##VIDEO ID:EvgTD3ihKFo## [Music] so it is uh 6:00 p.m. on the 16th of September we're going to call this meeting of the finance committee to order uh present uh from the finance committee on the call are uh Bill Smith Cheryl Burke Mike Bennett Frank Johnson uh our newest member Mike Retta and myself uh Ed EJ Brian is not present currently uh some housekeeping items to start with uh the H this meeting of the Halifax finance committee is being recorded by area 58 uh we have already announced the committee members that are in attendance and we will be doing roll call votes for all items that need to be approved so anybody had uh moving into our agenda for this evening we are going to bypass the first agenda item which is approval of committee meeting minutes they were not completed in time for our call tonight uh so we will hold that over till our next call uh and we will do the and uh they would be uh um I believe they'll be out by the end of next week I think for us to read through and have any questions or corrections made before the prior meeting anybody have any comments or questions on that Noe okay on to our second item I would like to officially welcome our newest Committee Member Mike Retta to the finance committee uh good to have you on board Mike it's good to have a full finance committee for the um uh you know for the for this fiscal year and moving forward should you choose to continue with us um it's uh we're going to go over some of the um some of the assignments the aison assignments here shortly and uh uh get you kind of ingrained in some of the some of the lighter lighter work before we get you to do any heavy lifting at this point so um and you open it up to you Mike if you have any comments or anything you want to say before we uh roll through everything else well thank everyone for having me I appreciate your support and uh and coming on to the committee look forward to learning from you all getting to know you all pretty well and uh excited to hopefully you know have some some fresh input and some good input into what you guys have been doing so thank you very much good to have you on board Mike welcome Mike thank you there excited okay so um the next item we had was hope for Halifax uh introduction so Jonathan just shot me a text he said he'll be on around 6:15 he had something just come up he had to pick up one of his kids from practice okay sure not a problem okay so um let's do this then let's move to the uh reassignment of uh liaison so I'm going to share the last file that I have which I think is the most recent one and it took me a bit of digging to find it so let me go in [Music] here oh there EJ sh there's EJ yeah sorry I was lit we've been running around with medical stuff for my son today I'm sorry to hear that is he doing okay yeah he broke his nose so we're uh oh man I get him he's going into surgery on Thursday to get it all fixed up this file nope NOP there we go all righty I think I'm sharing the correct file can everybody have a look make sure that we are looking at the the right one because confusion the last time yeah that's that's the one that we had um a couple months ago yeah okay um so as it stands I'm going to take I'm going to take on the uh accounts that Todd had um Ed you're still going to be working Ed Brian you're still going to be working with conservation Halifax uh in lights Hal holidays and Halifax plus you and I are going to kind of team up on the Halifax Elementary and Silver Lake Regional along with Cody um to work through that budget because that's going to take probably everybody's uh elbow grease on that one um Cheryl I believe these are the same I don't think anything really changes for you here are the same uh Mike I took a couple of yours um Mike Bennett and gave him to Mike Housing Authority sealer of weights and measures and youth and wreck okay is that okay with you or is there something you want to those weren't mine what's that those weren't mine oh oh those were bills I think no bills who were those I didn't have those ones last year okay so Mike's gonna get these three accounts okay they were nobody's I'm glad I picked them up nobody had them good job good J way way to jump in there um Frank you're going to keep the ones did you currently have appeals board planning board building inspector fire and Emergency Management everybody okay with these any questions anybody want to move anything around anything you want you want to change somebody want to try something a little different yeah the um appeals board and planning board I didn't have last year so I'll take those like you say Jim for a difference for me it' be perfect okay thank you I got the inspector the fire and Emergency Management last year appreciate that Frank all right so um if nobody has any question questions uh these are what we're going to go forward with Cody we do we need the vote on these or is this just a standing piece I think is as long as you guys are all in agreement there's no need to vote okay um Jimmy are you GNA have that posted up on the one drive or I am as soon as we're done with this call I will I will get it up there for everybody perfect okay and it'll be marked as such here with today's date uh in the in the header so that's the that's the file that we're working on all right perfect okay so let's get out of this so with that it may be worth looking at calendars Jim so we can get a um a joint meeting on the books with the board of selectman to kick off the next budget season because believe it or not get that budget memo out to departments and you I think we did it in October last year if that timeline worked well you guys let me know what you think but I thought that timeline worked well it did I would agree yeah also I'm good with that um sooner the better so let's see just pull up my agendas here Jim you while you're doing that um you and Cody sit sit in together on uh Capital correct yes okay that's what I thought thanks we'll be posting for a member at large too we've been down a member since I've been here actually um so we'll probably post that in the coming week or so uh so if you know anyone that's interested to submit a talent plan forum for the capital planning committee okay cool perfect Cody does the committee have two at large or one at large uh it's two at large two at large is the same gentleman from last year going to be there again this year uh yeah Mike gella yeah my cousin that's your cin okay Mar okay so um I think if we're looking at an October selectman meeting right now we would probably look at the 21st I'm sorry 22nd okay sign with me that works for me that work works for me yeah okay so we'll plan on 6 pm and we'll just do um budget kickoff so I'll get the draft budget guidelines out to you all the week before to review um you know I would anticipate it'll be very similar to last year we'll ask all departments to do a level service budget and then also ask them to present um a 10% cut budget I think that May more reality this year unfortunately right Cody I guess not directly T to this but indirectly it is um how's the town accountant search I know it's not on the agenda now so if we can't really get into discussions on it that's fine but um do you think we'll have someone on board for this process moving forward uh likely not okay so we have the r in term you know who will handle it most of this the big picture budget stuff um you know I'll be handling and I I handled it last year as well it's the more of the information you know pulling together the information that we'll have to rely on