all right I will call the finance committee meeting to order for April 16 2024 at 50:8 pm I'll call the San's meeting to order at 5:08 PM great um first order is minutes we got minutes emailed this afternoon is um did people have a chance to look at them or do we want another week I had a chance I looked at him okay you weren't here so no response okay all right we have a second second any discussion all those in favor opposed abstaining passes 4 reach right okay next item is I think the scems budget okay so uh new budget was handed out to you tonight um I have that in my so this is reflecting um a Deerfield assessment of 444 368 we have a motion for that I'll make a motion to approve the skm's Enterprise fund new budget uh de Fel share443 68 right we have a second second all right um discussion so what's the difference so this basically T maybe Tim can speak to it or Carolyn can better than I but this basically reflects um a harder look at payroll and and a more um true reflection of what probably what will happen in fiscal year 25 knowing how long it takes for changes to happen would like to put into place I also know that um his intent somewhere down the road is to be able to do a lot of their training inhouse um so I'm not sure how much of that is reflected in this budget but there was a harder look at what what will probably be spent versus what they'd like to spend and and thus the reduction um I just want to say that we're still working on the budget let me let me just update I I just texted Joshua who's presenting the weight Lea finance committee tonight I believe and I believe he's he he's said that this is the budget he is this is what he considers to be final at this point yes okay and um talk to him today yeah and they I think if I understood Brenda correctly there was an $80,000 figure that was in one place place that should should have been in another place is that yeah we're using $80,000 of retained earnings um Josh had just put it on on the operational reserve line so it looked like it was something that needed to be added into expenditures and and once we discussed it he realized um the error and so I took it out thought he was still working what's [Music] that this this he felt was was Final so I I I know I know he's had some discussions with waitley I'm not sure how much more he's discussed with Sunderland at this point okay well doesn't matter if it's a reduced budget everybody will be more happy any questions or discussion anybody it was pretty much all in Personnel where it went down absolutely yes it is and primarily full-time staff is that right primarily full-time staff yeah okay I believe so I I thought also overtime change okay little bit of change there benefits are down to 20,000 yeah he originally had a cushion in there 20,000 for anybody that might come on that would have health insurance um and he chose to remove that cushion um is the 347 345 that's a total of the five lines below it is that right um the I'm not sure oh the yes it's it's just the Medicare tax the life insurance the medical insurance retirement and workers C okay so it's medical insurance that went down yes yes well it went down from what he what what was proposed right yeah because he was just proposing a number well and I and I you know that speaks to the fact that um he has plans for Staffing but by the time someone is hired um there's not going to be a full year of insurance if they do take the insurance and who knows what will happen to other people's insurance or you know he just decided to leave it out yep I think he was trying to be conservative but right well he knew um what a change this was from last year and so we're trying to trying to make it more mental and you said that the slight change under operating was just a formula error uh no I don't think so I I think he actually increased one line item um I can't remember now what that line item was but it small it made sense to me um it was uh the radioes um I think he was just budgeting for what he was thinking the increase would be okay and he feels comfortable with this otherwise he wouldn't have presented it what's that he feels good about this otherwise he wouldn't have presented he does he does feel good about this um had some discussions with um one of the weightly Town administrators last week he's meeting with their finance committee tonight is what Tim was saying um uh I think they were very receptive it's not sure about some yeah no I we have to worry about sunling a little bit I I just sent a text to Tom fighting kevich is the head of the boo to ask if Sun where Sunderland is on this but I haven't gotten a response I may not I'm not sure if thas traveling or something well they're not going to come back and ask for more no and on the bright side the January one was 532,250multifamily there results a lower budget number for scams um we're only on the hook for what is ultimately approved correct I mean we wouldn't have to oh that's correct Margaret yeah we we're gonna pay 50% or 50 what is it 51% whatever the final if one of the other towns doesn't approve I'm still G to bill so then what are they going do not for the higher amount though well no I no for for the amount that's been approved okay by it is interesting that last year you I don't know if you were involved last year but there was the discussion of the nuclear option um because Deerfield was asking for questions about overtime and um somebody brought up well you know hey if if two towns approved and you don't then we can just dissolve this I think that's what was said I can't remember that and it is it's in the agreement the scems agreement that if two towns approv and one doesn't then that town can get kicked out of schems okay that's right okay no we're not thinking of we not yeah we're not recing so we need to kind of all come to I just want to say that we're trying to be sensitive to sunderland's financial situation and there might be a further reduction who knows and if there's a further reduction we can make that on town meeting floor if we don't get it in here before then right right it's not going to be more clearly any other questions about this discussion all right all those in favor that's unanimous 700 you all need to vote um you want to vote on this I see by not okay I'll make a motion that we approve the scum's budget um as presented uh for 44 $444,999 second all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I carollyn nessi Tim Hil I thank you okay um so that's it for Budget individual budget Lins right yeah yeah you've got the prior your bills and that and the op money but that's all that'll be part of the warrant yeah okay um very briefly yeah Sho yeah and then the capital and then the capital we talked about the capital I did give you a capital spreadsheet but so did Casey so you could you know work off of um I have a whole section here I think Casey did you plug that that uh cable into the warrant by Chance the capital table yeah no the Board needs to discuss it tomorrow night okay I'm hoping that if we look at this today because it will get plugged in that's the intent is to plug it into the warrant directly so we don't have to direct people's attention to a specific place they can find it um there's several items you'll notice on the table that are color coded with questions um in some cases I don't think there's at least two that don't need to be appropriated so don't require town meeting um and in two cases we found out that funding could go through a different Source casy can you let me share my screen please one sec should be good to go okay thanks all right so we've seen this before this is the same thing I showed before so here is our revenues um so we have our total revenues excluding free cash our free cash and the library trust which is like 3,800 bucks uh for our total revenues if we subtract our Omnibus budget from our total revenues excluding free cash um we're using 7,189 in free cash to support our total revenues our warrant articles is 725 so our total budget is1 million4 663 so that leav 321,000 in free cash we're using 10,500 of that for Capital which leaves us 21955 in free cash so we voted I don't know when last week or the week before or something that we wanted at least 200,000 left in free cash so this budget that we've just gone through um assuming we approve all the warrant items as they are leaves us 219,000 since we cat any questions or comments on that okay excellent startop okay um let's go to the warrant is way to that to last year you bet you bet absolutely um I have to get off I just got find [Music] okay so here's 2025 um here's our 17,1 189 in free cash that we're using this year for our Omnibus budget and then just because this is what I've done in previous years I also added the EMS so here's our total dollars in free cash we if we add EMS this doesn't include Smith vote um which probably it should so if you go back year by year we're at 170,000 for the Omnibus right now last year was 52 388 so we're doing pretty well and then we kind of started to lose it way back in the day we were at 340 300 whatever thousand so um we're better than we were 10 years ago but we're kind of losing the losing the bubble again right now how how come it doesn't include Smith V Julie just because I didn't add it in I can so this this free cash line right here this is our Omnibus budget that will not include Smith vot but it also doesn't include EMS I added EMS just because I did so this dollar value right here includes EMS I mean I could add in Smith vote too which I I in my opinion that's a that's a recurring expense that a in there um I just didn't have it done in your prior spreadsheet um for the use of free cash that that did include Smith boat correct Smith VK is in this warrant article line on him right here so this 170 189 does not include it okay but it is in this 29558 dos Smith foke EMS um The the Reserve fund um all of the warrant articles right not not and Julie between between this one and the one you just showed us where if preash was at 219 here and it went 170 there said no no it's at 170 here so I'm using $170,000 in free cash this is notes 219 in the B and I think as a side note uh the Omnibus Bud budget used to include a lot less than it does today so uh about four or five years ago we brought in the furog assessment we brought in um what else did we bring in that used to be separate warrant articles the quinquennial certification all of those things used to be separate articles and I think because they wanted to be able to use free cash for all of them but we slowly work them into the Omnibus budget so that that's all that's left that's still being uh voted as a separate War article of sounds appropriate it sounds appropriate to have moved them into the operating budget yeah it made perfect sense and there are too many articles effort um I mean I think I I think it you know it's clear um it's clear that the budget growth is outpacing um is outpacing the recurring revenues growth I mean and that's becoming more and more evident so um that's going to require some work this is that final column so this is our free cash that we're using for the Omnibus budget plus the EMS Value Plus plus this not in uh maybe the right hand column the right hand column is um thing it's free cash and other so the other is like there's a little bit we're using in other that's um wetlands and where we those other little pots that oh just just re recently um there's money being pulled in the wetlands protection fund and from the cemetery fund yeah um now in past years I know Bernie used the municipal building fund which was from the sale of the Old Town Hall the Old Town Hall uh he was using that to plug his budget um then after that I don't remember what we were using but Julie what's I wasn't involved until what 2019 I think or 18 what's the overlay col overlay is money that the so I'm little unclear about why this is positive in here um so I need to go back and look those but it's many of the accessors you use in case like if you get an abatement on your taxes they ually cover yeah they set they set a certain amount aside that that is that they think is going to be uncollectible so to speak in a in a real business they call that uncollectibles but they said a certain amount as side so that it will cover any any exemptions they give or any abatements they give and after a certain number of years they don't use some of the old stuff so um so we request uh occasionally to them for them to release some of that old stuff because it's sitting back there so that money the that's the money they released those years right that's that's the money yeah and then why has that not happened again for like last couple years well so um in 2017 we had the municipal um what's that act yeah Municipal modernization act and um then it allowed them to actually um use a batement money or overlay money from previous years to cover the current year if they run short so then they started um setting a smaller amount aside um whereas before if you if you overspent one specific year you'd have to make that up in the next tax rate um so now they can they can move money between abatement years and so used to be that they would set 100 100,000 to 120,000 aside now they're doing like 60,000 or um on a resar here it might be you know 880,000 but certainly a lot less than what they used to set aside so there a lot less to release that make sense question is free cash just a lack of a better word to plug to make get the money for the armist budget because none of these numbers agree with the revenue detail I'm trying to understand what we're looking at here they should agree with the revenue detail um it's just which sections we put together um so if you look at the revenue the revenue detail is going to include PR cash that you spend on the it's just total free cash that You' use second so so on the revenue deel the freecash net is the total free cash that you've used for everything that's that's a number I have to tie to for do so it's the number that gets plugged in so it's it's free cash that you're using for everything for for um for all of your warrant articles as well as the Omnibus budget I guess why doesn't it agree I'm so because she's only including the on budget and and skims she's not including all the other warrant articles in this in this specific uh view of the of the um of the expenditures okay so if you take indirects plus