##VIDEO ID:NVJX1vLTenM## recording in progress all right good evening it is 7 pm. on August 8th 2024 I'm calling the lunenberg finance committee meeting to order in accordance with the requirements of the open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the lunenberg public access Channel and on Facebook live on the public access Facebook page and will be uploaded to the lunenberg access you YouTube channel after the meeting this meeting will be held in person at the location provided on this notice members of the public are welcome to attend this in-person meeting please note that while an option for remote attendance Andor participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public the meeting will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast unless otherwise required by law members of the public with particular interest in any specific item on this agenda should make plans for inperson versus virtual attendance accordingly the following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely to participate remotely from a computer please use the link below to join the meeting from a telephone dial the tollfree number 88475 4499 and enter webinar ID 821 9502 9392 this agenda lists all topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by open meeting law would you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty justice for all all right are there any announcements from the committee this evening excellent we have any public comment from the public good evening Anna Lockwood 91 Main Street speaking as myself since I'm no longer the chair of any commission um I'm going to read I'm going to quote a couple pieces of tax here it'll be brief with my accent which goes a little slower with the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union establish just Justice ensure do domestic tranquility provide for the common defense promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity to ordain and establish this constitution of United States of America the Preamble of the Constitution another short quote which I'm pretty sure I'm going to stay under three minutes um this is one is from the gisb draat which it says it it is WR for us here to here dedicated to the great tasking remaining before us that from this honor Dad we take increased Devotion to the cause for which they gave their last full measure of devotion that we are here highly resolved that these dad shall not have died in vain that this nation under God shall now have a new birth of Freedom that the go the government of the People by the people for the people shall now par perish from this Earth so the there's you know I think the the United States Constitution that gburg addresses very powerful documents and and I think you know in a smaller level what we do every day as volunteers of this of this town is represent those wishes we the people for the common good for the general welfare that you know a government of the people and that part is interesting because I actually think that that part is very important because it is a representation when you're there volunteering you're not there volunteering for yourself for your causes you're there volunteering on behalf of the people and I actually find that to be very powerful even more than the remainder so then your last meeting you guys uh this group voted to not take it was a 3- three vote to not support the request to fund 10 eight nine hours um for for the r director and there were many reasons why that request came at that point and I had logged in so I could tell historically when I was the chair uh to manager had was going to find a position an extra nine hours and the last minute she pulled she pulled that in order to to save money for the trash contract at that point I as a chair approached her and I said can we please look into doing this at town meeting but doing using the revolving funds and Heather said yes that's a possibility but we can do that after the after town meeting um we I everything has been published we just don't have the bandwidth to do it with the override and everything else she needed to present two budgets and so forth so the parks commission waiting for Tom meeting to pass and then started working with her so that was the reason that that came afterwards that request came after the town manager was going to fund that request before and she she when she said no I request if we could fund it from the revolving fund which is a self-funded position so that's the first thing the second thing was and and that these were the two issues that I that I heard this group talk about two weeks ago the second one was well this account is not supposed to be used this way and then we went on a long latiny about all the history behind it what interesting to me is that 6 months ago you approved that account to fund salaries and benefit for the town beach employees every year for the past six years that I saw because I asked for that for that information from uh Ezekiel every year for the past six years I can tell you that that account has been used to pay for salaries and to pay for benefits it's right there so all the excuses and and the explanation why that wasn't done I think when we get in a position and this is my urge for you and this is going to be my urge for the select board is instead of saying no if you have questions let's ask them and wait for that question to come and then take action because we you approved a a a budget for this year fy22 that is funding salaries period there's no you've been doing that that has been the common practice of lunenberg so so before we say no let's ask questions and give time to answer those questions my my then I'm going to go back to my to why I read these you know these two part these two text it's just we really need to be compelled to serve the people as volun years and I really believe that you know government should not be should buy new trucks for the for the school if the school can use a used truck from the from the PW I think they should and I'm going to be pressing on that government should function for the benefit of the people and if we are doing things that are not for the benefit of the people not improving their the general welfare we should not be doing it that's that's that and to say no to the people to something that will benefit the people really gets my my blood boiling as you see it 3 weeks later I think we're doing this so I just my ask for this group is to you know I I don't want to say leave your egos outside leave your thoughts outside but act on behalf of the people and and I'm not saying that this contradictions were done on purpose but before saying no to the people please ask further questions and that's all thank you thank you there any other public public comments from the public this evening none any public comment from the committee excellent that kind of meeting okay Finance director report uh the only report I have is to discuss uh the semetary commission funds so I will hold until that time perfect that brings us into new business where we have a discussion with the cemetery commission uh so a couple of months ago the finance committee talked about um plans for the summer and what we would like to try and accomplish and one of the objectives was to meet with the with the cemetery commission just to get a better understanding of how the financing Works through the cemetery commission um since it's all a little bit vague to us we know that we approve the sale of cemetery lots for $10,000 at annual town meeting but beyond that what does that mean um and just basically what are the practices of the cemetery commission and how does the funding Services work so I've invited the chair of the of the cemetery commission Miss Pasco thank you for joining us and ezekiel's here as well I want to say thank you thank you for having having us here uh Cemetery commission I'm the chair and uh we're honored to be here and and answer any questions that we can for you um I think the most important thing is to maybe let Ezekiel do this first and then we can see if there's any questions or anything you'd like to ask me does that sound fair that sounds great to me okay so I'm going to turn it over to Ezekiel let me pull up the presentation okay okay um so the purpose of this document is just to go over the fiscal rules and um provide clarification of the regulations established uh the cemetery commission adopts a schedule of feas for permits and other services privileges provide provided to owners the current fee schedule is available at the cemetaries commission's uh town website and um okay so tonight we'll go over um sale of lots which is um GL fund 8115 cap uh the capital article that's voted at town meeting fund 36 Cemetery Perpetual care trust fund the principal fund 801 the interest fund 8,000 and the cemetery gift fund uh um fund 1548 actually already went over the purpose so you don't want to read the Mass General [Music] law no I've already went over yeah my notes were so if you want to go to the next slide s of lots Perfect all right uh so sale of lots uh P Mass General Law chapter 114 section 25 the proceeds of the sale of lots uh or rights of burial in such cemeteries shall be paid into the town Treasury and be appropriated to reimburse the town cost for the land it's Care Improvement and embellishment or the enlargement of the cemetery to ensure continuous day-to-day operations and streamline process for the community the sale of lots shall be handled by the Cemetary superintendent the Cemetary superintendent shall adhere to the towns town of lunenberg turnover policy regarding protocol and any report um and Report any receipts to the cemetery commission along with other pertinent information as required so for refunds and expenses uh no refunds and expenses shall occur with majority vote the searan commission all refund requests provided to the town to the town accountant myself must also be accompanied by documentation of set commission approval any questions before I move on yeah can you explain that first paragraph sure please um the first paragraph is actually uh quote U for the Mass General law um stating um that any proceeds from the sale shall um also be it's well it's it's pretty much speaks for itself it's the say C LW and proceeds shall be paid into the town Treasury and be appropriated which is in fund 8115 uh to reimburse the town for the cost land its Care Improvement and embellishment of the enlargement of the cemetery how is that is that being done how is that being done so when the sale of lots funds um there's a sale it the turnover uh from the cemetery superintendent uh gets sent over to the treasurer and that goes into the fund any expenses any refunds or expenses regarding the cemetery needs to go through the cemetery commission for approval before it goes out so the the actual Revenue turnover is handled by the superintendent but the expenses are approved by the commission what's the re can you explain the reimbursement part um sometimes um let's say a family moves out of town they bought a a plot and they uh will need a reimbursement because they will no longer live in town so that's would be a request for reimbursement um that's just an example but it says the cost of land is care it's Improvement and embellishment or enlargement in the cemetery oh correct that's correct we is the town being rebed somehow for that work no the reimbursements are uh specifically for who whoever no longer needs plot the expenses for any care or embellishment come from this fund but they need to be approved by the commission it's not a reimbursement it's an actual direct expense so there there's two different things going on so if somebody selling the lot back to the town they getting a rebirth correct does that happen let me let me just um let me just come up there for one second because I was just given this tonight and it will show you exactly what we get on the Cemetary commission side to show exactly um when someone moves out of town and they want to have their lot they're not going to use it they get in touch with us to find out and then through that process it will be determined if they've only been there we'll say for 2 years and the Perpetual care is there for x amount of dollars we might give them back the Perpetual care it depends on how how long it's been there if it's been there for 36 years let's say and someone decides that they're moving out of town um we're not going to give them that Perpetual care because it's been taken care of all the years for those 36 years um so the most they'll get back is you know again what they put in for what they paid for their plot at that point in time and then it has to be voted on by the cemetery commission there should never be that again I guess there's never the word never but I can't see a situation why if you're moving out of town why we would say no you can't have your money back and you have to be buried here so Mr chair also uh I'm aware of at least one instance where a family actually exhumed a body moved it out of town which left their entire plot empty and asked for a refund so it's it's not done every day but there's some extremes occasionally and just for clarification the cemetery superintendent is the DPW director correct or no it's a separate superintendent it's it is there's there's a seary department that falls under DPW okay but the superintendent reports to the director of DPW see I learned something already I always thought it was just the dtpw director was automatically the cemetery superintendent got it okay any questions on this yeah if I could just sure add a little bit to it and and correct me if I get off on a tangent here uh to Jay's question a little bit further into you know the the refunds come out of that account to uh reimburse the public when they give up a plot and it's agreed to by the commission but the additional money that's in there is drawn by I believe it used to be vouer approved by the commission and then paid directly to a vendor uh for services so the money does move out of that account to pay expenses that the town incurs when somebody get get um returns a plot no that they're two separate things two separate things yeah there're two separate draws off the account one is a refund to the owner or family owner of a plot okay the other is say the DPW director or the cemetery superintendent comes forward with a voucher um to pay for tree removal is part of the maintenance of the cemetery if the cemetery commission approves that mhm then it's drawn out of that account to pay for it okay and other items including you know down the road here we're going to be looking at an expansion of North Cemetery and um we should be seeing some money coming out of that account to help offset that all right next slide Capital article all right uh capital capital article fund 3 2006 uh through a war article at Lun BG's annual town meeting a trans transfer from the sale Lots account is requested the funds are to be used for the Care Improvement embellishment of town cemeteries uh Beyond what's in the scope of the normal sale Lots um once voted and established the town accountant myself shall transfer the balances as specified by the warrant article and report back to the Cemetary commission that the transfer has been completed and the funds are available for use so with this one as the the planned expenses that it's it's meant to be drawn from it is similar to the last one is it actually going into the same account or are these separate I know you have this listed different funds they are separate accounts then correct right but you pull from both of them to cover improvements and embellishments and and and whatnot depending on again depending on what we're paying for as far is when I say we I mean the cemetery commission what the cemetery commission is charged to do um and is voted on of what we're going to do as far as for the embellishment for the cemetery if that's when they put the Niche Wall in um and when they put the building in there was you know they went to and they got the warrant article for that amount and that's how you know again that's how those things were paid for at that point in time okay does that make sense it does okay do we do we use this account then for kind of day-to-day maintenance as well then if it does include the care of the Lots or no because the day-to-day maintenance is being taken care of by the uh from the way the charter is written it's taken care of by the DPW okay so this is strictly for sort of Project based work yes got it okay okay and this is the $10,000 that we do correct and it is that's the is that the maximum that we are allowed to do is there is there when the years that um they did The Niche Wall