[Music] okay good evening everyone this is a meeting of the finance committee it is Wednesday March 13 2024 do I have motion to open our meeting so moved second all in favor I okay we are open uh please rise for a pledge of allegiance I pledge to to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you this meeting is being video recorded okay so on the agenda tonight uh we're going to have three hearings uh our first hearing is going to be with our Board of assessors uh Miss Kelly Costa our principal Assessor and then after Kelly we're going to have Pam Our Town Clerk and then uh Jamie is going to go over the board of Select and budgets after that so Kelly the floor is yours okay thank you welcome good evening everyone as Dr bushe said my name is Kelly Costa I'm the department head the principal assessor in town been here a while I think most people know me um how would you like me to present the budget U as a total or line by line what would you if there's any if there's any like increases maybe highlight those okay uh we were requested to do three scenarios but uh this evening I was instructed to present the level funded budget level service level service sorry sorry Jamie uh and the only increase that you see if you have that budget in front of you that total 84,3 180 hang on Kelly do we have copies of the budget I thought you were sent them we have I only had Tom meeting attached we got town we got everything town clerk yeah Oh I thought y sorry I thought the Departments did that or maybe it was the town accountant who's not here anymore yes I think Nick Nick would made sure that's F I mean so if Kelly just gives us the presentation later right ahead KY okay U the only change as I mentioned before which was level service is for the administrative assistant line that is due to the asme Union uh the uh collective bargaining agreement uh raise that they already have in place uh with the active agreement that they have now everything else as you can see is the exact same amount as was requested for fy2 24 for this department so that's really the only increase you see uh all of the other contract ual obligations that we do expend such as the trianal certification which is to do with uh our C system and our analysis as well as the licensing um their license fee went up I'm sorry just um that's also contractual from the $1,860 to 12,220 um and that's the0 58% budget that you're seeing of an increase from FY 24 to fy2 okay thank you 58% those the numbers we like to I just like to put things in perspective as well just I I'm sure you're all aware but the the assessing Department um with this budget just to keep things in perspective we myself and the company that we Outsource with bring in $22 million of the operating budget of this town I just want to put things in in P in perspective I'm not trying to throw bouquet at my own feet but um just to say that we do run very lean we have for years there's been no change in our contractual obligation to the software that you use that we use as you can see um the 26,000 which is the line item the first one under expenses that's been our contractual obligation with um Patriot Properties which is now known as Catalyst for quite some time now so um and we did have a near map but near map was taken off of our budget because it was decided that um that was going to be under the accounting I believe Jamie is that correct technology well technology I apologize for technology so that's not part of our budget anymore but we still do have that software available to us and I'm anticipating it will be for FY 25 not sure so you said Pat Patriot Properties is now called Catalyst it is it's a it got bought out by a bigger company um it's c a t a l i s um basically it's the same players they're just uh under the bigger umbrella and they were based out they're based out of Salem Mass but they're a national company well catalyst is a national company cuz I know on the patriate properties you can see all the you know listings valuations and all that so it's basically be the same thing that's the it's exactly the same thing actually they got absorbed by catalysts if you will is um is is next year uh a revaluation here we're in a reval for fy2 that is correct that's already in motion um basically they s the preliminary work now but they did not increase for services uh to assist with the analysis and the extra work that does go uh with the reval year they've been pretty consistent our last reval was fy2020 because do Chang it from a three-year to a 5year plan for all communities so uh basically we were lucky enough to go to the 5year weren't stuck in the middle which works out it seems to be working out okay is that software is that under like a contract it is when's that turn when's that terminate it's usually a three-year contract um and fy2 is the last year that we're in that particular contract but it re-ups for a three-year period usually um I I mean a conversion of something like this of this magnitude would be quite costly and I'm I'm quite satisfied with the services that they provided for all these years the reason I was asking they probably they're probably going to go up being bought out by a big they were bought out already for for these speculated prices for c for fy2 so they're already called Catalyst they're not the small company anymore so I don't know but I don't know what the future brings thank you you're welcome anybody else have any questions for Kelly no the assessors don't look like they're going to be putting any articles in for town meeting uh for the June town meeting um we did as a reminder last year we put in the um article to assist with the seniors to change the um what was needed for income and asset qualifications to try to help seniors stay in their home and have that benefit as well as uh the selectman uh promoted the senior workof which we had a few applicants this year but hopefully to assist the seniors um maybe more will take advantage Jamie do you have anything to add no okay Kelly well thank you if we have any questions we'll reach out okay that was quick and painless thank you very much it was have a great evening everybody all right have a good night night thank you okay next up is our town clerk Miss Pam leonti come on up not quite so painless this one's going to be a little bit longer correct yeah not by choice I can honestly say for the first time in my 16 years years this is the first time I've ever really not wanted to come before you with with my request um I know that Kathy had sent these over to you but I did notice that there were a couple of small mistakes so I wanted to give you the corrected [Music] copies we never got a copy um oh I'm sorry I sent it to Kathy Kathy Kathy it's a selectman's budget okay duly noted okay um so I'll start out with the board of regist um and you'll see that that line item I increased by $71 um so that's pretty close to being level funded as I I could get it that's going to break the budget I don't think we uh voting programming and movers um this also um I level funded from last year um when I budgeted for last year it was with the anticipation that we were going to get hit with maintenance fees for our new election equipment um that we had purchased back in 21 um but fiscal year 2022 um we did not end up getting hit with those costs um so I'm sticking with the same number this time around um also keeping in mind that last year I had last year this fiscal year I have two elections one of which was a major the presidential primary and um this uh this coming year I have three um and the presidential primary is I mean the presidential is the largest that you're going to get um the most volume okay um the street voting in census um again I level funded uh office supplies level funded um to what I was in 2024 and travel I level funded okay um Jamie had asked uh and I completely agree with him um that it a postage line item should be established uh just for the town clerk's office uh primarily because postage this year has been out of control uh besides the fact that they've gone up on all of their rates um we've just had numerous mailings that have had to be done um changes in legislation um as you all know the the changes with the vote by mail the early voting that is all um had an impact on my um my budget pretty much all around um so what I did on the back page is I gave give you a breakdown of