other what are indirects indirects are if you flip over see where it says other funding sources on the back side at the top indirects are the schems the waste wire treatment plant and South County Senior Center reimbursement for administrative costs right if you add those three together that will equal this indirect line 156 100 I hope and then other is going to be everything else in that section so if you take 23588 and subtract that 1561 you should end up with this 79 86 the indirect uh grow because it's percentage of the budget is the budget grows it's a percentage so it tends to grow with the budget so you put overlay you moved it for 2025 and two and the rest other right because there is 60,000 of overlay there is 65 in overlay where that is actually is right here I think so if we take total property taxes plus local receipts minus 65,000 for overlay I think it says 60,000 uh the amount that that is anticipated that they will reserve for this year is 65,000 that's like in the middle of your first page of the revenue detail oh okay that overlay on the other yeah that's different from the release of overlay okay sorry wrong overlay [Music] gotcha so to John's question as far as free cash as a gap it essentially is Gap because you've got a gap between the recur available recurring revenues the net recurring available revenues and the bottom line operating budget we do have to plug that and in my opinion that's what creates a structural deficit going into the next fiscal year should be fun not spending as much as we probably did one portion of of the free cash is that can never be guaranteed in any fiscal year we're not robbing a fixed pot is in part we're not robbing a fixed pot any other thoughts or questions or discussion on this y okay so we're ready for the war all right so I think the way we'll do it is article by article might as well just start at the beginning and work through and we will I think for each article take a recommendation to take a motion to recommend the article and then we'll discuss it as a whole so do we have a motion for article one do it like they do just for purposes of time when we do the honor of his budget the moderator reads off each line if somebody doesn't like it they say hold and we vote them all at the end except for things we've know you know what I mean I'm just trying to save time yes sure um we're not going to go line by line on when we get to that one when we get to that one we're going to say article whatever just the entire article I think he meant every article the whole thing or at the end we approved except the things we put on hold do that okay so I really don't want to do that but everybody else wants to we're okay with it I think we need discuss each one okay would as we go through and if there's I mean it might right right okay I'd like to make a motion to recommend article second okay um any discussion yes as we go through um the warrant can Casey or somebody explain what changes have been made since our last copy of the warrant because I think we've all read the prior version of the warrant so just to kind of call our attention to what's been changed I think some of the numbers have been filled in Margaret okay I think since the last warrant nothing in nothing in article one changed at all right Casey right and nothing in article two well maybe no I don't think anything in article two changed the last yes I can be happy to explain it as you guys go through each one each article I have just a couple of comments on article one yep um G find them um under enf um these are these are standard so-called consent article they're all voted as a group at town meeting right yes okay okay so um I was wondering whether and I'm not asking to change anything but I just note that the acceptance of Grants um e section e of this article does not require that the acceptance of federal and state grants that require local matches dollar matches are subject to available appro Appropriations for said purposes basically what this is saying is that the select board um is authorized to apply for except and expend for specific purposes any monies provided by any federal and state grants or programs which may be awarded to the town this does not take into account any local matches so I just wanted to note I I wanted to note that and didn't know whether there should be a specific authorization or or specific um provision that any that require local matches should be subject to available Appropriations and then f is um the contract Authority um again I it doesn't note that the all contracts are subject to available Appropriations that's generally written into the contract language it is but it's all it's not in the town meeting authorization so um if if you're satisfied it's just a um a note that I had when I was reviewing and as to the question about e the town has gone back and forth about whether to put this in um but most Grant matches have to go through the entire vetting process depending on what the project is so as long as town meeting is clear that any of this is subject to available appropriation Absolut that's the important thing that's what the warrant provides generally if we have to do for instance Margaret last year we had an MVP Grant match that we did at a special town meeting that was a separate appropriation that went through Capital Finance and the select board I'm done yeah clars second about the roof I feel like we've seen that same language many many years can't hear it's 5 to 10 year period yeah right the roof is completed in 16 so years Beyond that're they're still paying us so you're saying so those are the original pled right yes okay so and and one entity has paid their pledge in P so do we um I don't know that's a good question I thought about that I couldn't hear anything that was just said oh okay um I I've thought about that several times but haven't bothered to talk to Casey because we've been too too um flat out doing everything else um but so so he's wondering Casey if the monetary pledges for the school roof that has been in there year after year after year should just come out or be more reflective of what was received in this year right because we're in the last 12 months yeah okay I was gonna say we don't normally get them all before June 30th right Brenda well we usually the only one we're missing this year is from Eaglebrook and um they have not given us their Pledge on the school rof but the other two that should have given us money this year have I guess phrase another way should we have something here that reflects what is still left to be paid as opposed to maybe an impression that this I mean you could look at this two ways they haven't paid they're way behind or they keep paying this every year which might give some people in town the wrong idea you know what we could look at that Casey you want me to think about a different way to put that yeah okay ultimately it's up to the board how they want to present it does Weir to thank people for stuff they I like the idea of putting what they still owe us so that they know they owe us yeah what what they pledged what we've received so far because there is one that I think is is going to try not to pay us anymore I knower think that we should recognize the one PA it in full yeah because it sort of looks like historic thefield isn't paying us anything but that's okay because good point right yeah yeah Mak sense okay I will change that yeah happy to do okay that's a good really good point Julie we want to encourage people to pay full pay early yeah I also looked at the front page I was able to like find each of those salaries um elected official compensations except for the school committee I don't know where that is I assume that that it's in the school budget it's in the school budget and and I did confirm that that's what they're paying them this year um I'm assuming that's next year I think Casey checked on that um and this I didn't check the 41071 and 104 those correct um what are you looking at for the op yes yes those are correct I did check those today and that includes the transportation per yes the 104 is the toal oh that that's article two apologize moving do you guys want to go ahead and vote this or do you want to wait and see the rearranged discussion of um the the section that David just I'm just I'm just going to say monetary pled is still due for the replacement of the Deerfield Elementary School roof completed in 2016 boom and then these are the pledges received in the last 12 months yeah I think we I think we should acknowledge that you know they have been paying yeah and and historic year field has paid off its um donation or pledge early so that was good yeah that maybe will encourage more payment so or a third category paid in full his which means that the other ones haven't paid I don't know let just you guys decide just just a little more data on that to clarify but one other question at the bottom of the page Renovations for temporary library in kind donation from Eaglebrook so apparently they did work and that's the 154 but then it says annual gift is that there's no annual gift for renovations so is that an annual gift that giving to the library or an annual gift they're giving to the town no it's the money it's the money they spent on the renovations and instead of giving us an annual gift they wanted to apply that amount towards their annual gift you mean the 154 and they've given the same amount for what the last 20 years sorry yeah okay so does the annual gift need to be removed from that section this is the amount outstanding no it's it's just money they put into the renovations but they wanted it noted that that portion of it was their annual gift yes instead of giving us money they're they're giving us the renovations so they spend $1 18,26 on Renovations they would normally have given us 26,000 which would have showed up in the top section monetary gifts and appreciation right it sounds like theing section headed renovation contemporary library in donation and annual gift from E school and then you need to say or but that makes the annual gift look like it might be remove annual gift Al together and put the total 18269 for the renovations what do you think Casey I this is no it doesn't much as I appreciate everybody's comments I think the Board needs to tell me how they want to see it looks so I'm willing to listen and make changes I just want to make sure that I'm hearing it from the as well yeah actually any of our business why don't we just how about if we say for renovation so add to it I think the financial part is our business Financial part is the wording of a forign article thank you as long as people understand well this part always does get brought up at town meeting every year someone's gonna say oh this is what we got for an annual gift and it's now it's GNA you know it is going to be important to somebody well they they stepped up to the plate true so yeah yeah you could put stipulated for simp a simple thing maybe just on that last line starts off Renovations but maybe it should just start off in kind Renovations for temporary library from Eaglebrook School and then I suppose the annual gift makes a little more sense that it's part of their ink kind I just I just found it confusing as to what the annual y was when it say whatever to me in kind means non-monetary it is non-monetary they how get a value they didn't work they want a value just to be able to put a value on their they do uh forms yeah so so I just don't want people to think that there was $26,000 of cash that was given as part of an annual gift because that probably would have been up at the top with the other schools um oh yeah that's a good idea starting with the in donation well I mean the annual gift is actual money right would actually give us money the the other part of this was they did some work and the value of it was 54,2 169 180,000 180,000 so 26,000 well that's what I'm trying to find out you did not in other words they they didn't give us that check this time as an annual gift I think the idea was that originally were going to do 15,000 worth of work and it turned out to be 180 and they said okay would normally give you 26,000 or some 25,000 for a give that's why I think it's worded this way so then I completely agree with David I think that the um I think it should read in some way that the inine donation includes the dollar you know the dollars that would be included in the annual gift so it doesn't look like a separate monetary donation so maybe say Renovations considered as annual gift on that particular line me so the Top Line says monetary gifts and appreciation for services rendered what if down here we said in kind gift in appreciation for services rendered instead of annual gift yeah with a total of 180 no 26,000 oh okay could be for a total 180 instead of annual gift and then it says 26,000 on the right start that line with in kind includes annual gift 26,000 of the others that yep that's clear that clear yeah so will there be two in kinds one at the beginning of the first sentence and well one so somebody needs to tell me what they're saying because I can barely hear you and I'm the one sitting here with it in front of me trying to type I would okay good I would suggest I this is a motion but I would suggest we start that last category in bold in kind Renovations for temporary Library donation from Eaglebrook School and then I would suggest in front of annual gift we put um in kind includes annual gift yeah this is the select board's warrant so we'd have to get the select board's um approval but I would second your I would second your motion as a recommendation okay so in other words your thing y so in terms of the title of that section should it be in kind Then followed by with followed by what it was before we can follow up with you Casey yeah I I've got it Casey all right thank you I we just want make sure that yeah I want to make sure it's right to e because they were really great to make this happen for the library okay why why we're we're gonna have to vote on this again after okay would you like okay I with my so right are we on to two then wa John a question apologize and italics at the bottom we we're acknowledging other non-monetary gifts yep yet we take this one and point it out well it was larger than you know anything else for the year it was unique it was unique yeah okay it's also one of a kind John it's not we that we