um Eric our interm Our Town account and Lindsay our assistant has actually been phenomenal she's been good to go getting all the information together so okay great Okay so we've got the potential meeting on the 22nd of October um I'll post the spreadsheet on the one drive as soon as this call is done we should be Off to the Races um so still uh I don't see Mr Cel yet um so why don't we just go ahead and jump into the uh next um next agenda item which is the year-to DAT budget review so I think Cody you had sent out or there the budget for August or the report for August has been sent out um before I kind of go into that does anybody have any questions or anything they would like to chat about with that budget let me just preface if you see accounts that show a negative they're not negative that is because some of the accounts particularly the accounts that roll over year to year so our articles or capital accounts with the um lack of a full-time accountant it's been one of the things that still needs to get done is rolling over those accounts in our financial software to the new year so the the accounts what's happened is there's some accounts where there's been spending out of this year where the money was appropriated in a previous year it looks like we're negative but it's just a a record where it hasn't been rolled over it's there the money's there so um because I was going through initially and I'm like wait a minute there's no way we're negative here something's wrong and then I figured out they had been rolled over so I talked to our interim accountant he's actually going to take care of that tomorrow so next budget status you guys get we'll have all of that accurately represented yeah all right Frank did you have something uh yes I did on um concerning Highway Cody um and Jim it looks like that's all been cleaned up regard the Articles no that's just because they haven't been rolled over yet okay I was wondering where they were at thank you I have um you know I think we we tried to get Stephen previously uh and he had been unavailable we will continue to try to get him in um we can see if he he'll be available at the next meeting but he does know that you guys have some questions regarding that those accounts okay so when I when I look at the budget two months 60 days into the new fiscal year I'm looking for a spend of between 15 to 18% of the allotted budget I think that makes the most sense right go um the couple of things that came up were we were like we were way over that on a couple and I was think that I'm hoping that either we either we're it's like a one-time spend that just will kind of balance out over the course of the year that's one way that could work um or it's you know or we you know had a like some kind of a miss when we were doing our planning so I guess as an example if we look at 99-54 th0 uh which is uh office supplies which we budgeted $1,000 and we spent 10,000 do you have a page Jim yeah that would be page two page two about yeah about twoth thirds of the way down 199 is office machine yeah so this is this this again is more of a um the way that our financial system the way the records have been kept the only thing that was appropriated was $29,500 for Office Machines we don't we don't appropriate there's few different line items there right 235 for postage 4,000 for Office Machines maintenance 500 for outside maintenance that just got it's a record issue that really shouldn't be broken down like that it should just be office machines and you see we've spent uh 10,000 38990 on office supplies that that that's really not the right category we've spent 10, 38990 on Office Machines the the department as a whole but it wasn't under office suppli so sometimes what happens is when they put the invoices in because it's one appropriation they they don't accurately reflect the subcategory of what they were and and some we ran into this with some of you guys last year with our um when we were going through the budget process and we were trying to determine where is the money actually being spent under what subcategory and this is this is one of the issues with um with with the software and the way it's being put in because like I said Cody Cody not to interrupt but that was um because we put the money on the postage machine no no I know I know I'm aware um yeah oh I just it just wasn't it wasn't allocated into the right subcategory oh okay so you can see here like I said we we appropriate Sue is right we appropriated a larger amount in office machines to cover that postage but Jim like you mentioned that yeah it's basically applied under the incorrect subcategory so it's an it's an accounting error is that what we're saying um I don't know if it goes far as an error because what the the important thing is is that you town meeting appropriated 295 under Office Machines yes um the the best way in my opinion to do it is just show an appropriation of 295 under office machines and then show you know how we're spending that um historically we've broken it down here can see under postage maintenance all these things right which is helpful if it's applied to the right subcategory but it's not helpful in here it's not applied to the right subcategory okay because it's not accurate so we're not so when you see any of these um departments you're right it's an issue in the accounting aspect of it but as far as the um fiscal concern as long as as long as we don't spend more than 95 because that's a total appropriation we don't have an issue because that way it was appropriated so they just coding to the wrong um category when they enter it that's what it sounds like yeah so will the new software the new setup that you guys are working on will that resolve this issue or will we still be dealing with these um you know these types of line items um it should um well yes yes so and even you may notice if you pull a budget status this year compared to last year there's less of these subcategories for this reason exactly it's good if we're going to utilize it because it can be a powerful tool in analyzing the data but if it's not applied accurately like like I we saw last year there's there's really no value to it um so yes but it still needs to be applied to the correct account the idea is to just have less of these so under Office Machines you know maybe only having two uh a postage because that's a significant category and uh equipment or you know maintenance or something um yeah so you're so Cody what you're saying is RA rather than the software itself helping it from a from a technical standpoint what what you're going to do is when the configuration is done you're going to break down those subcategories a little bit more so that there's less to select from is that correct yeah exactly right like I said it can be a powerful tool but I think what has happened is there's there's been so many you see them you see all these subcategories and people have just gotten into the habit of throwing an account in because as long as it falls into that larger umbrella there's no issue because that's what the appropriation is um so just getting rid of as many of those subcategories as we can so we're using accurate information sure okay um so I'm going to ask I'm GNA I'm going to beat this dead horse a little more uh the Ada funding that that we gave that we accured for so where is that tracked is that tracked in this sheet or somewhere else and where are we at with that half a million dollars yep so that's one of those ones that hasn't rolled over yet because that was a