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[1:06] Good evening. This meeting of the Selectboard is called to order on September 22nd, 2026 at 6:54 p.m.. Apologies for the delay. If you weren't with us before we had the Board of Water Commissioners meeting before this.

[1:26] This meeting is being held in person and or remotely as an alternate means of public access pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2025 and all other applicable laws temporarily amending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law. You are hereby advised that this meeting and all communications during this meeting may be recorded by the Town of Hingham in accordance with the Open Meeting Law.

[1:42] If any participant wishes to record this meeting, please notify the chair at the start of the meeting in accordance with our law. Chapter 38, section 20 F, so that the chair may inform all other participants of said recording. Is anyone else recording the meeting this evening? Okay. Seeing none, I will state.

[1:59] For the record, participating this evening is myself, Liz Klein, chair Julie Straley and Bill Ramsey. If you're willing and able, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

[2:25] Next on the agenda is approval of minutes. I think we have one set ready to proceed. Yes. Okay. I'll take a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes dated September 15th, 2026. Second. Roll call. Vote. Julie. Hi. Bill. Hi. And I'm Anna. As well. Great. Thank you.

[2:46] Next on the agenda is discussion and potential vote on the 2026 Special Town Meeting. Warrant articles. We have Aisha either trying to escape or going to join us up at the front. She's out of here. You want to come join us as well? Oh, great. Okay. Yeah. We see her. She's online. Great. Welcome, Angela.

[3:10] I was I should go.

[3:20] Angela. Go ahead. Yeah. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, great. Thank you. I'm Angela Bettinger. 135 Halstead. I'm here representing the 2025 School Building Committee. I plan to be there in person today, but I'm starting to feel sick selling tickets. Sorry to hear that. Yeah. Thank you. I do have two. Really quick update, since we last met.

[3:49] So the MSBA has gotten back to us on our schematic design submittal. We have gotten a couple questions, and there were a couple maybe items that were missed that have now been added. It wasn't a very large, increase. But the numbers you have today, do include those, additional maybe items for both schools.

[4:18] Additionally, the last time we met, I had mentioned that, we had included in the package the scope and the budget for a full roof deck replacement at present, and that we were going to further evaluate if any of that roof deck could be salvaged and not need to be replaced.

[4:43] Since that time, we have gotten updates on the structural integrity of the areas that we were hoping could potentially be salvageable. And unfortunately, we found that, those areas are 92% loaded. So they are very close to the, capacity of those areas. So, the school building committee has voted to keep that the full roof deck replacement in scope.

[5:16] And additionally, call out portions of that as solar ready to potentially make us eligible for, say, more favorable MSBA reimbursement. By having some solar ready, those as solar ready areas. They have additional funds that are uncapped for structural, reinforcement specifically for solar ready. So, those are the key updates. Those decisions were driven based off of, structural need of the building.

[5:51] So those are my key updates. Great. I just want to make sure that we have the final numbers that you're referenced. So it's okay. It's not it. It's not in the actual article. Okay. So for the total project budget is 16.37 million. Is that correct? 16.37 million. That's correct. Okay, perfect. And South is 8.58 million.

[6:26] 8.576. State grant rounded up. Okay. Okay. And then, the high school does have the it's the, expanded scope and then the additional funds, which are part of the warrant article, the 1.115 million.

[6:50] Yes. Yeah. And that is part of the moving part of the design funding forward. Yes. Okay. So no changes there. No changes discussed. Okay. Excellent. Julie. So just wanted to reconfirm, we've heard this number before about what? The expected MSBA grant percentage. You've got it in dollars, here for us. But that you expect to get 36.89%.

[7:21] Is that correct? 36.89% of eligible costs. Okay.

[7:37] And we will get exactly what that, is at the, Officially at after the MSBA board meeting. But we'll get a view of that shortly before the MSP, a board meeting. Okay. So you have here the estimated grant for South Elementary would be 3.

[8:01] 02 million, but that's estimated because the final vote from the MSBA would have the exact dollar amount, which would include making sure that everything that's eligible for for reimbursement is eligible. Correct. Correct. Yeah. The question is all on which class are eligible versus ineligible? Not on that percent number. Okay. Yeah. Do you want to come up, Aisha? No. They won't be able to hear you at home. Sorry. We, There's also the cap of the hundred dollars per square foot.

[8:31] In terms of those eligible costs as well. That's what I see. Okay. But on the roof, there are some elements of the roof project that are not capped at the $100 per square foot. Right. Because it also includes structural updates as well. Okay. All right. And so the estimated grant for the Plymouth River project is 5.76 million.

[8:56] Right. And that number could change, as we said before depending on the results coming out of MSBA. And in terms of even in terms of the solar structural dynamic as well to and when I say that, what I mean is that, for items that are specifically, specifically, structural, structural, they're part of the $100, $100

[9:21] cap, if it is part of a solar readiness structural, then it is also, it also has at 36.89 and is out of the $100 cap. Okay. So in a way, they're elements of the project where the the structure underneath the roof itself that needs to be redone.

[9:47] If we go ahead and make it more solar ready, we actually end up getting more re more reimbursement from the MSBA. Exactly. Okay. So I'm not sure if we're going to go through each project to get like, just a quick review of each of the articles or if, if we're just I don't know how we're going to do that tonight.

[10:08] The only reason I, I wasn't planning, I have like a week, like, here's the closing. Our argument for why why we need to do the roof at press Y South and then for the high school project. Is there a quick like, closing argument? Obviously, we're aware of the need.

[10:27] And we've talked about these articles before, but I just thought it might be helpful, especially for those who may just be tuning in for the first time and, maybe not up to speed. And we do have a special town meeting on October 29th. So what does that entail? Terrific. Thanks for the opportunity to share that, Julie.

[10:46] So first and foremost, I just wanted to share that, all three projects are a minimum of a 30 year investment. So that's the time horizon. That the school building committee and our design team, has landed on in terms of this investment and, how long we anticipate these buildings will be in operation.

[11:07] I want to stress that all three buildings currently meet our programmatic needs. And so, due to that, it is a worthy investment. So we have seen the challenges, particularly at Plymouth River with regard to, what having a compromised roof does. For our programing. So we have had disruption to programing.

[11:31] Due to the roof instability last winter due to snow loads. We have water infiltration throughout all three buildings, including over critical infrastructure such as our control plant panel rooms. It has disrupted, learning and other programing activities. We had to evacuate Plymouth River school twice last year.

[11:56] At the high school, we've had to cancel basketball games because of, water and infiltration in the gym. So, we are very much experiencing, this need in our buildings and wanted to stress again that it's an investment. I also think it's helpful to put this investment in context of what it would take if we let these buildings go to build a new building, Lexington High School.

[12:21] It is, currently being built to the tune of $660 million. So when we take the costs of these roof replacements to extend the life of our buildings, potentially for another 30 years, and contrast that with what it would take if we let these buildings go and need to, have a new building. Just wanted to provide that context.

[12:44] Thank you. I appreciate that, Marcel. Excellent. Thank you. Bill. I just a couple questions. Katie, could you remind me of the age of these roofs that we're replacing? Yes. They're all hovering around 30 years old. And so, there is no roof in the world that is going to get you much past that mark.

[13:01] So I want to stress that each of these roofs, we have engaged in preventative maintenance. And when I say we, I mean Matt Meehan and his, facilities team. We have a roofer on staff. We have, a group that comes in from the outside, to do our house doctor, does a kind of structural oversight of our roofs.

[13:25] So they've very much been maintained. But, at the 30 year mark, they are truly at the end of their useful life, as determined by our, design team.

[13:47] And again, MSBA, before accepting us into this program, came out, did their own due diligence, and very much felt that each of these three, roof projects, plus the Hvac project were worthy of MSBA support, which gives us indication that in their estimation, these rooves are truly past their life, as is our Hvac system. And, it's fair to say that some portions of the roof actually go back to 1968. Yeah.

[14:09] So some of the portions of our original, to the building and actually, south, we have some older, portions of that roof as well. At south we even have some original timber. And, the structural, supports in one, one section of the building, and on article C, which is the, fronting the 1.115.

