##VIDEO ID:XPr4AzVCVIc## e for a COR you about the microsopic wa am I muted now yeah okay we're on the air all right we're just waiting for Jean before we can start she was going to zoom in for oh I got in all right [Music] all right good evening um in accordance with the requirement of the open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the lindenberg public access Channel and on Facebook live on the public access Facebook page and will be uploaded to the lunenberg YouTube channel after the meeting uh the meeting is held in person at the location provided on this notice members of the public are welcome to attend this in person meeting note that although we do have remote attendance um if the video does go down I guess we will lose Quorum and the meeting will have to end we do have one per member Jean Russell um virtual tonight uh to join on the zoom you can go to lunenberg ma.gov uh go to the calendar and it will have the link to the to the zoom or the phone number as well so uh just to start we are now a committee of four members um Evan Waters um resigned over the weekend um and Dave pasio I think a couple weeks prior to that so uh we're on a skeleton shift for now um we do have a talent bank and a uh finance committee selection committee uh meeting on appointment committee on Tuesday so maybe we'll get a fifth candidate yeah we have one candidate for that um so with that I'll call the meeting to order and let's do the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right by way of announcements um you know just like I said we we're down to four members hopefully we'll get a fifth member uh but if if there's a couple more members of the Town who would like to join the committee um it's it's pretty important for us I think going into this year uh we have an interim Town manager whose term kind of ends what is it January uh we're in the midst of hiring a a new town manager so it will be a um a process that will require a full board and and members who are diligent and and want to help to to bring a balanced budget to town meeting in in May which is you know kind of our our primary responsibility um given all that I do think the focus of this committee over the next few weeks will be on uh special town meeting which happens the second weekend in November got to open the mic on Dave Dave is here all right with that are there any other announcements um any public comment from the public okay I haven't got my hand up but uh just like to make a Qui quick comment if I could yes go ahead Dave yeah Dave pasio uh presly of presidental Highway Jefferson New Hampshire formally 56 waiting Street lunenberg um you know surprise to uh see the committee down to the numbers that have but hopefully you guys will rebound quickly uh just had two comments for this evening um haven't totally unplugged myself from lenberg but U one thing that uh it it may sound a little picky but the draft uh warrant is listed as a fall town meeting warrant uh there are no Provisions in the charter for a second town meeting anytime during the fiscal year uh that needs to be officially a special town meeting it could say fall special town meeting uh but that was debated quite exclusively during the last uh Charter review and it was decided they did not want more than one actual town meeting because of the uh different requirements for votes so on and so forth in special Town meetings excuse me so I just brought that up uh just as something I spotted on the draft um the other thing um you might you guys might want to take a a a good look at the uh revolving account that's being created for the council in aging um it sounds like you know and nothing against anybody that's handling money there uh but it doesn't quilly State what type of a revolving account that is based on Mass General law or anything like that it looks like a blanket spend it on anything you want type of uh revolving account little concerning to me but that's up to you guys how you feel about it at the end of the day thank you thank you Dave thank you all right I don't see any other public so with that is there any public comment from the committee just to say thank you to Evan for serving and all his knowledge and time that he put in to the committee it's greatly appreciated thank you I also like to thank Evan uh it's a very tough job to be the chairman of this committee and he did a great job also I didn't have a chance to say uh goodbye to Dave uh I wasn't around last couple of weeks so um also on his passing a few weeks ago I that's uh you know two shoes two sets of shoes that will be hard to fill but hopefully we will and anybody out there who wants to fill them please please come aboard um I would also like to thank Evan uh for his leadership and I understand his sadness at having to leave but I I wish him the well I wish him well and his future endeavors all right and I I was also uh not present at the last couple meetings so I would like to thank Dave pasos who have known for a long time and we've had many a spirited debate and whether it be in meetings or or just um friendship over the years so thank you Dave for for all you did for the town and all your capacities and I hope you're settling in in the uh New Hampshire and then for Evan same thing uh I um Evan and I joined this committee right around the same time I am very sad for him to go and I'm um it's good he did a did a great job both as a member of the and then stepping into the the chairman role so I I would uh I would like to thank thank Evan for that and um hopefully we we see him around town I'm sure we will and uh with that I think that's all I have for public comment so thank you um so next we had a finance director report um I don't see eie here um but to manager do you have a anything you wanted to report um nothing of note we apologies uh nothing of note we will be reviewing the uh proposed new growth and final assessment values between uh the assessment team next week we hope that as a result of some final action to be taken by the board of assessors Wednesday night to be able to close the books and submit everything thing to do for certification of free cash within the next 2 weeks we're about 2 weeks behind where I'd like to be but uh we're still in decent shape and uh uh expect to have the classification hearing uh early November okay any questions all right um so the I didn't do a a lot of um work on the agenda other than to take what was there last last time uh do a couple updates in new business and and repost it I was sort of surprised on Sunday when I read the email about Evan um but with that I I do think the two critical things for us to focus on um you you know today and and maybe over the next couple meetings is is reorganization first of all and then working our way through um our recommendations as it relates to the to the um special town meeting warrant uh so first topic i' I'd like to bring up is is reorganization um you know as as Vice chair I definitely step in as for for the absence of a chair um I guess I'm willing to continue doing that but I I am pretty busy um at work so if anyone else wants to take on the the the chair position I would definitely entertain discussion on that and and be supportive of of doing so um regardless of any of that I do think we need to have a chair and a vice chair because there may be you know sometimes when I'm unable to attend and I'll need the vice I'd need a vice chair to to take over um I know we we might get a new member next week it's probably unlikely that we will get someone that um raises their hand that can kind of Step into the the chairman role so I think it's amongst the four of us who would who would need to take take those roles so so I'll open it up to the committee as to how we want to accomplishes I I think obviously uh you as Vice chair uh obviously uh is probably the best choice I understand you have uh other uh you know work and and family and all that but um uh for myself I um although I'm retired I I we we are uh we have family issues that we uh I was out a couple times for