TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ June 24, 2025

again? Oh, yeah. The cooling. Did you go to the cooling center? You guys are on. Yeah. The office streaming live. All right. All right. We are going to call this meeting to order here at 6:30. The select board June 24th 6:30 p.m.

America. comment. Don't see any. Do I have a motion to approve the last meeting minutes? So, we'll motion from Josh. Do I have a second? None. All in favor? Any opposition? the uh agenda today. Did anyone have any old business to discuss that I did not add to the agenda? Do you should we just acknowledge that there's no res? Oh, yeah. Well, usually I I haven't if there's no one here, I just there's no public comment. Um, right. Okay. Um,

all righty. Uh, well, we're going to new business. Uh, the only thing on new business tonight is our discussion on uh goal setting for the select board. So, sorry, I forgot that was I had notes. Is your pen up because you have questions here? Yeah, I was wondering when you're kind of like discussing goals. Probably won't be a lot of minutes for that. So, if you wanted to go through the consent agenda management report, save that for last.

I'm okay. I've been in AC the cooling station still active till 8 a.m. All right. Um well I will make an amendment to the agenda to move new business to the end of the um after the consent agenda. Does anyone want to make that motion? So move. Uh Josh and anyone

have a second? I'll second. All right. Any discussion? All right. See none. All in favor? Any opposition? All right. So we are going to go into the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So, Josh Josh motion second.

Uh, any all in favor? Any opposition? All right. Uh, that's that's it. We'll go right back to new business now. the manager report. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Yeah, manager report. All right. Well, thank you. Um, all right. First thing is, so, uh, Deborah Lar stopped into the office the other day and she would like to,

uh, get a hold of the cabin masses to redo the physique. Oh, that would be really cool. So, she just wants, you know, said, you know, I'm I'm all about it. What she has to do is write a letter to him and it just has to be on town property. Has to be town property. But she said she would take the lead and see where it goes. I'm all for that. I know that the cabin masters redid the um the lodge at my hometown's ski I won't say ski resort, but the ski slope. Um yeah. And uh they redid that and that was really saved a ton of money for the municipality. So, if we could at least explore that, that would be awesome. I think we should like

apply heavy duty where we get a bunch of residents to go by the cazo and get a drone and, you know, let's make it more than if we can make it more than just a letter from one resident or whatever, we could get a bunch of residents to go over there and scream something with a drone flying or I'm not really connecting with you guys. No, it's like I don't know what their process is. Um it's just an application. You could send photographs and stuff. Um let me Jar, can you email me because I think I know who their people are. Okay. Um or the

don't want to take one. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm just saying like I I don't Is there um Magnolia? Let me look into that also. I will write it out. I think it's a great Yeah. No, but I can find out more about like ways to sort of

put a spotlight on them. Um, also, what about and I think that if we're going to ask for something, we should ask for what we want and then um if we're getting anything, it's better than nothing. So her watch these. Yeah, I think what would be really So, does she did she come up with a timeline or anything like that? No, she just said that she would like to u submit a letter because that's part of the process and uh she's just excited to do it. That be good PR for the town and she would take that lead just as long as the board was okay with it. Long as I was, I'm okay with it. Put that letter on letter head. I think adding Eureka center in there would be good too. Um but I would also want us to see the letter before it goes out. Okay. Um just to make not that I don't trust that in what needs in there, but just I think if it's going out with letterhead from us, it should usually get De's going to take care of it. But

if you guys want to take the lead on it. No, no, I don't want to take the lead on it. Just just see it. Okay. you know, if she's going to send it on behalf of us, I like unless she's intending to apply. Yeah, thank you, D. That's a great idea.

Very smart. All right. Um the nomination papers for to fill the select seat will be available July 24th and they will be due to close of business on September 5th. All right. So there's that little bit of information July 24th. Yeah, that's when they'll be available and they'll be due at the close of business September 4th.

