##VIDEO ID:O3G3Ly8uV0U## e e e e I don't have any audio Athena Athena I'm getting no volume can you mute yourself I was muted e e I see that Alicia was able to connect to audio but I'm still not hearing any of you oh hello Pat I can hear you but I can't hear anyone else either so I was just kept logging off and back in because I thought it was something wrong with my computer it's nice to hear your voice you too it's good to see you well yeah I'll be on in just a moment okay take your time because I don't know what's going on Pat can you hear us now we can see your lips moving but you're muted I am finally muted probably serves me right um I can hear you can speak we can hear you and I can hear you excellent thank you Alicia can you hear us yes I can hear everyone now okay all right thank you um there's no chat room for this meeting uh if there's technical issues we'll determine what to do at that time uh please if you want to make a comment or ask a question use the raised hand button um and so forth during the meeting there will be one general public comment period the agenda is as presented except for the fact that we will deal with the presentation and discussion items after the action items um just very briefly um if you could put the announcements up on the screen I want to add to them our next town council meeting is on January 13th at 6:30 uh at that time we will have a public forum on Appropriations outside the budget and we will have a regular Town council meeting um there are committee meetings however between now and then um December 17th CRC is meeting at 6 6:30 the finance committee is meeting at on tomorrow the 17th 3:00 um go is meeting on Thursday at 6:30 and again on January 9th and TSO is meeting on December 19th at uh 10 o' and also January 16th I just want to remind you that we do have the Sip and stroll sponsored by the bid this Thursday uh in town from 4: to 7: and also we have the reading of the Quanza Proclamation on December 26th at 5:00 pm on the steps of the town hall there's no hearing so with that we're going to move to General Public comment if you are in the room please make sure that you've signed up with Athena o'keef if you are in the audience and you would like to make General Public comment please raise your hand at at this time in the zoom audience in a moment I'll ask how many people we have for public comment but not yet meantime public comments on matter are matters within the jurisdiction of the Town counsil residents are welcome to express their views and I'll decide on how long once I know how many people are going to comment the council will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during general public comment public comments are not reflective of the opinions of the Town Council I do want to draw attention to the fact that once we close take the agenda off the screen there's a clock the clock will let you know when you are at 30 seconds out and also 15 the First Amendment broadly protects individual rights to address the government to speak and to express themselves including their right to say hateful and offensive things I am generally unable to shut those commenters down under the First Amendment to the US Constitution unless their level of speech Falls within an exception articulated by the courts such as fighting words true threats to a particular individual harassment of a particular individual or incitement of imminent lawlessness activity Lawless activity if a question exists as to whether a particular speaker is engaging in unprotected speech I must defer to the principles of the freedom of speech we'll recognize speakers in the order in which they have signed up rotating between zoom and in person Athena how many people have signed up I have 12 12 12 um we're going to limit public comment to two minutes uh there are two people on Zoom I'm going to start with the people on zoom and then move to the audience Alexa Lopez please enter the room state your name and generally where you live hi my name is Alex Lopez uh I live in South emmer on pot wine um [Music] and I've lived in various places in the country um that unfortunately have seen their better days come and go um it's really interesting to see how people reclaim those empty spaces those factories that no longer work um I think we're all familiar with the Rust Belt what I'm worried about is the direction of this town is heading into an intellectual Rust Belt where we have all these monuments to these great thinkers these great academics and intellectuals and yet we can't fund the next generation of those same intellectuals in this town so when we look at our schools and the ongoing budget crisis that happens year after year and the role that This Town Council has the role that our local institutions have I really am afraid that we are slowly marching ourselves to a place where we say oh look how great it used to be here look how much we used to be able to do for Learners here and we're unable to do that for our future Generations as the parent to three kids who are in that future generation I am terrified at the cuts that are happening at the element El School level at the middle and high school level and I do not think that this Council should kid itself into believing they are not part of making those cuts happen thank you for joining us Alex um we'll go back to we'll go to the room Ken Baker please make sure the green light is on and the thing thank you hi my name is Karen Baker I'm a teacher at Summit Academy I'm asking you to fund our schools and my phone just there I see a pattern in the year-by-year surpluses in the amorist town budget in 2019 there was a surplus of 2.8 million in 2020 1.6 million in 2021 5.1 million 2022 4.6 million 2023 6.1 million in 2024 5.7 million these surpluses are large and get larger year by year I understand that one-time funds can't be used for ongoing expenses but these are clearly not one-time funds rather these are six separate consecutive times that there was an increasingly basically increasingly large Surplus I understand that surpluses help with our bond rating thus they provide a future benefit and that's a consideration I'm thinking that we could continue to keep some Surplus each year while allocating more money to cover the cost of our schools there are millions of dollars here leave a few million take a few million we'd maintain a surplus and a good Bond rating ensuring that type of benefit to our future and we we would benefit our future through the education of our children what could be better for our future than that there's more than enough money in Amor to cover the costs needed to restore positions and programs that have been cut that's right I'm not asking for level Services I'm asking for enough money to restore services that have been cut there have been too many cuts to accept things as they are and it's absolutely absurd to ask our schools after so many years of cuts to cut even more thank you thank you for joining us Athena the clock is not doing the alerts the time didn't run out but you could see that it was turning red okay got it thank you uh Arley please enter the room state your name and where you live uh Harley um South ammer a couple of months ago I spoke to you about the names calling that was going on around the library issue well I have two more to add nitwit and agitator uh nitwit is another word for stupid and that's par for the course these days with the level of discourse call somebody who you dis who disagrees with you stupid and boy do you sound clever um the other one add agitator is quite a bit stronger to call taxpaying citizens of the Town who are practicing freedom of speech freedom of the press and participating in local democracy agitators says more about the town manager than anyone else um this is the man who I've heard say three times now that he only pays attention to votes votes of the Town Council and votes in the in the town by this logic uh he doesn't pay attention to the emails he receives to the public comments at meetings or to the discussions with the people at his cup of joe meetings you know I don't know why he has them if he's not paying attention to them but he's not alone in these types of feelings I've read a lot in the local newspapers of writers who feel frustrated about people who can't just accept that they lost they lost the you know Town vote why don't you just sit down and be quiet well by this logic uh we just elected Donald Trump we should all just sit down and be quiet while he enacts his policies for our country thank you thank you for joining us Harley back to the room Georgia Malcolm Malcolm and I work at the high school and I'm president of the apaa um you know as one of the things I found interesting is that the the mission of the ammer finance committee is to advise the Town Council on all financial matters particularly with respect to values such as diversity equity and inclusion however the very values that you emphasize seem to be in direct conflict with the lack of invest in our schools institutions that are increasingly diverse and in need of support families who can afford it are moving their children to private schools and charter schools are expanding their reach but our public schools once known for their Excellence are now struggling It is Well documented that diverse schools often face financial hardship and the decline of our public education system in ammer is no exception research constantly shows that a school become more racially and economically diverse resources tend to be depleted resulting in a widening achievement Gap according to a 2022 report from the economic policy institute schools in areas with higher poty and diversity levels often face challenges such as larger class sizes fewer resources and reduced staff all of which affect the quality of education ammer is a microcosm of a larger troubling Trend in in America where educational disparities are exasperated by race and income according to the US Department of Education schools with higher proportions of students from lwi income households and students are of color are more likely to experience underfunding and face greater challenges in providing equal opportunities this is precisely what we're seeing in our schools and you and I really want to say shame on you guys my son is here he's not too happy with me he was a student speaker at your inauguration and he reminded you you are to listen to the voice of the people not just some but everyone and the teachers are asking for our students and I'm not no the teachers are you guys always this is this is this is problematic because a few people come out and then you just silence us with this two minutes this is important this is important and I hate that is some kind of white supremacy culture and you guys need to stop it you know what I'm saying you guys all need train it's problematic you're not listening the person before just said Paul said he's only listening to you guys I mean I hat you know you guys really are infuriating because you put out these talking points about diversity but you're not invested I mean you I just got to someone showed me something that there's a there's some kind of um survey going on because they want to renovate the town of amers I mean it's is like it's you know like I said it's like a garbage pan that L looks good and when you peel it away it's just oh Ariel Templeton hello my name is Ariel Templeton um I am a resident of ammer um I've we've been a homeowner in ammer since 2006 um my husband and I both work for the schools I'm the band teacher at the elementary schools my husband teachers Orchestra at the middle school and high school we have an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old um and we are very invested in the district but it's been very frustrating watching the lack of the support our district has from the town year after year I subbed in The District 20 years ago and the programs that we offered at the middle school and high school far surpass what we have now we have far fewer programs but we have many more students with higher needs and we're not able to serve them well and so I'm asking that you please please fund our schools um we personally on a personal note we have a son who's in a private middle school right now and we're planning to bring him back to the high school next year but we're we're concerned because a lot of the programs that we want him to experience may not be able to happen if the proposed budget cuts happen if we don't get the funding from the town um so if we're concerned and we both work for the district I can't imagine what other families are feeling and I know that a lot of parents are pulling their kids if they can but it's not Equitable please please fund our schools thank you thank you for joining us Elizabeth prle good evening I'm G to have to read because I know I only have two minutes my name is Elizabeth Patel I'm the mother of two uh children raised here through the amris public school system I've lived and paid property taxes in amris for 17 years I've even voted for some of you and it's now my 12th year serving as an educator at Wildwood Elementary School I and many other parents chose to raise our families in this town because it was a thriving educational Hub the school system is still the primary reason families move to our town in Wildwood we just welcomed two new students this week it just they're coming they're still coming by um let's show them sorry let's show them these families that they're still making the right decision when they do so by reinvesting in the quality education that we pride ourselves in it's often been said that a community is measured by how well it cares for its children and its most vulnerable teachers and Par Educators and all our staff are the Frontline Vanguard for that care our Educators nurture our Town's youth they uplift our Town's Youth and therefore uplift the town itself if this town defunds for example our school librar by not funding its parent Educators they're defunding our youth's ability to imagine their future when this town defund our art programs they're defunding our children's right to express themselves sorry some educators are forced to take secondary jobs to supplement their cost of living which compromises their ability to give their all to the students they desperately want to see flourish I implore the Town Council to release and redirect the Town surplus funds towards educational Investments that provide decent building infrastructure that that children can feel safe and welcome in our schools in our classrooms I emplore This Town Council to redirect These funds towards expanding our power educator teams to provide equal access education and a bright picture for all our youth thank you for joining us Jennifer Jensen good evening I'm Jennifer Jensen I'm a teacher at the middle school and good evening Town Council with the $5.7 million surplus we have a unique opportunity to invest in our schools our educational system is the foundation for a thriving future and it's essential we ensure our schools are equipped to meet the needs of today's students and staff allocating some of the Surplus to education will improve learning environments fund necessary improvements and support both staff and students thank you thank you thank you thank you for considering this important step in securing a brighter future for our community thank you for joining us Vince o Conor vcon o Conor 175 Summer Street Apartment 12 I'll read only two of the five paragraphs in my prepared statement it is very difficult for parents Guardians Educators and others involved in the lives of children in am Public Schools to read the council's 7even page proposed FY 26 operating budget guideline and see that the one detail of local public education funding specifically mentioned and repeated again essentially begs the manager begs the manager in effect that if there are any Financial table scrap available please go along with what our partners communities in grades 7 through 12 Regional School District have insisted on since April these guidelines for a single unelected administrator who has personally cut both School budgets in the past two years and concealed budget surpluses that could have made each of them whole are a disgraceful insult to the children parents and Guardians and Educators in both public school districts I urge the council to reject these guidelines and demand fairness for public education in their operating budget guidelines finally I want to reiterate my support for more fy20 five this year funding on roads and sidewalks and schools I agree on this issue with Council Ryan but my support is conditional on an equivalent amount being appropriated to the public school district with each amount being included in as the base for each school's FY 26 budget from a $5.7 million fy4 surplus there is no need to get to pit money for roads and sidewalks against money for school thank you for joining us Athena I'm trying to read the next name yes I just stop here please speak to speak into the mic thank you I'm Karen andell was the ammer high Alum I graduated in 2019 and I now attend UMass ammer as my mom said I was a student speaker at the inauguration now I don't really know all the nuances or specifics but I've heard that some programs are getting cut such as the AR program and the languages and for me that kind kind of resonates because I was in the RJ program and I've taken Spanish since middle school and I currently now at 23 have my functional Bor CC on Spanish and I use it a lot I use it at work I use it with my friends who are native speakers and I'm able to really connect with people on a cultural level and in addition I had an IP all of middle school and high school and then transitioning to college it switched to a 504 but basically long story short the resources and the opportunities the ERS had with me uh as a struggling student enabled me to kind of really and laid a foundation for me to thrive in college I was able to make the dean's list and the President's List um so in short I hope you're able to really reconsider and hopefully reinstate some of the cuts you made such as the F FY 20 2024 and the FY 2025 FY 2024 200k from the elementary school level service budget FY 2025 for the regional level Services budget thank you for your time thank you for joining us thank next speaker please algra Clark hi my name is algra Clark I am a 2003 graduate of ammer Regional High School I have a second grader at Wildwood and I have a preschooler and I am imploring you all to allocate any of the remaining surplus funds to the schools so that my kids have the same opportunity that I did when I was in school um I am also here to read a statement from the community safety and social justice committee um so we are asking that you utilize the remaining $454,000 from the original $500,000 arpa ear Mark for Youth Empowerment on Youth Empowerment rather than any transfers to cash reserved we understand there are budget challenges and we need to prioritize essential Services cost saving measures and capital projects but the committee states that utilizing the funds for an intended earmark is most appropriate the recommendation to establish a Youth Empowerment Center came out of the work of the community safety working group which was established by the Town Council and its commitment to better understand and support the needs of ammer bipac Youth and this would demonstrate that ongoing commitment youth Mental Health and Social well-being have suffered as a direct result of the covid pandemic this is especially true of our youth with marginalized identities disruptions to learning isolation from peers and concerns for physical health and safety have had a lasting impact on youth therefore providing youth with a safe space to engage in beneficial and productive activities that mitigate many of these negative impacts of covid would be appropriate use of arpa funds as they are meant to serve the communities most impacted by Co there's growing concern among different communities that the town is not committed to youth including their schools and