[Music] he L that good evening I'm going to uh open the uh the town meeting Halifax town meeting May 13 2024 I ask you all to uh please stand we'll do the uh Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all if I could ask you please to remain standing uh just like to ask for a u moment of silence please for that poor man lost his life yesterday or Sunday all just have moment of silence thank you so very much please be seated the uh 2024 annual town meeting is here by called the order uh I'm going to uh do some some uh introductions now we have our uh selectman on the left uh along with uh Mr hated uh Town Council and of course our town clerk and our finance committee here here to my right uh we're going to have as we have done in the past God knows how many years we are going to do uh articles uh one through four that handle the budget up front together and then we'll uh do the remaining articles by Lottery okay just a a few things for those members that uh haven't been to town meeting before what we usually do is uh in order to make a point ask a question you uh raise your hand uh I I will call on you we'll have uh one of our Runners from this side or this side will come over and give you the mic or you can come up here to the mic in the center uh need you to uh identify Yourself by your name and your address and uh we'll go from there okay I'd uh entertain a motion right now uh to uh dispense with the reading of the warrant if I could have a motion so I have a motion in a second to uh dispense with the reading of the warrant motion's been made uh all those in favor raise your green card to dispense with the the reading all those opposed please raise your red card motion carries to dispense that was just a warm up so we know how to do the cards uh now I'll uh entertain a motion to dispense with the reading of the uh Constable's return so move in a second second once again I have a motion in a second to dispense with the reading of the Constable's return all those in favor please raise your green card all those oppos please raise your red card motion passes all the uh we'll get a hold of of uh the it gentleman and get the uh Clos caption going okay while we're all seated and waiting for that uh I'd like to uh say a special thank you get a round of applause if I could please for Sandy Nolan as this will be her last town meeting as the Halifax Town accountant she'll be retiring at the end of the fiscal year really appreciate all the hard work she's done thank you Sandy are Riv [Applause] s okay now uh there's two of things I want to make you aware of uh there's a couple errors uh on uh page 11 of the warrant the second column this it's a typo It should read uh FY 23 and uh not repeat fy2 22 the uh the blue hand up you have identifies two Corrections in the water Department's budget this also represents an updated total for public works and the total operating budget okay so once again any questions or comments raise your hand I'll call on you and uh from from that point any questions you have will'll go through the moderator uh I will find out get the answer to your question by calling on whoever uh either proposed the article or as an explanation to the to the amounts okay see Mr rator yes weio over here oh sorry John yes uh it is past 6:45 uh which uh is the scheduled time for our special town meeting so I would move that we uh adjourn the annual town meeting uh to take up the special town meeting and then to return back to the annual town meeting okay I have a motion do I have a second second okay have a motion second to uh during the annual town meeting and open up the special I have to do that by a vote please all those in favor please hold up your green card all those opposed please hold up your red card motion passes we'll go right to the special town meeting Mr moderator yes Mr Bruno the special town meeting has only one article uh and I would uh move that we pass over this article okay uh do do I have a motion for that Y in a second second I have a motion in a second uh before we vote on if You' like could you give us an explanation on that I certainly will yes so uh this article was proposed by the school committee as a placeholder prior to the approval of the warrant uh the school administration was at that time anticipating a deficit in the current Year's budget but after further review has determined that they will be able to cover their costs for fiscal year 24 so therefore this article is not necessary okay so I have a motion in a in a second uh all those in favor of passing over uh the special town meeting please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card uh motion passes the Mr moderator that concludes the special town meeting I would move that we dissolve the special town meeting and return to the annual town meeting there's a motion on the floor do I have a second second there a motion and a second to dissolve the special town meeting and and return to the annual town meeting all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card motion carries thank you okay we're going to uh be uh addressing articles one through four article one I would move that we uh I would move article one has presented in the war okay can could would you like to speak to that sir sure well we have to have a motion first accepting I mean a second and a v okay I have a motion in a second second John can you get real close to the microphone oh sorry real close oh me how's that is that better all right I'm sorry okay okay we have a uh a motion and a second of article one I'm sorry I can't hear you could start again so we're back at the annual town meeting and article one I move article one as printed in the warrant and I seconded it okay there's a motion in a second uh to move article one as presented in the warrant committee do I have a uh yes did you want to speak to that finance committee a recommendation you have recommendation and the V of selectman yes okay let's uh vote on it then we have a motion in a second uh to move the uh article one as presented in the warrant all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please your red card Mr moderator um motion passes yes uh on article one which is uh to um uh Town officer reports from town committees I have just a few comments that I'd like to make as uh from the board of Selectmen yes sir please go ahead so as uh explained by the finance committee in their report Town revenues are impacted by a lack of new growth and limited increase in state funding this year uh moreover we are in a very inflationary environment with costs increasing uh despite these challenges the finance committee is recommending a balanced budget which does preserve Halifax's current service level um we have already handled a special town meeting uh it was again scheduled simp uh simply because there was a question of whether or not it would be needed it was not um the agenda for the annual town meeting uh has only a limited number of articles for Town meetings consideration all of the capital article Capital expense articles are in to be considered at the same time in one article these requests have been vetted by the capital planning committee finance committee uh and selectman all are recommended uh to be approved at this meeting um and finally our agenda also contains an article recommending to town meeting the town meeting accept the provisions of the community president ation act um a full presentation of this article will be provided by select Manel in short though acceptance of the community preservation act by the town would establish a fund uh for use by the town to accomplish future projects such as preserving open space and I'll leave the rest of that for select and ceiling and that concludes our report thank you okay any questions or comments seeing none uh all those in favor of article one uh once again please raise right on Artic two you're right we already voted on that Mr moderator yes can everybody hear me okay all right I moved at the Town vote to amend the wage and personnel byaw as presented in attachment a you guys should have attachment a it's the thick white packet of paper okay I have a motion in a second second okay can I speak to that yes please okay the changes being presented assist in aligning the bylaw with current day-to-day practices of the changes to note there's additional personal day going from two days to three updating the bement leave and a 2% cost of living adjustment for fiscal year 25 we are also adjusting any of the wages that did not get an increase for fiscal year 24 by 4% the idea there 2% for last year and then 2% for this coming year and this is all being done to remain consistent with comparable communities and our compensation and our benefits okay thank you sir any uh questions or comments regarding Article 2 yes sir if you could could you stand up please sir your name and uh your address please can you sir can you come up either come up to the microphone or have just everybody needs to hear you [Music] okay what I wanted to say was who picks the uh the towns not here all right I'll attempt to get an answer for that so so he was wondering where we got the towns from where our comparable communities were uh we got this classification in compensation study uh through a grant uh through a state agency so they look at things like population uh different demographics to make sure that that doesn't indeed happen that we're not comparing ourselves to the more affluent community ities or the larger communities or anything like that so these are folks that do this uh as a full-time job to make sure that we're getting accurate comparisons to communities in the area that are our size that are close to our demographics to make sure that they're Apples to Apples and not apples to oranges thank you Mr C yes sir could you yes come up to the mic your name and your address sir before Steve speaks I just want to remind everybody we do have microphone Runners if you raise your hand uh we can get the microphone to you guys to save you the steps if you want you have to talk close uh my name is Steve mfon I live at 47 Indian Path Road I just have one question for everybody um if you didn't get a promotion how many people here got a $224,000 raise in the last two years please yes sir Gordon Andrew 244 Elm Street could the selectman just say what the comparable towns are that you add in your list I can look it up for you and and one thing I want to I want to make clear as a distinction here guys we voted we voted this study in the special town meeting what we're doing today are the cost of living adjustments we're we're not voting on The the change of the study the study was done when was our special September when did we do it last year December sorry so what we're doing now is just implementing what we voted on in December okay so that which is your annual cost of living uh minor tweaks to your personal time and to your uh what was the other one and bement those were the big three so so I know we're getting into the weeds here on salaries but the salaries were approved by the town at the special town meeting in December okay but it just I will go over even though we have uh we have the list here I can get it um again but again this is going back to last December so I don't want to talk about stuff that's already happened but we can we can do it it's a cushion Avon Berkeley Carver dayon East Bridgewater Freetown Hansen Holbrook Kingston Lakeville matap poet Millis planville Rochester West Bridgewater and Whitman so those are the comparables that this um state agency used again last year in December so again I want to distinguish between the two tonight we're talking about cost of living bereavement and personal day that's what's on the table tonight not what we already already voted on in December okay thank you sir uh yes please the microphone's coming hi Alicia Bernard 54 cedarl um I'm noticing here that there are more than just Cost of Living adjustments I heard you guys throw up 4% but what's the justification for the salaries from the the financial committee uh recommended for fiscal year 25 an excess of that amount I mean I'm seeing things in here that are like 10% are you asking for this she mentioned fincom you want me to hand that asking for both you guys are saying these are just Cost of Living adjustments but I don't think anybody in this room got a cost of living adjustment and excess of 5% so why we recommending that for the town employees so this so this article no it's a good question this article is is not dealing with that this article is just for the cost of living increase that we already essentially agreed to the salaries we already set um you know back in December so this is more I don't want to call it a pruner but this is more we've set the guidelines and now we're just following if that makes sense Candace Candace could you bring the microphone up up to the front here up to the front raise your hand High guys so she can see it there you go thank you um hi Jing Gant cranberry Drive um just so we had a wag and Personnel Board and then that was dissolved and now I'm seeing that it's not the board of selectman and the finance committee it's just the Personnel Board can somebody explain that like is there a Personnel Board now and who's on that board I'll attempt to find that out for you it's I believe our Personnel Board is still the board of Selectmen and the finance committee yeah it's just been we gave it a cool name Personnel Board but it's it's still wage and Personnel it still serves the same same function same folks C do this lady up in the bles please raise your hand thank you see her up there um did you mention that some of thees oh sorry just you s talking to um Sarah no lingin Street um did you mention that some of the increases were due to an additional day like you were adding a day to the schedule or like going from three to four days or anything I thought you mentioned that so I wasn't sure if that was the increase for Sal we're just adding an extra personal day we found in many of the communities in our area that three personal days was kind of the going rate so we just wanted to be in the ballpark of what our surrounding area was okay thank you yes right here please Adrian mcdugle 32 Health sidef um question these this 2% increase that's is that that's different than the increases that we see on the budget so like like for the town clerk that's like a separate thing correct okay just make yes please identify your name and address please B pan way um just a clarification sure make sure I understand it and if I understand it maybe in December we voted to give raises due to the classification correct so somebody raise became $100,000 and that was your salary retroactive till last July 1st we are now starting a new fiscal year so you are asking the residents to vote a 2% increase on that 100,000 I'm just throwing a number out there on that 100,000 that they were given in December I believe that's am I saying that correct yeah so whatever we voted that has become their salary yes and now we're going to give them 2% on top of that as a cost deliver that is what we're voting on tonight correct okay thank correct thank you thank you Nick if you if you could please uh raise your hand High there yep hi Karen fav 66 cido Bosworth I'd like to know why the attachment a which is very complex a lot of pages here a lot to read and we're not getting it until town meeting tonight it's it's a good question it it has been it has been available on the website Ken um for folks to peruse so our chapter 35 is always available online um so the information is there it's just we didn't we didn't have a chance to we wouldn't mail it out to you guys you know um you know we had it here for you guys at the at the town meeting but but the information is available online I I I I can't hear her Nick can you get her the microphone one more time in the future can you put it in the warrant so we can digest it read it and and understand it because it's a little hard when you get to town meeting and you only have five or 10 minutes before you're voting on something that you've never read sure no it's a good point you okay seeing no indication of further discussion I'll ask hold on do we have one I'm sorry we raise your hand was there someone Nick if you could please Jared smaller 34 Lawrence Road um I want to look at this a from a different angle I'm not going to focus on the number let's focus on our quality of services in this town um I think it's no surprise to anybody here that we Hemorrhage employees because our town is not paid enough we lose quality people um off so the arle in front of us if we could stay on topic is in regards to what's in front of us on a this is this is give me a second so by this 2% it aligns with other communities our side as we've been told which is going to allow us to keep quality employees as well as hire quality employees in the future it's going to make our community more appealing to people thank you sir okay I'm going to ask for the uh Finance committee's recommendation it's on see the green yeah Green Light finance committee recommends okay finance committee recommends the board of Selectmen yeah y okay I don't know if I made mention of at the beginning but uh all our articles tonight are are by majority vote so all those in favor of article two please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card I I can't call it I can't tell we're going to have to uh all right it's too close for me to call just looking at the green and red cards Mr Moder can I make a point of order here or point point of Interest here point of order just a reminder to folks that these are our wage and Personnel folks they are our only non-union group here in the town of Halifax all other employees for the town are union members so those are negotiations done in union talks so I just want to make sure this is something we want to do here where if we if we don't go through with this and and there's I'm not trying to dangle anything here but there's nothing preventing them from unionizing and that would remove this process completely so something something to think about these this this this uh this increase is on par with all of our other unions in town so just just a point for you guys to think about okay what I'm going to do is uh call for a uh a standing count uh town clerk is uh has it yes sir want don't you come to the mic and present your on sir that's your name and address please Jeff buer 118 brand ice Circle and I have 38 years of EXP experience in labor relations with the State Department of Correction and I just like to point out something it's always bothered me with the with the town it was always the Personnel wage and Personnel Board will always push well we've got to give the non-union employees the same percentage that the union employees it's only fair well you miss one point the union workers pay the unions a dues significant amount of money so in effect if you give an equal wage to the non-union workers you're actually giving them more money take them thank you sir all right I'm going to ask the town clerk to have the uh counters all set e okay just to let everybody know it's to what's happening it's basically the same vote it's going to be majority vote for it to pass uh instead of uh raising the your red card or your green card going to ask you uh to stand uh the counters will make a physical count and depending on the number of yes votes or no votes will determine whether or not the article passes Candace could you bring the Richard Holmes 253 app who exactly is the non-union workers in the town of Halifax that we give the 2% raise to see if I can find any the the positions so so rich if you want to look in here all the positions are listed in this packet for you to peruse I looked real if you guys want to flip through it's 35- 22.1 grades is the title and those are all the positions there yes ma'am your your name address Deborah pasquali N9 ocean f um I beg your pardon but the counters seem to be all employees that are going to be affected by this vote they're Town workers we need four volunteers to count like okay please here's how we're going to do it same as I as before instead of uh raising your card I'm going to uh article two if you're in favor of article two please stand and remain standing until the count is complete thank you you guys guys count us also okay please be seated I'm sorry I thought we were done thought we had the numbers oh please remain standing all those those in favor of Article 2 please stand okay thank you all those against not in favor of article two please stand for for e for for ch okay can uh sit down please all right the totals are in on uh article number two there was 88 in favor 118 against the mo the article is defeated I'm going to ask everybody please re please refrain from clapping and just a courtesy thing for everything we'll get this thing hopefully moving okay thank all right we'll uh move on to article three proposed by the uh finance committee Mr moderator I moved that the town and vote to set the salaries of several elected Town officials for July 1st 2024 to June 30th 2025 as printed in the war okay thank you uh finance committee recommendation uh finance committee recommends and I'd like to give an explanation as well sure let me just get the uh selectman's selectman's recommendation on article three the Selectmen are in agreement yes recommend okay thank you yes sir if you could uh address that thank you Mr moderator so for the full-time positions the salaries reflected in increase consistent with the town compensation schedule for non-union employees this calls for a 2% CER and a step increase of 2.8% the town's clerk salary is increasing at a different rate as the position was incorrectly graded during the special town meeting last year and this would accurately put the position within the town's compensation schedule okay thank you uh do I have any discussion yes Ma'am why don't you come up to this mic yes right here your name and address please Adrian McDougle 32 hellside f um about the town clerk although we we all love our town clerk can we can you explain to us why there's a $220,000 increase from two years ago it seems like an awful lot I have two two-part question though do want me to ask the second part let me get the answer to the first one and then I'll give you time to ask for the second yeah sure she so so that increase was to that position now being a full-time position that used to be a part-time position uh and the duties of town clerks these days are getting more and more uh with the different elections so that position went to a full-time position so that explains the increase in pay for that position okay and your second part I'll just a follow up to that can you specify the difference in the hours excuse one more time just um just the hour the change in her hours um what did we what was was it was from 32 to 40 okay and um the other question I have related to that is um I'm just looking at the descript job description and um who is handling the public records requests and filings that's described in the town Clerk's um job description I believe it's the town clerk so so Our Town Administrator is the records officer