Facebook. the tax will be on August 12th and it will always be the first meeting in August moving forward. start using the new software July 1. So that's good. get some pretty good training on that. Um, the cooling center. So, the chief staffed it with three people, four hour shifts. Nobody showed. Nobody. No.

new public works employees that we hired is no longer with us. So, that job is posted. They left or they like they terminated. When you say no one with us, I think this is the one that was just opened. There was two. So there was one open, someone got hired, then another person had fill that position.

impacting any of the plans that we have or schedules? It can um I think more importantly they we have a hard time filling this winter that's where it's going to be a real real problem. We have to have people charts and both positions

one's a mechanic labor the other one's a char full time so they're both posted so we'll see what happens there. just do board me reports now and then go into uh the goals and discussions? Okay, I'll start off. Um Mark Dur submitted his resignation from the planning board. So he's going city's uh going to stay on for the um stay on the budget committee. He just said that with his uh professional personal commitments the the day of that the planning board meets no longer works for his schedule. Um and so we're going to need to advertise that that it's open. So he submitted that resignation letter yesterday to myself. Yep. Myself and John Talbot I responded thanking him for his service and I publicly thank him now again for his service I and then in response I believe I added you Jared so you can see that that um I acknowledge that because you weren't on the initial email but I can forward it to you

other than that I was just I was happy to see the uh text go out for the cooling center even if it didn't get used today I think it's really important that we have that and I think that the communicating that was really that was really great. Josh, I don't think I have anything right now. Deb, I want a second center.

I saw it on Facebook first and I bet that comes out in a moment. Came right out in our text. So, I think that was really good. Did everything go good with all of the new assignments? Assignments, the new approvals that we had at our last meeting with the committee, all the committee members and everything. And just that training sure

committees. Yeah, I don't know where we're at with that. I move back. Sorry. All right. We'll get these signed back. up the consign agenda here, we can start off with our new business for the select board discussion workshop. And so, um, just as a reminder of I I sent out a week, last week or the week before, an email to all of the board chairs to let them know the workshop for to hear from them will be the 24th of July, on the 22nd of July. And uh, I

heard back from the chair of the planning board that acknowledged that the email was received, but I had asked that they all meet um their June or July meeting prior to coming to us to come up with uh two or three priorities. And the goal for tonight is for us to just put our priorities out there. We don't need to that we as individual board members have. We don't need to get into the weeds on the details or anything like that, but it's a way for us to record what our priorities are. Then in June, in July, when we hear from the other boards and committees, we then have some things that are being brought from them. And so then we can all go into a discussion on what we're prioritizing as goals and objectives this year. And some of those things will just be handled by a committee and brought to us at the end of the year at the uh before the town meeting. Other things will be handled by us. um is building off the process we

did last year, which I think was, you know, it wasn't a perfect process, but it was a really good step in the right direction for for these sorts of things. So, tonight I just open the floor uh and we can start with you, Rebecca, just kind of work through I I'll go last, but on some key priorities that you you have that you would like to see um considered for us to address this year. Yes, I have three. Perfect. So that we can away or whatever floats anyone's vote. Um, so one of the things um I I come up with

was basically in terms of all of the committees we have creating a list of rules to abide by in order for the committees to function be regulated. So um I think that we're doing and revising what we currently current structure um so thinking about consolidation or location of any of these. So if I would write this down

goals would be to how would I write that down? So, I think um in in addition to reviewing and looking at all of the committees for the town of Durham, looking to see because it's hard for us to fill many seats of those committees. there's not a lot of interest and finding ways that we can maybe um consolidate and in addition to consolidation creating a list of rules because I know that we have in the past discussed how when things have come up we don't really have any rules for these committees that yeah yeah so moving forward almost like each committee would have it charter Yeah, like we have on the website we have the list of what the committee does, but really like for instance, you know, this has been brought up. Somebody is on the budget committee and the planning committee, but they can't be on the solid waste like multiple committees. A spouse cannot be on the same committee like things like that. Yeah. So,

in order to write that properly, maybe a list of rules I put I put review committees, rules, organizations and options for consolidation. Can I something similar but because I thought you know like somehow engaging the community to see

volunteers on the communities. It was it was related is what I wanted. I got I got to really come under the same header. But yeah, I was thinking, you know, we should have standard training for committee chairs and maybe standard templates for minutes and making sure everybody's, you know, marching to the same drum, so to speak, and then um you know, have regular communications. other members some of some committees are you know represented by select anyway there's some improvements we can do to the whole committees so from if I'm picking up what you're saying like an example might be like we have a template that we use for our minutes providing developing something like this for our committees too and just kind of having like consistency and operation across committees yeah and I think what they do

messaging and consistent operations across Yeah. across things. But I think it's just nice when you if everything looks like this and it just has the committee name on the top rather than like this is this type of not this is that type of notes. Yeah. All right. What was your other one?

