2019 Town Meeting - Night Six

Welcome to Night Six

(These are presented as rough notes, as I was too tired to try and edit them down.  It is now a year later, and I couldn't fix them if I tried.)

 

Test Vote
Announcements:  financial program for seniors
Meetings regarding Restorative Justice
Opportunity to Thank You - 50 years for John Worden - street sign

Reports of Committees:  none

Back to Article 58: 
Worden Amendment - flooding mitigation
Levy - delay DPW and Senior Center 2 years
Jameson - "discontented" rescinding previous years' borrowing, so many trucks, why voting machines (no response), wants to know more about DPW Project
Dennis - purchasing voting machines, our machines are outdated, use WinXP, no longer manufactured, is there a state reimbursement (don't know), will be ready for 2020
Dunn - against amendment, why intersection project is important, is there a problem - yes, how to resolve it - TAC did two studies before SB approval, at 75% drawing
Foskett - (Rademacher) flooding is hard, cannot increase culvert an push problem downstream
McNeal - approve Lake Street crossing before someone dies
Hayner - for Lake St crossing, will anyone police it
Friedman - override and Capital Budget, (Foskett) keep Capital Budget at 5% of total non-exempt budget, override includes both, how much will override add ? (TM) $350 / ave. house
Fisher - how much playting field being lost to parking for DPW? net gain with AHS/DPW projects
Bilskis - thanks to DPW, lives near Lake St crossing, on design committee, Brooks and Lake, will town perform followup (TM) yes
McCabe - term deb yes (150-57)
Amendment - no (20-189)
Vote - yes (198-14)

Table 59-67
Article 68 - CPA
Helmuth -
Melofchik - Wittemore Park, tree canopy, doesn't want to lose tree canopy, doesn't like urbanization, sun baked plaza, doesn't reference other historic parks, don't think she understands project, projects should have climate resiliency at its core, environmental concerns, wait a year, who owns the property, lots of money, application questions, deed restrictions, Amendent
Rowe - opposed to amendment
Schlictman - park is underused, fences keep people out, beer tap only attraction, sick trees will go anyway, amendment will only eliminate reworking of park
Tremblay - what is the funding?  (Rait:  $500K is phase 1, CDBG for phase 2, CapBud for phase 3), how much to remove 4 trees (MR) $5-8K, how much to remove railings (MR) week of labor
Greenfield - reservoir, supports making it a safer place to swim, got sick last year, Spy Pond Park playground upcoming? (EH) in CapBud for 2020
How much for beer - $1500, extra fee for exclusive use ot town hall park
Leonard - out of scope
Stamps - professional wanted to remove 13 trees, tree warden says 5, remaining trees will be healthier and canopy will fill in
Worden - 1984 why is Wittemore under historic preservation, original plan was to get rid of tracks, supports amendment
Jameson - term deb - yes (voice)
Amendment - no (20-191)
Vote: yes (199-15)

All articles off table, 3 back on table

Heim to speak on 35 and 50 - short term rental regulations
New State Law (12/18), registering, regulating, and taxing; state requires registration with the state, $1M liability insurance;
Moore - certification requirements on owner, specific inspections not required
LaCourt - registration required, requiring all departments to inspect is difficult for town, owners certify, implementation (TM) cannot proactively reach out until State regestry is established, SB to be helpful; in favor, town has a plan
Susse - runs an AirB&B, is in favor of all except 31 day requirement; 1/3 of renters are grandparents visiting for births, 1/3 are professors (DH) 31 day is state requirement
Revelak - what about non-conforming structures (DH) looking at illegal apartments
Yantar - term deb yes (voice)
Vote yes (202-10)

Table 36-49

Article 50 - STR Fees
Guest - agent and owner same rules
Vote yes (202-12)

36-49 off table

Article 36 - Election Modernization
Kelleher amendment - ex-officio to avoid conflict of interest, two TMM's
Moore - no requirements
Yantar - 9 goals, does this include goals of better distribution of materials, increase voter turnout, easier to run (DM) not specific charge but important, how do people get involved
Waxman - Cambridge election commission, rank choice voting, excited what this committee could do but doesn't meet specific qualifications
Olzinski - LWV in favor
Dutra (20) term debate no (voice)
Kelleher yes (109-84)
Moore no (152-47)
Vote yes (188-9)

Article 37 - Civil Service
Dunn - Civil Service limits pool and how they are evaluated, our process is broken, difficult to change civil service at state level, management control over police chief, if we had a chief at odds with TM and TMM, SB can fire but not under civil service, 19% of chiefs in state have civil service
Mahon - basic merit, assure employees against political pressure and arbatrary rule, keep politics out of it, don't relax requirements for the head of the department, CS requires training and examination at all levels, are certified, vote against
Jefferson - (Brian Gallagher)  APD, ranking officer association, vote against, loss of CS would impact leadership of chief, has worked well for 17 years, well respected department
Mahar - support recommended vote, former town council, requirements regarding hiring and firing, merit diluted by bonuses, firing for cause can be negotiated in contract, strong town manager act, best to give TM full authority, unfettered authority