[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:06] Good evening, everybody. This is the August 3rd meeting of the Sharon Finance Committee. I'm Donald Brickter on the chair of the committee. We're going to get started right away. I try to get our meeting started on time. We have a agenda that if you're not available, it's posted on the town website. You can go to the calendar and click on today and you'll see the finance committee meeting and there's a link to the agenda right there.
[0:35] There.
[0:35] A first order of business is an update from the subcommittee reviewing salaries of elected
[0:41] officials and the method of selection of the town clerk.
[0:44] Phil, you here with us?
[0:46] I'm here.
[0:47] Okay.
[0:48] Great.
[0:51] Okay.
[0:52] That's all right, Jim.
[0:54] We've only met one time, so unfortunately I don't have much to report.
[0:58] We're still collecting information from other communities.
[1:01] So far, we've identified no community that has gone from elected to appointed.
[1:08] I'm sorry. It's gone from a point it to elected. Yes, but there are many communities that have gone from elected to appointed.
[1:18] So we're reaching out to get more information from those communities on why they did it.
[1:22] In terms of the compensation, that's next and we have a meeting on Thursday, so we'll start digging into that issue later this week.
[1:31] Okay, that's great. Just keep us posted. I know you guys have a deadline of reporting, I believe, in November.
[1:37] And it's much appreciated work you're doing.
[1:40] Our next item agenda, rather, is an update from a town administrator.
[1:44] I'm not seeing Fred online, so I'll skip over that.
[1:48] We have an update. I'm sorry. Yeah. Our next is an update.
[1:52] I was talking offline to Charlie from Sharon TV about this, about trying to facilitate
[1:59] hybrid meetings, I've talked to Krishan as well as this. My preference, as I've expressed
[2:04] repeatedly, is that the committee meet in person. I find that we do better when we meet
[2:10] in person in our conversations, I think, are more focused. On the other hand, I've heard
[2:17] clearly that for some of our members, meeting in person is a challenge. So we have identified
[2:23] one town that has, I would say, and I regret me if you feel otherwise, has
[2:30] perfected hybrid meetings. They run meetings. I've looked at their videos,
[2:35] their meetings, their seamless between audience participation of the live
[2:39] audience, the board meets in person, they're in a hearing room large enough for
[2:43] folks to attend, and also public officials and others who cannot be
[2:49] physically in the room and they participate by Zoom. Ironically the town is
[2:54] near Tucket so it's a little bit of a shut up to get there but I and I are
[2:58] going out on Wednesday. I've spoken to the folks at their local table TV
[3:03] station to the folks in the town manager's office and we've set up meetings.
[3:07] They select board meets on Wednesday and we're going to be there for at least
[3:11] the start of their select board meeting. Unfortunately they meet at 5.30 so we
[3:15] grab a ferry back on the same night. And the plan I've talked to Fred and
[3:20] Krishan about this is to find out what's needed. By the way, we invited
[3:24] Sharon to be to join us on this trip but they're not able to and they asked us
[3:28] please bring back all the information, all the specs, all the details, hardware,
[3:33] software, whatever we need to make hybrid work. The general idea is for those of us
[3:39] in the room. We'll be able to see the folks who are on Zoom. Folks on Zoom will be able
[3:45] to see all of us in the room and that will allow us to meet in person, but also respect
[3:52] those for whom an in-person meeting is a challenge and allow us to allow those folks to attend
[4:00] by Zoom. Is there anything you want to add to that?
[4:04] The only thing I would suggest is I think we have the link. Don't we, Don? People could
[4:08] actually tune in to the meeting. I think it's uh oh it's like we're eating on Wednesday?
[4:13] Yeah sure, I mean or any other time. Or I guess you could go to the
[4:18] tell the replay website and what the replay right because then they'll get people get an idea of
[4:24] what we're talking about. I believe they stream their meetings on YouTube I believe is what they do.
[4:30] I mean I don't think they broadcast them over the local cable station. I mean Sharon TV both broadcast
[4:36] over its cable network and streams live on their website.
[4:42] So it kind of sort of more or less,
[4:44] more or less kind of sort of works the same way.
[4:48] I mean, whether the output is the, you know,
[4:52] sort of a private link to cable subscribers
[4:54] or a public link over the streaming either way
[4:57] is more or less the same.
[5:00] Is anybody in the community of any questions about this effort?
[5:03] And the goal, we'll find out what a cost, we'll try to put together a budget, and whether we really have no idea if it's a short dollar budget, you know, a couple hundred or a couple thousand dollars or if it's required more than that.