know what you were because I I think it's a good a good topic that is long overdue for us to address. Yeah. Yeah. Especially from I mean I consider myself a little bit of a coming in I'm new and so that's definitely something that's come up at every single meeting that we've had. So yeah definitely for sure. Um so the other one was uh engaging

community members is why different opportunities that allow for partnerships or tools for Durham residents uh community members participate and I think that this is something that also has been brought up constantly um whether it's the town of Facebook page the um the um what is the Facebook

page that everybody's on? All things. All things dark. Thank you. The fire station like figuring out and brainstorming and trying to work like seeing what other communities do in terms of getting these out there. Um I know this is probably No, but my understanding and this makes me think a little bit of what um the GPU communications person was saying that like controlling the messaging out of your town. And so like those sorts of pages are always going to exist in every community, right? But we want to make sure that people know that if you need the most up-to-date information of what's happening, it's coming directly from us as a town, not being heard second or third party through another page. Is that kind? Yes. Yes. Yes. So are you saying a public relations program? Um more like a um Yeah. I mean, I think engaging the community to find out how to get them information because there's people that

aren't on Facebook. Uh, you know, there was talk about getting the sign out by the town office and, you know, there's like months where the furthest I go down this road is the fire station to come to these meetings twice a week. Yeah. Or you do it in front of the public works and I go multiple months without going that way. Um, so I mean there's no good way to do it. Yeah. And so how to do that, you know, it's so that's a good question. That's basically taking a survey AM radio station. I know basically I listen satellite. Yeah. No, no pleasing job. Sirius XM Durham Radio. Okay.

No, but I just get to meet people where they want to be met. Yeah. Yeah. And if that means like we create a mailer in addition to an emailer, in addition to a post, in addition to that basically say, you know, presenting where all of the information is. I mean, we can we can brainstorm separately and we can like I'm sure Jerry talk to other people. I know there's probably hundreds of different options out there with different towns, but things like that. Maybe just having a town crier. Yeah.

Great. That would be great. Yes. And then the last bit is inspired by my trip to public works. Um creating a better, more efficient bulky waste day and um basically engagement, making sure residents only, not you knowing that they're only residents. So that depending on how it is and also what makes the most sense for the because there are hundreds of people who do not use it. So, are we should we charge instead? It's a great cost to the town. Um, and also it's a community opportunity for us to engage people like have Girl Scout cookies sold although I don't know when is Girl Scout cookies. Um, but like things like that, engaging people. Yeah. So, awesome. And that's it. Those are three really good ideas.

before I thought of the phone model was talking uh was um you know one of the con things we hear is about taxes and what 99% 99.9% of our tax burden is is on the residential properties right and so you know we passed the the best stuff and the um

the solar farms is is finding a way to bring in some of those commercial, for the town so that we can take some of the burden off the taxpayers. Um, you know, I think that's working with Jerry, working with GB COG. Um, I hate to put more on your plate, Jerry, but I think that's where it has to start. Um, uh, and figure out a way to do that. And I'll be the first to I'm not I I don't know the best way to go about doing that. Uh and then the second thing or third thing is uh you know I

think we need to find a way you know that the the cab idea that Deb had for the gazebo and then the adding center there's got to be more stuff like that. you know, like if if we do get assigned, you know, can we find a grant for that? Can we do something? So, figuring out a way to take advantage of some of the stuff out there. I know I know the chief does it all the time. I don't know how he has all the free time to do that. Maybe we should add more to his plate. Um, but you know, is is there um is there somebody at GB COG or MMA