can count on $180,000 every year right of what of work right now I don't know I'm just will the others be upset that that's a question will the others be upset that Eagle Brook cut some publicity well actually I mean we this was something that Deerfield Academy pledged to do for like three years and then it didn't happen and then Eaglebrook said hey we can do this because DA has got a lot on their plate so it's just Happ this way I'm just curious how does this number get derived did they actually hire contractors to do it who told them how much they would build or did they actually H contractors who then build Eaglebrook who paid the contractors yeah so it wasn't the Eaglebrook staff coming down and doing no it was an actual then why are we saying it's in kind and they actually gave cash you're saying no no no they actually controlled the job they hired the general contractor they hired the subcontractor that's important subcontractors build the school and the general contract build the school and they paid all the bills without our involvement right all I'm suggesting is that to me that's a more generous sounding gift than what I originally thought by reading this which is that Eagle Brook said hey guys you know ground staff contractors on staff get down there and and work on this for for the to no they hired somebody you're saying they actually wrote a check to some da Sullivan and Sons who did the work okay in fact it was really unclear sorry it was Da Sol that they contracted right right okay well now it's even more not directly saying what happened to me to me they made it direct pay it yeah that's what I'm saying that's not in that's not in kind anymore really to me in kind is them doing one you know what it's their thing yeah okay yeah I'll second it so those dollar values are the dollar values that we discussed Margaret second I don't think no sry okay any discussion just again on so the 104 to the out of District placement is um up to Andor we we think that's going to happen but frankly certain students may not go that's correct just like anything else are estimated okay y okay we we do we do follow up David to make sure that the student is going there for the program that is not offered by F Tech course we we make sure that that happens because some people have switched and I was like well I'm sorry we're not gonna p and I you know quite frankly uh Casey reached out to them and they gave us the whole rundown of their process this that students have a chance until October to make a decision to go Smith Pool if there's room in the program yeah so so This truly is an estimate based on the best information we've got at the moment and you've gotten the um dollar value down for per student cost yeah yeah and this covers yeah it should I you know the the one thing they never tell you is what does it cost for the sped part of it and so that's that's always an unknown until you get the bill any other discussion questions all those in favor Mo second any discussion just want to clarify my mind that's Revenue we're authorizing the spending of Revenue that goes into a revolving fund right correct so if we get 20,000 in recycling money we spend right it takes special authorization after this vote to um expend any more than what's authorized here so correct yeah do we have any from the PRI is it the same yeah yeah it hasn't changed for several years any further discussion alls in favor second a little bit I think not much so I have a general question on this one um assuming that um the AG will take the the full 90 days uh for approval after town meetings vote and dissolution of town meeting um how ready is the town with the rules regs and policy manual to implement it so there's no gap between former Personnel bylaws and implementing new Personnel policies so that's a very good question I've been talking to Personnel about this for several months Margaret um what we did was we utilized a grant from Community compact to get an overview like have somebody evaluate our current policies in the bylaws and any policies we had created outside of the bylaws and gave us a recommendation of policies that we need to implement I have a stack of them ready to go um we can't really start until after town meeting makes a decision but to your point about the AG taking the full 90 days I actually think they will but we have a place to start so benefit has their will have their own section all and there's actually a list of policies that we need to implement or change so I guess I guess my my question specifically is upon the AG's approval the town needs to be able to implement the new policies immediately correct is three is three months from town meeting going to be enough for the Personnel committee and the select board to take all the actions necessary to get that done I think so they understand that they have a time frame here and that we have to have these structures in place and I've already started working on it okay otherwise there's a gap and you risk not having any any governing Personnel policies bylaw or Personnel policies in place and that wouldn't be a good place to be so I just wanted to make sure that that's enough time for you to get everything done and be ready to roll once the AG approves we've been planning for that Margaret just to follow just to continue on on that thought process um there's three people on the board right now one of them's a finance committee person the other two are sort of I don't know who they're select board appointees board is that who they're nominated by so then we have this three-month thing and it finally gets approved then the employees are going to have to vote for their employee rep the bylaw employees pass the bylaws the bylaw employees would vote to elect if it was passed I I said the wrong word the the Personnel manual like how's that process going to work so we have to if it's passed we can anticipate that this will happen until we get the AGS notification that they've approved it we can warn people but we we don't know until the AG has approved the bylaw employees if it passes the way it pass the way it's written um they would take a take their they need to take a moment to be able to do that um do do an election for that and then join the Personnel committee um to begin working with them but if you read through here there's still questions related to the composition and some of the questions that indicated changes that you see right now came from Personnel reviewing this last week I I do like the way the um I do like the way section A has been redlined to um improve Clarity of the appointing authorities yep certain members that's that's much better than it showed before well we had comments I had received comments from Julie I had my own thoughts on it and I give personel board a lot of credit they sort of tore this section apart and I took that to council the next day and she made some changes um and then once I pulled this back into a warrant um our lead counsil lead general counsel reviewed it again so there's some she made some tweaks in it the comments that were there are still there but we also have comments from labor Council Jane fredman on on some of the things she thinks we need to pay attention to theoretically this could change before town meeting we could have something that ends up slightly different and it may just be in this composition section um Personnel Board my feeling and you can certainly ask David Sharp he was he was working with everybody that day we were discussing it um my feeling was is they had a lot of questions about this um but the main framework here to to your point earlier is to create the ability to have a Personnel manual because in order for us to be legally compliant we have to make a change like this we aren't legally compliant with many of the policies that exist on a state and federal level um well I guess I'm just curious where exactly does it say that we until we adopt the certain policies where does it say that we don't just continue with the ones whatever they are that are on the books like Margaret why are we saying that we're gonna be in the void I mean I understand it's supposed to take effect July 1 it's in the beginning of the article it's in the question become effective on process within this bylaw is a process for us to come up with the personnel adop it's in section 357 adoption of personnel rules and regulations so right now all the Personnel rules are in the bylaw that exists so when this bylaw gets approved that bylaw goes away yes you have nothing no rules right because the old rules were replaced by this and this has no rules in it yeah that was my only concern a gap between the two right right um so the person board could just take the old bylaws put them in a manual put manual on the front and approve that have that in place until you get the new or something but I guess I'm saying is the you're saying all those things were in the B but the B doesn't contain the menual which is the problem yeah it's a problem well it would be a problem if the manual is not ready to be implemented on the AG's approval do we currently have no manual at all no manual all everything is in a bylaw and that's why it's so Arcane do anything so really the idea is to kind of strip everything out of a bu get a manual together the collectively all of our summers are ruined that and can you can you approve um sections of a of a manual so like do you have to wait until every section is done to like if you have nine of the 10 things that are going to be in the manual all done except you can't agree about the Personnel appointing authority well there are going to be some important things to have in place for for example the grievance procedure I mean there there are going to be a number of things that are going to be important to be ready to roll with I don't think the manual has to be complete in its entirety in fact um the table that was included in the thing from the Callin Center there the town already has zero policies on many things correct so I mean if that hasn't caused harm that's fine but if you if there are if there are certain Provisions that are in the current bylaw that are being eliminated and you don't have something to replace them um I think it's I think it's important to um to not risk having a gap so right now the the framework I've given Personnel in the past few months is we take all the benefits and the policies that currently exist in the bylaw slap them into the manual and start there we as you note Margaret the Colin Center review indicates several things that we don't have those are policies we can incorporate the main pieces that I think you're concerned and I may be hearing this wrong Margaret but I think your concern is not having certain things available like the benefits you know our FMLA we actually don't have an FMLA policy we just reference the federal law um so this is what I mean yeah it's you're absolutely right anything in the C that's covered in the current VI like we pull that right out and make that that's what I mean this isn't that's exactly what we should do is take what we have use that for now and then we can take time to make changes but certain certain things I have some drafted policies so those can be incorporated much more quickly and there's standardized Pol you know this almost better than I do there's standardized policies we can get from any number of our peers that can fit and be tweaked it's got to be ready to roll with them exactly I'm not unaware of that I'm I let let me be clear I'm not unaware of that go ahead Mark May motion the question have a second voting only on to call the question everybody in favor of calling the question all those are opposed that doesn't pass so we can keep talking about it oh that was three abstaining I'm sorry so my conern that's three I only got six what did you vote did you vote Yes or no no you voted no okay so three four zero okay all right um I probably should preface this but I I I don't think we're any wor off I think that we should just vote this and continue to make changes Casey suggestion was perfect we could just take the existing bylaw put it in as the current that's that's that's all we have right now and you know continue to refine us but I don't think we're any worse off by more to the point this is all personel board except for the financial implications that we would have interest in yes but what we're doing is micromanaging the Personnel for it's [Music] true I think there are financial implications that that the personel W have policies in place but yeah yeah the details of I think they're aware of that I think you're just yeah you're cracking a whip um Essen to the Personnel Board and the select board to point out that we need to get cracking on this 90 days after town meeting with to yeah right away yeah and then have it ready to go when they say yes we bless you it exactly have pending their approval yep any other like within the the description of the the bylaw the proposed bylaw there any other points so there's a you have a question personal board hasn't voted this have they or have they I um don't know she can hear you because you're yeah I think we um there was some changes that you were making after our last meeting yes what you see here is those changes right uh because you had discussed a five going making sure it's stayed at a five member board um the discussion about the elected member from the bylaw employees that was conveyed to Town Council and you'll see there's comments in here about that um to I think is a question I'm I think I'm hearing Julie ask um personnel has to have a hearing on both the compensation plan and this proposed change they have it on the 23rd unfortunately that's the only time that they can meet before town meeting to address their recommendation on this so it won't carry in the warrant it will carry in the guide perfect any other discussion on I would like to observe that subsection e under Section 357 does give the select board the authority to act if prompt action is in the best interest the Personnel Board hasn't can't act which I think would cover the uh issue that we keep that we've been discussing about you know if the Personnel Board has not properly prepared by the time this goes into effect the could just say whatever they want but there's another lap for it to fall into three go ahead Casey go ahead Casey to be fair one of the things that came up in