uh the records collaborator but he also collaborates with the town clerk as well Town Administrator close in hand with the town clerk yes sir it'll just come up to we got it Steve mcfa 47 Indian Path Road I just want to make sure I understood the uh answer correctly so um Barbara Gainer was not full-time uh so we are now moving to a full-time position and that's why the salary increase took from the train Mr ceing yeah I don't think I don't think Barber was what's that yeah uh our former town clerk was 32 so now now to 40 so that is the case the change to 40 did occur at last town meeting for the current fiscal year I don't know if you heard that the change to 40 happened at the last town meeting Nick Mrs gr with her hand up please Karen favor 66 C Bosworth the way I read this article 3 it looks like um the town clerk is getting a 6.17% increase uh this year um and the Taja collector is getting a 4.86% increase and the highway surveyor is getting a 4.98% increase can you explain that do you want to explain the just explain the increases that's based on the the um classification compensation study we did that compared ours two other communities similar communities Nick if you could yes she has a followup question that was in 2324 not 2425 we're talking about 2425 steps so the uh larger increase to the town clerk's salary is reflective of uh when we initially graded the position it was incorrectly graded so it's being bumped to an additional grade which is the the reason for that additional increase so we graded it initially as a a nine that was an error it should be a grade 10 so this would put it on the scale of grade 10 so that's why it has a larger increase than the other positions okay I'd like to hold the town clerk the treasury collector and the highway surveyor any other uh comments or questions Cas seeing uh no indication of uh further discussion point of point of order Mr moderator yes so the previous speaker said she wanted to hold the town clerk is that right that salary line but um so we've already discussed it uh is she making a motion to change it or what we can't are we going to vote on this number or not I don't know what her hold is so we already discussed it Nick can you I can make a motion to um hold the town clerk the treasure collector and the highway surveyor and if you want I can just say that the the motion will be for a 2% increase not what's printed in the in the warrant again another point of OU or or Mr mutter if she's making a motion just to hold it or is she changing the number I'll just I thought I had to make a motion to hold it before we could vote on the other so if I don't have to do that I will make a motion to change the town clerk to a 2% increase the treasur collected to a 2% increase and the highway surveyor to a 2% increase C of living please well again another point of order Mr moderator and I I'm not trying to make this any harder than we have to but we we we have to vote on a number so she we need the previous speaker to in her motion to say what the number is she wants in that line item then that would be an amendment we would vote on the amendment either up or down and then we go on to the rest of the article in in my view Mrs gravan you have a number I'm sorry I'm I'm sorry Mrs fa my my mistake sorry town clerk 2% is400 $478 what's that make the total please that was the total I gave you that's a 2% increase okay so you want me to add the two numbers together for you it's 7383 73 thank you 73 837 so again point of order is that the previous speaker's motion that this number be uh she's making an amendment to this number that instead of 76857 that it's 73 837 Mr corre okay that's the correct number so we would need to vote on what whether or not to amend it and then go on for the rest of it a uh motion on the floor to amend uh the town clerk salary of article three I need a show of hands all those in favor of the amendment changing the number from 76857 to 73 837 uh all those in favor uh please raise your Green Card all those opposed please raise your red card that close it's that close we're going to have to do a standing count sorry could we have the C's back please where where are okay can we do all three at the same time I have the numbers instead of doing it separate can't we do all three at one time I have the numbers for you amend the motion 6 73 837 all right just for a clarification purposes uh Mrs favor yes just if you could please uh before we vote I'd like to clarify your motion if you could please sure I would like to amend article three to show that town clerk gets a 2% increase the treasure collector gets a 2% increase and the highway surveyor gets a 2% increase and the numbers the total number to amend for 2425 for the town clerk would be 73 83780 for the treasury collector it would be 79 00920 and for the highway surveyor it would be 82 50168 okay thank so we have the exact numbers can I can I ask a point of clarification yes your name an address please I'm sorry Lor cost decline 285 South Street on the town clerk um dollar value of 2% that was just stated is that 2% figure based on the 2324 number of 7,000 72390 which was the wrong wage or is that the correct wage W rate did I understand that last year the 2324 was the wrong wage rate and this year's increase was an increase to the corre correct wage rate and the percent increase on top of that so this 73,8 3780 is on the incorrect wage rate which we need to correct first before we can figure out what 2% is am I correct back thank you well the way I understand and correct me if I'm wrong we specifically asked if it's going to be amended to a a certain number not just the 2% of whatever 2% is again as a point point of order I think um the the motion that's on the floor uh or the the motion is to amend the figures to a certain number how the Mover the person making that motion got to those numbers is up to her to explain if she likes or uh for us to question or or to debate on whether or not that's an accurate number but the actual motion that we have to deal with now is whether or not to amend those three uh lines as was suggested by the previous speaker but that's what we're actually voting on are the numbers that she gave us that's why I was trying to be real clear about that so we all know okay then so there is a motion on the floor do I have a second there's a motion in a second to amend article three for the salaries listed for the town clerk treasur collector in highway svea so all those in favor of amending those figures please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card the motion to amend pass okay now Mrs favor if you could come to the mic yes and could you now make a motion on the specific numbers that you want to amend first one being the town clerk thator I'll give them to you again though I have the numbers right in front one again point of or point of order um so we have voted to amend those figures correct so those amended figures are now the figures that we would vote on on article three so technically the next motion ought to be do we vote uh article three with the Amendments correct in other words all the other stuff hasn't changed but those three have now we have those three numbers on as well as the other numbers so we can vote this article as it has been amended okay sorry Mr fa that's perfectly fine thank you all right so now yes ma'am yes could come right up here thanks Adrian McDougall 32 Hill Side have I just want to remind everyone we just voted down the 2% increase for the all the nonunion workers that's all I want to say you you had a question your name and address us please Lauren brow 10 Thompson Street and I just wanted to ask what the justification what what the justification was for such a high increase to be the initial thought in the first place when our average town clerk in the state of Massachusetts makes $56,000 a year thank you as I just looked up on government salaries um oh and one more question how are we judging performance like what is our OBM what how are we deciding if they're doing a good job like what is the checks and balances we try to find an answer for that for you so Mr moderator to the first question um this that that uh I do not have the actual figure but that data is skewed because you have a lot of smaller communities in Western Massachusetts uh that do not work full-time um this is based on the compensation classification study that was completed using our comparable communities comparing it to like communities with similar budgets uh and these are the figures that they gave us a third party as for the uh second question these are elected positions so they are accountable to you guys the voters uh we you know we do not the board of Selectmen do not have the authority for um evaluations that would be for appointed uh employees but they are um to you so you determine what their performance is okay thank you than you thank you all right then so if I understand correctly we we have to vote on the on article three on those categories that were not amended on all categories the whole article three is now as so the motion should be to vote uh to approve article three I'm sorry the motion should be this thing's kind of to to um to approve article three uh as amended so article three has had three sort of sub amendments to it but those are now the numbers that are we let's just voted on by a town meeting so that's that should be the motion somebody should make that motion Mrs uh favor did you make that motion I made the motion article three as amended as voted it's already been moved so let's vote all right so it's been moved and seconded correct so all those in favor do you want me to give an explanation does anyone need an explanation the explanation is is that everyone's hurting all your pocketbooks are hurting your financial budget is hurting a 2% increase is sufficient Mr moderator Finance committee's recommendation on the amended motion Finance recommendation on the amended finance committee does not recommend the uh revised article three Mr board selectman your recommendation we haven't really taken it up as a board so we don't have a recommendation we did recommend the original one proposed by the finance committee thank you Mrs Nolan yes uh Sandra Nolan Town accountant um I have a question as to this vote so if the amended amounts are not voted if they voted down what happens then do we go back to the original amounts in the article or does the article just not pass at all Mr moderator yes my impression is that the last vote uh we had amended a motion to amend this article that vote's already been taken so the article itself has been amended if this article is now uh voted down then nobody gets paid right don't have a salary so the numbers are lower because of the last vote but now the numbers on the floor is what we have here and if it's voted down I believe that uh we would have basically those positions on uh without a salary thank you yes sir Mr moderat Gordon Andrew to 44 Elm Street if the motion fails I'm sure somebody would move to reconsider the article with new numbers so that the people would get paid this motion is to set these salaries if it doesn't fa if it fails then somebody else can make a motion to reconsider new numbers if it fails if they don't get the 2% somebody come back motion to reconsider with level funding it's not that they're not going to get paid yes ma' if we V if we Sorry Lauren Brower 10 times the street if we were to vote to wrote it down then there salary would stay the same right so we would just vote on their new the salary they already have we could vote on keep that Mr moderator yes the the article specifically says to set the salaries for elective Town Offices uh and you can ignore everything from on the leftand side of that where it says 20 21 2022 2023 all we're really dealing with is the 2024 2025 numbers so if if this motion fails now the amended motion then none of those items are um funded or or or approved or approved for salary I should say the funding comes in a different part but none of those people would get paid but we could then vote for new numbers correct I didn't hear it I'm sorry so then we could vote for new numbers correct well you could amend it again I suppose could make another amendment we have to vote on that you'd have to have a motion to reconsider and then another motion to amend the article again with the new numbers to amend the article as amended already right okay and a motion to reconsider by the way is has in past practice always taken place uh not before or another article uh has been uh uh debated that's been our past practice for 30 almost 40 years that I'm aware of yes sir coordinators it wouldn't be a motion to reconsider it be a new motion so you after the reconsideration takes place then it would just be a motion wouldn't be a motion to amend it would be a new motion you have to do the reconsideration first if it didn't pass yeah V okay little clarification what we're going to do now is vote on article three as it appears in the warrant as amended okay with with the numbers so we're all clear there's a motion on the floor in a second to vote and pass on article three as amended all those in favor of article three as amended please raise your green card thank you all those opposed to article three as amended raise your red card the amended article passes all right move on to article four moving on to article four um Char would you like to make a motion on article four the operating budget Mr moderator I'd like to make a motion to uh the town approve article number four as printed in the warrant and inclusive of uh the revised um articles two and three okay do I have a second there's a motion on the floor do I have a second there a motion in a second uh okay the uh what select's recommendation on article four on article four we uh we would uh we do recommend it but I think you were going to go down by category yes it's a whole operating you're right I forgot to do that do you have this I was this let yes thank you okay we're going to uh discuss the article four operating budget we're going to go by uh sections and uh I'm going to do each of the the main sections call them out if there's a hold uh please raise your hand and say hold and uh we'll go back and and and discuss that yes sir Mr moderator because of what happened with article two and article three don't we have to know the numbers that need to be adjusted shouldn't that come from the finance committee uh I asked that same question I'll uh I get an answer for you m do we can absolutely adjust the elected figures um but we are not able to go through and make that adjustment right now there's several line items and it's not just a 2% reduction there's other factors some of those line items include Union some include non-union Union employees will still get their 2% because that is a contracted wage as long as the uh the amounts are approved here today so what we would do is approve the amounts and then that would go to Surplus Revenue at the end of the year and end up being free cash if because we can't just calculate you know you're talking several line items that we'd have to go and do in-depth calculations but if I understand it correctly from from my own understanding it's because the the amended numbers are were less than what was proposed so the money is there to cover it I guess is just to make sure that we have the money there to do it yes sir so the money is still going to be taxed then correct if we don't amend the the article then the money is still going to be taxed to the taxpayers so can we get the numbers do we have a computer here we we cannot calculate those numbers this was a budget by the finance committee they' recommended this budget we there's no way for us to go through and redo 50 line items at this point there's several factors that go into those line items uh they're not just a a wage across the board there's longevity uh there's clothing allowances so we can't just reduce 2% each line item has to be individually looked at to see what part of that line item can be reduced and I'm not comfortable doing that calculation right now is we want to provide an accurate number okay then yes sir [Music] isn't there a way to amend this article so that we are not tax on money that we have already cut from the budget I'll try to find out I don't think that it's necessary to have the specific figures but it seems to me that since we have a lawyer in the room that a couple of sentences at the end would do the trick I'll see what I can find out Mr Hada please pee the e they for yeah e e for for e e okay sorry for the delay but it's important that we get this right so um bottom line can I have your attention please uh I'm going to ask uh the chairman of the finance committee to specifically address uh the gentleman's question regarding taxable rate if you could sir yeah so a couple things I just would like to point out here I guess is uh you know the finance committee has spent uh numerous you know hours over the course of five months you know crunching the numbers uh being as objective as possible to ask program questions and and challenge uh various um you know salaries and such that were put forth by the Town Administrator and also through discussions with the board of Selectmen uh we do recommend what's printed in the warrant uh given the changes uh just you know my motion was to approve um Article 4 which was as printed in the warrant with the subsequent changes voted by the town uh related to Article 2 and three article number three is a little more straightforward given that it's uh you know addressing three elected positions uh so the total aggregate uh impact of those changes is $7,500 which will be less than a dollar per person in this town uh as far as an impact to your tax bill um in relation to Article 2 that one's a little more complicated as Cody had uh mentioned uh just given that there's a number of factors that kind of go into that so it's not something that uh anyone here is going to be able to uh to calculate um and even if we were to attempt to like it's going to take several hours to do so which I'm sure um you know folks aren't going to be willing to to uh to stay for that to uh you know complete uh the one additional Point as well is that um if we do not progress forward with the uh um the votes as printed and to hold another secondary uh special town meeting uh would would certainly come as a at a cost as well uh which may be more than the $7,500 that we're we're saving um through the uh the amendment in article uh number three so those are just some points we want to just make sure everyone understands the uh the aggregate impact to the town citizens which um you know we believe is not going to be significant our recommendation um collectively is that um you know we vote as as printed um in the end there so we fund the positions uh there will be an excess of uh $7,500 plus the additional um impact that was voted as as article two and we would recommend to use that um you know to continue to um you know fund the town which you know uh there's a lot of u a lot of needs and and servicing um you all citizens including US citizens uh sitting here at this table so thank you Mr Mard okay thank you sir yes Mrs thinker Deborah tanum 88 Paradise Lane um what's really troubling me I think a lot of the folks behind me is I get any close up um what we're upset about is the tax rate in town and we come to town meeting and we get the warrant and these numbers are crazy and I the salary should not include the clothing allowance why is that part of his salary um and you've worked a lot of hours on it so you don't want to change anything but my tax rate is going to go up again and we can't drink the water from our tap in most parts of the town and nobody's doing anything why can't we postpone this meeting to another week so everybody can look at the numbers and we can come together and work on something but right now it's it's like it's being shoved down our throat and I think we're tie it and we're not going to take it anymore thank you thank you Mrs [Applause] than all right what we're going to do now then is uh go through the uh line items on the uh on the budget and uh I'm going to read uh starting which would be starting on page 10 Jeff buer Brandy Circle I fully understand you can't come up with the exact numbers tonight without canceling the meeting or holding it for hours on end but I still haven't heard an answer as to why we can't have some written line item added to that that would exclude the money we have already voted out I haven't got an answer to that let me see if I can get you an answer yeah we we would have to recalculate every single line though the requirement is you have to vote a budget a figure we can't vote uh hypotheticals you have to vote a a physical number naturual figure okay thank you sir all right let's move on let's get on to article article four we're going to start on page 10 yes ma'am Adrian McDougall 32 hellside have um in relation to that at the end when we go through all the line items in the budget can are we able to do a motion to decide what happens with that money maybe we want to allocate it to Public Works to the Water Department per se or the public the roads can we reallocate that if we choose to make a motion you can make a motion to amend uh the article and in that motion you could um choose to reduce one line item and increase another line item but you'd have to be specific in those figures in the same motion reducing it by one amount and increasing another line item by another amount okay that's still pretty difficult yes sir Nick if you could please thank you Jared smaller 34 Lawrence RH I'd like to amend Article 4 to read that as it is plus any surplus related to Article 2 and three be moved to free cash that that would automatically occur so anytime we have Surplus Revenue at the end of the year that Surplus revenue is certified by the Department of Revenue and it becomes free cash so it's not something we can just do um it just whatever Surplus Revenue we have ends up becoming free cash as certified by the state so would automatically close out so you know for instance if you have a line item that's budgeted at $50,000 and you only spend 40,000 of that that 10,000 ends up being Surplus and that ends up at the end of the fiscal year closing out to free cash automatically as certified by the state you don't we don't have to it's not something that we vote per se the Surplus Revenue closes out to free cash automatically so in this case if you approve the budget as printed in the Warren and it would be the changes that were not voted in article two would end up being Surplus Revenue that next fiscal year would close out to free cash yes sir oh hold on hold hold on hold on so we can hear your question please so if we don't make any changes then basically the amount of money we did not approve for salary still gets taken out of our pocket anyways it just goes to free cash versus salary Mr moderator yes if you vote the numbers that are in article four those numbers will be part of your tax they'll be taxed one way or another the only way around it is to change the uh numbers in article 4 what we've been trying to