some family things and also travel so I am I will uh as over the last couple of years I missed a couple due to travel by try to make it remote As Jee is today but I don't have the U the capacity I think right now to to do uh uh to do what what Evan has done and and um um and and others you know so I I don't think I I could do that and my wife told me I can't do that it wasn't threatening it was just a strong suggestion Jay any interest as the senior member the chair no all right I work I fulltime and I have some family stuff to deal with but that's yeah that's a lot of work um I'm will to help you out but just to be ch not my thing all right and Jean any any interest uh not to be chair um if you assumed that position I would be interested in being the vice chair okay so did Jean did you say you would want to be Vice chair or you could be Vice chair yes okay okay that's good all right and then we would also need a I think we need to fill the clerk position as well um out of the clerk okay all right so we will I guess by Def fact de facto I am chairman I don't um yeah just it is what it is we just do what we can do yeah we get more members yeah okay and and obviously you know if you need help you know that's you know we'll all be here to to help obviously that's it's a um you know it's it's it's a uh especially where the town is right now with uh uh with interims everywhere and the short staff here it's it's and also with the things coming down the road it's uh it's and and the budget time is coming up you know in a few months so um it's it's a uh and we have had a difficult last couple of years so I'm not expecting it to be a easy uh Road this year budget wise so I think um everybody has to pull together and again whoever if we can get a couple more people on on the committee that is just you know more hands uh for for the amount of work that and more Minds together that will help so I think uh you know whatever we can uh you know whatever I can do I will be more than happy to to help okay yeah I I have no problem with running the meetings um and maybe even getting the agendas out I think anything that happens during the day can be particularly challenging um for me uh but I think as a team we can you know I will be relying on others hopefully to to just to get us through this um so I I guess with that I would entertain a motion or motions so do we do we want to do it individually or do we want to do it just as you can do it as one if that's what I recommend well I can why don't you do it since you're not going to recommend uh the chairman the vice chairman and myself as the clerk so you can that way well yeah I vve to Chris to be president president chairman chairman person Jean for vice G and Tom for Clark I'll second that okay any discussions all right uh we'll have to do a roll call vote um so Jean I Tom I Jay I all right and I for myself all right so we're reorganized all right so the the next topic um is the first meeting I believe I don't think we discussed it much last time on the uh warrant articles um I think some of these are are probably in um position to introduce tonight um and then I know at a at a minimum having spoken with um the chairman of the uh Parks Commission they have a meeting going on right now um they're asking for uh a presentation for their warrant article or articles I guess um hopefully it's just one uh at the at our next meeting so it's probably going to be on the on the 24th and maybe we will also schedule the 24th as our public he hearing and when we make recommendations does that timeline work for you um I I won't sorry about that uh I won't be able to publish it in the booklet is the only problem so we we'd have to put the finance committee recommendations as deferred and then we'd have a single sheet that we could insert as people came into the meeting okay um if I can change the publishing schedule and still meet that 14-day deadline that we have to get these things out uh I would prefer to do that okay you know the hard part we have is by Charter um it states that we need to have a public hearing on any moneyed articles sure um and we need time to post that so um we'll work with you try to make something work one way or the other okay I feel this is going to be the year of making it work so all right with that um can I turn it over to you to introduce the sure sure uh so um we have subject to final review by Council uh what we think is now the final warrant uh first um uh I have uh still some some entry and transition issues for myself so I've been calling it a fall town meeting but I uh you know the town clerk brought it to my attention to address Mr pio's comment and we do now header it as a special town meeting the first warrant article is an authorization to pay late bills uh and fund that authorization so there's there's three elements to it uh the first is the authorization to pay a late Bill the second is to appropriate $4,180 uh for that late Bill uh and then we're going to meet that appropriation by transferring from the overlay Surplus account the board of assessors last week did certify $225,000 uh as excess overlay and so that now sits there reserved for appropriation uh in between this article and one other we would pretty much use all of those dollars okay and that's a 9/10 vote because it's a late Bill all right any questions from the committee on that one what was the bill for do you know what the bill was for I'll have to get that to you I'm afraid I don't know exactly what few of them just I think usually historically there's always like a couple of bills usually if Massachusetts even if we could you know like have till July 30th to close the books uh but unfortunately it's pretty common across the state okay uh but we'll get you the um what the actual invoice is for is it one bill for yes it's one one bill that's a significant amount of money I'm sorry what that's a significant amount of money for one bill okay any any other questions so we just next time if we can have an answer to that all right uh article two so article two is a request from the school committee when the state budget was finally settled uh there was 31,800 $82 more appropriated to the Chapter 70 account uh and they have asked that we then appropriate that to them so that they may use that uh this would take a 23 vote your Charter requires that appropriation articles at a special town meeting be approved by 2/3 okay any questions or discussion on on that one did they have they said what they want to use the money for or I mean it's their money to use obvious they they have not given me any idea that there's a specific usage for it it's not specifically for the schools they're asking for it but chapter 7 is not just for the school uh we can certainly ask them to attend your public hearing and provide you with further explanation if you'd like yeah I think that would be good or at least a an idea of of how they would see that affecting or how they would um fold that into their existing budget and what we um discussed at length over the spring all right any other questions or comments on that one nope all right article three uh article three is the Lunenburg Mart connect Transportation program uh I appeared before you on that I believe two meetings ago uh and you uh generously transferred $5,000 to bridge September 30 until the special town meeting I'll try not to refer to it as the fall town meeting again um this would uh we believe based upon writers ship of of course uh get us through the balance of the fiscal year now uh at that time some member I can't remember whom uh asked us to explore whether or not we could extend the 20m range to get to um I'm sorry I can't remember the name Emerson and the answer is yes From Any Corner in lunenberg uh people can get a ride to Emerson that'll be the only institution outside that 20m limit but any Corner in lunenberg to Emerson so I'm I'm pleased that Mark uh was able to work with us on that and I'm pleased to be able to report that to you this evening okay yeah no I I um I I appreciate that as well