjourn at 8:35. All in favor.
RCN Video of the full meeting:
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