e e e e e noting the hour in the presence of Quorum I call this meeting of the act and finance committee to order first up our citizens concerns so I see it a citizen coming to join us please say your name and where you live hi yes it's Sara on massav and um I am concerned about the lack of land use impact studies and uh about finance committee not taking a role in ensuring that um when uh zoning changes proposed that that um or even just regular growth that there's no kpis or um metrics to understand how we can be proactive in understanding land use um and the financial impacts of it in particular um I've heard officials say that there's plenty of water well that's sort of like saying there's plenty of money in the hit trust that at some point we've got if somebody makes a claim that there's plenty of water then um let's have that person prove that as opposed to just taking that as a presumption of a fact thank you thank you anyone else all right that's it um on to the next item which is our leadership election um I know of people interested in being chair and vice chair do we have a clerk interest um Madam chair if I may yes I nominate Jason Cole for chair Scott Sullivan for vice chair and Roland bordon in abenia for Clark do we have a second wonderful um can we uh we have a first and second we debate now right you're supposed to ask for other nominations oh I'm sorry do we have any there was once okay uh hearing no other nominations do we have any discussion no I think it's time for a vote all in favor of that panel please say I I I opposed say nay extensions okay wonderful we have a new chair Vice chair and clerk in absentia I will hand over thank you the C thank you very much uh appreciate it good to good to be on for my second go round as as a chair um that was quick first two items on the agenda we are ready for the uh presentation of the fourth quarter financials so if I can interrupt you sir what did I miss uh I would just like to thank Christie for uh being the chair for the past year we're going do that going do that later I have my own remarks it's not on the agenda okay go ahead um in my long tenure on this committee I can't think of a more difficult year nor can I think of a better person to have been the chair for that year um from two points of view one I'm glad it wasn't me or anybody else and two I think he did a wonderful job and thank you we have we have we have gifts at the end thank um uh ready for yeah ready for fiscal year 24 Q4 presential fourth quarter financials we will figure it out e for e okay good evening I'm back again my name is Ellie Anderson I'm the manager serving in the town of act and finance department and I'll be going through the Q3 um 2024 financials which is as of March 31st so just as a reminder as we all know this presentation as well as the report that informs it will be posted tomorrow morning or by the end of the week under the budget page of the town website um so regarding general fund revenue from a tax a property tax perspective we're just under 75% collected which is exactly where we would expect to be 75% of the way through the year net state aid is just over 75% at 76.8 one local receipt collections have been really strong um so far in the fiscal year we're just at 93.5% collected so then cumulatively between all those categories we're at 75.6 2% collected from an per an expense perspective um current spending is at 27,886 1,840 which puts us just under 75% spent we'll move into our Enterprise funds the septage Enterprise fund had an approved budget of $164,500 included $144,000 um usage of retained earnings um year to date we've collected just over 97,000 which means we're 64.9% collected we've spent $78,000 a little over which means we're just under 48% spent and currently operating in a $199,000 profit the transfer station had an approved budget of just under $765,000 which included just under $115,000 usage of retained earnings uh year-to date we've collected $655,000 which means we've met our Revenue Target this year collections have been really strong at the transfer station I will note so we did have a question about this last time so I did pull the detail it seems like it's kind of coming from all categories so bags sales are above what they were at this time last year as well as sticker sales um recycling Revenue investment income everything is just performing better than it did at this point last year from an expense perspective we spent just under $455,000 which means we're just under 60% spent and operating at about a $200,000 profit because the collections are so strong at this point moving on to sewers the approved budget was just over 2.3 million this included um usage of retained earnings of around 340,000 as well as a transfer of 350,000 from the sewer stabilization fund to fund the fire suppression system upgrades year to date we're just under 75% collected and just under 52% spent and operating at about a 30,000 ,000 profit the ambulance Enterprise fund had an approved budget of just over 1.8 million it received a general fund subsidy of just under 328,000 with just under $250,000 appropriated from retained earnings year to date we've collected um just over 86% of our Revenue Target and spent just over 66% % of the budget um with a Delta of 135,000 between revenues and expenditures and then finally the transportation Enterprise fund had an approved budget of $577,000 600 it received a general fund subsidy of $150,000 with $196,000 in change appropriated from retained earnings um year to date we've collected 72. 