express though is that and just like with the previous article that we had in article three we can't vote on hypothetical numbers we have to have hard numbers before town meeting in other words everybody here wants to know what they're voting on they're going to vote $200 for the select for the moderator salary or are they going to vote $150 we just have to know that so if you want to do what I hear everyone saying the really only way to do that is to is to change these numbers now what what this table's up here is trying to express is if we were to do it based on the the article two and article three 2% changes and so on like that we can't give you those numbers right now it's going to take some calculations to get to that point that's all we're saying but the it's certainly up to town meeting to vote any number they want to vote on any of these line items it's entirely up to you just like we did with article free you move to amend it to whatever number only thing we just can't tell you right now what those numbers would be simply because of the complexity of it that's all M troop would you like to say something yes Amy troop T Hill Side a I would like to say that that is the exact region reason why Mr Bulger is asking for the amendment to be there so that the town does not get taxed for that amount of money am I correct Mr buer so basically what we're trying to say is Karen fav just made those numbers come up you guys could sit there and put them in the Excel spreadsheet and tell us because otherwise we're going to be taxed on the amount that's at the bottom regardless of if we held things or not and what we're telling you is that our balanced budgets at home cannot reflect the tax raises anymore so you're basically tipping the waiter and this is what we're saying so we do need those numbers to be corrected so that we're not taxed on that thank you Mr moderator Mr moderator I I think we just explained that you won't be taxed on numbers you vote and other words the money that you vote in article four if you reduce those numbers that you you won't be taxed on them we won't the government won't collect that money from you but that's the only way you can do that is by giving us a number on each of these line items that you want to change just like we did with article three a few minutes ago the town can't vote on a hypothetical okay 2% reduction we need to know what that number is going to be that's that and that's for everyone's benefit we all want to know what number you're voting Mr Mr moderator somebody in the finance committee yes I'm sorry should be good thank you Mr moderator so I I think uh I guess my question is I I understand that the numbers have to be correct in the budget but obviously it's going to be difficult for us to get there tonight given the fact that there's given the fact that there's a lot of changes there going to be difficult for us to get there tonight so I think what I'm hearing from um a couple of the residents the question is can can the budget be voted with as is written with some type of an addendum written at the bottom that just acknowledges that it will be less whatever was voted down in articles two and three and then the numbers get worked out after this meeting but there's acknowledgement on the article four boat that says it is being reduced by those numbers I don't think so I spoke with Council and Council has advised we have to vote a budget figure we can't vote uh you know a hypothetical of minus this article or minus this percentage there has to be a figure that has to be voted for a budget that clarify uh yes sir you have your name and address please joh mcneel 11 13th F guys there's 150 light items let's cut to the chase let's go one by one write down a number it'll be quick we'll be here till midnight debating all this stuff let's go down let's start now one by one let's get it done it's the only way it's going to happen if everything has to be written we can do it line by line thank you sir yes sir in the white Michael Martin 56 ala Road so what has to happen is exactly what the previous gentleman just said we have to have a number so it is not the the finance committee has given their recommendation if you have a certain item you want changed you have to have the specific number you wanted at to set it to amend it it is not the finance committees or the board of selectmen's job to change it now on the spot it is your job as the resident wanting to amend it thank you sir Mr Andrews if we adjourn the meeting till tomorrow night will the finance committee and the town accountant have those numbers for us Mr moderator Mr moderator really quick yes sir just to remind folks our finance committee spent about five months putting this budget together right so to to have I don't want to say we're dismissing their their work here but to to have them change everything on the Fly after five months of meeting with department heads after looking pouring through budgets I think is is unrealistic um I like what the gentleman said here if there's an item on the budget that you have an issue with put a hold on it to otherwise we're going to be here for a long long time um but to dismiss five months of work on this budget just because we want to what it's it seems I hear you I hear area um but that I would just make that point yes b g the pan way just a point of information when for article three you came up with the $7,500 thing um amount I'm sorry so is there a guesstimate I know it we can't hold you to we're not asking you to hold it to but a about is there an estimate as to how much money by not allowing article two the raises you would have to be taking off of the overall operating budget Mr moderator I think Mr dargy was uh explaining that a few minutes ago I didn't I didn't hear the whole number for the rest of the operating budget only article three well so there's there's two pieces yes so article three is straightforward there's three elected positions that were uh voted to be amended that uh you know just in quick math that's about $7,500 which again is completely immaterial uh to to the town residents including ourselves uh and then the second piece which is much more complicated is the article two which will involve having to go through each of the line items to see exactly what the effect is and that's going to take quite a bit of time to put together uh the Town Administrator would have that information um I don't know if he has a rough ballpark number that he can kind of throw out there but I think in the end you know the overall impact to the $29 million budget OS is going to be immaterial at the end of the day uh but uh which is up to the resident to decide if it is immaterial just I'm just asking for some sort of number because there's so much out there it just will give us something that we're working with right now we're not working with anything but wrong numbers yeah no exactly totally understand and so um and I didn't mean to diminish uh you know folks wishes here certainly you know we know uh we're in a high inflationary you know Market with you know cost of going through the roof people are having uh especially folks that you know live on a fixed income which is inclusive of some members of this committee as well um you know times are hard right so we understand that uh we haven't even got to the whole school situation which is a whole another animal which uh the costs are uh exploding in that front and so we we are going to have some real challenges in this town not just this year but even more so next year um so just something to keep in mind and and and be um you know thoughtful of I guess as we move forward here but um you know to to the budget itself is what I meant as far as you know being in material is not going to move the dial in a significant manner I don't think that's going to uh you know uh change your lifestyle or anything of that matter as residents so just wanted to make that point plus there's several other money articles that we have to vote on so the fact that this is too much just a just an idea thank you Mr moderator over there all right uh Mr moderator over here yes sir Nick could please Gordon laws 33 Highland Circle um look this is on my own calculator so the Town Administrator somebody could disagree with me but uh Mrs Gainer if you're looking for a ballpark if I am correct about 30 positions have been affected by the votes here tonight if we were to say that the average salary of those positions is $75,000 which I think is a high number um that would down to about $2.25 million if we were to say that um the town had voted down a total of say as high as 6% in increases that would be $135,000 that the town voted down is kind of the ballp park that you're talking about which would work out to um residents about $18 per resident yes you want to come to the mic please in your name and address it hi Jackie canapino 229 Hudson Street is there a way we can just vote to hold the lines that were amended just is a general one vote hold those lines and then approve the rest yes and I agree with that gentleman there the only way we're going to get through it is if we go by section to section if there's a hold raise your hand yellow hold and we'll try to wait off our way through it right I mostly was saying if we could do one vote to just hold those all those lines that we've already discussed or no well actually if I understand correct be just the opposite if there's a hold on those lines we can vote those lines that are not being held and then go back and do the hold good yes yes and that way at least we can at least move forward a little bit yes ma'am last one and then we're going to get going on the budget just a quick comment to the finance committee um just be prudent in case this sort of thing happens again if we have a um something um that we need to vote on that could affect the entire budget like this maybe next year if there's something like that you could prepare for that just so this all this craziness doesn't happen save time okay here's what I'm going to attempt to do we're going to we're going to go by section we're starting on page 10 by the way in in the warant okay the the first category is General government on on page uh starting on page 10 and going down through Page 11 and uh yeah finishing on line 46 so we're going to go from lines 1 to 46 under General government if if there's a hold please stand raise your hand uh I'll call on you and then we can put a hold on whatever line You' like to do okay let's start off General government lines on page 10 and 11 uh lines 1 through 46 thought it was an eight six if if there's a hold on any of them please stand and say hold so again guys if you have a hold for 1 through 46 um raise your hand and any of those 1 through 46 the moderator will will call on you and you tell us what number you'd like to uh put a hold on 1 through 46 1 through 46 yes ma'am we'll start with you with what line three yes ma'am stand in which line yes we just did line three okay any other holds so line three has been held if anybody's looking for line three that has been held there's another hold please raise your hand line four hold who said that could you raise your hand who said line 22 okay thank you line 10 hold line 12 hold I'm sorry line 28 hold line 17 assesses salary hold any other holds on on I'm sorry we already did 13 clerical there's Mr moderator somebody here in the front oh I'm sorry line 21 hold who said that could you raise your hand please line [Music] 15 35 yes ma'am what line line 16 you raise your hand please line what 32 line 32 line 42 anybody else on a hold I'm sorry raise your hand please line we already have line three OH 43 sorry 43 Town DS we are going by lines it's we're going over lines one 1 through 46 if there's a hold on on any of the lines 1 through 46 raise your hand and we'll put a hold on it I'm sorry 18 18 24 what's that line 20 assessors any other holes on lines 1 through 46 I'm sorry 26 line 23 26 thank you for speaking up Mr moderator really quickly just these are the holds line one line three line line four line 10 line 12 line 13 line 15 line 16 line 17 line 18 line 20 line 21 line 26 line 28 line 32 line 35 line 42 and line 44 like we got let's do that all right seeing that uh there's a hold on the majority of lines 1 through 46 let's just go line by line Y that's the way we'll do it Mr Mo Mr moderator Mr moderator hand in the corner over here yes sir Tom Pratt Arrowhead path I just like to point out that this exact last 20 minutes could have been avoided if we listen to selectman Bruno from last year's minute recap when he suggested after the fact at selectman meeting on May 23rd that we in fact go line by line during article four that was his recap at the next select's meeting we could have saved 20 minutes about all right we're going to go uh line by line try to get through this is okay line number one moderator salary any questions okay we got a hold raise in your I I can't hear you I move it to a dollar just like the tree would thank you for your input okay any uh I think any other discussion have a Mr moderator again point point of order he said the last speaker said he moved to make it a dollar is that an amendment and if it's so I I is there a second we have to vote on the amendment first and then on if that passes then on the amended article or amended number [Music] sure all right uh just had a double check with the Town Council uh because it's the uh moderator salary I can't be moderator and moderate that uh specific line so the town clerk's going to step in and uh and do the uh line one moderator salary could the previous speaker please tell me again what that amendment was for the moderator salary from 200 to one is is that the motion do I have a second all those in favor of the amendment oh go right ahead I'm the moderator name and address please Kevin Rogers 259th Avenue hi Kevin uh my mom is here from Georgia yeah and uh I wanted to have her come because she wanted to see what town government uh and how we handle things for voting and such okay and this whole night has been a nightmare for me to demonstrate to her how it's supposed to run for voting I'm sorry about that but we're goingon to stick to the topic yeah well that's well the motion is ridiculous on its face I mean the moderator has a very hard job and to say that they don't deserve the money that they get paid is ridiculous the amount is the same as last year and there's a bunch of other ones that that we're voting on that are the same and it's ridiculous that people are saying that we should not have any the same money as last year all right thank you all right so we're gonna take a vote on that an amendment from2 200 to $1 for a yes vote raise your green [Music] card for a no vote raise your red card motion fails all right can I have a motion for Artic number one line item one so move second all those in favor this is the original salary this is the original one you already voted the amendment right all right and all those who vote no motion passes we're flying now okay uh line number two select and salary I have a motion yes so Motion in a second on line item two selectman salary see no indication of further discussion all those in favor of line two please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card line two passes uh line three was held Town administrative salary uh do I have a motion MO so yes so move so moved in a second you have a hold on it you have a hold on it there's a hold on it we held line three are we going to talk about it now or are we going back to it later yep we'll do that yes if you want to come up to the mic or take a microphone raise your hand you want to speak to this there's a hold on it I'm sorry yes thank you Karen favor FL bosw Road um on the town administ a salary could you please explain the selction me could you please explain to us um the salary went from 23 U 9596 to 24 143 954 and now at 166 630 um I understand that there's been a contract signed by the selectman allowing um this position 9 month severance pay um 256 uh vacation day days uh x amount of sick days I mean can you explain to us why you feel that the percentage of increase is warranted I'll try to get an answer so Mr moderator Mr Bruno the um earlier Numbers 22 and 23 if the town will recall um we didn't have a Town Administrator for over a year at least a year so those numbers weren't expended these are expended numbers so the numbers for uh the Town Administrator Sally wouldn't have lived up to it because we didn't have one we had an interim one we had uh a resignation and this is before this board was elected um as far as the current salary uh that's a contracted amount through the contract with the Town Administrator uh and that would be the amount of uh the wages that would be expected for for this um um position the um the number is actually in a in a in a study that was um done oh sorry yeah I'm just looking up something here in a study that was done of comparable towns the median salary for a mod for a um Town Administrator is $175,000 um this number uh in this contract is is less than that uh although G it is substantial the um hiring of a Town Administrator uh as it's becoming more and more difficult um and you know things have gone up so that's what this uh that's what this wage is is a contractual amount yes sir your name and address please uh Brandon Elliot Arrowhead path um just the nice part about numbers is they're not um negotiable or they're up to opinion right so after doing a little bit of research while we're sitting here uh the average Town Administrator in Massachusetts makes $44 an hour which out of 40 hour a week is 91,000 the highest in Massachusetts makes $77.64 per hour which equates to $163,000 per year so um over the last two years it's been a 74% raise so I do understand the um the difficulty in hiring somebody in our town cannot run with without a Town Administrator so I do agree with that and I think to keep Pace with all of our other numbers I'd like to make an amendment to change the salary to $146,800 a year which is a 2% raise off of 2024 could you give me the number again please Bren 14683 3 and that would still keep us in the top 75% of town administ administrators in the state of Massachusetts and I have the utmost faith that he's doing a good job and going to continue to do that that's why I want to keep a raise on the table just not a 75% raise I think you made a motion you made a motion and a second it was Mo so the new number is 14673 3 is that right I have 146 833 83 Mr moderator could I speak to that please yes certainly so so in my time as selectman I think I'm one of the few guys in the history of this town that has seen four Town administrators um and they've all ranged from different abilities um one of the reasons our salary was so low coming into this was because we had a guy here for a long time that gave us a huge pay cut he was one of the lowest paid Town administrators in the state of Massachusetts I have seen this town with Town administrators that are out there and I'll be honest it's not pretty it's not so as much as this was a hard decision and as much as I knew this was coming you guys put us here to try to make the best decisions we think regardless of the hate we're going to get right we have to make a tough call that we look back and say in three years what is best for the town and and I know I know this is a tough pill to swallow but i' I've talked to folks I've seen what the talent pool is out there for Town administrators and I have a very good feeling we're we're heading right back to where we were and I just I couldn't stand to let the town go there so that was that was my reasoning for it so I just wanted to let you guys know where my head was around that yes sir Mr brenon sorry I mean to keep stealing the mic um I completely agree with you also plan being on the planning board I've seen what happens when we don't have a t Town Administrator and that's why I think that the increase from 95,96 to $143,000 is a very Moder and well-deserved pay raise for the individual that needs to do this so that's why I'm saying we should keep that with a 2% raise to keep Pace with the rest of the raises that we've dished out tonight my question though from what I've interpreted I don't want to put words in your mouth as I highly respect you if we do not vote this is it an or else where if we do not vote this in we will no longer have the the person in place in other words if we do not agree to this are we in some way being held hostage to this salary or if we do vote as a town to keep a 75% rate of in the highest percentage of a Town Administrator um is that not good enough and we would then lose this Talent I'll be honest with you br I don't think that's a hypothetical answer well it is a it's a question because we're either going what I interpreted that as is it we're either going to vote this in or we're going to lose the talent well that's your own personal interpretation right but that's I was asking for clarification I don't know how else I could get an answer for you any select been clear to address that you want to address the TR yeah um so this is a contracted uh figure right so the first um uh possibility would be uh if there was a lower number there that we would have to talk with the Town Administrator to see if we would if he'd be able to adjust his contract and would agree to a different number um otherwise um you know essentially it's a a breach in a fashion and he would be uh within his rights to decide that he'll go somewhere else now I would say that um he had in hand a much more generous contract in this earlier this year and um we uh we talked to him about that and it was our as as Mr celing said was our Collective uh uh judgment that as opposed to trying to uh go back into the pool uh and and obtain a new uh Town Administrator uh that we should try to work with this one who has done a good job for us who understands the town now and who um actually agreed to a um uh a contract that was less incentive uh for him if if he'd left so in other words this is really the market rate um and that's the market rate is the market rate we we're we know for a fact that uh again as Mr seeling said we've had a year or two of disruption without without a Town Administrator um the pool of applicants that we have dealt with uh are far inferior to uh the Town Administrator that we have now and and like I said he had other options he had other uh towns calling him saying you know come to us we'll pay you more and that's how we ended up at this number so that's why it's there it's not like um you know it's it we didn't arrive at this without some thought and without a lot of a lot of um uh negotiation to get there and again it's the that's the going rate I mean there's that's just the way it is just to dovetail that really quick uh I did talk with people whose jobs it is is to find Town administrators for other towns and there are a lot of municipalities now that have Town Administrator openings that are offering a lot more money than we are the pool is very shallow and if we were to bring in a New Town Administrator now according to these folks we'd be looking at 150 to 160 now to try to get somebody in the door