[14:29] Could you again explain the public benefit to doing that? I know it's going to it will it will speed the project up. So will it will. I'm sorry. Can you explain the public benefits of the front end of the 1.115 on article C, that size school project? Yes. Thanks for that question.

[14:53] So in addition, to, keeping pace and, maintaining progress on that project, we do anticipate, some cost savings with regard to escalation. So we'll have, a savings of roughly five months worth of escalation, costs for that project. But most importantly, it will, minimize the disruption to our students and our programing by allowing us to begin construction next summer. So next summer, we can, proceed, for example, with digging the geothermal wells.

[15:18] And so that will minimize the disruption to our students during the school year. For all of these projects, summer is critical. We're going to make the best use that we can of those summer months, for construction of each of these projects in order to minimize impact on students. Great. And the financing is 30 years for.

[15:38] And the interest rates for 4.5%. Is that correct? That is correct. Yes. Yes. That's a good enough for those to do of those estimates. Okay. Those. Yes. It's great. All right. And then lastly, just to confirm the numbers so that the the Hingham contribution for South Elementary roofs is going to be 5.56 million. Correct.

[15:59] The Hingham contribution for price is going to be 10.61 million. So the total annual contribution from both projects will be 16.17 million. Stressing that's an estimate. Sorry. Caveat being that, it all depends on the last, that MSBA is, assessment of eligible costs. And there's a $100 cap on the roof in terms of that as well too.

[16:25] Got it. So this is a good estimate. Good estimate. All right. That's all I got. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Tom, do you just want to, based on those, estimated cost to the taxpayers, what the tax impact will be? Sure. So we we've created a tax and a tax estimator.

[16:52] We're still, finalizing the formatting that'll be released probably the end of this week. If not Monday. But the the estimator will allow the resident to identify their own assessed value for their property. And then compare it to a door driven, table. That will explain, the tax impact based on the said the assessed value of their of the different homes in town.

[17:16] So you'll get pretty close with that estimate here in that comparison to that table. And like I said, that'll be issued probably, you know, late this week or early next week. The, the average assessed value right now is about $150, for both projects combined. Okay. Both. Okay. Both school projects. Okay.

[17:37] And the just just to clarify, the, article C related to the high school does not have a tax impact. Does not get this. That's purely self-employment. That's right. Okay. So again that will be up on the website, by early next week.

[17:57] That's a useful tool for people to just get context for what it might mean for their, their family. But if you have any questions, please reach out. Do you want to add anything? Nope. Just appreciate, the many hours that both our school building committee and other volunteers have put on on this project. Very grateful for their support.

[18:15] Yes. Appreciate all the hard work to get us to this point. And I know there's a lot more to do before, the end of October. So I thank you for all the efforts.

[18:29] Are there any questions or comme Okay. Are we ready to proceed? Ready? Okay, so at this point, the Select board will vote on, favorable action or not on each of these articles that are part of the 2026 Special Town meeting. Warrant or warrant and special town meeting. Can I ask a question? Sure.

[18:54] In the vote language, we do say article A, but can we read the title of the article? One more than that. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea. Okay. Yes. And sometimes the letters change to numbers and vice versa. So yes, it's good to say the title. Okay. Good. All right.

[19:13] I'd make a motion to recommend favorable action on article A Plymouth River elementary school roof. Second. Roll call. Vote. Julie I believe I I'm and I as well. I'll make a motion to recommend favorable action on article B South Elementary School roof. Second. Roll call. Vote. Julie. Hi, Bill. Hi. I'm. And I as well.

[19:36] And I'd make a motion to recommend favorable action on article C high school roof and Hvac design. Additional funds and expand scope of expenditures. Second. Roll call. Vote. Julie. Hi, Bill. All right. And I'm. And I as well. They all pass will pass this this stage unanimously.

[19:59] So they will appear in the special town meeting warrant with favorable action recommended by the Select Board. I know there will be. Actually, I don't know if you know the dates, Katie, but there will be some information sessions, and people can, participate and be well informed in advance. And special town meeting. Yes.

[20:18] I believe the first of them is on October 7th, and, we'll have three and they'll go to October 21st. What are the dates again? October 7th and 27th, 15th and 21st. We thank you. Excellent. Thank you. Much appreciated. Thank you. Think. Thank you.

[20:44] Next on the agenda is to review early voting options on the November 3rd, 2026 state election and consider modifying the hours for the first week of early in-person voting under Mass General law. Chapter 54, section 25 b b3.

[20:56] Hi, Carol. Good evening everyone. My clerk with us, Carol Salvi. So just wanted to go over a couple of things. First of all, really should have received that. Our props, your Red book, as we affectionately call it, which has all the explanations and the ballot questions for the state ballot.

[21:15] For those people who have not applied to vote by mail and are interested in doing so. These also arrived in the mail this week. So for anybody who's left in Hingham who is not, fill out one of these forms, look for that or give us a call in the office.

[21:31] So I am here to go over all the methods of voting. So as you people probably know, based on the vote, we're going to have a double election, state and dual election on November 3rd. So we'll have the state ballot and we will have our local ballot as well. So you will have options of voting by mail.

[21:53] We have an option to vote in person and then also on election day. So I have to determine what the schedule is for the in-person voting. And I'm here to request under the statute that for the first week, we limit or reduce the schedule according to the schedule I sent to you.

[22:13] And there are a couple of different reasons for this. We get very few people on the first week of the two week, early voting schedule. In 2022, we had 251 people over the course of the three days that we held it. During the weekdays and Saturdays, we get more people.

[22:37] This the week before the election is when most of the people come out. It's a lot of work for our office, for setting up every day. And in particular this year when we have two sets of ballots to process in and make sure, you know, we sort out and whatnot. It's just going to be a lot of extra work for our office.

[22:56] I have asked the past two, off year election 2022 and 2024 if we could reduce the number of days the first week and the prior select boards have been in favor of that. So that is and I do need to we may need to make a decision on the schedule so I can get it posted.

[23:18] People are people are very hot about this election, and they want to know when they can come in and vote and when the ballots will arrive, which, by the way, they have not arrived yet. And I don't expect any ballots to go out until most likely October 1st.

[23:34] Okay, so we've been getting a lot of questions about that as well. So while I'm here, I thought I would share that with you. Excellent. Do you want to just talk about the times that you're proposing? Sure. So we would be having early in-person voting both on Saturday, October 17th and on Saturday, October 24th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m..

[23:58] I would propose having, voting on Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 630. October 20th and Thursday, October 22nd, also from eight just to 430. The Tuesday would be until 630. The following week would be would be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And it would be all day long. Thursday, of course, is also the night of Special Town meeting.

[24:22] So it be a bit of pivoting, going on to wrap up the early voting and get over to the high school to check people in. Right. Okay. And do and we have not in the previous years. Well I don't know if this is relevant. Would did we not have any voting on the Friday. We did not.

[24:42] While in 2022 we did because we were open on Fridays in 2024. We were open for a period of time on Friday. I'm not proposing doing it this time because of the special town meeting the night before, in the fact that we are going to be using some of the equipment

[24:59] for the special town meeting, and then we have to pivot to set up the two elections for Tuesday. Yes. November 3rd. Okay. Have you I know we've done this kind of abbreviated schedule in the past. Have you received any negative feedback or people having trouble getting, you know. People have so many options to vote now.

[25:23] I mean, really, it's like a whole different world. You know, approximately 45 to 50% of Hingham vote by mail. It just it's it's an easy, convenient option. And for people, they don't want to have to think about it. So they they they choose that option.

[25:45] So we have so many people that take advantage of the vote by mail. There are people that like to come in and vote early in person, but they're, you know, very small minority. And then there are people that like to go out and vote on Election Day, right? So I do feel like we offer many options to people, and people take advantage of what suits their life schedule.

[26:03] Great. Yes, it's nice to have the options. We obviously want people to participate and and vote and want to make it as accessible as possible. So thank you, Carol, for everything you and your team do. It's a tremendous amount of work, especially this year with the special town meeting. Julie.

[26:20] No, this seems like it makes sense to me. You know, the needs of your, your team and the equipment, and, and you have the data to back up the, statistics in the past of the, number of people coming and going. So this seems like a good schedule to me. Thank you.