7 3% of our Revenue Target and spent um about 56.5% and that's it questions Mr J where in the budget then would let's say excise taxes that are paid to the town go so those are included in that local receipt number um as you notice that number for a collection percent perspective is quite High I also pulled those numbers so I can tell you um excise in and of itself compared to the 2024 recap estimates is about 87% collected so our first commitment came in a bit higher I think is about $300,000 more than last year's commitment one which is when we build all of the cars in action for annual excise tax um building permits about 88% collected versus the recap um we had a couple of large permits one of which being the Powder Mill Place Apartments that permit came in in December as well as for um McGovern that was also collected in December and then investment income or interest income on our bank accounts have been really high with the high interest rates um these numbers were about 272 per collected versus the recap not all of that stays with the general fund it gets split out between all the various funds according to their balance as of June 30th but more than half of it will stay with the general fund in that local receipts category I do have a couple um the septage expenses it seems like uh seems like multiple of these categories uh the revenues are right around 75% the expenses right around 50% is that normal at this phase in the year or are we seeing better are we seeing a better than anticipated expense costs versus budget so with this account in Spec um specifically the expenses are a bit lower than we would expect because we had some transition in the health department or the health director's salary part of which was paid from this fund was not paid with the retirement of Cheryl ball Penny um came off later in the year so we are realizing some savings um from not having to pay the health director's salary for a number of months and on the transfer station one which I think is the next slide um the revenues are at full year estimate three4 way through the year the expenses are to the good we're going to have $200,000 or more in profit we used 114,000 from Appropriations in the past fortunately we've not used any any uh General funds at what point do we are at what point are we concerned that this is top heavy I mean we're already approaching having a free cash certification that is going to be greater than the annual cost of the entire Enterprise that seems you know I have no problem having 5 or 10% uh buffer sometimes even going up to 20 but 100% seems very high are there any any recommendations or any plans to do anything about this uh regarding specific plans I would have to defer to Corey or the DPW director but when I did pull the revenues from prior years it does seem like this year is kind of an exceptional collection Year from a revenue perspective and I do know that with most of the Enterprise funds that are kind of um like transfer station or sewer there is a fair amount of contingency that's baked in so that there is um funding available if something does break down it doesn't need to be used every year but it is there just in case um and this is something that we'll have to look at when we're preparing the fiscal 2026 budget kind of looking at prior year performance and actuals and re-evaluating um the best path forward is there a Target in mind for each of these funds is there a Target percentage of yearly operating budget that you're trying to have in in um certified free cash for in each fund per year is it 10% 20% is there a Target there's not a like specific currently agreed upon Target um this is something that we're working towards we kind of began that with the sewer Enterprise fund it was something that I discussed um with the select board with the sewer Commissioners at our September Workshop about um at least for sewers specifically keeping at least 50% of the operating budget and retained earnings in any given year just for that contingency because there's a whole plant and a number of pumping stations to um maintain and operate but I imagine that um creating those sorts of policies or those sorts of goals is something that will become a goal for the other Enterprise funds moving forward but as of now there's not any official Target thank you go ahead um can you go to the ambulance fund please uh so expenses are why did I think about this oh I was wondering um we've been hearing about overtime expenses and the difficulty of hiring the swing shift I think it was um are we particularly incurring over time at this point um should we be worried about the expenses at this level I know it's below 75% but um what's the health you see on this Revenue versus expenses I think from an expense perspective ambulance at this point in the year has been looking a little better um from overtime than it normally has so I think um it's not an area of specific concern this year even though it is something that we are watching closely but I would defer to maryan if she had any specific specific information about the hiring challenges or vacancies I have one more question um so Christie to your point the um swing shift which is impact shifts but also we do have swing shift people as well and so as Ellie had mentioned is that um right now we do not have concerns because we're hiring both paramedics now and emtbs Basics um it is the challenging part is to hire a medic who's also a firefighter so we've been fortunate we we have seven new hires coming on um and it will be over the next couple of months but knowing that is we constantly keep an eye on every pay period of what positions we're paying out of the ambulance fund