that I don't want to say definitely but would most likely not have the experience that we have here so that's the tough decision that we had to make again we knew this was coming but that's not what this is about that's what keeping a good talented person here is and what's best for Halifax in the next three years I I don't discount the talent or the future that he's going to be a part of in the town of Halifax which is why my Amendment did include a raise right and I would just ask um out of the faith of if as a resident and for the rest of the residents here that are paying that salary um that he takes that into consideration in the town of Halifax and if he finds a better spot at another town that has more money to give him than unfortunately we're going to have to lose a talent but that's just how the world works so my my motion is 14683 3 Kansas could you give the U microphone to the lady in the pink please Sarah Noble 55 Lincoln Street I just with all due respect your Googling skills um I also looked up the numbers and there are several towns in Massachusetts uh that paid $200,000 for the Town Administrator so um I saw that those same numbers on zip recruiter but they're unfortunately not accurate so just wanted to make sure that that was clear that we are not paying more than every other Town um in Massachusetts it's well within the reasonable amount and I think he's well worth it having worked with him umly and I just want to make sure that those numbers were cleared up yes Kevin your name Kevin could you state your name and address please Kevin Rogers 259th and what I wanted to say is I agree with the uh amendment I think that's a fair rate and the uh the book plate or the survey that y'all keep run uh referring to is uh the towns that you're talking about are towns that have a much bigger business environment to pull from we don't have that much business so the money that's going into the pot here is coming from the pockets of our town residents in the property taxes that we have to pay all right thank you thank you Candace could you give the microphone thank you I just wanted to make a point that Our Town Administrator similar to our police chief and our fire chief is on duty seven days a week 24 hours a day he gets called all different times of day and night to make decisions for the town the town administrator's job is not a 40-hour week position if you pay it like a 40 hour a week position that's what you're going to get and that is not what Halifax needs can this the lady right behind you in green your name and address please yeah glor Costa Klein 285 South Street um I would like to ask Mr Elliott to resend his motion um I think Mr seelig made a compelling case for what the landscape looks like I think as towns payers I absolutely understand um the financial different difficulties a tough economy trying to make a dollar out of 50 cents but at the bottom line if we lose good talent what does it cost us we have a stable town government right now in administrator with some experience that knows the town we have three people sitting at the select board table that are not having to recuse thems constantly from votes so that our government actually functions okay we need to keep that train on the track and I don't really have a strong feeling toward or against um Our Town Administrator he's very confident from what I've observed but the bottom line is there isn't a whole lot else available and the market gets what the market gets so if you think that this is top dollar what are we going to have to um pay if we lose him we will lose him we have a revolving door in this town of training people and having them move on to other towns for more money we need to think about this a little bit more sensibly you get what you pay for and I don't want to go back to chaos this whole meeting has been chaos we don't want every day of our government to look like chaos because we don't have competent people sitting at the table thank you Nick the lady in the green jacket please thank you I just had a question um Jen Carol five R Metaline um when you're running the comparisons for the numbers for this amount of money what is the population that the Town Administrator is running for those people because right now ours is so under 10,000 Mr so we're going to compare ourselves to [Music] Foxboro Wellsley Mr Mo moderator yes U so the comparable contract terms Norfolk Lancaster Bolton boxboro Carlile Stow uh that's where the median comes in at 17 I will also point out though that in a lot of those contracts there are other um uh incentives uh that we are not offering for example the contract that uh would have been offered by another town uh included an automobile brand new automobile included contributions by the town to a 401k uh some deferred compensation and a match of that so those are things we're not offering in this contract what we're offering in this contract is much less than that and I think as I think the previous speaker's point was um if we go back out into the market we're likely going to pay this amount anyway uh so it's it's really um if we I we don't see a benefit to to losing what we have uh if it's going to end up being again a period of time where we don't have a Town Administrator and we end up paying same amount amount of money anyway thank you yes your name and address please Jen Clark 338 Elm just a quick question you had mentioned several times the experience that he brings to the table it may help us make an informed decision better if you could elaborate on what that experience is oh I'm sorry but I the question was what are the credentials um well we have um I'm I'm not sure what the question would really be we have an educated person who's been in town for over a year or two uh we see the work he's done um so you know uh hiring somebody new uh it would be someone you don't know anything about Jared smaller 34 Lawrence Road um where this is a contracted position I think that we run the risk of this costing us much more than what the salary increase would be in a possible breach of contract and a payout over remaining years of it and any other things that go along with a breached contract this is something that we have voted the select board in into their positions and with one exception this coming election on Saturday there is one contested election or one contested race so two excuse me out of how many we constantly run candidates on opposed so we have voted the select board in to make this decision and I agree with their decision I think Cody is going to be great for our town and I hope that we can do things to make him stick around he's a young Town Administrator who probably has great vision that we haven't seen here before but we made this decision ourselves by voting the select board in and they acted and I agree with their decisions on the best interest of the town and their citizens thank you sir Candace right behind you hi van Donley 2011 cranberry tribe couple of questions number one is if we if he moves out of this contract it doesn't like the price so we owe this man of severance now uh number one um and uh second of all have we you know we don't know what he's going to deliver so the question I I ask is is paper performance right it's like can we give this guy just like a bonus type incentive with a set of criteria that he's got to hit okay in other words he's in here we're we're B buying a pig and a poke we don't know we're going to get sounds like a good guy and all that I get it but everybody in this world that I at least the ones I know pay for performance is a basar and is an incentive if he delivers on a certain things that could be set up seems like we need to more incentivize the people to do the things they need to do and deliver for us in order to get that money and one some of that could be saving money for us or filing for uh uh grants and things like that that he's going to bring to the town to help us all so to me I think that they should look at something like that competitive base salary which I think he mentioned over here 143 or whatever and then an incentive type of arrangement to reach the set of Criterion goals and that way they uh everybody would be happy to pay somebody probably if uh he was reaching out and getting the uh benefits that we need into into the town otherwise we're just paying a salary and we're holding for the best okay thank you Mr moderator if I could just two quick points um number one I heard the point made that uh you're comparing us to to bigger areas and town administrators that work in bigger municipalities well a lot of times being a Town Administrator in a smaller municipality can be more challenging because you don't have that tax base and you're trying to stretch the dollar further so to say uh you know oh it's it's easy to be here in Halifax because we have a smaller tax base I would argue it's harder because we need to make chicken salad out of chicken you know what right so so that's one point the other point too is if if uh Our Town Administrator did decide to leave we'd be on the hook to pay for another search so you're shelling out money once again to go back into the pool so that's taxpayer money to bring in a replacement so I just hope we really think long and hard and and not cut off our nose despite our face here um but I we'll do what the town wants to do uh Candace yes gem right here trying to figure out um so we've already voted that everyone else only gets a 2% raise makes it that the moderate should get a higher percentage I I get it he does this he does that administrator I apologize but so doesn't so doesn't every other person that wears through this town from the town cler to to the health agent to the you know tax collector what makes this one particular person so valuable that if we don't if we only give him a 2% raise we run the risk of losing him I believe uh Mr moderator like we like we've been discussing this is a going rate um that you know that's the going rate for this particular position um we know that because there were contracts that were better than this uh that uh uh were available uh and that um this one particular that's that's the going rate that's why we're at this number that's that's the only reason okay I think uh I'm going to call for a vote we've had both the uh pros and the cons on on both sides and one up there you had a hand up you can uh yes right here Candace please your name and address please ma'am uh Deb wit 60 Sycamore for one thing if anybody had watched the selectman's meeting when they did their interviews for the Town Administrator they're all right out there and I can tell you I watched them and our current Town Administrator blew them away in his in his in his experience in his manner the way that he spoke answered their questions without any hesitation I think we have got an excellent Town Administrator and I've worked for towns who did not have a good Town Administrator what was said by Mr de the talent talent pool all of those people that are applying from that isn't what we want that isn't what we need and I'd just like to say one other thing and I think saving money is great we need to do it at home we need to do it in town the economy is not good but every time we vote no we also have to be prepared to live with the repercussions and the consequences simply voting no without knowing what those are or taking them into consideration is dangerous it's dangerous and could  this town 45 years of town meetings I have never seen anything like I've seen tonight the Clapping the ignorance the name calling 45 years I've never seen it stop and do right thing for this Town vote no if you want but do it with knowledge thank you thank you okay last one Nick right over there please gentlemen yeah Mr Town Administrator and all you people up there I have a business I have to work within my budget you people ought to work within yours instead of taxing the hell out of the rest of us okay and I'm leaving because I can't stand this Mr moderator as a point of order um is this uh we're we're about to vote on whether to amend the figure to 146 833 is that correct that's correct thank you there's a motion on the floor and seconded to uh amend line three uh to 146,000 all those in favor of the amendment please raise your green card all those opposed to the amendment please raise your red card the amendment does not pass Mr moderator I would move that we um approve line item three at one 166 630 second I have a motion in a second for line item three to to remain at the one 166 630 has been a motion in a second yes Motion in a second yese okay so you know indications we're going to uh vote on uh line number three as presented in the in the U warrant for the 166 630 all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card line three passes as presented all right let's move on to line item number four there was a hold clerical anybody want to speak to that hold uh Candace where are you oh there hello yes so I just have a question if we can um if there would be a way to abbreviate this meeting by um by making motions to either raise it or have it uh continue as is so that we only have one motion and one vote rather than having to go through and do the motion the vote and the revote does that make sense uh is that is that I'm afraid that if there's a motion uh to amend and it's been seconded it has to go through the process there's okay so there's no way the way if there's no way to amend I vote for you know I move to amend or to remain the uh and if that does not pass asked to remain the same way no you can do either or there was a hold put on it and you're speaking to line for select I just sorry I just wanted to to uh move the process along so sorry Cas see no indication no further discussion well I I'll move um line item four as printed in the warrant second do I have a second yes a motion I thought we had one but okay there's a motion a second for line item uh number four as presented all those in favor please raise their Green Card all those opposed please raise your red card line item four passes as presented uh line number five selectman expenses I would move that uh as presented in the warrant so move second I have a motion in second for line item number five as as presented in the in the warrant all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card line item five passes uh line six I would move line six is presented in the warrant second I have a motion in a second for line item number six L count seeing no indication all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card line six passes line seven Town Hall electricity I would move line seven as presented I have a motion and a second of line item number seven Town Hall electricity for $19,500 all those in favor raise the Green Card all those opposed please raise your card line seven passes Town meeing warrants line item number eight I would move Town meet uh line item eight as presented in the warrant second I have a motion in the second for line item number eight all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card uh line eight passes unanimously line uh item number nine I would move line item nine is presented in the warrant second it's moved in second for line item uh nine as presented in the warrant all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red line number nine passes 10 where hold was put on finance committee clerical do I have a motion um I would move line item 10 as presented in the warrant do I have a second second I have a motion in a second for line item number 10 seeing no indication of discussion all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red our line 10 passes pcom expenses line item number 11 I would move line item 11 as presented in the war second Motion in a second all those in favor of line item number 11 as presented Green Card all those opposed the red card passes number 12 accountant salary do I have a motion I would move line it 12 is presented in the warrant second I have a motion in a second for line item number 12 as presented in the warrant all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your rate card line item 12 passes 13 accountant clerical do drive a motion please I would move line item 13 is presented in the warrant second a motion and a second all those in favor of line number 13 as presented in the warrant please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card casses line 14 accountant expenses have a motion please I move line item 14 is presented in the warrant Segundo Motion in a second for line item 14 as presented in the warrant all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your read passes unanimous line 15 it wages I would move line item item 15 as presented in the warrant second I have a motion and a second for line item 15 the it wages yes ma'am bber gain of peman way I was just looking at the jump from FY 23 to um now it's almost a $20,000 raise what constituted such a high rise what is the duties changed or hours changed or it's a big jump thank you Mr moderator yes this this was one of this was actually the um the the position in town that had that was PA underpaid the most so it required the largest leap uh for the it position when we did the compensation classification study and then in fiscal year 22 it was based on a uh partial it was part-time it wasn't full-time okay so you know indication of further discussion all those in favor of line item 15 as presented the warrant please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card line item 15 passes 16 it expenditures I would move line item 16 as presented in the warrant second I have a motion and a second for line on 16 expenditures seeing no indication of uh all those in favor of line 16 as presented in the warrant please raise your green card all those opposed please L your rate Cod line 16 passes 17 assess the salary I would uh move line item 17 is presented in the warrant second for motion in the second line item 17 all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card 17 passes 18 principal assessors apprais do I have a motion please I would move line item 18 as presented in the war second I have a motion in a second all those in favor of line item 17 as presented in the warrant please raise a green card all those opposed please raise your red card line 18 passes assesses clerical have a motion please I would move line item 19 as presented in the warrant second a motion and a second all those in favor of line 19 as presented please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card uh passes line 19 passes line 20 assesses expense motion please move line item 20 as presented in the warant second a motion in a second line item 20 yes Mr s why is why is there such a Deborah tum ad Paradise Lane why is there such a jump from last year to this coming year please I'll see if I can find that out Mr moderator yes sir uh this was in reviewing the departmental budgets there was an annual uh fee that we pay to the assessing consultant that we utilize to Value personal property and provide other services to us we had historically funded that with free cash uh that's not a good practice because it was an annual operating expense so rather than fund it as a capital item through free cash we added it into the budget this year to be more reflective of what we actually do in an annual operating expense okay thank you okay all those in favor of article 20 as presented in the warrant please raise your green card all those opposed Bo raise your red card line 20 passes 21 office machines expenses I would move 21 as presented in the warrant second a motion and a second where are we yes ma'am hold on Hannah Hannah cely get the microphone here please get you a microphone oh yeah I'm M from um Road and I'm just you have to speak real close to the mic man okay and I'm just wondering why that went from 6,000 to 29,500 I just wondered what kind of office equipment they bought for that amount of money let me see if I can find that out Mr moderator so this the amount the amount of the in increase was actually a decrease from uh several departmental line items were consolidating services so all the postage is now paid out of that one rather than individually budgeted in every uh different department so what we did was we subtracted that amount from the other uh Department to line items and put it all into that one line item to pay for postage okay all those in favor of uh line item number 21 as presented in the warrant please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card line 21 passes 22 treasur collector's salary do I have a motion please did get did get change got get a motion V in budget so article three sets the salary AR to yeah so Mr moderator yes uh I I'm only doing this because of what we did on article three uh but I think um line item 22 needs to be amended to uh $ 79,90 second on that Amendment and again uh the only reason I'm making that amendment is because of what um town meeting did earlier um I do think the uh TR Treasurer collector salary was appropriate at 82 uh but I think in order to make this process work correctly uh I we have we should make that Amendment so I have a Amendment on the floor that's been seconded going to votee on the amendment uh all those in favor of the amended figure to uh 79,00 z9 please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card um that's the amended number so I would move uh the uh the new number of $ 79,90 second okay I have a motion in a second for the uh amended figure as uh as presented all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card line item passes treasure collected salary as amended uh line 23 treasur collector clerical I I would move uh item 23 as stated in the warrant second I have a motion in a second all those in favor of line 23 is presented in the warrant please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card line 23 passes um what happened yeah oh Debbie yes please please your question I was just wondering what that entails for um clerical is that for one two three people I'll see if I can find any answer for that thank you what was the question what what was the question Mr moderator how many people there's three positions in that office there's the assistant Treasurer the assistant collector and an adid assistant yes there is three three people okay all those in uh in favor of uh 23 line 23 as presented in the warrant all in favor raise your green card all oppos raise your red castles uh line 24 Treasurer expense i' move line item 24 is presented in the war second it's a motion in the second line 24 all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed raise your red 24 passes 25 collector expense I would move line item 25 as presented in the warrant second a motion a second all those in favor of line 25 please raise your green card all opposed raise your red passes line 25 line 26 we move line item 26 as presented in the warrant second just a reminder that was the uh the typo on uh on this particular page where supposed to be fiscal year 23 not 22 was just a typo okay as a motion in a second of for line 26 all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed pleas your red line 26 passes 27 tax title treasure I would move 27 as presented