single appropriation so you should see that in the next budget status uh that is that will be we've committed almost all of that 500,000 at this point Scott had spent I think 80 or so thousand you know previously and then um we just did we have two Ada Paving projects ongoing one was in the sum of 190,000 and change that we signed a contract and they're working on now you see over at the library and in front of the school over there uh and then once they're done over there they're going to shoot over and do some work over by the Council on Aging and the water department and and that's another 120,000 give or take so the um Lion Share of that has been committed um okay but I said you'll see that in the next budget status because that'll be carried over okay so um there was a plethora of recommendations or findings in that 192 page document is Steve does Steve have like any kind of plan for the rest of it does he need more funding you know how is he going to schedule that or is that going to be a capital expense that we'll discuss at a later dat yeah so that will be part of his uh capital or request I've asked him to try to break that out over the next five years because you know we want all our departments to have a fiveyear plan so um he'll be working on that for sub midle this year for additional funding um you know I think it's one of those things he's going to request whatever he can whatever is available but it's all going to come down to what our free cash looks like Fair Point Fair Point Cody can I jump back real quick how how is the um how is the Ada project up at the school and Library trending as it relates to overall cost is it is it looking as if everything's on budget where it was supposed to be it is yeah they've been doing great uh we the contractors has done an excellent job the um the two uh the contractor that the bid was awarded to came in under what our engineer uh estimated which doesn't happen often anymore usually they come in over what you know the estimates are uh and those are right on track there um one change order for the um Library project and that's because we we extended the scope just a little bit to to do some additional work in the parking lot but it was a couple thousand dollars U but that was because of additional work not because of anything necessarily related to the uh unexpected cost or anything like that okay good I wasn't sure if school starting back backup was going to affect it negatively because of um police needs or anything like that for Safety and Security but that's good news then yeah it is Cody um in regards to um the libraries restrooms was any of that ADA money used on that so no I see the portable units are gone from there so I'm assuming the issue has been rectified you know we hope so um you know it's it's one of those things you know Scott and his team have done an excellent job of you know doing everything they can responding but it's just like you know at all of your homes if you throw children's toys and diapers down your toilet you're gonna have a plumbing problem and that's that's kind of exactly what happened at the library we had the Porta parties there um Scott and his team acted very quickly they put in a separate changing room you know hoping that would help if someone just needed to go in and change a diaper they could use the changing room and then throw the diaper in the trash rather than the toilet um knock on wood it's been a few weeks we haven't had any issues once the paving project is done over there we're actually going to put a porta body back over closer to the um playground because what have what we're seeing is most of the bathroom traffic the library isn't Library patrons it's people on the so we're hoping by doing that we'll be able to reduce some of the volume in itself Library bathrooms and keep the um facilities operational there and also provide a a a more closer restroom for the playground users yeah I like that idea because the one that's sitting in the middle of the ball fields down there is not too convenient you got to run down the hill which isn't too bad it's just to climb back up but well that's good then that so they put a separate change room within the building for the uh the children's um to be taken care of then is that correct yes that is correct that makes a lot of sense then instead of using the the restroom and that should alleviate a lot of the problem over there with that good goal yeah right and it's it's it's a good idea that it is all right well um so I'm going to hold off uh on the rest of my questions on the budget review Cody until we get the next one that has everything corrected in it um just to you know make sure that I'm looking at it the same way everyone else is yeah absolutely I'd again I I this kind of has to do with this I'd love to sit down with you all individually and go we can go over this but really want to start going over budget projections for 26 I kind of made it all you all known and I'm very concerned about fiscal 26 and I I just want to kind of would like to get that information out to you guys um and start meeting with you because we're we're looking at a very very challenging fiscal 26 skinny GE very skinny no absolutely and I think you're AB that's that's probably what we need to start focusing on here in the next as we get toward the end of this year um so and also just as a as a quick side so thanks for those email addresses to the other finance committee chairman so I sent an email out to him I got one response back so I'm hoping to get another one back uh from Kingston so Clinton's already responded so we'll uh we'll be getting uh hopefully we'll kind of square something up and and for the rest of the committee I'm trying to uh reach out to the other uh Finance committees for Kingston and plinton uh specifically around the school budget since we all share the same um you know the same concerns we see the same numbers I think it would be probably just in my opinion a little more effective and efficient if all the finance committees met with the school as like one kind of body uh instead of three different you know they have to go to and it's it doesn't you know I'm considering everyone's time you know it's not fun going from one meeting to the next meeting to the next especially when there's a million questions that come up when you're trying to have that call or discussion uh in person and so if all the finance committees can be in one place and the school comes and the you know and Cody the administrators are there then we can all get our questions answered you know and asked in the same kind of venue and we can all understand what we're looking at that's my goal and I'm hoping it works out that way um you know and because I just think the collaboration between the towns would from a finance perspective would benefit uh the school and the towns uh in one you know as as one actor instead of three different ones yeah it would absolutely Okie do so any other questions on the budget review year to dat very good so Cody thanks for that information appreciate it and the feedback um so we'll back up a couple of items on our uh agenda uh and I see Mr Steig has joined us um so uh I will then now turn the mic over to you Mr Cel for the hope for Halifax thank you Mr chair uh good evening everybody thanks for having me here on the finance committee um I know we had already spoken previous uh can you guys see me sorry I just lost you for a second yeah you're froz you froze up frozen screen John yeah what's going on there sorry I had you right until