by extension the bipac community honoring the allocation of arpa funds shows that youth and the town as a whole that there is a commitment to young people and Youth Empowerment the remaining arpa funds could be utilized to support Youth Empowerment in the following ways supporting additional Staffing to incorporate Youth and enhance programming contract with bipot groups to provide youth specific we need you to wrap up programming offer youth opportunities to engage in enrichment programs and cultural activities providing rent and hiring a grant writer to find Future activities so it doesn't all fall back on the town's operating budget thank you thank you for joining us alra Remy fernandz O'Brien hello my name is Remy Fernandez O'Brien I teach dance at emis Regional High School I used to teach dance at ammer Regional Middle School but that program is cut this year um every time I go back to that building I have a few students who say hey when are you coming back I really miss you or I have a staff person who says I have this perfect kid who can't sit still who needs to be in your dance class and I have to tell them that's not going to happen because we don't have money for it um so I'm here to ask you to consider allocating part of the surplus funds to the schools um and in particular My worry is for the students who are at the margins the ones who really need the most support and who I see every day um we cut the restorative justice program and some of my students who face the most challenges at school lost their biggest Advocate their biggest role model the person who makes it possible for them to navigate the building throughout the day um we made major cuts to special education and students are going without par us every day we're seeing them in our classrooms without the one-on-one support that they need um and today couple hours ago a student blockaded my classroom a student who should have had a one one-on-one perah and we were unable to leave the classroom for several minutes because of the Outburst from the student last semester I had a uh student who was repeatedly over the course of several weeks hitting another student in that class and we did what we could to support that student but again there wasn't enough adult support in the room because of the lack of funding and this student just kept getting hit that's where we landed we are not doing more with less right now in the schools we are doing less for our kids and it's it's breaking my heart thank you Mildred Martinez I'm M Martinez I am the administrator register over at the middle school I work at the family center and um I'm here to r a statement also I'm writing to strongly encourage you to allocate some of the town's 5.7 million surplus tour with the Improvement and support of our Public Schools as our community grows so so do the needs of our students and Educators their Surplus presents a unique opportunity to directly address those needs and create a positive lasting impact investing in education should be one of our top priorities as it benefits everyone in amers both now and in the future by directing a portion of the Surplus to our schools we can enhance programs improve facilities and ensure that our students have the resources they need to succeed I hope you will consider this important investment in our community's future thank you thank you for joining us Laura Ivon Steinman hi I'm Lori Von Steinman and I'm the art teacher at Wildwood Elementary School I'm asking for you to invest in our future by being positive role models for our children and youth and to do that costs money I'm not an expert expert in math and I know that with 5.7 million as a surplus in funds that this can and should be allotted to create the communities we all dream of into a reality this is not a reach in Amherst this can be a reality and I'm asking for each of you to do this to do what needs to be done to make this a reality for our future Generations thank you thank you for joining us Deb Leonard good evening um my name is deep Leonard I'm resident of District 5 I'm speaking on by behalf of myself and myself only like to take this opportunity this evening to um uh underscore or to refresh the chair's memory of the um the surpluses that were over the last three years instead of Simply the last one other people spoke to that but I did want to point out that um uh at the four towns meeting I either misunderstood or misheard that the surpluses were limited just to this past fiscal year um $16 million over the past 3 16.5 and then of those um 8.10 million were from um underestimating revenues and and not just from the expense side of the budget so I just wanted to to point those those points out and then remind the entire Council that as we all know um budgets are your values and saying um excuse me that you value robust schools is is is a statement what the budget and the budget guidelines are really what reflect the values of this town um I've heard discussions about structural issues and I I recognize that there's a state structural issue there's a a structural issue related to the assessment but part of the structural problem is the inequity in how the regional budget and the school budgets timeline and needs are represented in the budget in particular the Regional School Systems retirement line are out are inside the operating budget whereas for the elementary school and the municipal side that's within the operating budget so when those retirement lines go up by large percentages that's supposed to stay within the 3 to 4% of the operating budget of the region and that's just not sustainable um so putting the region and the elementary schools in a box that's 3 to 4% over the next 6 years not six years through 2029 regardless of what the actual increases in the expenses are is just unrealistic and um that's all I have to say thank you for your time and your service thank you Luke rotell hello my name is Luke rotell I live in Northampton and I'm a co-chair of the West M Club of the Communist Party USA I'm here not only as a working-class organizer fighting to defend public education in this time of existential crisis but also as a 19-year resident and a proud graduate of emers public schools the current condition of the emers city budget is reflective of a concerning development of priorities at the local level across the valley in Northampton we've seen dozens of Educators fired over the past two years including at least 20 this year as a result of Mayor Gina Luis shara's most recent budget proposal through Northampton suppor our schools we are actively fighting for an alternative through a m appropriation and in the 2025 Municipal elections our uh our starting point is seeking to properly apply the excess free cash that's set aside every year just as it is in emmer but as it stands our city council majority and mayoral Administration have prioritized building a city for tourists and technocrats in which the very residents to whom they are accountable are not considered necessary contributors to political process the issue at hand shared not only between ammer and Northampton but across our country is one of democracy and justice for working people this pable disdain for the needs of ERS teachers par Educators students and parents does not suit those who claim to sit in opposition to Donald Trump and the mega movement the only consistent opposition to the extreme Right comes from those who fight for public education and social Equity not only in abstract but indeed together we have the power to demand more from our cities and state and to resist the attacks on our public schools from the incoming incoming presidential Administration thank you for your time thank you that's the last person who signed up thank you that concludes public comment we're going to move on to the consent agenda the following items were selected because they were considered to be routine and it was reasonable to expect they would pass with no controversy to remove an item from the consent agenda for discussion later in the meeting please ask that it be removed after I've read the motion once this is a motion that requires a second and seven votes to pass to move the following items in the printed motions there under and approve those items as a single unit 6A adoption of proclamation recognizing Quanza week 2024 8f authorization of president to sign a letter in support of construction of a train station in Palmer Mass 8G authorization of president to sign a letter in regarding re regarding the chapter 70 Charter School formula that's okay 9A one to 1 to4 approval of town manager appointments Board of assessors Ilana Kion for a term to expire June 30th 2028 Community Development block grant committee Andrew Hart for a term to expire June 30th 2027 Olivia Keller for a term to expire June 30th 2026 Council and aging evet pal palacin for a term to expire June 30th 2027 public art commission Charlene Cho for a term to expire June 30th 2027 Lynn Thompson for a term to expire June 30th 2026 approval of minutes 11 approval of minutes November 18th 2024 public forum on the budget November 18th 2024 public forum on Appropriations outside the budget November 18th 2024 meeting are there any items that people would like removed seeing none I seek a second second dangeles thank you uh we will move to a vote uh we'll begin with Pat d'angelus I Anna Devin gothier is absent councelor e i Lyn grimer and I councelor hanii I Bob hegner I councelor Lord I Rooney yes councelor Ryan I Kathy R Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg yes Jennifer to yes councelor Walker yes it's unanimous unanimous with one absent uh councelor Walker as one of the sponsors of the Proclamation for Quanza week would you please read the last paragraph um yes thank you uh now therefore we the town the ammer town council do hereby Proclaim December 26 2024 through January 1st 2025 as Quanza week in the town of amist and invite all residents to join in celebrating and learning of this special time of joy and reflection in our community through a Quanza event organized by Sova gumbo on December 29th 2024 at 4M at new Africa house as well as the reading of this Proclamation on December 26 2024 at 5:00 p.m. on the steps of the Town Hall thank you uh we are going to take up item seven after we finish the action item so we're going to go to the action items the first one is the proposed University Drive in am Street roundabout I'm going to begin with a motion and seek a second and then call on the chair of T TSO uh to recommend that the Town Council approve the proposed changes to the intersection of AMD Street and University Drive to convert the existing intersection from signaled control to a full-sized roundabout as shown on the pavement marking and sign planed PL signing plans drawing number ct-101 dated April 15 2024 and has Modified by additional adjustments to be made by the DPW superintendent to align with changes requested by the transportation advisory committee and disability access advisory committee is there a second Ryan second thank you uh with that I'm going to ask Andy Steinberg as chair of TSO to speak to the motion TSO uh spent considerable time during uh meeting in October I think was October the and uh we have uh summarized that in quite detail in a report that was submitted at the time and is repeated in today uh packet and um what we concluded was that um it was a uh supported and wellth thought out proposal funded with the grant um and uh had strong support from UMass as well as uh from within town uh Public Works and from town manager um the uh committees that we consulted were the transportation advisory committee and the deil disability access advisory committee and both of those committees were very concerned to make sure that um there was a accommodation that was appropriate for both pedestrians and for bicycles and uh the um as a result of those discussions there were modifications made to the plans um particularly um having to do with pedestrians which is a particular concern of the disability Community is represented by daac uh So based upon all of that information and uh the uh discussion that we had with superintendent of Public Works regarding um how those um concerns have been addressed and will be implemented um we were comfortable in making the recommendation are there any questions from the council Kathy Shane uh yes and I have to say I don't serve on TSO so I wasn't able and I haven't been able to participate my first question I what people will probably find odd because I know we have received State money I'm not sure why this is needed um I often go through this intersection it doesn't get backed up and the traffic light works fairly well so that's just a general comment I don't know why this investment is needed I know it's been planned um Andy you said there's been accommodations for Walkers and bikes right now you can push a button and stop the cars and if I ride my bike along there there is an extra wide uh uh uh Lane a sidewalk a real not just a multi-use but a real bike lane that people travel all the way down to the South across the intersection and then connect with the bike trail that is uh by snail Street and people walk back and forth and there's a lot of walking that goes on during football games and other games CU people park somewhere so they can then get to the stadium so can you in new design press a button and stop the traffic um because that's going to be fairly essential in busy times for either bikers or Walkers and we're talking about potentially more Apartments along that area where we would hope that people would walk to campus or bike to campus not car to campus so part of the idea of a roundabout is cars can keep going and the students if you watch them don't always yield uh they keep going and fortunately a lot of our roundabouts don't have a lot of foot traffic or a lot of bike traffic so they've worked fairly well so I want to know what provision there is that if I'm riding my bike or a group of us are riding our bike or walking can we stop the cars Andy um I may um ask uh superintendent Public Works to supplement the answer but basically the um commment that has been made by the department is to include as requested by um the transportation advisory committee and consistent with um standards for roundabouts um what are called referred to as rrfbs which are um repeating flashing beacons that can control the um intersection one of the additional things that and that includes um for the U bicycle Crossing can use the rrfbs bicycles actually have the right to use the roadway or the parallel path and U uh we discussed and uh the and made sure that there was accommodations for both and uh so I think that that is uh oh the other thing that I wanted to mention is uh as far as pedestrians are concerned um there was a request from the uh disability access advisory committee for um some way that uh if somebody is visually impaired that they're able to know which street is attached uh which Crossing is attached to a um particular RFB request and uh that there is technology available and that will be included to uh Implement that and uh so I'll um I don't know superintendent warin did you have something you wanted to add just that roundabouts have shown the slow roundabouts have shown the slow traffic down so in the operating system we have now when the light's green if someone steps off the curb and it's the cars have the rideway at that point they're hitting at a little higher speed the goal the roundabouts the slow cars down get people to see what's going on and make the crossing safer for bicyclist you can ride in the road and if you want to you can ride through the roundabout because the speed of the traffic has slowed down to such you can enter and keep riding if you need to if you're not a if you're not a strong that's the word they use strong bicycle Rider you can exit the bike lane and enter onto the multi-use path and cross at the crosswalk the crosswalks will have the rrfbs uh rrfbs do not stop the traffic but they Flash and give a warning to the drivers that are going slower they should stop and the rule is to yield um this this will be a much more safer and a much more usable um intersection we've actually been looking at changing this intersection and actually this whole Corridor since about 2003 is when the town first started looking into it um so this is kind of accumulation of all that work the Big Y intersection change was part of that work in initially and then when we were doing that we were actually proposing around about Amity Street at that time too um so the goal is to slow traffic down give people more time to see what's going on and pedestrians will have that ability to push a button get a flashing light and cross when it's safe thank you Kathy did you following questions yes I think I heard that I can't that you won't be able to stop the traffic you just hope they see the light I just want to say this is for those who don't know this intersection and these sidewalks this is one of the few places in town There's a general a a genuine off the road place to ride your bike and you have to cross the intersection at one point but it's super wide and there's a bike lane so I I wouldn't want to lose that students do use it they go back and forth from that big apartment building that was built um over by what used to be the gym and now is a beer hall so Gilford I know you think roundabouts slow traffic down but so do red lights um if you need to cross the road red lights only slow traffic down when the lights red someone will wants to stop so the argument can be made both ways uh the multi-use path that you're talking about will stay there that wide path it'll stay there on the east side of University it'll stay the whole length of University that the town is responsible for and the whole link that this University is responsible for that so that path does stay in its entirety are there any other counsel questions seeing none the motion's been made and seconded we're going to move to a vote we'll begin I'm I'm sorry before I do that Anna Devin gothier has joined us she joined us at 7:22 Anna can you hear us I can thank you I'm gonna abstain from this vote though since I missed the absolute majority of the discussion thank you all right we're going to begin with the roll call Vote with Anna I abstain uh councelor I Lyn grimer and I councelor hanii I Bob hegner I councelor Lord hi Pam Rooney yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shane no Andy Steinberg yes Jennifer toab Yes councelor Walker yes Patti Angeles hi um did I get everybody yes okay uh 11 in favor one opposed and one exstension uh we're going to move to the next item which is um proposed request to town manager for financial Le for roads and sidewalk repairs I'm going to read the motion I'm going to seek a second and then I'm going to turn over to uh counselor um um Ryan who has has provided us with a memo to request the town manager to submit an appropriation request for a portion of the ammer capital program program Road repairs and sidewalk repairs in the amount of $500,000 is there a second second okay motion's been made in second councelor Ryan so I have U put a memo in the packet which I assume you'll all read but for the sake of those in the audience who probably have not read it and just for the sake of the record um what I am asking us to do is first of all to remember that we have made it a priority for the town manager to address the enormous backlog of Road and sidewalk repairs last year a million dollars in town funds were allocated by the town manager to augment chapter 90 funds in response to repeated Council and Resident requests for Action in this area in this year's capital budget the town contribution was reduced uh by 500,000 um at the December 2nd meeting as we all know the town manager Financial order to put a million into the roads and sidewalks was defeated by a 661 vote for many of us on the council at least this is my experience the most frequent complaint we hear from our constituents involves the condition of our roads and sidewalks this involves