in the warrant second a motion and a second of line 27 as presented all those in favor raise a green card all opposed raise a red line 27 passes town clerk salary line 28 Mr moderator yes um I think um okay Mr moderator um again uh um on uh line item 28 given what town meeting voted earlier tonight that uh line item itself should be amended and I would move that we amend line item 28 to 73,000 83780 Second again we do that with regret because we do think that the original number was appropriate but town meeting was already decided uh on different number okay so we're voting on uh line 29 on the amended figure of 73,000 line item 28 I'm I was misspoke it's line item 28 town clerk Sal it is line 28 yes y 28 yeah it's getting late uh 73,8 3930 as amended here okay I had 30 cents missed it by 50 Cents uh the amended figure is 73,8 378 eight all in favor of line 28 on the amended figure please raise your green card all those opposed raise your red Mr passes Mr moderator I would now move that line item 28 be uh approved at 7383 787 second yeah we we move to amend the number amended so now we have to vot a little lost okay on the amended figure voting uh line 28 all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red passes line 29 town clerk clerical Mr moderator yes I moved line 29 as as reported in the warrant t for motion in a second line 29 all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed raise your red line 29 passes line 30 Town town clerk expenses Mr moderator I would move line item 30 as presented in the warrant second we have a motion in a second on our line 30 as presented all those avable raise your green card all those oppos raise your red passes line 31 elect register I would move line 31 as presented in the warrant second we have a motion and a second for line 31 all those in favor raise your green card all those opposed raise your red 31 passes 32 wage and Personnel expenses we move line item 32 is presented in the warrant second Nick if you could please if we dissolve the wage of Personnel Board why is there an expense please see if I can find that out uh Mr moderator no changes were voted to the waging Personnel uh byof for the the 2% so uh this is used for expenses associated with it such as uh the dues for the mass Municipal Human Resources so there's dues associated with that whether we have a uh Personnel Board or not we want to be part of that but it's reflective of the wage of personnel you're welcome all those in favor of line 32 as presented Green Card all those opposed rate card passes line 33 Recruitment and employment costs I'd move line 33 is presented in the warrant second a motion in a second line 33 all those in favor as presented Green Card all those opposed red card passes line 34 I move line 34 as presented in the warant second a motion and a second on line 34 all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed red card passes 35 conservation wages I would move line item 35 is presented the war second I have a motion in a second on line 35 all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card 35 passes planning board expenses line 37 I move line 37 as presented in the war second I have a motion in a second line 37 all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed raise your red card passes 38 zoning board of appeals expenses I would move line 38 as presented in the warrant second Motion in a second all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red passes regulatory clerical I would move Line 39 as presented in the warrant do I have a second yes a motion in a second line 39 all those in favor raise your green card all those opposed red card Line 39 passes line 40 building committee clerical I would move line 40 as presented in the warrant second Motion in a second on line 40 as presented all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed the red card passes buing committee expense line 41 I move line 41 as presented in the warrant second a motion in a second line 41 as presented all those in favor please raise your green card all those oppose the red card passes 42 Town buildings director of building maintenance I would move line 42 is presented in the warrant second I have a motion a second for line 42 42 right that's what I said said 42 all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed your red card passes Town building custodial line 43 I would move line 43 as as um provided in the warrant second have a motion and a second line 43 all those in favor please raise your green card all those oppos the red card passes 44 Town building expenses I would move item 44 as presented in the warrant second Motion in a second line 44 is presented all those in favor please raise your green all those opposed please raise the red card cast 45 Town building preventative maintenance can I get a motion please line item 45 is presented in the warrant second a motion on a second line 45 five all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card passes 46 Town building snow and ice expense I would move item 46 as presented in the warrant second Motion in a second for line 46 as presented all those in favor please raise your green card all oppos the red card it passes all right that concludes move on to moderator yes Michael Martin 56 Alena Road seeing we've gone through the first group I move that we go back to doing all of these in batches I have a motion in a second to go back to go back to batches instead of reading them individually works for me is every we have a motion in a second to go back instead of going line by line we'll do sections as we originally started all those in favor all those opposed we're going to go Section by section here we go public safety police lines 47 through 53 hold on what was is it 47 on anything else all right we'll vote since I'm sorry just to hold on 47 all right then we can vote 48 to 53 and then go back a hold everything without a hold okay do that all right there's a hold on 47 so we're going to vote on lines 48 through 53 move is printed in the wi I have a motion please I would move them as printed in the warrant second I have a motion and second uh on on lines 48 through 53 as presented in the warrant all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card passes unanimous now let's go back to uh line 47 yes on line 47 um could we get a breakout please it there's a new position it says down with the as of the Deputy police chief we would like to see a breakout of what the police chief's salary is for 24 for 25 FY and for the deputy chief instead of it being lumped all together okay Mary I'll find that out so it's two salaries the deputy Chiefs for fiscal 25 is 11 19,4 180 and the Chiefs is uh 152 378 okay I I would move item 47 is presented in the one second I have a motion in a second uh line number 47 as presented on the warrant all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card passes okay let's move on to the next section we're on page 12 by by the way Public Safety fire we're going to go lines 54 through 62 do I have a motion I would move line items 54 through 62 as presented in the warrant second I have a motion in a second for lines 54 through 62 seeing no indication of discussion all those in favor of lines 54-62 as presented in the warrant please raise your Green Card all those opposed please a red card passes uh Public Safety other Public Safety lines 63 through 69 oh through this I I would move through 69 63 line item 63 through 69 is presented in the warant do have a second I have a motion in a second to approve line 63-69 from Public Safety all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card pass is unanimous okay uh line uh we're on page 13 now uh line uh 70 dispatch services do I have a motion please I would move line 70 is presented in the warrant second have a motion in a second line number 70 all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card passes okay and next one is schools uh line 71 through 73 move line 71 through 73 as presented in the warrant second I have a motion in a second line 71 through 73 is presented in the warrant all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card passes unanimous uh next section uh Public Works Highway lines 74 through 87 Mr on page 13 Mr moderator yes would you hold line item 74 line item 74 74 other than that if there's no other holds I would move line items 75 through 87 as presented in the warrant a second I have a motion in a second to uh line 75 through 87 as presented in the warrant all those in favor raise your green card all those opposed raise your red card CES Mr moderator yes L again given the um uh earlier uh motion on article three uh line item 74 we would move to amend to $ 82516 second let me just double check that number 82501 68 yes correct B go and again the explanation is that town meeting has uh voted on article three that number has sound okay I see no indication uh we'll vote on line 74 as amended well if this is we're moving to amend first motion would be just to amend it then we have to go back and vot them them okay so we're voting now to that amended to amend that figure from the 84913 to 82501 68 all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card uh line 74 has been amended do I have a motion now uh to vote on line 74 as the amended figure yes I would make that motion that uh we vote on 74 as amended second we have a motion and a second line 74 as amended all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed who raise your red card passes okay we're on uh page 14 now Public Works Cemetery lines 88 through 90 Ral motion please I would move um line items 88 through 90 as presented in the warrant second I have a motion and the second lines 88 through 90 as presented in the warrant all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red passes unanimous Public Works water lines 91 through 101 have a motion Please Mr moderator oh hold on uh what line I can't hear come to the microphone please adrid Hill Side why are we not increasing this budget we're increasing all the other budgets our system is falling apart why are we not increasing this budget that is my simple question C the water condition Mr moderator I believe our water superintendent is here but this is reflective of what the water department requested so if there's a detail being requested on the operation of the water department I'd recommend that the water superintendent provide that explanation Al ask him sir I'm not even sure what the question is leveled the budet the budget was just level funded so I mean there's nothing else going on sure um I don't I don't know if I mean I suggest that that our water commissioner join the local Facebook pages or I I also suggest that our residents start calling him because we have serious problems here in this town with our water people I mean I go through filters like nothing you know all these problems with the wells I don't understand why this budget isn't increasing to fix these problems I did poll today on uh Halifax locals Facebook page and um the majority of these of the people who responded said their top concern was our water and our roads not the salaries not all this other stuff not you know not even schools a couple of them said this you know uh funding Halifax Elementary which we're losing we're doing Cuts but nobody's nobody's addressing this elephant in the room we need to have clean water this is ridiculous you know I have to I I have five stage filtration and my you know anybody else want to raise your hand if you have water issues hold on let's just address the water R the only thing I could I can tell you is if your question originally was why is it going down instead of going up why why are we not raising if we increase it you have to show where the money is going to come from you you can decrease it but to increase it you have to show where the money would come from and how much we're raising everything else so you have a number where's that money coming from Mrs Nolan maybe you can uh you can add some yeah something to this Sandra Nolan Town account if you look at the budget Sandra Nolan Town accountant if you look at the budget that's on the blue sheet that's the amended budget and um it was a clerical error in the beginning but the budget did go up we also have a capital project that is three or four years right now going on where we've put in about a million 40,000 already we just we last year passed a three million Bond allowance saying that the treasur could borrow up to $3 million to do this water project um we are in further in the warrant you'll see there's a $500,000 article to go towards this project the water department is working on the water issues okay thank you Mr moderator yes I would move um line items 91 through 101 uh as presented in the warrant with the editorial Corrections that that uh town meeting has copies of second okay have a motion and a second on line 101 as presented to include the the handouts all those that's on a blue sheet I understand that right thank you Sandy uh all those in favor of line 101 as presented please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card 101 passes Public Works Solid Waste Management uh Lines 102 through 107 lot Mr moderator sorry I guess I said that wrong it's uh no we did okay all right Public Works lines 91 through 101 as presented on the warrant do I have a motion please yes so move second well with the Amendments as uh on the blue handout of the editorial amendments right okay yes hold on 91 okay we'll vote on 92 through uh 101 and 101 as amended yes that's my motion correct as amended well well with the editorial changes yes second to 92 to 101 okay we have a motion and a second all those in favor of lines 92 through 101 please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card thank you we'll go to line uh 91 je do you would you like to amend that or what is would you like to address it got to come to the mic please sorry um I would like to amend it to the 2% that all the other directors have gotten of the salaries uh okay as we discussed before we can go percentages but we need an actual number okay so Mr moderator yes the with the bylaw change not being passed the 2% would not be reflective it would this figure would be voted but the 2% increase would not be paid that it's not just a 2% reduction uction because there are other items that go into this specific line item uh such as a clothing allowance I see so this is like the other uh line items for the wages where if town meeting votes it it would just end up being Surplus revenue for what is not spent okay which case I would move line item 91 as presented in the warrant second a motion and second line 91 as presented all those in favor please raise your green card all those oppose your red card passes okay Public Work Solid Waste Management Lines 102 through 107 I would move Lines 102 through 107 as presented in the warrant second a motion in a second Lines 102 through 107 is presentative the warrant all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card passes Health and Human Services uh we're on page 15 by the way uh one line 108 through 122 I would move line items 108 through 122 as presented in the warrant second Motion in a second lines 108 through 122 as presented all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed pleas raise your red card passes unanimous uh culture and recreation lines 123 through uh 137 1337 yes out one that the last six are on page 16 so lines 123 through 137 I would I would move line items 123 through 137 as presented in the warrant second a mo a motion and second to approve lines 123 through 137 as present all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card passes unanimous okay uh debt Services page 16 138 lines 138 through 141 I would move lines 138 through 141 as presented in the war second I have a motion in a second to approve lines 138 through 141 as presented all those have favor please raise your green card all those opposed preserves your red card passes unanimous fixed costs lines 142 through 150 I I would move lines 142 through 150 as presented in the warrant second a motion in second to approve lines 14 through to 150 as presented all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your rate Cod passes unanimous funding notes Lottery lottery doing Lottery yes let's do the lottery oh yeah okay now that we got through articles 1 through 4 where they were all lated now we go through the lottery so we pick out by Lottery what uh article we're going to do article nine Mr moderator yes sir you got right into it man here we go minutes Uh I moveed that the town hereby accepts Section 3 to7 inclusive of chapter 44b of the general laws otherwise known as the Massachusetts Community preservation act by approving a sear charge on real property for the purposes permitted by set act including the acquisition acquisition creation and preservation of open space the acquisition preservation Rehabilitation and and restoration of historic resources the acquisition creation preservation Rehabilitation and restoration of land for recreational use the acquisition creation preservation and support of community housing and the rehabilitation and restoration of such open space in community housing that is acquired or created as provided under said act that the amount of such search charge on the real property shall be 1.5% of the annual real estate tax levy against Real Property commencing in fiscal year 2026 and that the town hereby accepts the following exemption from such search charge permitted under Section 3E of set act one property owned and occupied as a domicile by any person who qualifies for lwi income housing or low or moderate income senior housing in the town as defined in section two of set act number two 100,000 of the value of each taxable parcel of residential real property and number three 100,000 of the value of each taxable parcel of class three commercial property and class 4 industrial property as defined in section 2A of said chapter 59 would you like to speak to this sir I would uh right so I know that's a mouthful need a second oh I'm sorry yeah I need a second sorry oh I I second all right yes sir Motion in a second all right we had a motion a second okay so if you guys will bear with me here I'll try to make this as quick as possible because it's been a lengthy evening uh to say the least if you go if you guys don't mind directing your attention here to the the big board the video board I would like to break down a a program that I would like the Halifax residents to consider this is called the community preservation act and it truly is investing together in the future of Halifax so what is the CPA or the community preservation act the community preservation act allows communities to establish a fund that is specifically dedicated to Historic preservation the preservation of open space Recreation and affordable housing where does this money come from and I'm judging on the tenor tonight I have my work cut out for me here funds are collected as a 1% to 3% an annual search charge for local property taxes so here is what this article is proposing 1.5% for example $84 per average Halifax residential assessment there are exemptions to the plan your exemption is for your first 100,000 of assessed property value and that applies to both residential and Commercial there's also an exemption for qualified ownership of Halifax lowincome housing and lwi income and moderate income senior housing also a taxpayer receiving a regular property tax abatement or exemption will also receive a pro-rated reduction in the sear charge so what does that all mean we're going to do some quick math so on the left there you guys can see the sample tax bill here in Halifax so the average assessed value of a single family home here in Halifax is $491,000 our tax rate per 1,000 is 14.40 so the average property tax bill of the average I know quote unquote average home here in Halifax microphone's in the way $ 7,073 thank you na now if we enact this CPA plan here's what happens this is the right hand column we would immediately take $100,000 off your assessed value of your property so instead of your property coming in at $491,000 it gets knocked down to 391,000 so the assessed the CPA tax basis for that number would be $ 5,633 instead of the original $773 this is just for the CPA part we would then take our 1.5% and multiply it by that reduced tax basis so we would take G and multiply it by F and that's how we get the average search charge of $84.50 so if we did enact this plan the property tax bill would go from $773 on the average home to $7,150 50 so I have there at the bottom are you willing to invest 23 cents a day for a better future here in Halifax hold on I know there's still more to come and again if anybody has questions please remember the slide we'll go back to them at the end I want to make sure everybody understands this so how much would this generate for our town well there are 2,800 tax bills here in Halifax if the average taxpayer is about 8450 $85 per tax bill we're looking at estimated money for these projects $238,000 that's just money that we as a town set aside for these programs that's not included in any sort of State contribution so where's the where's the the good in doing this well here's the communities here in town or sorry here's the communities here in the state that are part of the CPA that's the state of Massachusetts there both the orange and the green are communities that are part of the CPA it's 196 communities in the Commonwealth that's 54% of our towns are part of this program it includes Boston it includes entirely the cape in the islands it's down in the south coast of Fall River it's north in peid it's out west in Springfield even further west out in Stockbridge and in Central Mass and Worcester if you look a little closer into What towns around us are part of this program this right here to me is says volumes these are towns in our area that are part of the community preservation act so as you can see the green are the communities that are part of this plan we're the yellow so it's basically Us East Bridgewater Brockton and I think Avon are the only areas basically in Southeastern Massachusetts that are not part of the community reservation act so what states are getting from this plan so how this works is every real estate transaction done in the state a SE charge is assessed the state takes that money those sear charges on all real estate transactions and puts it towards the community preservation act to match the money we put in right so these are towns here that have set up their SE charges as you can see that's a long list our neighbors Kingston they've set theirs at one we have Pembroke one Plimpton one and a half we have Carver they are robust in this plan at 3% and you can see that number on the right that is matching tax dollars that the state has put to this program for fiscal 2024 so as you can see it's a sizable amount of money that is going back to these towns uh and then this is through the life of the program this program has been around for almost 20 years I think uh it might be 20 years I apologize I don't know the exact number more than 20 so in those 20 years you guys these numbers