[5:18] But Fred and Cristiano are aware of this, they've encouraged us to get all the information, and we have some ideas on how this can be funded, perhaps not necessarily with town money, but we'll see.
[5:28] but we're not on TV to find this. We understand they have some financial challenges,
[5:33] as folks are cutting the cord and not subscribing to cable. So that's the upshot.
[5:39] And we'll report that. I see the threads here because the next couple of things involve
[5:43] Fred, Freddie with us.
[5:48] I'm here. Great. So we're going to item three,
[5:51] Town Administrative Update. There are two things that's there.
[5:53] I had a quick question about this. I'm sorry, good stuff.
[5:55] So, just something I think is worth considering is, you know, I'm reminded of the Historical
[6:03] Society and that if, you know, since the Sharon TV isn't part of the town, per se, it's
[6:08] a private organization.
[6:10] If we have to buy equipment to make these hybrid work, are we going to buy it and give it
[6:14] to Sharon TV or would the town retain ownership or something we will need to consider at that
[6:19] time?
[6:21] Great.
[6:21] We're going to explore all the options, and that's part of the reason for the side visit.
[6:27] We'll report back.
[6:29] Okay.
[6:29] Yeah.
[6:30] Just because of what we have just highlighted.
[6:32] Fred, the thing's going to be that the town will be the owner of the equipment in some wave shape.
[6:37] That's the idea, but we'll want to make sure it works properly.
[6:41] Okay.
[6:42] Okay.
[6:43] Thank you.
[6:43] Okay.
[6:43] So we're going to go to the town administrator update.
[6:45] We have two items.
[6:46] The first one is the status of the landfill solumist, at least rather in the financial implications, Fred.
[6:54] Okay.
[6:55] We've had three calls with DSD, their construction financing, and their ownership group.
[7:05] They have listed our landfill project among 20 plus or minus projects that are within,
[7:13] you know, a quality of 80% or higher completed, that they're trying to sell up as assets.
[7:18] They have a preferred bidder, that they're getting close to closing on as soon as they have.
[7:25] I'm not signing an agreement, they will close through that as it gets to the talk to the directly.
[7:29] Unfortunately, as I said, George Aronson and Arnie fall in scene have been on the calls
[7:34] with me.
[7:35] At this point, it's a little, feels like a little bit of stringing along, but I took the
[7:41] measure of contacting town council to see whether they had appropriate experience dealing
[7:51] with potentially the severing of the lease or dealing with this company.
[7:55] Things don't work out.
[7:56] than the either declared bankruptcy or go into deeper financial trouble.
[8:02] At this point, they've told us it's about 23 weeks from the time that they would close
[8:06] on a transfer for a new vendor to fire up and get the landfill generating solar enough
[8:13] to pay lease payments.
[8:15] So at minimum, we're into the third quarter of the year, which represents roughly $375,000
[8:22] dollar potential revenue shortfall.
[8:24] We're keeping a close eye on that.
[8:26] We shine on I against other areas in the budget
[8:28] where there's positive revenue variances like state aid.
[8:31] We're reviewing closely investment income,
[8:34] see where we stand against the payments from both
[8:39] the library, state, MBLC, and the school project.
[8:45] Bring those funds back in place and to reduce our borrowing
[8:48] across. We actually have a call tomorrow with our financial advisor to begin preparations
[8:54] for the February bond issue and figuring out if we're going to be converting it to the
[8:58] short-term borrowing into the long-term. We'll also be discussing whether or not to consider
[9:03] switching from S&P back to Moody's, shake things up after being with S&P for four or five years now.
[9:10] So Fred, I just want to remind the committee that current budget, this current fiscal year budget,
[9:16] budgeted income of $522,000 from the leasing.
[9:22] Last year, we also budgeted that amount and got zero.
[9:26] When we heard about this a month or two ago,
[9:30] some members of this committee strongly recommended
[9:32] that we looked to zero as the possible income,
[9:35] as Fred just indicated, that comes online in Q4 looking at
[9:39] one quarter of that or less.
[9:42] So I asked Fred to just keep us abreast of his discussions with the company and so we understand the financial implications.
[9:53] Our first call is, I believe August 12th, so if there's any substantive update, I'll send an email around to the committee.
[10:01] Does anybody have questions for Fred about this?
[10:06] Okay Fred, oh wait, Philip, go ahead.
[10:08] I seem to recall there was something in the lease that if they're so long, if they don't
[10:15] take it online, we can actually get a reprocessed for free.
[10:19] When does that come into play and is it something worth exploring?