who has a list of these and that we could start a list of um grants or or something uh where we can start applying and getting things that we need that are just are not necessary but would be helpful in getting the information out or um you know help save some of uh some

of the the tax burden. So, I think I think they all go hand in hand, you know, getting the information out, getting uh some commercial taxpayers, some something figuring out a way to to to raise uh the tax base without putting it on the backs of all the residents. So, I think those are the three important things. I don't have any idea how to start. Well, this this is this is throwing everything out there right now. Um and I like I like we got to think big and then rain in on a few discrete measurable things we can focus on and so I think it's better to you know get everything on the paper right now at this stage

list I refer to as expand revenue sources attract new business explore grants and some seasonal or community events that can draw people into the town that can promote go to local town business or crafters or something which some of that's going on actually but um so I was with you on that um

um just piggyback on the communication improvements um you know we have some big ticket items coming in the week J I'm sure you have this on your radar as well but having a solid communication plan very proactive early enough so people really get the message. However, we end up doing it on the tax reassess and the auto trash pickup, you know, those big ticket items that it's just good to continually share and how best to do that. So

I also have about all the HR work that's happening um with the consultant about making sure we have all of the right policies in place for the town completely whatever that is we have you know that everything's formatted and numbered and available online and that we don't have gaps any policies if it's possible I think putting that on the list Um,

takes our recent GP COG study to the next step. Um, I would love to see that happen. I would love for someone to just recognize they get paid for it because that would be so awesome just to look out and see everything all crisp and neat and, you know, a really draw for the residents. So I think that should be on our list. Yeah.

communities, you know, are looking at topic cross the finish line, whatever that may be. We have a lot of good stuff happening with the committees and everything, but again, if we do the improvements on how the committees are ran and what do we really understand what they're doing each week, each meeting that they have, I think we could probably help cross the finish line on some of their issues.

um committee training, consistency, spending revenue services, communication policy, HR policy, downtown visioning and open spaces. Yeah. Cool. Um for mine I um one of my top goals is um addressing budget process between the town and the

between the select board and the budget committee. Um, not sure what that looks like, but I think that what we're doing now isn't very efficient. Um, and it isn't necessarily um getting the product that either or either committee or board wants in a process that either order committee is entirely happy with. And so I think an opportunity to examine how that's done and figure out how we want to do this moving forward is um is important. You know, key points here being there's nothing recognizing our budget committee in our town ordinances or our we don't have a town charter. And so um there's no authority

given to the budget committee via um our legislative body which is our our voters. And so we need to figure out how we have a boarding committee that is empowered by the voters, not by the boarding committee's um annually adjusted self-given uh charge, you know, and so even we know

it was a process that was created almost 100 years ago the town floor and never really codified anywhere. And so I think it's important that we address the process and codify the process so everyone involved is on the same page. So um that that's one of my number one if I had to say probably anything my number one goal. Another goal for me is um

kind of in the same vein as the downtown visioning but just um there are properties that the town owns that we haven't done anything with or don't necessarily have mapped. Um there are properties that we've repossessed at some point. There's just land assets that our community that our town owns that are just sitting there doing nothing in in by function of them being owned by the town. They're also not on the tax roles. And so I think that we need to do an inventory of those and come up with as part of when we think about this downtown visioning really just have a land plan for our town. Is there opportunity to do commercial forestry that is going to generate um a financial benefit for the town? Are there opportunities to sell parcels that the town may may not want? Do we want to consider um where the parcels are and maybe there's opportunities to say, "Hey, there's no good water supply in

that part of town and we own an acre. Do we want to put an underground water tank or a water supply for firefighting or something? Um, or is there just opportunities to say, "Hey, we own this. We want to put out a request for proposal for a business development or for some sort of commercial development." Um, and we just don't know until we have that inventory, you know. So that's just you know without I think that's important to like think what and that kind of goes into the um uh diversifying our our revenue is understanding what we what we have you know um and that can also play into the