people in many different ways uh one of the ways that I've become aware of it is in terms of safe routes to schools um in the past year um in in this last year in my experience the most frequent compliments I've gotten uh and positive statements involve work that we have done on on our roads and sidewalks and I gave some examples in the memo Farmington Road was a road in my district uh the sidewalk that links Crocker farm with the pomoy center and of course the pomoy roundabout which of course was funded from a different Source but the point is that these kinds of visible and obvious changes to the landscape uh for people who walk and cycle and drive on our roads every single day is something that our constituents notice and they value and they appreciate so I'm asking the council to request that the town manager allocate 500,000 for sidewalk and Road repair for the coming fiscal year um this would make up for the uh in part uh for the million it would make up the 500,000 that was taken out of the capital budget um and so that's my basic R now that at least this year we would continue to um fund this at the level that we funded it last year and hopefully again U make some Headway in addressing this long-standing problem that we have with our roads and sidewalks are there counselor questions councelor hanii two questions um do we know how much money the elementary schools spent in repairing the failed fire alarm system um that's question number one question number two is is why now why not wait and ask the manager to add 500,000 or a million dollars into the capital Improvement plan for the FY 26 budget so that it can go through the entire jcpc process do you want sure so I think um the um the the repairs to the crocker Farm um fire alarm system system was about $80,000 and that came out of the capital account for the schools I can get the exact number for you I have that information thank you okay um Jennifer top um I support uh appropriating the $500,000 to roads and sidewalks um when the million do when the vote for the full million dollars came before the council um I supported you know a portion major portion going to roads and sidewalks but also wanted to receive um Capital requests from the schools for the other portion the the other half of the million dollars and I'm wondering um will that remaining half a million kind of stay out there for a request to come in from the schools and how what is how does that happen um tell manager welc please so we're every department has the ability to request that I bring an appropriation request to the council um and so we I've had conversations with this with the superintendent concerning the elementary schools um and and the potential needs that they have um but so far we have not come to anything but this doesn't it's not um you know anytime that there's a need and I tend try to drive as much as we can through the normal budget process um but um so I don't have any other requests to present to you tonight my question is can that the other $500,000 remain sit there for a request to commit it Paul the question is the money that we are not when we did not approve the million dollars the money would was then placed where it it didn't move it stayed where it was in free cash and therefore it would be available for future use yes thank you that does that answer your question Jen thank you Kathy I'm sorry I'm I'm trying to Pam Rooney you're next thank you um I actually had a similar question that is is this part or in addition to what shows up in the capital Improvement plan I'm looking at councelor Ryan to ask if that's what he intended to be in addition to something that's already being accounted for in capital Improvement plan councelor Ryan repeat your question I'm trying to uh understand what you're asking we have money in the capital Improvement plan for roads and sidewalks are you asking for this to be in addition to whatever is targeted in the capital Improvement plan my understanding and you can correct me because I'm not on jcpc but my understanding is that uh Paul took out 500,000 this year in the capital budget for roads and sidewalks so the the allotment is for 500,000 currently is that correct am I'm correct about that and so what I'm suggesting is that the the reason I chose 500,000 is that um that would make up for what I see I mean in the past year it had been a million this year it's 500,000 um I was hoping it was going to be a million but PA explained why he felt that that was the best that could be done um and so I'm asking us to bring us back to that 1 million um still not anywhere near what we need but we have obviously other demands and pressures so I don't know if that answers your question but uh essentially I see the request for 500,000 as an attempt to get us back to that million figure and I'd like to think in future years at the very least that we we we continue to do that to address the backlog is that did that answer your question okay thank you Kathy Shane um I George you can correct me if I'm wrong but I think your intent as you mean this fiscal year not next fiscal year so the Year we're in FY 25 um and just so you know there was another 190,000 for sidewalks and we went up on that from 50 to 190 which was a big jump to allow something dedicated to sidewalk so in addition to the chapter 90 there is 690 um and if you look at the Capital plan it's going to drop back down to 500 every year um so that is the result of these big buildings coming online you know it wasn't that the town manager cut something it was that uh we needed equipment in the police and fire department we needed X Y and Z so the competition for we didn't have a request for a million we didn't actually cut it so it's just the way it's worded looks like it's for the next Fisco year so what I'm I think you're asking for is out of the surplus funds that we get another appropriation out of the current surplus funds because what we've done so far in the finance in the guidelines is take the whole million and put it toward the coming year to enhance so be on the 10.1 but you wanted it in this fiscal year correct yes thank you okay George you have your hint up I think the um sorry the question is why now and um I think the answer is that this is something that we have recognized for some time as a ongoing and persistent issue that we need to address and um I think also DPW the sooner they know what funds they have the better chance they have of actually addressing some of the problems ultimately um this issue is something that we can only resolve through allocating money and uh so the reason I think it now is the best time is because um the problem is now and uh this would also help DPW in planning for the coming year Jennifer I'm sorry I'm going back to my previous question because I'm still a little unclear when counselor hanii I think you um it I don't know if you made a was your motion I think when we can you speak in the mic I'm sorry sorry I think it was your motion when we voted not to appropriate the full $1 million to roads and sidewalks so that we could address some of the needs at the school so for that $500,000 that is not going to roads and sidewalks would we have to vote to kind of save that for a request to come for the schools because that's how we got to the vote not to appropriate the full $1 million to roads and sidewalks I think it was two meetings ago councelor hanii you have your hand up so I never made any motions just to be clear um there was no motions I objected to the spending of a million dollars outside of the jcpc process when I had heard of so many needs particularly school committee members themselves but also of the community saying maybe we should be considering some of this money for the schools whether it be capital or not I I have and so I was unwilling at that time and stated my unwillingness to say let's put it all at the time and spend it all because I thought we should have time to wait and see if the region might vote another debt authorization out of cycle for something that they might want to do that we could use this potential money for or I was looking for answers I had heard that that the fire system had been paid for out of operating not left over capital and so I wanted answers on that um I was looking for time but I did not make any motion it might have been um Anna spoke strongly yeah need to the there were very various people who spoke but there was actually no motion placed on the table but we could come back like as coun Ryan came back if the school made a request more than likely at this point after this the school would make a request and it would go through the normal jcpc process Andor it would be submitted as part of the Regional School budget that the other $500,000 then will not be sitting there waiting for a request it'll be sitting there yes a request that comes through the normal process uh uh councelor Andy I'm sorry I may have skipped over you go go ahead everyone uses roads and side Works in ammer and I think the last opportunity we had the vote failed and I am hoping that this passes and it isn't contingent on whatever happens to the remainder of the 1 million that isn't in discussion tonight roads and sidewalks are important for Sen years they're important for miners they when you have Pooles that can become dangerous to those who might be crossing the street I've seen too many examples on my side of the street and on other parts of the town and I think I would have preferred a larger amount but I think this is a good enough amount that we should be able to vote for it without hesitation okay um I'm sorry Andy Steinberg yes uh many of the speakers have now said things that I want to say including um counselor at's uh comments of just uh previous uh but the why now I wanted to come back and really drill in on that because the um DPW issues is in annual requests for bids for doing road work and um anything that gets delayed and is not available before the season starts when they're having to put the bids out the summer construction season is not possible so if we uh make this allocation tonight it's available for this next round of road work we know that the amount of work um is going to always exceed what um we have available um the less we do the farther we get behind and the more we hear the complaints from our constituents and um the greater the concern across the community about the the road conditions um and the my last comment is that um at that last meeting there was one of the points that was made and it was true was that we had very impassioned statements as we did tonight regarding school funding and I certainly listen to them and understand and would um want to make sure that we're being fair u in doing what we re we reasonably can do but that's true for roads too and um the comments that we've received about roads have really come in um since that meeting because people were not happy with the decision we made and I think that uh those comments that most of which we've received in writing speak for themselves so thank you are there any other questions or comments Pam Roney I just want to comment on that last statement that in fact a number of people that contacted me um with concern that that somehow I hadn't supported the million dollars of road work um with the caveat they they said but we understand that it was really more a discussion of should something go to the schools and that that was the basis for the conversation not that I didn't want a million dollars going toward the the road work um that they that they recognized that we were in fact having to make a choice or perhaps look for other ways to allocate that money before we made a decision that we could hold off until we had time to think it through okay any other questions or comments the motion's been made and seconded we'll meet we're going to go to a vote uh councelor ET I Lyn grimer and I councelor hanii hi Bob hegner hi councelor Lord hi Pam Rooney yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg yes Jennifer toab Yes councelor Walker yes Pat deangeles I Anna Devin Gotham I it's unanimous uh we're going to go on to the financial guidelines I'm hesitent because I'm wondering if we should take a break now and then come back but no let's go to the financial guidelines so the motion is to adopt the FY 26 budget guidelines as presented SL amended and so we'll see where we go uh I'm going to make that motion seek a second and then we'll move into discussion and I Look to Bob hegner for Guidance with regard to how uh things have changed since we last discussed this so the to adopt the FY 26 budget guidelines as presented amended is there a second I'll second hegner thank you Bob um we didn't have a lot of changes I think there was some reorganization um and we did remove one of the um budget guidelines uh regarding councelor hanii what was that we removed I can't remember it was one bullet that we cleared up some bullets regarding um the budget surpluses right but we also removed um I can't remember now I think there was something in expense projections maybe not sure I know we removed something in budget surpluses as well as cleared some stuff up yes it's I can't remember it but it was it was something that um was not we didn't think it would needed to be in the budget guidelines um the um to overcome some of the um comments on the executive summary we changed uh Roman numeral one to just be a summary of our budget recommendations so it's not really an executive summary um and we Tred to provide the um recommendations in bullet form and then uh explain them and provide more guidance and more uh meet around them each one of them as we move forward um the an issue that we need need to discuss that's the the committee needs to the council needs to discuss is um I think it's um just let me find it sorry we we went through so many iterations of this um yes so it's on page five under cap budget Roman numeral 5 and it it it it has to do with the the elementary school project um and whether or not there's going to be any money left over U from the budget that we originally had and Kathy has suggested that we just strike um the paragraph that says starts with bids right uh just second sentence in that you will need to facilitate a council conversation if construction costs are lower than appropriation and borrowing order FY 23- 06c permitted so um it really comes down to do we actually have a surplus no we don't have a surplus will there be an actual Surplus no this is money we don't have to borrow so it really is more of a um we don't really have to deal with it now in fy2 6 anyway so maybe we should just strike this and leave it till next year or the year after when it's when we actually have to make a decision on this um and other that other than that I think we we probably just rewarded and clarified I don't think we changed very much since the the draft that you have seen does anyone from the committee want to um comment or or anything to Kathy you have your hand up you're from the committee I do I'm from the committee but I wasn't at the committee meeting I've been off in the wilderness um but um I just want to speak to why I think that sentence should be removed um on the building committee side we've got contingency money and once this is finally contracted we may need to use some of that we don't know so we don't know exactly what the final final will be a year from now we'll have a better idea but basically we wouldn't borrow the money if we didn't need it and what this will mean is taxpayers will have a lower tax increase right so it's not there for the council just to decide to spend unless it's part of the larger project and there have been small pieces so I'll give you one example um if you drive by Fort River now there's a temporary rented light blinking by the car entrance we could dip into contingency because that's part of the construction project and making it safer so we did use that so I think right now it's the intention would be never to borrow money that we didn't need and that would just mean less of debt service so that's why I think this sentence should be removed we'll know more I mean we're still waiting for the final signing of the contract what the final bid will be but we don't know for sure what the final cost will be I mean this this bid now has been it is going to construction several months later than we had originally planned on it going so that's why I just think this this is inappropriate because it really isn't something for a com conversation it it's good news um for the taxpayers and we should leave it as good news um is there any objection to removing that sentence I have no objection okay we're going to collect a few of these and then we'll move to the amended um I'm since I have my hand up and it relates to this paragraph okay I the sentence above that should really be up Tod date bids for the project came in below budget although issuance of a final contract was delayed because of an unsuccessful challenge from actually two of the biders or one I think it was two right Paul I just want to make it accurate um would you like me to make these changes as you go and just listen for objections from counselors is that okay rather than doing amendments I would prefer that if unless people want to so you Chang to challenges from two from the biders right so the sentence would Now read bids for the project came in Bel low budget all issuance of a final contract was delayed because of an unsuccessful Challenge from two of the biders just makes it more accurate that's all and then we've eliminated the the last sentence got it I have my hand up but I'll wait for others uh Pam Ro yeah I think George Ryan is ahead of me but I'll go I can't decide which one am I looking at go ahead um on the very front page on the summary of budget recommendations it says Revenue projections we have had a number of conversations including tonight about how to use monies that are that appear to be um the term has been used Surplus so on the revenue projections bullet uh there is a note saying adjust Revenue projections as more information becomes available with a focus on areas where forecasts have proven to be conservative and I would like to add prior to the May one budget presentation because I think it's important that that um that that adjustment be very very clear before we get the budget uh yes so councelor Hanah I guess I'm unclear what you mean by prior to the way may one budget presentation because if if you go in this is the summary right so so the guideline itself talks about certain areas have been conservative um and all and so we expect you to adjust you know the summary ex the summary part is adjust them are you asking for like continually updating those adjustments and presenting to them to the council is updated by what you're trying to add here or just at the May one budget then be updated I guess I don't understand what that addition is for that they are updated on actually on an ongoing basis but clearly at first quarter second quarter third quarter so that the the preparation of the budget numbers themselves reflect as accurately as possible what What expenses and and um revenues are going to be coming in at so we don't end up with these big numbers at the end of the year but so let me just clear when the when the town manager presents his budget he has a bottom line okay if we anticipate or find out there might be additional revenues after the budget has been presented on May one that becomes a bit confusing so it's kind of like May one is the cut off is that what we're saying for when we project I it's always the cut off because that's the day the manager presents the budget that's why I don't quite understand this Clause it is that what you were saying now that any any Kathy is looking at me Kathy has I just want to say that first quarter and second quarter so it's uh July August September October November December by February we should have second quarter right so we're halfway through a year which will give us a much better handle so I think that what we're saying is by then we're going to know whether we're