##VIDEO ID:o99pCygrjxM## e e e e e noting the time and the presence of a quorum I call this uh meeting of the act and finance committee to order please note we have one remote participant uh Mr jarbo who will uh NE will necessitate a uh roll call vote for uh all votes taken today uh also please note that this meeting is being recorded by acting TV anyone else who wishes to record including the only person in the audience if they wish to record they have to make themselves known to the chair now at this time we will start with citizens concerns seeing no other citizens standing I do see uh one citizen who happens to be of the committee who wishes to speak as a citizen so I defer to you Christy Anderson hi Christy Anderson 460 Main Street I'm here speaking purely as a citizen um I am very concerned about the massive increase I saw in my water bill which we attempted to have considered as part of our um overall budget negotiations last year but we're not really entirely we had I used less water than ever and had a $50 increase in my quarterly bill and I I am very worried about the habitat for all coming up I know we're not supposed to talk about how much it costs to have families in town but frankly it costs a ton of money and with my current tax bill and the rate at which we've been going up I am actually seriously considering my retirement not being in town I had wanted to stay here forever but it's at the point where I don't know that that is um going to be financially possible you had also mentioned previously Mr chair that you did not see signs under people's houses is right after graduation I got a lovely home for sale congratulations graduate sign through the back roads that I take I know a number of parents who are leaving um I know this Falls unfairly burden on our non-parent generation I can also tell you that three houses here in town center on my block sold recently all to families with either young or soon to be children here you have a lot of people who are leaving um one of our neighbors grew up in town on Wood Lane his grandparents built his house in the 1920s he bought it yes it was a million dooll property but he sure couldn't afford on his Fire's pension to maintain that Overtown so at some point we do have a decision that people need to make as residents about whether they can continue affording to live here I'd like that to be a focus of this committee going forward and brought to other committees because I think we are reaching a Tipping Point especially with habitat for all um we don't have a commercial base to support a large increase in a residential base I recognize that it is a good thing to do but I don't think that I can personally afford it thank you I suspect this is going to be a wonderfully spirited year um now seeing no other members of the public standing for Citizens concern I will yield the floor to Committee Member christe Anders to discuss the cost cutting task force and if um if you would be kind enough to also U mention and incorporate what we've heard from the school district in the last in the last 10 days namely that they have something going on um actually would like to start there with the school district they have a budget task force I believe is the phrase they are using for it right now that will be presented to the broad school committee on the 22nd I will be able to discuss that at our next meeting um the one Committee Member I spoke to is very hopeful that this will uh create some significant change going forward in their budget um that Segways nicely into the next point of discussion I want to have is whether we would like to wait to see what the school is doing before we set up our own subcommittee we're in a little bit of a bind here in that there has been a long-standing ALG recognition that the budgets will be split between town and school 6633 so any money that we save on the town side could be reallocated to something else potentially better better uses in the budget but presumably will not actually be savings to taxpayers um so we have the opportunity to wait and see whether the school we think will bring enough of a decrease that we could have a real discussion about decreases in the town budget um I would argue somewhat pointedly that the town budget part of the override this year was arguably in order to stay at the correct percentage relative to the schools who needed it more I recognize that is not going to be a well-received opinion um on the part of the select board so unless we get significant savings from the school I don't think we have a lot of room for significant savings from the town that said I think there's a good argument that can be made that for the sake of the taxpayers we have an opportunity here to examine how our taxes are being spent the programs they're being used on and have a true discussion as they were told um we would have about whether the direction the town is going and its expenses are where we as a general Community would like it to be there's been a lot of discussion leading up to now about acting 2020 a next master plan so here's a chance of at least to have a public discussion about it um given how we feel about all of that we can then get into a conversation about who should take the lead on various what's in the um makeup of the committee but first I would love to hear what people think about whether we want to wait to see where the school gets and if it is useful having our own town focused Jas I would I would posit that it's best that we have our own and that we not wait for the simple reason of whoever strikes first is going to have the maximum amount of cred credibility so if you sit back and wait then the then this bus is going to be driven entirely by the school district uh especially considering there's been no similar um similar movement that I've seen maybe there has but I haven't seen it on the select on the municipal side so um we were the ones that were asked for this in as a as a as a one of the one of the runs of keeping the the the stool of the override uh upright uh I think if this is something that we believe we should do and I do believe we should do it I don't believe we should wait I believe we should have our own thing and have it be informed by what uh the other entities are doing if it turns out that there is one effort that is suing in the right direction for everybody then we can coales around it but in the meantime absent absent uh there being three separate uh three separate uh three so that there aren't so absent being three separate uh efforts um so this is something that we should at least be spearheading until we see something better that's my opinion but I will be happy to go around the table uh does anyone else wish to speak I saw that Greg raised his hand is there anyone on the table who wishes to speak first two seconds Scott um I would agree with Jason I would just proba my r is I feel like last year we got into a time crunch with analysis and I feel like if we're waiting for waiting for analysis from another team regardless of what team it is um and we don't start our own I think we can we might find ourselves in another time crunch and this is not going to be something that is going to be very simple to go through and I think the more time we have to look at it the better off we are and then if we get to a point with it where we're and the other team has something then we can compare notes and might be more constructive conversation sure how many teams are we talking about uh on what context we're talking currently about the school committee having their own budget task force and then us having one and has the select board come up with anything not that I've heard of I was going I have other discussions about the structure um as far as your comment about the ALG split yes it it has usually come in around 66 33 um it's been 15 years since we had an absolute split agreement but consensus is usually built uh around that um each ALG makes up its own rules so there's nothing um that's cast in concrete about that split okay because it was cited last year um by some members of the select board that that was written in law it is not I don't mean literally written in law but that that needed to be maintained that is a larger discussion to have if we choose to in rough terms yes every year no um and um there was a time if you go back 20 years then yeah that we we argued over tents of percentage points to determine the split once the split was determined that was it now you mentioned at the previous meeting that there were other towns that spent a lower percentage of their overall Budget on education could you please get us those numbers do you have them with you let me see I don't throw anything out [Music] I do actually good I usually wait a year see would you like me to go uh so part of my logic here is that from um keep act and affordable members to whom I've spoken have had a very strong sense that the town does much more for families than they do for the seniors and services Etc that I've pushed back against as potential savings have been received as a heck no that's something we actually get out of our taxes I mean percentage wise yeah the year I was doing this it was 65.9 here like Bedford was 45 boxboro was 56 um Carlile was 62 Littleton was 40 48 uh mayard was 47 Sudbury was 65 Westford was 57 and yeah so and I would if I may I would caution that before we look at those numbers in a vacuum we'd want to have a closer look at the at the demographics of the towns we as a town have a significantly larger number of a significantly larger percentage of the population that is of school aged I I think also um I suspect some of those towns have significantly larger commercial bases than we too so it's not something that we can looked at in the vacuum demographically said B is probably as close to us as you'll find in their percentage which is about the same okay um Greg did have his hand raised and he's been patiently waiting so I'm going to send send it to Greg now uh thank you um first of all I I agree that the sooner we can be engaged the better it is my understanding though in in talking to at least one member of um the regional school committee who I think but this could be guesswork may be the same one that uh Christy talked to because she just got back from uh a trip but anyway she normally is reliable source and has good data and um what she indicated to me when I talked to her yesterday afternoon was that the task force that the school committee is in the process of putting together will include members or a at least a