what my estimates are based on what we've received this year already okay um so you can see the first census mailing um we have roughly 5,800 households we don't have 5800 homes but we have households those are Apartments those are people that are um it's a mother and a father and we get notification that the daughter or the son has gone away to college so we have to create a separate household for that person because that person is now made inactive because we've been told that that person is way of college but by the Mass general laws we cannot just go in and delete that person from our census we are required uh to keep that person in a household for two Federal elections unless we hear from that from that voter so if that voter says yes I'm in Amhurst um then we can take them out of the um the parents household um and I believe You' you've gone through that that's right yes so um it's not just as easy as clicking a button and saying okay you're not there um and a lot of that goes back to the the annual census we are paid by the state with our our federal and state funding by the number of residents that we have in town so if we have a number of Clerks that are just taking the word of someone saying Okay that person's not here that person's not here we're losing all of that state and federal funding um it also does create a lot of extra work in the clerk's office uh because we now can't just say okay the person's not there we'll wait until they respond to us no we have to send them these orange cards we call them orange cards they're it's actually a confirmation of address um that that right now is at 53 cents per per piece and then we have to send it to them in an envelope which is another 64 cents or 68 cents um with the new changes so there's all of that adds up very very quickly um this year we did a mass inactivation and I should not be announcing this on air um because we really are required to do it every year um I opt not to do that um and the reason that I don't do it is because it is so expensive um between the mailings the letters the time to prepare all of this we have to pull their voter registration card put them into an inactive file so they're not in our active file then when we get the notifications in we have to update that um it's very labor intensive um and this year um was a great time to do it because we had the presidential primary and if anyone is going to come out to vote they're going to come out in the primary or the state election so um so I did opt to do that but that of course increased the amount of postage uh that we did this year um quite a bit um the last time we had done an inactivation was in uh 2021 so FY 2022 um but anyway so um just to give you an idea this is what I've given you for the first mailing estimating that the second mailing for all of those nonresponders all of those non-responders are um re we do send out another notification okay along with those notifications we also send out a return envelope for them to send it back to us because we were finding that we weren't getting a response and we were getting phone calls where's my envelope um so that of course is another additional cost so you know we're we're purchasing envelopes for the 5,800 for the first mailing to go out but then we also have to do the additional to send them back um the second mailing I've estimated at about 2500 because that's what we dealt with this last time um just one question yeah yes where is the $155,000 item on the budget here it should it be though the 15 15,000 like it's not in oh no I didn't because I don't actually have a line item yet this I figur it would just at least be like a TVD type thing actually this is the first time I'm seeing okay yes uh it was my suggestion but just from the looks of this they'll probably be part of it will be in election yeah and part of it will as a postage line and part of it will be in town clerk as a postage line okay I I'm just I'm following and I'm like oh I'm missing something on this page over here I was doing the same thing okay good great M take Alik my apologies I I figured that that's not in there um so that's why I did it separately in my um my budget uh okay so that um so I'm estimating that the cost is probably going to be roughly n $119,000 um but being conservative I'm I'm shaving it down to 15 hoping that we can do whatever we can to get the attention of the voters to get those cards into us and those mailings into us the first time around um it really does save us a lot of time and a lot of money yeah we we just did a reserve transfer ago for this exact purpose right well I have no problem with the 15 this year but the finance committee should keep it in the back of their mind and if we find that this is going to be more money rather than do the reserve account we probably should put it in the election account if it's like a 175 or something like that rather than keep hitting the reserve account for postage yeah I mean I'm I'm assuming it's just going to be put as a line item in the in normal budget right so you're not going to hit Reserve well as long as it's as long as our estimations are our budgets are correct not to mention I think it would go down right non presidential election Years it'll go less yes yes definitely definitely so for instance once we get through 25 um in 26 we will I'm sorry no fiscal year 25 and calendar year 25 um we will only have one election then fiscal year 26 we'll have um three again will have the state primary the state and also the um the town election okay um presidential years you have four right yeah in in the calendar year yes yes this this year is a brutal year brutal year mhm yes on the vot by meal thing yes that's supposed to vote and then mail it back in the yes so they um the state has sent out postcards um back in in January which was great um unfortunately we received so many postcards back that were incorrectly filled out um some of them were just signed and there was absolutely nothing checked off no information at all right exactly um some we had that were sent back that they wanted to vote in the state Primary in the presidential primary but they want to vote for a Democrat and a republican in both races um so those require additional letters um that have to go out to those individuals and I I want to say that was roughly 350 um cards that we had to do I know it's I so in essence all this I mean this m and voting has really created a lot of headaches for people like yourself and a lot of a lot of them they they hand carried them the votes back in yeah yeah well it's not only that it's cost it don't make sense and I will say one mail a ballot if you going mail fill it out and then bring it in hand in you might as well just come in and vote save the town a lot of money what's very unfortunate is this time around um we had a number of ballots that we received after election day at 8:00 so sadly those idual are getting letters in the mail saying I'm sorry but your ballot did not count um and that you know everyone deserves the right to vote but unfortunately it's been made so easy um and again I probably shouldn't be saying this on air um but it hasn't really given the voters um the ownership of being part of the real process um you know if they wanted to doing the the in-person early voting we're mandated on the number of people that we have to have there just like election day and sadly we had 135 voters turn out and we were open Saturday from 10: to 5:00 we were open every day on normal hours at the office and Tuesday till 7 so to have 13 voters come out um I purposely do every year a um you'll get it in your census it's a important date set of Ls and I do that to give everybody a heads up as to what's coming in the coming year um and unfortunately you know you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them all drink a big burden on your department that's for sure what was that I said it puts a big burden on your department it really really does it really does um and this vote by mail um one of the biggest issues that we have with that is we mail them out we don't get them back so we're paying all of the postage and we're putting all the man hours out there to give the voters the opportunity but we're not getting that back you have a self envelope inside that right they'll show up at the polls or they'll show up election day which is absolutely fine but