and extend you know at least for the new chair um our appreciation to mark for for doing that uh any any questions on article 3 from the I think we heard a lot about this a few weeks ago and okay um article four uh article four is the adoption of certain provisions of State Statute uh relative to The Prudent investor rule I believe you heard about that perhaps three meetings ago I can't recall exactly I know that um Ezekiel uh and um I can't remember the fell from Bartholomew spoke to you at length um and this would be a majority vote okay um any questions I think at the time we did recommend um even to you to to pursue this so um so I think in general we we're supportive but any questions all right Jean just speak up if you have any too I I'll be looking for you but thank you okay Article 5 uh Article Five I I truthfully can't speak to it length at all this is comes from the planning board um if you'd like I will have the land use director attend your public hearing um it goes on quite a bit at length um and and I can't speak to it intelligently at all I'm not even sure if the finance committee uh makes recommendations on zoning articles in this community and some they do and some they don't I think in the past this this is like the third or fourth time this one has come forward I've I've heard that so I I um I think in the past we have said no Financial um impct impact associated with it but all right is there any questions and do you think we need the land director or anyone from planning to go over this again well I guess I'd just like to know if there's any kind of financial impact that should be considered I mean I'm sure this is mostly regulation driven there would be no Financial impact on this organization okay some staff time but I mean I I can't give you there's there's no way to quantify uh what the financial cost might be okay okay has gone through at least well it's at least the third yeah yeah it's a lot of language uh so that brings us uh after a I don't know maybe perhaps four even five pages to article six which is down towards the bottom of the page um and that is to establish a revolving fund for the Council on Aging meals program uh now currently the monies that are collected are retained at the Council on Aging and they're then used uh over the next couple days to buy more supplies um we do not question what I want to be real clear we do not question whatsoever the Integrity of how that is happening um unfortunately it doesn't meet well while we have great people that does not meet the test of Statute or good accounting so what we would do uh would be to have these deposits into the revolving fund instead and then we'd have to set up some accounts with Hannafords you know whatever their vendors are and get those bills and then pay them out of this account now the way that this works is there are several parts to this the first uh is to amend the code itself um and the monies can only be used to for the purchase of food supplies and services so it can buy actual food plates paper plates silverware any of those kinds of supplies cooking oil related to the preparation of the meals uh and then the preparation and distribution of the meals so the the Styrofoam boxes on the meal on wheels that get delivered and the like uh if there's concern that that language isn't um restrictive enough that I could use much earlier so I can get it into the actual warrant that gets published the second part of this uh is that you have to annually set a spending limit uh and the estimate that was given to us was $116,000 for the I believe the balance of the fiscal year uh then in the annual town meeting you would set a new limit just as you do for every one of your revolving accounts uh the only wrinkle here is that the statute requires that all revolving funds be set up by July 1 of a fiscal year you can set additional funds up during the course of the year but we've got to be able to provide a written explanation to the Department of Revenue of where those monies are coming from uh and the town accountant Finance director um has provided me with that memorandum certified that uh and we're very confident that do will see exactly why we're doing this so uh we don't anticipate any problems whatsoever we did just want to make you aware of that wrinkle okay is there like a you know in the parks there was like a 53d and you want to go Parks no no no my question is is just is there an equivalent number letter associated with this uh yes uh 53 e and a half does it say that it doesn't because we're we're adding to an existing um section of Statute uh your bylaws but what I can do is put it into the summary or make sure that it's clear in the draft okay that would make sense and then by adopting this would does this add any burden to the um to the staff or drastically changing any way they do things uh not really I mean the staff will now have to uh at the adult Activity Center the uh Eagle house is it um prepare a cash turnover sheet just as any other department does that comes up to the treasure she signs one copy copy goes to the accountant copies with the treasure copy goes back to the department so now the treasur deposits that into the accounts we'll work with the COA to set up their accounts and instead of going someplace and paying cash they'll get an invoice and then they will have to process that invoice against the revolving fund so there is a little bit of work um and of course it's not a lot but everything adds up uh so there is a little bit of work involved in doing it this way okay but this is generally the the best practice across and it it is okay okay makes sense and I'll make sure that there's a reference to the 53 e and a half um I just want to take a squint back at the bylaw to see how you've structured that okay and then if I may uh hey Dave pasos you may want to look out your lights I'm here out your window I'm heing the Northern Lights are visible in the White Mountains I'm my phone's blowing up over here but I interject all right any other questions on Article Five um article six I mean sorry is the 16,000 is that what passes through the account over the year or is that the that's what they anticipate would pass through over the balance of the year right what are they expecting for a full year do you know I'll have to get that number from Sue dor for you and is that is 16,000 in the limit that could be in at any given time or no it's the amount that can be expended so they can build that up to whatever it is okay um and and let's say that something happens during the course of the year um G to use a different department where perhaps they add another program or something and they discover that they need to go higher they can during the course of the year come to the finance committee and the select board explain why they want to increase the spending limit and get authorization to do that from the two bodies but you do both have to agree okay but I will um uh clarify with sudor the uh the amount that passes through this and confirm that this is part the balance of the Year full year I I'll I'll get that for you by the time of your hearing all right any other questions on article 6 pretty straightforward all right article 7 I I think was a recommendation from us but um would don't you bring us through article 7 sure so there's uh in statute a revolving fund called 53d for Parks departments that's what you've been working with now over the years the requirement for the 53d revolving fund is that at the end of the year you look at the balance and anything that's above $10,000 is supposed to go to the general fund for whatever reason that has now built up to somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,000 plus or minus so the thought is to convert to a 53e and a half revolving fund which does not have a cap on how much can be in it at any given time the cap is how much you can spend now you you can't spend more than there but you can't spend more than the the cap so it's it's an either or kind of situation so we got a couple choices keep