and what positions we're paying out of the regular General operating um and we look at that every pay period and balance it throughout the fiscal year you have one more question can I ask a follow up on the seven EMTs um these seven new EMTs that are coming online in the next couple of weeks are they all backfilling existing positions or are these net new FTE backfill thank you uh we had mentioned in the previous quarterly report that it would be great to see what's kind of normal in terms of Revenue I know there end expenses there's some things that are um you mentioned one of them that they're encumbered immediately and um other times that like with the excise tax the revenue all comes in mid year if you could just do a little asteris or something to remind us of that because every time like is this right how much is that a normal percentage to be here at that time of year so absolutely there are so many nuances and so many different um Trends and that's something that we can keep in mind maybe when we're starting the next fiscal year about what would be most helpful to include in the report especially with historical information yeah if I may suggest just put last year's number next to it this is what I was this year this is what it was last year we'll tend to tell you what's normal and what's not can someone refresh my memory as to whether or not um retained earnings from one of the Enterprise funds can be moved into any of the other Enterprise funds either for use or for uh just balancing retained earnings I'll I'll defer to other people in the room but I believe you cannot an Enterprise fund is an Enterprise fund you can you can you can use General funds to to to fill in a hole but I don't believe you can just uh swap from one Enterprise fund to the next you can decide I believe you can decide for example since the since the transfer station balance is going to be 3/4 of a million dollars or higher I can imagine that uh some larger Capital expense or some DPW study building money can be pulled out of that out of that but I don't think you can just say oh the the the ambulance fund is running low and the parking fund at the transfer the transfer station is running high so I don't think you can just you can't just swap from one to the next correct you can reclaim um money to the general fund uh from an Enterprise fund if it came from a subsidy from the general fund so it can go back the way it came in but you can't just how many years back can you look on that I don't think there's a limit in terms of as long as it came in as a subsidy from the general fund you can take it back um but you can't just move money from One Fund to the other okay that answer your question thank you any other questions thank you very much Ellie appreciate it thank you I also want to thank Ellie I apologize for being late I was handling an employee issue and so thank you Ellie um I'm supposed to be sitting next to her but she very aptly did it uh solo so thank you Ellie okay uh at this time I'd like to take just a couple of minutes to discuss since since we haven't seen each other since the uh since the town meeting uh just like to take couple couple minutes to do a debrief and a lessons learn and what do we how do we feel about uh town meeting uh and I would also say that uh we should also expand that to also look at the the ballot from last year because this being such an unusual and exceptional year um so more or less a free floating conversation looks like Greg's the first one to have his hand up so Mr jbo to you I I realize I won't be able to say I'm the new guy anymore but no no I I understand that's a transition but uh as someone who joined this Committee in January in Fairly extraordinary s situation um I have to say that um with the advantage of 2020 hindsight we nailed it and I'm to be part of that Wii even though I was a latecomer because the uh work that this finance committee did before I got here and certainly after I got here uh to get the uh active leadership group to take a hard look at not just coming in at a 68 million over ride um but to take it further down to give us some Elbow Room going forward next year um not everybody in town is going to give the finance committee credit for that not everyone in town may have seen that um as the new guy here I think I can give you credit for that cuz I saw it and I think somebody somewhere needs to publicly say um thank you you guys um got us to a point where okay the final vote is 44 votes before between yes and no I think I mentioned at some point that we have infantes small audiences that watch us on acting TV but they're bigger than 44 so to the extent that we did our due diligence and made the case for this is the way that makes sense going forward I think kudos to all of you and that gives us I think some leverage going forward next year as we start the budget process and hopefully we can get in front of it this time instead of trying to catch up to the crazy circumstances that we found this year and um remind people that we do not want to see it an override vote next year and the way to avoid it is to be as prudent as we can and to examine and cost as closely as we can and to question assumptions uh um with all the Vigor that you have so Kudos thank you Greg and that does speak to you as well Christie which we will visit at the very end Adam do you have any comments uh on either the election or the town meeting probably a broken record on town meeting which I would love if we could get the numerous people who come out to vote on one item to to be there to vote on other items um I think it would be nice I do