[26:39] Well, I just appreciate the thought you put into the dates and, the efforts of your team to make voting as easy as possible. Thank you. Do you have concerns about Thursday the 29th? I guess that's the only thing I would say to preserve your sanity. And, you know, we'll get through it. It's fine.

[26:56] And will you have volunteers as well? Have people that are that are election workers that will, be working here and in certainly a fine school. Okay. Excellent.

[27:13] Any questions or comments from members of the public? Okay. If you're ready to proceed, I'm ready to take a motion. I'll make a motion to. Pursuant to Mass General Laws, chapter 54, section 25 capital B, lowercase b three, and all other applicable laws. The Town of Hingham hereby establishes the following schedule for in-person early voting for November 3rd, 2026. Election.

[27:39] Saturday, October 17th, 2026 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.. Tuesday, October 20th, 2026 from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.. Thursday, October 22nd, 2026 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.. Saturday, October 24th, 2026 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.. Monday, October 26th, 2026 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.. Tuesday, October 20th 7 to 2026 from 8 a.m.

[28:10] to 6:30 p.m.. Wednesday, October 28th, 2026 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.. Thursday, October 29th, 2026 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and to further vote pursuant to Mass General Laws chapter T for section 20 5BB for to designate Hingham Town Hall, 210 Central Street, Hingham, Massachusetts 02043.

[28:42] As the early voting site for the November 3rd, 2026 election. Second roll call vote Julie I, Bill I and I'm and I as well. Excellent. Thank you Carol. Thank you very much. Appreciate your support. Yes. Of course. Thank you for all your work. I think you have to stay for the next thing.

[29:01] Yeah. Next on the agenda. Anywhere. You're not going anywhere. To sign the warrant for the 2026 state election and 2026 town election on November 3rd, 2026. So, as you know, a warrant is a call to action. It's your official notice. And the agenda for each of the elections. So we have one for the state election.

[29:26] The, the Select board are asked to sign in as well. We have one for our local election. Which includes two ballot questions on it. Excellent. So, yeah, so just a reminder for people, there will be two ballots when you vote, whether it's by mail or early or in person on November 3rd.

[29:54] The state ballot will have all of the articles in that red booklet. And then the Hingham specific one will have the ballot questions that we just discussed, related to Plymouth River and South Elementary School. And we will continue to talk about these and encourage people to go to the information sessions.

[30:16] The way the ballot questions are written are not in plain English and not that easy to follow, but they are the required language. When you are asking for anything that will increase your taxes and an appropriation of of money, as these are so just a reminder on that. Let's can I just interrupt? The state ballot is going to be two pages. So that and that's state ballot.

[30:39] So that would be two pages. And then there'll be a separate town ballot. So it would be long and lengthy and like a read. Yes. Everybody should be prepared going in to vote. You know what they're going to do. Yes. There are nine questions just for the state. And then we have two ballot questions, for Hingham specifically.

[31:01] Any questions or comments? Julie. No. Carol, you just answer my question about how many pages are we talking about? But, so actually two is better than for the state ballot is better than I thought it would be. So, with all those questions.

[31:20] So anyway, obviously for the state, it's not only the nine ballot questions, but it's the actual vote. The state elections. All right. So and then and then the separate town ballot will just be the one page with the two questions. It will and it will be small. It will only be 11in long. Yeah. Okay. Cute. Well, it'll be easy to differentiate, right. Yeah. Okay.

[31:41] I'll get them all mixed up with each other. So, so that's good. Yeah. No questions. Okay.

[31:50] Any questions or comments from members of the public? All right. We're ready to take a motion and make a motion to sign the warrant for the 2026 state in town election on November 3rd, 2026. Second roll call vote. Julie I, Phil, I and I'm and I as well. The inhabitants are thinking more so by themselves so by warning when not exactly. Thank you, thank you.

[32:13] Next step moving forward. Okay. Next on the agenda is to approve the agreement with Kyle has restoration for Lincoln School apartments repointing project David sequeira. No, we have Jen Orem with us as well. Okay. Great. Thank you. All right, so, just a first, couple of pages.

[32:42] That should that should have been included in the packet is just so funny. We have an idea of what we're looking at. The back wall here of LSA. And so, we went out to bid, at the end of August. The bid submission deadline was September 10th, and we received a total of three bids.

[33:01] Carl Kelly's restoration was the lowest, the most eligible bidder at $196,000. A little bit about, the contractor, they have been in business since 1950. They have a d cam, sort of, certified in both historical masonry as well as historical building restoration. This was an and or a requirement, but they have both. So that's that's good.

[33:25] And the most recent experience that they have is with historical municipal buildings, public libraries as well as even a courthouse and anticipated project schedule, once the contract has been executed, is, is we're aiming for the next couple of weeks to start. Ongoing construction would be through October, and then a final project completion date would be November 7th of 2026.

[33:49] And just a few, logistical items. With the project, a notice to the residents will be sent out notifying them of the project in the dates. And also what to expect throughout the project. A project like this is typically broken up into two phases is how I'd like to call it.

[34:10] Phase one is the louder phase, where we're kind of dealing with a little bit more of, the initial equipment set up, in kind of grinding of the mortar. So it's kind of phase one. And then phase two is a little bit more of the quieter phase when we start to apply the new mortar, the use of joining tools.

[34:26] And so that's when the noise level would significantly drop during that time, the contractor will need at least, about a week or two, to utilize an aerial lift. We notified them so that that would be fine. If there's any kind of additional communication needed for, like, traffic flow, we'll make sure to do that.

[34:45] Disruption to parking would be minimal. We would anticipate at least one space designated for a dumpster for the contractor during that time. And I'd also like to make a note that on September 17th, the Lincoln Apartments LLC Board of managers approved, this contract and authorize the expenditure of the $196,000.

[35:10] And, finally, the funding sources, the LSA replacement reserve account, as I mentioned, the contract term is November 7th. And the payment method, would be the contractor would invoice the town upon completion of the project deem satisfactory by the town. Not to exceed 196,000, as I mentioned.

[35:30] And I would just, you know, like to kind of acknowledge and thank both Donna and Jen, for their hard work on this project and not only this project, but other projects related to LSA. And I know the residents of LSA are really thankful for them. So, with that, I turn it over to any questions or if I missed anything, please. Jen. Okay, so I'm assuming this is part of the LSA master plan.

[35:52] I would believe you were assuming correct. Yes. Okay. Yeah. The capital needs assessment. The capital needs assessment. Sorry. Yes. Okay. And the funding is there reserve account? And thank you for mentioning that the LSA Board of Managers has already approved this. Yes. I know you talked specifically about displacement of parking.

[36:16] I'm assuming there's no displacement of residents during this work. That's correct. Okay. Great. Julie. Thank you. And, the the work that can be done is just on the outside of that, the original, the old part of the building. Correct. And it's just on that we have a picture here, but just the face, the front face of that building. Correct.

[36:37] The rear of the back is at the rear is the rear. Okay. Moving around. Okay. Got it. Yeah. It's the that's the back of the building. Okay. Now, I said thank you.

[37:00] And, just to confirm that there is need all around the entire building that this is just one segment that you're keeping up with doing work that's necessary, but it's just one piece of the building and that there's other repointing work that needs to be done on that building as well. Yes. But it's our responsibility to keep up the building and do what we can, as a town. So, so that's good. And, I just had one other quick question.

[37:22] For the, for the bids received. Yes. They're sort of really different in terms of the pricing. So I'm just wondering if you had any sense of why there was such a wide range and, pricing and, Jen, do you want to come on up on.

[37:39] Know. You know, thank you so much, Jennifer ALM as an apartment. We did notice, the changes. It was this particular the winning bidder came to the site, visit that facade in the rear.

[37:59] We have actually spent funds on, doing other portions of that facade based on we had notarized, noted that that is the area with the most water intrusion. So we've been addressing it. Yet we're still getting intrusion. So we chose this, the first facade and actually mentioned we've also gotten a quote for the entire building. And it's needed throughout the the older building, the 1912, the 1980s is de minimis in comparison. Okay.