um we used pretty much meaning the cemetery commission used a lot of that money was used for that nich wall because that was at least 50k or more I want to say I'm just remembering back I want to say it was around 50,000 or more so it pretty much took them down to almost uh the penny um in fact I think at that point it did go in the red is that correct and that's what we don't want to happen again I mean the cemetery commission does not want that to happen again Ezekiel and I have talked about this um myself having an MBA and then Ezekiel doing the finance piece of it I want to make sure that we keep this that again that we keep that good and soate and look at projects that really need to be done and and so on and so forth and that's what we've done done okay thanc thank you other questions about this one no I think I'm good at this point um we'll have a later conversation I don't know if it's in this meeting or if we have it planned for later and that is the investment strategies the uh sale of lots account I I'm sorry Perpetual care account which is probably next okay when we get to that that account has a substantial amount of money I'm preempting things a little bit but that has a substantial amount of money that cannot be touched so it's a it's a solid savings account that's not going anywhere and should be in my eyes aggressively worked on for growth find out about it first um we the cemetery Perpetual care trust fund so there are two factors to this fund first um I'll go over the purpose of the Perpetual care trust front P per master and our Law chapter 114 is for the overall care maintenance and development necess necessitated by natural growth and ordinary wear a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each grave or burial n Niche is designed for the Perpetual care trust is designated for the Perpetual care trust fund according to the fee schedule adopted by the Cemetary commission during the budget process the use of the perpetual trust fund is under the purview of the secetary commission only so there are two factors for this the first one is the principle which we have identified as fund 801 it is non-expendable the Perpetual care trust fund principle is set aside only for investment um Mr PR just mentioned um the second um part of this is the interest where you have identified as fund 8,000 which is the Expendable portion uh the interest earn thereof is used to provide Perpetual care only the interest earnings from the funds can be utilized to support cost Associated for the cemetery operation Insurance earnings May also fund Capital Improvements Associated for the cemetery anybody else what what portion of the uh of the the Lot Sale is put into the fetal care fund is that um I don't have the fee schedule in front of me it's actually on the cemetery commission's website so what you would see is is when is when the sale of lots you will have that half of it goes to the town and then half of it goes to the sale of lots as far as the Perpetual care again we'd have to see where that how that calculates and that goes into uh the Perpetual care funding but as again um Dave had stated regarding this funding um I think the cemetery commission has been watching this and and really would like to see more information as far as how much are we actually earning because 219,000 um is not a lot of money in there for x amount of years that it's been there I would especially with the banks today um I know that the market is up and down but you can find a bank that would be 5% this percentage here is about probably 2.2 of coming in and that just is not we'd like to grow that more and more and more because out of that then we can have the interest and then through the interest and then we can do more things for the cemetery as far as interest rates go that's one of the better ones in town right right I think our highest is 5.3 right and it's on like a $80 account right right but I think think you know again I think we I think we can all recognize that somehow you know is it to really go and really look at the numbers and find out where else we could do better okay so in order to so the Perpetual care trust fund the fund 801 even though it says non-expendable but if it is under the purview of the cemetery commission only are you ever able to pull money out of there no as far as my understanding from the M General law the answer is no um I think I asked that question when I first came on and and no the way they have this we can only spend the interest and that's it okay I know people look at this and say well why aren't you using your money I because we can't and we're very grateful like I said with the you know trying to get the sale of lots because there was a time like I said when I first came on and they had just done The Niche Wall and they had done the building is that we were very low we had hardly anything so again and we know there's some definitely some things out there that need to be done um and one of the biggest one I know to a lot of people it's very important it's important to us is the 1700s to 1800 grave sites they are they are crumbling we know that we need help and we need to help to get that started um I have the cemetery commission has put together two projects for the Opera funding I don't know if we'll achieve it or not but we did put it in there and one of those is for that 385 for just to do those gravestones and how to get started phase one and phase two of that um so we're hoping and um if we don't get through with that then we'll have to come back to the cemetery commission and decide you know x amount of dollars to see if we can start that process do we know if the town own those stones I have a reason for asking the question but I will not be able to go into it this evening say that again da you're asking if we do we know if these stones that you just discussed does the town has the town taking back ownership of those stones I don't know I expected you would not be able to answer that question because I know it's never been asked um I will come back in a couple of weeks with a little bit more information okay and um hopefully we can find out if there is even a mechanism in this town to do that um and then we'll dive into it deeper later okay wouldn't it be kind of moot because we already have to care for it we have um Perpetual care so whether there're ours or not we still have to care for it in in my readings that's not true that's why I'm asking the question not true that the town is required to maintain the stones maintain the stones so we talking per petual care you're talking about and this is the first time I've mentioned this since I read it so you know every everybody's in the dark about what I'm saying right at the moment but I will do my research and I will bring the references and so on now there is one one caveat to this that I that I spoke with um lemonster Monument we were talking at General and some of the stones that are there I'm very sad to say are broken to the point I don't know if we're going to be able to repair them so my next question to them was okay if we can't repair them we know that error is slate um I guess my understanding is the Slate prices have gone out of sight so you're looking at a stone one stone can be anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 um because my next question to them is you what was that going to cost us to you know maybe help with some of these Stones there's no way I mean that if you have X amount of stones at that kind of price so again it's something to talk about but it's my understanding that's how much it is for those slate and that they are slate in that era as far as reinvesting those funds is that something because it's under the purview of the cemetery commission only is that a task only for the cemetery commission to do or do does our Treasurer then have or accountant have the ability to reinvest those funds as well um without the approval of the cemetery commission we're not allowed to so if it comes to the point where we're asked to reinvest we we'd have to bring it to the commission and they would have to vote to approve okay again I think we'd all work together together to get the best of the best to get the best price to get the best whatever um I think it's I think that's a no-brainer that we need to do that um the sad part is like I said um it hasn't really fallen on to us until again until Zeki and I were really talking and and how to best help if it's a cemetery commission if it's another commission and or committee how we can make more money for for this excellent yeah that's um it's on the top it's on our topics later on tonight and the budget task force just heard about it as well that we have 27 million as of FY 23's close out earning pennies right so any help would be would be very much appreciated I'm sure are there any other questions on Perpetual care trust fund all right 7 cery gift uh Cemetery gift fund we identified as fund uh 1548 per General Law chapter 114 section 25 a town in which cemetery Commissioners are chosen may receive gifts or requests for maintaining cemeteries or cemetery lots which shall be paid into the town Treasury and with the accounts thereof shall be kept separate from the other money and accounts of set town the town of lunberg may receive gifts for maintenance of cemeteries and cemetery lots these gifts must be turned over to the treasurer and is maintain oh there's a I read that twice sorry uh the expenses no expenses shall occur without a majority vote by the cemetery commission all refund requests provided to to the town accountant must also be accompanied by documentation of second mission for approval questions on this one it's pretty straightforward yeah do we have any issues with any of those earmarked funds ever no I mean it sounds pretty well written that if it's earmarked for it it goes to the cemeter commission right um I can tell you that now that you just brought up about the earmarking piece of it um in 2023 um as uh William Tyler was the chairperson I was the vice chair but I was trying to see if we could get our representatives to give us you know again earmark some money for us for the cemetery and there were three different projects that we that we came across um I'm hoping when I call Michael Kish Merck that we U possibility if there's any hope that that's ever going to come through um it was large amount it was one was for the monument restoration uh one was the actual the whole Stone wall restoration for both North and South because they are starting to show their age that one was a price that project was priced at 197,000 um the reason that that was a little higher was because there was one area that the cemetery uh superintendent DPW uh director would like to see it redone because they feel in time it's going to collapse so that was probably most of that money that would be going that and then the other piece was the wear and tear of the grass and the grub problem that we've had that was an additional 50,000 so that whole gear or that whole timing was about 285,000 I'm hoping and again and I will check into that to see if there's any hope that that could be something that could come our way too and that has been earmarked since last year okay is there any federal or state funding available for cemeteries to be honest to be honest with you I'm sure there's some out there that were missing to be honest with you um we need to and I think Heather had brought it up the town manager um to have someone come in and really look at for the whole town as far as the different committees um what we were looking at to see if there's any grants um and and that's something that that probably we haven't done enough of okay um do you know if chapter 90 funding is available for any of the road care in the cemetery that would be wonderful and I don't know the answer to that I would think we'd have to find out from the DPW director on that one um because there are some areas there that that need help and the land is owned by this by the town correct correct okay the plots are owned individually but the land itself the the access ways all of that is by the town so if it is a roadway I would think it should be covered under chapter 90 unless exception in the law but it's worth looking approved Road oh well we just have to name the roads then linster has named roads in their cemeteries well they have the they have the roads named in there they are named yes they are don't ask me to name them all but yes they are that doesn't mean it's an improved Road for public travel uh okay so there may be a caveat in the in the chapter 90 law the other piece too is that uh once the historical commission moves forward and uh gets the entity on board that's going to do the historical locations inventory of the town of lunenberg and gets that registered with the state Andor federal government uh that will be opening up um grants through that process but it's got to be documented and registered before those grants will even take an application and just so you know regarding that as as Dave has stated I have uh reached out to Richard McGrath um regarding some pieces that to make sure exactly what Dave had just stated that we are on the register um I've looked into as as far as I could it looks like part of it is I'm just not convinced that 100% that we've got that I'm not sure if that's 100% correct um and that's what we need the help with the historical piece of it um okay and there is one more piece that and I don't know anything um only a small amount is it's my understanding that there is a subdivision that there was uh 33 3344 West tent Street I believe that there is another Cemetery a small one that will be appearing if again it's my understanding there's a lot of work that has to be done on it the legal council was working on it we've had nothing to do with it at this point in time I tried to stay again just finding out about it from the town manager leaving um and sending a letter to us I think it needs to be I think somebody needs to tell us when it's our time to either step in or or do whatever regarding it I know right now that it is you know again sitting neutral at this point in time so I don't know how far they've come with that or not were you aware of that one not at all so thank you I appreciate that they found some Graves there um somebody had purchased the home and then they had gone in and it's my understanding that they had the machine what is it the GPS that goes in and and kind of finds a grave sites and there's several grave sites there so that will be again if it goes forward that will be another town property of cemetery mhm questions or comments that situation has been going on for a few years now and you know it it seems to flare up every once in a while but there's never been complete resolution to it so that's why it sits in neutral I'm assuming these are very old Graves like I mean these aren't like 50 years old Graves these are things before we had a cemetery commission and all that and people just buried people I literally don't know anything about it I was just like I said before Heather left she sent a a note uh regarding it and saying you need to do this this and this um again until I'm told what it's all about what we're doing with it who's again um who on the uh side of the legal council has been looking into this and to bring it up to either the select board or someone um and then know what the plans are because I don't know what those plans are I just wanted to make sure that you knew on your committee that we know nothing of this except for what you know we've only been told and the only reason that bill um Tyler was brought in was because of on the historical side not because of the cemetery commission side um and that was like I said a few years ago so as far as I know nothing much has gone forward with that 1800s is there interest and drive to actually res resolve it I think so but I mean again what is what is it going to take because the bank gave this person a mortgage how do you do a mortgage when you've got part of your property has got a cemetery on it that they may have known or they hadn't known so I think there's I think there's a lot of legal issue they are possibility that needs to be resolved and looked into um you know again I was given this letter by Heather stating again that uh there were some people that were looking into it um and that they were negotiating I don't know what you can negotiate when again the legal side to it has to be done first I would think and that's not our privy they can tell us when it's time to take the step forward but um I'm not I'm not going to comment on something that I don't know anything about right right but I'm just bringing it to your