[10:23] Well, one of the conversations we've had with them, it's five years worth of time which
[10:27] actually expired a year ago, or we could set up a lease, then we owned basically all the
[10:35] steal all the equipment on site unless they remove it, and then take over the ownership
[10:41] and responsibility for that. The town's not equipped to operate the facility. We'd have
[10:46] to go to the market or try to identify somebody to complete the project and take on the commitment
[10:52] at the end of the project to remove it. It's sort of a last resort, but with something certainly
[10:56] that we're reviewing. Right, but if we check it over, that equipment all has values, so we're looking
[11:02] to somewhere to operate and we're basically handing them a project that's ready to go online
[11:06] versus they're looking to sell it and make money off of it so it would be that I would think
[11:12] we could get a lot of money to get someone to operate at this point because it's pretty much
[11:16] from my understanding pretty much ready to go online needs a little bit more work so we're taking
[11:21] a project so there's a lot of value and what's on there that we would basically inherit for Fred.
[11:25] If we suffer the lease they would be entitled to remove their equipment whether they're able to
[11:30] financially or choose to do that's one is an open question. Arnie's certainly an advocate
[11:35] of taking that step sooner than later. I think we'll see where we are on August 12th.
[11:41] Judy?
[11:49] Yeah. Okay, thank you so much, sir. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm using Zoom
[11:55] thing, so I think she's okay. I asked her to unmute. Sorry. So thank you, thank you, Charlie.
[12:02] So a couple of things, yeah. They could remove it. Also, I am extremely concerned at this
[12:09] point that any credits that could have emanated from this property when it's actually plugged
[12:14] in and attached to the grid are dead because of how long it has taken to get to this point.
[12:21] I haven't been able to do that analysis. I'm not the lawyer for this for the town, but I do work
[12:27] with energy credits, a fair bit. I also might recommend at this point just because of where
[12:35] this is heading, and again, I'd say this very clearly, I am not the lawyer for the town,
[12:40] and I do not think that someone from my law firm should be the lawyer on this matter,
[12:45] but I might recommend that it would be wise to consider scheduling an executive session.
[12:50] For you all, with a proper workout attorney to discuss your options and understand them,
[13:00] this stuff is complicated.
[13:02] You also probably should not say any more about your potential approach in open session.
[13:10] Thank you, Judy.
[13:11] I know if you heard Fred said, he's every spoken to town council to start that step to see
[13:18] if we can identify council to do this.
[13:20] Right, and so then my advice is do the rest of this
[13:23] in exact forever more, please.
[13:26] As much as the public might be interested,
[13:28] other than just saying, this isn't working or.
[13:31] Right.
[13:31] No, that's a great point.
[13:33] Thank you for that.
[13:33] I wanted on the financial side to make sure
[13:36] the committee understood the community and that there's
[13:40] a half million dollars we had budgeted and income
[13:42] that we're probably not going to see.
[13:44] That part is totally fine.
[13:45] That was a significant part of the update, and I appreciate your guiding us and suggesting
[13:52] that we would be really careful what we say going forward.
[13:57] Next item, Fred, is the Carnegie Library building?
[14:01] Yes.
[14:01] So the Select Board completed negotiations for a land development agreement to diligence period
[14:09] with paramount development, the residential proposal, both parties of signed agreement.
[14:17] The due diligence period started on July 27th.
[14:21] I know the developers already identified a structural engineer.
[14:26] He has his architecture or designer in place, he's trying to retain a septic person.
[14:35] and I've given him an exchange contact information
[14:39] with the Historical Commission, Dave Martin,
[14:42] and Jim Grassfield try and get some early feedback
[14:45] from them on placement of Windows size,
[14:49] number of Windows in the addition,
[14:50] and what they're going to be comfortable with.
[14:53] So things are proceeding along the path to pursue that.
[14:58] We've also lined up with a prazer.
[15:00] And I would expect as soon as he has a preliminary design, we'll give that to the appraisal, and then they'll turn around. He actually appraises a little, I'll just negotiate the terms of sale for our personal sale agreement, both parties want to proceed. Thank you, Fred. Are there any questions from the committee for Fred Ira? I have a quick one and if Judy might be able to weigh in, I remember watching the reuse committee meetings, and I think that topic came up about the windows from the historical society.
[15:30] Did you recall anything that was said that would make us fear what might happen with that
[15:38] discussion now?
[15:43] Sorry, that mirror duty.
[15:47] Okay,
[15:50] Judy, you should be okay.
[15:52] Sure. So, I mean, what Mr. Gerosa has said is that obviously he has to add windows on the side
[16:00] because it's residential and there are requirements for that. He's also, I felt made it clear that the front facade of the building will have no changes to windows and the windows they would add on the side would fit appropriately with the other windows on the building, but that's part of why the early process involves this.