[38:18] And I just want to add to, I mean, the number one and number two, that's, you know, probably pretty common, I would say for something like this, the third vendor is historically high. They've been on roof projects with us before, and they've always been just way out to left field.

[38:36] So that's not really uncommon for that contractor to be that high. So he's throw it out. Like maybe they'll sometimes, I don't know if that's a tactic. Yeah. For some companies, they'll just put their name in a hat. And if they're the only bidder, they'll leave it up to the town to make that decision.

[38:49] If they want to move forward and then they were awarded a contract. So, but as I said that we see we know that there are contractors out there that are just historically high, for whatever reason, they do a lot of private companies, and then they come to municipals and they just kind of tell, okay.

[39:06] But I think, Jen, you mentioned that, Kelly's did actually come on site. And so we feel confident that they understand the scope of the project. Absolutely. Yes. Okay. Sorry. My site still no questions. Any questions or comments from members of the public? Okay. I'm ready to take a motion if you're ready to proceed. Yep.

[39:29] I make a motion to authorize the town administrator to sign the agreement with callus restoration for an Lincoln School Apartments repointing project in an amount not to exceed $196,000. Second roll call vote. Julie I, bill I and I'm in as well. Excellent. Thank you. Thanks for your work on this important project. Next on the agenda, police officer lateral transfer interviews.

[39:58] We have Chief Jones, both deputy chiefs. Thank you for your patience.

[40:04] A lot on the lot of important stuff on the agenda today including that. So thank you.

[40:14] Evening. Good evening and thanks so much for taking the time to have these interviews tonight. So this is the first round of candidates lateral transfers, bringing you, since we left the service. So pretty excited about that.

[40:31] We're able to bring you, a lot of qualified candidates that we wouldn't be able to reach, otherwise when we were still in civil service. So, it's, really good for the town and the police department to be able to to reach out and, you know, tap into a bigger pool of applicants that would normally be able to. So we have three candidates that we're bringing tonight for, interviews.

[40:47] All of them have gone through a throw background investigation, which is the same, level background that we give new recruit candidates. And they've all completed, in the police interview panel, last week as well. They all performed, extremely well. And I'm really happy to be able to bring these three, candidates before you tonight.

[41:08] The first one, it's going to be, Katrin Collins. Easley. She's from the Provincetown Police Department in Massachusetts. But the second is Daryl Martinez, who's a, police officer at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. And the third is John Williams, who is a police officer at MIT University in Boston. Great.

[41:32] If you have any questions for me, I, I don't have any questions. Does anyone have any questions about the process or. I'm sure, just if you could just quickly summarize that, that the town did vote to leave civil service. Yes. But yet there are protections for officers in there and within their contracts. Correct? Yeah.

[41:55] The CBA was negotiated, when they left civil service with, with levels of protection in place of the Union and town, both agreed to. Okay. And they left civil service. I just want to reconfirm to anyone who's wondering, leaving civil service is one thing, and that frees us up. And for in terms of the hiring process.

[42:11] And yet there are still protections in the contracts for the employees. Exactly. And most of what, civil service had in place as far as, protections are, in place for the new agreements that they have with the union. So. Okay. Thanks. First of all, excellent. Any questions before I get no questions? You. Thank you. Okay. All right. Excellent.

[42:30] Do you want to bring in, grab, from the the patron.

[42:40] Before, I go to the board. Want them to stay safe. There you go. I think they're I'm fine with them leaving. I just, I guess before you bring them in. I guess my expectation tonight is that we will conduct the interviews, have time to deliberate, think about it, and then we'll actually vote at our next meeting.

[43:02] So there's no reason for them to stay. Are you comfortable with that? I'm comfortable. Yeah, they can me. Okay. Okay. Perfect. Thank you.

[43:28] Okay. Welcome. Hi. I thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. I know this is a bit of an awkward process, so we'll try to make it as painless as possible. But I appreciate you being here and thinking of Hingham and applying. We are the select board. Julie Staley and myself, Liz Klein, Bill Ramsey.

[43:54] So we are police commissioners in this town. So this is part of the the interview process that you come before us. We'll each ask you a couple of questions. You can certainly ask us any questions. And then we will deliberate and take up on our, next meeting's agenda, voting on the candidates.

[44:15] So if you want to start and just give us a brief overview of yourself, that would be great. Yeah, I'd love to. So my name is Katrin Collins. Easily. I usually go by Katie with a C citywide if you need it. I'm 23 years old. I'll be 24 on the 28th. So, Happy birthday. Thank you. Thank you.

[44:37] Right now I live in Provincetown, and that's where I work in Provincetown. I've been a police officer for about almost a year. I think it was a year, maybe a few weeks ago. A graduate of the, Plymouth Police Academy in 70th Rock. And that was the best time ever.

[44:55] So six months of, a lot of hard work and dedication. And I got to fulfill my dream of being a police officer, but always wanted to be a police officer. It's been my dream ever since I was a little girl. There was, one time.

[45:10] If you want to hear a cute story at the time, and when I was in third grade, we had a career day, and, I dressed up as a police officer, and I still have the picture of that and hung up in my locker. And I look at it every day, and I try to make her proud. So, I went to Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire.

[45:27] I was graduated there back, last May, and I have a degree in criminal justice with a minor in English. I also played Division two field hockey there, too. Excellent. A couple of my hobbies is I love to read. So one of my favorite things. So if you have any book recommendations, I totally love to hear them.

[45:48] So I'm also the oldest of five. I my two. I have three pretty young siblings. They're my mom adopted them just a couple of years ago. One seven, 2 or 11. And then I have a biological brother and he is, 22. So it's, a big hobby of mine is being a big sister.

[46:07] I love it, I love it. It's the best thing ever, especially with younger, younger siblings. And they believe in Santa Claus and all this. It's just it's it's so fun. I we all do. And that's it. Wait till you see. And I they think I'm just the best person ever.

[46:23] And so I just it's a great hobby of mine. I guess I just love going to football games. Their soccer games, whatever, whatever they're doing is they're always doing something different, so I bet. Excellent, excellent.

[46:41] So what? Why? Hingham? Why? Why did you apply to be a Hingham police officer? What? What draws you to this community? So I delivered deliberately. So it's hard word deliberately applied to be here because I saw that the there's a new station, which obviously I want to thank you guys for that. That's like you're definitely you're definitely there to do it. And that's all thanks to the community. Community like definitely did that to you.

[46:59] They had a hand in that. And it just it shows a lot that the community has a lot of trust in the Hingham Police Department to do that, and that's something I want to be a part of. And Hingham just had that built the Hingham Shipyard. They're building up the Darby Street.

[47:14] And that's something that I also want to be a part of, too, because more people, more foot traffic, more people to see, I guess, and more people to thank for just having having a trusted Hingham Police Department, I guess. Excellent, excellent. And community policing is very important to us. And the chief's in the, Hingham Police Department.

[47:35] So what kind of skills do you think? Law enforcement officers need to make community policing successful? They need to have great integrity. I think I was saying this in my last interview that you really, if something is, you do something poorly, it's gonna reflect on everyone else.

[47:53] Got a reflect on everyone that worked in the in the police. Not just just not just the officers, sergeants. Everyone there could even affect, like, you guys in the Selectboard, too. Like it's going to affect the whole town. So you need a lot of good integrity for that.

[48:10] And you need to have really good communication skills, good community policing, I guess more of like you need to be out there doing foot patrols, doing the park, walking talks, like talking in the community because it's going to be much easier, especially when on someone's hard day if you already know them, if you already know their backstory and they already have trust in you.

[48:25] So just having those good connections, communication. Integrity. Excellent, excellent. Thank you. Julie, how would you rate your communication skills? And have you done anything specifically to improve them, improve those skills? Yeah, I would say on a scale of 1 to 10, I think I'm probably like a seven.

[48:44] So I like I love the talk and I like, like I said, I love doing foot patrols. I like I like doing park walk and talks like, I don't know if you guys, if you guys ever been to Provincetown, but there's Commercial Street and I will do patrols there if they love me for two hours,

[49:01] just walking up and down, up and down, just constantly communicating with everyone, all of different ethnicities, backgrounds. And it's a big touristy place. That's even better, because then I get to talk, to talk to people who are maybe from a different country or different parts of the area.