by doing that the town is incurring such an unreasonable cost that's that's really not necessary um and I can say that honestly in many communities um early voting has been a tremendous asset and a chrisna is not changed on numbers and um one of the reasons uh for the town election um we do have the ability to do inperson early voting um I have opted not to do that um because I don't feel that it's it's productive I I don't feel that it's coste effective for the voters to be paying to have five election staff there to man and we have 135 people well just look at last year we have what 900 people vote in the town election yeah I mean that doesn't make any sense for you to be doing that it's it's I mean we do it because that's what we need to do um but um the cost involved and believe me we have as an association we have reached out to you know our Senators our legislation we we do have um a legislative um Committee Member that that works with us and this is this is the way of the future um and we're not going to be going back um so for me tonight I mean my budget has never been as blown up as it is and and I'm giving you conservative numbers the best I can um and your defense it's of your control you know this is this is all you know the state this is this is on the state right um I mean look the mailin voting was fine I guess during Co right I mean that's that's why and that's why it was started yes but prior to that if somebody didn't want to show up and vote in person couldn't they just file an absentee ballot they could do absentee actually I had this conversation with um Eric um that we would go maybe having maybe 60 70 absentee ballots at an election day that had to be processed um because with absentee you have to have one of three reasons to vote absentee uh one is that you you've been admitted to a a medical facility within the last 5 days um it's a um against it's a um a holiday um that your your religion um does not does not accept um and the other one is if you are in you're going to be out of the um Commonwealth for the day of the election um vote by mail is no excuse voting um so everyone and now with the the state sending all of the postcards so now mind you the state has sent out all of the postcards asking every one what they want to vote for for the um for the year essentially well now come um I believe in July they're going to be doing another mailing for all of those individuals that did not respond for the September and the state so now we're going to have an influx of all of those individuals so more mailings for you again right right and if they're not again not filled out correctly you don't indicate a party that you want to vote we need to now send out a letter again explaining that you know even though you're unenrolled or independent um as it was once called you still need to declare what ballot that you want on Election Day for a state primary that's how they you know Whittle away to get to the state ballot as to who's going to be be on on there um a lot of it is voter education um it it really is um and our association is working to see how we can better communicate um that out to to the voters is there anything like online like on the town website explain that explains like this is what you need to do step by step is there anything like that no no there isn't but that that is a great recommendation um I do know that when we send out new voters that that this is another um another issue is part of the change in the law um and I'll get back to that in just a minute uh is every individual that goes to the registry to register um to register a vehicle register to vote I I'm sorry to uh apply for the license do a license renewal they are required to register to vote even if they are already a voter I just did that with my son so he just got he's you know new new driver new license and he automatically got uh registered to vote y automatically so that comes into us in our office and we now have to if if they're already registered um we have to send out a notification to them saying this is a duplicate requ um you are already vot you're already registered to vote at this address um so we are getting those in I mean just imagine how many people go to the registry on a daily basis I estimated 20 a day that we process in our office um and it's much more more than that I was being very conservative um people that um you know that they're registering a vehicle in another community but yet they live in a Chrisette guess what they now registered to vote in the other community that's can you yeah I don't want to throw you another curve ball can you imagine the the chaos that will ensue um if and when they they push this 16-year-old voting age I I just to me I think that's insane if anything I think the voting age should be bumped up to 21 um in my opinion because it's just the you know I don't know they've actually passed that recently in some communities in Massachusetts massach yeah and I believe IP switch is one of them and the reason that they did it is because voter turnout was very low so they felt that this would stimulate the uh the election I wonder if some of this should be started I don't know the schools don't because I remember we grew up you went to school you know the election day and you had you know theot and the yeah right well no I they actually have in the thing but it's like I don't think there's much interest in the younger generation about this voting thing and I think it's just kind of carried on yeah you know and time just caught up well I think and it's probably other reasons as well but this conversation can continue for the next hours on to the next budet I I think one I think one party wants that more than the other you know just saying I could be I could be out in left field but I don't know no I think you're right I think you're right I'm right they could be on left field J Mike I wonder if you're a demo or republican I'm not certain right now definitely not a Democrat I know trust me so just you know um that pretty much sums it up and I'm sorry did I even answer your question I said I was going to go back to it and I forgot what off track I'm sorry but if it comes back too I will I'll I'll answer it I promise okay so that's the um the registra budget oh was the online Bud was the the town website wasn't it wasn't that talk about yes yes I will definitely um what I was what I was getting to is when we send out those mailings um to confirm or send out a new voter registration to a voter we always send out a um it's a document that gives a breakdown of all of the parties um letting them know that you have to choose one of these Democrat Republican libertarian or unenrolled um Unfortunately they changed the term to unenrolled so people think that they're not a voter exactly because they did away with the independent but yet the secretary of state is advertising the vote by mail saying if you are an independent voter so there's a lot of confusion um but unenrolled means not enrolled in any specific party which gives you the flexibility to vote whatever ballot you want during a primary okay why don't we just put a formally known as yeah inth that would be well then what complicated it is because we did have have a party called the Independent party going back a few years ago so that just created even more confusion so but we also have the pizza potty and I I believe it or not we we've got a number of parties that you wouldn't believe the names but anyway sign up that party so any questions on that no no okay all right um one thing that I do want to add and I'm mentioning it in here one of the biggest helps to our office this year was the Yes program um the Youth Employment Services Program and the senior workof program um you I talked with Jamie um a few weeks back and you know was praying that this would be on the uh the warrant for the upcoming year it has been such an eye open opening opportunity for students coming in that are in high school or early year of college um and even some of the seniors that have absolutely no idea what what goes on with the electoral process um the individuals that have worked in my office have been amazing um I know Chad lle from the park Department I believe he's the one that hired the um yes um um students and they are just I can't say enough great things about them um you know a lot of today's youth is everything is about