attention so you at least know as much as I know or maybe you can find out more Dave probably can yeah Dave can is it a substantial do you know if it's a substantial portion of their yard I don't think so I think if I remember correctly again when we did have a small conversation about it I want to say that they found five or six maybe Dave does that do you know I I've never gone into detail on it because it was so vague the only thing I under I remember is that I think some of the stones were buried and it was kind of felt that they were intentionally buried yes yeah interesting any other questions on this one back time no all right we just have the references I think that finishes up this one if I'm not mistaken yes any other questions concerns for the cemetery commission yeah the only other thing I wanted to discuss just a little bit further uh from the overall presentation is that uh as Mr chair you asked if if that $10,000 number is locked in um and the answer was no it's not and that's correct it's just when budget SE early in the budget process the cemetery commission and whoever's in charge of cemeteries as it changes over the years uh have a conversation as to well what do we think we're going to do in this coming fiscal year that we're budgeting for do we need more than $10,000 mhm so that conversation is had so that's what where that number that vote for town meeting that number comes from if they know they have a project like say down the road now here with the possible expansion of North Cemetery um they want to pull a little more out of there to help offset the cost of that it may be 20,000 MH um but that number can fluctuate based on that conversation and what's put in the article at town meeting and is that typically voted on by the Cemetary commission ahead of time for that number okay yes and then and exactly what Dave had just stated is I think we try to be very careful especially where again in the Years prior that that they did they were in the red and we wanted to make sure that never happened so you know we're only going to take out what we absolutely have to and where you can do it twice a year um on the Warren articles if there was something that we needed to do in the fall um in fact just so you do know is that Mr McGrath is going to help us finish fish Street and it's my understanding that I think in the month of October November I want to say he will be putting a ston wall around and he is giving the time to us um but we will be buying the material for him so again we're making sure that you know we have that money available for him to you know to finish that project we've been trying to do that for a few years now so and it's important to you know again fish street is part of this is part of this town and we want to make sure that the South the North and fish Street mhm are very well taken care of absolutely we're actually walking um the town in northern New Hampshire that I spend a lot of time in has seven cemeteries they're spread out over the entire town I mean it sounds like we have more than more than three more than four now yeah we have what what I describe as satellite cemeteries yes and basically what they were I think was uh Farm property burial grounds yeah that would make sense all right final questions is there anything that we can do to help out the cemetery commission as we sort of already get started for Budget season no I think just keep us informed if there's something that you know that you think that you know should be involved in or something um I know that Jean has brought up again it's very important to her which I know is about the 1700 1800 and they're very important to us too I'm sorry that again that you know we haven't gotten that to off the ground yet I'm hoping that we can um because it is important it's important to our veterans it's important to the loved ones that have been there for generations and generations um so I think anything that you could you know lend us if you hear something or you need something or you want to ask a question please feel free to you know reach out to us we'd be more than happy excellent thank you and I have a feeling that there'll be a request for the cemetery commission to consider moving funds I'm sorry I I said I believe there will be a request of the cemetery commission to vote on moving funds at some point hopefully after December 31st okay assuming that the budget task force can stay on task and report by the end of the year okay and we'll have to like I said we'll uh it's all of us voting but again we'll take what your what your thought process are we are important I just had one quick question I when I was looking at things and I hit on a link and it gave the the fees $800 for a for a lot is that right correct is that something that's reviewed is that something that's um and there's other fees too for whatever how um has that been reviewed recently is that is that is that okay we we just did it I think when um Bill Tyler was on and I was so about a year or so ago we did do that and we did bring the prices up because we went to the different towns to see where their prices were so two lots obviously would cost 1,600 um you know there's some that's a little bit higher than us and there's definitely there's some that are lower so we try to stay in that neutral and I think the main point at the time that we were bringing it up was very careful because it was around the pandemic so so it might have been a few years even before that um that we were trying not to you know cause families any more hardship than all of us had gone through at that point in time I was more concerned if it hadn't been changed since 1931 or something like that those kind of things how are we this is a moderately morbid question but how are we doing for space so that's a good question we right now I have uh we have a software which is rain maker which is Sims um and we I ran some reports the other day and we have a discrepancy what I'm trying to do is get find out exactly where we're at because if you don't know the numbers you're not going to be able to know when are you going to expand the North Cemetery because it's it's looking like in the next year or so we're going to have to do that um but I don't want to say that because again until uh the the person who handles that goes in and checks everything to make sure that it's correct um that's why I had the software on the phone with us because there was a discrepancy with a few things so that's what we're looking into now I want that I we need that head we need that count to be correct because without that you can't make a good plan going forward right so that's important do we have space to expand and south or fish as well or Is We I don't think you're going to have I don't know that past where you go to the very back part I don't know what that would cost us to and I don't know if that's even possible to do that that is probably we don't have a lot over in South Cemetery I think right now I want to say maybe with a few that we're buying back it may be you know close to maybe 15 maybe 20 but I I'm not 100% sure so I don't want to that not knowing but I did run that's why I ran the report to see where we were um and that's the scary part is we're we're getting close and I think that we're getting to the point that we do need to start thinking of that and that is the other Opera funding that I put through is to open that up if that's if that's what the committee that's what we voted on to have as a project because we're we're recognizing that it's it's going to take time to get it done so if you say two years and we've got to start now right right okay final question going once going twice thank you so much I really appreciate it well thank you and thank you for having myself and obviously having the finance uh director here so it's always helpful having him around yes I know this thank you I hope that helped it did very all right one quick question Ezekiel do you need the entire committee to sign this or is it a minimum number of signatures H majority you have a 1 2 three four you got it do you want to sign well Jay didn't sign it yet huh Jay didn't sign it yet oh I'm sorry what is it yeah you have we voted on last time to transfer 15,000 to the to um that's just a written approval of last uh meetings vote for the 15,000 for the town man search it's going to go into the select board contracted [Music] Services all right there you go thank you thank you um Ezekiel are you able to stick around for the investment strategy discussion okay thank you all right moving along next up is a personal letter written by the chair of the of the school committee um you should have a copy of it over here so Mr Leon if you want to come on up uh so Mr Leighton is the chair of the school committee um he has been hearing us talking about the health insurance policies and being somewhat Antiquated in their opportunities and available plans and and not having a high deductible and an HSA plan um he heard it the discussion during budget season and all sorts of things and nobody was doing anything so he took it upon himself to draft a letter and he is kind enough to share it with us um and has asked for some opinion some feedback and is looking for someone to I believe I don't want to speak for you but someone to Champion it at some point welcome thank you um and thank you for putting it on your agenda you're red on the button there thank you and thank you for putting on your agenda uh this week I appreciate it um uh it is challenging as a school Committee Member too uh going through negotiations that you you can't negotiate Healthcare so um after talking with the the former Town manager she had kind of went through the process of that it was really up to the the unions uh having a meeting and voting for any changes on the healthcare together not just the teachers union um um she had also recommended that we could U use the healthcare agent uh to review or ask questions about policy change too before we get to that vote of the unions all right so for this document are you looking for just at this point are you looking for um some opinions on it some thoughts on it questions just kind of workshopping it in a sense yeah it's it's definitely a first draft definitely looking for um feedback I think one of the the main main ideas of going about it was that I wanted it to be an additional option I didn't want to force uh a major change in healthcare plans um that forces people into a certain Avenue of a healthcare plan so this uh idea was to add an additional option of healthcare options uh that way people could still stay on their current Healthcare option but people who are looking for a better value or to save more money on premiums or to get an HSA uh I know a lot of people even uh Mr manard had talked about the benefits of an HSA during your meetings uh there are people out there who would benefit in having an HSA uh and being able to save money that way all right so I'm going to read through just sort of the the highlights of it um I have it uh posted as well or I'm sharing the screen so I uh number of features and the plan first one is lowering premiums um having a high deductible um Health Plan that's what HP stands for high deductible Health Plan uh will help will have lower monthly premiums compared to traditional Health Plans resulting in increased savings for employees these savings can lead to more take-home pay providing employees with additional Financial flexibility while still maintaining access to Essential Health Care Ser or Health Services um as far as the town contribution goes the next line down these numbers just out of curiosity where did you pull these ones from um so I I work in a district that offers an HSA plan so I Ed the similar numbers okay do they do they have Maya for there for their health insurance no M no okay be interested to see what we can come up with for health insurance well that's why I want I think that again first draft I want to have the agent look at it and definitely review numbers right what makes the most sense for our our district okay um and is this saying that the this is 50% I assume correct yes that's generally what what the town what the employer will cover that's what I've seen okay if anybody has any questions or comments or changes please jump in at the same time yeah I work from municipality that has this they went to it a few years ago it's an option you know their contribution is they do you know 1,000 for individual and 2,000 for family plans um but obviously on the your deductible it raises that you're out you're not your out of pocket expenses it's what like 2,000 and 4,000 MH yeah I would definitely be open to adjusting numbers as needed I was uh where I had worked um I was on a a committee um that actually worked with a consultant that we had hired to look at this um High deductibles are are a trend over the last 10 years I think and so I got to learn a lot about this stuff because we made a change at our the company I worked at over a couple of years from a lower deductible to a higher deductible uh told the employees about it how we're going to do it why we're going to do it how we were going to it was very similar to this um and um the benefit of the lower premiums actually you know the the goal was well in your savings of your premium you put that money your pre-tax money into your HSA and you can build up a fund and over you know you'll have more than enough to cover the deductible so it was a education process it was a selling process somewhat but the goal was to get people to get more involved in their expenses and that's what the consultant told us that's why you know if the first $3,000 is coming out of your pocket then you're going to be a lot more careful about what you do that's was the theory behind it at least back then so I I think this is a good thing now you have we didn't have unions you have unions you have different types of unions and and all that I I think when you're doing this you have to explain the benefit to the employees and there is benefit because ultimately I think if the costs get too high then the town is going to have to either you know make decisions about how much do we pay and versus what they pay or how much can we pay for your salary if we're putting all our money into health insurance so they have to understand that this is for the good of all and um this isn't trying to put a and it shouldn't be trying to put a an additional burden on the employees but try to figure a way to do that so I think that's the process and I think this is a very good process and it's probably something you shouldn't try to do you know in one year say okay we're doing this today and tomorrow we're doing this I think it has to be over over a period of time maybe a year or two where you can introduce this and get people ready for it I would agree I I think it's education is definitely going to be important and I think not forcing people to make changes educate them and make them have a choice in the matter um even for me it was educating myself to uh I had to talk to my HR Director um about I was having my we me and my wife were having our third child and we had we were on an HSA plan and I was concerned that it was going to cost too much uh to stay on the HSA that we should switch before we have the child and the numbers actually made more sense to stay on the HSA because we were saving so much on the premiums that it would cover that deductible I think the learning curve actually can be can be handled pretty easily my company I was I when I was working well during my time at my company we had an HSA uable plan come out and I think we had four or five different opportunities to have a conversation with the rep that would come in and explain everything to us like we were 3 years old and finally it sunk in about how they work but it's I think you know our employees will certainly be able to get a handle on it pretty quickly um is there from the school department side and actually this may be more a question I guess for the unions or I'm not quite sure who it would be for um has there been any conversation among School depart or School staff about the opportunity to have an HSA or H in a h FAL plan I am not aware of any uh you could reach out to the union union leader or Dr Burnham as well okay M Mr chair comments I sent to you the other day I'd just like to read that through quickly because it it um states exactly what I felt after I went through this whole thing and then a couple other quick comments uh my only comments to this proposal is if the deductibles in this program are considered high someone needs to look at private sector programs especially the out-of-pocket annual Max uh this