are not funds from the town these are numbers that the state has given to these communities as part of the community preservation act so as you can see you got Bridgewater with 3 and5 million car with 4 million I mean it truly adds up Kingston our neighbors have received over $3 million and that is State money that's not our money that's money that the state is giving us to do these projects okay so that's true that is our tax money but it's not coming from our town so over the last 5 years the average CPA contribution is over 26% all right next slide so how is CPA different so the adoption of CPA would mean a small property tax increase for Halifax Property Owners but there's a difference between CPA and standard taxes fund raised receive an additional annual state contribution that's why towns sign up for this program they set money aside and the town matches a certain percent the community decides how the funds will be spent so I know a lot of folks here in Halifax are concerned about the State telling us what to do once we get this money we as a town decide where we're going to spend this money there's no State fine print on this program it can also be used as matching funds that are required by many state and federal grants and also funds are dedicated to projects that are typically underfunded or unfunded CPA facilitates knowledge of and participation in proposed Community projects how can CPA be adopted well if we vote tonight to okay this initiative we are not voting to make it set in stone we are voting to decide to put it on the November ballot it would go to the ballot as a ballot question and the town would decide what it wants to do as far as CPA goes if it passes we would next have to form a CPA ballot question committee which would require Secretary of State approval if the article did not pass uh a citizen's petition petition could also be enacted and then they would have to follow the same steps through the CPA ballot question committee so the ballot would go to the vote on the presidential election this coming November 5th 2024 and then if it passes the town ofal fax would be on the hook to form a community preservation committee and that would be voted at the May 2025 town meeting and then the town would have to come up with a draft Community preservation plan all right so we have this money set aside and we have money coming to us from the state how do we disperse this money where how do we decide where we're putting it well we as the town of Halifax would form a CPA committee right and that committee would facilitate all the proposals for all the projects so essentially if anyone in town had an idea that they wanted to use this money for you present it to our CPA committee they would vet the projects and then they would bring them to town meeting so town meeting would be the ones that voted on what we wanted to do of the buckets that we have we would have to maintain at least 10% in historic preservation 10% in open space and Recreation and 10% in affordable housing and then after that the remaining 70% we can spend however we like it whatever the town of Halifax decides is important to us so once we have this pass if it passes who is on our community preservation committee it's usually a conservation Committee Member a historical commission member a Housing Authority member a park commissioner a planning board and up to four at large members the committee would have to be at least five members large and no more than nine members large does that make sense that was terrible English all right so how do we disperse them as I said our committee would take in and approve all the projects but all of these projects as I said would go to town meeting and we as a town would decide what we would like to approve the funding for so again you'll see there in the green Halifax residents ultimately control the funding for CPA all right let's get to the nitty-gritty here what projects have we done here in Halifax that we could have put this money to number one the first and foremost is Hop's playground um I was president of the friend of hops for six years it took us six years to raise money for that playground if we were a CPA Community we would have had that playground in a year to a year and a half so one of the benefits of being part of the CPA is it goes to projects like our amazing hops playground our walking trail repairs those of you that have walked on our Trail we spent 15,000 to redo that we could have used the state money and CPA money to do that and then also we put in a cool GaGa ball pit uh older folks ask your younger ones and uh that was $2,000 so again projects that we could have put this to Future projects that we can do our youth and athletic field Renovations $50,000 we could use our money towards that our tennis and basketball courts if anybody has been been down to our basketball courts or our tennis courts they're borderline unusable you good luck playing tennis on our tennis courts those are projects that are going to need to be done and again our Trail believe it or not is is already growing in that's going to need some some love too so that's a project that could use this money as well open space this is big here in Halifax I know we love our open space but right now we don't have a fun set aside to keep our open space so we could use this towards town beach renovation and ADA compliance that's about $20,000 to help fix up our beach we could use it for land acquisition I know folks like to keep our open space open if there's a property here in Halifax that we want to keep open and make sure it doesn't get developed we could use this fun fing to keep that property open and also we have the ability to exercise the town's right of first refusal so if any property did come available we would be able to to look at purchasing that said property historic preservation this is a big one we love our history in Halifax those of you that have been to holidays in Halifax we have some amazing buildings here in town we truly don't have any money set aside to keep those buildings from essentially falling down so projects that could have qualified we recently redid uh some blacksmith stuff there unfortunately the blacksmith shop as it stands now you can't enter it it's unsafe um so we would need to do some major structural stuff there and also when we remove when we relocated the Brockton store we could have used this program to help offset costs for that major Endeavor too future projects that can qualify as I said the blacksmith shop restoration we also have the old schoolhouse that we need to take care of and the histor toric Cemetery preservation we have some really cool old cemeteries here in town we can use some of our money there to make sure that we don't lose our history with our cemeteries uh the other bucket that I'm talking about is housing so we could use it in housing to keep affordable units and prevent losing to market rate upon resale we can rehabilitate existing vacant housing we can convert vacant space into senior housing we can develop new units with good design and positive environmental stewardship but again this is all our decision we spend the money how we want to spend it so if housing is something we want to focus on we can if not we can look at other avenues these are things on our 5-year Capital plan that would be eligible for CPA funding so we're looking at possibly a a redo of our town hall exterior that's estimated at $750,000 the recreational courts as I said is anywhere from $350 to $500,000 we don't have we need to update our open space and recreational plan and the restoration of the blacksmith shop as I said there as well so I know that was kind of a a long- winded presentation there um but what I'm looking for us for his vote here as a town is to at least kick the tires on this um I think it's a fantastic it's a fantastic program to help keep Halifax Halifax I know that has been a battlecry here in town for a long time um and I think Community preservation is essentially supposed to do what it does which is is preserve Halifax if we want to keep our Open Spaces open if we want to keep our Fields looking great and in good shape if we want to preserve the history in this town if we want to do any sort of affordable stuff when it comes to housing it gives us more it gives us more bang for the buck these are more projects that we're going to have to do anyway so I would hope that we would take some money from the state to help us offset some of that cost and again I know you know presenting you guys given what we were talking about tonight um an $84 search charge on the average taxpayer I know that's no one's a huge fan of that but I would argue this are these are things that we need to do anyway these are things that are coming down the pike these are things that we've kicked the can down the road for a long time and other communities have jumped in and it's unfortunate that it's taken us 20 years to jump into this program but I would I would argue that we should at least put it on the ballot to let the towns folks of Halifax decide whether we want to be a CPA Community a program that I think uh is a long time coming for Halifax oh sorry one more one more slide sorry sorry sorry I know I know sorry about that I forgot we had one more sorry so how can we help pass this on if you want to pass my bad guys so um from tonight through October I urge everybody here to talk to your friends that live in other towns that have CPA ask them what they're doing uh Plimpton right now is looking at putting in lights in their ball field using CPA funding there's a lot of really really cool projects that we can do with this to to kind of represent our town well and you can also help publicize this in advance of the uh election on November 5th and then beyond November 2025 if this should pass consider volunteering for Halifax's future CPA committee uh and evaluate the uh the projects that are being proposed I apologize and this there is a website for more information please I urge you to check it out Jeff buer Brandy sir yes um the community pres preservation Act is just another tax height that bypasses the two3 vote requirement in the prop two and a half override you got to speak into can hear you the two and a half override process to spend money from a CPA account you don't have to get a two-thirds vote all you have to have is a simple majority which I don't think uh we want to do um also looking on the internet there's a number of studies that show this state matching grant program that you talk about actually when it's uh analyzed it shows that P poorer communities which I would suggest Halifax is one are actually funding wealthier communities with the money that the state gives out one thing you didn't mention is that in 2012 the legislature amended ended the CPA law to allow rental assistance to support individuals who are eligible for community housing or to an entity that provides such housing for the purpose of making housing affordable given what's already going on with the MBTA mandating affordable housing and the governor suggesting that people ought to be placing illegal aliens in their vacant bedrooms who's to say that if Halifax has not met its required affordable housing stock that the state won't require the town to use the CPAs for this rental assistance just think about it surek you um Mr moderator if I could address some of those issues um again we decide how we spend this money so him bringing up uh or the the thought of uh affordable housing if the town of a decides they don't want to spend CPA money on the affordable housing project we don't spend the money on it into a point about the MBTA um as far as multi that's multi notable oh multif family sorry I misspoke I said I said affordable housing it's multif family so I apologize but again housing housing comes to us if if we decide with CPA we don't want to spend our money on housing and we want to spend it on Open Space we want to spend it on Recreation as long as we we keep 10% of the money in that bucket it's our decision so the state is not forcing us to invest in any one of these four buckets they're letting us decide and then to the NBTA Point um I would argue that this program would help because again we would be raising money if we wanted to keep space open in any particular region of this of our town this would help us secure open space uh that would be town-owned so I think that that in itself is a major part of why we should consider this program thank yes yeah I I just want to say that back your name and your address please Deb wi 6 syamore I just want to say back in the early 2000s when all the other towns were jumping on board with this Halifax voted no hindsight is a great thing because if you talk to any one of those towns and ask them what they've done in the last 15 20 years with that money you'd be amazed and we haven't had a dime we actually could have built that senior center with CPA funds and have it come in under the levy limit we should have done it then and I hope we do it now okay thank you Candace right behind you up top thank you my name is Bob Cole I live at 390 twin Lakes the matching funds from the state if you read the law the matching funds first round distributions for those are for towns that have a 3% sir tax I'm sorry sir I can't can you I'm sorry I can't hear you you got to speak closer to the mic nice and loud I apologize so the state distributions that you talked about the first round distributions that the state passes out is for towns that charge 3% not 1 and a half% so you're not guaranteed those funds you're guarant you may be guaranteed in the second or third round but you're not guaranteed in the first round that's in that's in the law sure so you still have to put money in each one of those accounts and you can only spend it for those accounts so if you put money into affordable housing and you don't do affordable housing you can't move that money somewhere else to use it on on a more worthwhile project it stays there but the I see your point but there's more than just aord housing you can do with that housing bucket there are many other programs we could look into it doesn't necessarily just have to be for affordable housing program there are other um helping veterans with housing there are other housing programs that we could use that 10% for and again it's just 10% that we have to keep in the bucket we can use that other funding for whatever we as a town decide to do but you're going to have to put that 10% in that bucket every year correct five years correct so when you figure figure out the money that you're using you're going to be putting money into possibly putting money into an account that you can't use I would I would argue that there will be there will be some sort of housing program that that would be beneficial to the residents of Halifax whether it's uh you know affordable whether it's veteran help whether there's some part of it that would that would make sense for us as a community thank you uh SAR no 55 Lincoln Street um I own a business in Marshfield which has been long um a participant of can you speak up please nice and loud I have a business in Marshfield they participated in CPA for a long time so I've seen the benefits of it um and one of the things they used theirs for was they bought a their for their bucket their um affordable housing bucket was they bought a building and turned it into veterans housing um which is one of the options you could do but the amount of things they've done with the CPA funds is amazing they've bought land and turned it into Parks they've built a playground they've done historical Renovations like all of the like you said all the things that we could have done with it if we'd adopted this earlier is it's really astounding so I I do think that we should at least put it on the ballot and let people vote for it we're just a small sample of the town at least let the whole town vote for it instead of just a few of us that are here but I do think that it is beneficial for the town especially to get those matching funds from the state I mean we're going to have to pay for most of the stuff regardless so we might as well let the state money to help us out okay thank you yes Adrian McDougle 32 Hillside have um Can those affordable housing funds be applied to our already existing um Halifax housing authority projects yes to improve that yes yep it could go towards our housing down on 58 there as well so again there are plans that that we could use to benefit us I have no doubt in my mind and and as the the person said before it's it's unfortunate that it's taken us this long to jump in because I do feel like Halifax would look a lot different today if we were a CPA Community than than it does now because as I said we've kicked the can on a lot of this stuff everyone here is trying to preserve Halifax and that's what this program does um and again it's a no one likes to come up here and talk search charges you know but I have to do what I think is right for Halifax and the vision for Halifax with this program I think makes sense and again I would argue we're not voting to to do this tonight we're voting to put it on the ballot and let the town decide so there's that aspect too fet please your name and address please P Parson 65 Highland Circle uh um I I don't think there's a parent in town who doesn't go to another sporting event in another town and is uh taken aback by how well their facilities are compared to ours uh and regardless how you feel about the search charge and implementing this I I think it's only the right thing to do uh for for not 200 or 300 people at 10:00 at night in the elementary school gym uh to make this decision but to put it on the ballot in the highest uh percentage of the town that votes in any election uh to be able to make this decision for everybody instead of the people in this room thank you sir I'm going to ask for the uh finance committee recommendation finance committee recommends and it was proposed by the board of Select when yep you have a couple there yes [Music] candas oh she's right behind candy ni Mr moderator I um I have been sitting here and it's I haven't heard what everyone said so I apologize if I or repeat what's been said when I heard this was being considered for the ballot I actually did some looking into it because I never could understand why we're always so late to the party um 20 years ago this was introduced and at that time the state reimbursed 100% what you gave what what towns gave and just just looking the information Kingston was was one of the communities that voted they started out at 3% and they have since reduced it to 1% and they have brought in with their Community contributions and the state matches since 2006 they have brought in $9.6 million projects that they've done using these funds um um Hansen H we heard that we're compared with Hansen Hansen um has been enrolled since 2008 and they've brought in $3.8 million for Community preservation funds and they've done amazing projects the Nathaniel Mill I I mean the projects that these towns are doing and I know this has been said are unbelievable and their their baseball fields they just last week at their town meeting appropriated $50,000 from preservation funds to um upgrade and renovate uh some of their fields I believe their baseball fields at one of the schools not even their M baseball place but but baseball fields Plimpton Plimpton has belonged since 2009 they've brought in 1.6 million um they're voting at their town meeting this year I believe I don't I don't know the amount but they're vote one of the things they're voting for preservation funds is lights for some of their athletic fields um the projects that have been done are are really what made me feel that this is a no-brainer and and I apologize I just believe that we have an obligation to protect what we have here and uh we have a blacksmith shop we can't go in because it's not structurally sound and yet we flock to Halifax um Halifax uh holidays in Halifax where we all enjoy our our historical properties but we're doing nothing to maintain them um and so do we go and watch them fall down I don't I don't get why we haven't done this sooner um restoration several towns have restored and preserved their Town historical books and Records we have a library or or a museum that used to be a library filled with artifacts and historical papers we we have an obligation to reserve that for future to preserve that for future Generations we could do that with these funds other towns have put in new Fields New playgrounds if we can't use it for maintenance but if we want to replace a piece of equipment that is or add to our current playground or make it handicap more handicapped accessible we can use funds for that um Abington put in three pickle ball courts behind their senior center uh walking paths the I was at a selectman's meeting when this article was discussed and there were two Park Commissioners there who were at the same meeting talking about hoping they could put paths in walking trails in off 106 West of the um west of the church this could be done with this money um there there's so much more that that we can do that we're not doing and I see this as a savings account for things that we do not budget for but which matter or should matter to our community the state match varies it's no longer 100% but that's because so many towns have signed on I think it's time for us to to do the same thing it's also the other thing that that I will just add and then I promise to end is it's one of the most controlled uh pieces of legislation in favor of our town that I have ever seen and I've been involved in town in this town for I've lived in this town for over 40 years and I've been involved for much of that time here you we get total control we decide how much we put aside um it goes on the ballot which is is look around the room the people that have left this isn't representative of our town we need to give everyone an opportunity to participate in this and all of the expenditures are controlled by us so I hope people will support this we are late party and a lot we need to do and we could do it with this program all right thank you all right uh yes ma'am last one hi Jackie F from 58 McCullen so this money can't be put into the school at can't hear you you have to speak so sorry um so none of this money can be put into the school at all like no it's all historic no no school no school no school projects no Town Town Projects okay because if I'm going to pay a higher tax rate I would rather see the lead that's in the school be resolved so that's all I have to say I didn't I didn't hear you what was that last part I didn't hear it yes sir okay really list the last one sir right here in the middle see the lead come out of the school too late I already called on you correct it's just to go on the ballot all right seeing uh L integration let's there's a motion in a second article number nine all those in favor please raise your green cards all those opposed please raise your red article 9 passes article 8 article 8 do I have a motion Mr moderator yes I move that the town vote to approve article 8 is printed in the warrant and accept