Historic District Commission - Regular Meeting

We'll maybe go ahead and get started, and I'll just start with with roll call. Nancy? Here. We saw anything since she raised her hand. Thank you. Michael? Here. Here. David? Here. Mark? Don? Here. And Duncan is absent tonight. I'm going to read. Actually I think Sharnika or Anna Scott, you'll read procedures in and then I'll do the public notice or the public charge rather.

We don't need to do the procedures because we don't have like a evidentiary hearing.

Great. Okay, then we'll skip that piece. I think we do need to do approval of the agenda, however, Shanika sent out the agenda a couple of weeks ago. Does anybody have any modifications? I think maybe the only thing that we won't have on the agenda tonight is our candidate to join the commission. Glenn is not able to join us tonight, but we'll actually have that as a discussion item. But we won't be reviewing her application officially tonight. I could get somebody to approve and somebody to second the agenda for So moved.

Thank you, Mike. Second.

Thank you, Josh. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Passes. Thank you. Sharnika and Anna Scott, do we have any announcements?

Yes. So I think tomorrow, the council the the board changes. Text amendment will go to council tomorrow. So that would reduce this board size to seven members and change the quorum. I don't I think that's all that I have. Anna Scott, anything

Nothing else, but that change would go into effect July 1. I did confirm that with Corey this afternoon.

That's great. And then I think, anyone that's still serving out a term that takes us above that seven would just be grandfathered in essentially, but we would sort of naturally glide down to seven member commission over time. It's my understanding.

Yeah. So we have three commissioners. Terms will end at the end of this month. And I think Michael and Duncan have shared with the the group that they are not applying to be reappointed.

Correct. It's been a pleasure serving with you all.

Thank you for helping us out Michael, we really appreciate it. Absolutely. Then, Chernika and Anna Scott, it may be helpful in the session that we come back to after that gets approved by counsel assuming that it does, just to make sure that whether it's you all or it's Kevin, just sort of reset us on what the rules of procedure are. And I think we have struggled with quorum sometimes with schedules. And I believe one of the enhancements with that change is going to allow us to get to quorum a little bit easier. So it may just be good for us to just all hear about that in the first meeting after those things go into effect so we're all on the same page?

Yeah. So right now our quorum is set by Lumo, which requires six members. The rule change would just make it like a simple majority of seven. So we would need four. It would be a lot easier to get quorum.

And my understanding is that it is a simple majority of seated commissioners, so if we went down to five, technically three would be quorum?

Yeah, I that's right.

Yeah.

Yes, that's correct. But it doesn't exclude, people that are absent as long as the C is filled.

Got it.

Okay, great. Any other announcements?

I probably should announce, in light of my term ending at the end of this month that I am also not reapplying. I've looked at my sort of personal commitments moving forward and I just don't think I can give this the time that it deserves for a second term and so I'm very grateful and I've had a lot of fun with you all that I will not be reapplying.

Thank you for your help while you're with us Clark, we very much appreciate it and we appreciate you helping us find David. Think Speaking of

which I also have an announcement, You're stuck with me for a while actually, unfortunately.

That's good. We're glad to hear that, especially we're going have your oratory at the end of the session tonight. You'll redo your speech at Clarksons. I

do think another friend of ours would be potentially interested in applying. If somebody could forward to me the application materials so I can send them to him, I think he'd be very interested.

That's great David. I, you know, at at the end of the session we're going talk a little bit about recruitment and I would say those of you that are in the community, Don, Josh, Nancy and I chatted about this a little bit earlier today, I think us continually recruiting for people that are interested is a really good idea and so you know Clark and Michael in your travels around town if there's other folks that you think are interested please do refer them to us. We always entertain new folks.

I'll be happy to.

Thank you thank you for agreeing to serve with us Clark we really appreciate it. Any petitions? No. Okay, great. So next item on the agenda would be approval of the minutes. So attached to the agenda that Chernika distributed were minutes for both the May 13 and April 25 retreat action item minutes. If there's no questions, I'd ask for a move and a second to approve those.

So moved. Thank you,

David. Second.

And Don, second. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Aye. I think we got quorum on that. Excellent, thank you very much. Also, third item on the agenda was the COA approval report, which is really there for informational purposes. It's things that staff are approving administratively per the LUMO. Then fourth, fifth and sixth items on the agenda are the written decisions for February, 118 Malay Street and 707 Gimgle Road, which is the written decision in the COA placards. I'd like to ask for a approval on those and then a second, please.

So moved. Thank you, David.

Okay. I

think I heard Nancy. Was that you? Yes. Nancy second. Alright. So all in favor, please say aye.

I have a question.

Sorry. Sorry. Nancy has a question. Please please go ahead.

Did Josh need to recuse on this also?

Yes. And I'm not gonna vote.

Okay. So I I think we still have quorum with Josh not voting on

I can turn my video off if you'd like.

Brian Yes. Yes. So if you want to, you can separate it out, and Josh can recuse himself from his item, and you can vote on 208 Spring Lane. And then if Josh wants to, he can vote on the other two Thank you. Written decisions.

That's a very good idea. So I'll amend what I just said since Josh is off screen. Let's do 208 Spring Lane. David, I think you you you, motion to approve. Nancy, did you second that? Second. Great. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Okay. That passes unanimously. Josh, you can come back on, screen if you would, please.

