TranscriptSelect Board Meeting ~ August 25, 2026

and I was in the office for 9 hours a day and nothing that I want to get done sat down to do. I started the day. My my mouse and keyboard wouldn't work. We're streaming but somebody has to turn the sound off. Oh, what's the button?

I think it's Test test test. Can anyone want to check the live stream? is only blue when I talk. So, I think it's working. Yeah, we can wait to see if it uh is working and then get started. Okay, we're working. All righty. Well, I will open our meeting here. Um

we're going to begin the select board meeting here at 6:30 here at the town of Durham. We have a quorum. So, we'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All righty. I would ask for amendments to the agenda, but we've only got the one item. Do we have any public comment tonight? [clears throat] Okay. You all know how to get a hold of us. So, all right. Seeing none, we're going to begin our slickboard goal setting workshop. Uh just a little bit of context for our viewers at home. Um this is a service we haven't used before with GP COG uh facilitated goal setting workshops over the last few years. We've tried a few different iterations um of goal setting. Um and I think it's been really a productive process for us. Uh even to just get everyone in the room and just share their goals. Uh, and so tonight we're gonna have a more facilitated um, workshop as part of our membership dues to GP COG. So really excited to have our facilitator here. So I'll turn it over to you if you want to introduce yourself and we can introduce ourselves and all that fun stuff.

We're gonna we're going to do all of that. Um, my name is Belinda Ray. I'm with the Greater Portland Council of Governments. Thank you for having me here tonight and thank you for your service. I served six years on the council in Portland. I know what a challenging job it is to be an elected official. Um, and so I really appreciate all of you for being here and taking the time to do what you're doing at the Greater Portland Council of Governments. I am director of strategic initiatives. I do a lot of grant writing. I do that to bring funding to the agency, but also to bring funding to the region. We work really hard to try to match work that our communities want and need with grant funding to help you because we know budgets are very tight. So I do some of that work. I work on initiatives that uh people need help with a specific thing and we don't necessarily have a department that does it. It comes to me and we see what we

can do. And I do these facilitations. Um, I was a public school teacher for many years and did a lot of that sort of facilitation and facilitations of other towns and groups and nonprofits. So, this is something I really enjoy doing.

What grade did you teach? I got high school English. Oh, yeah. I was going to say we we might behave better than those students, but I don't know. Oh, yeah. No, it depends which class you're talking about, but you're definitely you're already doing this better than many. [laughter]

Um, so that's just a little about me. I would love to know a little about you. And so what I'm going to ask you to do is introduce yourself. Tell me how long you have been on the board. And then to just add a little um fun. I think it's fun. Hopefully you think it's fun. I'm going to ask you to think back to the first job that you ever had ever in your life and tell us a little about that job

and then one thing that you took away from it. might be a lesson that you learned. It might be something that you're never going to do again. Um, but just one thing. So, I can give you a second to think and when some brave soul is ready, we'll kick it off.

John Talbet, I've been on the board for 10 months. My first job was cutting grass in a cemetery uh when I was 16. So, I'm not sure I learned anything from that job. So, hard work. Um, okay. better. Yes. [laughter] All right, John, I'm nicknating nicknaming you the expediter already because I can see you just you want moving along.

Yes. My name is Debbie Oliver. I'm on my third year as a on the Derm Select Board. And my first job was in high school. I delivered newspapers in the morning and in the afternoon. So, I had two local routes uh near my home and

I did a lot of walking, but I had to be reliable. Yes. So, do you you walked to deliver the papers? Walked to pick them up downtown and then walked them around. Yep. That's a lot. That's a lot. John, did you say how long you've been on the board?

10 months. 10 months. Okay. Thank you. All right. I'll let I'll let my other board members know this. Josh Klein Golden. I actually asked Jerry this question earlier today. I think it's this is start of my fifth year. So what Jerry's fourth not your fifth now?

Started my fifth. Uh my first job I think was at Hannerford and Yarmouth. Uh and what I learned there is uh you know you don't have to be the hardest work. The hardest workers don't necessarily make it to the top. Okay. Was that a good lesson?

Uh I I think so that it you know learned uh that uh it takes more than just working hard and uh still important. Yeah. But you have to have some of the other skills. Yeah, I see what you did. Okay, great. Thank you. Uh Rebecca Pollster, a year and change.

Um I've been on the board. My first job was babysitting and other than responsibility, I did not do very much because I put them to bed and watch TV. So, I'm trying to think of other earlier jobs, but um working in Freeport

at a sheets and towels place, mostly folding everything downstairs in the basement. So, I also don't know if that contributes much to my life now, but you know, it's responsibility. Yeah. Thank you. Hi, I'm uh Jerry Douglas. Uh August 22nd would have been my fourth year as town manager. Feel like I'm going on 80.

Um my first job was mowing cemeteries for the city of Batharies. Wow. And one thing I learned was when you don't give notice that you're quitting, your father will give you help. [laughter] That is true. That is true. I'll tell you, my first job um was working at a day camp at our YMCA was recreation center when I was a kid. It's YMCA now. And um we had kids from kitty camp was ages 3 to five and then we had all the way up to 8th grade. and I was one of the counselors at age 15. So, it was a lot of responsibility. You have you took kids to the beach and you're constantly counting the kids in the water to make sure you don't lose anyone from your group. Um, and so I think it was a great job in that it taught me responsibility, but it also gave me a sense of leadership. I think that was probably the first place where I felt like a leader because you've got all these kids that are looking up to

you to give them direction and so it was a really valuable job. Um well, thank you for sharing. Oh, I should probably go too. So, sorry. Uh I'm Joe Roy. Um this is my beginning my fourth year on the select board. So, it's the beginning of my second term and it's the beginning of my third year as the chair. Um, my first job I started when I was 15 and I worked for a lumber yard and uh dealing with lumber orders,

stacking wood, loading trucks. They didn't let me drive the forklift, but I loaded it, you know. And I think the big thing I took away from that job that I carry a lot with me today is uh the importance of like developing good interpersonal relationships with folks you work with even if you have disagreements and that uh the customer is always right. So they said it's a crooked 2x4. It's a crooked 2x4. So good lessons good lessons all around I think. Um well thank you for that. One thing I like to do before we start to get into the meat of what we're going to do tonight is just kind of go over ground rules. We always I set these everywhere I go. Um first one is the views of all board members and staff are encouraged. If we get to a point where a lot of people are jumping in, that hasn't been happening lately. We'll do hands to speak if we need to. If we don't need to, if we don't need to.

I always ask people, I mean, this this job um can be it can deal with controversial issues. It can be stressful. So, whenever we're talking about things that might get stressful, we try to stay on the high ground and focused on issues, not people or personalities. Assume good intent is a nice one. um anywhere you are to assume that people if say they say something and it sounds off to you or sounds like it's putting you down or something. First assume the intent is good. Seek clarification if you need to. Constructive questioning and disagreement are encouraged and appreciated. I personally am a big fan of conflict. I

know it makes a lot of people very uncomfortable but to me that is where you get the good work done. Uh there's something about groups group dynamics where you start with forming and then you norm. So you all start to kind of work together then you storm and then you perform. And those last two are the are the best part for me. they are really where the where the magic happens because if you have a lot of disagreements and you get some different opinions, that's where you wind up with the best solutions. So, we always encourage people to to speak up and say what's on their mind in a respectful way so that we get to the conclusions. And tonight, as we go through things, we will draw themes and conclusions as we go about kind of what we need to focus on. Does that make sense with everybody? Is there anything you feel like we need to add for ground rules?

One thing I think maybe uh [clears throat] with this assume good intent I think maybe uh I like to add uh limit assumption making you know. Yeah. English teacher knows how to spell assumption on the fly. So y Yeah, that's good.

people, too, is to ask for clarification instead of assuming you know what they mean, because it can get you into a lot. Okay. Well, thank you, Mr. Yes. Would it be poss since we have four or five people sitting there, would it be possible to maybe create an audience space here that they can see, you know, move it the chair and the only thing

the only thing is that their heads are going to be possibly blocking the camera. That's the If they're up against the wall, then that's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Just move this board. And that's better. Yeah, I can move this board over here.

Good idea, John. I don't want to give them excuse to doze off in the corner. Some folks are like, "I feel like my mama." You don't have to if you don't want to. Then you can find out if you got a bald spot coming in the back, too. If you got some

There you go. Maybe Calvin closer to the table. Yeah. the table to the the camera. So that's why it's that's why I know I like to get to church late cuz I got to sit in front of somebody and I know I can't see when I sit down.

three of the guests here today are part of our conservation commission. understand it, is different from your committees. It's formed differently, right? It functions differently from other committees that you have. Yes. I think all of our committees function a little differently than other.

All right. Well, yeah, we will we will get that when we get to schools. Okay. Chief, we just invited people to be able to if they choose position themselves so they can see what's going on. So, great. Got a full house. I like this.

All right. So before we get to priority setting, something that's always helpful um because we have people at varying lengths of time on the select board, some folks newer than others, it's always good to kind of go over the basic bylaws and not going to we're not going to go over the whole document. I'm sure that's something that you guys get when you are elected and have a chance to review, but there are some particular sections that deal with communications that I think it's really helpful to make sure everyone's on board and and on the same page. And often we start out with everyone saying, "Yeah, we don't we don't have any issues there." And as we talk about it a little more, we realize, "Oh, maybe there is a different way to do this um from what we've been doing. So, the ones that I pointed out um have

to do with and instead of going right to them, I think maybe we'll just talk about first off. So, communications can be a lot of things. How do the select board members, if you have ideas about things that you want to have happen, how do you communicate with one another outside of a meeting

Email to the chair. Is that consistent across the board? Do you have emails to the chair that are to everybody? Do you mean like a select board a generic select board email? I mean we have emailed each other with our select board email addresses, but to get something on the agenda or to talk something specific,

we take it to Joe specifically to then bring it up to Jerry or then to bring it up to the agenda. Yeah, I I think there's emails to the entire board when say someone at the town office is asking if someone can stop in and do something for them and then it's a reply all. Otherwise, I think it's mostly just a reply to Joe and Jerry.