understand that at least in some of those votes those people have babysitters or some public service that the town is providing to watch children that needs to be time framed but I sure wish that those people would be there for some of the other votes Christie Scott kind of a followup to the town meeting guess only because I just saw this uh in the on the news uh Rockport MBTA Su in the state um has anybody looked at that in any depth yet I will admit I have not done any work on this because as waiting for the waiting for the year to end and how brutal I thought the MBTA law was I I did take some step backs I do know that the rockport's not the only one who uh voted it down uh there were two or three other towns who voted it down the same week as our town meeting so I I read that they were actually suing going to court over it now did the other towns go to legal action or they just voted it down I think they just voted it down gr so we'll uh citizens group thank you I'm sure we will be revisiting the topic as the as the year goes on uh not that we can do much about it uh Steve um as far as town meeting goes I'd like to commend the town staff um it was a enormous turnout and was handled uh very smoothly um some of us who were on the committee back in the uh days of the marijuana question knows um it can take a long time to process a big crowd but that this one was probably twice the size yes that one and uh we started very nearly on on uh so I want to commend him for that um as far as the um election in the um to meing go um I noticed that uh Westford does them in the opposite order uh the town meeting fo does as well town meeting goes first the election comes second and I think there may be some Merit to looking at that since uh most of the people people I W say this sounds disparaging a lot of people go to the polls not well informed on the question no matter how hard we try um and the um the more recent legislation kind of uh the state put in about campaigning uh made it more difficult to get the word out than it had been in the past uh so um at least when you get to town meeting people can make the arguments for and against and people can hear it and then um could vote whichever way they want but at least they would have heard people make the case so I'd like to see somebody think about maybe doing it that way thank you I I would also like to uh commend all the town staff um Town moderator all the staff all the many volunteers that it took to make this go uh smoothly we had 1300 people for pot and we started an hour and 15 is late and people were all hot under the collar this year we had over 2500 people vote and uh it was as smooth as can be expected uh although I think we all have uh we all can conjure up the sound of a clicker dropping having the battery case pop open and have the batteries fall out I think we all know exactly what that sounds like as soon as I say it um with regard to so by all means please I I definitely want to extend my thanks to the town for making town meeting as smooth as possible with regard to the votes uh on the on the main budget items um I was never worried about the vote of the budgets at town meeting I was only ever concerned about the votes at The Ballot Box and while I I hear what you say Mr noon about it would be great to have the arguments out in public and I'm all for a a for having more education more opportunity for people to hear the message message I do not want anyone to think that the 68% vote for the budgets at town meeting is as reflective as the actual will of the people because a lot more people showed up to vote when you only have to show up for 5 to 10 minutes to voice your concern versus having to sit through hours and worrying about parking in shuttle buses and whatnot so while a better informed populace is always always a good thing I don't want anyone to think that if we had done the votes in opposite order that it would be a runaway Victory and would not have been as close as any of us could possibly have imagined it was going to be I for one when asked on day of the election if I thought it was going to be close I didn't I thought it was going to pass much more handily than it did I was I will be the first to admit I was caught off guard by the razor thin majority of the Victory and I think that everyone needs to remember that that was super close even if we did the order separately where we had town meeting first where we' have to have voted on a b budget A and B budget at town meeting um I don't think you you get a much wider um passage of the of the override um I don't want to see an override for years I'm not under any delusions that we can go 19 years like we did last time but it this is not a two or three year thing in my mind this is a manye thing uh and lastly just to preemptively say prior to the first ALG meeting we did put an extra buffer in for the first time in years we have unused tax Lev capacity don't squander it it's there if it's needed but use this as the as the buffering path so that we don't find ourselves in a terrible situation in a short period of time it's not there for immediate grab it is there to make things um to to be an easier to be an easier path um but yes if you told me we're going to have 25 200 people show up and we're going to start on time I wouldn't have believed you and I'm super happy that uh I would have been wrong on that one as well so any other comments on the yes please um this is the first year I recall the moderator giving people a chance to ask questions and I thought that was really a nice touch just a chance to clarify especially with some of the