Got it.

So thank you for your patience on that one. So now we'll do items five and six. So 118 and 707 Gimgel Road. I could ask for a motion to approve in a second.

Move. Move.

Second. And then Clark, I think you may have second.

Yes.

Okay. Great. So Josh moved to approve. Clark second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. That passes unanimously. Okay, thank you very much. So now we're on to a handful of discussion items. We do have a candidate, Glenn, and her materials were distributed as part of the agenda for tonight.

She was not able to join us. Anna Scott let us know this morning that I think it is next Wednesday, the eighteenth, the council is going to move to seat new commissioners. And so we'd like to have an opportunity to interview Glenn before the eighteenth to make sure we can get her considered in the sort of wave of approvals that the commission or the council will consider before they go on summer break. And so I'd like to recommend is that as a group, if you're comfortable with her application, we would move to advance her for recommendation to be seated on the council contingent upon a subcommittee having a discussion with her to ensure that she's clear on sort of what the expectations are and has a chance to ask questions. And so what I'm proposing is that we take sort of two members of the commission, attempt to have a discussion with Glenn, sort of a one off discussion and interview for her and for us, for her to give us a chance to ask questions.

And assuming that interview goes well, we would continue to advance the approval we would give tonight on Glenn's recommendation to the council. So I know that's a little convoluted, so I'm going to stop talking and let folks ask questions. And then Nancy or Anna Scott, if there's any clarification I missed, please weigh in. Anna Scott did reach out to legal counsel because I think Kevin may have had his second child in the last day or so and his backup was not able to join us tonight, but Anna Scott was in communication with the law firm to make sure we had clearance on the subcommittee idea.

It's my understanding that the lawyer said that this procedure would be okay to have the subcommittee, but I think it is really important to talk to any applicant to see if they're willing to put in the time and have the background as we go forward. Because in the past, there have been, you know, quite a number of controversies about the HDC. So I think if possible, maybe a three member subcommittee if three people are willing to do it.

I'll be willing to to talk with her.

Me too. Nancy, would you like to join that conversation?

Yeah, I'll do what?

I think the Anna Scott and Shanika keep me honest on this. Think the motion we would need to make tonight is to vote on advancing Glenn as a future commissioner to the council for recommendation and that that would be contingent upon a follow-up conversation that Don, Nancy and I would have with Glenn to ensure that she's comfortable with the responsibilities and we're comfortable that she understands those responsibilities and would be a good team member here? Which would be the purpose of that discussion?

Yes, that's correct. The commission tonight can vote to authorize the subcommittee to forward the recommendation to the council, after speaking with the applicant.

I would move that.

Okay. Josh is up. Can I get a second for that move? I'll second. Second. Thank you, Don. So all in favor of the subcommittee being formed to advance Glenn's seating on the commission as a recommendation to the council. Just say aye if you would please. Aye. That passes unanimously. Excellent. So then Anna Scott, may ask or Shaniqua, I may ask for some help in getting us in touch with Glenn via email so we can try to zero in on a time to talk with her before the council meets that recommendation next week.

Yeah. We can do that. I think her her email address and phone number are on Right. The application. Her application.

Okay. So then if you're if you're comfortable, I may just reach out to her tomorrow morning.

Yeah. And I think the reason they couldn't make it was because they're out of town, so I don't know when they plan to be back in town.

Okay.

And if and if the subcommittee will will have a chance to meet before counsel's decision on the eighteenth? I

will take on the calendaring challenge, we will see.

Okay,

great. Last item on the agenda is break for summer and typically we take a month off. Looking at the schedule and sort of what's on the docket and availability of staff, we're recommending that we take the month of July off and that our first meeting back would be August, I think it's the twelfth, but Shanika and Anna Scott, please keep me honest on that.

Yes. The twelfth. August 12.

The the only

I just wanna say what I said this morning, which I will be away in both August and September. So if necessary, we're allowed to move the meeting date around if there's an issue with a quorum.

That's right. And I think what what Nancy and I agreed is that we would just stay in touch with staff over the summer so that if we're not going to if we have business we need to conduct at the August 12 meeting and we can't meet quorum with Nancy's absence, we would move the date and we'd have to do that soon enough that it could public notice it. But we're going to take that as a follow-up item. Believe that's taking the month of July off and Clark and Michael, think both of your terms are ending before the next meeting. I'll just say what I said earlier again, is thank you for your service to the town.

We very much appreciate it, appreciate your contributions and hope you'll say nice things about other people potentially coming and joining us so please do make recommendations if you could. My pleasure.

Absolutely, thank you all so much.

Hi Camille, I see your hand raised.

Yes, I have to say thank you. Clark and Michael and Duncan, I don't see Duncan, but I don't have this.

He does. Okay.

I really appreciate you all tutoring me on Historic District. I did take a walking tour of two thirds of our Historic District areas. I've learned so much and I'm really, really grateful to you both and to the entire Commission. And I've enjoyed it if you can't tell.

Thank you, Camille.

Thanks, Camille.

Okay, That's all we had for this evening. So if there if there's nothing else, we'll adjourn and wish you all a great summer.

Awesome. You as well. K. Thank you. Same to everyone. Take care. Thanks, Bye.