Okay. Yeah, we we are very sensitive to like substantive conversations occurring and so it's always like you know hey can we move this meeting might be a topic but like if there's any sort of like policy question or someone wants something to be discussed that's more than just you know what's the weather going to be Tuesday night it's always can we put this on an agenda and then they usually I'll get an email we'll CC Jerry and put it on the most recent agenda or sometimes individual board members will just meet together one-on-one, never more than two people,

right? Okay. You guys have it down. Yes. Because as you know, the sun sunlight rules are once three of you are together, it constitutes a public meeting and you have to notice the public and everything you do has to be available through freedom of action act. And I think often um often boards understand that and often uh constituencies do not completely understand that there are so many limitations on the way that you can communicate. It sounds like you guys are have that under control and there aren't any, you know, debates happening over email or on social media or anything

like that because social media once you're an elected official that also becomes a u public public request public could request you those records as well. It becomes um publicly relevant. Okay. So, what about communication between select board and manager?

saying something to Jerry, it's usually with Joe copied and yeah. Yeah. And we can also um request to meet with Jerry oneonone for any reason for an update on topics or something. I was just asking. Yeah, I think Jerry has a pretty open uh door policy for individual board members. Um but same with the we never have more than like one or two board members meeting with Jerry and and two is usually like I stop by before this meeting and us, you know, catch up with Jerry for a few minutes. Every now and then someone else swings through, check their mailbox and swings by as well. But um yeah, usually just meeting with Jerry one on one. Yeah,

I I think a good question right now as to how often that happens. Okay. Yeah. How often are people contacting Jerry? I used to do it a lot better. I I talk to Jerry probably daily. At least once a day. Um whe in my role, whether it's by email, text, phone, or swinging by the office. But

I think yeah, you might get tired of me sometimes. I think every other week is when I talk to you or I stop in sometimes. Not recently. Do you have scheduled meetings, scheduled one-on- ones, like weekly, bi-weekly, any of that with Jerry?

Yeah. Do you I I have a scheduled check-in with Jerry usually the Thursday prior on our off meeting, off week meetings to confirm agenda, but other than that, nothing scheduled. um, did you bring up this question because you are getting a lot of email requests?

Not enough. Not enough. I feel alone. Oh, you feel alone? Okay. What um what kinds of things would you would you like to have regular meetings with select board members so you know kind of what's going on or Yeah, knowing what's going on would be wonderful.

Yeah. just just a check into like how are you feeling? Where are we going? Any just any kind of help at all would be would be a star. just totally took it the other way. I assumed you were getting um absolutely overwhelmed with contact and it was too much, but that's not the case.

He complains to me a lot about [laughter] about that. Yeah. I try to do better, but not always. I was doing pretty well for a while, and I was coming in every other week or once a week, right? Are you rolling your eyes at me?

No. [laughter] No. All right, just keep talking. This is going to be good. [laughter] Um, okay. So, it sounds like regular check-ins with the town manager would be helpful for the town manager. How does that sit with the five of you? I I I recognize that and I feel bad for not making more of an effort.

It is hard with a full-time job. I'm just saying. But that's that's my problem, too, is you know, it's if if Jerry wants to stay till 6:30, 7:00 at [laughter] night, but yeah, you know, uh full-time job plus I'm coaching and then we have another sport that I'm not coaching going on at the same time. It's

know jury does answer the phone. I worry about any perceived barriers that make would make board members feel like they should limit their direct outreach with Jerry. Um whether that's something that I've done as the chair or whether there's any sort of issue there that people are like, "Oh, I shouldn't go meet more often." So that's what I worry about. I don't feel that way personally.

Yeah. Well, that's just that's just a concern. I just want to make sure it's Yeah. But that's No, I don't I don't feel that way. I I feel guilty for not coming to see him more recently. Does anyone else feel like there are barriers that keep you from contacting Jerry?

John mentioned time constraints. Josh, sorry. Josh mentioned time constraints. I mean for me I also don't want to go I get nervous calling because I know he's busy and I don't want to bother him. You know for me to just call and say hi and what's going on? How can I help?

You know that's I know he likes that. I I know he likes that contact but also sometimes I get nervous. Yes. cuz he's like he may be one of the most hated people by some of the public, but there's nobody in this town that works harder for us uh and or cares more about the future of this town than Jerry. And there's no way you can convince me otherwise.

Uh and so, you know, I worry about bothering him when he's busy doing something else and distracting him. Uh, you know, I stopped in tonight, but it was a little before 5, so I was hoping he was winding down and trying to relax and then, uh, you know,

yeah. [snorts] Um, Debbie or John, any any No, I mean, if I get a send Jerry an email and he responds and Yeah, I think that's worked well. So, okay. Jerry, what kind of this would be helpful for you? Why? Like, what would you like to know from your board? So, these are select board meetings

and sometimes I feel like I'm the one putting the agenda together and I don't necessarily know what they might want to talk about and it's really just the dayto-day business stuff that I can put on the agenda and it's just you know I don't know sometimes I'm like oh I guess we'll do this.

It's not my meeting. I'm here to work on the behalf of them, but if I don't get input from them, I'm kind of sitting there with my wheels turning going, "All right, is this what we want?" Yeah. So, I I think that might be a result of um even though we have put goals together in the past,

we've not had a this is my opinion a strategic pathway to meet the goals through through a timeline. So if we had that after after we have the goals set, if we created, you know, a plan and work towards that plan, we would all understand what are the big ticket items or the big rocks that we need to deal with throughout the year

and what we want to get done in the first quarter versus the second quarter. So, um, and right now we we have our meetings and we take actions and we just kind of roll the topics roll and sometimes they get lost in the in the shuffle. So, I think what we're doing here tonight is great.

Um, but I don't think it stops here. We need to have an execution plan with the goal setting and then that would help all of us be baselined. And I think uh Jerry's concern that he addressed, you know, would would kind of diminish itself a bit.

It is interesting because we often I think in the public often see the town manager as in charge which is in charge of much. But the select board sets the vision for the town, decides what the big priorities are and really guides because he's your employee really guides his work. He does the work but the select board guides it. So I think that is why it's important to do these kinds of goal setting sessions and try to get your heads around what's really important for you, what's really important for the town so that you can help guide Jerry's work through the course of the year.

I uh to that point, you know, I think a lot of people [clears throat] think of like if I think if you pulled the 4,500 people in town, a large percentage would say that the town manager is in charge of the town. Mhm. Um and not real and then there's a subset I think that thinks that we are full-time employees of the town too.

Um and so I think that there's breakdown there. Uh and so I think that sometimes with sometimes I feel like you feel like the spinning of the wheels is like you are like I can't take an action because I don't have a policy direction. My job's not to set policy and facilitate policy. And I think that's where we can implement a better process and follow our goals. Um, but also with communication, I would say that [clears throat] it does bother me a little bit how infrequently people visit with Jerry one-on-one because we've worked on some really big ticket items and um, you know, the lack

of people asking myself or Jerry for more information, more questions. It makes me feel like there might be a knowledge gap between like what we're about to undertake and what what baseline knowledge or understanding about a concept might be because these are really big things. I'm like maybe everyone else just has a very deep understanding of these new issues um or can gather that in a way that doesn't require deal reaching out to our you know kind of technical expert. And so, um, I would love to see us facilitate a way that people feel that they can go talk with Jerry more cuz it's the the communication thing I find is really challenging because it's the only team I'm part of where like you can't discuss anything with anyone in any meaningful way in an email. So, you can only really talk about things every other week. And so even just things about like facts, figures, laws, implications, I would love if

people were just getting that baseline data a little bit more ahead of time so we can be more productive in our our things. And I think that would make Cherry feel a a little bit better that people are like hearing what's being said and and participating. You know,

I know I made some assumptions in there when I said we should limit them, but that's just kind of throwing it out there. Sorry. Um, do you do workshops when you have something that's really complex and you're worried that uh want that it's hard? I remember hearing about something for the first time at a meeting and you're on camera and you're in front of everybody and you're trying to make decisions and have conversations. Do you ever do workshops to help give you a chance where you can ask questions a little more informally? M I think Josh maybe like once like Josh and I's a little bit longer tenure maybe once a couple years ago like Jerry had brought up to us that in some municipalities like they might have a workshop instead of a meeting once a month and that's where they're just like workshopping something and I think we've been trying to kind of figure that process out and like last year we put

some effort into goal setting it might have been even the year before and Deb pulled together really nice tracking sheets to try to help figure things out and you know I struggled to keep those things updated as well. Uh and so like we haven't it's the long answer long and short of it no not really. Um

how does that work? How would that work in terms of a workshop? Would that have to be in lie of a select work? My understanding is it would be kind of like tonight like tonight there's nothing else on the agenda and we're just like working on goal setting. But if we came with a goal out of here, we could say, you know, the second meeting in November is a workshop where we just like, you know, aren't taking votes, aren't taking a lot of action, but like we've invited if it's something that we need like, you know, an outside expert to come in, say the traffic concerns, they could come in, we could have conversations, have questions,

um, you know, talk about goals and objectives and craft what needs to be done and stuff. That's my understanding how I've seen them work, but I I'd love other people's input, too. I think workshops can be less formal than meetings. Um some people some towns do them. So they'll have their meetings on the first and third uh Monday or Tuesday or whatever of every month and then they sometimes set aside another Monday and say this could be for workshops and if you don't have anything you want to talk about you don't do it but if you do want to use it then you have a workshop and at the workshop you don't conduct it like a meeting it's more it would be more like Gary's show

probably or whoever is presenting would probably still have the chair helping to make sure questions are answered in the order they come up, but it's much more informal. I think one thing people like about workshops, too, is that it's really a chance for you to have discussions without motions, without having to go through an agenda. Anything you want to bring up on this topic, you can bring up. Um, and you don't public comment. Public can view the workshop. it's a public event, but there's not public comment because it's it's a work session.

So, I think you can approach it differently if you had something you really wanted to learn about. And you can do workshops that address more than one item. If you had a couple things coming up that you wanted to make sure you had time to discuss in a less formal way, that's a good big way to do it.

I don't know what your process would be for making it happen. And I think we'd want to do it separate from, [snorts] you know, the two monthly meetings because it seems like we're kind of building a list of, you know, I don't want to call it a backlog, but we got a bunch of stuff to get to and taking a meeting a month is just going to increase that backlog. So,

you know, every two months or whatever it may be, we got some big ticket items coming up with uh revaluation. What are we going to do with downtown? Uh there was something else was on my mind that I've now forgotten. Um but I think there's lots of the comp plans changes things where do we want to set guidance for the comp plan committee? Do we want to you know have that discussion versus giving up a monthly meeting? Now I'm retired so that I don't work. Uh so it's easier for me to to give up another evening.