open space planning stuff too. I think that's going to be an important component and this is where I think maybe some of that stuff can be, you know, delegated to the open space planning group. Some of it, you know, I know Jerry's been working on this with staff for some time now, too. Uh, another thing that's an important consideration for me, um,

more broadly is just economic development. I think everyone kind of touched on this, but the feeling is that we're kind of a one-trick pony when it comes to paying for bills as we have a budget and we register cars and we have a little bit of revenue, but then it's just our our tax bill um for property tax. And as

municipalities grow um there has to be if you don't that's decision that it's a hard decision to make of do you want to have a future where you pay a premium on your property tax to remain super rural without any development or do we want to find a balance and figure that out. So I think economic development would be a good idea. And then my final thought here is

I I think that we need to have a discussion or policy um consideration around our gravel pits. Um you know there's some challenges associated with gravel pits and I I have not gone a year in on this board without getting public feedback on concerns around gravel pits. um you know

we're not making any no one's making any more land and when you with extractive industries you are rendering that um largely useless for most other land land uses and also when you have a gravel pit it's been taxed differently because it's now considered undevelopable land and the tax revenue is extremely diminished because there's no value associated with it anymore. So while you are doing an extractive industry, you're also reducing the taxable income from that parcel. At the same time, um you know,

you have to I think we need to have some discussions around expansion of gravel pits or creation of new gravel pits puts a lot more heavy truck traffic on our roads. maybe our near 195 I mean um 125 136 and Route 9 are built up for that but our back roads and our side roads and we haven't always considered the fact that I living on 125 expect 4,000 cars to go by my house every day that's fine I knew that when I bought it but if you buy a house on swamp road or something like that it changes the experience of your life all of a sudden you're now on a main road and so I don't know what the answer is there but I just think that we need to have um some discussions about um opportunities around gravel pits and I know this has been a hot topic for other municipalities just bordering us too. So how many grapple do you have? A lot a bunch. I can't think of off the top of my head how many um but my

husband told me about Yeah. trucks going by our house and the weight limit and everything else. Yeah. And and that just is um you know I think an important consideration is just the impact on resources. And I know in the past the discussion around gravel pits has been like well the gravel pits you know are registering their their trucks here and there's revenue associated with registering your dump truck every year or whatever. But there's a lot of trucks that are coming from that aren't associated with Durham that are coming here to get materials and leave. I just think it's one of those things is if we look at what we have for commercial development in town, it's pretty much none. But we do have a commercial activity taking place, that's a that's a spot. And I don't want us to turn into a you know attacking business or making it um um not businessfriendly.

But like I think our annual fee for gravel pits is $50. That's it. A year. Yeah. Is that does that sound about That's good. Yeah, but that's like your annual fee for having to gravel the town. I think it's $50. Yeah. Um and the permitting is not nearly the same level as you know um

uh like a subdivision or something like that, but the impact is very high. So that's that's a big one for me too. So those four can so talking about the down landing and you talking about the town property made me think how cool would it be if we had like a path like they had Lisbon or Brunswick. Um do you know how they pay for those like a walking path? Yeah. I don't know. No, I don't. But I was think like, you know, that'd be great. Just like if you if we could somehow work with the state to make sort of like on 136 and have some type so it's safe to walk like from the boat launch down to park

over here or something like that or go into I mean because you know it's not really kept going through the woods but we're going to the whole something like walking like that. Also with bikes there's so many kids who like

and people too. Well, and and that's another thing too is like there's a bunch of in town that are no longer active opportunity to make a bike park. Oh my god. you know, like something fun or cool like that, you know, um or like and then I also what you mentioned it too, but the downtown visioning, I'd like to see us move forward more with this. Like I I just was thinking a lot about the baseball group coming in and asking about the batting cage. I was like, "Yeah, it would be cool to have something else over there." And then I was thinking like um and I've like been doing a bunch of reading on this, but there's really cool like playground equipment that's actually exercise equipment and some like there's one in Lewon which is just purely place to exercise. I like to exercise so I'm partial here but also there's um like on the back bay in Portland there's a trail and there's exercise things and I I I