I wasn't uh can you see me now just Frozen Bill Frozen what's going on here let me see if I stop the video and start it again I apologize guys it was working fine up until I had to go here how about now all right good you all turn it off turn it back on trick um so I am uh reaching out to you guys as a member of uh hope for Halifax and hope for Halifax is Halifax's opportunity to preserve and enhance uh we're a ballot question committee uh that's been started to try to educate people uh about the community preservation act uh which will be question six on your November ballot I have emailed you folks information um as far as the PowerPoint presentation um it's been updated and honestly I the the main reason I wanted to meet with you guys here uh was twofold number one I know we have a new member Mike welcome to the committee and secondly uh the numbers have changed just a little bit and we have some new wear information so um I can just kind of skip to that newer information if you'd like or I have trimmed down the PowerPoint so it's up to the committee as to what they would like would you like me to to I don't want to say whip through the presentation but I can go through a presentation quickly or just skip to kind of the newer information if that's what you'd prefer I think I think it makes sense to go through it all quickly um okay we've yeah just because of um we've had change in structure over the past past couple months so okay awesome uh if I hit share my screen am I allowed to share screen here guys you should be okay let's see here right I'm hitting the share button there it is you guys getting that yep there we go all right some of this is going to look a little familiar but uh there I swear there are some new uh pieces to this U let me just minimize that there all right so Community preservation act for those uh that don't remember or new to the board um is a state program um it's allows communities like Halifax to establish specific funds to basically four areas uh of importance the the four areas are historic preservation open space Recreation and affordable housing so how do these funds get collected so Halifax voted at town meeting in May to uh put on the ballot uh a possible 1.5 annual 1.5% annual contribution to your local property taxes so the new number it now boils down to about $88 for the average Halifax resident um and there are exemptions and I'll get to those exemptions when they're calculating your your home's assessed value they take a $100,000 off your assessed value of your property so when they're doing the math and I'll show you guys the math in a couple of slides here um you know let's say your house is valued at $500,000 well according to CPA it's it's valued at 400,000 so that's a little bit to help ease the burden uh there's also lowincome and moderate to lwi income exemptions for seniors so uh some of the folks that I've spoken with are worried you know hey Jonathan uh you know my income isn't what it used to be I can't really swing it uh well the great part about this is it has it has baked in exemptions that help those folks that truly can't afford it so uh that's exciting um and then you'll also get if you have a uh a regular property tax abatement that'll also get a pro rated reduction in the sear charge as well so any questions so far before I go to math no okay all right so here's our new math guys so our new single family home uh the value has changed so the new single family average home in Halifax you'll see on the leftand side there is $ 51,2 43 uh the tax rate that is being proposed uh for our new FIS year per 1,000 is $428 which is actually down about 12 cents from last year um so your average Property Tax Bill and that's C you'll see there on the lefthand side for the average resident in Halifax is $7,300 55 so how do you figure out your sample Bill if we add the CPA program so as I said you'll see there in uh Row D we take that 100,000 and we make that $511,000 home and we knock it down to $411,000 we then calculate that tax rate so instead of the original home price we use the new home price and that would be $5 5,872 it is then that number that we put the CPA surge charge of 1.5% to that number it's not to your entire value of your home that's where some folks were getting confused it's to your tax bill not your tax value your tax bill so the average home in Halifax again average some are more some are less is $888 so uh if CPA passes in November uh you're looking at a CPA bill of $738 a63 which breaks down to 24 cents a day uh for the CPA program so this is the new information and we wanted to make sure we got it to you guys exemptions as I said we had folks concerned that that they couldn't afford to bring CPA to Halifax well we've checked with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and these are the exemption num so bottom line guys let's say you're a resident you live by yourself you are over 60 years old you can make up to $76,000 and not have to pay you are not you are exempt from this program so you do not have to kick in so basically we use this chart the number of people in the home on the leftand side there they all don't have to be over 60 just one of the residents is over 60 let's say you're in a home with four people and one of your residents is over 60 you can make if you look at the chart you can make $109,900 you're still exempt from CPA um obviously they're a little stricter with the under 60 group you're in a home let's say you're a family of four they under 60 years old uh that family of four can make $87,900 the benefits you know let's let's say we we build a walking trail you get to enjoy that walking trail and not have to kick in the construction because you're exempt from this program you know and I don't want to just say walking trail it could be anything but folks that are concerned that they can't afford it uh and they they don't make enough money well there's a good chance you don't have to kick into the program but can still reap the benefits of what CPA can do for Halifax any questions on that one Jonathan yes go ahead Cheryl I'm over well I'm over 70 I'm not gonna ask your age I would never ask your age chery I'm just telling you every year would I have to file an application in the assessor's office for this yes yes chery Cheryl you could you could hit the lottery and then wait a minute there Cheryl's got a million dollars now and and not what she used to have so yes it is an annual exemption filing with the accessor office okay all right okay that's I mean it's it's truly the only way to keep track if you try and do you know set one you know file at once and then you're good you know as we all know lives change so okay that might not be the case the following year okay all right okay so how much would we collect there's 2,800 tax bills in Halifax 88 bucks a bill per average we're looking at raising for Community investment projects $246,000 246 400 that's based on an average uh contribution and guys I can't stress this enough that's just money we raise here in Halifax that doesn't include the state match uh which is really why most towns participate in this program I've showed you guys this before I just want to make sure Mike Mike has seen this sorry quick question go ahead do you have any idea of the number of exemptions you would expect because if that's total tax bills minus Exempted people yeah I have to be honest Mike the the the CPA program from the state does their magic calculation so uh this is from them this is their state thing and I I know they must look at