way too low there are couple Revenue projections that have been too low and we can really look at halfway through a year so the intent was before the budget but this is vague is Pam is just pointing out this isn't like when would we do it because everyone's going to need that information and we really haven't had that as quickly I mean we're we're not going to get first quarter I think even till January um which is later than we've had it in earlier years and I understand why okay and I I just assume that the reason you wanted that in there is because it clarifies the point at which we now have a budget number we're working with that's that's all it's a clarification it's it says here's the cut off point I just don't understand how that's a clarification when the budget gets presented May one so any numbers are final on May one so I if you want it earlier I think the expense projection lines are trying to get towards that more um because that's where we talk about if there's excess Revenue you distribute it or you consult the finance committee if it goes above a certain point so if you're trying to get to well if the revenues get adjusted so that there's more money we need to know that earlier I think the expense side bullet point gets to that and deals with that issue but an a prior to May one budget presentation is actually fairly vague when if you're trying to get a specific date as as I think the regional committee was trying to get on the weekend they wanted to know when are they going to get new numbers um and the answer was kind of January and then probably not much until May um right so the the suggestion is to add the phrase prior to the May one budget presentation so that it would be adjust Revenue projections as more information become available with a focus on areas where forecasts have proven to be conservative prior to the May one budget presentation to me it's just a it says by then we're done we're we're done with the projections but I do have a question though yeah and that is U it's prior to the Senate Ways and Means Budget prior to the Senate Budget prior to the uh conference process prior to the governor's actions and any um legislative action that follows any line item zos that the governor may make and U we if we think we're getting to a specific date we're not um in the question that we as a council and the and town manager working with us as partner have to Grapple with is that um changes can happen to state aid which is a sign the second largest portion of our budget and uh we need to be able to um understand how we do that so I'm not sure that implying that there's a free in date is really inac I remove my suggestion okay all right we're taking that suggestion out I Andy all of what you just said is also true are there uh Pam did you have other comments okay uh I have um I have two that I'd like to make uh one is um I'm a little concerned that we're saying 3 to four% when 4% it basically it means everybody's going to submit 4 per. if we really only say as Andy puler has told us on many occasions we're really a 3.5 why are we asking people to submit 4% budgets in projection when we're really a 3.5 so I I personally would prefer that that's a 3 to 3.5% can you point out a page in a paragraph it's it's on page one it's under gener General budget guidelines of third bullet and then it's later on on page three uh it's where we ask for the FY 26 to 29 uh projections it's the second full paragraph on page three so you want that i' like 4% the the three to four changed to three 3.5 yeah that's that would be my suggestion because it's more realistic I've in in in our years on the council I can only remember one year we went above 3.5 and it was last year um so is is there a problem a suggestion a concern okay and then the other point hold on hold on Lyn we're on this page okay so I got I got page one and then on page three it's the second full paragraph at the end of the second line oh thank you okay and then my other point is that it does seem to me that that on page four uh under um the bullets that are below when we say refer back to the finance committee it does seem to me that BCG should be included I'm sorry I didn't speak to the mic I I believe that under that second bullet on page four when it says second distri distribution distribute the funds appropriately for the four operating budgets unless the remaining funds to be distributed would result in more than an additional 0.5% year-over-year increase to each major functional area at which point we recommend Consulting it says the finance committee and I think it should say the budget Coordinating Committee budget coordinating group I get or maybe both I don't care I just think that if you're talking about all four areas it's also BCG yeah please um so at least in discussion at finance committee one of the reasons it said Finance was last year the increase was sort of just presented to BCG as happening um and finance committee wanted to make sure before there was sort of a presentation out to everyone that this is what we're doing that there was a chance to discuss whether that is what the council might want to do with them or to have that discussion within the council first essentially before it was just sort of put out townwide that here's what's happening particularly with the fact that there is a recommendation to reduce the OPB funding right um from 650 to 6 because there's a possibility that Finance or the council may say well let's put 50,000 in that and what does that look like for the rest or you things like that so so the council the finance committee thought someone before BC BCG should have a chance to chat so as long as we say maybe at the end of the sentence prior to consultation with BCG so you just add the phrase just add the phrase after the words fund I believe that phrase would need added up at the top in the summary too because I think the summary has the same bullet and the same wording and interesting uh councelor hanii that you mentioned the OPB because that would be an area where I'm sorry we're not going up to the 650 this year so that's an example of where I could see us deciding to add money okay were there any objections to that addition did we get it in all the places needed yeah it just needs to be in two places yep okay uh let's see Pam U I'm going to go to counselor Lord and then on and then back to pameron councelor Lord thank you I have um a question y around what does budget guidelines mean are these recommendations or are they more rules so going forward like where it says the school would get the 3% change if this guideline is voted on today has that become more of a rule within flexibility or is it more of a recommendation where we still have so many unknowns in terms of the state budget and so I'm just this you know what what does guidelines mean in this vote please anybody want to take a stab at that I'm more than glad to sure at least my understanding as a finance committee member is this is what you should do if you can but that doesn't mean you can so particularly with right what was presented in November had a deficit of six figures low six figures but six figures so the first thing the manager is going to be looking to do is get rid of that deficit um and if there's more money that would create a surplus where should it be distributed and these guidelines are do it this way and if you do it this way we're going to be happy um if you don't if you do it another way maybe your budget's not going to pass and and we want to know why if you don't do it if you don't do it as we provided guidance we want to know why so it's it is guidance but it's given with strong recommendation and and feeling more ruly to me and we we do have the ability to reject a budget not that that's a good thing to do we do we also have the ability to go back and revise the guidelines which we've never done but we have that ability does that help thank you for asking the question I think it's an important one um okay George oh Paul you had your hand up yeah so just a also note that the town manager has a responsibility and the authority to submit the budget that the town manager thinks is the most appropriate for the town and this is I think what this document does is an attempt to communicate early to the manager in the before we even start the budget process on what the goals and and what the priorities are and what the standards and expectations are from the council as you said because you are the final Arbiter of whether a budget gets passed or not so you know aligning the budget with these guidelines is pretty important um but it doesn't mean the manager has to comply with everything if there's circumstances change in the meantime thank you good um councilor Ryan so on page two just uh for My Clarity um this is the bullet item budget surplus is included in certified free cash there are four sub bullets there and I just wanted to I'm thinking what just happened a few minutes ago with what we decided and voted um does that fall within this this description I think the first three sub bullet items are pretty much boilerplate pretty much standard the term bulk the bulk of surplus is that's a lovely term of art but um and then but it's the last one allocate some funds to the next year's capital budget or for fiscal 26 needs not identified during the jcpc process or to accomplish policy goals so it gives a kind of a menu of options to the manager um and it allows a certain degree of flexibility and in the case of what we just did this would fit those guidelines and may I piggy back on that question other words we still might get a request for some allocation once free cash is certified but otherwise maybe not is that a correct interpretation of this so my hope is that we don't but that's my personal hope my hope is that the manager follows allocate to the next year's budget to keep it under the jcpc process but with what George just with councelor Ryan just asked if there is a policy goal to repair roads and sidewalks as quickly as possible then potentially the vote we just took well potentially a financial order of the sense of the vote we just took would comply under this one um I believe uh Andy can correct me he added those two Clauses that weren't there in the last draft and the first one about um not identified during the JC process I think was also part of the waste hauler one where we voted midy year to do something that we knew would need money um obviously that also fit into a policy goal but um so it was to try and leave a little bit of leeway but personally and I will say personally I'd like to see us minimize these out of jcpc capital requests because I personally I really think it's unfair to the Departments um George did that get it what you wanted to yes okay I I'd like to stay on this Kathy unless you had a comment go please go ahead same topic please go ahead I think we also in I'm okay with this wording and I think jcpc itself we focus on on the next year as opposed to the next five years we have five years in the budget but we only focus on one and I think we should do we meaning the jcpc group also but the manager and staff the second year should have very high priority projects in it so we should already have when we say we don't have a proposal from the schools if we couldn't fit it in this year we should have what's the highest priority for the school's capital and right away we should be grabbing money if we have excess money toward that rather than wish lless and we haven't always done that so this past year we had an expensive project come before us that hadn't even been on the list the year before even though people knew about it you know so it's this we don't want to turn those down but we should in away have what's the next most urgent thing that we couldn't afford right away way so Mand is saying try to stay in that process but just get it moving because we're taking on debt for some really big projects if they're surplus funds there may be a way not to take on debt for them we we've had to take on debt because we haven't enough cash so just really thinking about Capital planning as planning not just one year worth we've gotten much better so everyone should know that the plan no longer has giant deficits in each of the years other than the first year but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a clear FY 26 FY 27 FY 28 plan so I think this wording gets this message let's let's just really get better at high priority urgent projects I um I personally like the way you um finally came up with this wording uh because I the way it looked like it was going before I felt like it encouraged departments who had had money because they couldn't fill positions to find a way to spend the money because they were going to lose it and that to me is bad practice so I wanted to make sure we weren't encouraging that when we look at how we ended up this year or any year with our free cash it came from interest it came from unfilled positions and the big area that we find ourselves underestimating was unanticipated revenue and it's the unanticipated revenue that we're trying to tighten up so I feel like this does this and I want to thank the committee for wrestling with that um Anna you have your hand up thank you uh thank you sorry um I what I'm trying to figure out is how this language helps us to not get into the same position that we've been in for this meeting and two meetings before that where we accidentally aren't necessarily communicating to other departments as clearly that there's an apple they may want to take a bite out of um so how are we if we're saying policy goals uh I I like the idea you know jcpc Cycles but if we're saying policy goals we're not necessarily communicating out the opportunity for those areas that are not underneath the town manager and therefore don't have policy goals set by the Town Council uh to seek that funding so I'm just curious and I I'm I hesitated to raise my hand because it's one of those things where if you don't have a solution don't don't come with forward with the problem because I don't know what wording to add but I'd love to know if finance committee talked about how to avoid that type of scenario in this wording and how to make sure that the schools in the library feel or or are able to submit those requests if there should be a surplus again Bob or anybody else from Finance want to address that well what what we've done in on page four and up in the summary uh the two bullets on page four is the first priority is the regional school budget so if we do find ourselves in a surplus situation or in a situation where we are heading towards a surplus um um the first priority then is to is to basically fund the the full arpa funding that we had put in as a as a gift um plus a 3% increase then secondly um we want to distribute Monies proportionately to the four operational budgets but we do want the town manager to come back to we had discussion earlier come back to the finance committee if there's a whole lot of extra money so that we could we could bump up everybody by 1% rather than just do that you know because we might choose to reallocate that money differently the council may choose to re reallocate that differently so we want to leave that flexibility in there yeah does that answer your question Anna I think so yes I think it's more it's it's the phrase policy priorities um because to me that translates to the policy goals but um from what you're saying it's more that you'd like it to link back to the other sections of this document if I'm understanding what you're saying l so yes I think you I think you did answer my question is what I'm getting at so councelor hanck I thought Anna was going after the capital how does if we have budget surpluses at the end of the year how did the wording there make sure that departments know when its policy goals and Bob's answer kind of went with planning for the FY 26 budget so I guess to I can't answer your question Anna um because because I would have loved to just keep it with put it in jcpc because that's where I think you saw that problem um but I recognized when um Andy proposed the rest of the wording needs not identified during the jcpc process or to accomplish policy goals that there may be reasons why you might want something outside of the capital budget jcpc process I think we just need to be clear to the manager and ourselves is if they come through does it meet those you you have identified an issue with this because those policy goals are referencing the ones that we give the manager not policy goals outside of that um you know one goal is adequate funding of infrastructure though you know there's there's a goal at least related to infrastructure management which includes School assets too not just Municipal assets um but but you have identified some potential issue and it so it doesn't necessarily stop what we've just gone through the last couple of meetings with the financial order proposals but hopefully um through conversation and some of this it it indicates that we want to minimize the financial orders outside of the jcpc process but recognize that sometimes it might be appropriate to have one outside of that process thanks Mandy you articulated both my question better than I did and helped me feel a bit better about it so I appreciate that okay councilor Ryan so again just for clarification to accomplish policy goals does refer to the document that we'll be working on later this evening or does it simply refer to an internal uh goal that was inside of this document I it refers to the document we're working on right now on so it's not relating to the town manager goals document it's Rel to stated policy goals or policy yeah policy goals by the way it could say Town manager goals it it is it relates that's the shorthand in the summary is just policy goals if you go to page six yeah um or to address goals of the Town Council and town manager so that is a little more clearer that it is the town manager goals that the council yeah so it is the adopts yeah it the summary was an attempted shorthand yeah yeah okay are there any other questions or comments seeing none I'm going to go back to the motion the motion is to adopt the FY 26 budget guidelines as amended and the person who seconded said yes I I second yes all right we're moving to a vote uh I also just before I say yes I want to just say thank you to the finance committee this is always this is one of our most important jobs and you've done a great job thank you so much I am an i councelor hanak i Bob hegner hi councelor Lord hi Pam Rooney yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shan yes Andy Steinberg yes Jennifer Tob yes councel Walker yes p Angeles hi Anna delin gothier thank you hi councelor hi it is unanimous we are going to take a 10-minute break we will be back uh at I've got a 10-minute break 35 I'm giving you two more minutes Pat okay please turn off your mics and your video and turn them back on when you return e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e we're going to move to reconvene as you return Please put your video back on so I know you're here okay we're all here uh Alicia are you back yes thank you great thanks all right our next discussion is the goals and I'm going to suggest that we go after this until 9:15 and then we see how far we get with the understanding that it very well may need to go back to go because otherwise we could be here all night and I know none of us want to do that so uh I'm going [Music] to um make a motion actually I'm not going to make a motion I'm going to see where we get uh okay with that I'm going to call on Anna and I believe Anna and George you two have decided how to handle this yeah so George and I are tag teaming this I'm going to just do a quick intro and overview of uh and reminder of the process that go went through and then George is going to take us Point by Point through them um at which point we'll be seeking input for from counselors um on what should be added struck Etc so this isn't the first time the council has talked about this uh reframing or reformatting