member of the finance committee so I you know the good news is yes I agree with you I think we may discover that the school committee may also agree with us so um uh in in general whether they do or they don't we should you know move forward um but um this may not be um an adversarial situation it appears that they are planning uh serious review and they do um at least based on the one person I talked to uh intend to include us thank you one second here um any other thoughts about going forward especially yeah the um one other and again I can wait until the end but it it it it seems like it it it fits here um when it comes to cost cutting um one of the things that we do and I think is necessary is try to compare ourselves to um comparable communities and it turns out I believe that the select board has one set of comparables and the school committee has a different set of comparables and um so the reason I was talking to the um member of the school committee yesterday was to say is there data writing get my arms around all of the communities that both sides use to see if somebody is cherry picking um and um she shared that I will uh share it with with this group uh at the end of the meeting I'll just I'll just forward it but but you know there are the communities around us that we know but comparing ourselves to mayard seems um not like a comparable Community their their industrial bases is or commercial base is bigger than ours comparing ourselves on the other hand to uh conquered or sbur do seem uh appropriate or even to Westford um that seems right but it it also turns out that the uh the school committee um looks at several other communities uh when they try to consider their comparable so we should somewhere in this process um find a way if we're going to use different data in different circumstances why so so I'd like to jump in here and say we don't necessarily need to worry about choosing the wrong data from different areas if we're if we're looking at an absolute set so rather than compare ourselves to all these other communities and potentially have ourselves a race to the bottom I would much prefer we take an absolute look at whether we absolutely need to have this thing or not so I'm less interested I'm less interested in trying to the ocean of 15 comparable communities around us versus saying that we as a committee have stated that 8% tax increases every couple years is intolerable and we have to do something better I Jason you and I are agreeing with without something like we're agreeing so well can can I try to comparables can comparables we we are not trying to be like other communities you sorry go ahead and finish Greg go ahead and finish Greg you said this was my section go ahead Greg please sorry um we are not trying to become like other towns to the extent that they can highlight something like percentage of students in the population the only way you get that Insight is by some form of comparison but yes um we're we're not trying to become somebody else but to the the extent that we can realize that uh we're underperforming in some areas or overperforming in others uh you know that that sounds like a um subjective opinion until you can bring data to the table and often the data that we bring is is some set of comparables okay and and we should know when and why we use them so that's all I'm saying okay Christie um the school budget presentation includes ACH of lines from various Jessie reports about how we perform and spend on various categories compared to other towns I'd like to see how that lines up with the town's um percentage of budgets spent on education that said I believe that falls towards the school committee side of the discussion not what um we will be focused on which is going to be mostly Town services in my envisioning it's got to be both the this the our our cost cutting has to look at both it doesn't mean it has to be come down in the 1/3 2/3 model does not mean that in any way shape or form but we have to look since we get one tax bill we have to look at everything holistically we cannot just look at one side not the other I think we run a risk I I hear why you're saying that I think we run a risk of people saying purely the school is working on cutting or the school needs to cut and we don't need to look at anything else if we take it by that stance it's part of the reason why I don't want to just wait for the school committee side I want us to do our own and see if the select board wants to join join in or or uh let this be done or have the municipal side join in or have it be presented to them after the fact I worry that this will be a the school is cutting this much money therefore we don't need to do anything and I think we need a significant public discussion okay I I I firmly believe that this committee will not allow that to happen all right um next up I would thought it would be um useful to talk about the goals of doing this cost cutting my first is actually having a community discussion about the services we provide and the amount of money we spend on them why we do Etc give people a chance to talk about what they use and don't use um kind of give us a reset um a better understanding we all have our pet projects Etc are things we think should and shouldn't be there I think it' be good to give people an opportunity especially given how close the most recent vote was about it and I can tell you I know people who voted for the override who did it because they saw no other way that doesn't mean that the town is on a good projection trajectory rather going forward um so I would in support of that recommend that we have some public listening sessions or public forums I'm all for that my question is how do you how do you correct for uh the squeaky wheel scenario where we have a public forum and we get six people that show up that's always the issue I I think a lot of our projects go past because the select board hears from a few loud people about why they want something and not the broader community so it's something that needs to be worked on I suspect part of it is having multiple public forums we get it in the town newsletter that goes out and we encourage the select board and other groups to promote it Steve you can certainly do a public forum uh it's been done before uh you can also do a survey yeah um when we uh were doing the town meeting Improvement committee we put out a survey uh and we got a fair amount of feedback um more more than would show up at a um yeah public forum and because we we also had public forums so that would be something we should consider doing Greg did you have your hand up I I did but um uh I all I can say is I agree I I I I I believe that there's perhaps a two-step process any um investigation like this should start with surfacing the right questions to ask in a survey and that's done as qualitative research and then you can follow that up with uh a quantitative study that basically says okay uh if we have to make tradeoffs would you rather have X or Y um and that's that's where the quantitative data uh becomes helpful so um I I think both paths uh can be used um but I would sequence the the public input as a way of making sure we're asking the right questions did you want to say something okay um I would recommend that we also consider doing something like a road show although the road shows I know are more selling something um get out in front of liance Club Rotary Club Senior Center Etc like we used to do for the POV just to get as much Community feedback as we can we can also Leverage The keep Acton affordable and the together for actin group infrastructures to hopefully get feedback from people who care significantly about this one second I lost my page um I do think we want to have a larger conversation potentially after these discussions about whether we want to maintain that 6633 split um that would not there is no way to get that negotiated I believe in this budget year to have a change negotiated in there but um if it came out of this that could be a medium to longterm change we want to see which Segways into theide that I think we want to view this as short-term medium-term and long-term changes that can be made maybe we will find that there are not any for certain budgets um part of my theory is that we want to get people believing in government that we are actually listening that um changes can be made or being enough a part of it that they decide that the way the government is spending the money right now is how they want it to be um but just promoting General uh belief in the Democratic process that we have here now we are not elected officials so that puts us in a interesting position relative all this it's a chance for us to promote the system and encourage people to be involved in it without us being beholden to specific decisions that they make um does the short medium long-term time frame I figure that'll come out of the actual subcommittee how we want to divide that up Etc that might be getting far ahead I think you've had a preview of the point of view I came up with this before that yes any areas that are off limits any what any areas that are off limits uh not for me personally um C many of our employees are members of collective part units that have contracts that extend at maximum 3 years which to me is not specifically off limits but it is a constraint to work with them okay so that that would just be a part of the discussion I wouldn't say like we can't touch X department or Y Department that's it I do not um having interacted some with a current Town manager we're going to get a lot of pushback if we try to get our fingers in how the town specifically does things so just something for us to keep Adam yeah I just want to say that I'm I'm feel like we're tilting at Windmill to try to go line item by line item through the budgets to look for savings but I think we're also being obtuse if we're just talking about who gets how much of what split of an increase I think it's really the finc come's role to give more guidance on the entire budget can increase X over the next 3 years 5 years whatever such that we don't over over run the override that we just approved and then I think it's up to the budgeting entities to come back to us with how they fit within that budget and how they divvy up the budget I 80% to 90% disagree with that um I I hear where you're coming from however having spent a lot of time thinking specifically about this it is our role to ensure the long-term Financial stability of the town and how that money is spent specifically t into