[49:20] I can I get to see how their policing is from a different country, and we also have a lot of guns. They usually come from Bulgaria and I get to talk to them and maybe they are a little, maybe hesitant about, about policing in America so I can tell them and I get we have a connection, I get to answer all of their questions

[49:38] and I get to put more trust into them that policing in America is actually very is very good. So is that answer. Your question is yeah. It was in the second part of the question. No. You gave us how you worked on it. Thank you. Excellent, I just did I did my two at once.

[49:56] Do you do okay. Now I'll do my second I it's a question for you. Right. Okay. How are you in dealing with stressful situations? And do you have an example of a situation that was particularly stressful? And I know this. You have one year of experience. Oh, but I'm, I'm assuming you probably have encountered. Yeah. Situations.

[50:16] Yeah, I've definitely encountered situations. The best way that I, encounter situations if I know it's going to be a heated, like a heated call or a stressful call. On my way there, I'm doing breath work. I'm constantly, thinking and scenario thinking of the what what could happen, what I'm going to do before I even get there.

[50:35] So and then when I get there, if it's like it's, if it's like a heated scene, it's a very stressful situation. Many parts to it, many everything. I think of the star method. And I learned that in the academy.

[50:53] So you have a star is like that's a situation where you have to think, look at the situation first and see what you have before you start acting and the task that you need to do that you want or that you want to do. Like once you think of that, you see the situation and then your action is what you got to actually do the task.

[51:13] So and then, review is just review what you did and how you're going to do it better next time, I guess. And there was one situation, there I had to respond to a domestic for a different town. So we had to decide to help out by to help out a different town. And I get there.

[51:32] It was a very small environment, very, like a condo situation. And it was a mother. And then it was a son. They were, I want to call them a mother and son, but I think they were related in some way. The mother, she took care of the guy for a long time, and I said, adult son.

[51:46] So I'm just going to call the mother and son for now. But then and they also had a seven year old, and he was he was, autistic but verbal autistic. But you can tell he was very he was autistic.

[51:58] So I said the situation, like I said, star method and then did the task and I just took a, actually the week before I took a de-escalation training. And so I stepped in between the mother and the and the son that were actively, like, screaming at each other. And I gave the mother a simple task. I said, just get you get your license for me.

[52:14] And, this is this is the first time that I'm doing this standing, standing in front of, two of them to break the eye contact. And it worked. It was crazy. I was like, I never seen that before, and I use it for my day to day every time now. And she got that, got the license.

[52:32] There was no more hostile, like yelling, giving the kid more trauma. And then we walked outside and then and then I went back in and got the kid. And then I asked the mother, hey, can you help me? Take care of the kid? Like, let's get them.

[52:48] Let's you want to come over to my cruiser? And he, like, lit up. And we went over the cruiser, and then me and the mother basically connected there, and she she put some trust into me and told me what was going on, told me the background and all that.

[53:03] And we were able to, the other officers were able to get the, the dad out of the home and into the hospital because he blew like a really it was fairly high on alcohol and maybe some other stuff, too. So make the kid didn't have experience any trauma from seeing that and all that. So that's just something I use the star method and that's like an example, I guess.

[53:20] And then the breath work. So and then I also like after that if there's a there's a call. I found it very comforting if all the officers get together and we talk about it after and see what, what we're going to do next time or something like that happens, that's great. Yeah. Sorry.

[53:36] That was kind of long and that was good. But the story had a lot of details. Yeah. So now I appreciate that detail. Thank you. Walk us up Bill okay. Well thanks for being here tonight. Two questions for you.

[53:53] What leadership quality do you think is most important in a police officer? So like I said, integrity, like you, to be very honest, I guess honest with yourself so other people can trust you too. And you need that in leadership. If it if my sergeant doesn't have integrity, am I going to look up to them the same way as someone else that has integrity? I don't know if I will.

[54:09] And leadership you have to be very like, say what? Say what you want, what's on your mind and just do it. Don't sugarcoat it. Which I like to say it, you just don't. You just got to say the whole thing.

[54:24] And because you don't want to, like if you don't say the whole thing, then they're the person that you want them to do something. It's not going to do it the way that that you want, if that makes sense. If that makes sense. Yeah. So just not sugarcoating integrity and leading by example I guess.

[54:42] Not like do what I don't do what I say or like do what I say, whatever that thing is, you know, and talk to me about. Yes. But it was I doing that as a yes. Yes, yes, exactly. So that tonight.

[54:58] Is there a second question to that? This second question, you've talked a little bit about this, but what other skills do you have that would benefit being a police department? That I would say communication. I'm pretty good at it. You said that like you said. Like you can see today I can talk I can talk a lot. So, just like communication and connecting with people. So I've done a bunch of trainings.

[55:14] I loved, to be on the bicycle, too, and I want to I definitely want to bring that to the police department. I want to be out in the community as much as possible. I don't want to be sitting in my cruiser all the time. I just want to be out there. So I'm just I'm definitely a people person. I want to I want to please everyone.

[55:26] I want connect with everyone. And that way. And I also I'm also certified. I know, hang on just there. And I was there certified in my senior year of college. My professor just happened to run the Dare program for, Massachusetts. So you got me to do that. And I was like, very. I was two weeks long training.

[55:46] It was just me college student and like three other full time officers. So I got to do that. And that was really awesome. And Dan doesn't do that. So I'm really excited to bring that to the table here. And do it started immediately because I'm it's a passion that I see and I see it.

[56:01] I want to grow it more. Okay, great. Thank you. You're welcome. Excellent. Any questions for us? Yes I do. Can you mind if I get my notebook? Of course. Yeah, because I wrote them down.

[56:22] Okay. What do you see as the most pressing public challenge facing, Hingham right now? You want to start, I don't know. It's a hard one. And the most pressing public challenge, I think the the importance of the Hingham Police Department community serve it. A community policing program is probably one of the best in the state.

[56:50] And I think as we continue to change culturally, I think it's important that that that program also changes in ways. Also. And, you know, the programs that we put in place have really helped to connect the police department to our residents. For example, the police academy, the Dare program. We have SROs.

[57:12] We have an SRO at the high school. Excellent. SRO in the middle school is excellent. We have an elementary school SRO. It was also fantastic. She she goes between the different schools. And I think making sure we keep that connection, is probably the most important thing moving forward. But that's just. Yeah. Yes, absolutely.

[57:34] I mean, the connections with the community, we've talked about community policing that is, very valuable to us. We feel very strongly about it. I think this board has very high expectations of our police department. But we believe in supporting the police department, as much as we can.

[57:57] In terms of the challenges facing this community, there's obviously all different things talked about domestic violence, mental health, is certainly a challenge for the community. And we've tried to make strides with a mental health task force as well as, helping people with addiction. So those are certainly things that, that we're concerned about.

[58:18] We want people to feel safe here, whether they live here, work here, visit, we want to be a welcoming and inclusive, safe environment for people, you know? Yeah. Very happy to hear that. You have, like, a bunch of resources for that. Something I'm very interested in. I'm very interested, again, with the domestic violence, like maybe get a resource in there or specialty unit.

[58:36] That's something I'm very interested with. I'm also desperately want to be an SRO that's like one of my best things. So I'm happy to hear that you talked great about, and I that's definitely my goal that I definitely want to. Excellent. Do so. Excellent. Thank you.

[58:52] Julie, do you want to add anything to that? Well, as you touched, you said it is the quiet things like domestic violence and drug addiction that people say, oh, Hingham is just such a glamorous, beautiful town. And and every town has people who have, have problems. And so being able to address those problems and, and give, give, provide resources and help, is incredibly important.

[59:13] And it's just one of those things that there's stigma attached to, those quiet things, people that want to talk about it, but they do happen. And so I think that that's incredibly important to address that. And as a great as a police department, I agree that's one. Okay.

[59:35] How would you describe the current dynamic between the town like administration, like the board and, the police administration and you kind of, touched upon at home, like personally. Yeah. This is getting awkward. You know, I oops. Well, see if the chief agrees. He'll probably tell you in the hallway, but think, no, I think we have a great working relationship. And, mutual respect.