bumping along and that's something that frankly I'm not comfortable with I don't think this committee's right comfortable with Finance director chair I think we're all in general agreement that we don't want to continue that um or we do the conversion so the idea is to create a 53 and a half revolving fund uh and you can see all of the fees that would go into it user fees charges rental fees any receipt received as a result uh of the operation of the recreational programs and Facilities so if there's a rental for Marshall Park for an event or a swim program anything there goes goes into this then there's the limit on what it can be spent on uh payments to part-time employees if uh if that's what's chosen to do and I believe that's what you're doing now uh full-time employees and you don't have to pay the full-time salary you can pay a a portion of it uh material uh and outside vendors contractors uh you bring in an instructor for a program that kind of thing now the restriction on the expenses is this if they pay a part-time employee they must also pay their Medicare and Associated benefit costs out of this fund and if they pay a full-time employee but they pay them proportionately so much from the general fund so much from the revolving fund we have to look at that and is that 5050 6040 whatever it is and then you have to look at their benefits and pay 40% whatever that percentage is we pay those benefits as well so that the uh compensation paid out of the fund has the benefits paid out of the fund and we don't have the general fund covering that the second piece of this uh is to set the FY 25 spending limit at $777,000 I'm not exactly sure how the Parks Commission picked that but we will know by the time we get in front of you for the public hearing on the 24th um so I'm going to just make myself that note uh once it is established now you need to understand that when you pass a bylaw at the town meeting other than your salary Administration plan that has to go to the Attorney General's office they have up to 60 days to review it sometimes they'll ask for a little more time um this time of year they're usually a little bit faster because they don't have as many things coming at them and then the town clerk has to post it and once that's done it's effective so once that is effective we would then take the money that's in the 53d account and trans transfer it to the 53e and a half we haven't specified a number because we don't know exactly what that number will be they'll continue to spend until they can transfer it and there will continue to be some payments coming in and there'll be continue to be some interest added now once that money's transferred the fourth item is an automatic revocation of your acceptance of 53d so now it goes away it doesn't stay on the books and dissolving the revolving fund completely so now accounting wise in the next fiscal year that goes off the books as well it would have to be on the books for the closing of fy2 but after that that goes away now two wrinkles uh same wrinkle I mentioned earlier you can't establish revolving funds in the middle of the Year unless you can show you have a source of money if if do says what's the source of money does someone see that wait a minute this isn't supposed to have happened and you have to send that money back to the general fund um there really isn't any way around it I asked Town Council can we just forego it and Seed the the revolving fund with an appropriation uh and he was like no because the law is very clear on what you can put in there and initial appropriation is not one of the things you can put in it so we made the parks uh chair uh aware of that in our meeting earlier this week and I want to make the board aware of that risk as well I don't think it's a great risk uh but we believe we owe it to you to make sure that you understand the risk I I do believe that that fund is fairly low right now as it typically is after um a lot of the the beach um Personnel get paid out of that so uh this is the number I given but we will double check it and what was the number you were given I'm sorry what what was the number 77,000 75,000 but that's the max at a given year or that's the current that's what they believe is in it right now I'll double check with E and we'll have that for you on the 24th okay okay all right I I know we talked about this um few meetings back any any questions from the board on this one all right yeah this one has been actually talked about for several years um I know that for many reasons so I'm glad that this is the direction we're taken on it uh article 8 um will be adding to the draft we left it out that it was submitted by the architectural preservation District committee or or commission I'm not sure which that is uh and they're asking the town meeting to vote to request the select board to prepare a report and present the same to the 2025 annual town meeting that would have the intent of offering the building for sale or long-term lease and you can see the the six bullet points there which would include a consultation with the school department uh and others um I see a type over or two and we'll will be going you know through this as to make sure everything's all cleaned up um and there is a summary statement written by the apdc um okay I know a couple meetings um select board meetings back there was a discussion um on on this um Nathan Lockwood gave uh so if anyone wants to see the details from it that that is available um but in with that is there any questions from the board relative to this one so what we would do is if this passes uh we'll have the land use Department um take a look at zoning uh and based upon their knowledge prepare a a sketch plan that shows what might be done meet with schools meet with others have a public hearing perhaps uh a public meeting anyways yeah uh and then um present that report to the town meeting in the spring of 2025 there would then depending upon the actions that are needed uh there might be some survey monies that are needed legal monies that are needed other things uh so the report uh would contain the size of the appropriation needed if any to then take the next steps okay um from a financial standpoint it would be interesting to know what we think we might be able to get um from income if someone were to lease the the building um most likely uh you would get a land lease on it um I we'd have to do that as part of the study I I wouldn't want to I wouldn't want to guess on that okay if if you are to lease it I will just point out that you'll need special legislation to exceed the normal 10year lease limit contained in the statutes that's not impossible in fact Old City Hall in Pittsfield was done on a 99-year lease uh to the local bank um it's it's pretty common well let me say it's not uncommon it's not as good as Guinness all right um I understand why they're what um they're trying to do they it's a building they want to save it historical building it's in disrepair now um just looking at some of the expenses in order to to get it to to be in okay cost would be pretty expensive for the town um so if I think having the select board I mean they'd probably have to hire this out to have a a consultant do this kind of work for them but to come back with a hear the options and letting the town vote on it would be would be a good thing because it is something that the the town should have the right to say cuz there's a lot of issues in giving up an old building that whole area where all the library and all the schools are has been you know over the last 50 years been considered oh that's School area that's that's the towns area we're not going to let somebody else in there so um you know if we're going to change those things let the town make that decision so I think this is a process that's fine to to do that and uh I'd be very interested to see what uh what the select board or and other consultant comes up with as a as a uh as an alternative to what we're currently doing uh it would be my intent to have this done for the