demographics they must look at population you know ages and stuff um this is from the state I will be completely transparent this is not a number we came up with this is a number that uh the community preservation commission uh in studying Halifax estimated our annual um what we would raise in this program so us could be lower or higher correct correct correct yeah no again I can't stress it enough it's a ballpark uh Jonathan Frank here yes yeah hey Frank um 2800 tax bills in the town of Halifax that's the total number of Residential Properties and Commercial properties and Industrial properties correct many and of that 2800 how many of those are exempt for other reasons when it comes to property taxes within Halifax who you know what Frank that's a great question I I'll be honest I'm not sure I can I can ask our assessor tomorrow and try and get an exemption number for you yeah because there are some exemptions that go on within the of Hal facts oh sure sure sure um I I don't want to I don't want to assume here but as I said said the state looks at our looks at our numbers and gives every Community that's uh trying to put CPA out um their best guess sure I understand that this is their best I actually thought that the 2800 tax bills was somewhat low yeah yeah so I mean that's again it could be higher or lower guys but I just just to give you a a ballpark range you know to kind of put wrap your head around thank you all right so I've shown you this map before but wanted to make sure Mike as a new member saw it these are the communities in Southeastern Massachusetts that are part of CPA as you can see we are in the the extreme minority uh it's essentially us there in the yellow East Bridgewater Brockton Avon uh are the only ones there in that map that are not part of CPA uh the rest have been uh part of the program many for for decades this is money that towns have collected throughout the life of the program again this is not money I want to make this clear this is not money that the town has collected from their residents this is State money that has been given to the towns so our neighbors in Kingston have received almost 3.2 million doll uh our little neighbors Plimpton have received 363,000 um town of Bridgewater Carver there's some substantial State money there that uh unfortunately we've we've left on the table and the annual state contribution match over the last five years has been 26.6% it does fluctuate uh we get money the state collects money on uh property deeds and titles that's how they kind of fund the program so it does fluctuate with the housing market in real estate uh it's been higher it's been lower but over the last five years the average has been about 26% so all this money Jonathan that the state provides comes from deeds and titles and not from any other taxes that a resident May pay for something is that corre corre correct correct because that's a lot of confus out there that you see yeah amongst people oh I'm already paying that in my property taxes yeah that's that's an incorrect statement then because it's from deeds and titles at the courthouse on a sale of property correct correct that is correct Frank and then the state takes that money they put it into a community preservation trust fund they try to grow that money you know as much as they can and that is where they get their matching funds to give back to the communities and towns understood yeah all right so to touch on what Frank said what are the differences between CPA and standard taxes uh well the money that Halifax has raises through CPA we get an annual state contribution again that's why the majority of of towns in the program do it we decide how the funds are spent um we I'll get to it in a slide down down the road but but everything CPA spends goes through town meeting so we the residents we the people get to decide what CPA projects we want to pass um another big part of this is Cody will tell you there's a lot of state and federal grants that are out there that require us to put up matching funds to be eligible for those grants we can use CPA money for matching funds to make us to kind of put us in the ballpark for some of these bigger grants um that we would have to kick in we wouldn't have to go to the taxpayer um for additional money um for matching funds for those federal and state grants um the funds go to typ Al underfunded and unfunded projects these are the projects that get kicked down the road that we say Well we'd love to do it but we just don't have the funds you guys have looked at the books you know that that times are tough uh so these projects unfortunately just get kicked down the road and oftentimes become bigger problems uh because they've been neglected because they've been uh underfunded or unfunded and they become bigger thorns in our side um the funds that we have do acrew interest uh which is great and then there's no oblig to spend in a year let's say we decide you know what Halifax we don't want to spend anything this year we we're eyeing a project in two years we think this property is going to become available and we want to buy it we're going to hold off um so there's no obligation from the state that says hey you have to spend this um you know in any given year if we want to hold it we can hold it Jonathan all go ahead question I think this may be my last one of the night go for it Frank um MBTA 3A if that thing all goes southbound and M and then the state says well we're going to cut your funding is this one of the programs that would be cut by them can they hold this money back not that I have heard Frank not that I have seen anywhere listed anywhere I mean we know the state things can change in a New York minute but there is this is one of the most secure funds that the state has had uh in its 24 years so I would personally would be shocked um but I I have not seen anywhere that the state is considering pulling uh CPA funding for communities that may or may not be in compliance for the MBTA zoning right it would require um an amendment to a Mass General law because CPA was created through Mass General law let's say chapter 44b so you know in that that um that defines everything says who's eligible so if there were to be a change in eligibility from State funds not say it couldn't happen but it would require the legislature to do such a thing okay so it's pretty well protected then Cody from the rest of that funding that the state can provide for roads or other other funds for different things correct I don't trust him um I mean I think I don't I mean I see where you um I to the best of my knowledge right I mean you I don't know how secure it is I'm not going to say it's secure but it's not something that the governor for instance could just go through and change or um or Department of Housing and Community Development go in and just say change it is Mass General law so would take an act of the legislature to amend but they they could do that you know I'm not saying I don't think they would but they could do it but um it's not something they that could be done through a state agency so like right now a lot of these discretionary grants um right they're they're administered through state agencies and and they're discretionary in the sense the state agency has that discretion so if it's a an agency that falls under the executive office that's why the governor is able to through those agencies say okay you know if you don't comply you're no longer going to be eligible because there's discretion there this there isn't really discretion with this