my conversation with labor Council was there are times that the select board as the CEOs has to act um one of the responsibilities of the CEOs is to protect you know safety and Welfare of their not only their employees but the residents and the perfect example of having to act was when we had to deal with Co um I don't really think the board is going to act without having conversations with Personnel Board but I hear what you're saying um in some ways I think changes in the composition might mitigate some of those questions but frankly there are times the select board just has to act discussion so um just a question to the group are we okay with approving it as it is voting it as it is or do we want to vote it pending approval by by the planning board or something like that or do we just I'm actually talking myself out of this we can approve it planning board doesn't approve it person Personnel Board sorry one of those people um can we hold otherwise we voted the the afternoon of town meeting yeah you could certainly do that you mentioned there might be a few other changes correct especially in that if I you know I can't say for sure Margaret but there could be I mean it's a general bylaw there could be changes all the way up to town meeting I've seen it happen before um I would hope not but honestly I can't say it's going to be discussion amongst the Personnel Board and potentially the select board if they have changes that they want me to include and I give to Personnel Board for next week then that's also a valid consideration that's why you see so many comments around changes in this in this section of the warrant Casey do you know the time of that hearing I want to say it's 6:15 but don't quote me okay thank you I'll check yeah okay just curious okay does anybody have a motion to table this I'm not suggesting that we do that but I'm like it does seem like it might be good just to vote it after we know what it says we can do it on town meeting do you want to withdraw your motion or do you w to table it I agre I moved it so I will withdraw it all right I think I suck in it you did this all right two for two two for four all right Article Five so Article Five has not been public hearing or did Personnel Board vote on the class comp plan no they're holding the hearings the same day the class comps at six o'clock the um bylaw change potential bylaw change is at 615 um holding it all at once um Casey I'm sorry but didn't we vote this a while ago am I missing something when we when we did the 2% isn't that the same thing you you did but you hadn't held held the hearing we waited to go through the budget process in case anything changed um however you the current bylaw requires it in fact that's one of the reasons there's changes in this proposed bylaw to give us some relief from that because it requires a $400 notice just just to approve a class comp for town meeting okay but just I'm sorry to so to answer the question whoever was you did approve it in December but you didn't I specifically did not ask you to hold the hearing until now because I did not know what the budget season was going to look like okay so in my opinion I'd like to see us go ahead and vote this tonight so that it shows in the warrant approved by or whatever recommended by finance committee and then we can like our vote tonight could be we recommend it you know something like assuming it doesn't change or you know pending recommendation by the Personnel committee and what we've done in the past is if they go ahead and recommend it that piece of it comes out doesn't get printed I will recommend this article as worded subject to Personnel committee approval a second I'll second any discussion four all those in favor opposing sorry I was approve 7 z z beautiful article six can we go back one second on this y it is two and a half percent right two two two it's two I think it's two and a half% from step to step that's been in place all along this is a 2% increase from last year so if you look at the dollar value in each box last year this is 2% more Casey yes is next week's Personnel committee meeting the public hearing on this yes for both of them okay and should should we in future years do that earlier you know what we had to do it twice last year because it changed yeah that's why I waited I know when it needs to happen um it had happened where we did the hearing and then things changed in the budget process and a request went back to Personnel to make a a change to what the cost of living adjustment was therefore the overall classification compensation that was the reason I asked you to wait okay let's move on article six um brend is there going to be a sum of money ice yes um most likely it's going to be around 20 to 25,000 but I I can't I mean that's it I haven't seen any bills from the last two storms so with that said um I'm I'm taking a wild guess but for town meeting I think that if we were to appropriate 20,000 towards it at town meeting we can cover the rest of it with a reserve fund transfer if we need to um just don't know what that number is going to be yet so that's going to be from free cash no it's going to be from the uh Smith Boke appropriation from FY 24 because we had only one student and I think we were planning on four or five okay so let me ask a question Brenda if we want to change that from a sum of money to say 25,000 I think the recommendation from Council is going to be to identify the funding source if you know there are times that she tells us not to identify funding sources but in this case um I I I'm throwing it out there you and I have talked about it right but if you want me to change the sum of money I could certainly add add that particular item including on top of available funds just because then you want you sort of pull that out for people to look at sounds great do you want is it 20 or 25 let me talk to Diane in the morning and see what she has for bills okay it's pretty low no matter what it is I me compared to years P oh yeah definitely right so are we voting on so we we don't have a motion sound like shouldn't mov it on article seven we have a motion I'll make a motion to recommend article s is written second discussion comments uh well you can see it's three different um sets of bills uh the first one is uh a number of bills for um Laboratory Testing Services for the old Deerfield wastewater treatment plant facility that uh apparently never got to us uh for fiscal year 23 and so that amount there the 17268 would be coming from stew Enterprise uh retained earnings the next section is having to do with uh the fair labor standards act in regards to overtime um uh a miscalculation from previous years that we've now corrected by going two years back and that amount is $397 120 to come from scams retained earnings and then the last one uh was was a publication cost from last year that we had requested um payment from another company and they have refused to pay it so we are are um on the hook for it for $ 37664 and that would come from free cash any questions or discussion all those favor that's unanimous 700 article 8 make Mo article is written second um you want to does anybody have any questions on this all those in favor that's unanimous 700 Z article nine article n is that's the have a motion line by line make a motion to recommend article nine is written second um do we want to recommend it up to I forget any discussion just a question um it it it indicates such amounts are designated under requests in the Omnibus budget as shown in the report of the finance committee yes is that's what it always shows instead of recommendations right uh I don't remember it's Bren there's both on this page there's requests and recommended yeah it's a separate report I you know what I was going to actually was going to print that for you tonight and I Didn't Do It um yeah Casey what have we done from year to year Trev Trev recommended FY there were three columns F this is from FY 24 FY 24 requested and the right hand column is fy2 24 recommended okay but in the the bot it here I think this is the she you guys want to wait to vote this until we see the table and make sure we agree kind of like to do that okay you withdraw the motion yep um any everybody's good okay article 10 make a motion to recommend article 10 is written second any discussion um the budget sheet the SE Enterprise fund has reeven you oh never mind I got it two numbers added together yeah yeah 5,000 out of it any discussion all those in favor that's unanimous 700 article 11 make motion approve article 11 is written second any discussion this is the number we just talked about 444 368 yeah oh those in favor post minute to read it oh I'm sorry second I you ready any discussion all those in favor that's unanimous 700 article 12 make a motion to recommend article 12 is written we have a second second and this 105,000 all comes out of the skm's budget that we've voted no so um so the station retain y the station alert system is going to come from from we what was currently uh what's what it's currently a capital appropriation in the general fund for 30,000 and and the revenue Source or the funding source for that was out of the rent stabilization fund at one point in time and then The Intercept vehicle is estimated to be $60,000 44,000 of that is coming from the current appropriation for the monitors the cardiac monitors because of the Federal grant we got to pay for one of those and the remaining 16,000 will come from retained earnings and then the last item is for the EV charger and that's considered um a part of the building so that will come from this from the rent stabilization fund as well so those are all considered FY 24 expenditures um there is one last Capital item for scams and that will come from the rest of the retained earnings and that will be in the table that will go in the next article when when um that is complete which is the list that you have or the spreadsheet that Casey gave out earlier I hadn't put that table in because the board still needs to talk about it uh Mark's going to sit with them tomorrow um we did some Brenda and I did some work on that today um this allows the use of retain earnings covers three about that for a sec and um go um finish up article 12 first I have a question yeah so this doesn't have to get split between the three towns because because it's some of it is coming from the rent stabilization fund which the other towns yeah we hold that I mean that's that's ours um 75% of the lease payments that they pay the town of Deerfield going into the rents fund so it'll come out of that and then the rest of it is um coming either out of retained earnings or out of um the previous already split up so therefore it doesn't have to be voted by the other towns because it's all right here gotta sorry say makes sense any other questions ohing there's you saying these are technically 2024 expenditures yeah I you know um yeah so they have nothing to do with the 2025 cap skins cap well no it's it's so The Intercept vehicle needs to be purchased now so that we can have it in eight months or whatever and um there's a the station alert system you know we already have 30,000 appropriation and and that's something that needs to be instituted fairly quickly so might as well just reallocate and then the charger maybe that could have waited till FY 25 but it's in here and it's fine not 202 what's that these are not 2025 skims Capital well it's the skims capital right how does this is 2025 right you hand it out yes I did yeah it's it's showing as FY 25 but it's you're right some it is FY some of I did that really quickly this afternoon um just to get something in your CH anybody have questions on article 12 or on how this relates to it no no further discussion all those in favor unanimous [Music] 70 Article 13 we don't have the table um let's talk about the table for a minute before we do a motion in case we decide we there was a handout with the table Yeah and um this is one of the items that we hadn't voted yet for the amount of free cash that was going towards capital okay so let's everybody has this colorcoded sheet let's work from that it it was on the table so if we look at this color coded table my understanding is if you work down at the third line down is highlighted in blue that's going to come from a grant grants don't require town meeting so vote so there we're going to remove that your plan is to remove that from the table Yeah so so the bloody Brook Culvert replacement um it's coming it's coming from an MVP Grant which the town does not vote on right right I think the MVP Core group has to address it but it went through the entire Capital process of approval Capital approved it but I don't think it requires a vote by Town Meer the grant is exist because uh what happens is a 2.0 pro uh process allows us to have I think it's 32,000 we have left in that process I have no idea well that's a question for money is set aside money has been set aside to do a seed project and this depending on our MVP vote to recommend to the select board um you know this is where we were thinking the 25,000 was going to come out of that 32 that we already have cash in hand um so it's part of the it's part of the 2.0 it's and that was a total $90,000 Grant and they gave us 45,000 up front right okay and I believe there's 32,000 left after we pay you know Wayne and Chris Curtis oh I see right and and we finished the process we're going to have like 30 2,000 left for a seed project and we believe that we're going to be recommending the seed Project B the replacement of the culbert right so it doesn't require town meeting vote okay and it so it doesn't require a town meeting vote it just it's a recommendation to the select board I mean Tim and I are both on the MVP committee so what we're doing is bringing it to the select board to do a formal vote well I will vote it down yeah anyway we got too much water downtown and we're trying to move it out and so all right let's move on um so storm water Asset Management Grant match that one also it's an existing special fund yeah okay so that won't be in the warrant when we see it the next one down the two yellow ones that are crossed off those are actually coming from the y 24 wastewater treatment plant budget so they even though they were big enough projects that Capital needed to approve um they're being spent out of the operations okay I 20,000 is not happening at all