most part in house uh perhaps um some site plan sketches done by a good graphics person a landscape architect or something uh but I'm I'm not sure we'll need to employ a consultant to do the full study so this isn't requesting any money associated with that though no so you'd have to do it all within house there's no appropriate well we we have each one of us has a some funds either for you know grants or um expenses in our accounts I I think we can do this inhouse for the most part all right but it's not requesting any money at this point in time the study would identify if money is needed if the suggestion is to sell a parcel of land we're going to have to survey that and and identify it if easements are needed because the road in there is on the school on the property owned by the town for the schools um those easements are going to have to be prepared so that prospective purchasers know what they're getting we're going to have to do a good title search so we know exactly are there any restrictions um but the report to be delivered at the annual town meeting would and and should identify what those costs are so we can get an appropriation at that point in time if the town meeting decides it wants to proceed okay is that building occupied at all right now uh it is currently used for what we would refer to as dead storage uh it is entered several times uh during the course of the week uh We've instructed the uh facilities director to make sure there's a a clipboard there with all the appropriate slots for the fellas checking the building to initial off um so that we can uh make sure the insurance company knows that it is in active use for dead storage and we can avoid uh the problem of having to put it on a surplus property lines um but dead storage is all it is at this point uh and um essentially it's it's it's going to be mothballed uh to try to reduce the few operating costs that we do have so what are they storing in there uh school department has some records in there facilities department has some records in there so basically paper filings yeah yep but again we'll get you better answers for the 24th all right mean I have my own opinions on this house and TC pass iOS that they're demolition is my preference um squ matches if that thing burns down I don't want to be blamed that could be that could be the outcome of of the report that says that is you know it if if the if the select board comes back and says that it has you know whatever very limited commercial value and the cost to do it would be too expensive then the town could make the decision that okay we're going to just tear it down and plow it over and you know that would be it I mean it wouldn't be something that everybody would be excited about but financially it might be the best move for the town at at this time we've already tried to sell it for a dollar and have somebody move it away that's already been tried and that didn't work yeah probably not practical reasonable but the way housing is you know the shortage and housing in real estate is is a residential home it probably has value even if it needs work this is for commercial though right or is it commercial and or residential I don't know how is it zoned well I think the study would look at all of all of that all right yeah I would not be in favor of leasing it yeah I guess to some extent can't the select board just do this anyways why do they need a warrant for it just to see that the town is actually they could direct us to undertake this under their own authority uh but this is when the warrant was open and I want to remind everybody the warrant's always open um this was an article submitted by the apdc Yeah okay and we worked with them on language to come up with an approach that met their needs and yet met the test of Statute in our view also okay all right any other questions or comments all right great um article 9 so th this is really sort of the biggest change uh set of changes if you will uh over the few months I've been here and the many months preceding me uh there's been a lot of conversation by this community about the challenge in recrui ining employees and to some degree and retaining employees uh if you watch the school committee uh two meetings ago they had a similar conversation in the challenge of filling all of their par professional positions and a number of other positions and as we've watched the news and read the blurbs on the internet Nationwide this has been been a challenge this is probably the most challenging job market in in my career so uh we did a couple of things one was uh we held some listening sessions with our employees uh I held one at the public safety building for police and fire and we held here one here in town hall uh for uh the balance of the employees those meetings Drew about 40 plus or minus people 40 45 of our employees attended this uh and they shared with us uh both their concerns which range from they don't like the process they have to go through to get reimbursed for expenses they may have put out um to we need better standard operating procedures so that people that come in can just you know sort of grab that manual and work with it uh to if they have a part-time employee that works on a holiday but has two jobs can't just switch their day they're out money that week uh so we went through and we have a a report on that um and we also solicited emails one-on-one conversations took everything that we heard in those listening sessions uh and applied experiences in other communities and what we thought uh was needed in today's Marketplace so the other challenge that we have is the process itself couple of the provisions in the current salary ad Administration plan require formal action by the Personnel Committee in an open public session that adds time to the process as well meanwhile we lose an employee because the time telescopes out about how long it takes us to to deal with it so we're proposing some changes which hopefully uh will had a full staff Personnel committee we don't want to disrespect them in any way we want to include them in the process uh so hopefully we've struck upon an approach which maintains that committee a role for that committee and yet shortens up the time and the need for public uh exposure of potential employees who haven't yet been hired to having their name in public and the like so the first proposal is to change the name for new Personnel to be new Personnel compensation and increases and the increase will come up in a moment and it would change it such that all employees shall be hired at the minimum of the rate range of the job for which the new employee is hired unless the town manager after consultation with the chair of the Personnel committee and so so I still have to communicate I've got to pick up the phone I got to send him an email the Personnel committee chairman can then report to the committee at an upcoming meeting but it doesn't require this you know 72 hours can you be available can we do a meeting you can see how that would help save some time authorizes paying the employee at a higher step due to the employees qualifications and experience or market conditions item D is an addition one of the things that was suggested was a recognition program so what we've suggested here uh is a merit award program in which in addition to any pay increase that someone might get as a step increase um or under their con whatever it is the town manager would solicit nominations from fellow employees department heads citizens at large volunteer committees such as yourself in one of three categories the first would be Communications displays a commitment to assisting the public in transparency in government including but not limited to improving Andor devising new ways to communicate information within the organization and the public at large the first person to win this award in the community that which this was first introduced was an executive assistant in one of the offices who said you know I prepare these packages for my board every two weeks and I send