of the goals and really it is a reformat so the idea here was to shift the goals to be a bit more actionable by moving them into uh by well by changing how we write action items instead of kind of being things that might be up to interpretation we were really striving this year to get action items that were actionable that were uh non non debatably achieved or not achieved by the end of the year versus achieved in a way that some people liked or didn't or not achieved to the extent that some people expected or vice versa so in order to do that sorry the dog is causing Havoc In This Moment In order to do that we started with the broad goal areas and we also tried to pair those down so we tried to eliminate some redundancies um and ended up with with the goal areas that you have in front of you at the last go meeting uh one of the things that go did the committee um also reduced the number of objectives per goal area um to to be um one per goal area in the in the past we had multiples in each goal area um and we shifted that down more to be uh so that they're more of a definition of each goal area versus multiples within it um and you know the council's welcome to discuss that but just to explain kind of where we got with the objectives um and then within each of those is an action item uh or multiple action items the action items were things that we believed could be accomplished within a year um or are continuations and we specify what we expect in the in the coming year um and these were put in with uh input from counselors there was some input that the committee did not decide to put in this version because it either felt like it was not actionable enough um or it was uh too broad for for this document so um what we would like to remind the Council of is that these goals are uh you know we we hope that folks will consider making motions to add this is something that we could discuss for ages and ages and ages and to remember that this is we need a majority vote on these um we should we should seek agreement all like that's wonderful and great but that ultimately we would like to continue to to make progress and we may need to vote on individual items uh to to keep them in or take them out and that's absolutely okay that's part of our process so um I'll turn to my fellow go members this is uh also one of the things that we did we had Paul with us in our last meeting to talk through the volume of goals um and how he felt about us you know removing redundancies and really saying these are the the directions that we want you to go in the coming year these are the things we'd like you and your staff to accomplish uh and Paul I won't speak for him but he did we were in consultation with him throughout this process so um fellow go folks is there anything that I forgot uh before I turn it over to George to walk us through the the areas okay um and I want to thank George especially for helping take the lead on this um especially since I could not be there in person Tonight George thank you very much it is appreciated and I will turn it over to you okay um my approach to this is to uh first of all we're going to talk about the gold areas we have as you see we have uh collaps them to three in the policy area and so uh we may want to begin with that just to make sure that people understand why we did that and what and if they approve of it then I was going to go through them gold area by goal area first looking at the objective language to see if there are concerns or questions about the objective language in that goal area and then proceed through the individual action items um and see what people's thoughts are there um we have had some practice already this evening in try in working sort of by consensus um and if we can do that to the much degree that we can do that we could probably move more quickly but there may be times when we'll simply have to stop and have a vote uh at some point there may have to be motions made for instance if you want to introduce something new or um that would probably require a motion and a vote um but we'll see how that that plays out but um so first of all just with the gold areas what we we did is we we took the I think there were five um in the area of policy we we collapsed them into three um essentially around climate action as a single major goal area and then we we thought of just the idea of community the overall um health and well-being of the community including social justice so right now it reads Community Health probably should be Community Health comma safety and social justice and then the third is housing and economic Vitality the thinking there was in a community that has such a high percentage of its um income essentially coming from property tax um housing is one of our major economic drivers and so we felt that putting housing and economic Vitality together um was was not a complete stretch so that's the first sort of area to discuss what are the thoughts about the the goal areas do you want me to call on people George yes I councelor hanii you you didn't mention the management goal areas but they're part of the goal areas and I have a comment on one of them um beyond the a full recopy of the infrastructure goal area in this document that just entirely needs deleted there was a it was recopied twice but but um community and strategic relationships left the council out completely even though the objective included the Town Council so I would retitle it Town Council community and strategic relationships the objective there is to maintain develop and increase positive relationships and Communications with the Town Council residents and local and state agencies but the goal just said community and strategic relationships and I do think it's important to include the tongue Council on that um point of clarification please would you like me to be editing these there wasn't AEM motion to adopt made so would you go ahead and edit as if we're just having a nice conversation you know we're like in a retreat almost okay then I'm I'm gonna ask you Mandy to please um it's go five it's on page five of six page five it might be shifted in it says community and strategic relationships I would put Town Council before community so Town Council comma community and strategic relationships and then just to comment below that at least in the document we got there was an entire rep repetition of that that entire next goal area in was a complete repeat that was corrected when I was alphabetizing thanks M go ahead you had also said Community Health comma yes I had suggested commune Health comma safety comma and social social justice okay thank you and up but on the in on the front page you're going to have to correct those but why don't we just focus here okay and then on goal five would say Town Council so yeah in that second in the management goals area again the thought was focusing in one broad area on Administration leadership the second focusing on infrastructure management maintenance and land stewardship and then relationships um including his Town Council community and strategic partners and under goal five right there after the word residence it should have a comma okay Bob hegner we're right now we're just focusing on the broad six goal right the okay Kathy uh my comment now that we've edited a couple um was I like the fact that you collaps it this way I think these six work but I have a lot of comments on the specifics okay got it thank you Pam roon thank you I actually had a little bit of a contrary um thought when I look at Community comma Health comma and safety health and safety and social justice we seem to have lost we seem to have lost the sort of the gist of the social justice goal that we used to have and it's it's it's either been watered down or it's distributed amongst other items I just when we come back to this topic I just we'll have some more thoughts on that okay um and also and also in that particular one there's a there's an item that says create and submit a complete Street prioritization plan um that to those later okay we're just right now goes over to infastructure we're just going to focus on this six broad goals and any editing we want to do to those okay um councelor it possible to go back to the change that was made with community health safety comma go ahead okay you thought safety in what sense safety yes so if it's Community then wouldn't it make sense to have and safety because the way I see it it simply is safety and I'm wondering what exactly that means I see what you're saying in other words if Community modifies or further defines safety then it should say community health and safety is that what you're suggesting yes so taking the word and out was okay got it or you could just add community in front of safety Community Health Community safety and social justice yes okay uh Pam you have your hand up are you on these okay okay we're just going to take a moment and get these few changes made and then George I think we're on to the actual objectives well we're going to go to go exactly we start with climate action but just for clarity s so the first goal area reads climate action the second goal area now reads Community Health comma Community safety and social justice the third gold area reads housing and economic Vitality the fourth under management goals reads Administration leadership the fifth is infrastructure manage infrastructure management com maintenance comma and land stewardship and the fifth is Town actually six Town Council Community excuse me Town Council comedy comma community and strategic relationships so what I'm proposing is that we now go back and through go through each goal area and we first look at the objective language and see what people's thoughts are on that and then we would move to the action items in that particular area and go through one go through them one by one and if you wish to add anything um that would be the time to do it and we'd also look at the language of each and you could also move to delete something you could say I'd like this item out um so let's first begin with the objective language for climate action currently it reads to continue to make progress on the council's climate action goals Guided by the climate action adaption and resilience plan C A A RP to prepare the town to be resilient in the face of climate change councelor I moveed that be strike to prepare the town to be resilient in the face of climate change because that redundance since cap already has resilience as part of the plan and there action and adaptation everything is already in the sentence before that point are there other thoughts about that objections to that I have a thought if I may um part of this document is public facing clearly is something Paul reads very carefully it's clearly something we work very hard on and we read carefully but at least in theory it's something the public reads and so I think there might be a place in certain in in this document at certain points especially under objective that we perhaps go to a little bit further to make absolutely clear what we're trying to do the average citizen perhaps doesn't really have a great grasp of what karp is and does even though it does say resilience plan um but the then the final Clause there is to make it clear that this is what we're aiming at so that's just a thought um I take the point that it does say resilience plan and then it says to prepare the town to be resilient in the face of climate change um so I I can go either way but I I would like just like to remind folks that um this is a document that we hope the public looks at and that you can share with the public um and so keep that in mind when we start altering at least objective language okay Anna I disagree with striking that framing um or that that part of the sentence because I think when we think about objectives they are the vision right they are the the bigger picture and while technically it may be redundant um that is our bigger picture is to be more resilient and and proactive in the face of climate change um and so I think for me the the need for that is because it feeds the the vision right it feeds that bigger picture the vision isn't just to follow the car we added that in because there is a plan to be resilient in the face of climate change but I think that that second part of the sentence is really helpful in demonstrating that broader um Vision that broader objective Pam can we see the wording that was just struck please yeah so when I think of an OB objective um our I think our objective here is to continue to make progress on preparing the town to be resilient in the face of climate change in part Guided by the action the the carp so I think if we if we use this phrase it really needs to go right at the beginning this is why we're doing it it's not just to implement carp it's to be resilient so you your suggestion would be to change the objective read to prepare the town to be resilient in the face of climate change continue to make progress or to continue to make progress to to to prepare the town to be resilient I you know continue to make progress is a is a tough thing anyway but you could say to prepare the town to be resilient in the face of climate change um by by making progress on on carp well you know just if I may um notice also that under the action items the last action item essentially is the car plan so one could in fact simply take the car plan out and simply sort of reinforcing Pam's point and also hon us that this is about vision and objective essentially the objective R vision is to continue to make progress on the council's climate action goals uh in order to prepare the town to be Brazilian in the face of climate change that's really what it should stay and then in the action item we make the point about carp and keep working on carp yes so so that's what I would suggest so the so the the the objective could end at the word in the face of climate change period so we would I I would suggest uh deleting um we can come back to this because we're going to be talking about the object the action items in a moment but I would suggest just deleting the language um from guided um to the CP just strike that language so it read the objective here in climate action is to continue to make progress on the council's climate action goals to prepare the town to be resilient in the face of climate change that's what I would suggest and if people are satisfied with the action item number four that would pick that up very clearly okay are um Pam you have your hand up um I never took it down Kathy okay I'm okay um councelor hanii does that fix it for you I'm sorry I are we moving on well in climate action are we moving on away we're moving on we're done with the objective okay we can come back to this for sure we're going on now to the action items right we are and I think again to Echo Hest point and she can weigh in here as well as other members of go um the sort of criteria here that we're trying to apply is that it be specific um and it either be a continuation of something that is ongoing that we want to prioritize um and or it's something that can be accomplished in one year I can just there any other yeah I'm sorry an no no no I was just gonna say if folks are pitching something what I will ask is that you be able to tell us very clearly what completion of that action item looks like in one year's time okay okay councelor hanii um I have a three things um I'll start with something that relates to what Anna just said which is number four the take actions related to climate action blah blah blah what does completion specifically look like in one your's time I don't think that one follows what um how would it be measured So based on what was written in the Preamble of the goal is to have action items that are have no ambiguity as to whether a goal was completed by that time by the time we get to evaluation nor should there be room for judgment as to whether the action item was completed in the quote right way I don't see how this fourth one meets that at all and so while I understand we need the carp if we're aiming for specificity that one doesn't meet it and we should pick things within the carp that we want done and list them out um we did get comments from EC AC I don't know that the I'd have to go back and look to see if those comments were specific about pieces of the carb otherwise I don't think we can do much with this in order to get to detail tonight I think what we need to do is just make a note either um detail pieces of the carp or uh figure out some other way of talking about the carp okay your other comment your next comment um on the one above that I'm going to make two suggestions and I know one will be controversial I'll make the one that I don't think is as controversial first which is so this is the support the development of climate action focused bylaws I would add the phrase at the end of it that says that would reduce ghg emissions um I think we need to be specific as to what our climate fa action focused bylaws should be doing okay um I'm open to other things they should be doing but that was something I could think of of like if we're going to be proposing bylaws let's do bylaws that reduce our ghd emissions which would help us meet our climate action goals of zero ghg emissions by 2050 um can I ask that we spell out ghg and then put in paren ghg greenhouse gas thank you the one that will be controversial that I know will be controversial is I want to strike solar bylaw from that and the reason I want to strike solar bylaw is because the state just passed a climate Bill the governor just signed a climate bill that climate Bill preempts solar bylaws in towns um and we'll be having and the state will be putting out regulations that will preempt or supersede any solar bylaws or battery storage bylaws we might do and I person personally think it is not a good use of our staff time to be continuing working on a solar bylaw until these regulations are out and in effect and all because otherwise we're just going to have to double that staff time and rework them after the regulations are out um com especially since we don't have one yet so I think it's time we delete that next year for calendar year 206 it might be wise to put that in but I think we should be in a wait and see what the regulations from the state are and it's going to be six seven8 months till we even see drafts of them thoughts uh Kathy you have your hand up well I I have a question since M's done two things now I'll do the second one for first um will towns be allowed to be more restrictive on solar than the state so so I know we've put a lot of work in already um and the issue is of course trees and other things that do carbon sequestration and where solar goes and where the batteries go not just the solar Fields go so so that's a question on striking that Al together that because the state is pending got action pending that we shouldn't pay attention so that's number one number two on the I I think you were asking for more specificity on Corp on what we think can be done we did the council passed the what did you call it stretchy stretch code is I think what Anna did that we've got a building code that's pretty tough for anything new that's being built so I would like to know whether there's something else more generally we can do that affects homes multif family complexes commercial buildings transportation and energy wa and waste which is up in the waste hauler if there isn't anything specific I would strike it altogether um because we we are making an effort the one thing I could think of doing is um our uh our CPAC State Provisions don't include uh rehabbing houses and putting solar panels on them if the state expanded a definition of what our dollars could be used on some of those things could be used but we don't have that ability right now so I'm not sure what else the town can do on these issues that is my question on the list I certainly like the list but I don't know what we can do we have an anti-idling law do do people know that we can wrap on someone's uh doors and tell them to