is that right I have no idea think that right P what that 20,000 just isn't happening right that was looking at piping down to the old water no it is happening huh it is happening it has to otherwise they don't get water to the system Trevor so was that a change because we were going to hold off on that they don't if they fix the piping they won't have water unless they fix this piping no all right I'm going to regroup on that unless I'm missing something completely we're holding off on that but all right I'll follow up yeah it's yeah I think it was crossed out because it was going to be in the FY 24 budget but I thought we were holding off on that but anyways I'll follow up on okay this is part 500,000 that they're doing for the new piping right no that was uh that was other engineering we were doing already for for that the 500,000 GA is paying for okay I just keep keep keev in the loop CU I I think he's set to purchase things if he needs to I also going to reach out Kevin had submitted This months ago Trevor I think it's already happening because it was all supposed to be on until we did the project down there but okay okay I'll follow exra water right yeah I yeah until the plant was gone okay unless something changed and we had to do something and that I could have missed it but all right I was the stuff that's being crossed off like that we're not considering are we when we vote are we voting like like so for example if we don't know whether this is happening or not does that matter when we're voting no because we were I think we were talking about it being as part of the 24 budget not the 25 already had money we already had money set aside for it so this does not change the items that still appear on the capital plan for FY 25 right regardless of whether or not we're doing this it's not going to matter for the warrant okay good all right wait a minute so we're on the green one so the green one is zero so it seems like it doesn't need to be in there right um yeah okay so if we look at just the free cash column we've discussed these before we've got 72,000 for air conditioning in the elementary school 177,000 for Server replacement here and 12,000 500 as um part of a match for a grant for a senior center van um the Deerfield portion of that um so why don't we just so we have it documented go ahead and um have a motion on that 10,500 from free cash I'll make that motion we have a second I'll second discuss okay any discussion on just the free cash dollar value so we're not voting the article we're just voting that this is how much we want to take from free cash per capital yeah these are all the same items that you looked at the last month um that we had agreed that would be coming out of free cash it's just you're taking a formal vote now just like cipc okay with it y yes any discussion no all those in favor that's unanimous 700 z um so I see two other items that you need to recommend on this list and that would be the uh sewer uh wastewater treatment plant truck that's a replacement so they can do their own snow removal and the replacement stretchers you've covered all the rest of the items in article 12 okay so um that sewer truck we've already approved the SC Not scams Waste Water Treatment Plant budget and this is included in that right budget discussion right so the the truck is coming from retained earnings so this is a separate item this will be in the capital article Article 13 correct anybody like to make a motion for that 42,600 for the truck move we recommend 42,000 I recommend that we move 42,000 for a sewer department truck 42,600 42,600 from retained earnings for the sewer department truck we have a second second Beautiful any discussion is it just for snow removal no they're going to turn in the other truck they'll use it for everything else they'll use it for everything else and they'll turn in the other truck it'll be used for transferring people back and forth between the two uh wastewater treatment facilities and also Snow movable the chemicals and stuff like that that they have to drive maybe we should change the description on you well John remember we approved um a truck last year and they bought a new truck or the year before they bought a new truck last year but it's not it's not um adquate to um do snow removal so they were going to turn it in and buy a truck that they could do snow removal and yeah so they got an F-150 it's not a big enough truck to do snow removal they got a great tradein price on it so the total cost of the F350 after the trade in is $42,000 that they're going to pay out of Enterprise fund money yeah it's very disappointing that they just bought the truck last year and that they're changing their [Music] person good thing that used vehicles have retained their value well yeah yeah I'm with you though yeah no I don't know anybody know what an F350 costs when you buy it only three times this close it's at least 80 and that's before any special cabs and stuff what any discussion anybody yeah I guess because this question may be asked at an information session or a town meeting um what was the cost of the truck last year and what's the tradein for it wow I want to say we allocated 32,000 to it I think that's right and I think they're getting 28 is that right I can't remember for sure okay it it really wasn't it was the training was very good okay yeah that actually just improved my it's very gr it's worth it's worth it's worth stating that yeah we can we can get the exact numbers but yeah Kevin Kevin will be a made money on the trading no no he lost about we had a $4,000 expense for using it for a year so we rented a truck for a year that's good trade in values $ 28375 oh well I was close yes wow that's great I I I did a quick look up Googled it and it's like 52,000 for 350 for 350 oh maybe it's with a plow it all depends yeah yeah I right yeah so it's a double double winged plow yeah time they've been working it will save some overtime for the you know Highway crew plowing all right all those in favor passes 700 Z and what else do we need to vote the stretchers stretch the stret they are 35 and that will take up the rest of the retained earnings um as you remember we're we're spending 80,000 in retained earnings for the budget and then 355 for the stretcher and 16,000 for the vehicle I believe that takes us to like I don't know 32,000 maybe or 1315 and we had 1 33,400 in retained earnings 397 of it will be spent for the overtime um payout that was in article three I believe okay do we have a motion for 355 for replacement stretcher I move that we authorize 35,500 from schems retained earnings for a new stretcher any discussion is that just a single stretcher it's a single or is it yes it's a single one I'm pretty sure it's okay they're very expensive okay so it was one that one that they needed to replace out of okay any discussion all those in favor that passes 700 okay so Article 13 will wait to vote until um I don't think you've voted the alert system you just have to vote the alert system too uh um I don't know that was that was voted as part of 12 that's in 12 yeah all right the rest of this is in 12 all right y yep it's in 12 okay no that's fine okay so we're not going to vote 13 but we've already voted everything it's in 13 so when we see it we can vote it article 14 you have a motion I'll make a motion to approve article 14 as written um we can discuss it yeah I uh we have a a new table um Casey you didn't get a chance to put that in there um I'm going to talk to Kathy tomorrow but I understand that we have probably no CPA projects for this year that is so it's a flat 46,000 to open Reserve or open space 46,000 to Historic Reserve 46,000 to community housing probably 23,000 to operating expenses because that's the max you can put to operating expenses and then that leads 299,000 that'll go into a budgeted Reserve that can be spent before uh the before the tax rate is set yeah clarify that um I believe the CPC voted to approve considering an fy2 or project at the fall Town special town meeting because it's not not ready so I don't know if so so that will just that will leave these this um as it is right so when the fall town meeting comes and they have project for the fall town meeting you would allocate money out of the budgeted Reserve out of the UN undesignated fund balance and wherever else anything that was in the specific line item like if it's historic re restoration or preservation right whatever is in there could also be used okay thank you so are we waiting for a table or is this the information is this all the information that we need for f um I'll put the T I'll update the table yeah she sent me the Motions but I didn't I didn't have the Motions in time to put them in the table Brenda okay got it so it's the way I just read it hold on no I I put those in the table that's in the S Drive remember I couldn't find it honest to God I was looking really so I have it I think I have it I'll show it to you dra my motion all right because I said it article as written okay okay and we're not going to vote that right yeah okay all right we will skip this one Article 15 oh I move to accept or to recommend this article as written cash flow [Laughter] baby okay discussion great idea the people in that office all set the deal with it y yeah yep it feels like it's going to be a lot more work I don't think it'll be a whole lot more work because um you're going to be sending out two two tax bills in one envelope um this just the the first two are going to be preliminary right that's yes understand it um Sarah has done some research on it and she's all on board okay yeah the first Year's probably going to be a yeah it'll be it'll be be a learning experience yeah for everybody for everybody yeah other discussion all those in favor passes 610 no um who abstains nobody abstains left yes he's not here uh 510 no who I posted only because I think it's GNA be a lot more work for her but I'm not like I don't care that much so it's fine I'd have to think about it harder if anybody else was discussing it um article six I move that we hold on voting this um so have time to read the information second B disentangling the Tilton fund and the Tilton mind board um and trying to nail down how many members each board is supposed to have we did get the summary tonight yeah that's okay okay he can give you the summary this has been back and forth between the town attorney and the library attorney really have any Financial as far as I know [Music] it is so I actually wrote down terminology for thator I don't think that has any Financial impact but it certainly has operational impact because we keep trying to straighten this out it'll reduce our legal p here's a possible probably big enough I I think the impact is we don't want to pay any lawyers any more money this is V so if we decide there's no Financial impact there's possible wording for dealing with that um does anybody think there's Financial impact on this I haven't read it yet oh okay but then again all right I'd defer to others that have read it yeah I I did read it when it came out out a few weeks ago and all of those lawyer commas are in there despite my best efforts I hate legal grammar yep thas don't mean what you think they Julie asked if hcom could see a copy of the letter when deliberating the article is this is a memo emailed us is this is the letter right the memo we add the letter as explanation to the morning that was exactly how it was conveyed to the select board okay so we'll only discuss it tonight if somebody makes a motion if nobody wants to make a motion nobody wants to make a motion we will talk about this next time we meet also I don't know no we have no deadline we're gonna get through everything by by gosh I figured on 8 or 8:30 tomor I would Happ we have no additional meeting scheduled so we'll have to come up with a time because next Monday's Passover we decide we didn't want to meet Passover we're powering through this let's keep going all right article 17 we have a motion I will move to recommend article 17 as written any discussion so this this in effect adds a member who is an ad for affordable housing or community housing correct that's all it does okay and takes out theion the Housing Authority which we couldn't come up with right okay so seem pretty strict is there likely to be any Financial impact from this at all um I have to play Dum what does the Community preservation committee do it decides on all of the projects that are are being done with our community preservation funds the CPA the open space the historic and the community okay y so stuff in article 14 is govern yeah we're just um what we're trying to do there's a house Housing Authority um position but we don't have we only have a Regional Housing Authority so what we're placing replacing that is with someone who has interest in housing so that they can we don't have Quorum issues for the CPC because right now there's no no one is filling that position it hasn't it since we've started the CPC and for more than 10 years so do you think we vote on it or does it have find okay all right let's vote I think CPC has enough of a financial impact that it's not weird for us to vote on it okay in my opinion yeah I agree I'm not the only opinion I think this makes it makes a lot of sense you're going to get real represent real local representation on the committee right any other discussion all those in favor uh that's unanimous 600 article 18 I'll make a motion to approve article 18 the second second what is the Alice probity I'm sorry it's the it's that small barn that's right behind used to be attached to to the Old Highway garage many many moons ago right behind the new building that they just put in right near the new Pro property the new one okay off mergan way where this was right un discuss um NOP is there a perspective use for it yeah hoping to sell it to New Pro okay yeah new Pro is yeah new pro has expressed interest in it um and so we're going to talk about I guess the DPW currently uses the building that's there to store stuff that they almost ever use but new Pros expressed possible interest in replacing the building but they want the land so that they can beautify their property and it would put it on the tax rols they don't want to look at the broken down garage basically impr discuss no guys ready all those in favor it's unanimous 6 Article 19 um there there wasn't a dollar amount into this and