being on the phone and you know just sitting there waiting to be told what to do these individuals are driven when they come in if there is not something for them to do on the table they get right up and they find something to do there um I I have to honestly say that was an incredible decision and I do thank um Jamie for bringing that forward um I think that was a fabulous idea and it's definitely worked in our office um and and I have to say because I pretty much hoarded them all so not intentionally I've offered them to everyone but um uh so moving on to the town meeting and election and this is the one where I really cringe um more so than anything else um but what I did was I gave you a breakdown of what is required for each election um the number of Staff uh I do um you will notice that I have a proposed rate for the election staff um we have employees that are working elections that are not making minimum wage um and that's really really hard to justify when you have students coming in getting paid $15 an hour and you have the senior workof program at $15 an hour and we don't have our election staff who are extremely valued during election time and any time um but you know I really think it's important that we at least bring them up um for the inspectors up to the minimum um and then the clerks I did bring up um a little bit more again with the wardens um to justify um I mean the difference with the Pam where where were they previously what was the rate um I I've got it down here the 2024 rates okay okay so the wardens were at 15 um I'd like to bring them up to 16 because ultimately the whatever happens in that Precinct falls on their shoulders for that for that day um the clerks uh were at 14 um I did bump them up to, 1550 uh primarily again because you know I can't have a clerk who's doing and maintaining all of the records for the events of the day being paid the same as an inspector that's checking someone in um so I don't feel that I'm being unrealistic in any way um the registr the wardens received an incre I I'm sorry the warden's clerks and inspectors I did bring up I believe in fiscal year 2022 the registr have not received an increase I believe since 2020 um and the registra back in the day when I first came in um the registr showed up for the day and it was a social event for them um and not knocking any anyone at the time but um it was more of a you know pleasantries that that you know conversations that they would have um my registr work they set up the polls for me they come in they do nomination papers for me um that was never done before um so I feel that that's Justified um in bringing them up as well okay um what I did was based on my recommendations I gave you a breakdown of what the cost of early voting is for each election so for instance the state primary will be a one week of early voting and that will cost us based on the dollar amounts that I proposed $457 okay the presidential primary is 2 weeks um and that would double to 9,150 so right there alone um we're looking at a cost of 13,725 now the reason that we didn't see a lot of these um higher amounts back in 201 20 was things were different in 2020 because of Co um and also um we didn't have the number of people showing up at the polls uh because they didn't want to be around anyone that could potentially have Co um so uh so I did scale back and whenever I possibly can scale back um with Staffing I absolutely do sometimes I'm forced to I don't have the people um I I mean having individuals working from 6:00 a.m. in the morning until this last election we got out at 12:30 um that is a very long day for individuals and Bob your wife was right there with us um Bob's wife is one of my my clerks and it makes for an extremely long day um clerks and Wardens it's harder for me to split their shifts um because it's really important that they be there for the entire day um but I really shouldn't have election inspectors sitting there for you know 18 hours or 17 hours um it's just it's it's too much so um I am going to put out a big push I am going to ask Tom um the chief to put out a sign um stating that we're looking for um election workers um because that really is a must and honestly without the seniors from the senior center the workof program and the um Yes program I don't know what I would have done because we were we were short this time of the year we have so many people that are their snowbirds they're all in Florida um so they enjoy working the elections but not enough to fly back up here here to work the elections Pam have you ever you ever been through like an election period where you just you don't have enough people there oh yeah for the day yeah so a situation like that what happens um I always have at least an in-person at least an outp person with the clerk um or the warden um this time around I will say like my pre one my Warden ended up having to work the out table in a pre in her Precinct because I didn't have anybody to man it um so I mean it does happen on occasion and and believe me I recruit anybody and everyone that I can I mean my poor son this time around he's like I'm never working an election but I I can honestly say he worked and he had the best time um he worked as one of my precinct verifiers um so when you walk in the door he pulls up what Precinct you're going to and um so I'm hoping that I have him hooked for the next one but I can't guarantee that um you know and things happen we had people that were out because of medical you know they were out for medical reasons um so um I I have to say the crew that I have has been extremely loyal to me for the last you know the majority 16 years um and some of them are getting tired um so we we do look for people that can kind of give them a break so they're not having to work those long days those long hours did you did you have enough folks for the most recent election I did not you didn't I did not and that um with the early voting what happens and I know I don't want to make this meeting long for you guys as I've already done um with the early voting we have a few options we can process the ballots in the town clerk's office um the day of the election or which is called Advanced processing or we can do them at the polls I've tried both um the advaned processing was an absolute nightmare uh primarily because I need to be at the precinct my registr need to be at the precinct so to be at the town hall or at our office processing ballots that was very difficult um the other thing is if I do have enough staff it helps to keep the election people at the polls busy throughout the day so they're not bored to death and we're really using our our money wisely as we pay them um so that's why I've opted for that this time around we got off to a late stop uh they were still processing ballots after 9:00 um at the polls so um for ballots that that had come in so if I have the people it's not as much of an issue but again to have the people I have to pay the people um and and you know I do try to cut back where I can for a town election you know if it's if we have as of right now we have no opposed races if that's the way it goes to the ballot then is it necessary for me to have you know a full compliment of of Staff probably not um but I won't know that for FY 25 so these are you know these are the realistic numbers of what I'm required to have okay so you will see that those numbers don't necessarily add up to what my request is um and the request is it ends up being I think like $1,100 more and the reason for that is that 33,000 is just for election days and early voting that has nothing to do with the vote by mail processing in our office um or the ballot sorting it has nothing to do with the census um so I'm heavily relying for the remaining funding of that to come from the Yes program the senior um senior worker program I do also receive I received $3300 um this time around uh from the state for because we open our polls at um 10: for our annual election um and when you do that they will give you a difference they'll pay you um for your other elections for your staff coming in before what they would normally come in so I do get that little stien um that that they throw at us so I use that also for for the election people and then of course I did I had to include in town meeting because that those did not include Town meetings um and I just gave you