[16:26] I don't believe that so the way the
[16:30] diligence, the land development
[16:34] and diligence agreement is written a bit of a mouthful,
[16:38] and Fred, did you share it with the committee? Did you say?
[16:41] I was posted on the website and specifically email it to them now.
[16:45] Okay, so it's posted on the Library Reuse Committee website,
[16:48] which you can all find, but probably so just be
[16:52] easily emailed to you by Fred.
[16:54] So, there's stuff that they have to deliver within 60 days, discussions with the Historic
[17:02] Commission and any application with them that wouldn't happen presumably until if and
[17:09] until we were to move into a purchase and sale and then and then it would likely be joint
[17:16] between the town and the petitioner. But, again, Dave Martin is going to see what they submit
[17:24] as part of the diligence. He can't speak on behalf of the entire committee, but that's why
[17:29] we do have a liaison, so. Thank you. I just want the committee to know if case
[17:33] they don't. Judy is on the library. We use committee and so that's the things why I asked for her.
[17:40] Yes, and just to be clear, I was speaking on my own behalf, not on behalf of the whole committee, but I am the vice chair of the committee.
[17:48] So, and I have a question.
[17:50] I'll go to this process.
[17:51] Fred about the Carnegie Library project.
[17:57] Okay, Krushan, Fred, you're up next.
[18:00] We're looking at the FY26 town budget closeout.
[18:10] Hi, so it's in progress right now and when I submit my Q4 you should see at this moment
[18:20] I'm looking at at least around 50 to 60 thousand dollars in appropriation turnbacks for
[18:26] this year from the town side schools of course I don't expect anything but they're yet
[18:34] to close their sign. So by the end of this month, we should have a firm picture and I'm looking
[18:40] at what is at $50,000 to $60,000 of appropriation done back.
[18:46] And, Krishan, that's after accounting for the transfers that the Select Board and the Finance
[18:50] Committee approved, right?
[18:54] As always, that's wonderful news. We always like to hear that. Fred,
[18:58] do you have anything to add to that? I just want to say that we're down to a handful of adjustments
[19:03] That's for waiting on EPW and water to send us some items that make sure they're allocated
[19:09] the right side of the house if you will, between enterprise fund and the regular fund.
[19:14] We also had a conference from town council funds from last year through the transition
[19:18] that we'll be turning back.
[19:20] So I'm comfortable in saying that.
[19:22] Krishan's number probably plus 30 or 40 more.
[19:26] That's even better.
[19:28] That's even better.
[19:29] I was starting with more cons than we do.
[19:31] Yeah.
[19:33] All right, Philip.
[19:34] My nature, that's how I am.
[19:36] So I mean, we've already identified potential short comings
[19:39] in this coming years budget.
[19:40] I know in our last meeting, we talked about larger was,
[19:43] I asked about having a larger reserve.
[19:45] We obviously don't know where snow will be.
[19:47] Snow was high this year.
[19:49] So it's nice to see turnbacks.
[19:50] But how does that compare to prior years?
[19:52] I'm just curious in terms of turnbacks.
[19:54] Where do you mean?
[19:55] This year's expenditure turnback is lower than it has been
[19:58] in prior years. Part of it is the absorption of snow removal costs. Part of it is some IT expenses
[20:06] that she's approved. As we've updated, the servers and some other things that have been licensing
[20:13] that need to be taken care of. Just looking through the list.
[20:21] If you remember, we had an assumption
[20:23] of a retirement, the Trojars Office didn't happen, so there was a little shortfall there, we'd
[20:27] We had to cover, and what else?
[20:35] This Medicare was higher than expected.
[20:37] We also, if we had extra funds, we applied them to increase the amount.
[20:42] We put in the unemployment fund, I'll show that up and reduce the amount that we had
[20:47] to increase it from 75 to 90,000 and going forward, so I feel like we're in a good spot.
[20:53] Okay.
[20:54] So as much as this will end up by assuming free cash.
[20:58] Yes, any turn back, we'll add to the free cash.
[21:02] Yeah.
[21:03] Yeah.
[21:03] As you know, we've added police and fire personnel through grants that phase out over time.
[21:08] So some of this shortfall is covered by the grant, but obviously that's because the expenditures
[21:16] are up in both departments.
[21:17] So we have those phased in over a pair of years, which reduces the tax impacts from absorbing
[21:24] most personnel. But hopefully with that, I'm fine, overtime costs, I'll go down in the future.