program is still very low also the town's contribution to HSA is double what I've seen in the private sector in some policies uh lastly I will need to be made clear that the town's contribution to the HSA account unless I'm Incorrect and it comes under some other tax laws is income to the employee and they will get a$ 1099 each year for that part of the money that goes into that HSA that's what happened with me and with my HSA I got a$ 1099 at the end of the year for the amount that the company contributed not for the money that I put in because that's pre-tax um so I just throw that out there it may be different depending on you know where this policy is being administered where it be a municipal or collective bargaining agreements or whatever um but that's one thing that just people need to be aware of so that at the end of the first year they get a $10.99 from whoever's administering the HSA account that says oh you owe income tax you need to put this on your uh 1040 Federal Form I'm Just for information it's it's that's the only reason I'm throwing it out there um it's interesting because I never received a $199 for mine I I think what most employers do is it's part of their um it is income mhm but it is when you get your W2 there's a line is a box of there it's in there I think cuz I remember that did come up with us and our um I think it was ADP um they said that's that's how they handled it yeah actually I stand corrected I got the 1099 after I retired and took the HSA with me so that's why I got the say 99 you were worrying me that I was going to get off we were getting paid yeah and like I said the the the numbers in here for the deductibles they're incredibly low as far as I'm concerned uh from what I've seen I I know that there are some federal employees um that have a $9,000 out of pocket before uh they clear their deductible wow so um you know this I don't know how it compares to the collective bargaining um medical policies that are out there but this is good compared to some like I said I I would be open to suggestions I think it would be great to to hear from the the town's health insurance agent as well um I do think we should also make it an attractive program so that people do want to uh to join the HSA a high deductible healthcare plan uh because it will again save the town on premiums as well MH do do you think this could be something that you could get a group together maybe employees like a union reps or somebody um and employ and the town management and school to get together and have a discussion and maybe build a plan with maybe a consultant is because to me the the devil's is always in the details you know if the premium is goes down a little bit and there a bigger deductible then it's no one wants it but if it goes down enough then it becomes very attractive so it's all about the numbers not the process not the you know what we're looking at here is maybe few numbers but the real numbers that they're going to be able to present and that's you know and and what employees and what the town or or the school department cares about could be different so having everybody as part of the discussion might be beneficial I don't know if it's possible but one other quick comment that I just remembered that uh this does not address um in network and outside of network costs which many policies have a different deductible for um again I don't know what the collective bargaining uh policies look like but that's something in the private sector that you really need to pay attention to and it's more from the patient point of view that the that person needs to know that oh if I go to this hospital I'm going to be paying into a $12,000 out of pocket Kitty rather than the $6,000 or 5,000 or whatever it is for in network so there's a balancing act there too and I think that would have to be addressed through the health two deductibles is the this deductible which is the $4,000 deductible which the insurer doesn't pay anything until you get to $401 right the other deductibles are well if you go to the to the hospital's uh emergency room there's a $100 deductible but if you go to the the Urgent Care there's no deductible they want you they push you there that's a SE it's the same word but a different meaning so it's not part of that deductible so it's U at least that's my recollection of it is um so there'll still be that I mean the goal for the insurance company is to get you to go where it's cheaper um so they can save money so they can offer lower premiums um so they'll put incentives in like that for that and and you know and so Aon Network would be well the the same thing by a network is more expensive for the insurer hence you're going to pay more one other piece I've seen as you've been mentioning these things they they come back to me um over the years uh I think I've only had one policy actually in changing jobs that the annual deductible the number that upfront number that you need to reach one of them included prescriptions so they didn't pay a penny for prescriptions or other Medical procedures until you hit that deductible in some cases I mean that get you past that deductible pretty quickly because some of the medications are $700 a month you know so but that that's just another variation that's up yeah and I think that's another reason that the the high deductible healthcare plans aren't for everyone and that's why I I'd like to see it as an option versus making everyone go to a high deductible healthare PL it be an option I would be curious to see if so for my experience well these numbers are actually pretty close to in line with what my company is I think we're 2,000 deductible for the individual and 4,000 for the family and my company kicks in 1500 and a th000 I think something like that um, 1500 and 800 um I'd be curious to see what the insurance rep comes back with um if there is a cost saving for the town in the long run if there is is a a number of people that do end up taking this or if this ends up costing the town I know it saves people money but somebody has to pay for it somewhere um and I'm concerned that we might have the town being able having to pick up the the extra money for that one I'm not I'm not sure so that would be myig I would be surprised but yeah definitely that would be a good question for the agent the last thing I would want to see is sorry your bill just went up another million dollars just because we're covering everyone's deductible um yeah otherwise I think this is this is a f fantastic start and um I I think it should be put into place at least sent out to the rep and start the conversation for this year um just get the process going but I would be curious to know what employees think I don't know how we can I wonder for process-wise I almost think contact the rep get feedback from the rep then we reach out to the the union leadership and then see what they think get feedback make adjustments if needed and then organ a meeting for a potential vote I'll just make a general comment the exciting thing to me about this conversation and some of the other conversations in meetings that I've sat in on in the last two weeks is that we have folks seated kicking around ideas looking into things that we've always done it this way but is it the right way to do it that type of thing uh I think we've finally moved into a mode where we're all concentrating on are we really doing it the right way and what's it going to take to change to bring the town into the future and I am very excited about that well it leads to the 1990s it's not get too far ahead of ourselves get out your floppy disc are there any other questions or comments feel free I believe I'm sure to send Brian uh some messages directly obviously not to everybody in the in the committee but but um individually feel freee to send him some notes on it if there's anything that you come across when you're reading it um as far as adoption of a plan I believe that rests I think it rest in the in the town managers I believe so entirely I think they have all the the authority to do that I don't even think it's a select board vote I believe it's just the town manager that that well this wouldn't have to be funded correct but it's funded through your health insurance plan bill so if it's not a if it's not a large change to the annual cost of the health insurance plan well the town's contribution side has to be funded somewhere and that's kind of why I don't know it's that's my concern is does does the town's contribution side increase or decrease with this plan well the town's going to contribute 800 or 1,600 could have that money on top of paying for the I think the idea would be that the town is going to be saving on the premium so it will cover that cost right well IDE yeah but that has to be weighed out depending on how many people want the plan I mean I think it's a good idea to have the option but health insurance there's not one plan that fits everybody no and you know sometimes even though if a numbers look good it can be a hard sell but I agree more the more information we can get the better the more numbers we can get the better so what would you like to do next with this so I think the next next phase would be to Next Step would be to reach out to the interim Town manager and have them reach out to the the health insurance agent rep um to take a look at it and give feedback okay are you looking for go ahead well I know in my town they had they had presentations done and you know rep came in and had a whole slide presentation and they set up you know well a couple different meetings I mean it's this is a smaller town so they probably um and they said they did a whole presentation on it they gave people the opportunity to ask questions before it was done or after it was already an option when no when they were trying to make it an option okay when they they were offering it because the town was pushing people to go to it to save on the premiums uh yeah they had the Reps come in and do a full presentation okay I would certainly be in support of that are you looking for the support of the finance committee for this or are you just kind of showing it around to really just it's your advice yeah okay looking for as much advice and opinions as possible and then again just trying to keep moving it along okay so is there a our insurance um person the person we work with um would that would be the first person and and this isn't Reinventing the wheel because it's been done by a million companies already um so they should be able to figure out what the right thing is but also give you advice on how to you know how to have a discussion cuz you I think Jay's right that you have to have have you know employee Buy in you got to you know oh what you're increasing I I don't want to do that well let me explain and have them do that it's a uh it's vital yeah I think it's going to be multiple buyin it's going to have to be buyin from the union leadership to even just accept the plan and then after that to have our the members to actually take on the plan and also make sure that they have input in you know the the union have input because it might be well you can do this or do that and if the union say well we want this and say okay then that makes sense let's do that then they have input then they have Buy in it's easier to to have you now you have somebody in the union that's going to support it oh yeah well we figured it out together rather than they threw this on us and now we got to either accept it or not it's um I think it's very important I agree we have Mayer is our health yes but the companies are on HSA get separate from Maya an so in my in my personal opinion from my experience it's the same companies so the idea is it's it's all one group but it's just a different plan you're just paying for a different plan including Thea as well yeah the high deductible Health Care would just be a different plan that you could be offered so I have Harvard Pilgrim people who don't have the high deductible plan still have Harvard Pilgrim they just have a different plan and your HSA is managed by Harvard Pilgrim as well no the HSA is the right I was going to be really concerned if an insurance company is handling my investments so the HSA is really just through like you could even do it through say a bank it's like it's just an account that holds the money right there's actually an HSA Bank that exists I've got my account with them is there anything prohibitive in the union contracts that would not allow an an added health care plan I am not aware of it uh again through our negotiations we have never negotiated healthc care as an option so this is that's the challenge that we've had as a school committee is you can't negotiate Healthcare so that's why we're kind of going through the this Avenue or I'm going through this Avenue in a way that makes it easier since this the school does have the largest percentage of healthcare employee I it's also a challenge too when you can't negotiate that going through negotiations mhm all right any other thoughts for this one my position at this point is I I totally support moving forward uh you know getting the information and talking to the professionals and see where it takes us all MH I agree thank you very much for putting this together and have my full support as well I think this is a great first step and thank you for taking the lead on it I appreciate it cuz it was getting done over here either unfortunately thank you for your time thank you thank you thank you all [Music] right next up is investment strategy discussion so the reason I threw this one back on here again um is it came up at the last B uh budget task force committee meeting um we were going over um revenues that the town has and from the town side and from the school side um Isel and Rene put together a great presentation and Kate and her team put together a great presentation on that as well um with the town side we ended up getting into that there was money and Investments that we could or interest that somebody asked about interest and I brought up the uh document from 20 FY 23 um this document right here which I believe we'll be getting an FY 24 copy pretty soon I believe it is just getting uh finalized but this is the state of our B of all of our different accounts which we looked at 6 months ago 5 months ago something like that um I'm very curious to see where they stand today and the conversation was we have $27 million sitting across a whole at least we did who knows what we have now cuz arpa is in here as well um we had at the time on June 30th 2023 $27 million sitting in all these accounts earning absolutely didly squat for the majority of them like I said our 5.3% interest rate on $844 is probably not doing us very good versus are .1% on 75,000 or 343,000 um and so I just wanted to start the conversation again because um I did make mention that it was one of the finance committee's main goals with the budget task force was to really look at this and find out why we're not investing more more smartly good or um better better to to actually get a decent return on all that money that there must be somewhere that we can put the money or different ways that we can invest the money potentially with more risk I think even with moderate risk you could get much higher returns than half a percent or 1% um so I wanted to kind of have the conversation here so that I could sort of bring it back to the budget Task Force and and have some questions for them or some options some ideas about what to do next who to talk to we spoke a little bit about do we talk to our investment companies um I think Bartholomew was thrown in there uh to see what they have for ideas we could reach out to them um and nobody really knew if there was anything limiting any of the accounts in Mass General law or anything like that other than the trust funds yeah the one thing I looking at the list and and where it is it um there's it's probably a very complicated answer to all those questions because you know you invest money based on how long you need to invest it for so we were just talking about the um the uh the Perpetual fund well that's never going to be used so you could stick that in you know well within reason you could stick it in a long-term thing because you're never going to use it if you can get a better yield you might not want to if you think interest rates are going to go up so because that would be better to then wait over there so that's where you need somebody who knows a little bit about those things but a lot of it is you're going to need some money at some point you don't know when so you you know and it's it's all different uses so it's it's it's a complicated thing also just in FYI I