think that for a rural community like us there might be some grant opportunities for for health and fitness and it's like you know if we're thinking about doing stuff over here that might be some other opportunities there as well. So it's like, you know, you have a place where a member of the community can go get a little exercise or do something while they're watching that. And so that's I really like to see that downtown get built. And when you talk about like economic activities, it's like if we had a nice bus bustling downtown here, like maybe that's where like the old Durham days could come back and you could have something where it's like, oh, you know, like they see over in Lisbon, the Warumbo Park, it's like food trucks there once a once a week and other things like that. It's like and I just look over there so much. right now. Yeah. There's got to be something we can do there and like

make people feel like, oh, we're going to go downtown and do something. So, does have a not coordinator, but economic development. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Take energy. Oh, yeah. They also have a lot more downtown. So, it's very like Yeah. Like in festival. all that sort of stuff. But I just think we need to be thinking big like stuff like that for here. Um because like like there's some nights where we have meetings and I look and you like you look over there's a basketball baseball game or some baseball practice going on and there's already some kids kicking the ball around in the parking lot and there's parents, you know, catching up and getting together and it's like we just have this space and we're really fortunate that it's all like close together and like you talk about trails, it's like there's the woods right there. even just cutting a small trail or you know for putting up a couple uh um disc

golf catchers like you don't have to have an official course but now it's like you know make something up like there's yeah there's just opportunity there you know so um we don't need to go in details about this now but I want us to just get this down on paper I'll send this to what I wrote here to Jessica so we can have it when we do our um meeting on the 22 second of July and we want to hear from our boards and committees. You know, um the hope here is that we're changing the the second year in a row here where we're changing the process of really rather than just kind of sitting on the back back seat and having boards and committees do what they want to do and they come to us and say, "Here, I've done all this work." We're going to be saying, "Hey, we hear what you're saying is an important thing. we want you to prioritize that number one thing you brought to us more so than number two or number three or we

hear that that's a really big priority for you but we also need to delegate some of what we have here on select goals so the goal will be to get all of that from them as well Jerry did you have anything you wanted to add that you're you're seeing that you want to make us aware of no you've hit the three that I would put down what were your three economic development

So, one thing I mean, one of our next steps could be whether we do it now or after we get the information from the committee head is we could just create a chart prioritization of, you know, what if these things fall under improving residents experiences or whatever what comes under, you know, raising tax revenue. It just try to figure out a way to organize everything in a way that one we can articulate it to people and two um allows us to prioritize it.

Well, and there are things we certainly will be addressing that don't even fall under everything we talked about today. Well, and I mean completing the downtown visioning process isn't even a year task, multi-year. You know what I mean? The next step, but like those are those things that like we can start that those next steps. And I think like the downtown visioning one being like all right, we don't have what we need to do everything, but we want to make sure that as we do things, it doesn't in in the way of the future. So it's like we don't want to put a playground or a batting cage and then two years from now when we have that money to put in a a new path be like oh it actually has to go right where that playground is that you know and so that's that multi-step plan. Um where are we? So we're waiting for GP to get back to us for finishing up the is that things

discussion. Yeah. And so I think from we they've given us the information and from here it's how we move forward you know. Oh I thought she was going to send us recommendations for people or contracts. I was [Music] Did everyone get out their ideas for the for the discussion here? I mean, if something new pops up between now and when we have the meeting with the the um rest of the boards and committees, we can we can add it there. But I just wanted figured we could just get things on on paper tonight and then

we can all take some time to think about things a little bit more. date, I think we should put it on the website. This is our mission and our these are our goals for the year. Yeah, I agree. building and we have facilities management report developed and in our deliverable it was like here are immediate goals, here are our one to three year goals and here are our five plus year goals. You know, an immediate goal might be like replace the boiler because it doesn't work, but a fiveyear goal might be like expand the parking lot or maybe do this thing as an aesthetic project, not necessarily a structural project. I think that we can we want to make sure that we're very clear with these things. It's like, you know, especially when you add in the municipal government side of things, it's like the downtown vision here, you