[21:31] Yes, there's a balance with that as well. Are there any other questions on the preliminary
[21:37] closeout for this fiscal year, the fiscal year closes on June 30th? Okay, so our next item of
[21:46] business is liaison updates. I'm going to take them in a particular order. Community preservation,
[21:52] neither Keith nor Alex are here. I don't believe the committee is met, so there's probably
[21:58] not much to report. Standing building committee, Chris is not here. He told me he had to go
[22:03] out of town for work and hope to be able to join by Zoom, but I don't see him. Mike, if you
[22:09] know mine, Planning Board and ZBA, is there anything going on there?
[22:13] Yes, so good evening, everybody. There are two things I just want to mention. First, the
[22:21] planning board at the July 9 meeting voted to begin a review of the post office
[22:27] square design guidelines. So they engaged a consultant and they're hoping to
[22:36] get a draft of these design guidelines and as well as some potential areas for
[22:42] zoning by law amendments or additions. You know, take add more teeth to the post
[22:50] office square design guidelines. So there's going to be a little bit of work I think around that depending on what the end result is based on this engagement.
[23:03] So that's number one. And the other thing that's hanging out there, I can't obviously we can't really talk about it, but it's the sunrise senior living suit, which is ongoing.
[23:17] I do know August 18th, I think there's mediation is going to begin, so they are working toward resolving it.
[23:27] Depending any questions, those are the two things that I've...
[23:30] There's nothing really on the zoning board side, aside from being a party to the Sunrise.
[23:35] Right, okay, fair enough.
[23:36] I mean, historically, the zoning board actions don't typically affect the town.
[23:42] It does, in this case, because of their role in the sunrise development, but sort of
[23:46] the routine zoning board hearings and approvals, typically or not, something that the finance
[23:53] committee has dealt with, planning board, absolutely, because zoning changes and proposals
[23:58] come before town meeting, and we have to weigh in on them.
[24:01] But thank you for that update, Judy.
[24:07] I'll get you.
[24:08] Okay.
[24:08] That should work.
[24:10] Thanks.
[24:10] So, um, and I apologize I haven't had a chance to watch those meetings, so you should try and keep up on all the meetings. Um, but, um, I do recall that if I'm remembering correctly, the reason for pursuing some of these guidelines were concerns about the first MBTA zoning townhouse project that's going in on, um, I think I'm on street.
[24:38] maybe if my memories are not failing, and I guess I just, when I'm trying to understand
[24:45] and maybe this is more a question for Fred, is putting in guidelines that could obfuscate
[24:56] the requirements or intent of the MBTA zoning somewhat concerns me.
[25:04] And just because I remember the reaction of the planning board and certain members during
[25:11] the discussion of that project, and particularly when it was before the ZBA, at least one
[25:18] of the planning board members attended and shared some pretty forceful thoughts about
[25:25] the design.
[25:28] That's beyond the scope of the plan.
[25:30] Okay, I'm just trying to understand this there.
[25:32] I appreciate that.
[25:33] I believe respectfully it's more appropriate
[25:35] before the planning board at this point.
[25:39] And I'm not, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm with, I'm trying,
[25:42] when I was trying to get out.
[25:43] Your concerns are fair, but, but at this point,
[25:45] I don't think it's, it's something I want to hear
[25:49] continue discussion on at this meeting.
[25:51] Can I finish a sentence please?
[25:53] My question to Fred, I suppose,
[25:55] was do they have legal counsel to help them with this?
[25:58] because that is a dollar amount that goes to the planning board. That's why I felt it was
[26:04] appropriate for everyone. Thank you. Yes, they have legal funds in their budget plus we have
[26:09] general town council budget. Once the consultant starts to flush out some guidelines, I'll engage
[26:15] council on it. Thank you. That was really my question.
[26:19] Fair question. Thank you so much, Judy. Okay. I have a council on aging. Anything going on?
[26:23] Council lady hadn't met since the last meeting, however, as a board member of the Friends
[26:29] to the Sharon Council on Aging, I'd like to make people aware that this Wednesday at
[26:35] the Lake Concert Series, the Friends is sort of hosting an information table and also an
[26:43] auction.
[26:44] So it's always a good time at the lake and it's a chance for people to maybe stop by the
[26:51] move and find out a little bit more about activities with the friends and also the council
[26:57] on aging.
[26:58] Okay, thank you, Sharon.
[27:01] No, I was just supporting Ira with clapping.
[27:03] Okay.
[27:04] I'm not good at figuring that.
[27:06] I see a yellow hand waving.
[27:07] I assume you want to talk.
[27:08] Fair enough.
[27:10] Okay.
[27:11] I saved the best for last.
[27:12] And that's the schools.
[27:13] Ira, Jonathan, you guys want to update us on what's going on at the school department?
[27:17] Sure.