them out what about if I scan them and put them on the Internet and then citizens could see them all the same information the select Board gets other than the confidential materials they could even follow along during the meeting not a bad idea that was the first award winner nice efficiency displays a commitment to ensureing we operate professionally and efficiently by stepping up and stepping in to undertake nominal cross training in Mission critical functions the folks the one folk that uh won that had their job description revised within that unit so that they learned the the critical functions of the building inspector they were the planning board and Board of Health executive but we took those functions and broke out the ones you know sort of the if anus Tak out by the bus tomorrow you know the elements that must go on must happen and we broke those job descriptions apart put them back together so that different employees in that unit could step in and do the basic critical service to get that agenda posted get that uh special permit application stamped in in time get that legal notice out and the third was Pinnacle of el of Excellence displays of willingness to make extraordinary efforts in the ongoing Improvement of the organization assisting other staff members and and you can read that I'm I'm not going to read that at length but the person who won that award that year had uh been given a brand new Department uh the build inspector was in one place in the building the planning board was someplace else the Conservation Commission everybody was spread around and we took those different staff and put them into one common area and the person created what was called the development and inspectional services so anything related to land use buildings use of the buildings health code septic all of those were now in that one unit and uh that staff member took on putting kind of pulling that together together and making that a cohesive unit um and it really turned out very very well uh so those are the three people would nominate folks in one of those three categories uh and um there would only be one award in each category and if there weren't uh sufficient uh members uh nominations then um the manager would not make an award uh people it's it's a nominal amount $250 and a certificate that goes into their folder um it's often done at a you know whether it's a a recognition launch in or a a you know spring employee hamburgs hot dogs and I I don't know which vegetarian burger there would be uh but I think you get the idea uh and it's been very well received where it was introduced are there any questions on that particular thought no I think I think it's a good idea uh the second is recruitment incentives so right now someone comes to work for you they don't get any time and even if they get some time they can't use it for 6 months um that can be very challenging so this would be uh in a time of extremely low unemployment a discipline specific shortage of qualified applicants or recruitment challenges posed by the town's wage structure we are not in the upper tier we're a little bit lower uh the town manager could Grant someone an initial deposit of 5 days of leave time we would claw that back as they earned new leave time but that way you know we get a mom we get a dad we get a retired person who um has a a sick child or needs to take someone uh to the doctors or such there would be some leave time there for them uh and basically what we're doing is frontloading their bank and then we claw it back over the first number of of months um it's a very small incentive but it's it's hopeful that that would be a a little thing we could put on the table for people why don't we just give them the entire years of as a matter of course and just let them earn it throughout the year that's how it works at my business um January some towns do something like this that I've written it for and they've done 10 days um I think that the the staff thought that uh when I say the staff a lot of these things have been bounced around a full staff meeting with the department heads there um thought that uh 5 days was what we could get through town meeting well I mean why don't we just it kind of says that it's up to the town manager on a case like why don't we just do it as a matter of course i' I'd be happy to I'll talk with the select board about that Tuesday night and see what their inclination is sure I mean I do think that that's very challenging that if you are starting a new job you know to not have any time off it it is it is challenging and I have heard that complaint from members of the you know of the of the town so I I'll be happy to take up your Viewpoint with the select board on on Tuesday night okay and then you know I know we don't have a Personnel committee um but we did have a Personnel committee who put a lot of time and effort into a lot of these things has anyone consulted with former members of that committee for their own thoughts on things I have not okay I I can try to find out who they were and reach out to them over the coming few days I don't have any familiarity with who they were how to contact them but I I can do that on Tuesday Chris it may be just an idea cuz they thought through a lot of this stuff I think through over the years and would have a good post I will um do that on Tuesday I'll reach out to those I can okay uh the next item is we've had a a strong request from the uh part-time employees to receive uh pror vacation holiday and sickle uh so this would provide pror of vacation to all employees except those in a classification of intermittent or seasonal now we do have a change to the definition of intermittent uh that we will show you when we um get to that and I have calculated I I don't want to sugarcoat this this will have a lost time impact upon the town we have to weigh that lost time impact against trying to recruit and retain people um that's going to become a judgment call that can't be done quantitatively that's really going to be done subjectively and qualitatively if you will the uh there are no changes on the next page the next change is on top of page G uh the next page of paragraph G uh and what this says is that all employees except those in a classification of intermittent or seasonal will receive paid vacation in according with the schedule above provided however that the town manager May award a new employee a higher acral of vacation leave in recognition of the employees qualifications and experience and market conditions but it can't be more than 3 weeks so let me let me share with you the challenge this actually worked well for me in one Community where I did not lose somebody now I'll give you an example I had a Board of Health agent who'd been with the town uh that I was managing at the time for five weeks or for five uh to the point where he had earned five weeks of vacation leave he had an opportunity to go another town larger Town more pay nicer digs and then they told him he had to start at the bottom at a week's vacation in year one and in year two he could get two weeks and he says I'm I'm not leaving my job for no can you do something for me and they said nope that's the bylaw we have a land use director we just hired with 25 years of experience in exactly the job we hired them for in municipalities it is challenging to hire people that way so what we would be able to do is say to somebody okay you have 12 years you're getting four weeks of vacation right now I can't do that but I get you three and I can put you at this point where you will now ACR time and by the time you've been here 3 years or four years you'll be back to where you were or you know we we' apply that scale depending upon how long they' actually been in their job and was it discipline specific uh this would help address the challenge in recruiting seasoned professionals uh there's there's no real cost to this one if you will so the only issue I would see is that this gets voted in and someone who just got hired last year is like well what about me yeah