the recommendations of the finance committee and capital planning committee for the fiscal year 2025 Capital Improvement plan second okay have a motion a second I have the recommendation from the board of Selectmen second oh yes you want to hear from us recommendation oh uh the board of selectman does recommend this this um comes from the Capital planning committee um and the capital planning committee had several uh had numerous requests and this is these are the ones that we've um that were approved by the capital planning committee and should be and the board of selectman does recommend all of them yes okay what I'm going to do is uh I'm going to go by each uh Department that's uh listed on article 8 okay broken down into fire department police Highway water we'll start with the uh Fire Department the first uh item there is turnout gear for 74400 and the road remediation mold remediation for 100,000 do you want separate Motions like we did on the other or yes yes so I would move the uh 74,400 for turnout gear and $100,000 for mold remediation second I have a motion in a second for the fire department to any discussion all those in favor of the fire department on article 8 as presented please raise your green card all those against please raise your red card uh fire department passes we'll go right to the police department Mr moderator yes I would move um that we purchase two police vehicles for $120,000 from free cash as printed in article 8 second second Mr moderator yes sir if I may uh Steve Goodman 24th AV I see that we have $1 closer into the mic yes thank you I see that we have a 120,000 allocated to two vehicles I propose based on you know recent events and the fact that our police chief is technically the Harbor Master as well um could we allocate half of that for a boat and some training for the Harbor Master uh what happened on Sunday is inevitably going to happen again um there's no one that monitors the waterways in our town on a regular basis and they're being used more and more often and I don't see the need to replace two police vehicles in the same year I mean I I don't see that either of the vehicles are in disrepair and I also see that we have in the budget for vehicle maintenance um can't imagine we'd need that much vehicle maintenance money for two brand new vehicles so I'd propose an amendment instead of two Cruisers we uh get a boat for our Harbor Master I feel a little silly telling people I have a Harbor Master in my town that doesn't have a boat all right let me find out if we can do that all right stand by if I understand the amendment it was to take, 12, get a and all right so we want to take 50,000 out of the 200 and and buy a boat that's that's what he's asking may do 60 and 60 oh 60 and 60 okay um I mean I suppose he could do that I don't see why not Mr moderator i' would recommend that you uh acknowledge the police chief and he could comment on the uh impact and the necess if this is necessary for his Department as he does serve as the Harbor Master and police chief thank you last theight Chief or the chief rather to uh John sh Poli Chief I appreciate the uh uh you know the motion to for a police boat I don't think 60,000 um would be able to get us something adequate I've actually been doing some research actually before the you know light of these uh unfortunate events on what it would cost to uh have a boat that would be able to patrol both lakes and the training we're actually holding a training this Friday with the environmental police where they're going to uh do some boat safety for all the officers because our Our intention is to um get together with a fire department utilize their boat to do some patrols on on the on the on the um the Lakes um it's something that we should the town should probably think about I believe uh in years past they did have a police boat um but it uh wasn't utilized or or went in dis disrepair um so I you know there's a lot of validity to to to what the gentleman said I think it's something that the town should think about in the future but I I think these $60,000 would not get us a something uh you know enough to to be able to to you know safely Patrol that that uh those Lakes M Mr moderator yes so um if for those of us that have been here long enough will remember that probably 30 years ago or so um we did initiate a boat Patrol on the lake it was in regards to similar instances that we had over the weekend um boats that were out of control and so on and so forth um that time we did have a a a patrol boat um but the the incidental costs that go with that include um Staffing um and so part of the issue to do that at this point here would require us to negotiate with the policeman Union uh as to how we're going to staff that boat uh and it's it's kind of a complicated matter way back then we were able to use what we called permanent intermittent part-time policemen we don't have those really now that would fit into this category so although I I 100% appreciate the uh thought and going back 30 years ago it was a really good idea uh it it over the course of time the boat uh went out of service the boat was replaced that one went out of service it just hasn't been reinstituted yet I do think we should look into it I don't think we should do it at the expense of uh our routine um replacement of police cruisers next year is a time we would have time to think about it and actually make a proposal so I I I I can't recommend that on on under these circumstances even though I do think it's a good idea in the long run yes sir sorry all is the running right behind you hi Don Don bars 33 ocean uh so I guess the thought would be why is a town going to pay for that boat anyways it's a State Pond uh or get the state to pay somewhat they've got to do something since they don't do a d thing for that water yes I would vote to amend um the article to read $60,000 for one police vehicle um with you know times being tough here we have as a town and I was the one that actually when I was on the finance committee that started the two vehicles per year because it was eating up our budget um of emergency funds on the finance committee but at this time we have money in in the budget and all of our cards we've been doing this every year for I don't know at least six or seven years now and we can afford to only pass one vehicle this year and save the money for other things that are needed um so I amend the article to 60,000 for one vehicle is there a second okay there's a motion on the floor to amend do I have a second there's a motion in a second to amend I got to right do I understand the motion now being that we would reduce this item to $660,000 for one police cruiser is that that the motion um I don't know if the police chief wants to speak to that I think uh he would be able to explain why we buy two Cruisers so the the cruiser rotation uh like uh the lady mentioned is is been put it right yep the cruiser rotation has been in effect for many many years it's worked out really well um So the plan for the for this year was to trade in a 2019 with uh 85,000 Mi and a 2021 with uh 70,000 Mi which is the the the two vehicles with with the highest amount of mileage these vehicles run 16 out of the out of the 16 hours you know normally we have two officers assigned to each Cruiser um my maintenance budget for all the vehicles in the fleet is $133,000 now I believe everybody everybody knows what uh the cost of maintenances on their own Vehicles is $133,000 doesn't go very far I'm level funded again this year I don't I mean obviously if if Tom eting decides to to go with one Cruiser would have to go with one Cruiser but then I would have to you know find ways to uh supplement my maintenance budget cuz I know that uh the other two vehicles are also uh 2021s one with 60,000 Mi the other with 55,000 Miles by 2025 would be in dire need of some of of repairs and maintenance Mr moderator uh did you get a recommendation from the finance committee on the motion to amend yes sir finance committee recommendation the finance committee does not recommend uh the revision to the uh article to uh reduce the police vehicles to one and uh the purchase of uh a boat for $60,000 all right the uh Board of selectman recommendation the what the board of selectman's recommendation to the article selectman do not recommend uh do not recommend the amendment the amendment right so that's the first thing we'll vote on okay so we have a uh Motion in a second to amend uh the Police Department police vehicles from 120 to 60 so all those in favor of the amendment uh please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card the amendment does not pass Mr moderator yes I would then move that uh we approve the $120,000 as reported in the warrant second we have a motion a sec on the police vehicle two police vehicles as presented in the warrant all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red passes Highway Department uh road maintenance $300,000 from free cash do I have a motion please I would move that we uh approve $300,000 from free cash as printed in the warrant second we have a motion in a second on the uh Highway Department road maintenance seeing no indication all those in favor of uh the article on that particular Highway Department please signify bring up raise your green card it's getting late all those opposed raise your red card passes on to the uh water department uh treatment plant uh upgrades in the mini excavator for a total of 525,000 Mr motion Mr moderator I would move that we um approve the 500 $500,000 treatment plant up upgrades from the water retained earnings and the mini excavator for $25,000 from water retained earnings second I have a motion and a second any discussion seeing all those in favor of the water department uh as printed in the warrant pleas raise your green cards all those opposed please raise your red cards passes unan Article Five Mr moderator what's that read the I move that time approve Article 5 is printed in the warrant uh second we have a Motion in a second Mr Nella would you like to speak to that yep close Jesus whoops get out this is a housekeeping article that sets the maximum amount that can be spent during the fiscal year for each account these amounts are unchanged from last year there is one additional reev revolving fund as Parks maintenance which is being established under massachus General Law chapter 44 section 53 D which the town has previously adopted I all right we'll do we will check uh for a quarum however there's already a motion on the floor so uh we have to finish the motion on the floor and then we'll uh check the quarum okay so there's a motion on the floor on Article 5 any discussions seeing no indication of any discussion all those in favor of Article 5 as presented on the warrant please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card passes Counting think tomorrow guess it's close 8 gu 85 85 people 100 we need 100 I know but I think I'm looking at what's that betting the timing now from now on we're betting oh be broke 100 yes we have a quorum article six let's go move on to article number six proposed by the finance Mr moderator I moved at the Town vote to raise an appropriate the sum of $75,000 to the reserve fund to cover extraordinary or unforeseen expenditures during the fiscal year 2025 in accordance with chapter 40 section 6 of the Massachusetts general laws and to transfer from water attained earnings the sum of $50,000 to the water department Reserve fund second okay have a motion and second do we have the recommendation from the board of selectman yes we recommend okay would like to speak to your motion sir yes I would Mr moderator this is an annual article that puts the funding aside in case of emergency and Andor unexpected events this funding can only be allocated by the finance committee throughout fiscal year 2025 okay I have a motion in a second on article six as presented in the warrant all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please your red passes unanimously Article 13 uh Mr moderator yes sir uh I move that the town vote to approve Article 13 as written in the warrant do I have a second second sorry Mr moderator I ask the town uh Treasurer uh collector to uh give an explanation hi treasur collector Linda McCarthy you got to go real close Lind right up to the mic Linda thanks treasur collector Linda McCarthy um basically this is a late fee that has been at $5 for as long as I can remember um everything is going up in cost paper ink postage so at this point we just it's feasible to to raise it to 15 okay thank you seeing no indication of any discussion all those in favor of Article 13 is printed in the warrant please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card passes article 10 article 10 is that me yes Mr moderator I moved that the town vote to transfer from undesignated fund balance a sum of $3500 to support South Coastal couny Legal Services Incorporated their continued free legal service and civil matters to Elders lowincome families and their children second I have a motion in a second uh can I get the recommendation from the finance committee Mr moderator the finance committee recommends okay thank you would you like to absolutely so this is what I like to call the one of the Troy Garen articles because this was uh one that was near and dear to our former selectman's heart it helps bring free legal services to lowincome families in the area and uh I think it's a great article and on honored to speak to it uh just in the last quarter alone here in 2024 uh they provided Services uh for 10 cases here in Halifax so uh legal services for uh folks that can really use it okay I have a motion in a second all those in favor of article 10 please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red passes unanimously article 14 article 14 do I have a motion we looking is there a representative from the Silver Lake school committee have to go close thank you it's just my height though um Paula hatch uh chair of Silver Lake uh Oak Place I move that the town vote to transfer from undesignated funds the balance uh the sum of $39,100 to support a part-time school resource officer for Silver Lake Middle School second I have a motion in a second uh finance committee recommendation the finance committee does not recommend and I'd like to give an explanation Mr moderator I'd like to give an explanation as to why sure uh so uh when this position was first uh put forth uh in town meeting uh I think in fiscal year 23 I believe uh it was their understanding of uh this committee that the um the resource officer was going to um you know be a new hire as a part-time employee what we've uh subsequently found out that this position is being filled um through detail pay uh from a Kingston officer at the rate of $85 an hour which the finance committee does not support thank you uh Board of selectman's recommendation um Board of selectman hasn't voted on this but we have not recommended it would you like to speak to it yeah I I question the date that you're using we've had a resource officer uh in the Middle School a part-time one that we fund 50% of and Plimpton funds the other 50% of for uh several years now Kingston um 100 100% funds our resource officer in the high school yeah so uh pretty starting was fiscal year 23 I was on this committee when it was first voted in as well uh were a few others here as well I know that there was a a year uh prior to when we voted that uh climton was funding the position as well the subsequent year uh the town residents uh felt it was their duty to to also fund the remaining share and so we uh we approved the position again with the understanding that this was going to be filled um as a part-time officer that would uh you know fill this role again what we found out subsequent though is that it's it's being uh charged as detail pay uh again at the rate of $85 an hour which the committee fails is uh excessive uh for the position and so uh on that basis we we do not recommend I like to ask the superintendent to comment on this there's some legal reasons why that has to be and we've been we've been through this before so um I'm going to step aside and see if the superintendent will comment if you could uh just identify yourself please sure Jill PR Silver Lake Regional School District speak CL 31 and um um the the way that it was described to me is that they need a full-time res uh they need a full-time officer and that officer Works year round for the Kingston Police Department and then works part-time during that year for the Middle School um we had discuss the benefit this current configuration has in the sense that Kingston pays for the full-time school resource officer at the high school and I believe uh the benefit was that by doing it in this way climton and Halifax wouldit split the cost of the um resource officer at the middle school Kingston had has jurisdiction over uh the Silver Lake and high school and middle school campuses and um we basically don't question how their officers are paid but we do in fact uh welcome the support of a school resource officer in our Middle School okay thank you see no other indication forther discussion uh there's a motion in a second article 14 all those in favor please raise your green card you know what maybe all those opposed please raise your red card article fails article 11 Mr moderator I I have no idea what you're doing other than standing you have to pick up a mic like everybody yep I'm challenging your decision I think it passed okay so we have by voting that down Brendan Arrowhead path by voting that down did we just take a resource officer out of a school what we're going to do is because the uh vote was challenged we'll do a uh a standing count and uh and and revote does everybody know what they article thing is the question before we revote does everybody know what we just voted on we just took an officer out of our school that protects our children is that what we that okay let's ree does does the town uh clerk have count as we'll do the standing vote volunteers for counters please come on down 1 oh sorry 14 14 Kingston do no they officer they don't pay anything huh it's in kind Services they don't they don't pay anything but it's only hours a week okay uh Article 13 we're going to do a a standing count uh the vote I don't know if you caught that but the uh vote was challenged so we're going to verify what the vote was for Article 13 so all those in favor of article I it 14 14 guys messed me up article 14 it let me I'll re I'll re-explain it the article is uh to see if the town will vote to transfer from free cash the the sum of $39,100 to support a part-time school resource officer or take any action thereof okay so all those in favor of article 14 please stand counters you got us right please guys don't they don't have to pay it's Kingston EX okay thank you can all sit down please all those opposed to article 14 as it appears in the warrant please stand I really don't what to make and the cheese stands the cheese stands alone I'll Stand Alone watch this right here okay the uh second vote the uh results were uh 52 in favor 32 against uh article 14 passes [Applause] that doesn't up to 100 somebody 11 article 11 Mr moderator I move that the town vote to transfer from undesignated fund balance a sum of $3,500 to support Southshore resource and Advocacy Center for domestic violence intervention and Prevention Services for its residents second this is this is another uh Troy Garen article uh it's a nonprofit that helps survivors of domestic abuse and uh like the other one I I mentioned I'm proud to support this article okay thank you I have a motion to Second the finance committee recommendation finance committee recommends okay any discussion yes oh you're Greening already all right all those in favor of article 11 please raise your green cards all those opposed please raise your red passes unanimous Article 15 15 15 that's you Mr moderator yes yes I move to the town Passover Article 15 second sorry um and the explanation is that um this article was placed on on the warrant as we anticipated there being additional funding needed for this project at the high school um the updated project cost has not yet been identified and we will need to put this on for the next town meeting okay thank you sir do I have a motion and a second to pass over to P so I have a motion a second to pass over on Article 15 all those in favor to pass over please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red unanimous article 7 do this one that's the pilot oh oh which one is it oh article s okay Mr moderator Mr Bruno I move that the town Passover article 7 second second sorry Motion in a second You' like to explain that sir yes Mr moderator again uh this article like the last one was placed on the warrant as a placeholder uh the town has been working to negotiate a payment in Le of taxes agreement for the uh property uh but has been unable to reach such an agreement with no agreement in place there's nothing here to be voted on um if we are able to negotiate an agreement um in the future it will be presented at a future town meeting okay I have a motion in a second to pass over article 7 all those in favor please to pass over to please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red passes article 12 there you go n moderator Mr moderator yes sir I move to the town vote to transfer from undesignated fund balance the sum of $150 for the use of the trustees for the county Cooperative Extension Service and authorize the selectman to appoint a town director within 15 days is provided in revised chapter 128 section 41 of the mass general laws second a motion and a second the recommendation from the finance committee finance committee recommends Mr nezel would you like to speak to this yes this article allows the town to participate in the 4 Youth and Family development program okay all those in favor of article 12 as presented in the warrant raise your green cards in favor all those opposed raise your red cards passes unanimous article 17 no can't do that that's the last one article 16 Article 15 article 16 Mr moderator yes sir I move that the town vote to approve article 16 as printed in the warrant do I have a second I have a motion in a second would you like to speak to that Mr DOI yes Mr moderator this article will provide an additional 75,000 in the town's unemployment account to cover any unemployment costs okay B of selectman's recommendation we're into it sorry it's getting late uh and finance committee recommendation yes finance committee recommends okay article 16 all those in favor of article 16 raise your green card all those opposed raise your red card 16 passes unanimously Mr moderator yes that concludes all of the Articles except for article 17 so I would move to adjourn to a Time certain being Saturday May 18th 2024 at 10:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Halifax Elementary School to take up article uh 17 and thereafter to dissolve the town meeting second I have a motion in a second to uh adjourn to Saturday May 18th 2024 10: a.m. to 6:00 p.m. all those in favor please raise your green card all those opposed please raise your red card good night and thank you so thank you