it's all in the in the um text of the general laws so it would require Amendments of that okay thank you and I do to just to touch on that I do see people uh trying to link the two the the new MBTA housing um you know ordinance and and CPA there this this CPA program's been around since 2000 uh with Governor soluchi so this is not tied to the to the NBTA plan I've heard people try to make uh you know connections to the two uh it's been around for for quite some time for you know two and a half decades so it's not t you know I hope people understand that um they're two separate very separate animals so just want put that out there that's kind of why I was asking that question Jonathan yep no I appreciate that all right so if it passes in November on the November ballot what's next so the town of Halifax would have to develop a bylaw that establishes a community preservation committee basically a committee to handle uh how our CPA uh Fields uh proposals from residents uh we would vote on that CPA CPC bylaw at the May 2025 town meeting and we would have to come up with a community preservation plan basically what we plan on using CPA for um and I believe we our first assessment would be 1125 um for this plan uh next all right how are funds managed and dispersed so the CPC the committee we create would review and facilitate all the proposals they receive uh Joe Joe Smith wants to submit a idea for hey I would like CPA funds to be used for this project you know they collect all those um all of the funds that we would get would have to go in three separate categories one is historic preservation one is open space and Recreation the other is affordable housing at least 10% of the monies has to remain in each of those buckets and then the remaining 70% we could spend as we see fit uh in any uh CPA U you know approved program that we would like to do Jonathan I have a I have a question on this part of it do you know any and I I don't know that this is happening anywhere or could happen anywhere but do you know of any other communities that do this that in addition to the committee that they've formed to kind of oversee the the management of the list of projects coming in um have they ever put the projects out for um vote by the community as a whole to see what projects get done versus having that decision be made just by the committee itself oh no EJ I'm glad you brought that up so so when when the committee decides which ones they like I hate saying decide they make recommendations much like you guys make recommendations at town meeting the the the things they facilitate and the and the ones that they think are good ideas they will make recommendations at town meeting EJ they do not have any other power than you and I but they they will bring it to the to the town the town meeting floor and then the residents will vote whether or not they want to see that project go forward right so they're not essentially saying yes this Project's going to be what what we want it's it's a a recommendation that's going to be presented it's not a it's not an edict I guess got it thank you yeah all right so that committee that we just spoke of um since there are kind of four different arms to this program they like to have uh four different folks that are connected to those arms and this comes from the the state it has to have a member of the Conservation Commission uh which would be tied to your open space you know we have someone from the historical commission there's your history uh we have somebody connected to the housing author um that's your housing aspect we have someone connected to the park a park commissioner um and there's your Recreation and then a member of the planning board um so those five members have to be on the CPC we as a town could decide to have up to four at large members anybody you know inside town hall outside Town Hall any Resident in Halifax that's interested in being part of this committee uh we as a town can decide how many members at large we'd like to add to it it has to be at least five people it can't be more than nine and what do they do so everybody good okay so they receive the review and they consider all the requests they make their recommendations at town meeting through various articles I if it's one project it's one article if it's two three four projects it's it's four articles um and then we as as the people decide you know yeah we we as the people think that's a good idea it's a good project or no we don't um if if it gets shot down the money stays in the bucket um and you know we don't lose any funding or anything it just carries over until the next year so really quickly I know we've been over this before some of the projects they could have qualified the big one for me that got me involved in in community preservation was was Hops uh when I was trying to start that committee and and redo our playground all the communities around me said what are you doing just use your your CPA money and I I that's when I unfortunately found out Halifax was one of the few communities left that doesn't do it so it took us seven years of of fundraising uh if we were a CPA Community we'd have had that thing built in a year or two um so we had a whole generation of kids that that really didn't have a playground here in town uh my kids by the time the playground was done they were too old to use it so uh it insulates us against things like that uh we did put some money into the walking trail we did have a GaGa ball pit those are just a few and then if we wanted to do some projects down the road we could use it for Community Gardens uh we could build a dog park if we wanted uh we can fix those tennis and basketball courts that are that are pretty rough shape uh and we could again revamp our walking trail which is again uh need some love we could also rejuvenate the town beach if anybody's been down to the lingan street beach it's a great spot but it does need some love um another big part you guys just talked a little bit about it in your meeting is ADA compliance we have to be ADA Compliant with our with our sites in town uh and the state is giving us a deadline to get those fixed so you can use CPA funding to to get ADA Compliant at the beach um you can use it for land acquisition if there's a property in town that we want to keep open uh we could we could you pull our money from CPA and we could we could purchase that land and keep it undeveloped um and we also have the right of first refusal which is great so we have first cracket properties uh when they become available uh historic things um the blacksmith shop we repaired that as of right now that's still unsafe uh to go into if you guys have been to holidays and Halifax lately unfortunately we can open it we just can't let anybody go in it so we could restore that and then a project they did back in the uh mid to late 90s was they actually moved the Brockton store um they had a big parade a big celebration so uh that moving of the Brockton store uh we could have used CPA money for that as well other projects that can uh qualif we can again do the blacksmith and Schoolhouse restoration we can this is a big one that a lot of towns are using CPA money for is digitizing historic documents we have a lot of cool really old historic artifacts in the Halifax Museum uh we need to get those digitized we need to get those preserved so that they'll live on the interwebs forever so uh you can use it for that we have a lot of great cool old cemeteries uh that are you know starting to fall apart we can look to just you