yeah right there could be some real resentment Factor associated with that yeah some yeah someone's already in the position yep that that that unfortunately can happen um whenever you change the rules there's always somebody that's not always often someone who's on one side of the rule and somebody on the other side of the rule um automotive industry if you were hired before X under the Union contract you got paid at the old rates new hires got paid at the the new rates it it is a challenge um I can say in my time with you and for a one-year look back I'm not sure that this would have been problematic because uh there is one of the positions that by Statute you were able to contract so that person got 3 weeks because you could contract with them um I I'm not sure how to work our way around it other than to recognize someone could potentially say well wait a minute I got hired 3 years ago and I had to start at the bottom and it's never a if it's a good idea it's never it's never as management you have to do what's right for the long term of the organization if this is the right thing for the organization that's the cost you pay is that there's going to be someone who two years ago was hired and going to be looking back and you know that's a management thing you talk to that person and say I understand that I totally understand but you know this is why we're doing it now and please understand that's how how we're doing it it's just it's a discussion that you have on a case-by Case basis but if it's a good thing to do for the organization then you do it and you deal with the negatives the cons of it on a case-by casee basis so I I I do agree that you might have you probably will have somebody that's the what about me kind of thing why didn't I get that well that's just the way it is yeah it's and you know it's that's life is like that I bought my house 20 years ago why did I get it so cheap ver versus somebody who's buying it today you know well that's just the way it is everything's like that so this would not give you the ability if someone was thinking of leaving the town the flexibility to say Hey what if I gave you an extra week I'm frankly not sure I would want that flexibility I mean if somebody wants to leave you you talk with them about why what might change what conditions might improve but I'm not sure you necessarily want to get into bargaining um that that really becomes a what about me you know um I I just see those I mean we have a lot of new employees that are going to feel that hey this could put in I'm not sure you have as many new employees as you as you think you may have there's been a lot of conversation about churn within the organization but if you sit here and look at the roster you know how long's Mr Bernard been with you now how long's Chris Ruth been with you now M mcquade's been here almost a year now time time has moved on and I think that to a a great deal it's it's not quite what some people have thought it was in terms of turnover it's I won't deny it's challenging mhm uh but I'm not sure you've had quite the churn that uh some folks think you have have you talked have you talked to the the management level here about you you know direct reports your direct reports now about this proposed changes were actually circulated to over 80 before we circulated this um we collected all of our notes we distributed that to the select board in a weekly report we discussed that within Town Department uh Town department heads talked about should it be this should it be that did get feedback and then circulated uh the vast majority of these other than some minor tweaking here and there after Town Council uh reviewed them to 80 plus employees and solicited any comments from them we did get one set of comments which we're addressing now um but we did not receive any other comments uh negative or or positive from that distribution list of uh roughly 80 employees we are TR trying to be as inclusive and collaborative as we can be while recognizing at the end of the day it is my name that has to go on the memo and we are management right uh if there are some thoughts about how we handle prior employees just feel free to shoot me an email individually uh over the next few days and and we'll take a squint at it uh any other questions on that section no uh the next one is that uh all persons employed by the town except those in a classification of intermittent or seasonal would now receive holiday pay for the holiday they were regularly scheduled to work for the number of hours they were regularly scheduled to work there is a Prohibition uh against them or a supervisor are changing the day that they work so if it's a Monday holiday but they don't regularly work Mondays no no you you you can't change the schedule to now be on the schedule for Monday so you can get paid for the holiday or if you work Mondays Wednesdays and Thursdays but the holiday falls on Tuesday you you can't change your schedule from Wednesday to Tuesday to get paid for the holiday uh the other thing is uh you can't change your day to have extra pay so if it's 19 hours during the week you're going to get 19 hours you can't say Well normally I work on Monday but that was a holiday so I'll come in on Tuesday and then get holiday pay plus that so there is some loss of time and some productivity but we do have to measure uh the Goodwill of our employees uh what we think's a fairness issue against that loss uh of hours and we can talk to you about all of those hours if you like once we get through all of the the items um the floating holiday that all regular employees get and um part-time what are would now become called part-time B employees for benefits the part-time a employees those who work less than 20 hours a week would not be eligible for the floating holiday so it would be those that are established by name in the sap we would extend sickle on a proportional basis to the uh regularly scheduled employees as well and we would add a provision for a townwide sickle Bank there is no sickly bank at present there are some oneoff circumstances in which a department perhaps has someone that is in need of additional sick leave and they get permission I I guess in a one-off situation from the town manager y okay find everybody else can throw in some sickle time that they have the idea is to remove it from being oneoff situations and to set it up townwide uh so so you would join the bank with an initial contribution I don't know exactly what that would be right now uh because this gives the select board the authority to establish all the rules of the game if you will by policy and then once a year after that you would contribute some more uh and if the bank doesn't you could be eligible for 20 days and then a subsequent 20 days most likely uh and then if the bank were to run out of time there'd be a voluntary call for all employees could contribute whether they were members or not so you can only draw if you're a member of the sickly bank but anybody can contribute uh on a call situation um this now removes it from being oneoff and what I would refer to as potential favoritism into a singular C ified sickly bank for all employees so the potential cost to the town is if someone who has sick time and is not using it contributes to someone who doesn't have sick time and would go unpaid the select board would have approximately 7 months for the staff to submit a draft policy in consultation with the Personnel committee if if that gets fully restaff uh and then review it and adopt it just related to sick leave in general um because I see the we pay out sick leave at the time of retirement yeah there's a formula that you have does the town have like a um like do they calculate how much we owe with we're required to calculate how much we potentially owe uh into account for that uh on the the balance sheet in in our accounts I don't know how much that's valued at right now some some towns actually have an account for it and um seed it with actual Appropriations others just calculate the amount uh and then