Casey and I were talking about this today I I thought the select board indicated that they wanted to use 600,000 and then if we didn't spend all of that it would go into free cash okay and then we transfer back to um or or we get another payment from the state we'll transfer it back in the fall right anything back into so um so we didn't want to be presumptuous and put a number in here until you were at the meeting tonight and could make a decision or or could tell us that you definitely wanted that we do I think we do based on the fact that we got more issues so so the dollar value y all are recommending is 600,000 the stabilization yes and will read that General stabilization yep and it will work require 2/3 yes how much is in general stabilization now a million almost a million five so I would like to has anybody I'm going to just make a motion see if you guys agree with me I would like to move that the finance committee recommend Article 19 up to $600,000 taken from General stabilization I'll second that and then the thought would be if this ends up saying a something 600,000 or less and it comes from General stabilization you don't have to put that in the recommendation it would just say finance committee recommends and it'll be a specific amount in the in the motion anyway yeah and that way it can be the the when this gets posted it'll have finance committee recommended in it you have to say any money left over goes back to General stabilization where does it well they're saying it's going to go to free cash so don't say that it has to go to free cash it has to go to free cash so you can vote it to go back to stabilization in the fall otherwise it goes to free cash well it goes to free cash you go to free cash till we can vot it to move yes okay gotta take a trip so yeah mark your calendars every trip around the world back so what what that does though which is fine if we decide that is that it puts trust in the select board that the select board will spend it appropriately because they could um I mean we could get another million dollars or something from the state and they could spend a million six on road repairs and move on but they're going to be this is trusting that they will be responsible people which and the only reason we're doing this is because we're refunding the you know resending the borrowing author that we bought so hard for so you know we'd love to we have so much more to do but you know we'll we'll walk that battle another day when we have to do some more work no that's an article 20 yeah correct that's why this one's first if this passes then we're going to resend the entire 5 million otherwise we pass the first descending first and then they voted the second one down got a $600,000 holding right I'm hopeful we'll get another distribution but I don't know if it's going to happen before June 30th and I don't know how much it's going to be I mean it's it's a formula is unknown from ANF on how they came up with our percentage to begin with so is this 600,000 something that's already been spent basically yes yes but and it's a sidewalker construction but is it mostly just Road okay it's almost all roads well I wondered why it says sidewalk because that also is a like a riger word that was part of the wording of the original that was the original wording fair enough right yeah just to cover any sidewalk stuff that we did okay any discussion you guys okay with it going to free cash and then yep that's what has to happen right all right all those in favor that's unanimous 6 article 20 make a motion to approve article 20 is is written second so it's it's open-ended there resend um a portion or all and as as Tim pointed out um it's kind of dependent on the vote in front of it if if if Article 19 passes it's going to be five million all five million is GNA go and is it required to have a two3 vote how much to resend the borrowing author Authority I I don't know that it it I don't think it does maybe maybe that was intended to be on 19 casy I think 19 needs a two3 did it require two3 did it require two3 at town meeting to um to pass the borrowing Authority and move it on to the election typically it requires the same Quantum vote it was at town meeting it was twoth thirds at town meeting and simple majority by the electric electorate yeah same Quantum vote that was required that's why I thought I had the same Quantum vote Margaret okay I could be wrong maybe Lisa will tell me I'm wrong yeah I I don't probably be easy to get two-thirds and two3 yeah I can't imagine that anyone have a problem with it somebody will no doubt so we ready well they're probably will be some pointed questions about why did we approve this and then yeah all right any any further discussion on article 20 there's in favor that's unanimous 600 article 20 1 that's a home petition home petition for 16 and 17 year olds to be able to vote my first question is whether this has financial implications I think it has operational implications yeah fin they'll vote on the budget well this because they when like this will the voting right 16 and older will move like they're kind of separate right now on separate pages that'll move together so it's not so yes yeah what does this mean so somebody in town submitted this and correct does it just have to be a single person just writes in no I think there's 15 people have to get together I think in request okay so they had a sign like there's a yes they had to do a full-on petition it was reviewed by Cassie Cassie Town yeah the Town Clerk and then by Town Council that it was properly done and was there like I mean maybe there's no financial implications but was there reasoning for this so yes so the uh there's been a lot of work going on at there's been a lot of work going on in the governmental classes at Frontier and there's been a group of students and uh some teachers getting together and wanting to um promote um education and voting and uh Town governance um they wouldn't be able to vote any state or anything it's just local and really all this does is push this to uh the state other towns have passed it in the Commonwealth but the the state legislature has not taken any action they're hoping that if enough Towns come together the state legislature will finally take some action on it and allow children uh people from 16 to 17 to be able to vote just on local municipality stuff like elections or budgets s of that but not any like you know presidential elections so I'm still understanding what the vote's for but so if this passes still nothing happens unless the state approves it that's correct legis approves that's correct yep legislation would have to take action they haven't so far I don't know if we ever had an election where it's Municipal and state or national on the same ballot they're not are really not cannot in that case you're going to have to be prepared to hand out two ballots right there would have to be a ballot for the children yep there would have to be a separate Municipal ballot the local and state election ballots they'd have to be on separate days you can put yes they can't vote on a regular they couldn't come in and vote on that Ballot or separ or or you would have in order to make it efficient you could print local election ballot and a a federal and state election ballot and the 16 and 17 year olds would only get one and the rest of the people would get two I don't know this is another question that probably State legis you would have legislation yeah would have to deal with this you actually have to have you have to have two checkins I mean I don't know if Cassie has weighed in on this yet but I'm sure that she'd be able to weigh in on this from a very practical perspective a lot of things that have to happen when you separate pass it get it'll get very expensive for the local communi when we go to implement it no doubt the original question do we ever have them on the same day I can't think they can be held on the same day um you can actually place a local if if I if I'm it's been a while but um if I'm remembering correctly you can actually um put a local question on a state election ballot as long as the state requirements for doing so right we have it so we were really unhappy because the library vote had to be its own day and we had to do a whole separate Library vote day which cost us another election because we didn't get it together in time to get it on the ballot that we were voting anyway and I can't remember what we were voting for but yeah yes that's exactly right because they missed a deadline ju has to be in really early it's like July or something for November yeah it was the beginning of August yeah so this is a potential cost of 2,000 yes r a separate election well 2500 kudos to the The Advocates uh the petitioners for this because it is we do need young people to to get involved I I my own that's my personal opinion however there are practical implications financial implications lots of them do we think the term municipal election in your means for municipal offices or does it mean voting at Town meetings for budgets and another really good question because in order to qualify to vote a town meeting you have to be a registered voter in the town so how do you separate you know one one from the other it's a a lot of things to consider okay so I think we've established that there's financial implications like make a motion for this repeat that please a motion so we can vote would anybody like to make a motion on article 21 I'll make a motion on article to approve article 21 we can discuss it okay we have a second a second yeah all right any discussion have somebody presenting yeah Frozen about this well they can do that at town meeting I'm sure they plan to right don't you think that someone will speak to this at town meeting doubt well I mean for like right right right that's probably part of the yeah I've raised two kids I'm not sure either of them would have been competent to make to vote when they were 16 let alone 17 I know honestly they are has Cassie does Cassie have the ability to reach out to her peers um especially in those towns that have um approved it or who have taken it up uh to find out if there is any documentation that could be presented to town here so the only ones that I think have approve this are cities that do not have to have the same level because a city can approve something that doesn't necessarily have the same scrutiny they have a different approval process from what council tells me um Cassie does have the ability to reach out and she already has um I don't know exactly all the information she's gotten but she was cautious about this without putting words in her mouth it it's a Citizens petition I'm just saying it's another issue is why Why not start with 17y olds maybe that's a political decision but um well I think part of the thinking is that you can get a driver's license at 16 oh and um and as to the the quality of a person's mental capacity to vote that's ageless as far as I'm concerned yeah but I I I beg to differ I mean there are probably things that teams specifically you know uh you might question their Jud 19-year-old is very different from 17y old yeah yeah well everybody anyway that's it's not something we brought forward it's something that residents brought forward in a you know a civic-minded way and people can differ yeah it be nice to quantify the the financial the financial implications of this it's hard to is that really how we would vote on it based on the cost of an election well no because I think there I mean there's more than that financial implications I could say about I don't yeah you it Finance so at town meeting that vote is definitely not purely on finan um the discussion we've had in the past within finance committee is that when we're voting on things we're voting on them through a financial lens so we're looking at the the financial impact on the town including the town's people so there could be something that may not directly affect in budget but it affects but there's always a judgment value call on financial decisions yeah absolutely otherwise we just vote everything down because we don't everything has a financial negative impact it's well no it's whether it's worth the money right we vote on the budget we decide all the stuff that's presented on the budget is worth the money that we're spending what worth whatever it would cost to do additional elections or whatever you have figure out well that brings up an interesting question what actual benefit is supposed to come from this other than kids at Frontier feeling like they're participating well citizen engagement me a pretty strong argument that seniors in high school have been exposed to enough that they should be able to vote given how much of their Liv is impacted by elections I mean where that line goes down I don't know but 18's arbitrary so um yeah are the petitioners presenting something and writing a head of town meeting on this do we know I have not seen anything okay I was going to reach out and see if they had contacted Dan to see if he was going to allow anyone to speak to it um I think it was Jessica Corbin from the school committee in Sunderland that was behind this so we can just ask her for what she's presenting to Sunderland uh because it's on sunderland's ballot I believe I mean you know um more okay if she's willing to do them yeah if she's willing to speak I personally do not feel like there's sufficient upside to counter pretty much any class I and I my opinion but yeah that's just me and I suspect there's going to be sign ific um financial implications both operationally and well operationally and for materials running of the elections you know two separate elections at times and uh so yeah I I we don't know what the financial implications people know there will be financial implications but they could be minor we don't know no I suspect you think it's GNA be a lot to hand out two pieces of paper no it's not only that because the clerk is responsible for maintaining the entire voters list on a state database so she's going to have to find a way and again she she'd need to talk to cities that have adopted this to find out how they're managing it but she'd need to maintain two separate two separate list in the Veris system I think she's I think she'd have her hands full with it well you know a lot of I would want assumes that the state which who which has to approve this