issues there's so much disinformation going around welcome that change very good very good okay next we will talk about the cost cutting task force which I will defer back to christe for because she is going to be um spearheading this uh with the help of all of us we will all we are all going to get homework at some point during the year sorry but it's true uh but I will uh hand it over to you to describe what you're looking for what the spirit of this is uh what you think uh if there's anything that you think is off the table or or not um first time I was chair we brought this up at ALG and we're very handily shot down it is something that I've heard from uh previous select board members who've gone through the override process that was extremely valuable to them I know it's late in the process but given the 44 vote margin it's really important that we show the public that this is an honest process and that real work is done here we can't as Jason was saying just except that the budget passed and we move on from there so I would love to hear people's ideas about what this should entail um this has come out of many years of being in our uh point of view so I was frankly a little surprised once it got started getting talked about realistically I'm not used to being listened to on this one so any input on what you would like to see or format ideas I'm happy to share mine but I think I'd like to hear from everyone first so to take a I think it's going to take us a meeting or two to figure out exactly what we're looking for but I would say that I definitely want us to not just have elected officials uh or or other or the standard volunteers I think we need to have we need to have as broad a cross-section as possible um I don't anticipate this being something that has to take a ton of votes the purpose of this is definitely to be sort of help gel ideas um I would also like this not to just be a cost cutting side I would also like for us to look at things like maybe it's time for us to sell some of the properties that we've had that are underperforming or not performing uh so maybe there there there could also be a a revenue aspect to how we do this so that the the remit of this task force in my opinion is how to ease the burden of Taxation not just not just cost cut I don't know if that was part of of your original plan as well uh so I I mentioned it in um my speech at town meeting I I as much view this as being valuable for public looking at what we're spending our money on what does everything we're doing align with our values that change over time and does it align with our ability to afford things and have a broader discussion not just specifically about the costs Scott uh chrisy months ago um when we're in the middle of this budget for the current year you had put together a list of things that you were looking for for information and I feel like that if if all that information was gathered and in front of us it would give a baseline for which to start to work through this process um you any guidance on how many months or what that information was well for example for example you had said uh one of the items and obviously you know Staffing of course is the largest expense of the Town um you had said you had wanted to see I think all positions All Staffing kind of basically aggregated together so that there wasn't like pulling of pieces and parts and all over the place I don't know your exact words from memory but I remember reading through your document um I think it was a couple pages and there was a there was a information in there I'm sorry do you mean the questions I sent in from us about okay for the budget yeah yeah now I'm not saying all of that is it's applicable here but I feel like uh the first step of a you know a cost cutting task force is to understand what the Baseline is and then when you understand the Baseline uh you need to understand uh what's happening behind the Baseline so it what you know what might look like a inefficient area could be overly taxed and highly efficient when you talk to the people and you understand what's going on you get in the weeds of things but on the surface level it's good to just see all the numbers in one place and then you can kind of I don't know I that's that's how I like to work myself I like to start with the numbers and then ask a lot of questions to understand what's behind those numbers and then then I think that would help Drive the task force um maybe to find either land sales or you know whatever's I think I think it would start the it would help start the process that that's my point I'm rambling Steve um I guess how do you see this structured I don't yeah honestly um where I'm a little stuck is I don't think I think the school committee I'm me pondering this one back and forth should probably have their own process because that involves two towns certainly don't want to get um I don't want this to become a town versus a school issue and I don't certainly don't think that we should be getting xer involved in anything that is Town specific but I think I would hope that the school committee would have that I would hope the school committee in my current thinking would have a separate cost cutting committee that would have many of the same uh populace um if you have ideas please share I don't have ideas I have experience so we had one better we had one in 2010 2011 um and it didn't include the schools um at the time but that was pre full regionalization so K through six was still part of the Town um and um my recollection is that it was an idea that came out of fincom uh and it if you will an invitation