that I agree I don't we should not be going line by line in the budgets we should not be caring about how a specific department is run that said if we decide that we're putting not enough money into maintenance and the town needs to figure somewhere to cut that money back from to put it into maintenance that is something we need to be discussing so I don't I do not think we should be micromanaging or even managing the town but there does need to be ability for us to do a larger strategic push back on how the money is being spent at that level does that fit in with what you were saying yeah I I see that I guess more from a they present what they want to cut and then we either approve or disapprove um but I guess the the role that we're all stepping into here is to come to them with these are Services we want you to keep no matter what or these are Services we'd like you to look at cutting and that's that's sort of where we're heading right is I would like that to be in the context of Public fors public support that it is not us sitting there with our specific projects that we like or don't like based on our personal feelings but that it comes out of discussions to the public and has public backing one way or another but at the end we do still have to make recommendations yes we can't leave the analysis of the survey and the public forums to the other entities we have to be the ones to say this is our recommendation and we have the forums and the survey to back it up but these are the these are these are the recommendations that we have these are the things we would very much like to see you start executing against I agree with that I I just want to be clear that we're on the same page of in my mind that is not some department needs one fewer assistant Etc I don't think I don't think we're going to get that granular yeah okay so I I'm viewing it more as a higher strategic level that we're moving towards it sounds like we're on the same page with that um my recommendation for team or I'd like to discuss rather um Team makeup I assume we would like at least a member of the school committee my suggestion is that we have it E1 um while they are a large part of our budget they're doing largely their own thing so they could feed this broader discussion back in they also will have it fed back in some from ALG I presume this will be at least tangentially in the ALG process more than tangential wonderful we will need select board member we need to decide whether we want one or more okay um and then we come to an interesting question of how many fincom members one I don't want a committee of 20 I want to I I want it to be I would prefer to be as Nimble as possible I'm going to challenge you okay my recommendation is three one short-term one medium-term one long-term project Focus one for each of the buckets you do that then you have to have open meeting law you have to you're a subcommittee of the finance committee we have open meeting law when we have a committee with this that's true too we will have to have a clerk we will have to take minutes etc for this committee that's true okay um my the reasoning behind my recommendation is that fincom members know who to to talk to to get what done and having someone focused on the different time frames will um if nothing else provide some continuity going forward are you at all concerned that it's going to be seen as stacking the deck with three members of the finance committee one member of the school committee one member of the of the um select board I am open to more members of the select board I do not see any problem with there being only one member of the school committee um as I said they're only somewhat connected yeah I hate to say I'm actually worried about the Optics of it I'm worried about being seen as being imbalanced I think there's a discussion that needs to be had around expenses that isn't happening through another Forum if the select board wanted to take the lead on this I'd be happy to uh let them do it but I think at the end yeah let's it's going to be a question part of analysis how many people do we have on fincom to help out with things and track down right that's fair what uh before we before we settle on this number who um how many other seats how many other stakeholders are you looking at well that the next question is the public and how many and what's your proposal I don't have a strong one I would like to get a mix of seniors family representation keep act and affordable members type I mean that that against the override for the override and I don't know how many I mean I'm happy to discuss the various demographics and try to get representation Scot I just a suggestion as you're structuring this for the one school Committee Member and the one proposed ALG member could you I'm sorry uh select board not ALG sorry select board member sorry one select board member member could you say instead of saying uh we want one of each say could you see say at least one and leave it to them how many they want to assign because then that way to get the Jason's concern about Optics if if they know there are three fincom members they can send three suul committee members or three select board members if they want to have more weight but if they don't deem that necessary they can send one that work Greg did you want to say something yeah um we also have Committees of different sizes so when you start sending more than one member of the select board there's only five of them and so they get to their open meeting law limit pretty quick um so again we have the bigger uh committee um we could certainly have more than one but um you know if unless you want to make all of these public meetings um well they will be uh yeah well oh if they're then public meetings then then no problem whatsoever think the second question go ahead sorry I had a second question yes um I'm for taking the lead on this one because that's our Charter that's what we're supposed to be doing to what extent are we complimenting supplementing conflicting with what the ALG does the ALG is about the broader budgeting process um and as our town manager would like to point out often in the ALG meetings it is not about specific expenses this is a discussion about specific expenses and I'd say more broadly um expense strategy Steve yeah if I may um in my experience ALG seldom gives more than about a half hour's thought to anything beyond the budget year so anything that we talk about in terms of an intermediate or long-term um you know impact is is way out of the ALG um at least their path scope Jason and therefore it would fit well in this this would be complimentary but definitely not in lie of ALG in any way shap perform in my opinion um by rough back of a speech calculation here I've already got the committee at 15 people and I'm not sure that's 2468 13 people I'm not sure that's where you want it to be so what I've got and you're welcome to tell me you're welcome to tell me if I'm over representing or under represent anything if we have a fincom member a select board member a school committee member we probably need to all offer up a town staff slot a school staff slot and then if we get two renters two parents two retirees and two business owners have first of all have we hit all the major categories in town and that's 13 people and that's a pretty big subcommittee you have two renters two retirees and two business owners two two renters two parents two parents two retirees okay two business owners and then the individuals after mentioned so that's a committee of 13 which gets to be a little on the large side but first thing is did we is it properly representative is that what is would that represent the stakeholders that you were looking to reach uh on the theory that I am running this I am comfortable that I can run a committee of 13 um oh you'd be running this yes yes I am not sure that that has all of the expertise required which is why I would love to add two more fincom members in um so it could be broken into subcommittees although subcommittees become their own pain in the net because of oml so maybe that's not the way to do it I'm willing to wait on the one versus three Fina members until next time but um and since we since we should never make a a single decision in a single meeting um with your with your permission I would like to recommend that anyone come back with any other stakeholder by our next meeting um es especially if somebody thinks I'm missing a specific category by all means please bring that yes please at the next meeting am I just running your two business owners to two two renters two parents two retirees two business owners a fincom representative or three a select board representative a school committee representative a town staff Town professional staff representative and a school professional staff representative Maryanne you wanted to say something uh that was my question I just was trying to count and so the two renters the two retirees two parents two business owners Town representative School representative school committee select board fincom and subject upon that Mr Sullivan's suggestion of at least one but right now we're at 13 and come back at the next meeting with comments thank you Christie you would definitely I would definitely ask you to be the one to run this because you've been speing it so um well like I said I'm I'm happy to run a a committee of that size but I would not necessarily sign I would not insist someone else sign up for that fair enough is there anything else you need for this one Steve um whether it's one or three fincom members um three may be too many but one's too few that's what I especially if Chris is going to run it yeah um somebody has to do the work because running a committee of 13 yeah is a big job um that said do we care that it yes we do should be an odd number we figure that out though um let me check here we had discussed in our previous forever ago meeting about looking at um what I think of as onetime Revenue sources selling property that is not used or underused Etc um I recommend that that be a different process that that not be a part of this this is as I'm thinking about it looking at the expenses and onetime property is or I mean ideally it'd be great if we found other sources of revenue but not one time Scott how do you feel about that you were the one that U mentioned it most that that needed to be taken into consideration how do you feel being a separate process or are you worried about being lost well if this if you're looking at expense savings you could look