[27:18] I'll kick it off and Jonathan you feel free to supplement and I see we have some guests
[27:25] as well that may be able to shed some light if I omit anything.
[27:32] The Google Committee had a special meeting last week and the agenda items were the Superintendents contract
[27:41] And also a potential appointment of the Super Intentant Effective 7-1-27, which is the end of this next school year.
[27:54] It's been a lot of discussion.
[27:58] I'm not a big Facebook participator, but I've had a number of people tell me I had at least read some of the things.
[28:05] And I tried to, but maybe the people here who are more adept or are more willing to get involved with that mode of communication.
[28:18] But the synopsis is that they did hear from Superintendent Batello, and he's decided not to continue past this next year.
[28:33] So as of June 30, 2027, he'd be no longer with the Sharon School Department.
[28:42] That was the first agenda item.
[28:47] And then the next one was the chair read some of the policies that the school committee
[28:55] is obligated to when there is a vacancy to meet and discuss what the steps would be.
[29:02] And that was the arrest of that particular meeting where they wanted to decide what process they would take to seek to fill that position.
[29:16] And I would say if people have the keen interest, it's on Sharon cable television, that replay and instead of me reciting what actually took place,
[29:32] You could actually see the entire meeting, but the essence of it was after discussion of whether
[29:42] research was correct or an internal hire would be an appropriate way to go.
[29:47] So, a motion was made. I just want to read it, I have it to
[29:58] higher.
[30:00] Move to higher, Dr. Jocelyn, as our next superintendent, effective July 1, 2027, pending negotiation
[30:09] of a contract. And that was voted five to two. So that's sort of a synopsis of that meeting
[30:18] and where that was. And if you have lots of time, I guess you can get a lot more information.
[30:23] I particularly don't want to just rely on Facebook, but there's some information that one can gleam from that and make your own decision of what the next steps might be if the community has a place and input.
[30:46] but I believe, and I see the chair is here,
[30:50] that at the next school committee meeting,
[30:53] that probably will be an agenda item,
[30:55] and there'll be more information about that,
[30:58] and a chance for Dr. Jocelyn
[31:01] to address the community as well.
[31:04] Jonathan, anything else, you want to correct or read?
[31:08] Hi, I think that was a pretty objective recount
[31:10] of what transpired.
[31:12] So, I mean, I don't know that we need to get into
[31:16] a whole back and forth on the Ben Com committee meeting but.
[31:24] Right, and Don, I think, you know, if people have followed in and there's any information
[31:30] they want to add or give an opinion, that's where I would be objecting.
[31:36] I mean, it's possible that some of us like me are ostriches and keep our head in the sand,
[31:40] but clearly the decision to move ahead immediately and hire Dr. Jocelyn is met with incredible
[31:47] commentary from our community, there's petitions to ask the school board to reconsider.
[31:55] Philip, question.
[31:56] Yeah, I see your hands up.
[31:57] Yeah, I unfortunately was not at the meeting having had a chance to watch it, but I'm assuming
[32:01] they conferred with key stakeholders, the STA, principals, et cetera, about who they would
[32:07] be reporting to and spoke with them as part of the process of hiring a new superintendent
[32:11] as most communities would do that, and most companies do that as part of the process to
[32:18] Don't play cute with us, you know darn well that didn't happen, come on, don't do that.
[32:22] If you have a concern about what the school committee did, I opened this up deliberately to allow this committee.
[32:28] I heard Jonathan's point, but I want to release a lot of this committee if they have anything they want to weigh in on to do that.
[32:36] But please don't, don't be little or intelligence with that kind of statement though.
[32:40] Does
[32:45] anybody want to add weigh-in, have anything to say?
[32:48] No, it's totally, it's a totally finance or also.
[32:54] Okay, I'm going to take the prerogative as the chair to offer
[32:59] a couple of cents from my perspective.
[33:02] I would find it normal to totally ignore what other committees do
[33:07] other than as it directly affects our role in the finance committee,
[33:11] whether it's a funding issue or an article issue for
[33:15] town meeting, and I respect I was a very neutral explanation without commentaries as to
[33:24] what happened. The concern that I have, and I want to make this very clear, this has
[33:32] nothing to do with the choice of the next superintendent. My view this is everything
[33:37] to do with the process, and I think as a town, we have an obligation to our citizens.
[33:44] We sort of have a sort of, we have a direct democracy in this town, which is called
[33:50] town meaning.
[33:51] And those of us on this committee are actually elected by town meaning.
[33:55] The school committee is directly elected by our voters, as is the slot board.
[34:01] And we are not a private business.
[34:03] Town of Sharon has to operate, in my view, better than a private business.