Uh but I I would think we'd not want to give up one meeting a month for sure. Yeah. Yeah, cuz like to your point like [clears throat] even scheduling this, you know, it's not lost on me that our goal setting workshop for the year is 2 months after the beginning of the budget cycle because we had it was like we had so much going on that it's like, you know, it would it would be a lot and some some of our meetings we have like informal working sessions where we're not I mean we're not strict adherence to Robert's rules and all that sort of stuff and we have I think healthy discussion Um, but even just the time commitment, like, you know, I, you know, can stay up

past 9:00 at night, but you my brain doesn't function the same way as I'm trying to work through it. It's like, all right, and now for the first time tonight at 8:55, we're bringing up this really important topic that we finally just got to. And I think that's caused some things to like fall off in the past. I think a few years ago when we were trying to workshop the fees schedule, it ended up taking like three meetings and then we never even got to like gravel pits because it was like, you know, we can only, you know, have so many four almost 4hour meetings after hours, you know, in a in a month. So, um, and I like the idea of like if this is something that needs to be a workshop, you know, taking a stab at a busy schedule, but figuring out if there's extra to do

because not doing it, the work doesn't go away. workshops can help to inform the select board and town manager because I was thinking um when you have a workshop it's a chance for you also absolutely to get input isn't workshops mainly where policy gets developed

and so when we look when I look back at the four years that I've been here do you all know how many policies you've developed that we probably should be working on, but I think what happens is you get caught up in the weeds.

Mhm. In the day-to-day stuff and the administration can handle that. Mhm. And I think you just got to fly at that 35,000 foot level and think about policies and what you want, whether it's a bullet administration policy, texting policy, whatever policy it is. I can

make the draft for you all and then we can all get in here and then you can workshop it to till it fits down. But I don't I don't want the residents thinking that I'm driving this bus. I don't pay taxes in this town. I'm here to work on the behalf of the of the board who does pay taxes in this town. And that's where I really want the guidance because I could hammer you guys all day with policies that should go, but is that what you want? And I I don't know. I don't know if that's what you want or not. And it and I think it all goes back to I never see

to know. I you know I I don't So we we really just do the the daytoday business stuff. Um and I think it's because the transition to the new town form of government is a struggle. Mhm. To recognize that you're not a a select board administrator anymore. It's it's a different form. And I think it's I think it's hard for the community to understand and

I it's it's been a pull um to get there. Yeah, that's an important piece of context. We're only five years into six years into the town manager form of government. Yeah, you voted on it in 2021 and I don't know if the community really knows what that meant. Yeah, because if it was voted on 21, someone was in the role for a very short period of time and then obviously there's still a lot of like COVID restriction stuff going on. So that first year was very messy and so I feel like it's really been like three or four years that we've really you know been been and and I think that traditionally before that um and you might have some Rebecca one of your parents was on the slipboard years ago, right?

No, she's on a budget budget. Okay. So, traditionally, the select board did manage like individual members of the select board managed a lot of the day-to-day operations of the town prior. Um, and so that's just been like a now no one here was has shared shared time with a board member who was here during that time, but it's been a pretty interesting change.

And I think as we get into the the goals, uh, as we're discussing them, we may find that a goal may be something we want to, you know, one of those would be something we want to workshop, um, rather than just bring to a meeting and and vote on. I mean, there's a couple of big ticket items that I'm sure we'll show up goals. And and I think the value of a workshop too is that I think it's really important for even if people don't actively pay attention um for there be a recorded public discussion of some of these policy things that we want to address because if it's like you know packets are sent out everyone reads it formulates an opinion we have a brief conversation and vote to go on something I think sometimes there's like folks who be like oh there must be some stuff going on behind closed doors. when there isn't. And so I think that some people, you know, whether someone's going to come

back and watch the 2hour workshop on YouTube. We get a couple hundred viewers every now and then. Um, but I think it's important to show, you know, that's the painful part and I work in the government, but that's the painful part of government is everything is deliberately slow so everyone can see and participate. You know, it's, you know, not super sleek and quick and, you know, just emails and stuff like that. So

yeah. All right. So, a few things have come up while we've been talking just about communications. One, the town manager would like more input and guidance from the select board um potentially through more one-on-one meetings if people can make that happen. And uh I I a favorite saying of one of

my fellow colleagues when I was on the council was every meeting doesn't have to be an hour. So, it doesn't have to be you don't have to give up a ton of time. Could be a check-in, right? Could be a video call, 15 minutes, half an hour. Um, so there are ways to accomplish it. Sounds like workshops might be something you want to explore that could help a bit on that.

Um, one thing we did not talk about yet in terms of communication is select board communication with town staff. How does that does that happen? or if it does happen, how does it happen? Or if you need information from town staff, how do you get it?

I my understanding is we go directly to Jerry and Jerry is the one who goes forth to talk to the staffers. When we go in as community members, then of course we're interacting and we're friendly with the staffers. But for anything in my I I

learned last year just starting, I don't ask them for stuff. I don't direct them in any way. They are they don't work for me. They work for him. So, I direct everything to him if I have a question. Yeah. And that is what the that's what the town manager plan is supposed to be. Um and I think [clears throat]

the reason behind it is because it would be very hard for staff to have six bosses. Yeah. So, Jerry's the boss and they can't have five more bosses also telling them what to do. that has to go through Jerry for workload management and um just to keep things healthy.

Yeah. I mean I I go even as far as like if I have a if I have something that I'm wondering if it can be addressed or figured out even if I know the town staff person that needs to do that. I don't even like it's not like I email Jerry and CC the clerk and say, "Hey, can you please update the website? Trash bags are now available at, you know, this location." I'll say, "Hey, Jerry, just want to let you know that this is available. would love to see that information get updated. It's not for me to decide who updates the website. And I also don't want to create this implication of like, oh, you know, Calvin's watching me ask Jerry to see if Calvin can do something. Like Calvin doesn't need to see that email. If I have a question about salt or sand, I just ask Jerry and if he he finds a way to answer it, you know? So,

I know it's really hard for us to step back. Um but and it's been it's been a learning experience, but I think some of us are still learning that too. Yeah, it's not it's not unique to Durham. This is something that every council or select board that I have ever worked with and when I was on the one in in Portland, people struggle with this because they want to get the information they want and sometimes you develop a friendly relationship with a staff member and so you kind of think, oh, I'll just just ask it.

Yeah, there's a reason it exists, but it's not unique to you. Everybody kind of struggles with this. Um Jerry, has that been working well for you? Yeah, they do pretty well at that. Yeah. Yeah. There's no real issues there,

right? Great. Anything anyone else wanted to talk about in terms of um communications or the way that the board works together or the way the board works with the town manager and staff, any of that? I I would say, and I don't know what the norm is. I you know, and I don't think that I'm special by any means by being the chair or whatever. I'm just surprised I don't actually have many one-on-one discussions with any board members regularly either. And I know that on some other folks I know who are on ors like that chair is like almost discussing something with a different chair p member daily and like not like oh hey everyone facilitate a conversation through me so I can figure out where everyone feels before we get to go something but like much like Jerry might be surprised that there's no follow-up questions. Like if I say like hey you know here's some things we're going to discuss. If you have any

questions let me know. I'm surprised at how infrequently someone follows up and says, "Hey, can you give me a little background on this or something like that?" And I just want to make sure that I'm not putting up any perceived barriers there. I mean, at the end of the day, every everyone's very busy in their personal life as well.

Um, and so that can be it, too. I just want to make sure there's nothing I'm doing that people are like, I don't even want to bother asking Joe about this because it's just going to annoy me, you know? So, [snorts] I don't have all the answers either. Yeah.

Does anyone have feedback for Jim on on that point? No, I think you're right. I think we could probably reach out a bit more. But there have been a Yeah, I think it's a mixed bag. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz there are definitely times where we're talking about something I'm like, "No one's asked me for any follow-up info." And I'll ask Jerry like, "Hey, did anyone come in to ask you any of these questions? There's a lot going on here." He's like, "No, no one's asked." And I'm like, I like, and this is I'm really bad at making assumptions, so I'm like, "Oh, did no one read the packet?" And they're just going to open it up when we get there Tuesday night. Or, "Oh, did people not read this page?" Cuz I thought this was really confusing. And then, you know, sometimes we get here and people are asking all those questions. I'm like, "Oh, cool." And then other times like, "Oh, I wish I would have known that that

was a question because I could have given them, you know, some supplemental information elsewhere, you know?" So, just want to be helpful. Yeah, wanted to. I think the world's changed after co there was a there was a lot of getting coffee before I don't know if it's not happening as much anymore. Um that can be it can be very useful

and a couple times that people like we have met like it's been great. It's like, "Oh, wow. I feel like we covered a lot of ground here, you know." So, well, it's nice. It builds relationships, too, and then you it helps you to work better together, just those connections.

Um, all right. Well, I think we've kind of covered that portion of the agenda. So, now we get to the exciting part, which is the priority setting. Yes. So, for this, um, does anyone need a little break or anything? No. Can can we talk about communication with our constituents and the public?

Uh, we can. It's definitely captured in these. Yeah, it's there's a lot of fear I think with um goals around that. So, we might we might get to it. Okay. Yeah. Did anyone want a quick break? Let's keep on going. All right. Let's keep on going.

Trucking. All right. Okay. So, what I have done here, Joe solicited goals from all of you and I took them and put them into a spreadsheet and I assigned them a category. And I think the categories that I had, you could probably guess by looking at that. And they go right in order. We start with number one is a governance issue. And then 2 through six are all

related to committees. So you had a lot of common things coming up. It was really interesting to see. Um seven through nine are economic development related and then we had 10 through 14. So we have five items on external communications and engagement. We had one number 15 on facilities

and then we wound up with three. 16, 17, and 18 are all public safety. Oh, no. 16, 17, and 18 are land use related. And then we have one on solid waste and two on strategic planning. But it was interesting to me that the public safety, communications, committees, and economic development were kind of three, four big areas that you so many people had priorities around. So what I would just like to do is first look at these and make sure everyone understands what is meant by the priority that's up there. Because what I'm gonna ask you to do is an exercise people have probably done in another place at some point. I'm going to give you dots

and you will get to choose your six highest priorities. Can can I add one? Jar and I had a nice chat and and I've been thinking about it since I don't know we stopped talking at 5:30 and it it was really a question and I don't not sure how I would answer it

and it and it is what is Durham? And I think one that I would add is sort of, you know, what is our long-term plan? What what do we want to be? Is is that do you think that's 14 community conversation on Durham's future?

