Park & Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

And I am going to call to order on the special meeting for the Park and Rec Commission for Monday, June 15th at 6 p.m. Welcome, everybody. And I guess the first order of business is just welcoming Jen as the interim director. And I wanted to just... have the opportunity to say hi, at least see us virtually from our little squares, our Hollywood squares here. Oh, James Kennedy is on. I'm going to invite him in. All right. So he is a person that... Ran for the, oh, he's on now. Hello, James. We just invited you into the group. This is recording. We just got started announcing the special meeting notice. Thank you for joining. Thank you. And we're just saying hi to Jen Davis, our interim director right now for the Park and Rec Board. I mean, for the Park and Rec operation. And we're the board. So order of today is to... vote tasks the select board to announce a vacancy on our park and rec commission. So that's the first order of the day. Any input on that before we get started with the vote? Any thoughts? Do we all need to sign a letter, or is this sufficient? Yes. Actually, thank you for reminding me on that. So in talking with Diane, we can do one of two things. we can sign it around electronically. So one person signs it and then sends it to the next person. They sign that same copy electronically, and then we just go around with the four of us and sign it. Or we can do it the old-fashioned way, and we can chase each other down and have a wet signature on it. I'm open to either one. How do people want to do it?

I'm fine with any signature.

Same. Okay. It doesn't matter.

Yeah. And now I'm thinking, I think I have it on as an attachment. She may have sent it to us as an attachment prior to us setting this meeting up. Does that ring a bell?

That does ring a bell, yeah.

All right, so let's do that.

Okay, in the meantime, I guess I will make a motion to request the select board or to request the select board post a vacancy on the Park and Rec Commission and make whatever actions are needed to fill that position.

Excellent. We have a motion. Second. Rob seconds. Any discussion on it before we vote? We'll do a roll call vote. All right. Let's vote.

I have a question if I could.

Sure.

Go ahead, James. For that takes effect.

I'm sorry, you were broken.

How quickly does an appointment happen? Is it next day?

Well, that's a really good question. I think if we get it in in time this week... All right, I guess I'm...

breaking up.

We can hear you now. If we get it in in time this week, tomorrow or Wednesday, it'll be on the select board agenda for Monday. And then once they vote on it, it then can be announced or the vacancy can go up on the website.

Okay. Fair enough.

It's probably about between four and six weeks before we appoint somebody. So they'll post it for a couple of weeks, collect applicants, and then at a meeting either two weeks or four weeks later, there'll be a joint meeting where we look at the applicants and then appoint somebody.

Okay.

But stay tuned. We could have that to them, and it could be on their agenda for Monday. Okay, so that was the discussion. Let's do a roll call vote. Saul? Yes. Rob? Yes. Norm? Yes. And Pete Church is a yes. All right. Excellent. All we have to do now is just do the electronic signatures, get that around, and I'll I'll get that in. So the next order on our meeting here is to discuss commission leadership. So we've got a vice chair in place right now, and we have a vacancy for the chair position. So I want to open it up to people to discuss.

I'm certainly available, interested in serving, assisting, but I recognize I'm new to the team, but just want to throw out if it's, I think, I suspect there's a lot of activity and a lot of time right now needed. So willing to do that and have the time, but certainly happy to participate in either the chair or vice chair, but just want to express availability and willingness to participate.

Thanks Rob.

I cannot take a more active role. I am buried at work. And I'm probably going to have to go back into the office in Boston pretty soon. So I'm sorry, but I am not able to do that.

Totally understandable. Yeah.

Yeah. I am happy to help in whatever way either as I think, you know, Pete and I briefly discussed. I can come back as vice chair. I can just be sort of the, if, If one of you wants to take chair and the other vice chair, as the chair for the last couple of years, I can just be around and be helpful wherever needed. So I am happy with either direction.