just happen to know this is that uh if you were going to invest in a uh a CD it has to be with an N an FDIC insured financial institution uh can't be a credit union because they're ncua and the law specifically says ncu uh FDIC um I worked for a credit union and we got written up for having an account for some towns and we we said well we're n NCA it's just as good it doesn't matter the law says FDIC which it did so we had to you know give back the money and let them do whatever but it's um it's very complicated so I think uh but I think it prob it it's definitely a place that you can generate a lot of income mhm especially now maybe 2 3 years ago you couldn't now you can so there needs to be a a person or people that that do that and figure out well what is you know for this money what do we need you know this is money that we're going to need uh this $3 million we're going to need a million dollar over the next three years well that means I can put $2 million in something longer okay that's fine well who does that how how was the process who knows the right information um you know it's it's a complicated thing but it's a very Pro I mean if you do it right you can generate a lot of income and that's every dollar you generate in additional interest is$ one dollar we don't have to collect in real estate taxes or $1 we can give back uh and higher Insurance uh uh payments or higher salaries so it's there's value there I guess the question I would have for Ezekiel um what do we so when we actually receive interest statements on these accounts if we're not spending out of them how does that get reflected other than just through this document and at the end of the close out of the year do we have any plans in place to spend the in other than obviously the the 801 um with the the C or the 8,000 do we have any other of those kind of interest only accounts set up um to be honest I don't have all the answers for all the accounts I those particular accounts say essentially fund themselves like Student Activities um we have you know the parks revolving fund Peg access there's a lot of U niche in there and like um Tom I stated earlier there's a lot of complicated um mastering or loss we it's depending on the type of fund that's set up so um having a professional looking at the portfolio might be the best route to go as a whole and just kind of do a deep dive and Rec and a recommendation um I wouldn't have that answer for you so would you go through would you recommend going through one of our like Bartholomew for example to do it or would you think an outside firm would be um Bartholomew might be a good place to start maybe um it depending well it's a lot of money to go through so maybe putting on an RFP just um depending on how much the town is willing to from for the cost for our consultant to go through um putting on RFP and go through that process uh might be the best bet to get best value is there any idea what that would even cost I have I have no idea what it would take for a company to go through all of these accounts and then cross reference them against Mass General law and and then offer CPA advice honestly my thought process is because each account may have different criteria under Mass General law or whatever driving force controls it that it might be worth picking away at a one by one pick one the cemetery money there really draws me to it because we can't spend it it's just sitting there it's like if you put it in your mattress it's just going to sit there it doesn't earn anything uh or it earns what it's going to earn mhm so if you can be aggressive with that principal protected aggressive it sounds like a no-brainer to me instead of going through and putting out this expensive of peef to review everything MH do one account at a time or do a couple to get a feel for how it works um I really think as I mentioned at the um meeting the other night I really think that all of these committees talking about this need to pick the libraries trustees brains as to how they did it because they did it over the last couple of years in their um return on investment has been great now you know something just clicked into my head I'm hoping I've got the right Department because it might be pack I don't know okay well I'll I'll reach out tomorrow and make sure I haven't been telling you guys to go to the the library when it really should be packed your's going to have no idea what we're talking about um so um during the budget task force I had mentioned bomu only because they hold those trust funds right uh we could start there as do like few and have them do a a review I don't know when's the last time they did an actual review to see the highest yield we could start there cuz they already hold those funds yeah once we get the uh print out for the close out for 24 I think we're going to see whether it's pack or the library again I'm now my brain is questioning it um I think we're going to see a change in the bank that's administering that money because my understanding was that they interviewed barthol and they interviewed two other investment Banks and they went with a different one was my understanding I know I think Pac goes with bosia I'm pretty sure Pac goes with bossu okay they do yeah yeah yeah but again you're looking at 23 this 23 they were getting it was done in 24 though three4 of a percent on $720,000 with Bartholomew yeah uh like I said I I'll verify what I've been uh promoting tomorrow the library trust fund is through Edward Jones they're getting 2 and 3/4% as of FY 23 that that Edward Jones brings the belt okay compared to what they were earning in previous years I think that's weeps and Bounds above what they were earning so well I mean our our Cemetery 801 is sitting at was was sitting at 8 $895,000 last year at 2.26% with Bartholomew and that's the one that we don't ever touch right um the downside of doing it peace meal though is you lose B buying power versus going out there and saying we've got $10 million to invest or 15 or 20 million to invest okay well my answer to that is then one of the deep dive questions that needs to be answered is how many of these accounts can you co-mingle when you invest them M because I'm sure there's going to be some that absolutely not you cannot do that then you have a better idea what you're of course got for numbers to work with and there's definitely going to be limits on what you can invest in as I mentioned before with the with the accounts they I mean the state is going to they don't want you to go invest in Bitcoin or something like that so there's going to be you can do this and this with so with this so it's going to be very you know and the negative to that is you know risk and yield uh the less risk you take the lower the lower the yield is the more risk you take the potential for higher yields that's all and this is um but the goal is to maximize our yield as best we can within the limits that they allow and the our needs for for the cash when we need it the interesting thing when you look through the list is the the ones that have the highest percentage are ones that we only have a few accounts with this mmdt we have 5.3% blue stone Bank we have one account with them at 4% it's an investment account with half a million in it and we have another two investment accounts one with Bank Hometown and one with Enterprise Bank both with close to half a million one's making 1.9 and one's one was making %. if those are three investment Accounts at three different institutions earning three very different percentages I mean it's it's that would be a place to start yeah the easiest thing you can do if you have Enterprise Bank or something like that um and I am on a board of a not for-profit that uh does some stuff and we had Accounts at a financial institution and our executive director um met up with the person and said we need higher yields and they were given higher yields because there were millions of dollars that we were talking about in money that we had with them and uh they gave us higher yields mhm so that's easy I mean that's the not easy that's the easiest way because they want they don't want to lose $5 million or they don't want to lose you know if you say I can't they won't do it then you could go to you know home Hometown and say hey what about what can you give us and that's that's another way to to do this and that's just bank accounts just you know CDs or whatever it is or high interest high yield savings now a lot of the financial institutions you put in a million dollars will give you three 4% and it could change tomorrow if interest rates go down it could go down but if interest rates go up it could go up so it's a and you're not tied into to a a CD for five years so it gives you a lot more things so high yield savings accounts are are a uh uh another option we have quite a few accounts with Enterprise Bank they all seem to be in the schools and they're all earning 0 one% that's why they make so much money whereas we have a whole bunch with Main Street Bank and those are SE trash all of our Enterprise funds and they're earning 3% on a million a half a million n so it's just Evan did you say those first ones were schools yep yeah um again until a deep Dives done on those there's probably I think there's a reason because you are extremely limited as to what you can do with those dollars and and I I can't speak to it any further than that but but again you could go to Enterprise Bank and simply say we want a higher yield yeah on the same account they can go in and Grant you a higher yield because you're giving them big big chunks of money and you've been a customer for for X years mhm I think if we can get to mmdt that's the way to go they're the ones that's at like 5 1 12% for everything I don't know what they do I don't know who they are but you want don't want to put all your EGS in one basket though no but I put a decent amount of them in that basket Newber Port as well uni bank's not terrible Bartholomew is good for some things EV what were the letters again M what mm d Ezekiel is that the the one that's administered by the state Massachusetts something or another i' have to get back to Massachusetts municip what it m mm is it in treasury mmdt they've got our Arts Lottery our playground fund they have investment account Highway bond issue yeah I think I think that's a state sponsored um fund and that's it hopefully Tom will have it in a minute I'm just looking it up to see if there's anything in there yeah it's uh Mass Municipal depository trust Publications there we go depository and TR yeah how do we get more money with them just it it's I just found it I don't yeah they don't tell you on there right away exactly how to get more money and again Evan what that doing is it's pulling money from multiple sources to get good investment uh return yeah Fidelity is the worst one we get 0% on that one actually 0% on $127,000 I if you remember back when uh the uh collector Treasurer was on with us a year or more ago she kept saying what we trade off with you know uh they wave fees yeah for for a lesser percentage rate yield but if you don't do the analysis as to how that affects you as to what you're really paying for fees then it it doesn't make sense you you need to know yeah what you can earn and and I agree with Tom too that if you just do what you've always done year after year after year and just let these accounts rooll without questioning the bank and say hey rates have been up for the whole year why aren't you giving us a better rate mhm um loyalty in many areas doesn't count anymore in this in in our world but I think in Banks if you have enough money in in their Bank you'll get their loyalty squeaky wheel being the squeaky wheel the U the um other thing is that the fees are usually in in um checking accounts for in another um that's where you pay fees and so if that's a checking account or you have your checking account with them and then they save you $110,000 in fees over the Year by giving you a little less yield okay that's fine but I don't think we most of these places we probably don't have um those kind of accounts we we have five non-interest bearing check accounts those are the Fidelity ones oh Fidel okay so maybe that's why Fidel so all our checking is with no then we have interest bearing checking accounts okay we've got six of those and then our liquid why do we need to make checking accounts interest bearing checking account up here and lot them with Fidelity uh Fidelity uni bank and mmdt yeah well and then we have we have 18 and a 18.3 million less the arpa funds that have been CU arpa is in there as well in liquid assets liquid Investments and there's a lot of those with very low interest rates right so we don't have anything with we don't have any checking accounts with Enterprise we don't have any accounts with Main Street things like that n so yeah I mean these are the things I think if you can get if you're getting 2% and you can get them to give you 3% that's that's like getting a raise mhm especially if it's on $5 million yeah it's real money one thing I'd like to suggest for down the road and and this is after we get into this or whoever is going to dig into it um comes back with what they've found out up to a given point is that if it looks like it's going to need to need to be a coord ated effort to get this to happen for multiple accounts sooner rather than later I'd like to propose a workshop between the budget task force the select board and the finance committee but we'd have to have something substantive to talk about and maybe even have Bartholomew and some of the other key players in on that meeting so we all get the same information at the same time who has the I guess contact with Bartholomew is that going to be our Treasurer is that yes it would be the treasurer I also have contact but I even though I overse I don't like to overstep that's right her okay so maybe it's time to reach out to miss Myers again and see if we can just get the at least get the conversation started yep I think attacking it from two different sides is it much better than just kind of letting it sit there and fester um that is going to be a tricky one cuz that's why I was asking about how we can move the funds out of the cemeteries one what that requires if we're going to reinvest it somewhere else and I think there's probably more than one of those with these accounts in order to move the funds I would assume sewer has some authority over theirs um Parks probably has authority over theirs well yeah now their revolving account that's going to be a u depending on where they go with that after our discussions two weeks ago that that account is probably going to be need to need to be very fluid if we were going to have Bartholomew do this could we even ask them to in order to get an idea what it would cost to do this we would have to put it out an RFP first right um we can um put out a message to both all you just to get a feel we can do that we're allowed to yeah okay kind actual RFP you just um it's more of a request for information okay yeah just wasn't sure if budgetary quotes were allowed in Municipal F in municipal government or if it had to go through an official RFP are there are Financial Consultants yes yeah on RFP it's only if you intend to go to the actual purchase you can do all the research beforehand okay any other questions on this one or thoughts no I'm good I'm I'm happy that we're moving forward with it had a good discussion this evening and I'm sure it'll stay on the agenda and we'll spearhead for now until somebody else wants to take it on budget task force seemed very interested in it as well I would say yeah and there's thankfully enough players on that one that can have that conversation in a bunch of different offices right make sure that it something happens with it yep I think you can do both what you're talking about and I think more currently is simply whoever the right person is or right people to go down to Enterprise and and few other Banks and asking for a higher rate for now I mean there's no reason why they can't that can't be done I mean if we wanted to tomorrow I mean that's so I think you know rates look like they're going to start to go down so um my um but still it's important to to um to get this done as quickly as we can so you could do both mhm I can include that in my email to the treasurer yeah and I don't know if if our uh our new uh acting um Town manager might have experience in this he I I was watching his him and he seems he has a lot of experience in a lot of different things and uh I don't know anything about him but it sounds like you know when you when you're doing all sorts of things with different uh different places you you gain a