[59:59] This thing, police department is just such a high caliber of professional people, that it's it's a joy to work with them. I'm the liaison to the police department right now, so the chief and I have weekly calls. And so those open lines of communication, I think, are really important.

[1:00:22] But yes, we absolutely, you know, try to support the police department in any way that we can. And I know you referenced the the new public safety facility, and that really is a testament to this community and how much they value our first responders.

[1:00:44] You know, so I think that's a nice reflection of, honoring the people that, do protect and, and, help this community so much and wanting them to have a safe place to work. Yeah. You both of you have talked really, really nicely about each other and I appreciate that. They were just talking about you out in the hall, how you guys, they like, you really like the police.

[1:01:02] So I really thank you for supporting and we need we need support ever so. And it really helps. Yes, yes. I think we recognize it's a very challenging job. And it is. You will be in stressful situations most days. So, we certainly want to have that high support model for, for all of the officers.

[1:01:19] I just have one more question. I know, I'm sorry. I'm like, how do you feel about the police department? Leaving the civil service exam? Are you really excited about that like that or going to be local people and, maybe more experience? I'll take a stab at it. And then if you want to answer Julie too.

[1:01:39] So we have been talking about civil service and the pros and cons of, of leaving civil service for quite some time. And we were finding that we were having recruiting and hiring issues.

[1:02:01] So this was a way to help alleviate that issue so that we would have a broader kind of net of, qualified candidates that we could select from. Because it is a challenge to keep the police department fully staffed. And I think police departments all across the country are faced with that. But it's important for us to have, not just minimum staffing, but our officers not having to do forced overtime and not feeling supported or stressed or tired.

[1:02:25] So that that's all part of, of that model. And this year, during the collective bargaining agreements, the unions were supportive of it. So it was very much a collaborative process trying to come up with what that would mean for this community if we left civil service.

[1:02:43] And then, as you probably know, it had to be approved by the town. So, residents and, we voted on it at our town meeting. So, it, it passed overwhelmingly, I would say. And, you know, we've already seen kind of the fruits of that labor in terms of, the new exam and how many people showed up.

[1:03:06] So I, you know, I think so far we're quite happy with, with the results. Well, good. Yeah. Do you want to add anything to that. Yeah, I'll just echo it. It's been easier to hire people, quicker to hire people. Lateral transfers now are easier to move people in who want to be here. I was appointed by the department leadership also.

[1:03:25] It was supported by the both both bargaining unit leadership in both bargaining and expressed no concern with the departure from civil service. So I think that convinced us that it was time. It was good to move in that direction. Awesome. Excellent. Yeah. That's all the questions I have. You have any more questions for me? No, thanks.

[1:03:45] So thank you, thank you, thank you for your thoughtful questions and responses. And so nice to meet you. It's so nice to meet you. Hopefully we see each other. Yes, yes. Take care. You know.

[1:04:23] Set their own property. That's excellent. Welcome. Thanks so much for being here. Anyway, thank you for applying, to the Hingham Police Department. We are the selectboard. I'm Liz klein. This is Julie Straley and Bill Ramsey. We act as police commissioners in this town. So this is part of the process, to participate in the the interviews.

[1:04:51] So we'll each ask you a couple of questions and then certainly you can ask us any questions. And typically the way this works is we'll do the interview this evening and then we'll put on our next agenda, time for us to deliberate and actually vote on the candidates that have applied.

[1:05:12] So to start, if you want to just give us a brief overview of yourself. Okay. Do you hear it? I was, I was born and raised in Boston. I went to UMass Boston. I was I actually went to chair in high school first, and then, through Metco, and then I went to UMass Boston.

[1:05:27] There I got into the cadet program, and then, when a position opened up, I got into the police department, and I've been there for almost three years now. Excellent, excellent.

[1:05:44] What kind of skills do you think law enforcement officers need to make community policing successful? Definitely have to have an open mind. Definitely have to have, compassion for your neighbors, and be willing to engage with them. Excellent. Excellent. Community policing is very important to us. We have a great program in place, currently, but we're always looking to improve and strengthen that and strengthen the relationships with the community.

[1:06:09] So why Hingham? You could apply anywhere to be a police officer. Why the move to Hingham? Well, I like the, the leadership here. I thought it was, definitely different from other places as well as the divisions that we have at Hingham.

[1:06:30] Within the police department, like, K-9 drones, motorcycles and marine unit, and you don't really get that in a lot of other places. Excellent. Yes. There's lots of, different opportunities, which is by design. We've talked about that at great lengths. Just trying to keep people, engaged and wanting to have a career here is important to us. So, so thanks for bringing that up. Julie.

[1:06:51] Hi. Thank you for applying and coming tonight. How would you rate your communication skills and anything that you've done specifically to improve those skills? So, I'm pretty sure at first, but when you get to know me, I open up a lot more. I, I know two other languages. I know Spanish and French.

[1:07:11] So that kind of helps, especially with, other members of the community that don't speak English, or have any other and seen it, help with, translation. I do like to go out and get into the community when I, when I can, especially at UMass.

[1:07:32] That's why that's why I do like, shop with the copper and the other communities that we have over there. Okay. And then, how are you in dealing with stressful situations? And do you have an example of how you dealt with a specific, stressful situation?

[1:07:46] You want to go in calm, levelheaded, you don't want to overreact or panic. At UMass, we had a an active shooter scare last year. I was one of the first ones in the building. And you got to do your job, follow your training, and you'll be okay. All right. Thank you. Excellent. So, thanks for being here tonight.

[1:08:08] Two questions for you. For first one is what leadership quality do you think is most important in a police officer? Definitely. Mentorship, mentoring your people. Lead by example. Those are two that I think. So.

[1:08:28] And what skills do you have or that you've acquired during your career that you will, that you will bring to benefit the police department? So, I my time at UMass Boston, I was a field training officer. I got to train, two lateral applicants and, two academy trained applicants. So I got to mentor them, and they're still active today and still do the job.

[1:08:45] Also, we we had, one that's going through the academy now that I've been able to mentor through the academy, helping at the academy with law and anything that you need. Great. Thank you. Excellent. Any questions for us? How do you how do you like the town? Yeah.

[1:09:05] You want to start, Bill, you've been here? Yeah, I've been here for about and here for 52, almost 53 years. So I kind of like it actually. The chief and I went to kindergarten together. Well, we've been around a while. I am newer. I've only been here 21 years. But I love this community. I moved here with my husband. We raised our children here.

[1:09:34] I grew up in Connecticut, so I don't have any immediate family in the area. But we've really built kind of our family here and a network of people, that I trust, I would trust with my kids. And that was that was really important to me. And I love it so much.

[1:09:52] I ran to be on the Selectboard and want to want to serve the community. But it is it is a really wonderful community that shows up for each other, the time and time again. And I think, you know, as, as a police officer here, you will see that. And it's, it's really something very special.

[1:10:08] I can't wait. Thank you. I'm at 28 years. Hingham. Oh, I should have let you just that. Yeah, I know, I know, what I love about this town is, people are really active and engaged and volunteerism, whether it be with kids, sports or with town town committees.

[1:10:30] And, also, what I've enjoyed is that, the community policing, which, I took the Citizen's Police Academy back in 2004 and, it's a great program. And so I'm just glad that the program continues. And hang on. And it's a great way for officers, the police, to connect with residents and learn about each other and their experiences. So, I think that hopefully you would get exposure to that.

[1:10:54] And, and this is the police academy. And, anyway, I just think it's, it's a good place to live, and I'm glad I'm serving on the Selectboard. Well. Thank you. Well. Thank you. Thanks for being here. And thank you for applying. And we will see you next week. Absolutely. All right. Excellent. Thank you. So much.

[1:11:37] Sean. Excellent. Welcome, Sean. Thank you for being here. Thank you very much. So we are the selectboard. I'm Liz Klein, it's Julie Straley and Bill Ramsey. So this is part of the process. The Selectboard and our role as police commissioners. We conduct a police interview. So we'll each ask you a couple of questions.