turn their engines off but I don't think people even know we've got one of those we do have one okay uh I'm going to go on to well councelor Han did you had a response to uh Kathy um yeah so I can't give you anything of what they might do with solar but I can talk about Adu and I won't go into too much detail because I actually have a report from the on MMA and the Adu bylaw the regulations for adus just came out um there was a seminar today from the executive office of H housing and livable communities um on what those regulations say what their goals are of that um between when the state passed the Adu law the new Adu law and these regulations Our Town staff has been working on updating ours because we knew it was not in liance um there are a number of those updates that are not in compliance with the regulations and therefore just can't even be enacted um based on the webinar today um we don't know what this what the state will say for example for the Adu they said X things are by default unreasonable regulations just and then they listed out a whole bunch of things that would be unreasonable regulation of if they do that with solar then we can't do anything with them at all and so I personally I think it's wise to wait to see what they say before we try and craft anything that might be more restrictive than what they say because we don't know what they're going to say so we can't guess what we might be able to do beyond that until we see the regulations okay Anna so um two quick things the first is well there is some slight redundancy in it if we're going to say that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions um I'd also like to say and reduce Reliance on fossil fuels I think that it's a term that's um also more understandable I think both is is important to have in there but I think we we use that framing quite often and so if we're going to put uh yeah so then the other thing that I I would like to strongly object to remove um any part about the to removing anything about the carp um and instead F go back to the ecac report we we looked at it briefly there's a lot that's kind of we looked at it in go um their end ofe report not briefly but we did look at it and um there's there's a lot in there that they that is ongoing or kind of they've just started in including heat pump programs Etc that we could um refer to with more specificity in here um maybe after a little bit more conversation with them so I just want to advocate for getting more specificity and not removing anything about the um the car um okay George so just as I pointed out that this is a public facing document and we need to keep that in mind I think probably the most important thing is that it's a document that that is something that Paul looks at very carefully so whatever we put in here um it should be something that he can look at and say okay um you know I can I can do something with this um and so take the the fourth item the carp um we got so much input from ecac from um climate activists is all welcome but there were like 30 or 40 things and trust me if it goes back to go we're not going to be able to sort through this I think we need to trust um Stephany we need to trust ecac uh we need to trust the process um what we're saying basically in this uh item as I read it is we take it as a priority for the coming year that Paul continue to have his staff work in these areas um and for us to try and pick out one or two or three um I think would take forever a and I'm not sure that we bring any particular expertise to the deciding which should be highlighted and which shouldn't I think what this item is simply saying is that the carp is the guide these are the areas we'd like you to continue to be working in so have staff continue to do what they're doing um I don't don't think it would be a wise use of our time for us to try to go back to go and come up with some very specific actions the people who have the knowledge and expertise are not go and quite frankly they're not us either um so I would leave the language as it is um I think it gives a clear direction to Paul that this is a priority and then he turns to his staff and has them continue to work with ecac uh in trying to achieve some of these goals I'm also wondering if item number three should just be stricken in its entirety um it's not that we're against these bylaws or for them um it's I wonder if it's really I mean we already have in the objectives a clear statement and through carp of we're trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our uh dependency on fossil fuels so I i' like one I like two and I like three um because they have a specificity um if there are objections to one or two um we could deal with that as a a specific item but I think three could just be stricken and I think four is fine we need to trust the process we need to trust our staff we need to trust Paul um uh uh Jennifer um yes I would uh I do disagree with uh councelor Ryan on number three I would like um that I would like to see that stay within a goal um excuse me the way the waist huler bylaw um became a town manager goal I think it was last year is because the town manager specifically requested that that be a goal so he would know to allocate staff time and resources so I would like to keep the waist Haller bylaw um at least that be specific with with that bylaw Andy I was basically G to say the same thing that Jennifer just said okay Pat sorry I agree with George the whole thing should be taken out on on the um support the development of climate action I think it is in the other three I'm particularly appalled by and I know Mand is expecting this wanting to stop working on the solar bylaw and to best particularly since we have a project that wants to have best storage in a location that would be very difficult to fight if a fire were to start um and I understand that I've been losing this battle for a long time um but if you're going to take that one out I don't I personally don't support the waste huler bylaw uh but I don't so I don't see why that should be there I think if you know we're working to reduce Greenhouse admissions I don't think there should be any bylaws U listed there so I'm agreeing with George and I am appalled by the opposition to regulating solar and best storage that is surfaced over and over again in eak and in this Council um I'm trying to call on counselors that have not spoken to this particular one uh I guess uh councelor I'm hoping that we could re write the first part to be better and clearer I think the language that begins with including the capital inventory would be made stronger if we used updates the capital inventory with criteria for the transition of municipal buildings and I think I'm trying to include oh I'm sorry you're in the very first one okay yeah he moved to the first one y go ahead and the final four words five in the next three years I'm not really sure it when I read it I saw it in two different ways and so I'm hoping that we could be clearer on that is the next three years the amount of time it will take to update or include this Capital inventory or is the next three years about the priorities for transition that will occur over a given period of time so what please go back and tell me tell us again what changes you want to make here so the first would be strikeout include and go with update okay and I'm wondering about transitions in the next three years I read it in two different ways because I'm not sure if the length of time it'll take to update the capital inventory is 3 years or the three years is about priorities for transition so yeah when you look at this it says update the capital inventory criteria for the transition of municipal buildings vehicles and Equipment away from the use of fossil fuels and priorities for transition in the next three years so can I it's reading two different ways one is that the criteria is updated and then this is happening in the next three years or is is the criteria being updated in the next three years is the transition happening in three years or is the criteria being updated can I clarify please yes please Anna so um and councilor I don't know if if this was a conversation we we did have at go because these are criteria initially this goal was make or make the plan for the the vehicle TR the the fleet transition and in conversation with the town manager um he discussed that what's more help what's more helpful is actually identifying to the council what would be needed in order to do that so um we've run into this at jcpc every year when I ask Gilford why he doesn't have an electric snowplow uh or dump truck yet and he says because they're not making them so it's this is about um something that doesn't actually exist the criteria for switching over to uh away from fossil fuel consumption in our vehicle Fleet isn't actually there so we had include because we wanted him to put it in there um and help us to basically create a road map um instead of banging our head against the wall again and again saying you know switch it over switch it over switch it over he needs to tell the council this is what we need to do in order to switch it over this is what needs to exist in order to switch it over so what was written here was include in the capital inventory um what that criteria is for the transition of the building's vehicles and Equipment um in in the next three years I believe was because that was the initial timeline for for doing that um for that switch to be made so I just wanted to clarify why that said include and not update I have other com too so I'm going to keep my hand up but there okay uh so um counselor e so it's not an update it's an including something in an existing inventory it would sorry it would need to say it's an add to the capital inventory it could say update if that's the word people like more but it needs to say update it update the capital inventory to include criteria for the transition okay thank you to include criteria that helps clarify I'm still not clear about the three years still that's the still the question is the three years what's the three years about Anna um I believe that this was a a hold over from prior goal again I'm looking at Lynn George frea and Pat to to help remember the conversation at go um but I believe that this was a a hold over from prior goals that we wanted the transition of the fleet by a of the um buildings and Fleet and Equipment uh in a certain amount of time um but I'm I'm looking to pull that up to remember if people want to strike it we can strike it I I can't remember who it came from at go I think we need to take in the next three years out the only thing that oh you know what I think part of it it was a bit arbitrary but I think this was we wanted him to identify which of priority areas so that in future goals um we can say great you said this was a priority for 2027 you said this was a priority for 2028 so I believe this was adding a bit of uh of actionability here to say you know what is doable in set time frame it doesn't need to be three years but I would advocate for keeping a time frame in there um the council can decide what's appropriate but I I think that that's helpful so I would advocate for not striking it for what it's worth I don't know if I get to undo suggested let's put it back in in the next three years okay um excuse me councelor hanii I'm sorry let me Pat let's see we've got Andy Freer yes I I still want to press the points because it isn't necessarily about the time in terms of years it is about where the years what the years relate to that is is it only the second half of the sentence or the entire sentence since what connects them is the word and Anna what is I'm open to grammatical suggestions this is very much not my document um this is this is Deeply One co-created counselor at by you in go um so I'm open to suggestions for for grammatical changes uh as as you all see fit the question is what the what does next three years apply to that would be the priorities for transitions in the next three years we'd like to know what the three the the priorities for the coming three years are that's how I understood this if other go members understand it differently to hear that I think if you just move in the next three years to after the word priorities that might clear It Up Priorities in the next three years for transition that looks good to me thank you all right uh I'm just going to point out we have now exceeded our time for one goal so this is what I'm going to suggest and I'm going to suggest we spend another 15 minutes not on this but on the objectives and because we've already agreed on the six goal areas let's see see if we can agree on the objectives L can I make and then we're going to have to take suggestions it's going to have to go back to go otherwise we'll be here till tomorrow it it's going to have to come back to another meeting there's no way we're going to get this done in one meeting and okay see may may I let's let's do this let's try to complete this goal area and then let's try to do the objectives and then we'll go from there okay what else on this goal area George you have your hand up Go Cannot recreate what we're doing this is the only opportunity we have as a body to actually talk about what our priorities are and what we want and to to sort of decide if we can come to consensus and some of it Go cannot do that for this body so sending it back to go is not going I mean there may be specific things we can go back and tweak but that'll take us five minutes and then we're back to where we started this conversation has to take place um or else we just yeah so um it's just going to take time and I don't if somebody can think of a way to do this quicker I'm all ears but um it is the only opportunity we have as a body to actually back and forth about what we think is important what isn't um so that's just a thought on that um I think we have well we still have an issue related to the bylaws so the question is and I can go either way here I'm not but um do we want to make it a priority or Paul in the coming year to focus on specific bylaw and some of us say yes some of us say no and some of us are kind of indifferent um but we need to resolve that go cannot resolve that okay you have to resolve it so um one option is to strike the whole thing another option is to keep pretty much the way it has it support development of climate action Focus bylaws then insert perhaps the phrase which reduce our greenhouse gas emissions if you wish I mean that's in the objective but we could put it in in including such as waste H bylaw solar bylaw and other potential bylaws or you could strike the specific references to bylaws and just say support development of climate action focused bylaws um period can I but we need to resolve this okay if we're going to work on waste toer we need to have it in here if we're going to do something once solar settles down at the state level whether it's to look at our own local implementation it needs to be in here otherwise just saying General bylaws doesn't right do it so um but but Lynn do you think that that if it's not in here at all if we take it out completely that somehow I that the waste holler bylaw will cease to move forward that the solar bylaw will cease to move forward they're already in motion I guess the question to all of us is do we as a body at least seven of us want to prioritize one or more of these specific bylaws but they're going to go forward anyway no they're not that's the thing if if we say if we strike solar byw here it stops if we strike waste huler here it stops all right at least that's the way I interpret the goals okay uh right I've said enough Anna I'm GNA go to counselor hanii so I guess I interpret the goals differently if it says support the development of climate action focused bylaws that would make reduce greenhouse gas emissions and Reliance on fossil fuels that includes whatever bylaws are do that it doesn't have to say a specific bylaw if the waste huler bylaw would reduce uh greenhouse gas emissions that qualifies under that bullet point without being specifically mentioned in my mind so um if once the if the regulations are finalized earlier than I expect them to be and there's ability in Staffing to work on solar once there's a regulations and a potential model bylaw that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and Reliance on fossil fuels I don't see why we have to list specific ones in here to have the manager work on things because supporting the development of bylaws requires you working on them so I I don't see that I had a comment on the second one seek climate leader Community designation and accompanying funding from do and I had two questions what is that um and is it part of the cart and how much money would it cost and time would it cost to do this versus the benefit that would come from it since it came to me out of nowhere I just need more information about that one uh Paul I believe you have more information on that one and I'll have even more information on Thursday when I meet with uh um so this is a a designation that the state has put together to be a climate leader it um and it it commits us it it says we will attain some many of the goals that are already in our carp and so when you become a climate if you're accepted into the climate leader Community there's a subset of money that's available only to climate leader communities and in year one we want to be able to take make take have access to that money um I don't have all the list of things but I can I can share that with the council for sure this came from our uh sustainability director correct okay uh all right and in terms of cost to the town I don't think there's a cost to the town uh Jennifer yes so I would very much I think we need to include for all the reasons Lyn said the specific bylaws and I would you know ask the town manager I mean uh Paul was very clear that if again for an example with the waste holler bylaw if it was not a town manager goal it would not be addressed so I think and we've I I'm also concerned that do we make policy decisions in this conversation like crc's been working for many months for year on the solar bylaw so we just stop working on it now um it doesn't see it seems like that should be a discussion right but if we strike that I don't think we make a decision in this meeting that should be a discussion in CRC with a recommendation back to the council if we're not going to con or the council direction to CRC but I don't think we strike the solar bylaw in this conversation as part of the Town manager goals Andy yeah I I'm uh sharing your concern about how long this is going to take and whether we need to find a different way to do this including getting these suggestions back to the committee for discussion having as an example the one that uh Jennifer just talked about I had worked on it too and I thought about different language that you could use that it's basically built on what we have but if you said consistent with state law and regulations and as feasible support the develop M of climate action focused bylaws that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions including the way tolerance solar bylaws which would uh get rid of the need for the um other category right but I mean those kinds of editorial um work does it belong in this entire body the and I would agree with that but I will also tell you when Anna asked people to send stuff we didn't get much response so now that we have a much more um if you will growingly complete document it's nowhere near done I think we're going to have to do something where we again agree on the objectives and then get information on the action items uh pamon yeah I'm going to ask to re to restore the word solar bylaw I I like Andy's rearrangement of it it's just a little simpler um but there's a very good chance that something can come to us whether we continue working on it or the state brings something for us to review within the next within the next calendar year I would like to have on the book so nobody forgets that um in fact then staff can help