[34:09] I have no question that on the face of it, the school committee was entitled to do what it did, but I am not happy with the way they handled it.
[34:20] I have tried to research, and I can't say that I've got everyone right, but I'm aware that most management level positions at the school department talking about building principles, directors, for example, athletic director, special ed director, early childhood director.
[34:37] All of whom were hired following a very public process, a process that included, as Philip Tongan-Chic said,
[34:46] conversations with students, parents, stakeholders, interviews, resume review, et cetera.
[34:53] And the school committee declined to do that, and I don't think that's okay.
[34:57] I can tell you as a member of this committee who was reappointed, I had it appear before the nominated committee and explain who I am or what I was, even though I was on for two years.
[35:07] Our new members were asked to submit resumes, and this is for an advisory committee to our
[35:14] town meeting.
[35:15] By contrast, the superintendent oversees a roughly $65 million budget.
[35:22] It's a significant job, and I'm Dan and Georgianne, I respectfully respect you, each of you,
[35:30] but I think it's important that you at least hear from this one person.
[35:33] I think we could have done better.
[35:34] In fact, I think you should have done better and I was very disappointed it's 11 months away.
[35:39] You certainly could have had a process you did not need to hire a search firm.
[35:44] You certainly, you could have if you needed to and then raised the concern that it was going
[35:48] to cost 12 or 15 or $20,000.
[35:51] I believe there's enough flexibility in your budget for that but if not, like other departments
[35:56] you certainly could have come to the finance committee next June and said, hey, we had
[36:00] is unexpected expense. Would you, folks, be willing? Please give us a transfer from the reserve
[36:05] fund. We've done that for many departments for under similar circumstances. And as one member,
[36:10] I certainly would have supported that. And that should not have been the reason to not hold a search.
[36:16] And I don't want to get into all the reasons you did, it didn't do it, but I just want to,
[36:20] to let you, the community know that at least as the chair of this committee, I was disappointed at
[36:26] actions. Not the choice to pick Dr. Jocelyn. I have no problem with that whatsoever, but I thought it
[36:34] should have followed a much more robust, much more open, a much more accessible process.
[36:42] I see
[36:42] Judy's hand. Is anyone else on the committee before I recognize Ms. Crosley?
[36:49] Judy?
[36:51] Thanks. So I just I had two thoughts. One is I watched and actually attended and really
[37:03] paid close attention to the process for hiring our most recent recreation director, which
[37:10] was an internal hire at the end of the day. Right? We had an internal candidate. He's currently
[37:16] he had been the interim. That's important to note. He wasn't just handed a full contract, right?
[37:22] Wreck director left. We had an interim. Then we had a process. There were two outside finalists
[37:29] and one internal finalist. There were robust reviews and discussions, select board interviewed all
[37:38] three in public, and for a position that pays close to half of what the superintendent gets,
[37:48] a tremendous amount of what I thought was valuable and important public process and time
[37:55] was spent.
[37:57] And I think so far the chosen internal candidate is doing great.
[38:02] And by the way, I had resumes for all the candidates.
[38:05] I don't have a resume for Dr. Jocelyn.
[38:09] To my knowledge, there was no packet provided to the school committee for their Wednesday
[38:14] meeting, and because Dr. Jocelyn was not hired by the school committee, because assistant
[38:21] superintendents are not hired by the school committee, they're hired by the superintendent, I don't
[38:27] think any of them had a resume for Dr. Jocelyn when they took that vote.
[38:33] I don't know who, besides potentially Dr. Batello and Ms. Whittamore, have seen his resume,
[38:41] who has vetted his resume, who has spoken to any references of Dr. Jocelyn.
[38:50] His LinkedIn is inaccurate.
[38:52] I've established that from basic Google searching.
[38:55] Not saying he's not an appropriate candidate, but I am saying that for somebody who I think
[39:02] they are about to hire to take over for a three-year term which will run through 20-30 and
[39:10] will involve a salary that is second solely to Fred's, with Fred having something approaching
[39:17] I don't want to age a Fred, but at least 30 close years of experience as a senior administrator
[39:24] in towns. This feels unjustifiable. It also feels like it is setting us up for further legal action
[39:37] in a whole host of ways. And there is an opportunity to slow this down. There is an
[39:45] opportunity to do it correctly. That doesn't mean you have to have a broad public search,
[39:50] but it does mean you don't start contract negotiations.
[39:55] You do a public vetting of the candidate.
[39:58] That's not that hard.
[40:00] I am incredibly concerned.
[40:02] I'm also worried about the impact of this on ongoing negotiations with the teachers.