would um come up with a system that says okay 16y old person is on a on the Electoral role and they obviously age one year from the date of their birth every year and that the software would be upgraded to transition them into a registered voter but this is there's a lot of questions about this is it happening anywhere in the state do we know already it's been approved and yeah approved in um like Cambridge and and several other implement it not Implement because the legislature is not taking any if the legisl takes it up are they going to do it for individual towns or Statewide I think they would do a Statewide oh well then it's G be a while yeah just what they're looking for is enough of a momentum from the communities local to make this a issue for them on the state level right now nobody's really addressing it so there's a group my understanding is this group is trying to get it approved in as many communities across the Commonwealth as possible so that there is pressure on the state to do some kind of okay so there's no Financial impact on us on this town next year or the year after most likely so I would make a motion that we uh either table this because we don't have enough information to take a vote well the town's going to vote on it on town I understand that but this whether we have a recommendation about the fin cial impacts of this right is our role and I guess I'm suggesting we as John has said we really don't have a lot of information about it but we do know it's not gonna have any impact on next year's budget because it ain't happen well it doesn't matter it's not just next year's budget right no but pretty much this is the recommend okay fair enough I'm voting on next year's budget though I um in my mind okay I'm not not really in favor of this but I also think that I have for clerical so when you get your driver's license at 16 that's when you like register to vote and you get a little thing that says okay you're you're going to be registered to vote when you turn 18 so there is probably like some mechanism there yeah like that it's not too farfetched to see that would have to be implemented at the state still I'm just saying that that's probably part of this whole thing yeah there is like a it's there's a starting Gap there starting the state is going to have to oh the state would have to do a lot on their vote yeah we have a motion and second on the table to approve this as written so do you want to make a different motion to amend that um no anybody else do we need to discuss this [Music] thing all right all those in favor what are we we are voting on article 21 as written recommending article 21 so approving it recommending it right recommending so all those in favor of recommending article 21 isos all right so that all right so those are all the Articles we've been through it we have I don't know maybe six that we're going to have to go back and look at again after the Personnel boards public hearing which is next Tuesday the 23 what date are we looking at they meet on the 23rd you said oh can I take the moment to suggest that the town calendar should have on the 29th that we're having an annual town meeting at 7 o'clock it should say that it should say that I know it's not on there it's not on there I no and I hesitate to send anything to anyone because I want to think people I'm micromanaging I I noticed that too and I was actually looking up to make sure I had it on the right date in My Calendar Book I was like fun I'll share hey see oh sorry yeah can can we have Kevin put up the signs in town and we're already planning on it but we don't want to do it before the information session which is which is has been scheduled why not because we want people to go to the information session Trevor well you still need to tell them the town meeting is on a certain date we're going to all right we're already talking about it all right let's let's go back to the meeting for a sec um so next Thursday the 25th a week from this Thursday um there is the only meeting is a remote meeting so we should be able to meet in here is anybody available anybody not available that day anybody care what time we meet 5:00 pm works for people is that early 25th five 25th start at 5:30 6m guess I'll definitely be late if it's like I'm gonna be I'm gonna try to come six is probably better for me okay so we have two votes for six I'm fine with it for six 6m it's going to be a little bit shorter we only have a couple more yeah all right what you're gonna meet also at the same time no no I I have a senior housing meeting and ACD Mee we're gonna we're gonna proove yeah we're gonna yeah we're gonna approve our things or not approve our things Tom yeah okay okay so I don't think any needs to Thursday 25th at 6m um so the last thing I have which I was desperately working on this afternoon and don't have together is the information I was going to present this coming Thursday on the budget so there's nothing to vote on and if anybody's sick of talking just leave but I was going to just show you what I have and get feedback on it um like I would't be offended if anybody wants to go that's fine for another thing all thanks bab so I'm just gonna and it's not in order or anything and I'm gonna apologize no this coming Thursday is the um the information session I just wanted if people have feedback or comments um that's at 6m 6 yeah thank you that's this THS the 18th okay okay so here's what I have um in no particular order um so we have the stressers on our budget this year utility costs went up quite a bit benefits and insurance went up quite a bit um Personnel cost Baseline is four and a half% which is the 2% in Cola plus the two and a half percent for step increases and there's contract salaries so whatever aren't those stressors yes these are all stressors that's under the big tit stressors yeah kind of maybe it should be a subtitle well external stressors everything external stressors is stuff went up the insurance went up right and then there's a couple specific changes that I wrote down um there's two key positions that are turning over the accountant and the highway super so we have some additional money in the budget to cover that we are continuing to adjust to decisions that we've made over the past several years like um the assistant Town Administrator adding a planner the clerk and the treasurer split um and the like there's just stuff in the budget increases in the budget that are the number of hours that each of those people are doing and all that kind of stuff so it sort of follow on ramifications of that there's the SK I'll come up with a better way to word this but the skm's new management has come in and wants to get some things in place to operate in a new management man self sustaining manner right here we go oh I like that in a more self sustaining man how about yeah uh the road damage that's not Omnibus budget not that's separate this is this is just on just on the H budget I that was a cost but that is that yeah whatever that's a good point said last year last um I I have that some yeah yeah I don't think that it would be well I don't know because it does feel like you're doing budget um like well does somewhere else we're taking that out of maybe should head that omous budget stresses okay um there's the the past testing and the new test Wells on the test well monitoring thing and then the legal expenses the retainer went up the contract negotiation went up um where this all is so what I did was went through so I went through the budget line item by line item and I looked at the change from 24 to 25 and if it was um over 2 and a half% and over I forget like $3,000 or something then I started and looked at it and these are the ones left in there sorted by the amount of money I combined all the benefits into one so that's $29,000 in benefits I don't oh you changed the screen but we're not seeing it oh I'm sorry that's okay I was like it sounded like you were talking about something different I stop sharing I apologize screen share the whole thing this way I'll end up showing you my email or something but whatever yeah um so here sorry so that's what I did FY 24 fy2 here's the Delta here's the percent increase and then I just sorted it by the dollar value and then I went in and looked at what I thought the reason was behind it which is how I came up with that list I can email this to you if you guys want it it's a bit of a mess oh well when ready it's fre so if we go down by dollar value scems is the what we just talked about Highway payroll there's some turnover money for the new superintendent there's the increased role of the assistant superintendent and then there's like the regular you know contract increase for their payroll kind kind of stuff police payroll is per their contract I don't think there's anything particularly new in there um the accountant salar is the turnover for the new accountant to have the the second person select board staff salaries the assistant Town Administrator got A plus up the planner there's an increase in the planner which looks to me like it's more hours or or something but um it do I think the planner was was standard um the assistant Town Administrator was up a few step a plus up so okay um test wall monitoring we were just talking about the past testing and additional test Ro Wells that were drilled last year the senior center expense went up that was increased retirement um because of increased staff was the biggest part of it um yeah there was also increase actually you know what else is in there is increased work due to the grants that they're bringing in um I should put something okay um Town Building Maintenance the biggest part of that was the utilities it was all like heat water sewer that that was the big increase there Board of Health went up and it sounded like there there was an increase in the amount we're paying each person but most of it is the increase in the hours required because there's more food trucks and there's some backlog of work for reporting some inspections that happened or something Insurance went up the cost of the cruiser went up legal um it was increased labor Council because there's some contracts that are going to come up for negotiation this year and school too right yes yeah at the same time and like the retainer went up also like the the Baseline retainer that we pay um town clerk went up the town clerk went to full-time the assistant clerk part-time so that's more of that working that whole thing out um and select board administrator expense went up for mainly meetings and training um and then there's some decreases uh Board of Health went down because there's grants covering some of the cost street lights went down because we shifted over to LEDs right that's why they went down um treasure collector went down because there was a change in hours TR toown Beach went down because they re oh I can't spell vegetation they restructured how they're doing the personnel with the gate guard thing um and then there's less in there for the ve vegetation mitigation and then we reduce the reserve fund so those are like the major um back to our little PowerPoint thingy so that's how I came up with what I wrote on here that's great okay um here's the split budgeted recurring expenses what I did for this is I took the budget that we had I added schems in to to put it in the Omnibus budget for education I added into education the Smith vul and we have a separate line item that is benefits for educ I took that out of benefits so this benefits is decreased by that amount and added it to education there's a little bit more that something else Medicare insurance uh can be broken out workers comp can be broken out um it just but it's not broken out in our corre our unemployment I mean the schools we don't employment we have to pay upfront and so that actually costs us money when they decide to lay off right right so most of our unemployment costs are due to the school people yeah so Julie there's when you say 61% that's really not the true cost so last so last year I went through and we came up with a number for all that and it it's not huge so it might be like 62% or or something like that I mean I can go I can get a number from you and fix it by Thursday if we want to do that do you have year on year for well not necessarily in a pie you know in P Charge but do you have year on year for growth in each of these areas yep oh boy that that's in our um Financial indicators that we actually also what drives down that percentage is when you added in scams by adding in the scams to the pie chart you are driving down the percentage of the education cost so yeah I it's misleading and I am resentful of that because our budget is truly 68% 67% minimum based on my calculations well there there is so Julie there is a certain portion of our retirement costs in the general fund that are applicable to um School Aids and other Personnel of the school which is about 20 I want to say close to 270,000 right so that so it it could add up to a it does it does Brandon you add up all these things schedule maybe we can touch Bas and you can give me those numbers and I can work them into this also okay thank you because this is the story if you want it right after when I'm fighting for financial aid that would actually be great because then I don't have to figure out tomorrow's schedule I'm I'm not trying to give you a hard time but when I testify to for Rural Aid I'm I'm it is truly close to 70% of our budget when you add in all these costs okay and they are cumulative and and the thing that is really discouraging is the house budget was filed and they are giving us instead of $30 a student they are increasing it up to $104 per student okay however they cut the rural aid from 15 million to 7.5 million which means that we're going to be paying more for our budget right now if that's if we don't get the Senate to up it back up to 15 and the elementary school is using what I think $84,000 of rural Aid to to that's right because we we have been getting rural Aid and they now for the first time Darius put it into the budget and if it's not there it's it's serious actually so I'm sorry it's just as a procedural point um could we adjourn the finance committee meeting and continue with the review of this briefing so that I can lo finish my minutes and leave as a point of personal preference so if only you leaves then we still have a then I will remain no