restore those if the town so choose um and then housing I know people hear this here in Halifax and the fur goes up on their neck um but I want to make this clear there are some great housing programs out there guys it's not you know we're going to build three Decker story buildings and we have a lot of say into what housing uh program we would like to get behind one thing that I'm a fan of um if there's any open space that we could make into senior housing or or veterans housing um we could rehabilitate existing homes uh you know there are things that we can do to help maybe some of our less fortunate or more in need members of the community U and I think personally I don't want to speak for the committee but I think that would be a great thing to get behind for the housing aspect of this project and again I'll say again anything we present has to be okay at town meeting all right these are uh Cody had given me some five-year Capital plan purchases down the road that you know we we'd need that would be available uh I'm sorry that would be eligible for CPA um there's your town hall exterior somewhere down the road we're going to have to get Town Hall up and running you guys have been looking at the outside of the building especially on the second floor it's in pretty rough shape um so there's 750,000 for that the courts we talked about um are just really rough you know we're gonna have to do those we're going to need an open space in Recreation plan for which way the town wants to go and then the blacksmith shop as I said um so that's really all I had I wanted to go faster guys I apologize because I know you've seen most of this before but we did have some new numbers and if you had any more questions or wanted any more information um the Halifax opportunity preserve and enhance has launched a website uh we are answering questions via email we've tried the social media thing and it it just goes off the rails so we're having people email us questions and then every question we receive we are going to reply and then post those so basically like a bulletin board to get the information out um and then I will say the state's website is excellent check out communityresport page John could you back up one slide please I will this one right here yes yeah now next one up next one back this one so I I just have a question I'm just looking for some clarity here and I want to make sure I understand this sure thing so let's let's let's just hypothetically you know say that the restoration of the blacksmith shop has been approved sure and then the committee allocates $50,000 we go in and we do everything the committee doesn't allocate a gym the town the town do okay y so once that restoration is done the following year maintenance needs to happen sure sure that's that falls to the the town is then burdened with that cost yes yeah correct this project this plan cannot be used for maintenance anything anything that we pay for recreation courts $500,000 they need to be maintained the following year or two years down the road the town has to budget for that right so that's that's because that's I don't see that mentioned in here anywhere no not at all Jim but but I will say the life of a basketball court is about 20 years anyway I know they just redid the tennis courts up at the high school so maintenance will still it always falls on the town budget but things things run out of life you know there there are I don't doubt that I don't doubt that I think what but we need to be clear oh sure this is a great plan for you know getting things up and running corre but you know when it comes to keeping them running you know then the town has to go find the money to do it correct yeah no we're not we're not changing the structure of of Maintenance costs here we're we're preventing we're preventing things from falling into such disrepair that um they they can't be fixed you know so um I think that's the difference between the two that's I just thank you for that that's that's no problem no problem so yeah so um I'll open it up to questions if anybody has um any questions at all about the program or um you know anything for me I just wanted to make sure again you guys are kind of our our bookkeepers here in town you guys are folks I'm sure that that people ask hey what's the deal with this what's going on with that I just wanted to make sure that you guys had the most uh up-to-date information and if you had any questions whatsoever before November um I could clear them up for you Geral Gerald do who will be administering the funds who will be administering the funds right um so we're they're they're voted on at town meeting and Cody maybe that's a question for Cody once we vote on it Cody is that does that kind of fall in the town administrator's lab to to make sure that it's seen through no um you would have so it depends on the project um you would if it's a town entity right so for instance if our um Recreation Department apply or or a better one is our town clerk applies for a a grant through CPA to fund um restoration of historic documents uh then that's something you know we'd work internally to handle but if it's uh let's say a nonprofit uh an environmental group you know get some funding to do a trail uh through uh some property uh a grant contract gets put in place with the town you know the committee would approve the grant contract and then um you know as they submit invoices and stuff like like any other project through the town you know they have to submit invoices to the town accountant and those would get paid through through the we would submit that so we wouldn't just cut a check and say all right here you you know here's $100,000 make it work um they have to sub the documentation and we'd have a grant contract that specifies things like time frame uh procurement all different things and then there's the application process itself the committee would have to come up with so a lot of towns do a short form application a long form any projects under $20,000 it's a short form um because you know for a project that's not of significant size there's no need for kind of all this documentation and then you may say for anything over $220,000 you want to have a long form application which may include letters of support um you know detailed plans uh how does this fit with the the goals of the town right if we have a master plan how does this align with the town's master plan how does this align with the board of selectman's goals um you can also have questions like Jim mentioned what is the is this going to impact the town's budget um and is their funding to sustain these types of this type of project long term things like that those are all things the committee will take into account when when applications are um considered okay thanks Cody problem all right that's that's all I had for you guys um yeah again check out our website see what we had um if if the if the committee so so chose you could take a vote of support or non support I'll leave that up to you guys um but uh I just wanted to make sure that you guys again had all the information and if you didn't have any uh ways to either get it or to get a hold of us to get the information yeah very good sir all right thanks Jonathan thank you appreciate it bye guys y take it easy all right okay good stuff so um I think everybody got the uh the PowerPoint from uh John today uh so um take it take a you know let's take the next couple of days go through it just read through it and we can talk about a vote uh at our next meeting okay great so