To: Town Council, Clerk of the Town Council Athena O’Keeffe, Town Manager Paul Bockelman From: Alisa Brewer, Town Councilor at-Large Date: 06-04-21 Re: Testimony by one Town Councilor on a variety of pending legislation Please see below for several pieces of testimony to the various bodies of the state legislature (192nd General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) that I have already provided as an individual, most since our last Town Council meeting 05-24- 21. There is nothing for you to do here except to know that I did this an individual that has been working on these particular issues since what feels like forever. I have asked Athena to upload this material to our Town Council 06-07-21 meeting packet so that everyone can see it. According to the AGO OML Guide: https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2018/11/15/2017%20Guide%20with%20ed%2 0materials_revised%201-30-18.pdf What constitutes a deliberation? The Open Meeting Law defines deliberation as “an oral or written communication through any medium, including electronic mail, between or among a quorum of a public body on any public business within its jurisdiction.” Distribution of a meeting agenda, scheduling or procedural information, or reports or documents that may be discussed at a meeting is often helpful to public body members when preparing for upcoming meetings. These types of communications generally will not constitute deliberation, provided that, when these materials are distributed, no member of the public body expresses an opinion on matters within the body’s jurisdiction. What matters are within the jurisdiction of the public body? The Open Meeting Law applies only to the discussion of any “matter within the body’s jurisdiction.” The law does not specifically define “jurisdiction.” As a general rule, any matter of public business on which a quorum of the public body may make a decision or recommendation is considered a matter within the jurisdiction of the public body. Certain discussions regarding procedural or administrative matters may also relate to public business within a body's jurisdiction, such as where the discussion involves the organization and leadership of the public body, committee assignments, or rules or bylaws for the body. Statements made for political purposes, such as where a public body’s members characterize their own past achievements, generally are not considered communications on public business within the jurisdiction of the public body Our public body does not have jurisdiction over the legislative decisions made by our Representatives and Senators. If any of the legislative decisions they make do end up creating matters under our jurisdiction, then those matters will be included in a future Town Council meeting posting list of topics, and I assume this material (or the relevant portion of it) will be uploaded again at that time. Brewer Testimony pg 1 of 31 In my experience it is quite rare for a local elected municipal official, particularly one who isn’t a mayor, to testify to the legislature or to state agencies (e.g., Cannabis Control Commission, AGO Division of Open Government). This has been especially true for every cannabis/marijuana hearing where I have gone and testified throughout the state for several years, and now testified remotely during the global pandemic. My assumption was always that it was nearly impossible for part-time municipal elected officials to travel – up to three of us in Amherst did, but we were the odd ones – to various testimony sites for such brief testimony opportunities, but it is worth noting that it has held true even when the hearing was available remotely during the global pandemic. My ongoing concern is that we part-time elected municipal officials are rarely advised of upcoming hearing opportunities, so there is basically no time for a posted Town Council meeting discussion of what our public body might present as an official Amherst position at any such hearing. It was very rare for Representative Ellen Story or Senator Stanley Rosenberg to mention such possible venues to the Select Board, even on issues we discussed repeatedly; in light of those years of experience, I had asked Representative Mindy Domb and Senator Jo Comerford to better keep us in the loop. They have indeed let us know of some opportunities, and sometimes MMA tells us all via one of their email alerts, and sometimes MMA tells the MMA policy committee members. I actually find out about most upcoming hearings from the Boston Globe. The MyLegislature feature is quirky but useful if a) you check it often – I rarely receive any alerts I’ve allegedly subscribed to, and b) if the Committee holding a hearing actually *uses* all the functionality of MyLegislature. I just had the experience of working with one Joint Committee that did, and one that did not, and it makes a real difference in how accessible these hearings are to both municipal officials and to the general public. Hearings are listed here: https://malegislature.gov/Events but I could not submit testimony there this week, and that Committee hearing page itself did not list a deadline for written testimony; for the cannabis/marijuana hearing last month, I was able to click testimony right in that table and keep updating it through the deadline! One Committee had a written testimony deadline two weeks after the hearing, another had a written testimony deadline two days after the hearing, and a third had a brief turnaround on written testimony with no virtual hearing at all. Please note that I have also added the MMA written testimony from the 05-11-21 and 06-02-21 hearings for your reference, even though you’ve probably already seen it on the MMA website. I did NOT include any reference or link to MMA testimony in my testimony. The MMA testimony was usually not available before I gave my testimony. I thought it was important to include the MMA testimony in this package, as the MMA speaks for all 351 municipalities. Brewer Testimony pg 2 of 31 Host Community Agreements (HCA) Cannabis/Marijuana On 05-25-21 I emailed you my written testimony that followed live verbal testimony on 05-11-21. That email was entitled: FYI Testimony via MyLegislature Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy submitted written 05-25-11. I have incorporated that email in this document, and added links to the Joint Committee, the bills on the agenda that day, the videos, and my rough verbal testimony (not a transcript) so you have all of it in one place. Hearing: Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy 05-11-21 LINKS TO THE COMMITTEE, HEARING, BILLS: https://malegislature.gov/Committees/Detail/J50 https://malegislature.gov/Committees/Detail/J50/Hearings Host Community Agreements11:00am - 2:00pm Bill Bill Title Sponsor S.67 An Act relative to host community agreements Julian Cyr S.68 An Act encouraging transparency in host community agreements Diana DiZoglio S.72 An Act to ensure equitable host community agreements and increase small Patricia D. Jehlen business opportunity S.77 An Act to support partnerships between the cannabis industry and municipalities Susan L. Moran H.150 An Act to restore continuity for the siting of marijuana facilities in the cities and Paul K. Frost towns H.151 An Act relative to host community agreements Danielle W. Gregoire H.169 An Act relative to cannabis host agreements Lenny Mirra H.174 An Act relative to host community agreements David M. Rogers H.181 An Act ensuring transparency in host community agreements Andres X. Vargas Brewer Testimony pg 3 of 31 VIDEOS: there are two videos of the verbal 05-11-21 testimony: https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3713/Video1 https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3713/Video2 and my verbal testimony is in the second video: https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3713/Video2 at approximately the 59:40 mark There is apparently no transcript, but below is roughly what I said in my three minutes. Following that, you will see a copy of the email I sent you all 05-25-21 with the written testimony one could plug in via a feature of MyLegislature, rather than writing a separate email to the Joint Committee. IMPERFECT VERBAL TESTIMONY, strikethrough indicates cut from verbal as Chair Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz had a pretty strict 3 minute limit, definitely not a transcript though I did go back in fill in a couple words for you here since I had to find the video anyway: Good morning, Senators and Representatives, and staffers, and thank you for accommodating verbal as well as written testimony. My name is Alisa Brewer, and I am an elected Town Councilor at-Large in the Town of Amherst, and I always say when I testify before you or before the Cannabis Control Commission, that I am not speaking on behalf of the Amherst Town Council, as we have not voted that I should do so, but rather as someone who has been working on behalf of my community as a part-time municipal elected official since 2002. I also had the honor of serving on the Cannabis Control Commission’s Social Consumption Working Group. First let me acknowledge that Host Community Agreements are indeed really frustrating for local officials who serve in various functions, including zoning boards of appeal, Select Boards, Town Meeting members as well as for Town Managers and Mayors and Town Councilors, as well as for operators, and we appreciate that you are trying to address some of the shortcomings that have come up over the last few years, And I also note that all of our 351 municipalities have really limited staff and ability to figure out how to track and fully document the specific local impacts of each individual business, especially as many of our communities have more than one retailer, who may be located near each other in similar settings, or in very different parts of town.