breakdown I mean that that's under $1,000 for for both and I estimated the fall town meeting at 3 hours which you know I I feel is pretty safe we usually get out of there around 9:00 um the Springtown meeting we usually there longer the election people are um the town meeting tellers are there longer so it's a little bit more I really tried to lay it out there as much with the numbers as as I could so that way there's no I'm not pulling this out of the air I wanted you to to see the factual numbers yeah so I mean the the increases are basically because of postage The increased number of Elections and you know just you know bump up to at least the minimum wage I mean I I mean if it wasn't that I think you're going to have a hard time probably getting people to want to do it it's hard anyway I mean it's hard it's hard anyway so I I I feel so glad the rate adjustments even reach 3,000 yeah so I think the yeah so sue already did the M the increase on the rate adjustments is not that big a deal I think it's the post and the errors that go along with people filling out the the mail in ballot wrong right that's that's probably going to cost the town more money I don't know I mean I hope it hope it doesn't get too bad but yeah we have um probably about I'm going to say about 75 um ballots that we ended up having to reject um for a number of reasons we received them too late um it's unfortunately some people peel the labels off of the envelopes um because they don't want us to know how they voted um we don't look at the ballots ever I mean we open them there's just too many where we've got a system going um but when they do that we can't identify that that person voted and where that vote came from so we have to reject um that that ballot um some of them had we send them an envelope to um put the ballot in which they need to seal sign it um it has a barcode on it so we can scan it when it comes in a lot of them don't use that envelope they just stick inside the the white envelope to send back to us we can't accept it that way because the not that this would ever happen um but the potential for someone in the office altering that ballot um it would set us up for for liability um so that's a no no you you can't touch them it's unfortunate but if it's not right it's not right right right I mean it's just I I think you know people have the chance to do the early in-person voting either it's a week or two weeks in in case in the presidential presidential is two weeks I mean that's that's like ample time to find a DAT during the week to get out in person and go vote yeah I mean I just don't I don't get it but yeah you're like you said the mailing voting is not going anywhere anytime soon probably So Co is over we should go person it it's it's very frustrating again because I hear people all the time complaining about their taxes and how upset they are and you know it's we really all have to take ownership and do our Po and and it is up to the residents also to do their part um mhm you know I'm sure I'll lose votes because of this but um the reality is I want to do whatever I can to save the town money um but there's only so much that that we can do great great well that's and our role on the fincom is to right to to minimize the tax implications on our residents as much as possible exactly you know and it's it's gotten so hard I mean this is and I've I think I said it last week you know I've been on this committee for close to 20 years and this is probably the worst year I've seen yeah um it's getting hotter and hotter every year I mean and it's for a number of reasons um yep okay all right so moving on to the town CLK budget okay all right so I know that this is the worst possible year for me to um put in for an increase um however um with the demands of what has come across um and just to give you an idea um I have worked the last four weekends um I have been in the office last night I was here until P of past 9 UM it has been a nonstop when it is election period um there's just no shutting down I can't just close the doors at 4:00 and go home um there are deadlines that need to be met um getting these applications uh the voting ballots out um I have not asked for an increase since 2018 um and since that time when I did go full-time um as many of you know I worked part-time uh for a part-time salary working full-time um and I did that because I love my community I love what I do I love the people that are here um but with the changes in it most recently um it's it is taking a toll on my family um because I'm not home on the weekend a long weekend I took a Sunday off um you know um and I feel that there should be some sort of additional compensation because the role has changed so dramatically um and I say dramatically the workload has has changed so dramatically um and also um being the chief records access officer has brought along with it a whole another set of um issues um dealing with attorneys and courts and um you know at one time employees that didn't want to comply um and I'm fighting that battle for individual departments and for the town so it's um you know I just feel that um I've never been one to you know to be out there looking for for an increase um you know other the department heads you know were always getting theirs I never put in for it um but um this time around I really feel that it is that it it is justifiable look Pam you haven't had an increase since like you said 2018 right yeah that's that's a long time I think it's Justified so I don't don't feel guilty about it thank you I do because I know what we're looking at for a deficit um but I I appreciate that I really do that that um that means a lot to me um because I work really hard my office works really you know in the big scheme of things there's there's much bigger increases that I've seen um soell um that's that's Le less than half of a percent over a six-year period I mean so just put it perspective thank you okay so yeah amount of responsibility she has everything that's well deserved yeah thank you thanks um the clerical staff that is um Union based you will see that there is a difference from last year to this year for what my actual was um and that is because I had for five months I didn't have a senior clerk um so my office really um it was just me and my other um senior clerk that was in there um so um now that we're back up and running these are the contractual um the contractual rates um um I did reduce the um this I'm sorry sorry so in in 2024 budget of 69,000 that's fully staffed or not fully staffed uh the 2024 that was not fully staffed so we budgeted knowing we were short no no no she left me she left me in April okay cuz that's still budget right what so that's still what we discussed and what was put in the in the warrant was $69,000 so I would have expected that budget to be fully staffed it yeah it was not okay is that something that I should have you know what I'm saying Jame like f schal year 24 should have been that's not a oh somebody left I'm not going to unless it was oh somebody left actual 24 is just a budget number I'll check it so you would think should be the the absolute intention based on having a full compliment of people or yeah that that so it should have been a full compliment so I wouldn't expect a $9,000 increase from a budgeted number from the year before I can I can understand why the actual number from the year be prior to that was um was low but not that much of a jump from a budget to a budgeted number is that first time SE the budget it is the first time he has seen the budget as he I'm sure next week we have an answer for now is there something that I should have done to do I mean because I didn't know I wasn't going to hire someone why don't we look at the look at the compon I'll report back okay yeah I think that makes more sense okay we hired in September of of this year September 2023 of yeah year yeah yeah 2023 fiscal year listen this is the tax account I'm a calendar year Bas person here so I guess to help understand the when you hired in 2023 the the position that you hired for was that included in the 24 budget had you budgeted for that and just it remained unfilled until September I did because I didn't know until March that she was leaving yes so that that position is in that ,000 it should be so that's still yeah so there's the question of why the big jump okay okay and that