at Revenue as its own trunch and that could be a part of Revenue even though it's onetime events and then I don't know I don't want to stand up a separate entity just for the revenue side is the revenue side something that we can incorporate as part of the overall committee as the year goes on I'm inclined to leave it out in that um the focus of this being as much of a public participation I think it's easier to focus the public participation on what are the expenses that we have what are the the programs we want to maintain Etc um versus people trying to figure out a way to make more money for the town fair enough would it make sense for there to be you as a separate thing a leas on directly to the town because this is strictly Municipal side there's nothing on the school side that we can sell um because we'd have to get both communities to agree to it so would you how would you feel about uh aais on or part of the liaison to the town respond having that as part of their responsibility as leaz on does that work for you Scott because then it comes back to the overall committee and is not part of the cost cutting committee I think we have some input I a I would focus this committee only on costs I would not try and leaz or coordinate or anything else on the revenue side um Adam suggested and I agree that we put Dave wellinghoff on the uh the revenue side as the committee one unless you wanted got this is what happens when Dave doesn't inter up to the meetings yeah you can than Adam for that but okay he has over the years been a very strong Advocate looking at this I remember him discussing this strongly I will approach him and see if he's willing to take that on during this year um that is it for what I have I can report back next time about what happens with the school committee budget Task Force and and write up more formly where I think we've gotten with this today does sound good I just I just ask one clarification um Christy you had mentioned that the school committee will be coming forward with their plan for their budget task force on August 22nd is that correct who are they going to on August 22 the school committee the school committee thank you yes they have a proposal and the school committee will be um ideally approving it and then can move forward okay thank you well so that's the the the the the charge and the composition is on the 22nd and then they're going to by the end of the month they're going to send out their requests for who's interested we might want to try and you know assuming we can do our get our our our draft in place on the 27 second as well then we'd probably want to piggy back on their Outreach for for what we're doing but we'd have to send it out through uh the municipal side okay very good thank you I believe I'm done with my okay thank you I of course stopped sharing because I didn't want to share my email so now I got to go back to sharing the good news is I don't expect to lose uh lose connectivity every time every five minutes this time like I did last time just give me 30 seconds to get in here believe it or not I'm getting better at this uh I apologize for getting the uh the 2.0 draft out as late as I did I do appreciate those of you who've already read it and sent their Corrections anything any even something as small as uh typos are great to have them caught um that does not necessarily mean I Incorporated them all all the changes into the slide deck between between yesterday and today so please uh please bear with me okay so this is the second go around um this was formerly the uh the uh Steve happy slide uh so what the paragraph I have on this one is that the volunteers of Acton's finance committee are all rightfully proud to be part of a community that values education responsive government and a Level Playing Field for business and personal growth while it is easy to focus on items that we would like to see changed it is always a good idea to review what is working before discussing what should be enhanced the most common measurements of Financial Health continue to show great strength ontime tax payment rates our cost of borrowing credit rating and other and the other post-employment benefit balance compared to other towns are all excellent our school district is consistently among the best in the state and our Municipal finance department has received the certificate of achievement for excellence and Fin reporting for more than a decade paired with our proximity to world to world class higher education a myriad of Industry leading companies and multiple different markets and our access to both highways interstates and a Commuter Rail station there is little doubt why many of us have been attracted to Acton and have chosen to invest in it by way of becoming citizens residents business owners or homeowners we appreciate what has been done before us to create this community and we look to the future with a responsibility to only improve on what what are already our attraction active traits did I come with the optimism and the Sunshine for a change yes you did excellent took me days to write that paragraph we'll see how the rest of it goes who [Music] knows that's all there is Steve that's all there is it's all the happy talk oh no no no Jason go ahead Greg yeah I'll I'll I'll I'll send you um most of the edits that I have or what I'm to call um cosmetic so uh AAA to a lot of people means the American Automobile Association so you know little things like that's a AAA Bond rating little things like that so I'll send those to you on the side but my basic comment is you know I look through this and I was really impressed with the with the progress between version 1 and 20 um and yeah all all I'm going to be suggesting are a few minor tweaks that you know make it easy for our targeted audience which isn't the boards uh uh the the select board or the school committee but the for the slides it's I I think if I remember correctly this is for the uh public consumption and they might look at a AAA and not know which AAA we're talking about fair enough all for uh all for uh making it uh easier to understand understand go ahead Christie I recommend we take out the op line very few people will know what that is um if you think it's important to the general public I would include something about how that is an OPB liability that we are retiring and figure out a short way to say that but I think I think it needs to I think a line needs to be there because I call I call back to it in Slide Five so but changing the verbiage I'm all for okay yes I don't it's I had to even think about what it says when I just reading the phrase proven oped performance is not very meaningful to me okay has become a cliche that past performance is not indicative of future results so we have a lot to be proud of we must be vigilant to protect a future town that would be recognizable to us last year's override passed by an extremely thin margin 1 half of 1% made the difference between funding what both school committee and select board members said was an already difficult budget and what many people predicted would have been catastrophic destructive Cuts in services such a narrow avoidance of Calamity must be taken into account and given the respected deserves as we plan for the current budget conversation as well as the near and longer term budget expectations for the last couple of years capital and operating seem to be treated as two independent topics yet it is imperative to remember that the homeowner only receives one tax bill while it is impossible to live within prop two and a half for both capital and operating costs when a large debt exclusion is added to the tax tax bill then there should absolutely be some acknowledgement and allowance in the operating budget to lessen any given year's tax increase we added the boardwalk campus in the north Acton fire station at record low borrowing rates and did so fully aware that we were raising the portion of the tax burden that covers long-term debt to recent highs it was made clear to the public that this was meant to be a relatively short-term burden and indeed the graph of debt payments which will either be small on this slide or will be the immediate next slide I need to make that change uh and indeed the graph of debt payment shows that as some of the oldest debt was retired we would return to similar debt costs these projects had an outsized impact on taxes starting in fy21 will carry with us for decades to come there is no appetite for adding to excluded debt until we have fully returned to more modest levels which will not be before fiscal year 29 even then rates will need to be taken into account and when large projects begin the operating budget amount and Reserve use amount should be carefully used to smooth smooth out the increase in the tax bill regarding reserves free cash at last certification was above the fincom recommendation of a 5% ceiling that is projected to be about 3.4% at the end of this current fy2 barring an inability to have the projected 1% turn back I need to clean that up after fiscal year 26 free cash is projected to be below the floor this will hinder the ability for free cash to smooth over any debt exclusion or even just plug an operating budget deficit last year's override provided for 1.2 million in unused tax levy capacity this is one this is the largest unused tax levy capacity we've had in more than 15 years possibly longer I just didn't have enough data so we have provided a buffer of significant size to prepare against the future it has AO also adjusted the basis up by 6.6 million while only 5.4 million was used in the first year that still resulted in an 88.4% increase in the average single family tax bill in fact since fy18 average single family tax bill is up 38% whereas CPI adjusted inflation is 28% the cost of our government is outpacing inflation I have not forgotten that I was going to put in two or three more lines under that tax increase to show one year 4 year 7 year 10 year um and honestly if you guys showed up Ear you saw me digging up previous year's ALG spreadsheets I'm trying to make sure I have that data so put a pin in that last comment I'm not just going to have the one data point on it so before I move off with the slide since we're since this is by far the biggest most important slide in the presentation how does everyone feel about my no no debt overrides until fiscal year 29 I got one I got one thumbs up over there one over here I got a thumbs down okay that makes always makes it interesting Scott Scott's a thumbs up Greg what say you