went out to the board of select the school committee do you want to participate in this um and they did um and so so it wound up being um broken into small teams and each team had a select board member a fincom member and a school committee member on it uh and then we um yes we probably overburdened Town staff with requests for information and data at the time which is probably why some of them still have nightmares about it um some good came out of it um at the time we needed to make some some reductions um a lot of good came out of it just in terms of um interboard relationships um so um but again it it was a fincom initiative and we W up sharing the um the uh tasks uh with the other boards um I'm not sure whether that was the we did the open mic session uh for the town residents uh where we basically well used to be newspaper so we could advertise these things that you know for this night and this night only you know come and tell us your ideas about how to save money which we got a pretty good turnout we got a lot of ideas not all of them were implementable by a long shot uh but um that's how we did it then I'm happy to send you whatever reports I can find on my computer about how it was structured and what the reports look like um and um I'd say go for it you mentioned teams do you know what that what those were centered around I'd have to um I'd have to go back and look um some of them are based on looking at things um like um common functions um you other direct Department versus Community head how much overlap uh was there in delivering similar Services um and couple things like that um we specifically didn't get into Collective bargained items although one of the bigger things that came out out of it was um and that may not bit had anything to do with what we were doing but it was a very difficult time and we had like a zero Cola year for the unions at the time so um so um like I said it it had some successes and if nothing else it I think improved the um relationship between the three communities for at least a couple years I think it's really important for the success of something like this to be conducted in the way that Steve just described that you know involves all three of the major committees and I think if it doesn't involve those three it's almost a waste of time almost a waste of time to do it um there has to be Buy in all the way across otherwise you're trying to cut one leg out of the out from underneath us and not make cuts on the other leg and I I think it's important for it to be a Cooperative process yeah I think uh cost cutting is going to need to be a a topic that we wrestle with this coming year so that's I I'm I'm on board with that when I've been involved in those kind of activities I've normally worked for organizations that have wrestled with a uh different issue first which is you know what are the metrics we're going to use to measure um each entity um and we would often find surprises in that discussion that then when we went to examine what the entity was spending money on didn't match um what they said they were trying to accomplish or they couldn't measure what they were trying to accomplish or any number of related things and so it may seem like an indirect way of getting where we probably need to go but I would say one of the things that we may find um whether it's the select board or the finance committee or the school committee or some other government entity that uh defining our metrics uh that matter um will enable us then to make judgments that don't seem arbitrary or capricious um so that's that's that's one one thing that I would suggest the second thing this is going to sound like a stretch but um if we're going to look at containing costs one of the costs that was growing this year beyond the other cost that we were seeing was um the Minute Men vog Tech and I know we are the small town in a larger District unlike the Acton boxboro relationship we're we're not a small small town we're but compared to let's say Lexington or Arlington or some of the other communities in in that District we are not the most populous town but my guess is one of the other groups we should at least think about reaching out to and if if at at least corresponding maybe Zoom meetings maybe we don't have to get together but my guess is if we got together with the finance Committees of the other towns expressed you know what are you seeing what are you hearing um we may be in a uh Stronger position to say um okay we totally understand if we have more students going we're going to pay um for more students that I wouldn't dispute but there are some other decisions being made that you know what maybe we would find strength in numbers any other con conversations on starting this up this is going to it's going to take us a couple of meetings to get this going just uh if if if if our point of view takes us three months this this may take us a little time to going to uh in response to that um I think we can't let it take too long if we're going to have any sort of real impact and and real what I think we need is significant public input this can't just be a finance committee school committee select board people sit together it needs to be a public process and that's going to require before the next budgets happen really we have until December okay before we see see real stuff okay speaking of the public hi um I was part of the um cost cutting last and one thing that we found successful I agree with what Steve had said is the expertise of the people so we kind of doled out tasks based on you know you have systems experience I went and looked