into our next agenda item line item transfer requests I don't think I saw any Cody I don't think you have anything floating around you can actually you can actually take those off of the agenda we can only do those in um May June and July we will do that that will be coming back around until then next yeah perfect thank you sir um next item uh correspondent or as may arise I think I've apprised everybody of what I'm doing or what I'm trying to get done with Kingston and plinton um I don't have not received any correspondents for the finance committee specifically Cody anything from your end that you've seen no not not on my end um I've had a few meetings with my counterparts in Plimpton and Kingston we're actually getting together tomorrow for a meeting um to address some uh internal controls and things that we can do with the schools so I'll I'll update you guys on how that goes um but I think it should be a productive meeting very good Sarah thank you um Jim I just got one thing Cheryl looks like Cheryl's got her hand up too first I'm interested in going to that conference in November H November 2nd yes I'm interested so okay so um do you have an account with the with the municipal I do I could just register I just wanted you to know I was going to sign oh perfect so I've already done that I think Mike's also done that himself yeah I have yeah I'm registered thanks Cody okay so it should be very interesting this year I think yes that's a great it's a great course I've heard a lot of good things about it um Caris North is one of the attorneys that is presenting a good job she's really really knowledgeable on just Municipal finance and um Municipal law she's knowledgeable um um 40b and and she's good then just just the networking aspect of it you guys I think will'll find very helpful um so if anyone else wants to sign up and you don't have an account or you have any issues just let me know I can sign you up it's pretty pretty simple on my end okay perfect BR uh yes thank you um I'm G to kind of direct this toward Cody a little bit I've seen the um smaller yellow buses run around town I'm assuming that's part of the school's new program they've got a couple buses out or at least one that I know for sure um maybe more do you have any insight they have I don't know the exact number Frank but as part of that um kind of teaming up I think Sarah mentioned it uh when she was here rather than uh you know a passenger vehicle or one of those seven passenger buses picking up one student in Halifax and bringing them to Kingston they're trying to um use the the smaller um I think they're like 15 or 20 passenger yellow buses that are picking up multiple students depend every Situation's different every student has different needs and requirements but if if they're able to they're picking up multiple with these buses and and therefore cutting down on the amount of vehicles so the the unit cost is higher because it costs a little more to run one of these buses but if we're trading in one of these for let's say three or four of the others it's still it's quite coste effective yeah I was wondering if we could maybe hear from them regarding how that program's working and what the cost savings is to two halifa associated with that we can it might be worth giving them another you know couple months because you're talking only a couple weeks into the school school year um making sure it works but it's certainly something maybe in like November we could try to Circle back with and then I think that that way there they have a couple months of solid data right um that they hopefully they can share at that point okay thank you okay any other questions comments about the agenda this evening the information we have or anything for Cody all right perfect uh next agenda item public participation um for any members of the public I don't believe I see any okay so moving on from that agenda item back to next meeting planning the next meeting we have is October 7th um so we're going to be moving into our you know our first and third Mondays of each month uh meetings so I believe Katie has those already scheduled out for us um and um you know once we get into the new year probably much more frequently as budget season is upon us very quickly everybody okay with the seventh yeah yep yep y very good yep EJ yeah I just said yep okay sorry worries and atively the 22nd of October and we the 2 well we have a meeting on the 21st right our regular meeting would be the 21st and then or are we going to combine the meetings Cody for the 22nd good I mean that's up to you what you know whatever you think um I don't see why not I think you know the goal well um you know what let me um you could probably combine them what what I'll try to do Jim is um let me get a draft working of the budget memo for this year and I am out of the office the next two weeks but I'll try to get it out before the seventh meeting and then we'll put that on the sth agenda and that way if you have any initial feedback prior to the Joint meeting you can give it to me then can make adjustments if needed um just so I guess I don't see why you can't combine the the just do one meeting on the 22nd and then if you guys wanted to go into you could either start before the selectman and if you had to do your own you know uh business or you could do the opposite you know meet with the select and then go into your meeting afterwards I won't be able to attend if you did it beforehand I can attend but it's that all right team do you wanna do you want to combine everything for the 22nd or do we want to keep our meeting separate for the 21st and and on Zoom I'm good with combining it yeah I'm in different either way I can go either way combine it ches that work for you yes comining it would be fine okay so uh Katie please take note of that and we will combine the meeting with the 22nd and cancel the meeting on October 21st okay do you want to do it before or after just so I can adjust um I don't know guys what do you think I'm well EJ you you you're coming out of Boston aren't you yeah but I can I can make arrangements if I need to that's not a that's not a problem the only question that I would have would be from from a public standpoint does this affect our ability to record and get that published if we do it before or after in the same venue where there's another meeting happening no as long as we let area 58 no um they're they're they're fine with it they'll be good with it so we would just do it um you know one of the other rooms so okay will probably be in the Great Hall so if you guys wanted to meet in the S meeting room beforehand we'll let them know and they can be there to record do why don't we do it beforehand perfect and uh so it's 6 6 pm on the 22nd so 5:00 P pm on the 22nd sounds good sounds all right so 5:00 p.m. the 22nd at the Town Hall and we meet in the selectman's meeting room sounds good a plan perfect okay so October 7th via Zoom as usual uh October 22nd uh at the Town Hall in person that'd be great um Cody I I am monopolizing the selectman meeting oh yes you are we'll figure it out that's fine well we know we can't meet in the it room all right uh so that includes that concludes the agenda for uh this meeting so thank everybody for jumping on uh can I have a motion to adjourn so I'll move second mik thank you roll call vote Mr Bennett yes Mr Smith yes Mr Johnston yes to adjourn Mr Brian yes Mr Retta yes and I'm a yes also thank you everybody for joining sorry all the MS boy oh boy that's fine I'm good thanks everybody night [Music]