thumbs up thumbs up okay uh Jason I just wanted to qualify that my thumbs up comes with a good luck yes that's a that's an aspir thumbs up my understanding okay Mr noon since you find yourself in my normal position would you care to comment I wouldn't put a year on it what's Magic about 29 so what's Magic about 29 and this is where I do have to have the I do have to have the chart this is where 29 is where all of the two recent three if you include the never the gift that keeps on giving in the form of Minute Man Regional Regional Vocational Technical High School when the debt from the most recent round is retired and we are back to more or less the level we were at before we did the most recent large round which we knew was a large round but we were taking advantage of uh historically low rates and taking care of three schools worth of problem at once did that not did the FY 29 not come did the explanation for that not come through because they didn't have the chart yeah well but I still think it's easier to rather than pick a year which sounds like you have great prognostication capacity you just say until the debt level the excluded debt level falls back to where it was in fy15 fy15 yeah okay which would be 2029 which would be fiscal year 2029 it seems to come out of the air okay so if I say it that way and then I can then you then you'd be okay with me saying which we strongly believe will be in fy22 okay so it's a word smithing thing I'll make that happen Christie uh you mentioned the 1.2 million of untaxed Levy capacity the ALG model that was printed in the warrant and that is the most recent model actually includes 400,000 um of untax Levy capacity being used next year or in the upcoming in fiscal year is 26 so I'm a little worried that that could be perceived as being misleading I know we don't want to get it's not a place for a Nuance I'm sorry did you say that 400,000 being used in fy2 no it's being used in fy6 which is what the year that we're talking about yes so entering into this year okay we have we have a $1.2 million unused tax Lev capacity um your that's correct Reserve projections are based on using that also that you [Applause] discussed correct now I mean it clearly has not been agreed to be used but maybe this is just getting into the weeds and does not need to be discussed at this level uh you're what I'm what I'm hearing and you're correct about what I'm hearing is that I have not properly um fenced this as forecasted or budgeted um when I make when I make my comments about free cash so I will I will drive that home I will try and word Smith that and drive it home a little more closely to to reflect that now another thing that I'm purposely trying to do is I'm purposely not trying to read off of the slides so the paragraphs that I'm reading out loud are meant to augment what's written on the slide um and that you'll see in I even try and pull out clip art in the near future just cuz apparently people are visual unlike some of us who just want the words okay it did occur to me after uh reading this that what you've done is you've taken 20 slides and put that much information on 10 oh I it's I got I got it down to eight eight slides of value just because that's how I like it okay he was given a goal and he achieved it okay okay so how does all of this inform our current budget conversations for fiscal year 26 it shows that business as usual find us back in need of another operating override much more frequently than this past time around we do not believe another override would be successful but we are aware of the fact that we are budgetarily restrained by existing costs so much of the revenue increase allowed under prop two and a half is already spoken for through existing compensation contracts and raises that leave this so much of the revenue increase allowed under prop two and a half has already spoken for through existing compensation contracts and raises and that leaves practically nothing left we have negotiated more unused tax levy capacity that is meant to be a transitionary bu buffer not merely a postponement of the next override we have to wait until fiscal year 29 for any new debt exclusion we have to wait for debt levels to fall back to where they were in fy15 uh for any new debt exclusion currently expected to be onor around fiscal year 29 it is far better to realize what is on the horizon and plan for it now than to have Blind Faith in future success go ahead oh sorry again with the 1.2 million this seems like a good place to clarify depending on how you want to handle that because it's not entirely 1.2 or maybe it is um so the immediate decision is what to do with that 1.2 million okay that is the present day that is what the number is when we hit when we hit July one um I would read you the wording a little here um where you say use of it makes the average tax bill rise faster than the traditional 3% um inclined to say that it allows the tax bill to increase more than the traditional 3% without a vote because everyone just went for a vote do Let It increase more good point [Applause] I have another point also go ahead um bending the tax curve I think could be said more simply as um lay the groundwork now for lower tax increases bending the curve is a engineering talk and that's not our audience or being sole members of our audience you could also say uh laying the ground work to match our revenue and our expense growth but I also had to point on the first business as usual 3 to three and a half% is revenue growth cost growth what is second Le the ground Brook now to balance yeah revenue and expenses back to the Teeter Totter at the top of the screen business as usual 3 the 3% Revenue increased okay anybody else have comments on this slide okay this is where okay the next couple of slides do not have as much verbage done because I ran out of gas sorry can you back up one uh for the bottom budget I I still don't love the idea there what we're hoping to lay the groundwork for is minimizing tax increases can may just say it that way I mean that's what you're getting out of balancing revenues and expenses yep the near future is the planning phase um and I believe that we should all take a pause on all new initiatives while we stop in plan Public Communication between the municipal and School District side is required to see a single plan for Capital Revenue options not just cost savings should also be included and discussed to your point um we need to change our trajectory and we should be able to do it in the next three years so what I'm trying to get across here is we absolutely have to come up with the budget right away and we have to make our we have to make decisions you know are we going to tax to 3% this year are we going to use any of the tax levy are we going to have a debt exclusion those all have to be discussed right now and right now this year we have to have the Outreach in the communication to to identify the cost cutting options the near- term the planning term the next two or three years to you two to five years is actually executing against those things that we have just discussed go ahead should we put periods on that near near future being how many years two to five immediate immediate I understand the near future and longer term or a little amorphous yeah i' i' I'd go with three to five years because that's consistent with what you have in other parts of the presentation fine can I see the slide there you go yeah be consistent I'm I'll be consistent but my view on this is we have to put the FY budget to bed in so doing we also have to start discuss we have to have a very clear discussion of what we're going to do over the next two to five years and then elected terms are three elected terms are three years leadership contracts uh are also relatively short term uh Collective baring Agreements are usually three years as well at the finance committee we are tasked to take a much longer term approach we are fully aware that long-term financial planning is just slightly more accurate than gazing to a crystal ball but any decision in the short-term absolutely has bearing on the longer term nature of our town consider the 5 plus year forecast more of a mission statement of what what we wish the town to be and honestly that's where I completely ran out of gas so what I'm so from there I'm going to try and put more verbiage around what I'm trying to what I'm trying to drive home on this vision statement um we need to grow to a plan and not to a happen stance and the last year's zoning change without any analysis continues to stick in my craw and so I want to make sure that we have it in our point of view that that is not something we ever want to see again and I honestly could not figure out a polite way of saying it so I put the pen I put the keyboard down that at that time so I'm going to work on it again um but in the call and response with the opening statement as a town we do absolutely value academic success but we also want to make sure we're able to do it in a way that does not bankrupt the citizenry we would like to maintain those things that made the the town attractive to move to when was the last time you said to anyone why'd you move to Acton and you got an answer other than the school district first and the fact that I was able to afford a large enough house um but I have to go this far out of the city to get there my concern is if we do not have a vision statement in a relatively short number of years especially if we have the habitat for all zoning and potentially even just under the MBTA zoning because there's been no accurate anal there's no analysis at all of what that of what that's going to do to the town I am definitely concerned about the future success of this town and our ability to um our ability to Pro to provide the services that we had that we' wanted that we that made this town attractive us to us to move to in the first place Greg I'm going to let you go first because I saw your hand before I saw Christie's I go after Christie but you know whatever I'll go now um I took a little effort to word Smith word Smith the um last year's zoning change without analysis is never to be repeated one of the um lessons is I understand you feel that um um I also understand that the town voted 2 to one in order to pass it anyway and so rather than argue with the will of town meeting I think we're better off if we State the sooner and the better the data that we get the better we can make informed decisions so in other words make make it a positive statement rather than that's never going to