So that's So I don't think it was one that you submitted, but it looks like someone else submitted similar similar. Yep. translate community priorities into long-term planning. So, yeah. So, I did bring extra papers so that if anyone

comes up with something they want to add, we can or if we're looking at them and you think, well, we'll we'll get to that. There's I think you bring up a really good point though because like every other I'm involved in a lot of stuff and everything has a mission statement and a vision. That's our guiding principle. And I I agree that like if that's what you're getting at is what are we

working towards other than like what do we what do we want Durham to be? Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point. You know, I mean Jerry and I were talking about, you know, do we want to be want Yeah. You know, do we want it to be Mayberry or do we want it to be something different?

Yeah. Mayberry is Okay. Well, I can add this. I'll add this as number 25 and we'll make sure it's worded in a way that captures what you're trying to say. Okay. So, is that is it determine what we want Durham to be? Is that too simple?

I'm trying to put it into a a priority way, a way to put it out there. But isn't that covered in the comprehensive plan? Isn't that how that's determined to I'm actually gonna ask us to keep it to select board. I appreciate that comment though. Thank you. [laughter]

Isn't that included in the comprehensive plan? Oh, there we go. You got it. Yeah. Um yeah, where is your comprehensive plan in in it's older 2018. Yeah. So we're coming up on the process. Yeah. Yep. So that would definitely be covered in comprehensive planning.

Yeah. And one one of the things that came out of comprehensive plan is that there's some nomenclature that I don't know if everyone completely agrees on like we want to protect the rural nature of Durham. Rural nature does not mean the same thing to everybody.

Yeah. And so what some like I mean I compared to where I grew up this does not feel rural like um but people will tell me like this is the boonies you know people who are my friends from Portland like you live out there in the woods I'm like

it's a Durham it doesn't feel very rural to me you know um so I think that that just it's a different gradient so but that's besides you know we don't have to get that far details so isn't that part of 14 though or maybe 14 needs to be expanded

that could be you know that's about Durham's future I think I couldn't came up when you were going through them all. I was trying No, no, no. That's fine. That's fine. So, I think what we might want to do, let's let's take a look at what we've got, see if there's anything we want to add, and then we'll get into kind of ranking them. Um,

so I'm I'm just here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to read it aloud. If you have a question about it, if you're not sure what it means, you think it's too broad or whatever, just raise your hand and we'll talk about that one.

And if nobody raises a hand, we will just keep going. change town meeting format, codify. Oh, sorry. Or explore. I mean, I don't know if we've all agreed that we should change the town meeting format. Maybe it should be like explore and determine.

Yeah, I like that. Are people okay with Yep. And just I don't know who submitted this but what my assumption on this was that this means do we stick with a town meeting form of government where everything is set there. That's what my understanding of this.

Yeah. I mean I think I think we just got to explore something. You know we need to come to a yes or no on all of these things. Yeah. I think it maybe explore and determine if we should change town. Yeah. I like the the exploratory language in the sense that like if I say oh we should decide if we want to change town meeting. Sometimes the feedback I get is like well why are no one's asking you to change town meeting and oh well we are asking you to change town meeting so just say we've heard some feelings on town meeting

okay we've acknowledged fewer participation do we need to make a change here you know does this work better for you John explore and determine if we need to change it I was fine with it you were fine with it before I was not fine with

and you were not but I think if we vote are we are is everybody okay with that one delin Is this one deadline? Okay. Codify budget process including budget committee. Yes. Provide guidance to committees, boards, um specifically open space, agricultural economic development. And right now we're just making sure everybody understands. Issue a board and committee policy. Issue a budget committee ordinance. These are all kind of the same. review committees committee structure and create rules and regulations for committees. You can see this I think in some way this might make it onto the priorities. Um increase revenue

inventory and management. You understand that one? I put that by real I mean like land that is owned by the real estate. Okay. Pursue economic development to lower property taxes. Improve communication with public to increase awareness of select board agendas and town governance. Improve resident code compliance by implementing an awareness campaign of code permit requirements.

I'm confused by what that means. Awareness campaign. That was me. I put in I feel like we would serve the residents well if we maybe created a communication strategy to make people aware of different um permit requirements that they might not even know you know and that could increase revenue because people could be doing stuff that they shouldn't be doing without a permit from Kelvin

and just because it came across in some kind of awareness campaign or the news blast or something. Okay. Um, it was here. Updated communications roll out for select board town office. Lead a community conversation on Durham's future. Focus on facilities expansion. Develop a gravel pit ordinance.

policy and ordinances. Improve public safety specifically with regard to speeding/construction vehicles driving too fast. Implement three distinct actions to make the community safer focusing on resident complaints to date and additional community input. targeted enforcement to increase public safety. Okay. And on the last one, we have review solid waste policy, bags and composting and the approach to the roll out of bulky waste days.

Strengthen the board's strategic leadership. Translate community priorities into long-term planning. I could use more clarification on 23. 23. Strengthen the board's strategic leadership. I think that it did come from me.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Do you want to give a little more explanation to make sure people understand what's So, where is the town going? What's what's the strategic plan for Durham? Do you want to remain the the town of Mayberry?

Well, actually Mayberry had a sheriff, so you're one step below that. [laughter] Can someone explain the town of Mayberry? Maybe it's a generational thing here. Sorry. I don't know what that is. Griffith, I want to start whistling a song.

I've heard of it. Sorry. Sorry everyone. Oh my god. Ron Howard got his start as Odie the just told your clearly some YouTube clips need to be sent. I have to go back. Maybe I got a set of bunny ears I can put on my TV at home tonight. From an outsider coming in,

I think there are people out there that will fight to keep it Mayberry. But is that what the B community wants? I couldn't tell you as the manager. I I have no idea what maybe maybe they like that, but there are there are opportunities and

there there are positive and negatives with staying with the town of Mayberry, which is fine. or do they want it? Cuz Durham is a in a really odd location because you got service centers that are all around them that are looking at housing, affordable housing, all kinds of stuff and Durham is not. So what is this board's leadership in putting those things forward like

so in terms of Okay, that explains it more. Okay. You understand if you if you put a dot here, you understand what you are. Yeah. And that's kind of goes hand in hand with the next with 24 and 14, too. Yeah. So, okay. All right. Let me give you go this way. Let me give you your dots.

Before we do that, yeah, we look raised my hand. I saw that. You're good. Uh, can we just combine some of these? I was going to lump maybe. Yeah, maybe we should do that before we start. Yep. I see some lumping opportunities here.

Okay. You know, yeah, to me, three, four, five, and six. Uh maybe two. They're all they're all guidance to different boards. Yeah, that seems like one that seems like a shared goal. Yeah. And I'd hate for like cuz right now if there's a sticker on three sticker on four, five, and six, we're all speaking to the same thing. So, can we lump three, four, five, and six?

Yep, we can. Good idea, John. Yep. Okay. So, consider these. You can put your stickers here for this one. Um, and that'll just mean doing something with the committees and we'll figure out how and then seven, eight, and nine are pretty much right. I mean, pursue economic development is the same thing as increasing revenue.

Um, I don't know if I want eight to be lumped with seven and nine. That's fair. I admittedly eight. No, that's fair. Do you think seven and nine should be lumped? I do. Yeah. Okay, we can do that. Okay. So, we will lump these two as well.

I think 10 and 11 can be one. Uh, and there might even Oh, no. That's code compliant. But we've got so we got a lot on communications, improve community involvement, improve communication with public, increase awareness.

We've got an updated communications roll out. I think to me, sorry. Yeah, I was just going to say to me 10 is very different. Yep. 10 is let's get more people involved whereas 11, 12, 13 are more about let's get our message out. I because I because I think and I I think I've made it well known my position

like to increase awareness seleg agendas to improve compliance awareness campaign we do a lot of saying you know for those who don't know for this uh we spend a lot of time and you know I think so be good with putting 11 12 and 13 together

yes I think those are does that work for everybody 11 12 and Yeah, I mean the thing is is 11 12 13 leads to number 10. That's the only thing. But yes, I agree with you Josh. Well, when I say community involvement, I think about and this is by no means a dig at any of our people who are participating, but like how often is when a new opportunity arises, it's the same names as like two or three other committees, which is great, but that means like, you know, there's 30 of us who are participating in everything representing the the 4,100 people.

Yeah, I would move 14. Are we good with these three left? Okay, so I'm just going to do that. Just wanted to make sure before I did. Okay. I think 16 and 17 can go together, too. Okay. Yeah. And 14. Do you want to put that with 24

community conversation for Durham's future. 24 is translate uh community priorities into long-term planning. 23 is strengthen strategic leadership. I think those can go together. Does anyone have any opposition to I don't think the uh strength and strategic leadership goes with them but

okay this one the strength for strategic leadership could also we're saying 14 and 24 long-term planning and community conversation about the future. Okay. And then 16 and 17. 17. What's that? No, no, not talking. I was just trying to figure out if 22.

Oh, solid waste. Okay. So 16 17 are both kind of talking about the same because we don't I don't think we have any quories. I think it's all gravel pit, right? Yep. Yeah. So it's just like a Okay. overlap. We do have a quarry.

Oh, we do have a corey. Is it act dug is just a full quarry? Oh, okay. Blast every week. between the two. Can we should we not put those together? John, what do you I don't care about that. I'm just not sure that that it's our job. In the past, those kinds of things we just told the planning board and the planner that we need an or you know, they've come up with ordinances if we just can we do the same thing without us that made a priority from us. I mean, I think that could be our action is saying we have heard from people that they want an ordinance.

We're delegating that to the subject matter expertise. You know, not necessarily we're forming it. I did raise my hand to say basically the same thing that Joseph Oh, sorry. I was just trying to harass John. Um, okay. So, people can keep that in mind as they are allocating their dots as to whether or not you think this does belong with select board or not. And and I'll leave that to people to decide. Are we good with the ones we've combined? I think that's really helpful.

The target of Sorry. No. I mean, yes, the 19. It's just gotten so much attention. 20 and 21. No, kind of. Well, they're all public safety. Um, and they do all appear to be traffic related. Traffic safety. Um, so I you could put them together. I think they go together, but I just don't want anyone who submitted these feel like they need to lump them.

I submitted one of them and I feel like they should go together. I as well. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And what might happen if some of these that are lumped um rise to the level of priorities? We might words smmith them a little bit to make sure they capture the most salient points people want.

But we can decide on that. Yeah. No, I take back what I was going to say. Go ahead, Jeff. I was going to say I like that we're now loading on 11 options instead of 24. Oh my gosh. I'm not going to give you six dots anymore.

I was going to say we have 11 dots of these. Do 18 and 22 review and policy go together or do they are they separate because they're separate policies? I would say for for me I would keep those separate because they're two vastly different policies like between like housing density and development versus trash pickup. you know,

we can't combine everything, guys. So, yeah, cuz I was actually going to say like, what about 18 and 15? Even though it's I know it's different. That's what And I'll tell uh 15 had some notes with it and it had specific facilities that it was looking at and I do have those notes.