was the the budget not the actual and and could it have been the effect of I don't know when the collective bargaining when the collective bargaining agreement was settled maybe you budgeted before no without that no okay yeah no no I just knew I was going to replace her I just didn't realize it was going to take me as long as it did but I I made the right choice um okay it could be an issue with the replacement because the there was senior clerk clerk Junior clerk in the so it could have been reped at a higher the clerk position was done away with so it could be that it came in at a senior clerk I'll just have to look at yeah yeah it's a big jump I just obviously that's going to raise a question for me that's all me too yeah yeah I did have a clerk that was a clerk and she was part of that transition for the senior the senior clerk okay yeah and then the new person that came in is a senior clerk also uh let's see okay the temporary line item I did reduce that down $1,000 um and I did that to increase my overtime budget a little bit more um because with the presidential election I know my full-timers are going to need um overtime um I I had one that was there 16.75 hours excuse me for the last election so um it's unfortunately it's the nature of the Beast I need all hands on debt when it comes to an election and I'm blessed to have the staff that's there to support me uh the longevity um that's level funded um that's right now is for only one individual uh the r&m I did reduce that down uh to 300 uh because the only only issue that I foresee is my time clock um and that typically runs me if there isn't an issue with it about $275 so I feel that that's that's pretty safe uh Vital Statistics I level funded that uh that is for um the archiving of all of our Vital Records again that that's mandated Mass General law uh office supplies I level funded I zeroed out my software expense uh because as of this fiscal year um I no longer have any um agreements or contracts for software uh because the vendors that I've been using no longer support the two programs that I had um I do foresee and we were hoping to get the dog program in um last year um but that didn't work out because we're trying to coordinate with Jamie's office and all the other departments so that we have one software program that talks to everybody um and we weren't able um to consensus on that dog licenses um that has been increased um from last year um actually that should say from y 2024 um that again is for the brass dog tags um it is um a larger dollar amount it's about $400 more than this year um but that is due to the fact that we restructured our dog kennels this year um we used to have one to four dog kennels and we did away with those um we now have kennel starting at five dogs so those four dogs or in the one to four dogs um have to be licensed individually uh by doing that restructuring we estimate that it's going to bring in approximately an additional $2,000 in Revenue so it's kind of you know we need the tags in order to do um to do the restructuring did you finally get the tags yes yeah oh my goodness that was a nightmare yes we we ordered the tags with our usual vendor um one of our um another large vendor in the state um decided they weren't going to do it anymore and everybody went to our vendor um and unfortunately which is kind of odd because usually the loyal customers the ones that get the preferential treatment yeah it didn't happen this time around um I think everybody was just they were eager to get all of the new bus business I had ordered our tags October 17th um and usually they're in end of December sometime beginning of January and um I needless to say ended up having to go with another vendor um and that other vendor was phenomenal um they gave me a turnaround time of like two or three weeks so yeah so um okay uh travel and meals I did increase that one and a half% uh to $300 and that's primarily because we have additional trainings um for the primaries um and the state election um with all of the laws that have changed um everything was kind of thrown at us and now they're kind of methodically going through at conferences and making sure that that we're really getting a grasp on it um as a matter of fact through all of this they threw as a brand new Mar marriage program too so um and marriage program and um um conflict of interest program so yeah so they felt we didn't have enough to do this year um do and subscriptions um I did increase that uh $50 because of my notary um so that I can renew that um and then bonding um and additional equipment I left that level funded I go back to your um office equipment for a sec you the office equipment arm you mention your time clock you do in the town the the new not for employees this is the time clock um that we punch items in when someone brings a do on the and it stamps yeah time stamps and actually I'm glad you brought me back to that because um I have talked with Jamie we will have a special article for might we might fund it otherwise oh okay okay so I don't need to discuss it now no actually additional equipment went up from a dollar to 500 yeah that so um 49 the back of it if you read it it says it was level funded in oh did I pages did I not change that see back here oh that was my mistake yeah that's not level so yeah so you can change that that um I did I did level up on that additional equipment okay yeah there a Ty it's $499 yeah that's quite an increase and I also going back to the postage um real quickly um I know that there was some questions about bulk mailings um I did take a look at you and also some others so um it's a great question um and it is something that I looked into um several years ago um but unfortunately with the mailings that we do the census and um the bads are could be done bulk okay but by doing them it's only reducing our rate by 4 cents um from 68 to 64 cents I'm sorry each item um yes for each item and they have um you have to have a mailing permit which you have to pay for um which is a one-time fee um then there's an annual fee that you have to pay for um and then there's very specific as to way the mail has to be sorted before you can send it out you got presorted they have to have barcodes on them um for them to be readed and I I I look into it several years ago but you know this because of this year it it did give me an opportunity to revisit it and um it just it would not be conducive for us I mean if anyone else finds out of another way um organization um but the majority of our mail is you know 100 here 200 there um they don't all go out at the the same time even with the census we have to stagger it because we just be inundated in the office um so any questions I'm good okay the only thing I ask is if for any reason you disagree with anything um or you want to revisit anything to please just let me know um even if you just have a liais on contact me um so that way I'm not going to be blindsided at if there's any questions I'll contact you okay from any of thecon members so I'll take care of that great thanks P okay thank you and I'm so sorry I took up so much your time that's not at all this is nothing until next week I know but I wanted you guys to get out of here early no it's not bad at all you did great thank you have a good night T sh you forget huh you forget you got feed no no no no I forgot what next week was yeah last good night okay uh Jamie next up is uh administrator Mr Kelly good evening good evening level service everything's level service correct uh yeah select board cop we don't have print outs Jamie but for yours I think we need something I need something I sent them didn't I I attached them to your that I sent I don't remember see it I can pull it on my phone or did you send it to everybody in the FR con not everybody I think did I send it to you Kath I got what you were going to talk about the budgets but I didn't get the budget yeah and I think I got a thank you from you it was attached I thought see here I can do it quickly let me go copies well if I have it an email you want to take um yeah let's let's a motion to recess all in favor I all right we have a recess move second all in favor I okay we are back in session okay Mr Kelly all right uh select board the salaries are uh contractual or personal agreement uh with the uh confidential employees uh we shifted around the hours between two individuals