happen again because the um you basically look like you're fighting the last war and we're not we're looking forward and so I I think there's a way to Wordsmith that and and send you the edits or or if you want I can do it off the top of my head but but the point is is I I think you find a way to put it in the future tense as opposed to telling the town they made a big mistake when they voted two to one because that's in the future I will never support an override if you don't do your analysis first you're only one vote here buddy um it it it it will help the town make informed decision if they have better data sooner I think that sounds like something that was in my speech well I I think question of Master planning has come up and and we don't have one at the moment we've got one that was approximately done in 2010 um and it it was it would be a valid critique to make that um yes we're we're approving um changes in zoning uh and other things without the benefit of having a current master plan do you want that in the two to 5year range takes about five years to do a master plan this to yes I would actually go ahead Christie uh to Greg's point I think we want to understand both e um taxpayer and environmental costs on zoning changes uh at a lot of houses you suddenly have less permeable landscape I called a town meeting in which we spent at least 20 minutes discussing the Russian School of Math's desire to to pave their lot in the back and a lot of the concern was about creating imperviable Landscaping there um I'm currently trying to talk to the water district to understand their um concerns or lack thereof potentially hopefully about uh water availability not infrastructure given that the climate change has created environments in which we have large rainfalls that run off into the storm drains rather than refill our aquafers and the towns answer that people can just make their own Wells is not managing our water supply that is simply giving more people the feeling that they can do whatever they want I.E drive by all the places that have water well own use signs when we're in a drought and they're throwing their sprinklers around it's unfortunately the water district is enough removed from the town structuring that it's not um included in the plants but I think there's a significant chance to bring to the public desires to support the environment and environmental resiliency the fact that this planning needs to happen sorry that's words master plan in the two to five year range is going to be one of our asks I I I agree and again I'll report this at the end of the meeting but it turns out the economic development committee is also working to imp fact the master plan to uh begin being a little more business friendly um um so that's a an effort that is is underway but but that fits under that point so I I don't think you need to add anything here Steve yeah go back to the other slide if you would Jason um the the first bullet I don't like bankrupting the citizenry uh um as a word and then the then you make two comments one which is a fairly softball comment about the acting boxb school district and you hit the Minuteman School District pretty hard uh as as much as we think Minuteman needs to reign in their cost it's it's it's $3 million out of $113 million budget they're not bankrupting the citizenry um so you're giving it I think more more attention than it would deserve in this slide so I think this is the only place in the slide deck where Minute Man shows up no you got it on the next one too okay uh so you don't like the word bankrupt Ure economic stop when I suspect your actual subject of topic there is the rate of growth the minut man School District it's opposed to its size but and and and Jason I think we probably only need one bullet on the Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School instead of two um I I think you can combine both of those points into a single bullet and again you you don't need to give it more shelf space than it deserves I'm also inclined to Simply call it Minute Man Tech yeah that said I did have fun trying to figure out how one would [Music] pronounce that's the acronym it's on all their on all the stuff they sent well and we may understand that but I'm not sure the voter or the citizen would yeah minute man they know what we're talking about but all those initials it's like what are they talking about I would like to believe that a an acronym about Minute Man directly below an acronym about school districts would have been under a category of academic success would would lead people to come up with the right one but I can change it to M the man Tech living in your own private ID uh Jason you just added an N to the end of the word to get ton equilibrium you can not yeah [Music] okay okay I find it's very easy when you're working on something like this to know exactly what you're talking about writing and reading and understanding it and then you show it to your spouse or your neighbor and they're like what does this all mean if I can't get my High School senior to understand it I'm in trouble yeah and he didn't have time to look at it today okay concerns these are our concerns for the for the for the next little bit um I've personally and I I would like the sense of the committee I think that if we were to try and come back with another C with another operating override the next two or three years I think it would fail I would okay so that's not a uh that unless Greg disagrees with that statement that's not a uh that's not a uh no that that was my way of showing agreement hold on maybe there's a thumb here I can raise instead little finger though yes I agree so uh first bullet point surprisingly is uncontroversial um Deb exclusions I believe are unaffordable at this time and I laid out when I think we should come back to reviewing them I put this on the slide knowing that this would most likely be the single greatest source of conflict between us and the select board this year judging that the select board has as one of their short-term goals bringing the DPW building to the next town meeting is this a battle we are prepared to join for fiscal year 26 I say yes that's why I put it in here but I'm curious for everyone else's feedback well I'm certainly not ready for another debt exclusion good yeah somebody who's um been fairly involved in the DPW um subcommittee process and as much as I'm a supporter and that group supported unanimously that that building needs replacement there's no reason why the plan couldn't be for you know payment and construction to start in 2029 knowing that they're going to come back and say there's cost escalations Etc it's just making it more expensive that's going to be the counterargument well it might be true um but by by fixing the Fuel Depot and working on Perimeter security you know those two items were specifically brought to the four to address the immediate issues that the site had so that more time could be spent sorting out the the larger bigger issue which was less immediate they can continue to operate there till 2029 if they had to one concern we typically police site is the fast the compensation cost grow faster than 2 and 12% mhm and I was I kind of missed it on this slide that's fair Jason just a second just a side comment really just a second please go ahead Adam I forgot what that's so fun how about faster then rather than structurally unsustainable I do want to drive Steve's right I've not yet put the phrase structurally unsustainable in the presentation I feel it needs to be in there somewhere I like to keep the top bullet point is the simpler idea on the small smaller bullet point um for the detail cuz the top is what people are going to remember first but I guess it then depends what you're going to say on the bottom want to say something all right okay Adam I honestly I'm sorry I hate to do that to you because if you had BR broken in I'd have been the one who lost my thought and I don't know why it out of um um I I cannot vote for a debt exclusion I I don't care how much we need it we just you were taking okay it's not just my tax bills that have gone up this year it's my everything bills I mean home insurance skyrocketing 28% auto insurance skyrocketing I can't comment I have a 16-year-old it has nothing to do with my 16-year-old actually she added very little Parker did not yeah end zip girls are cheap that way yeah okay in that particular oh yeah that's the only way I think okay so I hear you loud and clear on the uh on the Deb exclusion um can I jump to Maran who has has her hand raised uh yes thank you just a quick question is that adding the compensation increases are structurally unsustainable and I'm thinking is that was it mentioned in the near term slide um I can't remember because that may be an opportunity for fincom as you work with the town and the schools that when the contracts are up so I can't present day on or it's not as clearly laid out as it could be I'll take that into consideration but it's it's part and parcel of the cost cutting initiative um because we are all aware of the fact that if you do nothing something like 90% of the revenue that's allowed to us through prop two and a half is already spoken for just just by breathing and we can't sustain that so um if it's if I haven't put enough of a spotlight on it I respect that statement and I will come back and put a spotlight on it on we had spoken last time because just timing wise the five contracts on the town side are currently being negotiated I think we touched upon that at the July 23rd meeting go ahead we previously have mentioned it in areas talking about the current salaries we could say some the effect of current Sal salaries uh salary increases of greater than 4% I think is how it has worked out in the past I think it needs to be in the uh a sub bullet in here and I'll fill figure out how to well just in the top one current salaries already consumed yep it's not going to make it into the final I mean I'm bad but I'm not that bad hey last you think you were last last presentation had had Steve's happy fun slide as an official slide so we're good to go okay uh like I said this has made remarkable progress okay I should have just done that okay um uh I hear what you say Greg about wanting this growth understanding possible consequences to be more futur looking well yeah here's here's here's a context and the reason why we didn't get data that we wanted and I think we should expect so I I don't disagree with you on that but part of the issue and we've seen this in a couple