January 21, 2025

“Motion was made to go into Executive Session by Selectmen Lopes and seconded by Selectmen Matthews - Vote: was approved in a unanimous roll call vote - Vote: Selectmen Lopes - yes, Selectmen Matthews - yes Executive Session Discussion/possible action on the following topics: 1. M.G.L. c. 30A, sec. 21(a)(3) - to discuss strategy with respect to litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares - Alan Strauss vs. Town of Freetown 2. M.G.L. c. 30A, sec. 21(a)(6) - to consider the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real estate, if the chair declares that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the public body Board of Selectmen Discussion/possible action on the following topics: 3. Discussion on Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners Grant (MBLA) Amy Lynne Sypher Chairperson from the Library Trustees discussed the Grant that the Library has won. This has been not just years in the making but decades. They congratulated Library Director Nicole Davignon for all her hard work in pushing it through and delivered the timetable by the book. It was an important partnership between outside venders, contracted people, Nicole, The Library-COA Planning Committee, the Library Trustees and Deb throughout out the whole process. There are two parts of this grant, first is planning and development $100,000.00. First installment of $90,000.00, is ready to go this week. The problem is we are not in compliance. We have three different kinds of versions of options. One is we say no, and the next town on the list gets it. That is not what we want but it is our worst-case scenario because the i odds of us getting it again are slim. Another option for us is to submit right now, while Page 1|fil we are technically in compliance and we can attest to that, is to submit our action plan and the money sits in an account for us. We also have $170,000.00 of our own money that we could work off for the first year and leave that money untouched while the legal issues are working themselves out. There are more options to this, but those felt like the most viable. Their biggest fear is that they give it away and then we are forced into compliance later this year, and we lose not only the money fighting that compliance but then all the millions of dollars we would have had. We cannot spend it and we would have to give it back. The compliance being the MBTA zoning laws. It is not that they stop funding, they would claw it back and take the money back. If we did not have the $170,000.00 ready for our own planning and development this would be a much easier decision. The $170,000.00 consists of the $150,000.00 from Town Meeting and what is left from the original planning and design grant they received in 2001. They still have enough to work with for this six-month period to start something or we just hold with both, that separate amounts of monies. If we spend the phase one money, we are not obligated to take the second phase money. If we get through the planning and design and we do not end up wanting that design because the town does not want to match, that 6 or 7 million it ends up being to do the shared structure, we can say no to that second half, they are their own entities. They have tiered people on wait lists for each part of those in case people say no. We are immediately funded for both, if we move forward to the second, the construction phase money. The risk is the $100,000.00 planning and design, is two-fold, we spend their money and we become non-compliant, we will have to pay back the $100,000.00. The second is the timing. If we move forward in this direction that solidifies the direction, the plans will take a least a full year, 14 or 15 months and then we are not in compliance and we do not get the second half, we are back at square one. Which we have been at square one a few times now. In order to pay it back we would have to fund another $100,000.00 from somewhere. We cannot sign a contract for $250,000.00, it is going to cost more than what we have in the $170,000.00. Because we have a joint building, we will be spending more than that. We will have to fund that so that we have it available and if we get the grant, we do not spend our own money and put it back into the general fund. The library portion, is to spend their own money. It will only be for the library components of the building. There is another piece of waiting to do our action plan and see how the next couple of months go. Maybe we do not go on and spend the money that we have allotted as a Town but we weigh out these components because we can see how fast the states going to move on these pieces and what out of compliance will actually mean for the remaining towns who are involved with this, at the end of the year might look something different then it is right now based on the number of legal battles that the State is up against. The Governor put out emergency regulations right away. They might be a little different than what we have had in the past in terms of less density numbers. A couple of months may give Ms. Pettey and Town Counsel and consultants an opportunity to vet the information. It is just not as high as what tho MBT.A zoning wantod. Instead of 750 units it may be 500 units. We are