Um, to me that would be the town hall expansion. That's what I was thinking too. That was fun. Keep it separate. Okay. Yeah. Where what number were facilities? 15. Yeah. It said Yep. Town office, Eureka Center, better utilize space between buildings and baseball field.

me see. Not six. That's for sure. We have 11 to choose from. No, there's 14, I think. Right. 14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. I got 13 13 14 13 or 14. I usually give people order at least four dots. Um, what? There's 15. I'll give you.

All right, let's do this real quick. One, two, three, four, five, 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 and I think 10 is separate from Yeah, 10 is separate. 14. 14. There we are. Um, so yeah, we're going to do Well, Josh, I can only get so high on the I have my closed shoes.

Five. Four. Five. Four. Do we [clears throat] get to negotiate this? No. Five is like a third almost. Yeah. Yeah. Four. If everything's important, nothing's important. Well, the other thing is there's only so many that we're going to be able to do.

Yeah. Yeah. And you're getting different colors because uh you'll find out why. So So that's a rule. You can't stack your dots. You can't put all four of them in one place and say that's these is my boat. They're all in red.

Okay. Let's see what the other color is. Mhm. All right. The other color is also a blue. It's like her trash bags. [laughter] All right. So have at it. Does Does Jerry get dots? Jerry can. I brought extra dots in case you want.

I would rather see where the select board wants to take this town rather than mine. All right. Wait, that is Let's go back. We're putting dots on those things that we feel should be addressed this year. They prioritize over the the ones we don't put dots on.

Yes. And that's important to think of it. Remember, it's this year, so you can only have so many. Um, and so you are weighing them as does this is this something that needs to happen before the other thing? If you're looking at two, which one is the bigger priority? So, yes.

Yeah. Your individual thoughts about what the priorities should be. I'm treating my dot placement as like if I could only choose four things to work on of these lumps, that's what I would do. So, should Yeah. Yeah. Go for it.

Oh, did I not give you Josh is dotless. Oh. Oh, he red. I have yellow. Did I get I put the red in front of the I have Sorry. I took the red in front of the chief. There you go. Thank you. He's wearing He's not red. He looked like he gave me fire.

Yeah. Yeah. As long as he puts it under public safety, it's okay. Feel like I have to choose that one since it's kind of what I'm involved in every day. Right. Can I do that outside of having a hard time? Well, see if someone else will bite. You know what I mean?

if I don't. word. It's just the overall overall idea because he just a comprehensive I think so cuz we're not we're not getting briefs. Maybe if everybody has one more dot. Joe, are you um still comprehensive? This is a time limit. Joe,

it is following rules. Joe, I'm giving you I'm giving everyone one more dot. You have two left to place. You giving us another dot. I am giving you one more. Giving you one more. I don't remember which of you had which blue.

I have dark. You dark blue increase. One more. You're good. Okay. You're supposed to be down there. Wait, are we getting more? You're getting one more. You are yellow, right? Yes. Thank you. You know, they take away second one.

Another another extra. No. Special. It'll be out of balance if you don't use the stick. You got one more. Yeah, you got one more. John, what's that? Yeah, we we got to have your last your last choice. I'm good. I The four that I want to work on are up there. So,

all right. landed. Um, it looks like there's some obvious ones. we have four here. Is that true? Okay. So, this feels like a priority perhaps. Four. We have three for the committees. expansion, three for public safety, and three for strategic leadership.

the ones that did not get a majority. I think it might be helpful to wait for John to get back before we start going through too too much of this cuz I think he's using the restroom right now. Okay, we can do that. Does anyone else We can just take a moment.

Let's take a break. Oh, I say that. I don't either. Good. Then you can talk to me about Nobody put a dot on the gravel pit. all the commotion we got going on. we do have some relative stuff in the wood. It's Well, we have one, but it's useless. I mean,

I to to me to me it's not I didn't put it because there were so many I Yeah. And to me, that's a hey, this is your responsibility and you do this for Well, by statute, it's the planning board anyway, right? So, that's why I

You have to give it to them. [laughter] Yes. So that's why I didn't put up there, but that's maybe something we should put on and maybe the solid waste policy can be on the solid waste committee. I think I think that's about done, isn't it?

Not for bulky waste. There's nothing planned. I thought they were going to work on things to help or didn't they finish that, Jack? Did the committee finish their both their solid waste ordinance yet? I don't think they I've seen some drafts. Yeah, I don't know

where they were at. I think I've been talking to a lot anywhere. Deb should know. She's been working with them on that. So, somebody could come and just say this is what you have to do. Jerry, that's not talking about that.

I don't think you can sorry. You as a resident can compost as much as you could if it was going to the facility. You I can't I came to talk about you. Yeah. Because you had to get the temperature before we turned it over. I know.

Was it going to practice? That is my you know summer practice or bones or whatever like you need. I mean that's the Is he still buying cash to be honest? So I eat like a car today. Where is he? I do. I know you do. Did he start?

and you can use All right. So, getting back to this, we have one four, we have several threes, we do have two ones. And so, the first thing I like to do is ask the people who have the ones if they are interested in repositioning their dots

to bring something else up. No. So, I I was the one with the budget process. No. No. Okay. So, you want to leave them there. I' I'd even steal John's unused stuff and put it next to mine. have two. Would either of these So, one of these is dead and one of these is jail. Develop a plan for real property inventory and management. Do you want to move these or do you want to try to convince someone else to uh move a dot from another one? I

actually think if we do number eight, it would lead to benefit the seven, nine and 10 category um myself because we should know what we have. The public should know and the select board should know what do we have for property and what are the opportunities associated to owning that right now,

which could lead to increased revenue if we decide to sell it or use it for economic development, that type of thing. That's why I was put my daughter on eight. But couldn't that same be if we're talking about increased revenue, couldn't we develop that plan as part of that?

Right. So, so the reason I put mine on eight and didn't want to lump that is that real assets are a bit of a different have different opportunities in the sense that like there are several a parcels in this town that are, you know, 5 10 20 acres located throughout town. Some of them might be better utilized for recreation opportunities for residents. Some of them could have, you know, a timber harvest that generates income or timber harvest associated with developing recreational opportunities. Um so it can play a little bit more into open space planning. Um then also I see potential maybe for um um that being an area for public safety address concerns like if we have an area that's in a part of town and it's near an aquifer, could we put a hydrant there to actually have a better water supply if there's fires in that side of town? Could we, you know, establish some sort of public resource there? And so that's

why I wouldn't want to put it just in money because at the same time it could be let's sell it or let's put out an RFP for energy development or a business or whatever. So it's not all just economic development. It could also be community development. That's why I

don't want to move that. I also deal in land management. So that's why I'll put my fist out on that one. I think we I got them sold. We need to sell as much of that stuff as we can. All right. Now, this one has three and some of it's unknown too as to what we have.

I think it's I think if we had So, this would give if we counted all the threes. One, two, three, four, five. We'd have six goals, which is not horrible. Um, let's look at what they are and see if we think all six are something that could conceivably be done over the next year. So

if Yeah, go ahead. Can I make I think that in some ways real estate and facilities can be kind of related. Um I think that's just one thing to acknowledge with this list here. Like if we're planning a we're trying to develop a plan for town real estate and real own properties, it's like we have like, you know, modulars back here that we don't necessarily have a plan for or don't know our limited constraints or whatever. Um, you know, so I think that they could be somewhat related.

Rebecca, this was your goal. Do you think I know and I It's related. It is. I think I was very tempted to move my yellow dot from um where you have a four to number eight. So which which from that four to eight from that? Yeah. Just in terms of like overall

Yeah. Can we combine them all and do it all? Well, the other thing I want to know about 8 is this year at the town meeting, the town specifically asked to remove the ability for the select board to because we ask every year, can we sell what the town owns should it need to be without having to come to a town special board meeting to sell a broken dump truck and people specifically ask for real estate to be removed from that. So nothing could they didn't want land sold or or changed without town input which was a message to me hearing that people are valuing that resource

and I took that as a wrong message. We own lots of parcels of land that are not doing anything. Yeah. I mean an acre here you know you can start selling that stuff and you know and start getting some revenue. I mean, I get it where we may we want to think about what's important to us and and the comp plan will do that and this will discuss it, but we got to start bringing some of that stuff back into the into the tax roles or it may be the right right place for the things you mentioned, gentlemen. But I mean, right now they're just sitting there doing nobody any good.

And some of them would don't even know the boundaries or where they're at, you know, and that question on the warrant didn't it already left real property out. It was just property like dump trucks. So removing it was already removed. I I don't know,

but it's been brought up at multiple town meetings in a row because it was just misunderstood. So um it didn't Yeah, I would I would agree. We if if it wants to be back on there, we need that we really need to talk eight and try to tell people what it is we want to do, right?

Identify the stuff that's worth saving for some reason and then get rid of the other stuff. Yeah. And it is a one of the few tangible assets that the the town owns. It's like our actual real estate. And if you look at the map, some of it is like open space as part of subdivisions. Other of it is like these tiny parcels. There's probably some parcels that have back taxes that haven't been paid on that should be part of the town ownership. And those all bring in zero dollars. And there's an opportunity cost due to a lot lack of taxes on those two. Okay.

So, number three. Um, wait. You mean number eight? Number three. Yeah, number three. That one up. Yeah. Number eight. I'm sorry. Number eight. I put a three. Yeah. Right. Um, so we already have an inventory. We just have to decide what we want to do with it. So, half of that is completed.

The increased revenue economic development. We've got a committee already started. We're going to be talking about that in the coming year with GP COG. Okay. So, I just want to mention that number 15 GP car. We got an $8,000 grant to already talk about that. So, they did a bunch of work there. So, that's just sitting on the shelf idle. I just want to mention that

that's a downtown that's the whole facilities thing that Right. Right. Right. They did and there's a there's a report um on that and I believe uh at the end of the report it says uh don't lose momentum on that. So, just keep that in mind. the irony.

Yeah. And number and I'll just say this. I don't think the select board can do 23, 24, and 14 without number 10. I I think the select board to make really good decisions has to get the community involved in what the community wants the community to be. And I think if they can somehow get that community engagement, it'll help the select board make decisions whether it's this select board or future select boards.