uals and so we had off office coverage and uh part of it is also that change from clerk to senior clerk designation the uh expenses are Level funded any questions so going back to the salaries are only Up 2 [Music] 7% it's a uh a lean budget that way uh some of the you're getting my notes with these that I've put in so uh legal next y MH the budget request is the same as last year uh as you know there's a whole bunch of deficit spending there uh I don't think it's going to be just extrapolating it I don't think it'll be as bad as it's been in the past but as you know there are a number of lawsuits Town buildings uh the increase in wages are because of the custodians and the increase in asme and uh the fact that we've centralized all custodial staff I'm sorry I cut it off but that's the wage C uh We've centralized it all in uh Town buildings one thing I'm looking to do that'll definitely change this budget is I'm still negoti ating with our utility provider to and I'd like to put one utility line here in this budget and take it out of all of the other budgets and I hope that'll the way it's starting to look it will uh definitely if our negotiations go the way I think they will it'll result in some savings and as you can see we've taken down some of the postage out of our account because we've had we've moved postage last year into the treasur collector and now we're letting for transparency purposes and what elections and everything at the town clerk's office is going to cost they'll carry their own postage line item any questions miscellaneous is the same as last year I'm still having a discussion about two items but uh it only totals $200 all set y ah contributory pensions and employee benefits my favorite topic Bristol County that's C mment Medicare that's the estimate it's formula as you know and that was looking at the payroll now it might have to change slightly but we'll have to see when we discuss with the school the workers compensation is flat unemployment insurance is flat Health dental I increased it by 10% we're still in negotiations that should come down flexible benefit plans the same uh IOD uh insurance is up slightly uh because of uh recent events so our insurance will goes up for next year and uh liability insurance is did you say slightly yeah from 38 to 40 oh okay I looked at I was looking at the one below it yep the one below it uh is uh my view is that South Coast is getting nailed by insurance companies mainly because we're in a blood heart/ hurricane Zone really brille County touth County breaking news this isn't yes but I mean so we're hiking up because we happen to have be in an area that gets hit by hurricanes but we haven't had a major destruction in how many years it's across the board insurance carrier been ridiculous like my car insurance pre went up like 50% just because they ensure my cuz they changed the formula I think the homeowners is worse yeah it's ridiculous it's worse than the cars yeah I Chang carriers like Haven I'm not looking forward to it God it's just out of control mhm oh it is just yeah I'm not building anything better and these are preliminary numbers I'm giving you worst case all right so it can only get better go from here good news when you're at the bottom there is only one way there see it's not off B what is housing Partners we have it's a regional group that's our assessment from the group it's set up by the state and it's supposed to uh from what I understand uh yeah uh encourage affordable housing for $100 no that's our assessment to the uh three or four people that are in the group Jamie can you fix your formulas your row 10 for columns e f and g do not fotd Yi my what your row 10 columns e f and g do not foot do not total yeah so we got to fix that formula oh yeah well e does but I think e happens to work number number but your formula is only picking up row eight yeah f and g definitely the things that you pick up I this is what I do she does all night for 12 hours a day I did notice it for the recommendation I thought things were good you just made it worse come on when I saw a 70% increase I went WTF and I and I work my way backwards I'm like that's not a 70% increase the math doesn't work yep it makes I did make it better come on see okay s wait Mees doesn't change can you tell into my best work onle we are looking as far as cable goes we are looking to combine the cable coordinator it coordinator into one position and this would be the share from cable and that way we're it's really going to be like a director of communications and cover all of these is that is this part partly because you're expecting like our TV ratings to go up oh shut with our like uh stimulating entertainment actually uh I'm glad I'm retiring because 10 years down the road you'll probably not see any cable uh income coming in cuz everybody who's young doesn't use cable anymore soil board status quo R of planning uh that isn't on the agenda but I put put it out for you guys so we can look at it next time if you want but and the historical commission uh the only increase you see is because of the energy cost and as I said that can come down once we get done with our negotiations any uh any updates for like Town planner uh the next meeting with the we've asked the uh Union that we're negotiating with to uh notifi them to give us a response whether they want to impact bargain uh that and a couple other issues concerning uh Staffing uh you uh combining with other towns using uh interms like we have in the past because we can't find people to uh actually take the positions that's the rout we're going right we're doing like a regional planner Town planner or multi- toown uh we have to let the union bargain the impact with us we both down no I'm sorry we have to let the union bargain the impact of not hiring a full-time full-time planner it's going to affect them it's going to affect the union not having a one person it's a shared position now my understanding that's what I hear we can't we can't find any we can't find anybody I know so we either share or it's a zero I guess I'm I'm I'm struggling to understand like what am I missing here right now it's a big fat zero right now it's a big fat zero you're missing Union negotiations yeah understand I don't understand Common Sense called common because it is so rare list I I am the listen the first thing I tell my clients when dealing with the IRS do not look for common sense because you will not find it so I per I completely understand that oh it's because it's a government run agency right the biggest one around y 80,000 more agents 85 I'm dealing with some doozies right now can I tell you fabulous individuals I that was excellent I thought that was defunded oh trust me I'm dealing with some I'm dealing with a very uh I would ask the committee to uh send me a list of anything any of the other accounts some of them are real minor uh or accounts that we haven't dealt with just so I can make sure and catch up and I'll get you uh I know planning will have to put on the next agenda but yeah but the next next meeting is basically just going to be the school yeah we're not going to be able to take anything no me after that okay yeah so so we've I think we basically covered everything except for the school yeah our schools um that's going to be next week um which I'm going to bring up in a minute here and uh they've asked for a meeting with the chair of the board of Select and and he's agreed for fridy to what he's agreed to meet with them on Friday okay so next he'll have met with them before you bring them in I mean so far the majority of the the Departments that have presented to us I mean from what I can remember and correct me if I'm wrong a lot of these budgets have been pretty close to level service level funding contractual they're level service but they've been very close to level funding right so there's not there's like any there's no big increases from any other departments correct other than CH clerk which we saw tonight well we understand why um mhm you know we got the election and there's there's 100 reason nonsense with the mailman ballots and all that um yeah not of ha control no that yeah that's not it's not it's not the year for extravagance and we have I don't think we seen any yet oh sorry go ahead there you know there's always going to be wants right by departments but this is not the year for that it's