Okay. And I was saying to Saul that I am open to Taking on the chairmanship, I'm not as nimble in terms of, like, jumping to meetings right away. My schedule gets tied up pretty fast, so I have to set things up in advance. But I do telework for at least two days a week, and... And so I'm around town. But I... And thanks to Saul for jumping in on last week's meeting, which was scheduled the day before it was announced. So he jumped in. So that was very... Thank you, Saul, for doing that. So... So I guess... So I guess that's our deal. I could certainly, again, be the chair, but I would definitely need some help in terms of backup help, as they say, in terms of helping attend meetings.

I'm happy to be backup, as I said, or happy to defer to Sol to fill in.

I'll start things off and nominate Pete to be chair.

All right, we have a motion for Pete. Second. We have a second. I guess we need to roll call it.

Yeah.

Norm? Yes. Rob? Yes. Saul? Yes. And Pete is yes. All right, so we got that straightened out.

Congratulations.

All right, thank you. All right, next up is vice chair. So I think Rob has expressed interest. Saul has expressed willingness to help out where can, but can do it, but has also done his service over the last few years as well. So I would say Rob or Saul. Or how about this? Rob is vice chair and Saul continues to be a vital part of jumping in where we need him during this time of transition.

Yeah, no, and I'm more than happy to help and, you know, sort of try and smooth the transition with both of you. So I will, again, I'll nominate Rob to be vice chair.

Thank you. All right, we have a nomination for Rob from Saul. We have a second from Norm. We'll do a roll call again. Norm? Yes. Saul? Yes. Pete, yes. And Rob? Yes. Okay. All right. So we've got a chair and a vice chair. Excellent. All right, is there anything else we need to discuss? I don't want to hold up people too long, but Rob, we've got something on your mind.

Yeah, I think CPC, Kate was the CPC. Again, I've routinely attended for several years, so familiar with the stuff more from a Clean Lakes Committee perspective, but sat in on numerous ones, but that's definitely a role that we have responsibility to fill as well, and they have a meeting this week

All right. So do we need to make nominations for the liaison?

I think we do. So I'm going to read between the lines there, and I will nominate Rob to be our representative to the CPC. Second.

We have a first and a second, and let's go through a roll call again. Pete, CF, Saul? Yes. Norm? Yes. And Rob. Yes. All right. Well, thank you for being our liaison to the CPC committee.

And I don't think we need to make the decision tonight, but I think Kate was also the school committee liaison. So if we can.

Yeah, I think I picked that up at the meeting. Okay. You already picked that one up. Okay. Good. So I think we're set.

All right. Perfect. The other thing that, um, Saul, I wanted to wait till we, um, had tonight's meeting, but I'm going to follow up with Kate on, uh, getting sort of the email thing. I was figuring we'll wait to see who the chair, who the chair is. So.

Yeah. I guess for just to, to everybody who's familiar, we have one email address that is listed on the, um, website as as an email for the commissioners um and it when we set it up it was we can only have one of us have access to it at a time for open meeting purposes so the it has been with the chair i think it's been with me for the the first bit that it was open and then when when kate took over i transferred it to her we'll get her to swap the login out for pete and then it'll go to him and then it does not get a lot of activity, but we wanted a, um, just an email that came directly to the commission as opposed to going through the, um, the rest of the town infrastructure.

Makes sense.

Um, so, okay. All right. Well, I will, um, I will write up the minutes and, uh, uh, send those out to everybody. And then, um, We'll check in with Kate on getting that email. And for some reason, I don't know if you guys see it on when emails get around, but I'm also listed as Paul Church. So all I need is Mary and then we can have a thing. Hello. But so if you see Paul Church, that's me in disguise.

All right.

Who wants to make a motion to adjourn? All right. Second. Roll call vote. Norm? Yes. Rob? Yes. Saul? Yes. And Pete is a yes. Jen, thank you very much for coming. And James, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you for having me.

Appreciate it. Nice to meet you all. I look forward to working with you.