Um so they so it's so they're not just guessing they they've got input from the community like this is what we this is what we like. This is what we want. This is what we want to do. So Rebecca, so on to piggyback on that, I feel that's very important to have improved the community involvement, but I don't think that we can do that without any sort of communications to the community because people we have done so much in getting information out there and yet it's still not getting through to the majority of residents. And so how we can better improve community involvement is having conversations with them and how do we have conversations with them through communicating. So that's

I think there's another challenge there too in the sense that like I know people who have told me they want to get involved but they've said like I look and it's all the same people and they've lived here for much longer than me. I don't think I am allowed to get involved yet because I've only been here three, four or five years. And I haven't been on any of these other things. And some people have this perception of like you have to be on a committee or board before you go for, you know, budget or before you go for or whatever. And so there's like this um good old boys club

barrier to some people. So they're like, I see that invitation, but I don't really know if it's truly an invitation is what I've some feedback I've receive. No, I think that's part of it for sure. Josh, so I've said this before, I'll say it again, and I'll keep saying it. We can't force people to want to be involved.

We can't force people to sign up for the text messaging, to sign up for the email notices, to go to the website, to rely on reliable sources of information that come from the town. Uh, and so while I agree those are very important, we have spent a lot of time on those and we have gotten nowhere. And I think I mean I mean I'm at the point personally where it's almost like we have to do something drastic either that people are going to love or people are going to hate to get them talking about it. Well, how'd you know this? To get them involved to get them to come down like the trash.

People hated it. They were involved. Our meetings were full of people and then all of a sudden it started and it's not as bad as everyone thought. They stopped coming. Like that's how we got the like I don't know what else we can do. And so [clears throat]

for me, I agree it's important. How are we going to do it? And uh we've tried and failed. And so I think we need to focus on something else. And and I I seriously say maybe we need to do something very unpopular to get them to come out and say, "Then come help us. Come make a better plan." Like this solo waste. People were pissed off about those trash bins and how heavy they were and how how bad it was going to be since it rolled out. The only complaints are about the trash bins. Nothing about the bins or anything else like that. But it still didn't get anybody involved. I I agree with Josh and I would say that there were I don't know 80 people 50 something people that showed up for the town meeting and I don't look at it anymore

but you know from what I'm hearing about all things Durham and now everybody's mad. Well anybody wants to approach me that is where the hell were you on the 9th or 10th of June uh when we voted. So I I don't have an answer to then because we talked about the budget we talked about it multiple times. We put it out. We did a whole bunch of things. And I get it. There was graduation. There were other things. But there weren't 2,000 people that went to graduation,

right? Yeah. You know, we had 80 people. It is really difficult to get people to come out for things. Definitely. There are strategies if you wanted to really focus here. I'm sure there are things that you could do, but we have two dots.

Mhm. So I don't know that this is where people want to focus. And I would say to Jerry's point about you have to have this to do these other things. I would say if you were when you pursue a comp plan, robust community involvement is a huge part of the process. It's a requirement for getting a comp plan through. So that might be an opportunity at that time.

Yeah. To bring more people in. So when you're when you're doing a project that requires the involvement that might help you accomplish this. I'm got a hand here and then Josh and then I made a suggestion to Jerry tonight. You know, we have the election this year. It's going to be a big one. Again, if we put something out that says, are you interested in joining a board? Leave your name and email address.

Uh I mean I know that uh they do all this stuff is out there. the emails, the text messages, it's all not it's all there. So tonight, let's not talk about what the solutions might be. Let's talk about what the priorities are. Once we have the priorities, then we know where to focus the energy and then we can talk about what the solutions are.

So, so it's kind of starting to sound like this is a priority even though we only have two No. I I disagree. I I think that we communicate outwardly. sufficiently, but that doesn't mean people choose to participate. So, I think that like if you want to know what's going on here, you can sign up for our text message, you can sign up for our news blast, you can check our official Facebook page, you can check our website, we have monthly coffee with the town manager, and I do a a every other week video message that goes out even on the unofficial pages where because that's where people are actually communicating. there's like seven or nine ways that every message is being communicated, but people still don't show up. And so I think that's to Josh's point. If we're sending the information out, it's being received and people aren't taking action. And so like to John's point, like you know, 50 80

people show up to town meeting that everyone's claim was like, well, I guess everyone in town had a child in graduation, so they couldn't come to the town meeting. But I know people who will tell me, I don't think my taxes are that bad. I don't want to give up a Saturday because I really don't care what the the raising is. It's not a big deal to me. It's well within my budget. I'm fine with that. It's not worth it to me. I know other people who say, "I had to work Saturday or I don't want to use my vacation for that." So, it's like there's some disconnect between message received, don't care, not going to participate. And there's always going to be an element of I going to complain like if there's $20 bills falling from the sky, I'm going to complain they're not a 100. But like, so I think that the big thing we need is the involvement portion here. I think we communicate a lot, you know.

Well, I John had mentioned this uh with All Things Durham. Have you ever heard of like Channel 8's total coverage? I haven't heard that. Well, all things Durham is Durham's total coverage. That that's where all the news goes. That's where all the misinformation goes. And that they don't go to the town. So somehow the town has lost its

or never had its own little narrative and it's all out there on a private Facebook page that is so much misinformation out there that that's what the board is fighting. We need a social media. So it's so we're still on this and people are telling me it's not a priority but we are still talking about it. Is it a priority? I think we need to move on from talking about that because

I think I think we do especially if it's not a priority but if it is going to become a priority because it seems like something people are very fired up about. I think it's something that people keep coming back to and we're going to continue to come back to it

time and again and there's no I'm in communications and we we are just not there. We just we aren't getting messages across. There are people who want to be involved and they I have had conversations. They're like, "Oh, there's a text message. Oh, there's this. Oh, there's an email blast." They don't know anything. They go into the town office to pay their bills, but they just like they're so focused, they don't look at anything. Or they pay online and they don't even go into the town office. So, I think that Yeah, I think communications it's going to keep coming up. We don't even have to deal with it now, but it's going to rear its ugly head again. So,

all right. So, we will we will dispense with this as a priority because I keep being told that it's not something that people want to tackle this year and I'll come back. It's it's part of everything else to in my opinion like almost everything else it's part of.

So, all right. I mean, we do it anyway. Folks, with these two dots hearing that this is not a priority, would you like to reallocate them? Yes. Do it. Yeah. I mean, because I know that that's still it, but Yeah. There you go. E Crow next year, Rebecca. So,

no, I know you are. I mean, all of you are. So, [laughter] it just means we're not going to have a set goal specifically for that topic, but we are going to be talking about communication for the whole year. Uh, wait, where did I want to put my Oh, yeah. Here.

And while we're doing that, when I when I was out campaigning, I talked to a resident who's lived here 40 years, and I said, "Hey," he asked me what the select board did. I said, "Well, we raised your taxes." Mhm. I said, "But you know, you can come to the town meeting and do that." Oh, no. I went to one of those meetings a long time ago. It was so boring. I've never gone back.

That's so Well, but that's even a misnomer. Like communications. That's what I'm saying. Even likeation there like we don't raise taxes. The town voters set their taxes. So, and that's like John's telling you like, "Well, why don't you come on over there?" Nah, don't want to do it. It's like you literally have the power here and we've told you you've been connected now in person. The communication is happening. It's just not changing an action.

Okay, I'm definitely going to when I write this up explain communications was a big topic of discussion but did not make the priority. Yes. [laughter] Okay. So again, we are here with these six. Are these six reasonable to tackle?

Does anything need to go? We've got So, has this gone away then? Because there's still one dot left. That's me. It's Yeah, but it's still Oh, that's you. I thought it was um No. Would you like to reallocate somewhere else?

I'll just move it to uh 79 and 10. Okay. So, that Okay. Make the record known. I'm not moving the hers. Do we want to put um because during the mini break we were talking about the gravel pit and wait, can I jump ahead? Is that okay?

Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. um moving that into the planning board's uh um idea. How does this get to the planning board? We need to tell them that we'd like them to so to address it. And in the past, this goal setting workshop is we've had the boards and committees come and tell us what they see as their goals and objectives and then we would say, "All right, of these five, the select board would like you to pursue these two based off what you're telling us." Um, and so I am very I'm sure this is a planning board goal and objective based off communications. And so I think to John's point, this is just kind of like right uno reverse. You you work on it, you know, um, go for it. You have our support to do something together

officially. Tell them I think I put it on agenda. When it comes to land use ordinances, we are usually pretty much like give it to that board and committee, give it to the town planner, tell us what we need to know from the community. So that can be as easy as like email Brian tonight, you know.

No, once it once it goes to the planning board though, they work on it and then it comes back here, right? It comes back to this goal here, three, four, five. It comes back to us. Yeah. And then we either say, "Yep, this is head in the right direction. The select board would support putting this up for a vote, you know, and then they have their process that they have to follow to do that."

We also with housing policy ordinances. Wait, before we move to that one. Yeah. Can we then for the record of this meeting have 16 and 17B? We're gonna assign that to the land use ordinance planning board and take an action to

I think we need to we need to vote on it at a meeting. Yeah, you will have to vote on it. But we'll put that on the agenda for next meeting. You're saying that would be what you would like We'll put that on the agenda for next meeting. um

to direct the to direct the planning board to to explore gravel pay and Corey. So 18 that's what Yeah. No, that's what I was going to say before. 18 I think should also be part of that because that is also the planning board.

I I would say they've already been doing that. I mean I'm not sure they are. We you know we've changed the changed it then the state changed it. We changed it. Has been working. There's been a lot of hurry up and wait because the goalpost has moved

ADUs and all that crap and that's solid waste committee is still working on like you had said they're still they're doing this the solid waste committee is working on that they should we should find out when they're going to bring a draft to the

they're meeting again in September last time heard okay so we don't have to do anything with this they are working on it and so staff has got that in their lab right staff has done this one. Yeah, that's the way you say it.

Staff is doing that. [clears throat] We We're working with the attorney to help us shepherd us through that. Yeah. So, this is being 16 and 17 are being addressed. Yeah. Currently, so you don't because Jerry will let you know when it's ready to go and same with

and if I may, I think they're already working. They're working on whatever number is the housing thing now. I think I saw something on one of their agendas or minutes that we have to change what we changed that they changed. So,

well, I mean, you know how much the housing stuff has changed from the state level that we've just been like drinking out of a a fire hose for that stuff. We just got a $10,000 grant to work on housing policy and to update our ordinance and uh

Okay. through the state. So, that's in the Hey, look at this. We're already getting things done. So, yes, that would be the saw minutes. Yeah. So, I think people submitted this because these were important to us, but they are already being

happening. Okay. And that's probably why they didn't get that they were on this then for those topics, those four top three topics there, you know, they're under staff and committee work that's happening. If we wanted to say we need

target dates for when this stuff is going to be presented back to the select board, are we saying that to Jerry? Are we sending that to commit? I think maybe on the one that you said the staff is working the the the two I mean how are

we getting this information back to the select board with the targeted date? So you mean so like so we know like the example of the solid waste committee. I know they're working on the draft of that policy and it took time as we're rolling out the details, but um should that come from the solid waste committee through John or myself? John has taken all that over but um back to the select board

or is it coming through Jerry or we saying to Jerry, Jerry, get with the solid waste chair and see when they're coming back? I mean that's I think sometimes we're missing some of that part. I'm happy to help with and get them the information, but the the committees are under your select you folks, right?