zoned for maybe 400, 450. There was a little caveat ! in the court case that said the State had to do impact studies on all of the towns. She is not » 2] 11 sure how the Governor is going to get around that because that is very timely and very costly. The governor might just ultimately say sorry, this is what you are doing is what I have said all along, you are not giving us a choice but you are giving us a choice. Ms. Sypher stated a decision has to be made in the next 30 days whether or not to accept the money and hold or to just decline it because we have to get our action plans in and see how that goes. It is an unfortunate piece for us because the timing is in fact terrible. We can decline and change our mind at any point. If they are going to send out those contracts and going to get them back with this in a year, we need to move, as it takes time to hire a OPM (Operations Project Manager) and an architect. The RFP (Request for Proposals) process alone takes 3 months. We are going to need to build the structure anyway at some point, so having the planning and design done is a step ahead that we might not get a shot at doing in the next couple of years. Ms. Pettey noted that grant writing is a lot of work. This was one of the most complicated, complex grant applications that she has encountered. She has done federal grants which are much more complicated than state grants. This was a lot of work and Nicole did a great job at methodically pulling it apart and getting the partner that she needed to fill and completing the pieces needed. We had weekly and monthly meetings to make sure that I did my piece. This is a great accomplishment whether we end up building this library or not. She is proud and you should be extremely proud of yourself and the trustees as a whole. This was no small feat. There is a lot of competition in that grant, extremely competitive. One way or another you are going to get anew library it just may not be grant funded. This was a great achievement for the Library Trustees and Nicole. 4. Discussion, and vote whether to approve the Rules and Regulations Manual for Civilian Employees and Volunteers for Police Department as presented by Police Chief Rose Rules and Regulations are the backbone of the police department identifies to the employee the code of conduct, specifically for the Police sworn officers. We have civilian dispatchers and for years we were able to govern most employees with those two sets of rules and regulations. There has been changes within the Department, we have civilian employees that are no longer covered under the dispatchers' rules and regulations. They are more a part of the police entity, and those positions are the secretary, lockup attendants who are not members of the dispatch, traffic controllers, and the volunteers that we take in as student interns. These rules and regulations are basically mirror images to the other entities mentioned. The reason for this is, one set is for sworn officers only and the other is for civilians and volunteers. It is something that is needed going forward that he is already predicting a problem with accreditation if we do not have this in place for those employees and those volunteers. When Ms. Pettey received these, she sent it over to our Labor Counsel due to overlap with the Union. Attorney Joe Fair has not been able to completely review it yet. If he has any conccrns, she will iivet will Chief Ruse tu discuss Uiew. We lave five univus, bylaw employees, elected officials, contract employees and she will need to see how these fit i into all that. They may fall under one of her unions or another entity and does not overlap 3e 3] 11 in a bad way. But we do have Personnel bylaws. Chief Rose stated our current secretary is not part of a CBA, she is under the Personnel bylaw. The lockup attendants are under the Personnel bylaw, traffic controllers are at will employees, and the volunteers. These were drafted by our former chief in 2005-2006. Then amended in 2013. Chief Rose combined them for the civilian employees and volunteers of today. He has been doing this for years with the Accreditation. There is a digital version of the 60-page document. Another piece of this is we are in the process of creating a handbook for the employees. - Motion to approve the rules and regulations manual for Civilian Employees and Volunteers for the Police Department pending review from Counsel was made by Selectmen Lopes and seconded by Selectmen Matthews - Vote: was approved in a unanimous roll call vote - Vote: Selectmen Lopes - aye, Selectmen Matthews - aye.” (Motion: Lopes, second: Matthews)

Read it in the official minutes, page 1 (PDF)

“Motion to approve the open session minutes from 12/2/24 was made by Selectmen Lopes and seconded by Selectmen Matthews - Vote: was approved in a unanimous roll call vote - Vole: Selecunen Lopes - aye, Selectinen Matthews - aye.” (Motion: Lopes, second: Matthews)

Read it in the official minutes, page 7 (PDF)

“Motion to adjourn the meeting was made at 7:45pm by Selectmen Zager and seconded by Selectmen Lopes - Vote: approved by a unanimous roll call vote - Vote: Selectmen Lopes - aye, Selectmen Zager - aye, Selectmen Matthews - aye.” (Motion: Zager, second: Lopes)

Read it in the official minutes, page 19 (PDF)