[1:11:57] And then, our typical process is that we'll deliberate and put it on our next agenda to vote on actually offering, any sort of, employment. So to start, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself? Absolutely. So as the chief mentioned, my name is Shawn Williams. I am from Scituate, mass. Born and raised there.

[1:12:17] I graduated, went to public school system, graduated Central High School in 2015 from Scituate High School. I was fortunate enough to go to the University of New Hampshire, where I achieved a bachelor's degree in political science with a minor in criminal justice Justice Studies.

[1:12:34] During the during my senior year of college, I kind of made a decision, you know, I wanted to explore the route of being a police officer. So at the time they actually had a part time police academy. So I was very fortunate. Scituate sponsored me. I was a sponsor.

[1:12:49] I was not getting hired by Scituate at that moment in time, but they were willing to sell sponsor me to go to this. So during my senior year of college, for 42 weekends, Saturdays and Sundays, I commuted from Durham, New Hampshire, to Chelmsford, mass. And I graduated from Unh in May of 2019. And then I graduated the part time police academy in July of 2019.

[1:13:07] Following completion of the academy, I waited almost just a year, and then I was fortunate enough to get hired by the Cohasset Police Department as a special, primarily as the duties that specials entail.

[1:13:24] You are a summer police officer doing traffic parking enforcement, going to the beaches, riding a bicycle through and just getting your foot in the door. And I did that for nine, ten months. They actually kept me into the off season where I worked as a desk attendant. I dealt with walk ins, reports related to larcenies, you know, petty crime, as well as sections, mental health issues, whatever came to the police station.

[1:13:40] I was the face that they saw at the door. So that I did that from July of 2020 until May of 2021. In May of 2021, I was fortunate to get hired as a part time interim police officer from my hometown police department in Scituate. I stayed in that role for just under a year prior to that.

[1:13:59] At that point, I was selected to become a full time, on the waiver police officer. So I worked for nine months, midnights in Scituate for January until September of 2022. In September of 2022, I went to the Randolph Police Academy. I was the 16th rookie class. I completed that in February of 2023. I went back to Scituate.

[1:14:23] I worked my hometown. I worked every shift in the department days, evenings, midnights for an additional two years, and then in March of 2025, I left Scituate and I went to the Massachusetts Institute Technology Police Department as a police officer. And I've been serving that role since March of 2025. Great. Excellent. Very impressive. Thank you.

[1:14:48] So why Hingham? Why? Why did you apply? Why did you apply to Hingham? So, you know, I left Scituate because city was my home town. It was, I cannot say more than enough great things about it, from the admin to the day to day coworkers of mine, to the people. It was my home.

[1:15:03] It was a place that I always wanted to work. But I always had this inkling inside of me where I, you know, I wanted something more. And, you know, Scituate in its of itself is kind of a bubble. You know, you're 23 minutes removed from the highway. And it was it's all I knew.

[1:15:16] And from a very young age, I knew I wanted to spread my wings and, you know, essentially go out and see what else was in the world. So I made the decision to go to MIT. It was at the moment in time. It was a financial move.

[1:15:29] I was very fortunate to, you know, get a pay bump, great benefits. So, you know, I was up there for a year and a half. And the thing that's different about working in a town versus working at a college, it's two different worlds. You're both, you know, full time certified police officers with powers to arrest, you know, everything that police officers have.

[1:15:46] But the difference working at college is you're working for a private entity. And at the end of the day, for me, it's it's just the type of policing that I necessarily did not want to do my whole life. I was very fortunate that I have experiences from being up there for a year and a half.

[1:16:00] Like I said, you know, at MIT itself, it's an open campus. It's in the middle of Cambridge. They own properties in Cambridge, Boston as well as Brookline. So coming from Scituate, working in a city environment, you know, that was eye opening.

[1:16:17] And it was truly a great experience for me because it allowed me to become, you know, experience cultures, races and everything that you don't necessarily get to deal with down in the South Shore. So I knew I want to make a change. I knew that, you know, I wanted to get back to municipal policing, and for me, this could not have been a better fit.

[1:16:34] I grew up obviously, like I, as I mentioned in Scituate, but I worked at the Hingham Yacht Club for three summers in the, snack, you know, the little snacks down there. I have plenty of friends. Yes, I played sports. I played lacrosse, baseball all the way through high school.

[1:16:47] So, you know, I was able to form a lot of relationships with people in Hingham and all the surrounding towns. So when this opportunity presented itself, it was a no brainer. My spouse, she's my girlfriend of three years. She's a nurse. She recently, over the past couple of months, she got a job in South Shore.

[1:17:02] We were living in Quincy, and then once she got the job at South Shore, we were like, all right, we were going to make the move a little south. She's from Mansfield, but she she loves this area and this is my home. Social work is my home.

[1:17:14] And it's a place that, you know, I've been out of it for a year and a half now, but it's a place that I want to be. So, you know, we live down in Kingston now. This is great commute by primarily. It's a great it's a great town, you know.

[1:17:26] And I think for me, especially being in such a different realm of policing over the past year and a half, it it really means a lot when you see a town care for the police department, and the police department cares for a town.

[1:17:41] And I see that relationship that the citizens that you all have with members of the police department and it's I know it's a it's a two way street, it's a two way respect. And for me, that's that's what I want to be a part of. I want to work in a community that, you know, you work side by side, and I cannot think of a better place to be. Excellent.

[1:17:53] Great answer and good segue to my my next question. What kind of skills do you think law enforcement officers need to make community policing successful? I think primarily it comes down to your ability to communicate, especially working up in Cambridge. You know, we obviously have a very large unhoused, population that we interact with.

[1:18:13] It being an open campus, we, you know, we primarily deal with a lot of unhoused as well as EDP is mostly staff persons every day. And when you think about community policing, you know, it is a philosophy essentially, of taking that reactive policing and making it proactive, making you become a member of the community,

[1:18:31] making you go out in the community, solve problems, deal with communities. No longer is we're a police entity and we're separate. We're all in this together. So I think you know, the ability to communicate primarily. I think that's what we all have.

[1:18:49] You especially in a job where your ability to talk to people on their best days and their worst days and everything in between, you need that. So tying in the ability to communicate, the ability to build relationships, I mean, it's as simple as, you know, yes. My office is a car for eight hours. However, the goal is to get out of the car.

[1:19:04] If you get a call it a business. If you get a call at Derby Street, if you get a call at one of the shops in the shipyard, if you get a call at a residential house, it's not, you get out of the car and you're like, I'm here. Yes, you're here for a purpose, without a doubt.

[1:19:16] But at the end of the day, you want to be able to build a relationship with whoever individual that you're dealing with to say, okay, that's no longer oh, that's just a police officer. Oh, that's Sean, that's Sean Williams. He's a police officer for Hingham.

[1:19:30] And I think, you know, I take that value in the fact that if you interact with someone, you want to leave a lasting impact. You know, someone could not like the police and then you could change that perspective for the rest of their life. They could say, oh, I don't like police.

[1:19:44] However, let me tell you, I met this great Hingham police officer once, and now for the rest of that one person's life, they'll have nothing but good things to say about police officers and thank them.

[1:19:59] So I think it's really at the end of the day, community policing just comes down to your ability to communicate and the ability to maintain, create, build and develop lasting relationships with members of the community. Excellent. Great. Julie. Hi. So, I'm it and born and bred. Actually not born, but I grew up there. Went to Scituate High School just a few years before you.

[1:20:16] But I was just wondering if you can talk about your experience in Scituate, policing in your hometown and if you have any, anything that you learned from that experience while working in Scituate? I would say it's I think it's absolutely a bonus being able to work in a town that you're familiar with,

[1:20:33] you know, you know, the area, you know, the roads, you know, the type of calls, you understand what goes on. But I think specifically related to Scituate, what's different is when you, you know, you're working in a town, nine times out of ten, you'll go to a call and you will know someone on that call.

[1:20:49] Is it a family member or is it a friend of a family member? Is it someone second cousin twice removed? You don't know, but somehow they'll know you. They'll know who you are. If they don't know who you are, who you are, and they know your name.