it's basically essential B very essential needs and that that's going to be pretty much it the only two large increases and I think any increase above 2% is large the only two large increases have been the Regional Vocational Technical High School and I believe the school budget well and to to go back to Colony I mean if you take out their their health insurance because they factor that in themselves I I believe that is a 2% increase they were a 2% increase it's A6 1.06 when you include the health insurance I would uh say in a year like this percentages are not how you should be thinking you look at the totals it should be dollars because we have only so many dollars and you have to divide those up percentages hide from the electorate what's going on well percentages are misleading because 5% of $100 and 5% of $10 million two very different fact depends so you're right we have to go with dollars but at the end of the day I'm sorry that's why you was saying measure the dollars we're measuring the dollars but at the end of the day when you're looking at I think you also take into consideration the percentage is also an indication of how efficient or streamlined the budget is as well so I think you look at I I don't disagree that you got to look at dollar amounts but you got to look also at what sort of increases are embedded in there and that's a factor of the percentage right to help you understand yeah but except it's not in this year you can't do percentages because I'm not saying you run by it we going to agree to disagree because you you you sit there and you say oh a 3% raise is embedded for a certain Union in the budget I don't care if you only have $800,000 of an increase that townwide and that's high that's all you can spend cuz we need a balanced budget right so if you have to cut you have to cut that's but I think that's the second step okay here's the dollar amount here's the percentage and F guess what we don't have that money and now we need to cut but at the starting point to analyze where the cuts can come from right like at that like are we saying you need to cut $1 million out of the Town budget that means everybody cuts x% of their budget no that's not how that's know I how I look at it that wouldn't work that wouldn't work that wouldn't work right so I guess that's to to me it's a factor up no one item is the end all be all I I still look at and J we will agree to disagree no I I understand your point of view I agree to a to a point but what I'm I'm saying is if you have a budget yeah and let's say a group received 3% raises yep that's fine that's in the preliminary budget before you cut but when you look at the budget you look at what you're mandated to put in you look at the Bristol County Retirement assessment yeah stuff like that you have to pull that out of the equation to then understand where the cuts need to come from you and I are on the same page and it makes you feel anybody I disagree with my boss all the time and I make it known to him I disagree with him so it's not like you know well so I'm not your boss you're my boss as my boss tells me Sue you don't work for me I work for so you know I mean it's look the biggest cuts are going to have to come from the the Departments with the biggest bu I mean it's not that hard to figure that out MH so okay it's it's a year that you have to make tough decisions and it's my argument that you're going to have to repeat those tough decisions next year yeah cuz I view especially with the fact you've got very little new growth and you've got a state that's spending money elsewhere other than on the municipalities that you're going to end up having this problem next year Boston Globe had a very good I was telling the chair earlier had a very good article it was talking about the state's poor uh I don't know if you saw it talking about the school budget and its assessment and its formula that it's using for the districts and the Commonwealth it it's a good article I mean if you if if you get the globe you can get the whole of it it's and every every District is in the same exact position as we are with just no State no aid but big bills this is it's okay the mass millionaires tax this is this is a everybody's I tell you though this is a personal opinion it's it's not fighting it representing my board in any way shape or manner but when you spend $1.2 billion and segregate that money for one specific group or program you're taking it away from the municipalities and it doesn't matter what kind of formula you have for education you're taking $1.2 billion away from the citizens of this Commonwealth and giving it to somebody else the people who worked to give you the $1.2 billion will people no and I'll take it a step further the the people that are benefiting benefiting from that $1.2 million billion billion billion billion are they're getting fed housing mhm um free health care cuz they you have PE they don't even have social security numbers but they're getting a mass health card um and then they're getting debit cards with money put on it and there's a and education and there's a proposal giving them 0% interest to buy a house with the one in Boston she living in a million dollar home oh the mayor no a million home they're paying their school school benefit all and you know it's the illegal the illegal immigration that's going on is a major problem newcomer no I'll use the word illegal because that's what it is when you cross IL it's illegal totally and that that individual that that murdered that that nursing student in Georgia in Georgia was a murderer I mean just call it for what it is he was a murderer and he was illegal I mean he's not you got to like correct yourself I mean give me a break aoke there's a way to come in here legally my parents did it legally long time ago my my my for these ancestors came from came they came in where you needed be sponsored you couldn't you receive no benefits you had to be self-sufficient I know wrong with that what's been happening the last three years is intentional it's intentional by by one political party for specific reasons and it's it's pretty easy to see that you know well Nether world will listen to the acis finance committee hey we are a hey we're here to solve The World's problems no but it you're going to you're going to see the same problem you've seen this year with until get next year no and it's and the problem is it's not it's not it's not going to be fair to ask our residents to have to pay more in taxes that they already than they're already paying everybody's already paying a lot more in property taxes the last two years and then to ask them to pay more on top of that uh whether it's from a tax override and and we're certainly not going to dip into the stabilization fund to fund an operational budget there there's no no way that's not going to happen and then you've got well it's not going to happen but it's up to the voters but not going to be recommended by us it's not the financially responsible decision then you have one or two Deb exclusions coming down the pike in a couple years you're talking about like Old Colony potentially yeah and potentially uh any building the H HVAC whatever solution for the schools yes so it's only going to go up yeah yeah so it's it's going to get worse anyway let's not let's not make it worse because because we can't you know spend responsibly right yeah okay on to Old business anybody have any old business to discuss anybody have any new business I think we already aired everything out already how's the weather the weather's sh getting warm sick of all this rain man a sunny day he on pump out water like crazy you septic pump um all right so we have some uh meeting minutes from the meeting of February 14th 2024 in attendance was myself Sue Delgado Pete penoy Eric Chu Bob Ferrera Kristen Flynn and Eric mcglenn absent was Mr St motion to accept them second all in favor I okay the minutes are approved next meeting date is next week uh we're going to be meeting at the Ford Middle School at 700 p.m it's going to be our joint meeting with the school committee and the board of Selectmen I got to remember you know I'm going to drive by I'm going to come this way instead of going you know I'm going to do that Mr St you need a motion I will uh you know let Mr St notice make a motion to adjourn there a second second all in favor [Music] yes [Music]