recent articles in the Boston Globe is that even though there were uh I think permits pulled to do construction down at suffk Downs no construction was being done because the interest rates were too high High and the housing costs were too high and the finances fell apart so um one of the reasons why it is hard to project this is that it this is one of those things where the zoning allows something that financially is hard to predict in this now the you know the hopefully the the interest rates come down but the housing costs are still going to be through the roof so unclear it's hard predict in that kind of environment okay I'm not I'm not expecting anyone to hit the number with with a pinpoint you know Bullseye Dart accuracy but if you don't even put a range on it you're whistling past the graveyard agreed agreed and and so if you want I will work on language but but I I agree with you this just needs to understand that some things are harder to predict than others yes that's part of why I'd like to have the um environmental impact in there because that is much easier to predict I mean specifically under the possible consequences I understand I'm just put making notes for later okay so do want to make a comment about education is priority but it can't be the only industry in town and then again just a comment that Minute Man shouldn't be ignored and then recommendations um so this is actually I'm going to need uh people's opinion on this one as well um in the past we were pretty open about our free cash we said 3 to 5% I think we should change this slightly and say that 3% should be the Target that if it floats up a little so be it especially if you are purposely earmarking for for a future item I have no problem going above 3% if you're saying 3% is what we're aiming for as the as the true emergency fund but we know we're going to need X widget in three years so I'd like to have us have a half a percent or 2/10 of a percent or whatever in the in the bucket for future use um but I would only Toler I would I would like us to only tolerate that if it's um highlighted predicted and tracked uh I'm also not against the concept of saying if you wanted to do anything along those lines that whatever the monies are as soon as the monies really are certified free cash that they immediately be transferred to a a uh stabilization fund where we've officially declared what we're what we're having in that stabilization fund why that stabilization fund exists um and then um go ahead St I think you need a town meeting vote mve it into a stabilization that's fine but as long as it's uh as long as it becomes the um the expectation or or you know when when when ALG says okay and this year we're going to you know the expectation is we're going to have or OG shock we came in better than expected with a free cash rather than be at 3% we're going to be at 3.4% but we know we got this thing coming up I don't want to leave it in free cash and have it be a a a um puddle of money that grows into a pool I'd rather have it be immediately moved out or as as immediately as possible have it be moved out into the stabilization fund or if it's specifically for a fire truck then move it into the ambulance Enterprise fund you know that type of thing where we're um and I just looked at the slide here I probably should have um I probably should have put this let's try this from a flow perspective probably should have put it here because at the bottom of the next point I specifically call out that I want to I want the town staff to identify all in all the Enterprise and result revolving funds what they're planning to use it for um and how to make sure to drive those to make sure that those do not grow in in a vacuum that they that they are funds that have been collected from either users or from the text paays r at large and it should not just be a uh it should not just be something that's accounted for elsewhere and is not does not have the uh torch shown upon it on a regular basis so I think I should put the reserve policy down below to it'll it'll feed in a little more easily and again I do think we need to have a conversation about both OPB and middle sex retirement because neither of them are at 100% yet correct so I do think that this is significantly less focus on OPB than we've had in the previous years it's been half a slide in the previous years uh so um narrowing it down now with the expectation of those who know the select board and the school committee they'll know what we're talking about here and it's a fine talking point to anybody else for anybody else but I'll and when it first shows up previous I'll try and word Smith it to make it a little more understandable I believe that we need to give guidance that we are not going to be able to shoulder 8% tax increases and if you think you're going to have a bad year then you better have a couple of good years and either on either side of it to uh to smooth things out either that or you need to figure out a way to to come in at that 3 3 and a half% number every year because we've had two 8% increases in five fiscal years it's getting intolerable I mean heck a member of a public SL committee stood up and told us just at the start of this meeting that it's getting intolerable so we definitely need to uh I think we need to set a now do we want to have a do we want to put a number to it or do we want to be a little less you know less stringent and just say that we absolutely can't do 8% increases and would you please look at a 5-year rolling average Steve I'm expecting you to counter me on this one and saying no hard number no hard number okay I disagree with you I'm shocked um I think we can have an aspirational goal setting one maybe next year but I would like to see where things fall out on cost savings initiatives see what happens um because that is the opportunity to change the slope of the curve um it only happens about once every 10 or 15 years in this town um then I think it's perfectly reasonable to say okay now um we can say that the next 3 to 5 years the taxes should go up no more than x right now we're kind of shooting blanks in terms of I have I I have no basis to makeing a recommendation other than this is what I want my taxes to go up which by the way is almost zero I disagree I think I think the populace has come to understand prop two and a half and know that it's not 2.5 they know we we we've beaten this drum now for 10 years at least that it's really 3% plus some capital overrides from time to time that's not what we've lived through in the last couple of years and so I think we need to figure out a way to say we need to get back to that more predictable um or or or do we or do we want to say something as point blank as we should never be 10% off 50% higher you know almost 50% higher running fast running hotter than inflation on a on a seven-year period I mean there's there's two ways of saying it um I don't mind picking a range of numbers I just think um you're if you pick it on low side you're anticipating something coming out of these cost savings initiatives um pick it on the high side you're B basically nothing will happen you're giving it away so um it's often um said that in a month we'll have better data and you don't but at least in a month from now we might know what people are planning or looking at anyone okay um for okay uh so clearly have work to do on that bullet point um OPB fine tax increases got to work on uh no debt I think I think I heard resoundingly that we're prepared to present that to the select board this year reiterate Reserve policy 29's fine because you already established the Y good fair enough uh and then a reiteration that why did it do that uh a reiteration that we want greater transparency on uh uh on the on the different buckets of money and we want to know what we're saving for I do allow for the possibility that we can if we get back to a point where interest rates are truly advantageous I'm not against the municipal side doing a packaging up of smaller Capital budgets the way the the school side did um and then that's it for for what I for the for the side that I have uh I know Greg's going to send me his his updates I received some I know I'm not done yet uh I've received some uh from Allison and I fully trust that I'll be getting some comments from Christie I would like to recommend that everyone uh and this time I really will send out the presentation as fast as possible I would like everyone to come with their with their edits for the next for the next meeting Greg you have your hand up yeah just Just One Last point I think you had the right goal of keeping this under 10 slides you now have this at eight slides plus a thank you very much slide and and so I would strongly urge you to consider taking either slide 10 or 11 out of the appendix and move it up front because it really anchors um um particularly our our approach to um capital expenditure so wherever it fits in the right flow it's it's the reason why fiscal year 29 or quote when we get back to where we were in fiscal 2015 it explains that and I I think moving it up is is is advisable very good Chris I'm going to point out a typo because spell Che won't catch it last bullet point plan for future expenses now instead of paying as they crop up not the crop up thank you so I've got about five bullets that need to be uh strongly fleshed out which is sign significantly fewer than I was afraid was going to be the result of this uh meeting today um I would also like to say that I think this is the second very constructive conversation second meeting in a row with a very constructive conversation on this point of view um and I am super pleased that uh no debt debt exclusions till we get back to the level of fiscal year 15 onor around the fiscal year 29 is something that we as a committee stand behind I think you're going to have to change your font I will I will make it fit okay I will make it fit okay so I'm going to save this as a version 2.1 because I have to post all this stuff on the docu share and then provided tomorrow morning's meetings are as boring as I predict them to be I will have a two 2.2 out for you all to um comment against okay are there any other comments on the point of view discussion at this time where would you post the revisions I'm supposed to throw everything on the docu share right y thank you so I've got the 1.0 from last time as was as it was at the time that I walked out of the meeting of the last one and then the 2.0 is what I sent to the committee a couple days ago and 2.1 is as of the end of