I think for the solid waste committee, John, we'll have to tell Jerry, "Hey, this policy is ready to be presented to the board. Can you put this on the agenda?" John, are you the sol? I may be. I listen I was I was directed to up through I felt I did what I was tasked to do up through the uh trash and create a

you know a review of whether we should have a town but someone told me that you said she was going to talk to Joe about why doing it so I don't know if she's had a chance to do that I'm happy to do it anyway this is coming to

committee that's a little bit of questions over here, right? When you can work on that. Um, yeah, because like some of the committees we assign a select board liaison. Other committees the PE the committee is made up of people who are just like getting things done really well. you know the budget the u um planning board is very delineated and has professional staff assisting it which is very different than you know the the conservation commission which doesn't have any dedicated professional staff support so

so for this we have these four things um I think it can be I think number six kind of captures it right review the committees and the committee structure and create rules and regulations yeah so this I think this one captures it um kind of becomes

which is very difficult because now after a committee gets formed they write their own bylaws come to us and say here are our committee bylaws so we don't really drive that [laughter] so all right so I think that's good I think we've simplified that one you guys know what it is and it's

something you have to work on so wait just to so to go back to that so Joe what you were saying is like they're the ones who are doing their bylaws they have to send it to us to approve and then we don't even approve They just tell us here's what we're our bylaws are,

right? You give them the charge. So we say like you need to like we need you to give us a plan for how to deal with municipal waste knowing that we're moving to automated tech collection. They create their own bylaws on So I'm thinking that particular topic is for us to just rebaseline where we are.

What are the committees? Where are their charters? Who's on them? That's a very good workshop idea. Yeah, true. Yeah. And you guys, this is all your purview. This is you create this. So, you can even look at the committees and say, do we have the committees we need?

Do we need other ones? Do we not need some of these? Has any of them out, you know, outlived their use? Uh, but yeah, you can definitely revisit all of that. Yeah. So I think so because I I don't know which one of those I had originally written for my goals but um my thought process of it was also

the I don't want to say how they act but but with that there were you know like certain rules that they should abide by I think is where my brain is going with this. So just so that doesn't get lost in I think it's all of it. Yeah. Review the committees and the committee structure and create rules and regulations.

Oh, I did actually that. Okay. Yep. So it's not lost. One thing we should note here though is it's policy. But policy. Policy. That's the word I was saying. Where do you want policy in this? Create create rules regulations. Policy create policy for them.

I mean I think so. I think it's just Yeah, it needs Yeah, it needs to be it needs to be a standardized policy throughout for all committees. Yeah. So they're all following so nobody is treated anyone else. So like because right now we don't get regular committee reports from it's not like every month in our packet we have a committee report. Some committees are recorded. Some committees are t taking notes by hand.

And you might decide to do that but all we need that's the difference. Yeah. All we need to know is the priority. I do want to know so everyone's aware that that the budget committee is not included in that lump there. Oh, it is.

No, no, that's separate. It's not. It's because it's elected. It's an elected committee. Okay. But there's no bylaws and it's I do think that they have their bylaws. No, I think so. That's Well, this is my question is did I was really surprised no one put anything next to budget. Did people think that budget committee was part of that line?

I included that to be us budget committee and all the committees that we created. Me, too. So, the three dots there should also include Yep. So, okay, we should lump that. Sorry, that's that was my bad, too, cuz I thought we had separated those. So,

so that's really two through six then. Yeah, budget committee is considered a committee and it follows a committee structure. That's that was my understanding. I thought it was all elected appointed committees. How I see I made an assumption so I just tested. Okay, that's good.

Great. Um, so we have a four, we have a five, we have a four. These are obviously the ones that got the most votes. Let's look at these threes. Actually, let's look at this. I think this one all made sense. Uh, oh, it's just these two. Um, how would you like that worded?

So, I I think that Jerry's right. We do have an economic development committee. For me, that's not the only way to increase revenue, and I think we need to explore other ways. Okay. Um, so I don't know that they're doing that.

What if I'm trying to make sure we get out at 8:30. What if it was explore ways to increase revenue, including but not limited to pursuing Yeah. economic I mean, well, it's kind of the same thing. Pursuing economic development to lower property taxes.

Yeah. I think I think they we already have a committee doing that. To me, it would just be sort of the how do we increase revenue? So explore ways to increase revenue egg sales. Yeah. So I think what for me what we're trying to get at here is

we we are a onetrick pony. We take how much money we need and we divide it by the house the valuation and it comes out of everyone's pocket and there's a lot of elements of that that are out of our control. School school and county in particular. How do we offset municipal expenses without it directly just coming out of other people's pocket? And I don't think, you know, quadrupling permit fees is the answer because that's just taking it out of the left pocket instead of the right pocket.

So, what if it's explore ways to increase revenue to lower property tax? That's because you have an economic development committee and that might wind up being That's a bigger umbrella. Okay. Uh pursue and maybe John has a special baked baked item that will just sell right off the shelf. You know,

call the town voted down there want to show up. Yeah, there's 14 in Lisbon. Okay, we got that one. We got that one. 57 people to show up. Focus on facilities expansion. Do we want to narrow this at all or is that good as it is?

We have a grant. You said the grant's already been spent the We have a report. You have a report and it's sitting on the shelf. Yeah. So focus on f facilities focus on moving facilities expansion report forward. Mhm. Yeah.

Or at least understanding the scope of what that is. Yeah. What are the next steps with that? What that also maybe if it's execute the next steps on okay review expansion report and determine next steps. Yeah, that scripture

and that could be a variety of things, you know. And execute the next steps. Yes. I mean, we got to get we you're right because one of the challenges great community involvement with that thing and we need to determine what we're going to do is get

for me. one of the challenges with language that says like execute next steps like I like action but we're talking about how we want to decrease taxes and increase facilities and so I'm fine with that but some people don't the executing the next step would be and I'm not saying I agree with but they could say okay all that information is great but if it cost me another dime I don't care about facilities and so we need to say like what is the impact of the next steps so we can understand cuz if it's the next step's going to cost a million dollars is Is that a 5-year expansion of our um uh capital improvement? Is that a grant opportunity? Is that writing a letter to Congress? You know, I don't know. But like I just don't want I I want us to take action but not be presumptive in what the community wants to support. You know,

that's why you need more community involvement in the whole process. Review facilities expansion report. Determine next steps and how to proceed. Yeah. and how to proceed. But you want proceed and well I mean execute next steps could say we're not ready to do anything.

Yeah. As long as we're on the same understanding that like the next step could be not doing something. Well that's that's a discussion because you know there's loans and other things. It is I heard somewhere you know that might be one of our first workshops.

You know that's something we should not try to do that discussion in a meeting. Yeah. Oh yeah yeah yeah you're right. There's a lot of information gathering and number crunching. We got three really, really solid, well-written capturing things. Then we've got the three threes. Develop a plan for real property inventory and management. Public safety. There's a lot of public safety and strengthen strategic leadership.

Yeah. Do we want all six goals? Do we want a tier? These these ones that got more than four are the ultimate priorities and then if those get done, we move to the next ones or how would you like to do this? I think we have our hands full with the fours and the the the I mean the the four and the fives. Um you know, I'm partial to the the the develop real estate. I'm less partial to public safety. It's because we've presented options and I don't let me I like public safety but we have present I want public safety but we have presented options as recently as like within the last two years to the community to expand public safety and they just we had a straw poll at a November election so a lot of results and people said they do not want to increase any spending towards public safety and so we still hear from people who want to increase public safety but like when it went out to a community vote they the majority said no and so

I'm like what do you do here because It's like there are some very loud voices about 10 of them but there was you know a thousand people who said no. So I don't know if we should invest more time in this whether we personally want to or whether our community is asking us to. At the same time I understand that you know we have the responsibility to sometime do the unpopular thing. So I just don't know if that's where I want us to put a bunch of time personally.

I I agree my stickers there because chief made me feel bad. Uh uh and and I will tell you that, you know, uh with the different things that I've heard and I've seen, I reach out to everybody I know in public safety and so they're aware of the situation. They've been out, they've been looking at different things. They agree that there are certain roads that need more enforcement and when they can do it, they're willing to do it. Uh so to me, that's a not

that's a goal we need to talk about. I think more to to put a small pot of money for the targeted enforcement or or drop it because that's I think that's where we're at. Or do we buy more science? How much does science cost? I don't think it's the goal.

To me it's not the same type of goal and magnitude. Thank you. That's what I was looking for. The same magnitude to me number 23 because that was Jerry's big thing. Uh, I think working with Jerry on that is is important and I would advocate putting that in the top four and including that because so would the group be okay with moving the group 19 through 21 to a lower tier

less of a priority within our priorities here. I think for those 19 20 21 we need to cross a finish line with some sort of report or something that says this is what we've this is the current state this is what we've done or talked about and this is where we're headed and if where we're headed is nothing more than buy a few more radar signs or something but same with communication it will keep as a discussion if we don't close the loop I

agree with Deb completely on that I That's kind of going back to the leadership thing is we can only do so much and and I get that and is is this something we could talk about at the next meeting and I can raise the information that I've received since our last meeting and also some ideas.