everybody [Music] --------- [Music] [Music] okay all right we have a full Quorum so I think we can go ahead and get started here I'll call the Halifax finance committee meeting to order today is uh Monday May 13th and it is 6:01 p.m. uh this meeting is being recorded by area 58 uh I'll just say the name since we don't have uh name tags I guess and attendance from the Halifax finance committee is EJ Bryant uh Jim Walters Frank Johnston Bill Smith Cheryl Zera Burke myself Todd dargy and Michael Bennett uh so the first order of business was the acceptance of the fincom uh meeting minutes for uh May 6th which is still uh being worked on so those will be disseminated shortly and uh we can look to approve those in our next meeting which uh we can kind of close with that discussion as to one we think our next meeting should be um moving on from that so then the the line item transfers is really the uh the majority of of uh today's session so uh there are what seven I guess in total that we want to um that have been presented in front of us today so uh we can kind of just go through one by one the first one um on the list was the town hall electricity for $5,000 uh says here that the town hall account is low because of the increase in the supply rate for electricity went up by 50% the conservation wage account has excess because our conservation agent left and we have been unable to fill the position um so it looks like there's about a little over $700 in the account and we're looking to move 5,000 out of conservation wages uh which currently holds over 21,000 any questions com concerns open discussion on first item no I'm good okay we're going to take each one on a vote I think we'll just yeah we'll go through each one and then if everybody's comfortable just vote one big vote at the end I guess if that's okay with everyone okay can you see okay Sher sorry uh so the next one up is uh the Town Administrator salary um the request is to move $738 to uh they count currently holds 23k uh and the request is to Move It from the building inspector salary position which is uh just under 36 why, uh the the explanation here says the town administrative salary needs additional money due to his new contract negotiated with the selectman the building inspector's salary account as extra money because we budgeted for a full year salary for the building inspector but did not have a full-time building inspector until December 1st of 2023 so largely uh went vacated for the entire um well the first half I guess of uh of the year um so I guess yeah so to Jim's point I guess do you have some color on this one I guess is there was a new contract but does the contract start at the beginning of the fiscal year no no no there was a new contract negotiated recently but it doesn't I'm still confused yeah so confused I think my my understanding of it was that the that the new contract that was written up was to begin in fiscal year 25 not fy4 so what was the effective date do you know c um not off the top of my head there wasn't an answer on that Halifax um someone had asked about it but um the FY 24 wage amount salary amount was increased this is to meet that increase of the FI 24 am so was there a retro amount was that was that increase that was given in FY 24 was that given retroactive for the entire fiscal year I believe and and who okay so so the the Selectmen are the only ones that negotiated this contract yes they're the only ones who who have that Authority a in a privy to the information yeah something that's outside of us which gets a little difficult from our review perspective yeah this is only so much uh they did I think he put in a link to his to the contract yeah I think I just think the lot of transparency at the at the Town level though and how this played out is is a little Troublesome for me because my my understanding like I said was it was an fy2 increase and if they would if they were to begin it in fy2 24 when that was negotiated I could see that as being something that would be a discussion but to provide it to him retroactive for the entire fiscal year it seems excessive yeah um and I I'm sorry I did not look the the no that's fair yeah yeah I just had the new amount to supply um the new amount no and it's not your obligation either to so we're sorry to put you on the spot I guess here but just trying to get whatever information is available I guess I mean it's a great question EJ too I think the problem is too is that uh there's nothing we can do as of now right like everything's kind of already transpired but going forward I think it's definitely a good discuss point to to raise up um for more transparency um I mean this is this has been a this has been a norm through throughout this entire process that we've kept commenting on is is the lack of transparency between departments and groups that are that are managing this on a year-to-year basis and I think this is a it's a significant increase for it to be incurred in the fiscal year that we're already in that's that's my only point and I wish that and then we got to carry that informed other than having to look the contract out on the internet we negotiated a new contract because we were going to lose them right so you're telling me he came here then went looking for another job within the first year of him being here that's that's what we're saying and we had to give him this money we threw money at the problem yeah well one way or another we were going to end up spending the money because if we didn't pay him yeah for search and we tried to do another search and hire someone else we would be paying them yeah I thought I thought it was um effective in March is what I thought it may have been not not to January and and again I can't remember exactly what because all of it took place around March late February early March well and I'm wondering if they're even going retroactive back to July 1st yeah and looking at this I don't think that's enough money to do that $300 so unfortunately like we're not invol we're not privy to the negotiations we're not decision maker in that or anything so um all we can do I think is press them going forward I mean one of the things we could do if if folks want is uh you know defer the approval of this for further discussion I mean that's the only uh leverage that we sort of have I think here um even that's you know again not going to change the the situation overall it's not going to change the facts yeah and I I think you know I think that makes sense but it's got to go through because the money's needed right but I don't think that I I yeah and I don't and but I don't think that a conversation between us and the selectman should go unad in this situation well and that's what I was like yeah so this is our opportunity if we want to push back to them say we want more details before we're comfortable what we want to understand what we're what the bigger picture is here what the total spend is going to be uh that kind of stuff before we just blindly agree to start moving money over so that's I mean I think that's a fair ask so we can pursue that angle but I don't I just know beyond that what we can really do unfortunately like I get that but it defeats the purpose of the finance committee being an advis in an advisory capacity to the town to be fiduciaries to the people who live here and then just have someone drop a new contract on you and say hey man you just need to approve this we've already get told him it was okay and signed off so thanks cuz then what's the purpose of us even meeting no agree and it just puts us in a hard spot from in the Public's eyes because our responsibility is to right watch address these things and speak about them on their behalf yeah so that's why I think so I think this is opportunity we take a hard stance here and say we push back and say you know we're not going to approve this until we can have further discussion and uh we want to be party to this uh going forward and not left in the dark I I think is a is a fair yeah reading the numbers here we have some time to do that yeah yeah I think so you know I mean we'll do it you know with urgency so we we'll try to with them for our next meeting that's the whole thing and and Truth the select were looking up for the best interest of the town they did not do this in private they did it they approved the contract in a public they negotiate in private that's that's um through an executive session but the contract was approved at a selectman's meeting right yeah and I know a lot of people were aware that this was going on yeah but the details weren't made available but we can like I said right now it's you know it's the horses out what we can do is there's enough money here in the account that it's not like it has to happen today I mean so here's the thing the request is at the end of the day too small amount right it's $7,000 that's being requested so I mean we could do one or two things we could I think either way the discussion needs to happen with them so we could either try to take a hard stance and and hold this hostage I guess for that discussion and then approve the 7K or we could approve the 7K and then have that discussion subsequent I think those are really our two options yeah I I mean I think at the end of the day it's got to get approved I don't see any reason why we can't just just do it now but delay the meeting I I know and that's and that's the point like it's the agreement of talking to us about it that is more important it sounds like to most of us here right so if we just sign the paper now and say yeah the money's fine what's what's got them to kind of say yeah we'll meet with them then draft an email to the I mean it's a fair point but I do think the select have been very yeah I don't think they would deny meeting on this so I don't think we have that to worry about but it is a fair comment yeah I don't believe that that would yeah I'm I'm on board with whatever the team here wants to do I'm just I'm just throwing M so what what if folks think we need them to understand that next time we can have that conversation with them right and also understand how this transpired and worked right is it retroactive like EJ saying or is this Pi up in when this all took place or what is this exactly okay so I'll reach out and I'll arrange that um hopefully for our next meeting we go through that um so any other discussion on that one I know that was kind of aot topic one which I definitely wasn't expecting but yeah no I'm good either way how we want to do this one so yeah okay all right so let's move on to the next in the interest of time too CU we do have the town meeting coming up um hold that up next one is uh I got another the guy that said I just sit in the background sit in the background all right so treasur Banking and payroll requests uh $2,500 so the request is coming from uh the conservation wages account which uh sits just over 16,000 and the treasur banking account only has $480 left in there uh the request uh States the treasures Banking and payroll account is low due to a rate increase and increase uh increases in services in reporting required by the state the conservation wage account has excess because our conservation agent left and we have been unable to fill the position so again coming from the conservation wage uh balance um any open discussion on that at all I have just a question uh Sandy what exactly does the treasures banking payroll account do okay that pays for we use a payroll service y CDs it pays for their services okay all right so it's the pay a contract contractor okay any other open discussion on that one sense okay all right so Treasures expense in the amount of $500 is the next request uh so again coming from conservation wages which is now down to 158 uh and there's $152 uh currently left in the treasures expense account the request States the treasures expenses the need of a transfer due to a $500 increase in fees to our financial uh advisor is that b no that's Hilltop security Hilltop okay yeah uh the conservation wage account has acccess because a conservation agent uh been able to fill uh same comment as as the previous ones uh any open discussion on that one I have a question yeah go ahead so uh 5323 is an account in the budget that's marked FY 23 so I it's a two-part question first of all shouldn't we be using 1-46 5300 because that's the current fiscal year um treasure expense account and um the uh you're just looking at my notes looking at my notes my budget status up there no no that's where I got the numbers from so and shouldn't the FY 23 account which has $21 in 23 should be the 24 number we use the same numbers it's not it's not all right I will make the correction on the on the account number it is the treasure is expensive no I agree there's a number Treasures expense account from fiscal year 23 no it isn't that's what it says 5323 5323 which is the account number that you're using is from FY 23 so let me go find the budget if you want me to find the budget you could because the only time that it would be an FY 23 amount is if I put Dash be late okay well that's something we can follow I guess with the afternoon we're comfortable so you'll verify and so vote would just be contingent on the validation number expense like there four or five numbers under treasure expense right yeah cuz I've seen it on Jim spreadsheet right yeah yeah there's four you need to make the payment anyway so I'm conf I'm confident that you'll pay it out of the right account so I'll pay it to the right account all right so let's move on in the interest well Jim you can keep searching for that if you like sure yes but I just want to move this along here so next up was the Silver Lake debt assessment $365 again coming from the conservation wages uh the silver so the comment here reads the Silver Lake deadline was not budgeted for the correct amount uh that was a me ER it was just we put in the wrong just I don't know whether they fit it to us wrong or I just copied it down wrong but that was def for clever clever but so it's $365 so nothing the material I guess um actually it says the amount in the account is 365 though is that right so it it's just need to be doubled it's 365 no it's probably minus 365 3 oh it's negative so that amount account should be a negative number s yeah that makes sense okay all right so just a true up that account to put it to zero any open uh discussion on that one so yeah that'll zero the account out yes right that's all good okay awesome uh so Group Insurance $50,000 so this one's a little bit larger coming from the snow and ice account which sits uh just under 87,000 uh the group health insurance line is low because of uh all the new employees as well as the existing employees who are now taking insurance so that's one of the things that's kind of difficult to project forde yeah we I mean one family plan is $1,000 sure and we've had a lot of new people come on this year and they're taking the insurance now yeah yeah and obviously snow and ice isn't going to be an upcoming we're I made sure I asked we have a tornado now don't say that you never know you never know you know I'm right on that all right any open discussion on that one seems reasonable yeah okay good good okay all right so Medicare is the last one $20,000 uh coming from veterans benefits which is 55735 in the account today uh the explanation is the Medicare line is low because of the new compensation rates the V the veterans benefits has an excess because we budgeted more in case we had more demand um so I don't do you have more background on the veterans benefits there I guess um the veterans we always give them a cushion because we don't know throughout the year how many new veterans are going to come on what you know what additional expenses there might be so there was a good cushion this year um that left enough in there to okay so we feel confident that 20,000 is a good number we pay their benefits as of the first of the month so I know that we only have one more set of benefits to pay okay so I know how much that is sure so we're we're F we're in good shape there okay so where's that money coming from uh what do you mean the veterans benefits the 20,000 out of the V the veterans benefits account the 55k so this right here oh you have a different sheet yeah this is what was emailed to me yeah something must have been updated there this is the official contracts get signed sprad sheet get sent yeah it was it was in edited form it's oh all right you need that on 8 and 1/2 by 14 paper that's instead of8 by 11 okay so it was um thought that we might take it out of the additional payline because Medicare is a a part of when the when your pay goes up your Medicare goes up so um we had talked about taking it out of that but we also had money in the veterans so okay um I must sense we must have changed tweaked it yeah okay no it's fine we're going off for this the official copy so so you got it inside this on today were you in a closed door meeting when you got that that's why you tie on it's not the same number so this is the 5323 right which doesn't actually even which isn't even here right because so why isn't it here show up if nothing's been charged against it but it's if it has a balance it it doesn't have a balance because we go by treasure expense that's the only place I put in the budget all of these come come from this so we have an account line item that is just out there expense yeah unless C it's one of the expensive so then why is this FY 23 one still have $21 in it why is it still open all right so the FY 231 is encumbered money so when someone has a bill at the end of the year that they're waiting but it doesn't come in before July 15th we have to encumber the money when I encumber the money I put that suffix on it of 323 that can only be used for an FY 23 bill it cannot be used so that should be under encumbrance and not expenditures to date uh no yes no no because um we encumbered the money mhm and we spent the money see it came in carried forward and then it was spent so it's spent so it doesn't have a balance it was encumbered it was yeah okay yeah yeah I see now okay all right yep perfect it's not the E sheet to understand yeah no it's yeah Fuzzy Math it's not fuzzy ma fuzzy if I can't if I can't trace the money from inception all the way through expenditure but that is from inception you could you could go on not if it's on not if it's not on here but there's no money in we're going to miss you s good luck to the new person right all right so any other open discussion I'm I'm good all right so then would somebody like to make a motion to approve the town hall electricity uh maybe we do one by one I guess it might be just simpler to uh to do the well I'll just read them all I guess only five there's five you need to approve the other two we're qu you know we're waiting on info for so why don't you just do the five and the other two will just hold on but two will we hold yeah thought we're going to approve what's the second let's goote them one by one I guess and then we can we'll see where we're at so the first one was the town hall electricity uh for $5,000 would somebody like to make a motion for that thank you Michael all those in favor say I all those any of those opposed motion carries 70 second uh request was the Town Administrator salary in the amount of 7,382 uh would somebody like to make a motion to approve that thank you Michael thank you Cheryl all those in favor say I I all those opposed no uh motion carries four to three uh third one was the treasure Banking and payroll request in the amount of 2500 uh would somebody like to make a motion to approve that transfer so Mo thank you Michael second thank you Cheryl all those in favor say I I I post no motion carries 7 to Z next one up was the treasures expense in the amount of $500 anybody like to make a motion to approve to uh approve the transfer of that so thank you Michael second thank you EJ all those in favor say I I any opposed uh carry 7 to zero next up was the Silver Lake debt assessment request in the amount of 365 is there a motion to approve so thank you Michael second thank you Cheryl uh all those in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 7 to Z Group Insurance request in the amount of $50,000 would somebody like to make a motion to approve that so mov thank you Michael thank you Cheryl all those in favor say I I any opposed Carri 7 to zero as well uh and then the last one was the Medicare request in the amount of 20,000 uh would somebody like to make a motion to approve that so thank you Michael thank you Cheryl all those in favor say I oppos Carri 7 to zero as well all right outstanding so I'll sign this and then I'll just pass this along so folks can sign as well make it official um and then uh so just moving on on the agenda correspondents and as may arise I haven't seen anything else come across we did uh receive and I don't know where it ended up but um oh here it is here actually just the the print out of the and it's just very high level detail from the school so not a whole lot but at least something so when we head out if folks want to just maybe grab that piece of paper cut them in half it looks like the top and bottom are the same at least for the Civil Lake one I saw so she she was going into the app oh okay I got you okay makes sense uh so other than that I think that's really the only correspondence that's kind of transpiring I guess unless has anyone else received anything or seen anything else so I didn't I didn't vote for the the contract thing so if I'm signing this am I signing saying I approve everything you're signing that a pass for right I mean essentially yeah we're doing it I'm following your Le ask we need a comment section at the bottom write something all right so next up was public participation what is that line uh there was there isn't anybody from the public here so we can move past that one next meeting planning are we expecting any that you know of anyways any more line item transfers or anything for not know time okay um that's what I tried to do I went through the whole budget stus try to find anything that looks like it might be coming up um I hav heard from any department heads so okay and and the other transfer make the SEL so if you want to yeah I think we should so let's try to do that next week I guess so let's let's tentatively schedule next week the uh sorry today's the 13th the 20th of May at 6 p.m. our normal time um we'll we'll try to get this on that uh I'll send a confirmation back once we have a discussion with them see if somebody can attend I think that will be the the primary order of business that to yeah yeah all right so everybody go with that till May 20th at 600 p.m. via Zoom as normal yeah next Monday so um and then we'll see email them yeah if you don't mind see send it to all of them and Cody the four of them yeah see if we can get as many as possible all of them could attend that' be great um all right and then so I guess from there well any other open discussion before we no okay would somebody then like to make a motion to uh adjourn to the uh to the town meeting so moved second all those in favor say I I all right motion carries 7 to Z thanks [Music] [Music]