with it so it could very well come to us within the year so Andy let's take the moment and please read for Athena to put in here what you just suggested for number three what I had suggested was consistent with state law and regulations and as feasible comma support the development of climate action focused bylaws that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions comma including the waste holler and solar bylaws I can read I can send that to okay and so don't take out don't strike out solar bylaw no because I think it's sufficiently qualified by consistent with state law and regulations and dis feasable but do strike everything after solar bylaw because it doesn't it's not applicable anymore then yeah that I took out all right let me just suggest at this point we have agreed on the goal area we've agreed on the objective we seem to have consensus on one two maybe three and we're still looking for some detail on four or we're going to just leave it the way it is those are that's what I'm hearing on this goal Anna um thank you so I've got a couple notes here first off the someone had asked earlier I think Kathy you had talked or soone sorry I don't want to Mis credit had talked about the opin energy code that we got passed last year and um I just wanted to clar and they had asked you know kind of what's the next what's the stretcher stretchier stretcher um there's no stretcher code necessarily but the climate leader Community design is that is a next step is a is a further um pedestal that we could we could climb um it's just a different Center format but for example one of the things you have to do to be eligible to be a climate leader Community is op adopt the specialized optin code so um just to kind of clarify what that is a little bit more um and I highly encourage folks to read it what I wanted to say is is a bit broader here I I'm fully prepared to die on the hill of specificity um um and I'm fully prepared to do that over the course of many meetings I will fight for more specificity in these goals than less yes this is an actionable or this is a document that shows the broader picture of the vision for the council that's why we have goal areas that's why we have objectives we have action items to be specific those action items need to be specific so yes I do think that includes having specific bylaws in there if those are things we want the town manager to work on I take strong objection to the idea that being specific indicates a lack of trust in the town manager that is not true and I don't think that is fair having specific goals allows us to know uh with clarity as a body whether something was accomplished or not I agree that fourth goal needs more specificity and I think that there's some good ideas from ecac that to put in there I think that's a really good way to tap into our committees by the way as an aside um when we get to the evaluation of the Town manager which is something go will be looking at again uh in terms of that process we need to think about how we use these goals and how those translate to us evaluating the town manager at the end of the year it is not the only use of the goals document but it is one use of it and I think it is a helpful use when we consider actionability and specificity of these action items so if we just say pursue you know or support the development of bylaws and the town manager has done one but not the other um we are not able to equally as a body we we're not going to come in with the same lens right we're not com coming in saying he did what he wanted to do to meet that goal um if we say support the development of climate act and this is just an example but if we say support the development of climate action bylaws and the town manager helps with one but not the other technically he has helped technically he has met that goal so if we are expecting him to help with both we need to say both if there's more we are expecting we need to put that in there it's not fair of us to not be specific in these action items um and I think that is I'm done outlining the hills that I will die on thank you counc is it possible to spell out door to do what spell out doer in the second one Department of energy and something resources environmental resources energy and environmental resources or something like energy we'll check on it Department of energy resources energy resources thank you and I totally agree with you on that Pat you have your hand up yes thank you um I would like to add the fact that we are need to be working on a battery battery energy storage bylaw um and that has started so that should be in that list of specifics for the third um action right so it's waste huler solar bylaw andar battery energy storage bylaws battery energy storage okay or best yeah whichever battery energy storage system bylaw system Sor it's a storage system bylaw right thank you okay George you have your hand up so where did that come from I mean it it's actually been we have been working on it as part of and so now we're priority as well and as part as separately so if we're working on a bylaw then it becomes a priority okay well that with the correction consistent with state law and Regulation and it's feasible if we're going to continue to work on ways taller continue work on the solar bylaw you know waiting for the state to give us information then we need to continue to work on the battery energy storage bylaw it it's been something this year's I can't hear you George so I I'd like to go back to item four if I could briefly um and push back a little bit against uh my chair whom I deeply respect and has really worked very hard and I like this format and I hope it we will keep it um but I I had six pages of densely uh you know dense text from three different or four different sources on what should be done related to uh uh climate action goals and trust me there's no way if you send this back to go that we're going to be able to sort through that and come up with specific actions um we just don't have the expertise um and again I would ask that we keep the language we have here and Trust um in our uh in in Stephanie and our staff um these are this is lacks specificity in a sense but essentially it gives them some room in which to work um we certainly don't expect uh Paul to come back and tick off every single one of these items but what we're looking for is work in this broad area making use of the expertise he has in his staff and the time and energy he has if you send this back to go I don't know what we're going to do with it um maybe our chair has a plan but I had six pages and I simply we finally just this is what we came up with um and I think we should hang on to it councelor hanii if we're not going to change number four we should just delete it and add back in the deleted language from the objective because the objective would say be guided by it because number four in action items is just guiding action it's not anything specific it doesn't help us and and to answer your question if this is the format we're going with I expect every action item to be completed I don't want to have to write in another year that we adopted these goals expecting that only a third of them would be completed because there were too many of them so you can't complete number four because it's not specific enough and so then it should probably be fully deleted but then add the carp back into the objective Anna do you have a comment on that sure I I mean yes I sure do um uh so I think the of course they do um I disagree with moving it into the objective I'm I'm agreeing and disagreeing with Mandy so yes I also expect all of the things in the action items to be complete in a year that's why we are writing them in action items for this year's goals if we expect it partially completed we should specify that we this will take multiple years um I think though that I don't want to take this out of action happy to die on the hill of not getting more specific here fine but um I don't want to take this out of action items I just want folks because when we go to evaluate the town manager we're looking at action items we the action items are all in the direction of the outcome right we're not evaluating the outcome in that same way um we are evaluating completion of action items um Hy hypothetically I guess we probably would have to all decide that so what I need us to agree to is if we are not going to be more specific in this fourth one I think that what people need to understand is this means anything the town manager does does as long as it's aligned with the carp checkbox and we've achieved that goal if folks are comfortable with that leave it as is that but just to be clear you cannot then have a different expectation that you're not sharing with the full group so if you have a full expectation just like Pat did put it out there and we can add it up or or if you have a specific part of the the carp that you want highlighted put it out there um but if I want this to stay in here because I think that it gives gives that Latitude that George was saying I would love to get more specific and focus on ecac goals um as identified but I I don't want to remove it from an action item just want people to realize any progress counts as completing this action item I'm going to suggest for the sake of time at this point that we ex we go with what we have up here for climate action that means the goal area the objective and the for action items okay George you have your hand up well GI certainly take this language and and fine-tune it um and with what we have in front of us um and then bring it back that we could do and it sounds like the chair is also suggesting that perhaps I'm not looking forward to this but perhaps we could find some more specific action items under item number four um and come back with those okay let's go on and just have brief discussion on the actual objective statement under Community Health Community safety and social justice comments George well so just to read it to I take it we're discussing or reviewing to ensure the health and safety of the residents of amest and continue making advances in racial equity and social justice comments okay moving on next one well actually Kathy your hand up sorry ly at this point we're not talking about the list the green list no we're not we're just G to focus on the obje just for my benefit since I have comments a lot on the green list including where did some of these come from we've never had a discussion about them at all so how are we going to how are we going to do that you know just so I understood what the go process was it was working off old lists and things we've been working on give comments not dream up something that we've never talked about and put it on a list so and I'm not saying these are necessar bad ideas I just don't know where they came from so are we talking talking about that next month we're going to have to I can clarify that point too ly Anna these did come from counselors um some members of go some not I the message of don't put anything new in here is not one that I uh I I apologize if that was the message that was put out that was not the intended message people are welcome to include new ideas that weren't from previous goals we were also drawing forward from prior year goals so it was all of that um and I think that Kathy to to get to your point I the timing of the goals document and the way that it informs the Year this is a place where people can bring forward something and the council could discuss it and decide that they want to pursue it because what we've seen in the past and I think this is partially why I I'm guessing some folks are advocating so strongly for Waste toer is that this is a plan for in some ways a way for the town manager to plan out his and his staff's time in the coming year and it's important to know if something is going to be um taking up that time so there are things in here that the council has not discussed and that's why the council should discuss each item and vote on it uh even if we know that more specifics are needed it's a question of you know is this something that we want to ask the town manager to spend time on in the coming year knowing it might then fail at even at a referral vote from the council but otherwise I think we're we're setting ourselves up for the possibility that we've created the goals and something new comes up and we haven't uh ever talked about it before and so it's not a policy priority so Lynn I'm okay with focusing on the blue and my my point about the green just so people know is that we think we've given too big a list of to-do list so putting new things on a to list to-do list that require staff time is what I've been looking at absolutely so that so so it's the green that I really focused on a lot on do we need to do this why it's time consuming and what's the motivation for doing it so so that's that's I'm not questioning I may be questioning whether this delegation of everything to go and everyone should send things in is a good way of proceeding but in any case I'm willing to focus on Blue right now but I think the green is much more problematic for me and I didn't think in terms of word smithing I thought in terms of the whole concept however it was written I would agree with you the green is where the meat is and is where we need to have most of the discussion what I'd like us to do is get to the point that we've agreed we have these six goals do we have six objectives that go with those goals and then we're going to have to take time at Future Council meetings as early as possible in the new year to settle on these because you cannot go forward without having the goals settled action settled thank you action settled Pat you have your hand up thank you I'm wondering whether or not we actually need to set up a um a retreat time to work on the specific items uh it seems kind of you know I doing this at the next so many Council meetings is really not very productive um I think we need to put real time aside as a group so we can um P start polling for a retreat in January okay this is a body that hasn't been able to find a date to just take a picture I'm I'm gonna really be surprised if we can find a date we're all 13 of us are going to be around for retreat right but I mean I understand the problem but I don't see any way around it this is hard long work it takes time okay and I'm sorry but that's fine we're going is there any any additional comment on the Blue Area under Community Health and Community safety and social justice seeing none I'm going to the next one housing and economic development so I will read it to Ure the present and future economic well-being of the Town ensure and ensure access to Safe Comm affordable and attainable housing for the low and moderate income residents as set forth in the town council's comprehensive housing policy comments next one George so now we're into management goals this is under Administration and Leadership effectively and appropriately administer the operations and finances of T of the town I assume pursuant to the home Rule Charter ensure the town's strong financial and fisical health I'm not sure what the difference is there and effectively develop supervise and manage the town's Workforce fostering a proactive anti-racist culture throughout Town departments so we added the word the' I would add the word the' I'm not sure there's any difference between financial and fiscal so let's choose one strong fiscal Health Financial Health okay strong Financial Health all right strong fin okay councelor hanii youf your hand up I was actually going to say why do we need the ensure the town's strong Financial Health at all when we talk about appropriately and effectively administer the finances of the Town isn't aren't those two redundant completely y i well it might have mostly redundant I mean there's the day-to-day just the year-to-year budget and then there's the longer range issue and um so I I take the second phrase ensure the town's strong uh Financial Health to be a sort of a longer term process um as opposed to just administrating the operation ation and make I mean I think this is sort of replacing you know balance the budget which seems kind of like a no-brainer so that was my only thought that this second Clause could be construed or should be understood as the sort of overall long range picture so Athena has typed in long-term Financial Health which I think does get after issues like Bond rating Etc um man councelor Handi did you have something else on that I did um in the manager's evaluations and the comments we received from staff this year there were a lot of comments that related to not just anti-racist culture but discriminatory culture um so discrimination and implicit bias and other things and not just based on uh race and culture that we had some employees discussing and so I think it would be worth broadening from just a proactive anti-racist culture to a proactive anti-discrimination um and I I don't know how I'd word it but but broadening that we had a number of comments relating to gender discrimination um and other types of discrimination and I think particularly in an objective we need to acknowledge that our ad that in administration and Leadership we should be fostering a culture that is free from all discrimination and all implicit bias okay so the town clerk has suggested the following fostering a proactive anti-racist non-discriminatory cultural throughout Town departments do that do it seems to Pat you have your hand up thank you I'm not sure uh whether this is the goal or an um action item but after reviewing a lot of the Town manager evaluation I feel like within the goal it should say something like um and manage the town's Workforce and before fostering a proactive anti-racist adding by playing an active and decisive role in mediating disagreement between departments and addressing the interpersonal situations that arise in the work environment and fostering a proactive because I feel strongly that there's been a lot of feed push back about decisiveness and responsiveness to issues and tensions between departments so I'm not sure whether that's an active um an action item or should be part of the goal um and I feel also I want to say to Paul that I have great respect for him so this is not coming from a lack of respect but a lack of caring and wanting to see him act as strongly as he possibly can to create a work environment that supports his staff so I it does seem to me that that should be more of an action item okay um and if you would please write up an action item that goes with that okay I will all right are there any other comments on this one then going to the next INF under infrastructure management maintenance and land stewardship the objetive is to maintain and manage the town's capital and public assets this by the way is the place where we have now moved all capital projects including the big ones Pat you have your hand up forgot to take it down sorry thank you move to the next one so the final goal categories Community excuse me Town Council comma community and strategic relationship sh and the objective here is to maintain develop and increase positive relationships and Communications with the Town Council residents and local and state entities comma right there com comments on this then I think yes go ahead uh Kathy sorry I've been trying to avoid this but the Strategic relationships p p is pretty important it's in the pink so I'm not sure it needs to be in the blue but in the blue it sounds like we just all want to get along if I if I read the blue I'm sorry so what what are you suggesting so it says stwn Town Council community and strategic relationships then we have positive relationships with all the different people but this idea of we actually wanted strategic agreements with some of these Partners so I'm not I'm trying to avoid word smithing the pink says what I need it to say the blue is missing some words okay what do you want to put in the blue I I don't know as long as we all think strategic relationships is important then when I look over in the