lot of knowledge you meet somebody and goes oh we did that a few years ago and this is how we did it so you know picking that brain is probably a good thing too he was at the last budget task force meeting and he I think he's going to have a lot of knowledge for that yeah I think he'll have a lot of help for that one um he was somewhat surprised but also not surprised that it's just so spread around all right that does it for this one thank you for sticking around appreciate thank you thank you and we can hear you so now you got to stay here all the time we'll put a Cod over in the corner yeah 15 hours is enough you know Ezekiel I have a problem too with this laptop when I sign on to zoom for some reason it automatically on Zoom turns my microphone down and if I forget to turn it up then I get Dave we can't hear you all right next up is I believe our last new agenda item the DLS Financial policy manual draft so I reached out to um the contact that uh the former Town manager Miss Lemieux gave me at DLS she said that emailing Sean Cronin would be like emailing the governor to ask a question about some small thing so um I have not heard back from this person yet I'm hoping to hear back soon and then I wanted to kind of pick their brain a little bit just to see try to see who it was that I sent it to Casey Casey uh Casey Bick from uh DLS so once I hear back from her I'm hoping to kind of get a little bit more information as to how it differs from ours I did print out and I put it in our drive the current section of our it's in our our SharePoint our current Financial policies for the town itself um I have not done a sidebyside comparison yet cuz I was swamped at work this week but I'm planning to print out the other one as well and just see if I can kind of match them up and do a side by side analysis of them um but at this point has anybody actually read any of the draft yet skim through what they got yeah I did get into a little bit of and uh a little more of it I should say and didn't actually fall asleep this time yeah um I did did I send you a question as to what the hell does this mean um I thought I didn't it might have gotten lost somewhere um I think it had to do with investing in CDs that it had to be the highest po how was it worded the highest possible rating it said requires can only be invested in a uh CD with the highest rating possible I believe is how it's worded it it sounded just so ambiguous unless you know what the rating system is MHM trying to find that now I don't got the document open but I I do as well it's on page 31 or 32 okay yeah here it is must have the highest possible rating from at least one rating organization does does that I don't know I read it 10 times and then Bond rating it it makes a little bit more sense to me right at the moment but it still seems pretty ambiguous because I would assume that they all have different rating systems now there's a mass mass Municipal dep depository trust right there um and again that's under Money Market Bank issu repurchase agreements I'm sure it's some kind of and that is stated both for shortterm and long-term funds for money market accounts actually goes to this one so reading that it does have a section on investment objectives and there's a priority order for the treasurer collector's investment objective shall be safety is is printed principle of principle is foremost and the treasurer collector will adhere to this policy's risk mitigation St strategies for the purpose of preserving capital in the overall portfolio liquidity and then yield um ensuring that there short-term operating funds enough liquidity for those that makes sense you can pay your bills for trusts and other long-term funds example stabilization funds Cemetery Perpetual care and any similar funds set aside for long-term use liquidity is less important than growth the treasurer collector will pull any individual funds that are invested in the same institution while also maintaining each Fund in its own account to allow for the proper portioning of interest and any realized and unrealized gains or losses all trust funds are under the treasure collector's control otherwise unless directed by their particular donors so Evan what you just read says in the policy that she is allowed toid pull that money in the same institution but in our Bookkeeping on munice God forbid um we need to keep it the accounting separately is it that interpreting correctly it's almost that that it can be pulled in the same same institution but each account but the accounts have to be separated in there so the they earn interests differently so you can track the interest for the individual account the treasure collector will pull any individual funds that are invested in the same institution while also maintaining each Fund in its own account to allow for the proper portioning of Interest proportioning of Interest okay so you could so it's kind realistically you could interpret that two ways yeah I feel one that you keep it separate in the Town's accounting but you pull it within that one Institution for you know instead of 33 million accounts with the institution you have a $19 million account and on the town's books it's separated as three accounts well just also if you have three accounts they may not be the same amount they be different amounts to get to 9,000 so they're going to earn different interest so each one will have still have a different interest amount attributed to it she has to keep that separated treasur this is also not our current policy this is the DLS policy yes so we don't have this I don't know if we have that in ours yet I haven't read through that yet right I understand that um for standards of care if the town accepts there is a Mass General law given chapter 44 section 54 subsection 1B the treasurer is authorized to pull and invest trust funds and only trust funds in accordance with the standards of care outlined in The Prudent investor act Mass General Law chapter 203c if the B1 subsection is not locally accepted all Investments by the treasurer must comply with what with the more restrictive Provisions found in these other sections the treasurer shall be relieved of personal responsibility for any individual Securities credit risk or market price changes that's just different Okay so I'm not sure if we have accepted that yet but that would be something to look into as well cuz we could then pull our trust funds right yep I guess legally I'd be curious to see if we're currently because there's we either do it under a single one or we have it under four different sections so I'd be willing to bet it's probably the latter um oh okay this is good and it shows the a table for the type of investment for short and long-term funds this is subsection this is that section 54 subsection 1B um for how you could what the limitations are for CDs and in Massachusetts for shortterm your unlimited amounts and maturity of up to 3 years long-term funds there's no limits so that Evan if you got a page number on that uh page number 31 in the document 41 on your PDF okay thank you the only other thing I've taken from this so far in the sections I've looked at is that uh um the exempt borrowing in regular Bing short-term long-term however you want to describe it um to my knowledge the numbers that they have in this document are identical to what we have presently that's kind of been hammered into our head over the past few years um but there has been discussion at different times about those numbers needing to be thoughtfully reviewed and see if they fit our needs going into the future MH with the thought process that there was some feeling that they need those percentages needed to be increased against the uh overall budget MH we don't have to go to those limits but it would allow us to go to those limits and you know personally where we have an invested in this town infrastructure wise facilities wise however you want to describe it at some point we're going to have to make a very serious and large investment to get this town back to where it was 25 years ago if we're going to ever do that we're going to need more money than we can borrow right now mhm the on page 4 48 of ours we actually have our financing requirements or our in Investments strategies and rules y so that'll be good to go through as well and includes the mmdt the Massachusetts Municipal depositary trust and pooling of liquid funds in there for State County local and other independent government authorities the other thing I have an issue with and I reached out to Town Council I don't know if the email I used was still valid or not I haven't got a response back and I copied the U interim Town manager on it and I still have not in three years received directly the information I've requested about the original formation of the special purpose stabilization fund M because in here the description of that fund is totally different from the description of its creation and it it concerns me because when you adopt a document like this sometimes it negates the original naming which I don't think you can do in this case because town meeting is the only one that can mhm create that type of an account so in a document like this you go changing it everybody looks and say oh yeah that's an equipment account well that's not exactly true as to what the special purpose stabilization fund is as per the article it was created by that's the best way I can State my concern at this point do you have an idea as to when that actually took place that boote I don't know why I have everything happening in 2017 but um it it may be before that honestly I I do need to if if somebody gives me a year it was well it may not have even been an annual town meeting gives me a year and whether it was an annual town meeting or a special purpose I'll look it up I have no problem but I'm not going to dig through 12 years worth of town meeting warrants to find it we currently do allow up to 25% of the town's Investments to be in one single financial institution unless that institution is full investment is fully insured or collateralized then we can go above 25% so I'll see what the DLS person says hopefully she gets back to me pretty soon and then um we can compare these two and see how they look for ideas uh and I will reach out to myene to ask her to reach out to Bartholomew y um and to ask our banks for a higher rate can I can I have her name drop you Tom does that work in the in the industry it can I have they would say oh yeah sure ask nicely if Tom's asking we can Tom yeah Tom who all right anything else on this one for now I'm good okay oops um don't know if there's an update on the town manager search committee Chris isn't here so as far as I had heard the last time um they were interviewing candidates I uh no they weren't interviewing I'm not sure I don't want to speak out of turn I'm not quite sure where they are I can't remember if I heard that they are interviewing candidates or if they're not interviewing candidates yet for the permanent position correct I'm not going to speak to it because I've I think I've missed a good part of the last meeting but in my head they were the last thing they did was talk with the uh potential Consulting contracting service contracted service and at that point they didn't know that and this was 12 days after we voted at that point they didn't hadn't been notified that we actually approved I heard I saw part of that yeah yeah yeah they thought it was 177,000 at one point yeah I they were kicking numbers around I'm thinking wait a minute now yeah all right um budget task Force as far as that goes um we basically went over everything that we did in there um the Renee put together a search of different towns and actually Al I meant to do this I apologize for not saying this out I'll send out the uh presentation that she and Ezekiel put together um I don't have the School departments one it's probably in the in the drive I'll pull that out and send it around as well obviously it's far less cuz it's all title money and grant money and reimbursement money um but they Ezekiel had his own search criteria to pull out um comparative towns Heather had hers that she works with for negotiating and then Renee had her own that she put together um and out of all of those the only one that all three of them had was Grotton so there's not too many um but if you you compared Rene's and ezekiel's there were some some interesting data that kind of came out of it um and I think it's going to take a deeper dive into sort of what the an what the reasoning is behind that what the causes are behind that um but Renee I see that you're on the call so please if I get this inverse proportionality wrong correct me um the big find was that the town that had the lowest tax rate tended to have the highest I believe it was the highest um state aid so as the tax rate went down the state aid went up and that seemed to carry all the way through tax levy Evan tax levy just kidding thank you the the green one was the was the State or the other one was the state she had all three in there 50/50 shot all right so tax levy was went up the um yeah as the total Levy went up then the aid went down right yep so yeah there was a lot of great information in that part of the meeting with all those spreadsheets yeah make sure to push that around um grant writing services I put in a call but I got an voicemail to that company I forget I remember what the name of the company was it was two meetings ago now Bailey B Bailey boy Associates at a situ so I have not heard back from them yet either so I'll give them another call and please refresh my memory as to why we're calling them they are a company that is in Massachusetts that does Grant Services Municipal Grant Services it was a Google search that I did okay and we looking for something specific I guess is what I'm a little confused about it was just to say hey we have appropriated some money in our in our last town meeting right to make use of grant writing services we have no idea what we're doing now could you could you point us in a couple directions or at least you know what's the process what's your contract process look like what does it look like on for you guys to do yeah just because they're local there's a whole bunch of national ones as well but I'd rather go with someone local that knows Mass General law a little bit better while we're talking about that line item I was just trying to clear this up in my head the other day um I'm assuming where this is a line item in the general government portion of the budget that it is controlled by the town manager mhm okay so any Services paid for out of that would be administered by the town man okay I I think to tell you the truth you know we had this conversation about the uh you know how it's going to be administered and stuff I don't think that's anything we need to get involved in because it's already under General government it's the town manager perview to deal with that I think just departments committees entities whatever should be formulating a proposal hey we have these four or five Grant possibilities that we've looked at that seem to be appropriate for what we're trying to accomplish can we put a proposal together to the town manager to get services to to identify for sure that they're appropriate and then go forward with um applying for them you know I I I I kind of came up with that scenario as how we could get this thing rolling um that was how Heather had kind of foreseen it as well in one of her last meetings that she had said that a proposal process um but I don't think a document ever was put together yeah um this was not to this was of more to do kind of like what Mr Leighton was doing and just start the ball rolling a little bit and get a little conversation understanding of how it's done in general happily go here you go I talk to these people and they recommend this process for pulling together interest from your department heads and then going out and doing your rfps or whatever it is right that's kind of what I'm hoping to get from them yeah um but I'll reach out to them again and and what that should help with too is take some pressure off of the office up here in this building with multiple rfps going out for Grants and so on that would be handled by this service mhm you know we don't really do rfps for Grants they're applications I've never seen one I don't know usually it's an application process for my understanding to apply for the grant in this criteria that you have to meet yeah what would the RFP be for with the Grant I may have misspoke on that I'll have to think that back through well the RFP would be to to hire the the service entity that's going to pursue the grants right to do the