at the uh finance software and identified that we weren't using like four fifths of the modules that we had included in our thing and we avoided hiring two people so looking at things from sort of a system systemic avoid void I think somebody used that word uh process and and avoidance kpis uh we didn't get to a lot of the kpis one of the ones that was useful was the number of FTE per population and looking at that uh over time that was very useful um the school committee versus the town I think that's really interesting because although we had school committee on each of the little subcommittees like anytime it came up with schools everybody was like nah you know it's like a third rail you know what I mean so I'm wondering whether there should be a separate school committee cost saving that uh is really focused on school committee that that's just and thought and not The Usual Suspects I somebody I don't know if they use those same words but I like that idea to because there's a lot of people sitting on the you know on the edge that don't want to be part of a long-term forever committee um but might be able to participate in something that you know might be a few months out of a year or two or three times in a year where and Steve I think we had a good success with that where we sent off people went off and did things and then came back so the committee was really a reporting space and a place that we all agreed what the final memo would look like but 90% of the work was done by the subcommittees thank you thank you very much okay uh with this we'll move on to finance committee business are there any minutes that we need to approve uh do you have any idea how many are pending for the end of the year I have a list not off the top of my head I'll send it to Roland okay very good thank you Roland will love that yes um liaison reports and before we do liaison reports I would also like to uh put a bug in everyone's ear that at the next meeting I'm we're going to be asking if anybody wants to change swap whatever so think between now and the next meeting which uh which entity you'd like to be uh Lea on to and we'll we'll uh dull that out at the next meeting um with that are there any leaon reports uh from the last last month Mr jarbo yeah the um Economic Development Committee um has received a grant and is uh embarking in the early stages of um finding uh a consultant to um help identify are what are the economic development opportunities so in terms of growing the re Revenue p uh Revenue part of the pie particularly on the business side um they will be embarked in that effort this fall um they have nothing to report yet but they are definitely um um moving down that path and I think they they announced that at uh town meeting uh congratulations on the grant do you know where the grant came from I believe it came from the state okay and so it's one of those State funds that we get but it was it was um specifically designed for economic development um that was um what they put in for that's what it's um designed for and they looked at five possible vendors already and identified two that scored well in terms of what they were looking for and it turned out the top two also happen to have the lowest costs so it was it was an interesting early process but I don't believe the um select board has made a selection yet thank you uh health insurance trust met uh last Thursday um I would say we are limping towards our demise on June 30th claims are running a little hotter than uh we would have liked um and um due to the absence of our outside treasure we didn't really get a good feel for what the um final emance may look like on June 30 um other than that any any contracts that would continue past um December of 2025 have we arranged to be terminated without any costs we had a couple very good thank you I think the important thing as Mr noon had mentioned is um it's a challenging job to have to forecast what employees and retirees health is going to be in the future and I want to thank Steve and the health insurance trust because pushing and pushing and asking and zooming in on as much as possible has been quite a challenge and then us looking to see when we had to do article three um for this fiscal year 24 and the ibnr which is your Inc incurred expenses but not received yet is that they use um the same amount $2.3 million for incurred but not received throughout the year and so that number doesn't change so what you have to look at is that you have to make so many assumptions that your incurred expenses but not yet received which means you still have to pay those will still be about 23 $2.3 million but it could be way more it could be a lot less and why I'm saying all this is that the calculations that we did for article three where we requested $221,800 is an estimate and right now as Steve mentioned is that looking at the claims that came in for March and for April they're high and we're assuming that May and June if it continues the key thing right now is not fiscal year 24 because we're doing the estimation as best as possible but our concern is as well is that may premiums so we all have our premiums deducted from our paychecks Town contributes and that's about $2 million per month and may represents June well June for July and so for and so forth well that's going to Maya now and so we're going to have expenses but the $2 million going in is going to Maya now so now we have expenses so to Steve's point is that for us looking at fiscal year 25 the estimation and also the key thing is that the the the trust the the health insurance trust is no longer going to