green I expect to see them so that's all I'm I'm saying George is that if you read the blue it says we should all get along I'm sorry to be shorthand about it so I'm not sure it needs to be changed Lynn you know okay I understand what what what what the structure is trying to do but on this one you're missing part of what we want okay Anna did you have a comment yeah I mean I think Kathy I I do see what you're saying because it's so sandwiched by the the Strategic points because we specifically have pursue strategic Partnerships and in the in the action items and strategic in the goal area title I don't think that it's for en um I also would say that positive relationships includes those agreements right and so I think in order to to have a positive relationship that's mutually beneficial I would my my interpretation would be that that includes it but go could explore more ways to specifically call it out if uh if that's what folks would like us to do I just just to I think ease any mind concerns having it in both places for me does cover it but I I do see what you're saying as I said I'm okay with the way it is it's just a little odd let's make sure we don't lose something over in the action items okay uh I'm I think at this point go needs to come up with a strategy for how we're going to complete that that may include in fact a retreat and um we'll go back to go to work on that okay sorry what is Joel working on now a strategy for how we're going to complete this it's G to take up a lot of time should sending should we be sending our comments to Anna as go that was my request um that's well appreciated but then it comes back here and we're gonna have to talk about it and it's gonna take a lot of time right might I might I a request as the chair of go um yes please send your comments if you I would especially like um word smithing comments grammatical comments if you catch typos I know we made typos please that's what I would really uh like in a track changed document if you have specifics on action items that you'd like change things that's where go will have to have a larger conversation because I agree with George that go can can make suggestions and suggestions and suggestions that the five of us think are really great and then you know get them torn apart at uh when the body of 13 comes together so know that send us your suggestions please always send them as a track changes um I want to highlight counselor hanii for doing that throughout this process and thank you very much for sending him as track changes makes our lives a lot easier to kind of go through um but no that we kind of tried to include things after discussion um we'll probably have to have a larger conversation as a council I would love that larger conversation to not get bogged down by um by like the the grammatical uh discussion so please send those uh prioritize those for sure um we will send you the full document as it stands after today's discussion um Kathy yeah um I thank you Mandy for asking that because I have specifics including delete this why is this here so I will I'm going to avoid words word smithing altogether because I think the content is more important so I would hope that we would all do that um at at a minimum and I can I can imagine where some of the specific actions came from in terms of which human being which which council member on different pieces I but but I'm going to do a I think my perception of these goals should be something that we have discussed at some point in some group and we would like to get it done rather than bringing in a brand new issue so that's my perspective on looking at the action I like what the structure a lot Anna that you've come up with in know in actions but I think there should be some agreement that some agreement by several people that it's an action we want to see so thank you kathew yes thank you I um have gone beyond my physical limit so I am going to have to leave the meeting um so thank you thank you for joining us tonight see um all right we are going to move to our next agenda item and believe it or not there's not much after this because most of it got done on consent uh the next agenda item is Town manager compensation I'm going to read a motion seek a second to affirm the Town council's December 2 2024 vote in executive session to Grant the town manager a 2.5% cost of living increase with an additional 0.5% performance increase for a total of 3% is there a second second Rooney is there any discussion or comment seeing none we're moving to a vote councelor hanii I Bob hegner I councelor Lord I Pam Rooney yes councelor Ryan I Kathy Shane abstain because I wasn't there for the discussion Andy Steinberg yes Jennifer to yes councelor Walker yes Patti Angelus is absent uh Anna Devin goth here I councelor ate I Lyn grimer is and I it is 11 in favor one exstension and one absent okay thank you Paul thank you very much um all right they um with regard to our agenda let me try to find it we have done the other the rest of the action items under consent uh we uh Kathy I think we just um delay present for our discussion yeah we we can um just so everyone Lyn put it in the packet we have a percent for art the school is eligible for it so the discussion question is are we going to do it and I can speak to it for about 3 minutes at the next meeting it's not urgent that we do it now right fine uh so that's the January 13th okay in your packet is uh the same document that we've provided every year which describes using both the um Charter and the rules of procedure the role of the president and the vice president are there any questions or comments okay um we've done the appointments we're going on to committee and liaison reports CRC Pam roone uh CRC is currently uh in a public hearing on University Drive overlay district and um still has solar byw on our plate any questions of CRC Elementary School building committee Kathy we're meeting this Friday at 9:00 a.m. and we'll have an update on uh the Contracting bidding process where we are at the next meeting we're we're down to now to well we'll be meeting once a month um and so Friday's meeting is the last of this year and the next one will be 3 weeks in the 25th okay uh finance committee Bob hegner yeah we're meeting tomorrow to discuss have an initial discussion of the models that we have for the four capital projects okay okay go Anna go is meeting on Thursday uh looks like we might be talking about the goals a little bit and then we we' got some um we should have some proclamations uh I think I'm I'm looking to see if the referral came through Lynn um of the Martin Luther King day one to go so that should be on our as well we have that one and but we've not surfaced Black History Month yet no we're going to do that at uh stay tuned it will be done we're GNA do that when January uh yeah that was the plan okay that was my plan um Jones Library building committee there has not been a meeting okay uh TSO Andy we had a uh a very interesting meeting it was a joint meeting with Transportation advisory committee and the disability access advisory committee on Thursday of last week regarding the Southeast Street Elementary School Road all right Andy I can't really I think you lost your mic I can't really hear you okay uh well I'll try again with the microphone closer um we had a meeting uh last week there was a joint meeting with TSO p and daac regarding Southeast Street Elementary School um access uh discussion that was initiated with one proposal that had come um from uh the town manager in public works and uh had been uh recommended by a consultant that was hired at it was a long and interesting discussion I don't think that I could uh summarize it the amount of time you want me to spend tonight and I won't um but let me just summarize it in the simplest way is that the concern was is that the focus of the of the dis um presentation that was made in support of the plan was all about traffic flow which is just one element and it left out the elements of of pedestrians uh bicycle writers and school children and how they fit in um and whether um The Proposal met their needs and safety we also had the presence of uh the uh uh facilities director from the schools Who U was able to speak about the um about it from the school perspective so it's back to the committee and ultimately the other two committees become because uh essentially um we've been advised that if this plan is deficient um that we need to provide more specificity we will have that discussion uh when we meet on Thursday uh second part of the discussion is the other half of our um committee's title Outreach and uh we are going to uh be meeting with uh uh the communications director from the town Samantha gfin and she's GNA um help us to talk about how we inform the public on projects like this one focusing on the um Southeast Street and talk about how we might uh engage the community in providing input as that proceeds um and then we're continuing to work on the uh transportation and parking commission proposal so those are that's what the agenda item is for our final reading of this calendar year thank you uh the aison reports councelor hanii did you have a question no I have a report I'm not on leaz on to any committee on this list but I am on the MMA policy committee on muncipal and Regional Services um that policy committee has has been the one that has been on the municipal at the MMA discussing the Adu state law that went into effect and now the regulations that are out the regulations came out last week um they can be found on the executive office of Housing and liable communi website or if you want to go be really quick they've been published in this week's planning board packet um but um they are out they will be one the the goal is to adopt them have the state have them in effect by the February 2nd official effective date of the state law there was a webinar given by that executive office today and last Tuesday last Tuesday's webinar presentation is online already um I don't know whether they recorded each of them so that you could see the but but one of at at least the documents are online um I attended today's and there were over 400 people at that one apparently um my MMA policy committee is meeting this Wednesday at 10:30 to discuss what the MMA might want to submit as comments to the executive office on those regulations so if you guys have any comments or thoughts on those regulations or things that I should be talking to the MMA about or concerns regarding the regulations please get those comments to me by tomorrow evening so that I can read them and be ready for T Wednesday morning's meeting that I'm having with my policy committee could you please send us both a link for the re proposed regulations and a link for the presentation I haven't found the presentation I went to today's I don't know I don't have oh you mentioned something was they said it was online I don't know where online myself cuz I haven't looked so I guess I could look for it the link just go to this week's planning board packet the regulations are in it okay this week's tomorrow well the meeting for the planning board is Wednesday I believe but the regulations are in that packet Nate has them I sent them to nen right for the webinar I yeah don't know I I have not received a link to it from my attendance today if I do I can forward it on to the council but I've not received the one for today but the regs are in this week's planning board packet okay thank you uh Council Lord thank you I'm um speaking on behalf of my Lee Aids on to the community safety and social justice committee and they have written us to implore strongly strongly advise us to use the remain of the $500,000 that was set up for a Youth Empowerment Center which is $454,000 for that purpose to continue forward in the um the goal of having a Youth Empowerment Center thanks any other Le on reports councelor Lord you have your hand up okay um I'm in the future I'm going to add under committee and liaison reports uh the MMA committees if the count if the town Clerks of the Town Council would remind me I said that thank you uh we've done the minutes Town manager's report there's no written report Paul any highlights yeah so first I just want to thank the council for the work that you put into my performance review and for your vote tonight I appreciate it and I'll use the information you give me to improve my performance um it's um truly privilege to work for the town and I think what's one of the things I found interesting is your conversation tonight about goals talks about the ambition the town has which makes it exciting for all of us to work here so just appreciate the work and it is going to take time George um but I think that that's that's what part of the work is so we do I do want to recognize the work of the council because you put in enormous amounts of time and it does feed down into the staff so we appreciate that work on subject matters um the mass Board of Library Commissioners extended the uh dead the abil the time to use their Grant by three months to the end of March um the Attorney General denied the two bid protest of the school so as Kathy said we're now in negotiations with the low bidder to get to a contract Amendment since there's been a delay there's there's some uh Financial consequences and timing consequences that we're trying to work through with the low bidder um the four towns meeting I think if someone's going to report on that that was a really good meeting and just to high just to note the um next four towns meeting is February 8th I think they announced yes so we just put it on our calendar so people know that that will be the next time I think that we will have a real substantive discussion about revenue and projections and things like that um and also just um I've been nominated to be on the Maya Health uh U Board of Trustees so that'll be voted on in January and that's what we're we're really happy to be on that board that's it are there any questions at the Town manager uh yes P thank you um councelor Lord just me mentioned the uh the arpa funds and I wonder if we can ask for an update on what's the expectation with uh arpa funds that either need to be obligated have not been obligated uh what What's outstanding and what are your proposals please so um what we are taking a very defensive uh posture for our arpa funds given the change of administration in Washington and given the status of our community both as a college town as sanctuary Community uh blue state blue blue town and blue State um I'm fearful of claw backa fund so what we're going to do and we're working on right now um and I'll come to the council um after the New Year to report on this is to secure every dime that we've gotten from the federal government so we don't lose it what that means is that it will probably fall to free cash and any money that comes out of it will have to be approp will be appropriated by the uh Town Council so we have identified the projects that we had hoped to do including um the Youth Empowerment Center and Senior Center things like that um and when I we make the report to you in January we'll out we'll say here's what the money we had intended the money to be used for but out of a trying to be cautious and recognizing that um the D the rules that the Biden administration had put in place that allowed us to use it over the next two years may be rescinded and so I think it's a it's in the best financial interest of the town that we secure it by having it Go in what we call Revenue replacement which means it will fall to free cash and then it be available for appropriation by the council but we'll give you a more detailed summary of all that and what that looks like come January okay other other questions the town manager okay um we've approved the minutes I'm I'm going backwards uh you have a written report from me as president there any questions uh I do have a under the future agenda items we meet again on the 13th at the beginning of the meeting we'll open the meeting have the election of President and Vice President and the swearing in we then move to a public forum on items outside the budget cycle this includes the CPA High School field and track or track and field uh DP W sidewalk plow which was a reduced Financial order and the other DPW Enterprise funds that were passed by the finance committee um under resolutions we have the MLK and also a fairness for Farm Workers resolution Anna it's not completed yet so um if it gets referred to go by tomorrow then uh meaning if it gets to un referred to go by tomorrow then that would be there but if not it won't okay uh and then then uh under actions are the financial orders that we will have had the uh public forum on clearly the finance committee will have to determine whether they have any changes in their votes um a continued discussion of town manager goals I don't even want to go there right now um and the Southeast Street quadruple roundabout if ready I doubt it it won't be ready all right um and um any written Town manager reports um at that point uh are there counselor comments Kathy you have your hand up just a quick one Lynn uh I think we're only on our committees for one year so we have to uh uh then say what committees we want to be on so that yeah that happens after the election of the president vice president Athena and I have discussed this because we are continuing as a council you can meet between now and the 13th okay until committees are reappointed the Committees are the way they are they are until they're changed until they're not how's that Bob hegner I just want to I just wanted to thank the finance committee for all their hard work developing the budget guidelines and I also want to give a call out to Melissa zosi because she's very good and has very been very helpful to the finance committee so nice thank you Andy yeah I'll just change subject real quickly for those uh of you who are going to the MMA conference now called connect 351 uh we probably uh should at least find out who amongst us is going and how we coordinate but I also actually was uh wanting to um point to one session in particular I think that we've all been aware of the concern in our own Regional School District and in our local schools about the rise in costs of educate providing education this is actually a Statewide issue as we often talk about at the MMA um fiscal policy committee discussions and um there's a session that is exactly on this topic and one of the pist of that session is sha mango and um Sean will bring to that session U whether he shares it or not a lot of knowledge about the pressures that have gone on within our schools because of his roles that he's played in Hammer so I just wanted to point out for people who are going to attend the conference uh to look out for that particular session compared to the position he's in now where he gets a lot of money and if you have not yet let Angela know if you plan to register please do so as soon as possible yes and make sure you make your make sure you make your hotel reservation uh coun this is just a quick um comment to say thank you to the entire Council it's been a year in this position and I've already begun to get some gray hair but I thank you for your your patience it's there's a learning curve to this and for the discussions that we've had spirited but all for the good I think of the town and i' would also just want to wish the town and the councilors a wonderful holiday season thank you very nice are there any other questions comments or requests and thank you for the cookies there you go we have to put them on the agenda if you say that okay any other comments if not I'm making a motion to adjourn and seek a second second Jesus you think we're a little eager to get out of here all right uh in this case we start with Bob hegner yeah I councelor Lord hi pamaron yes councelor Ryan hi Kathy Shane yes Andy Steinberg yeah he said yes Jennifer tub yes councelor Walker yes uh Pat is absent Anna Devon gothier hi uh councelor r hi Lyn grimer I counselor Han hi it's unanimous with one absent happy holidays