work and and ask any of the present Volunteers in this town that have gone through Grant processes uh especially and I'll name her Karen Menard what she's gone through to get the grants that the Parks Commission has gotten a lot of work it's a lot of work and you got to know what you're doing and she warned as she went that what grant writing service would be for I would hope Grant rting service would if we have a project or a list of projects they would be able to say you know we're familiar with this one we're not familiar with this one as a town you know you're not going to qualify for this one but you might qualify for that one this is the easier one to go for that's the harder one exactly you should be able to offer some sort of advice honestly person personally I think that's going to be really important for the future of Marshall Park mhm that you know there's going to need to be a lot of energy put into and and they've done a lot already but with the final number that's floating out there right now uh every dollar even if it's a $25,000 Grant is going to help to get that project to uh fruition and I'll have that conversation with the Parks Commission when they meet later this [Music] month all right any other topics on that one I'll reach out to Carter as well the inum town manager and just kind of make sure he has it in the back of his head yeah he's been here and again what's nice is it was mentioned before you know someone like Carter or whoever we put in that position he's there now but my thought process was when we were looking at that is that you're bringing in a person that has experience from multiple towns within the state so their experiences with similar issues in other towns is going to help us tenfold to move forward until such time as we have a a permanent Town manager agreed all right the cost um cuz we have $50,000 so what is this what would be their fee schedule for doing a grant that was another one I was going to ask yeah does it all get shot on one single Grant and that's what $50,000 buys us I have no idea Heather got that number from reaching out to a couple of her contacts as to what was a good starting number I I remember her saying she just kind of picked it cuz it's what fit in the budget well I heard something different okay knowing Heather I would I would think that it would be more what you said right yeah she doesn't she doesn't usually throw a dart at the wall she never threw a dart at the wall and said okay that's the number which is why it caught me off guard that that I remember her saying that that doesn't sound like what you normally do right right okay um consolidation of services and departments again I'm happy to skip over that one for this week unless anybody has any no I think that's good for a future yeah discussion uh a much broader discussion agreed uh review of the budget process and suggestions for improvement I do want to go over the calendar that Heather had sent out before because I do want to bring it to Carter with sort of our opinions on it and our thought process on it um and see what he has to say about it as well let me I did not I don't think I pulled that one up for [Music] of course now I can't find it in the drive so 710 email 710 Wednesday 710 draft budget calendar oh cuz I'm in my scent mail oh jez that explains it okay there we go thank you Jay yep all right so we are 5 days away from the select board vote on the special town meeting date and opening and closing the warrant it's coming up very quickly um special town meeting yep yeah the warrant opens um warrant opens apparently on oh they're vote no no I take it back they're voting on when they're going to open it but it's going to open the next day on Wednesday on the 14th right I I do know that Capital plan is about a month ahead I believe roughly is what they're trying to do this year they're they're trying to be done early so that will help with things um I did receive an email from the superintendent asking about our planned uh meeting with them at next year for FY 26 for their uh budget review um or and it looks like it's probably going to be um right around that March 20 20th March 19th again same thing um so we may not we may be right may not really matter what we do in terms of everything else if we have about 55% of the budget being presented to us again um a few days before our report is due our public hearing is still scheduled for the 27th of May of March and then our report is due that coming Tuesday so I think for me that is probably one of the biggest things that needs to be different we we cannot have a public hearing and then a report due before our next meeting before we have a meeting after the public hearing I I don't see how that is reasonable right because we have not had a chance to even discuss what happened at the public hearing I think as as has been mentioned by uh a couple of people I think we need to find out or work with the whoever ends up well we're not going to be able to do it for this year because of the turnover we've got but for the for the next year for 2026 budget I think we need to really find out how these other towns bring their budgets to town meeting in March and April mhm I mean they're working with the same information that's available to us at those times why are they able to bring a budget together that works and gets voted on and we can't you know as you know the excuses have been well the state budget doesn't even get finalized this that and the other thing well so what if these other towns cities and towns can do it and their budget works and you still have November for the adjustments MH what's the problem here I don't I mean you have you're ideally you leave town meeting with a balanced budget I know you don't have to but ideally you leave town meeting with a balanced budget there's nothing I I don't believe there's anything that states that you have to use finalized numbers and that's kind of the idea is that you're always going to use different numbers that's where you fix things at special town meeting exactly there's no reason you can't use the original the governor's original budget proposal as is as your starting point your benchmark Y and everything else is fixed after they you know he she they sign the budget in July August whenever it ends up being um it's always late right exactly so you're never going to have they just completed it exactly you're never going to have a finalized version until you're getting close to special town meeting so it I think if we use the plan of your budget that you work off of for all of your revenue for all of your cherry sheet money for all of your your title money all of your chapter money is based off of the governor's initial proposal and that's it any other numbers after that is you get them you can plug them in or you just don't even or you don't and you may do with it as you need to in the in the special town meeting right because a budget by definition is only an estimate right so you estimate it with this much data or you estimate it with this much data that that seems to be the only difference really I mean if we budgeted a year and a then it would be simple so that I guess would be a question for the inim town manager is is what is his practice for his budget does he use when does he start obviously he's going to have his his requests from his department heads and that's happening ideally in the fall but once he gets down to the to the revenue side of things what's the plan what does he usually have it kind of compiled by and it would be interesting to hear from him if he can share it with us if he's had the experience in another town that does bring that budget forward in March March or April in his initial interview that question was asked how long to prepare a budget and he said four months mhm and he's here in for January 14th to present to the select board well this was this was from Heather still I don't know if he's subscribing to this schedule that's right this is from right so he could be adjusting this correct I would be fine if he doesn't see this and comes up with one that starts in now and we get presentations in January in February guess what department heads I want your numbers next week yeah that's what you have your um your financial forecast for and your your historical historical values okay I will request then for um our next meeting to have Carter kind of give an explanation for his idea of the budget process just so we have an idea so we have an idea I think by then he'll have at least anticipate happening he'll here for 3 weeks by then so have plenty of experience plenty of time everything is solved we're also short staffed right major departments yeah um okay next so as far as other ways that we can affect or we can change or or get us a faster budget process um right now our budget season we meet every Thursday for 6 weeks I believe and then our last week we have two meetings a Wednesday and a Thursday and then we have the hearing the week after um is there I mean we could we could potentially go actually no we couldn't because there's one I wouldn't want to have double up meetings and two there's other committees and Boards meeting in here as well yeah um um there are other factors involved right it's not just us right there also weather and that's true it is February it's nice and warm and balmy um I would certainly be open to to kind of restructuring how we do our presentations how we received the budget presentations from the department heads um I'm curious I I know we like to to give it as a chance for a platform to kind of promote the different PL the different departments and what they're doing especially you know some of the ones that are are citizen or resident facing your Council and aging your library um and and I fully support that but at the same time the shorter we can make the meetings and if we could triple up instead of just double up we could go through them and and third the time or twoth third the time I totally agree I I we don't need a repeat of the history of the last five years of a given Department you know for you know what I'm talking about yes we yes we want the the comparative numbers as much as possible but I'm talking about their services and this that and the other thing that's that's how they run their Department we don't during that season we don't need that we need the numbers and what supports those numbers but what supports those numbers often times is that superlative data MH depending on the department right the fire department's going to want another ambulance when that EMT keeps on climbing and then goes exponential all of a sudden yeah but I think I think you agree that the presentations have gotten much longer than they need to be over the last couple of years that's my feeling anyway STI stick to they they only come here once justifies your requests and your your budget requests and stick with that what if instead of giving free reign we develop our own preferred presentation format you do that and then that way it's it's standardized everybody has it you're limited to the 12 slides that we give you pack as much or whatever it is whether it's a number of slides whether it's we we request that this is where your historical data goes and here's how much historical data we want to see and that way we kind of give every Department sort of an even approached look at what they're doing mhm or you could just give them a time limit and say okay these are the things we want to know and we want to pres the presentation portion should be no longer than x minutes so let them figure out what's important and then of course then after that then we can ask questions and it could last three hours if if we have lots of questions but their presentation should be boiled down to something I I I think giving if they're responsible people which they are you know giving them the the parameters what we want and the time limit would be good for them are we going to really cut them off though if they start getting if like we're 20 minutes over get the music to play fck you don't what was that thing from many years ago you don't play off Frank Citra you you don't play off the C uh the police department if we're going to do either of those we should probably start working on them immediately the time limit one I think we would have more time with um but I think I think it might make sense to to at least have a more structured approach to those meetings I think we could could probably work them down into shorter time frames and then I I think we really could possibly get three at a time in our I mean they're already ungodly long meetings but I would almost rather have five ungodly long meetings than eight ungodly long meetings and give us an extra time to actually write something up MH plus that would give if we did it that way we could still take the time in those other meetings to have hold public hearings to invite department heads back if we have more questions about something as as other things change it's it's I think the more compressed we can get that into the into the February and early March time frame the better [Music] other ideas for how we can compress this well one we can consult with the intern Town manager before we get too carried away we'll just take off the the uh the publication of General summary of budget by the town manager and all that other stuff just start Crossing things tell the town manager in the school district we will only entertain one iteration of the budget so get it right the first time because we're not going to listen to five budg again I have a feeling that the school department will happily acquest to that request yeah okay I think this is enough I agree Jay I think we at this point we have enough that we can go off of and I think next step is we need the person who's actually going to the schedule to come in so I will reach out to Carter again and see if we can get him in for the next meeting like I said before this year is going to be another one of those unusual years where you know if we can accomplish compressing some of it this year then it theoretically should be a breeze next year if we've settled into a new town manager and and the processes get started on time and so on and so forth mhm all right I think that's the end of our main agenda items we have minutes in the drive from yep July 25th yep anybody have a chance to read them yep anybody have any issues with them any else motion to approve second any discussion those in favor I I I opposed extensions all right committee reports want to head on down the line Dave any committee reports yeah Green communities hasn't met this month yet um kind of the sticking to the first Monday of August kind of fell by the wayside so uh we're presently scheduled for the third Monday whatever that is the Monday after the 15th I think is what Mr blat said last night something like that yeah yeah um where was he talking school committee he was asking the school committee for um projects oh okay I I missed one of the meetings I did miss all right the audio was terrible at the first 20 minutes I heard yes yeah um other than that we've had some conversations with Mr hee another member of the committee myself and Kelly Brown had a a zoom meeting with Mr heee trying to help him more thoroughly understand the process and how we might be able to bring um probably phase two of the mini split project forward for funding uh phase one and um the best we could suggest there was incentives through Unitil which should be pretty substantial if they U you know get the information and I think I think Unitil has got the information so when you're dealing with the green community's Grant process you can also apply for any incentives that are available through um your supplier which for us is unial and um I was going to qualify something but anyway Mass Save was that Mass Save uh I don't believe the incentives come through Mass sa I think they're directly from Unitil through State incentive programs that Unitil um administers so I know for the um Street White Project those incentives saved us at the end of the day because we had a $30 upchar a $30,000 upcharge when we found defective wiring on many of the poles so you know that influx of additional revenue for that project really saved us at the end of the day um so it's above and beyond uh Grant monies and and um Mass Save is more towards the uh individual consumer and there should be a lot of an awful lot of rebate programs and incentives coming through them um from the federal government through do I think I I got that right um and then administered through Mass Save over the next year or so so that's where we're at at this point um have a couple members looking into some other directions