[1:21:05] So I think that's something that, you know, definitely helps working in your home town. Obviously, Hingham is not my hometown, but I think, you know, touching on everybody. What's your greatest attribute? And for me, it's I think it is my ability to communicate and it's my ability to be social. You know, people always say, I have a gift to gab. I take pride in that.

[1:21:22] And, that's something that, you know, has opened a lot of doors for me in life. And I hope that will continue to open a lot of doors. So I would just say, you know, working in the hometown, it's just you almost have a built in relationship with people and obviously going to a town that you're not

[1:21:35] born and raised in. That's a relationship that you have to build. But I don't think it's impossible. I think it's absolutely achievable. Okay. Thank you. And then just one other question.

[1:21:52] How are you in dealing with stressful situations? And if you do, you have an example of how you dealt with a stressful situation? I was just, you know, not going into too many details, but, you know, I definitely you work in the job long enough, you go to calls that are, you know, not the best. You know, it's they're the worst. You know, some people can't even imagine what police officers, firefighters, first responders deal with on the day to day.

[1:22:11] You know, we you sign up for it, but you don't know how you're actually going to be able to handle it until it's actually with your two eyes, your POV, and you're seeing it in real time, in the moment.

[1:22:27] So, you know, I think in this job, you know, you deal with stuff that, you know, a lot of people are very, very fortunate that they never have to deal with with their entire life. But for me, I'm beyond fortunate that I've surrounded myself. I have a very loving girlfriend. She's a nurse, so she she gets it.

[1:22:40] She gets, you know, I have a bad you know, it's tough to a tough call. You know, she's in the same world. She's in the same realm. It's different, but she gets it. And then on top of that, I have a very, very loving family.

[1:22:55] And I surround myself with a great group of friends, very tight knit kids that I've been friends with since elementary school, two friends that I've met since doing this job. So you know, how I handle stress is I'm very fortunate to have people around me that I actually have the ability to communicate, talk. You know, I don't have a therapist. I could just say, hey, I have my friends to talk to you.

[1:23:10] They're my own soundboard at the end of the day. And for me, that's that's my biggest stress reliever. I think that's, you know, what gets me through those challenging days that we can endure? Hey. Thank you. You're welcome. So I just two questions for you. Thanks for being here tonight.

[1:23:26] What leadership quality do you think is most important in a police officer? I would say the ability to make sure that people to the left and right, you trust you. They're dependent on you. I think dependency is utmost in this profession.

[1:23:44] There's not a lot of jobs where you walk around for eight hours, 16 hours with, you know, you've got on your heart and it's it's there for a reason. You know, we are in a position to protect life. And in today's day and age, you know, it's that's a very, very big, you know, responsibility.

[1:24:06] So, you know, I think being dependable, being physically fit, mentally fit, being capable that, you know, once again, a lot of people when you go into work, you kind of have an idea of what your day is going to be like. Unfortunately for us, you have no idea what's going to happen over the next 8 to 16 hours.

[1:24:17] So I think being able to depend on the people to the left and right of you, knowing that they're there, they have your back. And then if you need to have their back, you're going to be there for them. And that second, and other than communication, we've talked about that already.

[1:24:32] What other skills do you have that would benefit the police department? I take pride in I would say, you know, I'm a I love learning and I'm very fortunate. One of the things that, you know, I'm love trainings, I'm always trying to gain knowledge, gain insight into things that I could have no idea about. When I got to MIT.

[1:24:47] You know, I was very fortunate that they sent me to asset class critical incident training. It was 40 hours, two weeks where they essentially, hey, this is the curriculum. Curriculum consists of, you know, dealing with people dealing with a mental crisis, dealing with individuals who have certain mental disabilities, dealing with individuals suffering from substance alcohol abuse,

[1:25:08] and how to differentiate different avenues, different resources, different paths. So, you know, for me, that's something that, you know, I don't know at all. I probably don't even know the tip of the iceberg. Every single day I wake up and I can tell you that I'm just learning.

[1:25:23] I keep learning, and I think that's what you have to do in this. This job is ever changing. It's constantly, you know, ever evolving. And for me, it's just the ability to I have such interest in it. I love it, you know, I dedicated 42 years my senior year of high school.

[1:25:38] I missed graduation because I said, hey, can I get this off? And they said, unfortunately not you. Do you have a test that day? So, you know, I miss graduation, but it's this is what I've wanted to do. You know, it clicked for me very early on where I'm in this profession, where I actually have an ability to make change.

[1:25:51] And, you know, it could be someone to wish me best day, everything in between. But for me, at least, if I can, you know, make an impact on their lives. Good. Bad. Hopefully good. You know, they they'll have a very positive, lasting, you know, memory. So. Great. Thank you. Very welcome. Any questions for us? No. Okay.

[1:26:13] Anything you want to add that we haven't touched on? I just want to say thank you. Yeah. Thank you very much for bringing me in. This is, I'm very, very fortunate to even be sitting here. You know, for a kid, I was a first generation college student. You know, I was very blessed to go to college.

[1:26:30] My parents, you know, gave me the advice of, hey, anything you want to do. If you put your mind to it, you can achieve it in.

[1:26:41] I still can't believe you know, I wake up when I work, and I get to drive a police car, and I get to be in this world and, you know, be sitting here in front of you where I. I can make a change in the world. And I truly think at the end of the day that that's what I want to do, and that's that's why I'm here. And I just want to say thank you very much for allowing me to speak in.

[1:26:53] It's been an absolute pleasure. Well, thank you. Thank you for applying to hang on police department. And, we will add this to our next agenda next week and deliberate and then, at that point, we'll, we'll vote to, to make an offer. Perfect. All right. Thank you. So nice to meet you. Thank you so much. You.

[1:27:16] All right. Thank you. Thanks for being here, chief.

[1:27:22] Okay. Next on the agenda are appointments. I don't believe we have any this evening. None. Okay, next is public comment.

[1:27:36] Are there any questions or comments from members of the public, from items not on the agenda? No. Okay. Next town administrator, select board reports, art. Yes, I have one this evening. I just want to touch on, Well, we've had a great summer. We're heading into, storm season, if you will, and there's possibility of having a significant storm event later in the week. And I just wanted to share a little bit on that.

[1:28:00] The, the current weather outlook as of earlier this afternoon. Any any way looking from Friday through Sunday, the forecast includes showers, highs in the 60s, low in the 50s, but with wind gusts reaching as high as 44mph on Saturday. At this moment, there's no indication of a more serious event weather event emerging. That could change in the.

[1:28:24] But that's something that we'll be following closely. Our fire department obviously being in the lead but also will be monitoring as winds can impact power. I did also speak with our harbormaster and, Ken Corson noted that people should consider hauling their boats out or removing boats from their slips if they're especially if they're

[1:28:44] in an unsheltered area or don't plan to use them for, an extended period of time, just as a precaution. Excellent. Thank you for that, Art. Katie, I just wanted to let the board know that we're kicking off the capital budget process on Monday with the first round of department requests. So we are starting early as planned.

[1:29:08] With the hope that we will be deliberating, starting, like, right before Christmas, and then wrapping that up in early January. Excellent. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your efforts. I know that was a goal to move up the timeline. So I appreciate everybody, cooperating with that. The, the budget season has started.

[1:29:27] No, I have nothing tonight. Thank you. Okay. The only thing I have is that Julie and I. That is for an attended the veterans SA event at the high school. It's, it's, event to, bring, awareness and remembrance to veterans suicide. It was well attended by the Veterans Appreciation Club.

[1:29:50] A lot of members of the VFW and Legion were there. Shannon Burke, our VSO, did a great job. And also, it's a great way to honor the park family, who were there this morning as well. So, appreciate everybody who showed up this morning. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you for doing that, Julie.

[1:30:07] I don't know, I just had that was a good event this morning. And it was good to see and, reconnect with the partake of Emily. Excellent, excellent. I have nothing else to report. Appreciate everybody's efforts and this week, there's nothing else. I'll take a motion to adjourn. Make a motion to adjourn. Second roll call. Vote.

[1:30:26] Julie, I bill I I'm in. I as well. We are adjourned at 8:23 p.m.. Thank you.

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Hingham Select Board 09/22/2026

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