HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-07-20-REPSC-min Residential Exemption Policy Study Committee (Ad Hoc)
Friday,July 20, 2018
Hudson Room, Cary Memorial Building
Meeting Minutes
Attendance:
Mark Andersen, Chair;Vicki Blier; Howard Cloth;Thomas Whelan; Sara Bothwell Allen; Katie Cutler;
John Zhao,Joe Pato, Selectman Liaison (joined meeting in progress). Guest Bob Pressman.
Mr.Andersen called the meeting to order shortly after 8:OOam.
Mr. Zhao volunteered to record the meeting minutes.
Public Comments:There were no public comments.
Approval of Minutes: The minutes of the 7/13/18 Meeting was approved.
Broker roundtable planning
Ms. Cutler reported that she was still waiting for a response from Lester Savage, and would reach out
one more time. Mr. Zhao referred Diamond Hayes from his community. So,there were three brokers
agreed to attend the 7/27 roundtable meeting,they are Robert Cohen, Beth Sager and Diamond Hayes.
Ms. Blier asked whether the committee should invite economist to attend 7/27 roundtable. Ms.
Bothwell Allen commented that there is only one hour for the roundtable, suggested the committee to
share the discussion material later. Mr. Cloth commented we could invite the economist as a guest.
The committee reviewed the draft questions projected on the screen and had a working session; and
recommended to arrange the questions by their impacts to buyers and to sellers separately.
The committee also discussed the roundtable format. Mr.Andersen asked Ms. Cutler to facilitate the
session with an opening overview. Ms. Cutler asked Mr.Andersen to close the roundtable meeting.
Ms. Bothwell Allen agreed to take meeting notes, and Ms. Blier agreed to be the timekeeper. There will
be 45 minutes for the roundtable discussion and need to time accordingly.
Ms. Cutler said she planned to send the following materials to the three brokers, the URL link to the RE
article on Lexington Minutemen,the final questions from this committee meeting and URL link to the
committee's Google group. Mr. Andersen recommended not to send the Google group at this point.
Resident survey proposal
Ms. Bothwell Allen said she had researched various survey tools and found Google Forms supports more
than 10 questions. There is still some learning to do on Google Forms, but it is free.
Ms. Bothwell Allen said she had not yet reached out the potential partners like bike, transportation
committee and recreation commission. Mr. Andersen added that facing mansionization of Lexington,
Planning Board may want to do survey as well. Mr. Cloth mentioned he has a list with 150 seniors. Ms.
Blier commented that Human Service has an emailing list, as well as PTOs, and reminded that some list
might get skewed results. Mr. Zhao commented that we want to know how/where people get the
survey link for random sampling. Mr.Andersen added that we should try to use all mailing lists for
survey outreach, and there is a way to send the different survey links to different mailing lists.
Mr. Pressman commented about whether to find out income source. Mr. Pato suggested to stay with
ACS standard income question.
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Committee work plan self-assessment
Ms. Blier distributed the initial outline of the RE report.
Mr.Andersen asked whether we need to have a section on non-owner-occupied property. Ms. Blier
commented that it could be optional.
Ms. Bothwell Allen commented that the report should include means tested senior exemption, and she
also asked about the Board of Selectmen's expectation on report volume. Mr. Pato said it should come
with 3-5 pages of executive summary. The report is also for public, and the Sudbury Residential
Exemption Report is about 70 pages.
Mr.Andersen asked committee members to bring comments on the report outline when discussing the
report next time.
Set Meeting Schedule
There will be a committee meeting on 7/27/18. And the committee also briefly discussed about 8/17
and 9/7 as meeting dates. Mr. Whelan is not available on 8/10 and Ms. Cutler is not available on 8/17.
Mr.Andersen brought up the need of agenda on the means tested senior exception, and the committee
should try to present some data analysis on 9/7. Ms. Blier said that she could talk about the means
tested exception. Mr. Zhao said if we have Lexington data for the topic, he would be happy to work on
the data analysis. Both Ms. Blier and Mr. Zhao were concerned whether there will be enough time for
9/7 however.
Ms. Blier suggested to add economist panel as an item to 7/27 meeting agenda.
Mr. Pato called out there were typos in 7/13/18 meeting minutes. Mr. Andersen called for approval of
the minutes upon correcting the typos. The minutes was approved again.
Mr.Andersen adjourned the meeting at 9:35am.
Respectfully submitted,
John Zhao, acting secretary
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