for Green communities to also be putting some energy um that's it for me Mr Russell no Mr gr on the select board did did they I was watching it but I wasn't 100% sure did they uh resend their that communication um they did they did okay that's what purpose and now it's been rescinded yeah okay exactly which we were talking about at our last meeting so luckily it doesn't affect us anymore although I still think it would have I know Mr manard said it hopefully I mean it I mean I understand a policy like that so if they want to go back to that um obviously that would be that would be a proper thing to do but in the proper way in the proper way with the proper number of votes right and not for just a guideline it's like speed limits you need four you can use three that's all you got speed limits it's like the yellow lines on the road I did hear that the the municipal building design committee is going to be meeting meeting soon I don't know if you know that I got an email from Mr Jeff about something and uh I I had uh that'd be good CU you guys have 350 or 250 or $350,000 to spend 250 250 250 I was going to say it's another two something you have a lot of money to spend yeah that I know Miss m p some of the members of the select board are itching to pull that back you guys don't start spending it some I I think they should have should have I've never had a problem spending money so be careful though that's never mind I'm not going to say what I was about to say because it was incorrect I I think the select board should have a drop dead date of like October 1st if it's not spent you better have a darn good reason for why it's not spent then we're take or we're taking it back right it's getting close yeah and actually I was looking at the document that um that uh the town outgoing Town manager sent of what's left and what hasn't been spent what committed yeah it's there's a lot that's that's not spent yet somebody has a hand up don't know who JB is but we're not in the middle of public comment yet I got a couple more things when you get done with that when everybody's done with the committee reports no I guess they don't don't have it up anymore that's all right so yes apparently you will be having a meeting soon so that'll be good you guys haven't met since November another meeting to sit on exactly Mr Simeone any updates um no I've listened to a few things but okay um I attended the school committee meeting last night um they had some advisers come in to discuss with them budgeting practices and and strategies and methods and I think it was pretty good um I think they're going to be helpful for this year also they have their Director of Finance who was a very capable and smart woman I think that will be helpful as well um not saying that Dr Burnham isn't but this is an actual Finance person be Al um and then they also went over a letter that they are drafting to send to us and to the select board and to the town manager um the the here you go budgeting is just an is just a um an estimate the Chapter 70 funds are going to be I believe it's about 31 or $38,000 more than what we had budgeted for um and they are requesting that it get put towards the schools directly by the town manager so they're going to be sending us a letter requ just for our discussion and ideally our support as well that the funds go to them specifically since it is earmark for schools does that have to be appropriated by town meeting or is it just flow into the budget through another process I always get lost as to which way money comes in it flows into the budget and then it just has to be fixed by by special town meeting okay but it just usually gets it just comes into the budget in general and kind of historically has just kind of trickled in did they say what they were they were going to get in the letter would it include what they're going to spend it on or was just give us the money and we'll figure it out I think that's a very valid question that's a question worth asking Chapter 70 un unrestricted I I don't remember I don't know again I've gotten lost and restricted unrestricted um these are all good questions to ask the school committee once they send the letter over right um other than that that's all I have okay I've got two committed funds is in July 26 email what's that July 26 email you sing is a committed funds for ARA oh the one that we have yeah yeah it's it's grim I'm sure that that's gotten a little bit better now the committed funds and the spent funds for arpa but it's it's a lot of money still sitting in accounts yeah Mr chair I've got two questions basically um first one who is our liaison to the fire department I am M Russ you are okay I would request that you have a conversation with the fire chief and bring to us anything he would like to share with us relative to the concerns brought forward by the firefighters Union on Tuesday apparently there's some discourse there as to amount of hours and and uh forced work hours which is in their contract if shifts aren't covered I'd like a better understanding of that because uh it it I don't know it's just hitting me that there's some issues there that need to be addressed into the next budget season if not before mhm I'd just like to have a handle on that if we could MH um the other question is directly to the chair um you announced a few weeks ago that you had been uh you had a request from the DBW director for you and the vice chair to meet with them are we going to get a synopsis of the uh content of that meeting if that meeting had happened I would absolutely give you a synopsis of that meeting okay we we I made the mistake of going into work that day and couldn't come back in time to meet with him and then we tried to set up it on a set it up on a Thursday and it we we have not rescheduled it oh okay fine I was aware of that yeah I would have happily sent that out but I have not actually met with him the poor guy okay and when is he scheduled to come to us I'm actually going to hope to have him here in two weeks okay that's my goal so I will reach out to him again after this meeting send him an email see if he's available for that night and then see if I can meet with him and Mr reard on on a Monday coming up okay that's all I've got thank you okay uh for topics for future meetings I have um our intrum town manager on the budget process for the next meeting and I had already written down chapter 90 DPW presentation for the next meeting ideally for the meeting after that on the 12th of September I would hope that our investments have been closed for fy4 so I'm going to invite the treasurer myen and we can talk about other investment stuff by then as well we'll have had a month in between so hopefully we have some more information by then I'll have asked her about Bartholomew and all that fun stuff um any other topics for future meetings coming up do we want to start idea um I guess depending upon how our meeting goes with Mr tanzini NE on our next meeting I guess that kind of determines how we want to do budget season for presentations or time frames or whatnot so we'll probably want to put that on for the 12th as well anything else anybody's dying to talk about all right next meeting is on the 22nd of August and then it's into September already the 12th and we will be right into special town meeting warrant stuff fun fun with that is there any public comment from the committee at the end yeah I've got one quick thing to it's already been announced I believe um but just to he it one more time so the public hears it from a couple of different sources and I don't know how many on this committee are aware um of two resignations within the past week um both in the sewer department um the chair John Reynolds has resigned I think I kind of have in the back of my mind that that's at the end of the month I don't think that's immediate but I'm not positive about that um I didn't have a good connection when that was all announced and I was told today through the grap find that the sewer commission's Administrative Assistant resigned Tuesday evening after the select board meeting so we are imploding business manager continuing to implode thank you any other public comment from the committee all right public comment from the public JB you've had your hand up for a while I apologize but feel free to unmute yeah don't worry about it Evan it's John Bowen how are you sorry it says JB on there uh 162 Highland Street John Bowen um I just wanted to uh mention a couple of things I want to begin by uh thanking Anna Lockwood for that reminder um I think people fall short of that reminder that uh everybody is inclusive are you able to hear me okay it's a little bit tough speak up okay yeah so I just want to say thank you to Anna Lockwood uh for her quotes and for her statement tonight uh that was excellent um not necessarily with regard to the issue but with regard to you know uh how things should be handled you know for the People by the people you know uh not in politic but in people that's how our government should work um on a couple of other issues I have uh maybe you guys should think about a forensic accounting firm that uh might be necessary to help direct the financial Direction into what the best investment is by taking an overall all look as though if you were going to have an audit have somebody comeing and just kind of look through everything and figure out what the best financial direction is just a suggest Mr pasos um uh just so you know uh it's it the the law is very vague on the grave and their age uh the old usually the ones that are older than a 100 years are the responsibility of the town as well uh chapter 4 114 says those Graves that are no longer cared for by family that tax money can be appropriated so the tax money can be appropriated for both of those things which there is $220,000 of tax money with the DPW for cemeteries that that money I spoke at town meeting when I was talking about reimbursement you know was for those Graves which probably calculate about 2500 of our total uh uh of roughly around 5,000 Graves that we have and Evan if you remember um uh I requested a specific use of the money uh that was being allocated by the cemetery commission the $10,000 that I wanted it to be identified what that money would be specifically used for the outline that was presented tonight by eika was excellent however it said that money can be used for day-to-day operations well this is not what that money is meant for if you read the statute uh which he posted the statute above that I don't know where that day-to-day operations word came in but that word is in the chatter that is directed through the town manager through the department of the DPW is responsible for day-to-day operations or with the oversight of the Town manag Rob oliv when he was here he was a director about four years ago he asked for $110,000 for our taxes for the cemeteries prior to that money for the cemetery the only money that they were basically using was for the wages of the superintendent which came through the DPW department and they used interest money from the Perpetual careair fund the other money that was used for the building The Niche Wall and stuff like that yep that was all in the sale of lots fund and so forth okay um however the reason why I raised that is because there were some money that was appropriated about a year ago to be able to do an engraving on a bench on a personal lot uh for a personal uh uh owner and the foundation was built for that personal owner as well and that is not extended to a lot of the different uh citizens here who have lots that need foundations repaired and stuff like that the cemetery commission is not paying for that but they did use uh money from the sale of lots fund last year to be able to do that engraving in that foundation on a citizen's private lot that's a little patronage I think um with that with that regard um the other the other issue is is that the money that is talked about using gas and so forth to be supplied that came from originally came um out of the Perpetual care money but Rob got that $10,000 that stop okay Rob got a $110,000 taxes from us for the cemeteries and then Bill Bernard came on board he acquired an additional tax expense for $10,000 making DPW have a $20,000 budget for the cemeteries now the $10,000 from the sale of lots is not clarified for its use and this year they did use it for day-to-day maintenance an operation for grass cutting that's operations now we have two lawn mowers but we only have one operating because we don't have two qualified operator you can't put a part-time guy into a lawn mow now if you remember when I asked the town meeting about the specific cost for the labor for the cemeteries Evan you gave me those numbers I was working with Bill uh and with Heather trying to get those numbers that uh you know with the opposition of misinformation disinformation being screened at me by our Banshee Miss yasco I I I I was quite clear that the cost of the superintendent in two work is that would come at a work as wage which by collective bargaining agreement is roughly about 65,000 a worker to 86,000 depending upon where we're at right now okay for those labor that's $300,000 a year to have three qualified workers there that would put two men in the machine and one man with a weed whacker and that would suffice for our cemeteries I also made clear the needs for the cemetery above what the town can actually afford which you heard today look at all the expenses and Mr Bernard also agrees that the new lot uh at the last Cemetery committing in the North Cemetery agrees with me that it needs to be one complete project you can't just do it peace mail it's impossible you have to do it from start to completion and that is a huge expense and even Capital plan doesn't have the money for that it's just not affordable as well as all the other needs that the cemeteries need the grub problems and everything else they're not affordable okay now I have requested that you call in the cemetery associate massachusett for a consult which is only a $500 expense now they'll give you a great review they'll give you a good consultation they do it for everybody they do it around the world okay um as well as exploring a cemetery corpor op option okay through you know a consultation for that okay now I understand the Cemetary Corporation the government can't start it but that doesn't mean that you can't give the responsibility of the people to say that this is what we need to put together and this is what we should be working on because we consultant on it because it was in the best interest our of our people who are intered okay and then the last but not least thing that I wanted to touch base on um is that uh the chapter 90 funding uh is uh part of the roads for the cemetery I cleared that out with Bill when I had a conversation with him last year that the DPW does own all the roads in the cemetery and chapter 90 money can't be used for that and I'm sure he'll tell you that at next week's meeting and lastly um which this gets tooted a lot by your Cemetery commissioner about how she's such a veteran supporter but she forgot this entire Clause uh chapter 115 section 9 under the veterans benefit Statute in Massachusetts says that the state must they shall it requires the town to appoint a veteran to care for all the veteran grades and that cost can come from the town tax or through private donation it's in a statute so all the grades which are about a thousand I think veterans that we have in that Cemetery okay we can acquire money through donations to be able to hire somebody to come in and take care of all thousand of those cemeteries as well as get a 75% credit on all brand new Flags it's in the statute and so if everybody just wants to do a little bit of reading stop ignoring who I am and listen to what I have to say you'd be very surprised right that you know you actually have the information I keep handing it to you but you all keep ignoring it and I hope that that will soon end in cease and I don't have an MBA I decided to go to Amerson College I kind of like history and art a lot better so uh you know that's where my credentials come from but I've always run my own business so I know what I'm talking about with money and I've done pretty good sustaining my own life for the last 40 years so I really appreciate your time thank you very much and that's the end of my public comment I'd like to thank you all tonight was an excellent meeting thank you Mr Bowen thank you is there any other public comment from the public seeing none entertain a motion to adjourn don't move second discussion those in favor say I I I closed all right 952 we are adjourned thank you everyone have have a great night