this meeting today now that said I might need to call you and get the password again for docy Shar great thank you uh okay that takes us to committee business we do not have any minutes at this time that's my fault because I was supposed to reach out and ask if they were ready liaison reports before we jump into liaison reports uh since uh unfortunately was unable to meet the make the last couple of meetings we had held off on assigning the select board and the school committee uh because you know nothing like saving the two biggest ones for last um it was a a it was a a fierce arm wrestling battle but uh kiry uh Christie has decided to take the school committee and I will take the select board and I believe we have a suggestion of a Le uh Dave Welling is going to be appointed to be the liaison for the revenue side uh talking to the town and I believe we have a new member who's about to get volun told chrisy would you like to make a would you like to see if anybody would like to step up or if we should all take a step back for a liaison uh assignment uh I was hoping that we would once again establish a liaison to the water district and you wouldn't by any chance happen to have a member in mind that you would like to throw under the bus on this one well I was thinking maybe our newest M uh I should also inform the committee that we have a new associate member I believe there's just been a a paperwork delay and I will also let you know that there is a uh there is interest in another associate member spot so Allison if this is not something you are ready to take on at this time we can see if we want to dump it on one of the uh dump it on another assign assign it on another associate member at a subsequent meeting they do not meet often it's not a bad committee do we know at night they meet like regular time commitment okay that's the only thinges on they usually meet on Mondays okay and they don't the ones I've attended have not been overly long meetings and they tend to meet on soon okay tentative yes just got to check the calendar thank you very much for stepping up that's an action item for me to get you the meeting list and that Revenue task force is who Dave wellinghoff as soon as he uh is uh properly um ambushed thank you Mr chair in you not to come he said he'd uh he said he'd uh dial in that's why I sent the uh link to all the attendees or to all of the committee okay any liaison reports at this time Scott normally this report's presented by Steve but I'm I'm health insurance trust uh had they had a meeting on the 8th uh they discussed a couple of things uh one thing they're they're waiting for the town to pay them um 64,000 um through the end of June I believe uh and they are the and they were going to um look to try to change a billing process um with I think it was with change of billing process so that they could uh get their um their estimates more in line with the invoices I'm probably misinterpreting some of this stuff but it was my first go at this and we thank you for stepping in since Steve was term omitted so thank you very much Maran Sunset term limited it is challenging to follow so thank you um so I can give an update on the 618,000 so with the invoices that have come in um two payments have been made one of them if you folks recall the health insurance trust had requested a loan of $2 million um of that 2 million the town was responsible for 41,000 our share so we made one payment of $178,000 in change towards that $451,000 based on our analysis of what the runoffs were going to be in addition a second payment was made because the August bill came in that represents July claims and that payment was for approximately $154,000 so to Scott's point I think at that point just as recent as August 8th more information has come in and those two payments have been made since um last Thursday I believe August 8th and to your point about invoicing is that because we're no longer self-insured and we're too sep entities the invoicing will not just only go to the schools anymore it has to go to the town and the school because we are two separate entities thank you for clarifying yeah thank you while we have you on the thank you well we have you on the microphone um do we have certified free cash we will not have certified free cash um not for I want to say like a while but we do not but we're confident with our turnback and I believe that we have said that our turn back would be under 1% and we're confident with that so um John mjera will be giving an update to the select board into to folks soon because we're just in the midst of closing fiscally year 24 but confident with the turn back north of zero but south of 1% absolutely yes and we'll get a more accurate number the next select board meeting and I believe the next select board meeting is the6 the 26th yeah okay uh thank you Greg do you you had your hand up for the ason report yeah for the economic development committee um they met last uh Friday one of the things uh that they talked about was the uh new planning process that they're kicking off they're at the very beginning phases um to see what can be done to um improve the economic development uh climate in Acton and the stated goal which I think is something that we can support is right now um the commercial side of things uh you know contributes less than 10% um to the overall tax base of the town and to the extent that it can be increased that lowers the burden on the residential um property taxpayer so so um they too will be doing a series of hearings there's going to be a lot of people out talking to a lot of people this this fall um but but their particular Focus will be on um which businesses should we be um encouraging to locate here what can we be doing um to try to make that uh process smoother easier Etc so that's that's one of the the initiatives that they have the second thing that this committee um may want to take advantage of is they also had in um the basically the building inspector the person in charge of um uh Ian Dawn um and or not pardon me that was that was not Ian it was um oh I forget his name but he's been on the job for about a year and a half but one of the things that he shared with the um EDC that um will be music to our ears is is that he has uh been in the process over the last year of creating a uh electronic database to begin monitoring building permits and um that will enable him to to see Trends you know or you know is it going up down sideways or whatever so one of the questions I asked them is what are the trends you're seeing right now and in is go back to to my earlier comment um that I made on our point of view there's only six residential pieces of construction going on one of which is at the end of uh Michelle Baro at the intersection of Cherokee which was Hydro halfway was hydro which which we see Greg it was Hydro seated today it looks pretty good and it's going to be all the big trucks are done I know it's important to you it's two doors down from me and two doors down from you yeah yeah so it's halfway between us but it what stunned me was that there's only five others like it in Acton in other words one of the things that he talked about which is um again one of the things that I that makes it hard to predict what um what kind of uh zoning changes are likely to lead to is that um interest rates are still too high construction costs are still too high the only kind of home that Builders can afford to um build and and make a profit on are the six that are being built now um and yes hopefully the interest rates uh will come down after September but the housing costs are still high so so there is a wealth of information year over-year um that is now available that wasn't available a year ago and uh it can it can allow us to drill down and see what is happening and compare it to um at least the previous year the data doesn't go back further than a year but but at least there's a year of data now thank you Maran um Greg did you was it Ed Mullen possibly the Building Commissioner who attended yes that's that that's that's it I I'm sorry I I was looking at my notes and all I could find was the name of the um intern who also made a report on what he had learned working um for the EDC over the summer so yeah um but yes that that's who it that's who it was thank you without any other um uh leison reports I'd uh remind the committee that our next meeting is scheduled for the 27th the next meeting of the school committee is the 22nd there is a request for a uh the first ALG meeting of the year unfortunately we're going to have to see if that can if if one of the one of the members can attend remotely or if we're going to have to pick a different date for that um um if uh if a remote attendance is available I'm going to throw this to you and put you on the spot if it was in the morning on the 5th would you be able to attend via Zoom uh I'm in a uh I'm in Texas for a system implementation all day meeting for uh basically like the whole time I'm down there six 6:00 a.m. uh 6:00 a.m. Central what time we started at 7: a.m. if if it could be done by Zoom could you make it or should I ask to be for it to be rescheduled when I was in Texas we uh we we we started our day um around 7:30 uh meeting I so I don't know I could probably be I'm sure I could be online from 6:00 to 7: but I don't know oh ask if we can have it if we can have it moved all right I apologize for that just it's okay I'm I'm usually the one out of town I know what I know what it feels like it's my last I think I think John had also mentioned September 4th is that also a fourth and fth fourth and 5th he's out of town both fourth and fifth year out okay all right thank you we'll have to see if that can get done or if if if the if it can only be done do you have a preference the 4th or the 5ifth for first thing in the morning uh the fourth Tuesday I forget which is a Wednesday the fth is a Thursday yeah so Wednesday is the all day meeting Thursday I'm in meeting in the morning flying on the afternoon and I'm flying in on Tuesday do a preference for Wednesday or Thursday early in the morning I would say Wednesday that's what I will that's what I will propose and if we can't make it we'll have to read it reschedule yeah thank you Wednesday okay those are all the points I had Allison I look to you please motion to adjourn second is that what you're looking for absolutely thank you thank you so much not debatable let's take a roll call vote Greg says I thank you very much all right uh everybody else I I very good thank you very much have a great night