know, might be a five plus year goal before everything is done, maybe even longer, you know. Um because we also are going to want to be sensitive to the fact that we're going to people are going to need to have a year to get adjusted to the re-evaluation of their home value once the reevelopment happens. And we're going to want to maybe wait for certain grant opportunities to arrive. So, you know, I don't want people who are watching to say, well, the select board just said that they want to spend all kinds of money to develop downtown and to uh build a trail system and all these sorts of things. It's like, no, we we just need a goal and to be responsible with taxpayer dollars. We can't be we need to have something ready to go in a long-term plan, not just, oh, hey, let's spend this this year. Let's let's put a a batting cage and then next year we'll put a picnic table. Like, we got to plan

it out. Yeah, and we want that public input. So, um I don't want anything else for new business light agenda today. Uh did anyone else have anything they wanted to add before we adjourn? couple meetings? Yeah, let's go over that. I do know the the the draft of the handbook, the employee handbook is done. We went over that with her on Thursday. that will go to the staff for that comment and we plan on coming here on August on August 12th you all to kind of meet her hand. Um Jerry, will you be sending the handbook out to us in advance? Yes. Absolutely. I noticed another town I was doing some research um had a select board handbook. You have bylaws. Yeah. I mean it was heavy it was a heavy duty handbook but

so that's going on on August 12th so we have commitment on that day and then two days different meeting liketh on the 19th. August. No, it's the second Tuesday. It's always the second Tuesday. Oh, maybe we should have part of our standard agenda is that when we have a discussion about what we're going to talk about on upcoming meetings, like we have upcoming meetings in town news, uh, you know, here, but maybe there could be another thing that we document that we say, "Oh, on this meeting we're doing the goals and then following we're going to have this guy come or do that." cutting it and that would be a good tickler reminder on the one of the reason I don't put it on here is because some of it is in flux so like there's times where like we put something that we want to do and like we want Kristen to come in and speak but she doesn't have that you could cry with with you know potential plans we would

have to communicate much more to do that no just just whenever we're talking about it at one of our meetings like I don't know if it was last week. I think it was our last meeting, but there was a lot going on. Okay, this week we're gonna do this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not doing anything extra. Just if we do talk about it at one of our sessions to just document that discussion within the meeting minutes, not to like everything's done. Like for instance, the next minute in the next minutes it's like it'll have for next meeting um future meeting August 20 August 12th

employee handbook just a line item. Okay. So like I'm just trying because the the agenda builder is like a template. Right. Yeah. Well, I'm just trying to picture it in my head how that would work. I'll I'll work on it. actually what you're saying though like in our meet meeting minutes it might say topics for further discussion August 12th um XYZ July 22nd this workshop like we can we can have that kind maybe maybe even if we put it in new business and we can do like um uh

upcoming visitors for meetings and the date it doesn't even have to that just they're kind of in the minutes. So, what how about this? Um, how about we put we could put in our um after board member reports, we could put in the template future meeting topics. And so then in the meeting minutes here, you would come to all right, we have a manager report, we have board member report, and then future meeting topics. The following things are things we discussed putting on future meeting. And if we say, oh, you know, uh, permit cost, we didn't put a date, we just say that was something that we discussed as wanting. And so then when Jerry and Jerry and I are building the agenda, we can look back on the minutes and say, "Yeah, we discussed A, B, and C." Because we we keep kind of a note notes right now. Oh, we all discussed this, but now in the minutes, they'll say, "Yeah, afterh before consent agendas as upcoming topics. We discussed

the employee handbook presentation. We discussed the workshop and we can note that so if someone looks at the minutes they could say, "Oh yeah, they said last week that they're hoping to next meeting have the lawyer in to talk about this." You follow what we're saying? Yeah. Because right now what happens is we we talk about things we want to put. Jerry writes it down and then next week when I meet with Jerry to set our agenda, he goes, "Yeah, these are the things you said you wanted to have on the agenda." and he might say, "Oh, hey, uh, GB Cog

had to cancel. We don't have that." So, I think that's a good idea. Yeah. I was thinking actually more as part of the agenda just like you said after managers report or whatever and just have the next three meeting dates, you know, go three weeks out with the meeting dates and then as we're discussing, oh, let's do that on this date. We just work right