Yeah, as long as I can remember them. I Well, I actually think that's a great point. I think there are places in this data where a select board member can be assigned to be the leader of you know bringing the information to the table and that because

but then you defeat the purpose the priority I mean I bring information on number one I mean I I it it's either a priority yeah we need I'm with you we got to be unified on what we want to invest our time in I think yeah the only change I would recommend is since we have as Jerry said we have the inventory let's make eight part of getting more money because the discussion would be do we want to sell that or do we not want to sell sell that parcel can we sell that parcel

so make that part of our revenue thing is is as we're discussing that is there a way to bring in more money by selling this twoacre lot for a house lot or for or do we not want to make money on that one and we want to make it a water you know whatever it want I seems like you could certainly without putting it in like I think it is kind of in there, right? Because it's a it's a potential

strategy. I see them as related, but I just do know that some of the feedback and the I put my sticker separately there. I do know that for some folks when they see that we are moving property real property management into explore ways to make more money for some folks the feedback we receive is like no we don't want to get rid of the property we have we want to use it and so I know that we're not saying just cuz it goes in here means it's it's up for sale but for some people the perception is like no no that's a a budding runaround pond we should turn that into a

well that's part of the discussion is it is it does it generate revenue well as long as we're just communicating that moving it doesn't necessarily mean like fire sale on all property, then I'm fine with that. I just want to make sure that the people that's the big concern that's come up at three of the last five town meetings. It's like you guys aren't selling any of the real estate that we have, right? And it's like no, don't worry. You know,

all right. So, the question on the table is, are the items that have three votes part of the goal package for creating? Yeah. And I mean, frankly, for me, I would say yes for for the one I voted for and no for the one I didn't without sounding like a child. Um,

well, I just to go back to the public safety, I I think that we in theory could take it off of the goals, but Deb, you have a very good we have to close the loop on it. We have to say, look, this is what has been sent out there. people voted against it. We can bring it up again in a year or two, but we have to somehow conclude. We can't just let things hang

because that's where people get pissed off. I do think a challenge with closing the loop though is that sometimes even providing the the factual answer is not the answer that folks want. So like if the sheriff is saying, "I went down that road." It's really not an issue. People probably think the trucks are going faster than they are. We didn't see that. It's not going to stop people from coming in saying, "I don't want dump trucks going by."

But you know what? People aren't gonna stop talking about the solid waste either. So, I think that if we have it on the record and just stay That's okay. We've got a we've got a comment here to address this issue. I'll break the rules for a minute. I spoke to some folks in the sheriff's department.

Just remember, you're on camera. Yes. Okay. And and and ask them to go check out the dump trucks and the speed because it's been a major concern. Good. And I'm in, you know, my real life, I'm in a position where they sometimes listen to me and will help me out. And uh so they did. And um uh so

this deputy uh patrolled the roads. Uh I don't know how long. I didn't we didn't get into a great detailed conversation, but he said he saw a number of dump trucks. They were not speeding. He actually spoke to some of the drivers who said, "I don't know why everybody thinks we're speeding. We're not." And he said, "It's just they're bigger trucks than what we see and it looks like they're going super fast when they're really not." Uh, and he said, "I don't think speeding is your issue. There may be other issues. I don't think it's speeding on your roads." Uh, and so to me, it's speeding on 136 and it's not the dump trucks, it's the other things, but we can't enforce that without spending more money that people didn't want to do. How often we want to address that is a whole another story. But

okay, that the dump truck issue I think is to me is mostly resolved. So this sounds to me like documenting that putting that in writing and Yeah. Josh forwarded it to me. We were going to talk bring it up next. So this sounds like

an agenda item. Let's just sounds like an agenda item and not a priority for the year. Correct. Right. An agenda item. I'm going to finish this up. Yeah. I I will ask for something because I understand Deb's point. was just like people need to know that and I mean you sent it to me which I appreciate and we were going to put it on next week's meeting next month's meeting. So

So okay so that one's not This is the tough thing about the communicating outside of meetings too. It's just an agenda item we're going to handle the other two that we are trying to decide is do we want to keep this as a goal the property

I would drop that one. We have the inventory and just recognize that when we're talking about increasing revenue we'll take a look at excess land as a possibility. everybody's okay with that. I'm not um just because I just I don't think that that's the only lever to pull there. And I'm not trying to be difficult here. I just don't think that saying I I know that from my read for the you know long time I live in this town when you start talking about getting rid of real estate people get really upset. And then our last town meeting when we said don't worry we're not selling real estate. We sat there in front of the whole town and said, "We assure you that if real estate sale is coming up, we would have a robust public process to discuss that." So that's what we told them in June. Yeah.

And so if we're saying now like, "Well, we can drop it and if we need to sell, we can consider it." Like, but you're not saying sell it without a plan. Well, I'd like to say that, but no, I mean, [laughter] you know, there should be a a plan that is a public I agree with Joe. That was a mistake saying that, but back then, but uh uh we need

to take a look at it. We've got to get that some of it back on the tax that developing a plan for property inventory and management could be part of the work. Sure. I mean, but again, I'm really not but like the reason it's separate to me is because very respectfully like when John you're saying like I think this is all something to sell.

I'm not saying that the plan with the property is to sell it. We I I said let's say the plan of the property is to look into what we have. Yeah. Whether we need a forest inventory, whether we need to understand its existing value.

It's more than just all right, we know what's there for sale sign. Okay. And that's where just the fundamental disagreement there. It's fine. And that's why I think it requires a little bit more. So are we good with five goals?

But we have we what's what was the fifth one? So, strengthen the board's strategic leadership, determine next steps, how to proceed, explore ways to increase revenue, develop a plan for real property inventory and management, and then review the committees.

So, I I came in saying four should be our max, but to me, I agree with John. I think Well, I agree with both of you. Let me start there. Okay. I think I think I've already said I agree with John way too much dice. part of you know it's part of

the increasing revenue. Do you sell it? Do you not? Is there a better use for it? Yeah. So I think what Joe's saying is I I think I think to me it's all consumed into one. So not just selling land to increase revenue, but selling land that does not have another benefit for the town to increase revenue. So that's coming up with a plan to do that. So that's why

like that could involve developing a plan to determine the best use. Yeah, that's fine with me. Fine. You say it that way. Okay. Yeah, because each parcel is a different size. You have big parcels and you have small parcels where really your only option is to offer it to the your budding neighbor and see if they'll buy it.

Well, some of them have that gets it back on the tax role cuz you ain't going to do anything else with it anyway. Yeah. Some of them have incumbrances like you know there's an agreement with the baseball field for the over on swamp swamp road. Others are it's a parcel that's between a housing development and the road. If we put that up for sale and said, "Yep, you know, come in here and clearcut it." All of a sudden 13 houses are are vis visually seeing 125 and that's going to tick off at least 13 households, you know. So like I don't think just saying fire sale is the option, but

I don't think anybody said that. I mean there's probably some uses from Okay. So by default we're going to get there by we are we're going to be really careful with the way we present this portion of the strategy is what it sounds like so that people don't get the misunderstanding that you're just looking to

get rid of property. Well, and Jerry's right. We have an economic development committee, but there's, you know, the area that we're looking at, there's five or six houses on that, and those people are not going to be thrilled about solar. You know, they depending on what we come up with. I don't want to poison the well. So, we have to deal with that no matter what we're doing on that.

We should clarify the economic development committee is just focused on one small region right now. So, yep. Okay, folks. I think we did it. I think we got you to the core goals. Did we have enough conflicts for you? You did. It was great. And you you did it really well. Yeah, I think so. So, the last thing I'd like to do, I do want to make sure we get out out of here uh pretty much on time. The last thing I would love is if uh you just take a second to give me a little bit of feedback on what worked well and what you might do differently in the future.

Start either way and just throw out any ideas you have about what worked well and what what needs work. I think having this up here to look at worked very well to visualize what everyone had said and combining and minimizing or not minimizing but

was huge. I don't know how we would have done this without that tonight. And thank you for everyone, every single person sent in feedback. So, did not go well? You know, we didn't get to anything that you would do differently

other than having to go like this. Yeah. Yeah. But that's not your fault, [laughter] Chief. Well, if we have a facilities expansion, facilities. Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Very productive. You're going to actually word these goals.

I am going to Yep. type up the what we've talked about here tonight, the goals you landed on. Um, and I will send that to you. I'll send that I'll probably send that to Jerry to send out to all of you. Will you also write like quantify you know staff's on it this action? So so everything on here is addressed

and so even if it's like we're not addressing town meeting y that's still listed as not rising to priorities just so everything's accounted for would be really helpful. Can do that. Yep. That was great. I you know I came up I think I only sent you one because it was what I really thought was the most important thing to focus on.

You don't need the permit and then seeing how everything else sort of interplays you sent me three. Oh, I did. That's good. Oh, I was going to ask. It was really just one focus is really what was economic economic development.

Did you want a Yelp review for this? I I do not have any kind of Yelp website. Maybe I'll develop one for this. I was saying I thought it was just terrible. How often do towns do these go signs? Do you Some people do them every year.

So, y I thought this was great. I've been wanting to do this with the with this town since the first year I was here. And I just it was really good to listen to you all like talk about your town and these policies and where you wanted to go. And it's good that you have a facilitator and because I know some boards try to have a board member facilitate it.

That doesn't always go so well. You you know and I would recommend if you have a um this kind of thing with your membership. I think this is a good facilitation to do almost every because now if we invite Vinda back next year, you can go over, okay, what goals did we accomplish? why we didn't or how did it go and then build on it.

Can I ask a question actually before you leave? Um what I'm [laughter] what we did last year is we had the other boards and committees come in. Yeah. And then I mean would it be helpful to sort of hear from them first and then

I did ask but uh a couple of the committees I alerted them of this process and just said give me some feedback on things if you all have anything you want to be brought up. Um, and so I encouraged them to email me so I can include that with you on some of my recommendations, you know,

and I think some goals that were included had been in contact with various committees to see what they thought should be focused on. So some of those goals did come out of committee discussion with a sele. Yeah, that's good.

I could have communicated that better. No, you you had said that and I just wasn't sure if we should meet first. It may not hurt to have even if it's just one, you know, planning one month conservation or one meeting, you know, give them five minutes and then throw them out.

It would be good to know what's and then they got their minutes and everything, but what's before the planning committee? Where is the conservation committee? We talked about good plan like like like the department head committee

five minutes of dramatic. All right. Look at you guys are still at it. It's great. Well, I do want to say having been on the board, Josh, now for this is your fifth year and my fourth year, it feels like this process of goal setting and priority getting making has been getting better and better because even before I was on the board, I was attending a lot of meetings. I really feel like we're collectively working really well as a team here in a way that hasn't always happened. So, this is really exciting for me.

Yeah. And that's something that happens if people do it annually. they're used to it and they come in kind of knowing what types of things make good goals and what what is a good plan for the year. So I do think yeah they will just keep keep

even more to that I think these ground rules are really helpful because I think our board can very do a very good job of disagreeing politely and and working through things. Uh we're surrounded by boards and committees who are not having the same success right now. And so I think we're doing really really great with that. So I just want to commend all four of you on that and Jerry as well. So

it do we need a motion to adjurnn? Uh sure. So moved. All right. Do we have a second? All right. All in favor? Any opposition? See no. We are adjourned at 8:39. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. Thank you. That was great.