[40:09] Because I know there was no feedback from the teachers
[40:12] and some of the lead teachers are starting to speak publicly.
[40:16] that is not good when you are trying to settle a contract.
[40:21] So since the chair is on, I am begging the chair to work with his colleagues,
[40:29] take this back about 100 steps, and do it right.
[40:34] Thank you.
[40:35] Thank you, Ms. Cross.
[40:36] We feel it.
[40:38] Yeah, I believe when we hired our last superintendent, there was a discussion around
[40:42] around a clause in the contract that gave the community
[40:46] and how would the payout, a reduced payout,
[40:50] but a payout that allowed us the ability
[40:52] to sever the contract.
[40:53] Given what Ms. Crosby said about a three-year contract,
[40:58] do we know if there's a plan to put that in this contract
[41:00] since it's not in our current state?
[41:02] That's not our scope, Bill.
[41:03] That's totally our scope.
[41:04] I understand, but the child has faced a lot of legal laws
[41:08] through the payout.
[41:10] And I'm really concerned if it's not in there
[41:12] that we could be facing yet another legal contract if something goes awry. So I would encourage
[41:18] that Fred to ensure that something like that is taken care of because we're having trouble
[41:23] getting insurance as it is. If we go through another legal case, it's going to make that problem even
[41:28] worse for us. I appreciate the input. No disrespect to Fred. This is the school committee's decision
[41:34] and I don't mean to suggest for a second it's not. As I said, I just wish they had
[41:39] as slowed down a bit and done some of the steps that I and others have suggested.
[41:47] Anyone else on the committee or anyone else watching want to comment?
[41:52] Okay, fair enough. Okay, next item on agenda.
[41:56] The only vote we have tonight is to approve the minutes of the June 29th, 20th, 26th meeting.
[42:02] I appreciate a motion.
[42:06] So moved.
[42:07] Philip made the motion. Is there a second Jonathan second it because we're on zoom a role call is required
[42:16] Ira. Yes. Zach. Yes. Sharon. Yes. Jonathan. Yes. Michael. Yes. Philip. Yes. And I'm a yes.
[42:31] that's seven to zero, the motion passes.
[42:35] Um, um, topics not anticipated within 48 hours of the posting.
[42:40] I don't have anything.
[42:41] Um, and if, uh, gave Fred a chance to town administrator off of his report,
[42:47] I assume there's nothing else there, but I'll just double check.
[42:51] Anyone on the committee have anything that was not known at the time of the posting 48 hours ago?
[42:57] Okay. Great.
[42:57] Right. Well, I tried hard to keep the meeting focused and on time and looks like we did
[43:03] both of those things. The agenda list are upcoming meetings. I'm just going to state
[43:09] them out loud. He's always subject to change. But the plan now is to meet on, these are
[43:13] all Mondays, 10th of 14th, October 19th, November 16th, and December 14th. You know, once
[43:20] a month for the next four months, the meetings will be in person. And we will do our best
[43:27] to come up with if we cannot perfect a hybrid model by then and I doubt we'll be able to perfect it.
[43:36] We certainly have some ideas, Sharon TV has given us some ideas and how we can at least do a some type of hybrid.
[43:44] So if committee members are unable to attend in person, we certainly will or a staff,
[43:57] It is not known for eight hours.
[43:59] I just want to mention, sorry folks,
[44:00] I've asked Joan our administrative assistant
[44:03] to help update the finance committee portion
[44:08] of the website.
[44:09] Specifically, I'm looking to see that meeting handouts
[44:13] and other material that's relevant to the work we do
[44:17] is posted not only after the meeting,
[44:20] but if we get information before the meeting,
[44:22] we had no handouts for this meeting.
[44:24] The Q4 report is not yet prepared.
[44:26] but anything that goes out to the committee in advance that's a public record, I'm going to have Joan place on the website.
[44:34] So the public can see it as we do.
[44:36] There's also a place on the website that we can now link to the videos of our meetings.
[44:41] So folks who can look back and want to find out what happened at that particular meeting,
[44:47] they'll be able to click a link that will take them to the Sharon TV page.
[44:52] So, I'm trying in small ways, and I appreciate John's efforts apparently are the new...
[45:00] The company that's doing the web design doesn't always make things as easy as the chair would like. And Joan Smiley, because she knows what I'm talking about, we're trying hard folks who can hope that we can, you know, make things more available not only to the committee, but to the public. So with that said, I'll let the tenant motions to adjourn.
[45:31] Michael. Yes, Philip. Yes, and I'm a yes, the 7-0 meetings adjourned. Thank you folks very much. Appreciate your patience with us. Have a great evening.
[45:41] Thank you.
[45:42] Bye.