I will remain yeah okay um you can just write I need to send an why don't you just leave no I will just send if we don't vote we're not to V we do have a recording J this and then we're going to adjourn so we can just send you an email and tell you what time we adjourn and who did it and who motioned yeah but y'all will have to promise not to do anything substantive we're gonna vote on everything well we have a recording you can always go back and watch it okay thanks um this is that going to be presented at Tom meeting I hope what's that is that going to be presented at the th meeting I hope so what we've done before is we did like a a long presentation at the whatever this thing on Thursday is and then a really short one at town meeting that's maybe three four five slides um so if I get my act together and get this done I can have the short one for Town ready for us next time we meet how is historically how is the turnout that like on THS state in the past has it been well attended I think really what's important John is it's taped and then Jonathan is from FCAT is very good about making sure it gets posted immediately so people have a chance to review it on the YouTube okay I I don't really think that we get very many people here actually we well at least since 2020 in the pandemic there's been like one or two people here um but most it's on taped and then it's available and I and I think we get quite a few based on people feedback to me people do really appreciate it and I and I'm only giving ju Julie a hard time it's because I'm trying to hustle for more money for schools and you know support it's it's really important to have that Mo pretty high yes we can I'll make a motion to adjourn on meeting in favor I McDaniel I 740 no she's talking about this wait she's talking about this happening the information session that's happening Thursday night oh oh Thursday at six o'clock it's yeah Thursday at six o'clock and is that here yes yes is it on the calendar on the website it is okay it's gonna run hybrid oh there it is yeah I saw that okay six o'clock okay oh okay all right [Music] um here's budget by category percent change I don't know that I'll present this but right just in case anybody's interested in looking at that look at scam well we need that one was big yeah yeah we did so I wanted to say that Sunderland responded saying at moment we saw good the voting thing you mean SC SC scams scam sorry that's okay um this again I'm not really planning on presenting but I was just putting it together I'm looking at it so on the left is the dollar value change on the right is the percent change in each of the categories that we usually look at so General government public safety education blah blah blah um Debt Service and benefits this does not include scems so you can see the percentages in the dollar values if we add up we have education we have benefits and we have debt everything else I put into non-education so that's General government public safety Public Works Human Services culture and rat the dollar value is kind of close to the same education and non-education that we increased from last year um and then the percent change I was think Julie looking for you I was checking I was R and then percent change there the schools have done really really good this year they they have and I I some somehow we have to acknowledge that they've really come fruit through for us yeah they have I mean some sometimes we've had double digit increases in the past well so maybe I leave this in and in that presentation I mean to be fair I'm here I am crabbing about that you're not making the numbers High but I I really feel like the schools have been really really working hard and that's why I want to acknowledge that darus did use the rural aid for the first time because he he always felt that that was not reliable and then have the house come through with a cut to cut it in half is terrible I'm hoping we can get the Senate bill to you know negotiate up this is too much data to present at the meeting I will not be I had this in here just because we would talk about we ended up talking about it so that's that we've seen you a plant could show yeah yeah this is not updated yet so don't look at this yeah so fy2 is them as 24 but what I will put in it is the revenues used for recurring expenses like in big category um this where talked about um you know the dollar amount that were allowed to go up under Two on Two and a Half Y is really important and then the growth dollars so that people understand that between two and a half and our growth I mean we have a couple hundred thousand that's it yeah so under the tax levy calculations there's an increase of 3.49% um the operating budget itself shows an increase of 4.4% so it's showing that the budget growth is outpacing the our ability people just don't yeah people don't don't understand how little money we have to work with from one year to the next year and that's why we're always hustling for more money Margaret I'm just curious and and um you seem to have a good grasp of this so is this like um partially this particular year is this an effect that's happening these percentages you said so scams has gone considerably yeah we this is the first full year of the planner function yeah and we're bringing on a part-time clerk yeah um so once that's all absorbed into this is it going to look like a different animal in the next two years because it's all part of the budget now well that is a yeah that is a layered question because um right now our dependency on free cash this year has increased by I think three times threefold uh from from last year and [Music] um if if we can manage budget growth for example not add any more positions don't see huge increases in health insurance costs you know um and and other big jumps if we can manage those expenses and we can maintain or increase our revenues we're going to see more stability but but the problem is the problem is budget growth outpacing those those recurring revenues yeah but I think the changes that we have we're not going to be talking about new changes for the next year and I and I have faith that Josh will have re will increase revenues for the skem that's gonna that's going to play a big role too we'll have to see how that works out because this year obviously there was a big impact act huge huge and it's not just it's not just skims so but it it's they certainly do take a chunk of free cash yeah yeah um yeah because I mean the the chart that she showed I think it was either 215 or 2 2015 or 2018 we were at like 500 plus and then this year we're at six 690 694 here yeah this one yeah um so at 512 2018 was a big a well probably an adjusted dollars to that would look different but it's definitely variability there yeah so yeah 100,000 of that 694 is Def it's right on SCS yeah and yeah any I say you have a better grash oh no no so the other thing is that Personnel costs are always going to go up more than two and a half percent right and that's why and so the more people we have the bigger problem the faster that problem is going to evidence itself yeah that's you know why I was talking about right okay are we contractually required to give Cola because we no you know and so contracts are all subject to negotiation and at some point it's all sort of come to the point where good intentions and reality will collide and you don't it's not because you don't want to reward people work exactly you know this is the nature of operating under a revenue based budget right right and so that's in my mind an argument for okay well yeah we struggle for this budget but if we go for an override or we just not making ourselves struggle anymore because you know and and I don't have the answer for that either except I would be inclined to struggle several more times before I wanted to do an over unless there was some like major thing like you identify that scandles or whatever but this was this is logical to do but eventually because inflation goes up and mandates come in we're always going to be behind the aall at some point because we'll never be able under two and a half to keep up with all these changes right like Julie said you know even if scams is able to stabilize and become more self-supporting we still have to struggle with Personnel costs it's it's it's the town's obligation to manage Personnel costs and um you really have to you really have to weigh that and if you have so if you have um you have your two and a half percent and you have some new growth on top of that and hopefully you have growth in the local receipts and stuff and so if you add all that up together the hope is that that would somewhat keep up with the Personnel cost and I think what drives you to an override position I think the override is in there for times like right now when we just have we just had a couple years running of big inflation and that that big inflation caused all of our non-personnel costs to go up but it also caused us to give raises that caused like everything to go up so I think that's what should trigger an override more than doing some else you don't take the four and a half% every year been trigger an over eventually will I do I do yeah yeah so I wonder how other municipalities are dealing with that they I mean they must have the same problem we do uh yes I mean some commun a lot of communities are basket cases truthfully we're doing really well by comparison by comparison to some OPM what do they do are they voting overrides or are they not paying their people are not paying their people what their I should say I I think probably both it depends on thee you go to and you have to look at types of overrides too uh so I mean we could get off some sense get exclude that's kind of like a pocket over right so it oh sorry but it's but it's yeah and it's it's finite for the or an override you build a new base yeah exactly and um there one other thing I was gonna ask you about but let me think about keep talking what the um the state's um dashboard what is it called the gateway dashboard they have all that data John if you want to go on the state's dashboard uh Gateway it's um divisional local service Services Gateway they have override data for various municipalities and you can see whether overrides have passed or failed um so it gives all that that good information I I don't think overrides in in the recent past have been very palatable I mean that's just my guess um but there are instances in certain municipalities where they've been able to thoroughly explain the need for an override and people have people have bought in but it takes a lot of work a lot of work to over I'm not ad I keep sounding like I'm advocating for an override I'm not really advocating for an override but I don't feel like we can keep doing what we've been doing especially this year and last year where we are raiding all of our we're we're not putting any significant money into Capital um we're sort of raiding our our funds that are sitting there and we're to the point that we're putting money in I mean that that's very uncomfortable um and I I don't think we should keep doing that so we need to like next year going into it say well we just need to keep that in front of our mind I I think one of the biggest things is climate change is not has not been funded and we are going to have climate impacts the roads themselves have not been funded roads and sidewalks have not been funded for years for many years and we're unable able to fund them through local resources so this is a it like Julie said this is a this is a problem and we we need to um we need to to address to address it right we have to was that um new chapter 90 money was it 119,000 that we yes that that did add add to our chapter 90 what we normally get was maybe 36 right right that's that's a transportation Bond bill that they passed it was a 25 million extra and we got the N turned out to be what 119 or something extra that'll do two miles of road yeah is that is that for this year or the next year no this is for this year have a huge number of miles they also put 150 million towards the small Bridge um program which is we that because that will that program will actually pay for fa for engineering phases as well so that is something that could pay for itself right and I mean you know those are the things that really rural communities the small bridge program is what we live on so but it truly is for small Bridges I know very small I know well some good um I just asked about new Pro and it's getting a 70% deduction in a reduction in its taxes M they still paid $9,888 this year so when they're 100% actually they reach 20% deduction in in three more years I think maybe four right you know we'll be getting significantly more from them and and their assessment will be you know they'll have go up because the building yeah they're still building build that's good news so so I was projecting you know close to $70,000 based on the current valuation if they were paying 100% so that's good yeah I mean and again Bud if the governor's if the governor's um empowerment act passes then you know we'll bring the vote to increase the meals tax and the room tax for another percentage and that so that's an additional Revenue good and we have been really increasing in that single family tax bill we saw this in the um annual report this is single family tax bill in constant dollars so the Orange is what we saw right here no yes so this is dollar value single family tax bill the Orange is in real dollars so I can't find my mouse here it just so you can look if you just just look at the orange you can see that has increased year to year if you include the effect of um inflation thank you um you look at the blue one the single family tax bill has really held pretty steady or even dropped in constant dollars I don't have an inflation oops I don't have an inflation number for this year so I couldn't do it for this year's money it just goes through last year um but that I find interesting um and that that's it that I had prepared the only other thing um you know what I'm not even going to talk about it now we'll do it another time um so that that's what I have together I will I will make it smoother and and digestible by Thursday if anybody has like if you go home and you think of something that I should include sending you know Brenda I'm looking for 68 69% a motion to I make a motion toour I'll second that