receive that $2 million and so um I Steve thank you because that is such a difficult committee and you agree to chair it for another year and you probably regret every second of that but it it it is a challenge and so I think what's important for all of us for fincom is that keep a very close eye on fiscal year 25 um for the health insurance costs and I it's a smart move that everyone made to join Maya um but that run out that run out is going to be a very big Challenge and also your previous discussion I also want to say thank you to all of you the ALG fincom the school committee the select board um love working with our co-workers too and um it was yeah it was quite a process so thank all of thank you thank you very very much thank you Mary um I would like to add since you asked about committee assignments that thankful I have reached the term limit of a fincom representative to the hit which is two terms or six years I've served now 5 years and 11 months and so I will be resigning as of June 30th so you'll need a new one do all volunteer at once are resigning which fincom or health insurance health insurance well now we know at least one we have to fill at at our next meeting okay um speaking of next meetings uh Christie did you do we do I need to do a room reservation uh right away or are we reserved through the end of the year I think we're through the end of the year but I'll check and if I if I prognosticate properly we're good to go for the 11th and the 25th of June yes Tuesday is the 11th okay so our next meeting is going to be the 11th we'll also meet on the 25th in June um let's see that is I think that is everything with one with one can I ask a question about that good what are the requirements to join that meeting via Zoom as opposed to in person uh believe that you'll be able to I'll be believe you'll be able to join via Zoom no problem I think go ahead uh it's due to illness or sickness is my understanding since we do not run hybrid meetings that the audience can attend hybrid meetings uh are a a separate entity hybrid meetings are where we allow uh remote audience members as well and the chair has to be in person but a regular meeting with a member or two who's out of town who or or cannot make it for physical reasons you can attend remotely and the chair does not have to be in in in the room either for that type of meeting but that does mean that public participation has to be done in in the room that's my recollection of this correct uh did you say that uh the second one is June 25th is that what you said yes um I believe I will be at a lake where there is no Wi-Fi well then then we'll we we'll we'll have to hope SM signals four other people uh into the meeting so that'll be your that'll be your uh one freebie for the year you're taking it early yeah I know very good uh so yeah we're looking at the 11th and the 25th and it will be if you need to attend remotely you can attend remotely I believe we have to have a majority in the room though yeah we need a COR physically present and we need to take roll call votes but yes we can handle that let's can I jump in yes please do uh discussing meeting scheduling um do you know when the next ALG meeting is I do not but I need to uh send an email out and find out I know there's a challenge because of how the school committee does their reshuffling in July but I would like to strongly encourage that we get this going sooner than the usual August um I know there are again logistical issues but I think this is a year in which we can't hold up for them funny it was much it's much more fun directing the chair to do things when you're not the chair um make sure me know the next meeting you know I would be there though I insist that we hold the meetings for everyone very good uh I would also like before we before we entertain the emotion from our from our still newbie I do want to say that this was a challenging year um I would like to take a minute to thank Christine Russell for two terms on the finance committee she has plus a a year as a uh as um asso associate she has given her notice that she is stepping down for a while while she uh adjusts to full-time employment uh she did tease that she is potentially willing to come back once things settle down and I believe I speak for all of us when we say that the door is always open for her to come back uh though she's not here tonight I do want to publicly thank her for her many years of service and uh we're all in trouble now uh folks because she did the point of view for the last couple of years so we've got uh we're going to have to do some work on that one um and also as is traditional and uh customary I would like to thank the outgoing chair for for all the work made all the more interesting by the fact that this was the hardest year that since I've been on the committee and I just now finishing up my third term um I do need to uh I do need to email the town moderator and inform her that my term expires in 3 days which is an position for the chair to be in but I'm sure we will remedy that very very quickly so I did uh when when when somebody was dropping off uh Girl Scout cookies at my house I did take the opportunity to say what would you like and I was told that this is what you would like I always going to ask for you ask thank you so much these are really hard to find thank you thank you and with that since Christine is not here to send us off on her last official official bit of uh business I would turn to our still our still new guy for one last motion I move we adjourn second all those in favor say I I I any opposed Dave's not here we are adjourned