in front of us. I think you're right. Yeah, I it's a good uh it's good. Um and so while we're talking about that, so July 22nd, that's the committee heads are coming in. Um so the next meeting July 8, we don't have any anything like major scheduled for that, right? Nothing major right now. Oh. Um, Christina from GP Congress is coming out. Oh, yeah. That roles and responsibility presentation is July 8th. And I don't want to put anything else on the agenda because that's going to be I just want us to dedicate our time to that. So, that was what it was. July 8th is the roles and responsibilities and then July 22nd is the workshop. And so, this could be now in these meeting minutes. It could say future meetings July 8th. Yep. this just with a caveat that like this is just our you know outline. It could just say planned you know meeting topics

subject to change workshops the 22nd. Yeah. So I won't be at that. Yep. I know you talk about that. Oh no that's up to the 8th. Oh I'll take that. Okay. I guess through the end of July that's probably good August 12th. So, we have a meeting August 12th and then there's this is

it's a weird month. Um, and so it's the second and the fourth Tuesday of every month every year there's a month where it's like July so it's like the second uh the second Tuesday when the month starts on Tuesday like in July the first meeting feels like it's the first week because it's only the eth day of the month. So it's the second Tuesday on the 8th and then July 22nd but then because the month ends on a Thursday, the next meeting is really like almost 21 days

later. Yeah. Even though it still is the second meeting of the month. So So we have it on the 12th and then the 26th. Okay. see how I feel about that. Do we have anything planned for the August meetings? August 12th. We got commitment and HR person coming in. Oh, I thought that was the July. See? No. No. No. It's

confusing because there's five Tuesdays in the line. So when we do like start doing this, we really have to nail it down because staff gets even confused on what we're talking about on what dates just like we just like we did right here. Right. That's why I think in the agenda if we say planned meeting topics or something and then just list the next four meeting dates and it can be blank in the agenda until we say something then we write it down and then the next agenda it's written on the agenda whatever. Yes. Yeah. just the dates and the topics are clear, right? I agree. For sure. I'm with you. I think we'll all benefit. Well, because and the reason why I say that because if it's not during the meeting, then what they do is they spend time trying to find listen to the video or Right. Yeah. I think this will benefit all of us. I might trigger us to, you know, prepare more whatever. Yeah.

So, I've got August July 8th is GP COG's roles and responsibilities. Wait, is it July 8th or August 12th? Two different things. Okay. Um July 22nd is our uh workshop with boards and committees. handbook and tax. meeting and is that from the HR person? Yes.

we talk about personal HR session. Okay. College's roles and responsibilities. They've done this presentation in the past and um the goal of the presentation is for GP COG to bring in their staff. Uh, one of whom was retire was as a retired town manager did have a job as a town manager 20 years. but also to really just help us understand, you know, the role of the town manager, the role of the select board. It's such a unique form of government. It's so different than a council and a and and elected mayor. Um, you know, they're going to do a really good job of just helping us understand how we communicate those sorts of things, explaining to us like the committees versus town staff, all that sort of stuff. And so, I'm I'm excited for this. This is a free free uh presentation that they offer. So, can we put a a communication slide in the the

news class on this like offering just so residents are aware if you're if you're interested in understanding more about town government organization stuff I think that's a great idea. Come to this meeting and they'll be hearing it right from them. I think that's a great idea because obviously we put it on our topic but like that's putting it more forward. I think it'd be great to like in the news flash be like um greater Portland council government is explaining the functionality of your your local government on July 8th

when they do the slideshow it's going to be like it's going to be off the wall right so it's be hard for anyone I don't know if they'll actually do one time they did have slides a couple years ago I thought they did I can ask Yeah,

Um, do we need the executive session? If not, I'll take a motion to adjurnn. I'll make the motion. You broke Josh's perfect streak of making the motion to adjourn all year. $10,000. Josh was the Ken Jennings of motions to adjourn. Should I? No, it's too late. Do we have a second? I'll second. Oh, all right. Any uh discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? Any opposition?

shortest meeting.