carry it on their uh accounts I'd have to ask aie what what your practice is here but I believe you just calculate it and put it on the account I'd be interested in seeing what that what that balance calculation comes up to uh that would have to be as of FY 23 whenever it is yeah I mean I'm just looking for the ballpark of [Music] it and that's probably the same in most of our um bargaining units is that yes so I'm assuming that's fairly High I'd have to look at what the formulas were okay but again we'll we'll have that for you for the 24th I don't know if I need it for the 24th but we'll get it for you all right uh definitions the definitions change uh so that uh the part-time employee a now becomes those people who work fewer than 20 hours a week part-time employee B benefits comes from those who work more than 20 hours per week as you know the statute defines an employee for the purpose of health insurance retirement and other benefits as someone who works 20 hours a week or more so our part-time employee a uh would not be eligible for retirement health insurance none of that it's only part-time employ be employees uh We've also made a suggested change to the definition of intermittent employ employee that had previously been meant to someone who worked less than 20 hours a week but our our thought was that that really isn't what intermittent means in the normal usage of the word so we've changed it to be someone who works on an irregular or occasional basis without a pre-arranged schedule and is compensated only for the time they work um and then the vacation and sickly form and the seasonal employees um remain all the same the balance of those definitions remain all the same uh finally is the proposed addition to the code of Chapter 70 section 30 which would be employment contracts right now the statute has a wide range of people you can contract with police Chiefs Fire Chiefs Finance people assessors treasure collectors accountants Town managers and that's where it ends you can't give a contract to a land use director DPW director build inspector under the specifically authorized statutes this would add a provision to your local bu laws that would now allow you to enter into those kinds of employment contracts who just explain again like who would be could it be anyone or like what uh no it's it's basically department heads land use director DPW director Council on Aging director if need be uh and the maximum is um 3 years and the contract has to be approved by the select board all right I'll have to read and that really goes to the why me what about me because you have a finance person that enters and you can give them a contract for 3 years but you have a land juice director that comes in you can't you have a assessor who comes in and you can give them a contract but right now you can't give a contract to your DPW director so this would now put department heads on a level field across the board so this would be for a for a a um let's say somebody who is a manager type and within the guides that set up the the the grade that they're in or whatever and uh their benefit package that the town is agreeing you know as we just talked about the sick leave and all that um so what would be the what would be in the contract beyond that would it be um bonuses or what termination without cause right okay so they performance standards you can move to a merit pay increase system as opposed to steps so I've had situations in which I've had department heads um earn 12% and 0% so it's it's more of a management approach than it is a test of I I don't want to be disrespectful to the sap in any fashion but I think right now we're um in some of our positions we're on more of a pay increase for longevity as opposed to pay increase for performance and I I like all your department heads I think they're great people I don't I don't want this to come across the wrong way but I think this moves us to more of a management approach and it moves us to three-year terms as opposed to employment for Life dismissal for cause only I guess my initial reaction is that I'm in agreement with you I'll have to maybe think about it and um it is giving the town manager a great deal of Power Authority they do have the select board who gets to to kind of ratify it but it does uh gives them more control over the direct reports that they have these these would probably be all direct reports for the town manager so these would so they could incent them to I really want to get this done over the next three years because we need to get it done so you know you're going to get a big salary increase if you do that and or you're going to get this or that or whatever my director who uh um took that one department and really smashed everything all together that I spoke of I think they got a 6% pay raise that year um another director who didn't meet performance standards at all got a zero they weren't very happy the good news was they were still employed right there's pluses and minuses to it but I think that it moves us to more of a management approach in terms of pay raises and expectations where do we Define where the department heads are I'm not looking for a definition of department head but where is it codified who are department heads like what's what's to stop a town manager saying like I want a party department head and I'm going to hire a I mean I'm just making up sure sure I mean I thought they're pretty well laid out in your in your Charter everything is in your bylaws okay the uh difference being um the ability of the Town manager to submit a reorganization plan first to the select board and then after a series of hearings to the town meeting uh recently um when you did the consolid validation for I think the land juice director the the most recent director I remember is facilities director being added and I I only remember establishing a line item in the budget did we do any thing in the charter or bylaw or anything that said that Chris's role is now a department head well that's a good question I I guess that it does say for all department heads what's you know as long as there's a somewhere there's a definition of those people if it's uh and it's defined and not at the whim of the Town manager then that would that would be a better let me just say that nothing is at the whim of the Town manager uh because that contract has to be submitted to the select board for ratification in fact every employee in town right down to the seasonal labor who's going to help mow the grass has to be submitted to the select board for ratification so just there are some folks in town who believe there's been a lot of consolidation of power to the select board and the town manager okay that's just a Prevail it's an opinion shared by a lot of folks in town so I just want to kind of think through that are we further consolidating power in that into those offices I I think it might be a good idea but I just want to AB absolutely I mean you you need to make your judgment calls just where's the checks and balances on things right I always believe in we're set up as checks and balances right the town manager appoints a police chief and can execute a contract have has to be submitted to the select board fire chief Finance director a number of those are already by Statute with or without a charter yeah under the authority of the the select board okay I'm I'm not sure what the local issues would be and I'd prefer to stay aloof from all of it if I might yeah I I I understand okay any other questions on that uh so the next one may actually move um I just now realized that normally I group the acceptance of State statutes together uh so this one may move and you may see uh at your public hearing same number of articles but a a mild renumbering are you moving on to 11 I am unless there's other questions on yeah let me just um I know we did ask some questions along the way are there any other questions related to article 10 um there's a lot in there to be honest with you yeah there's a lot to review in that one um and I'm sure Jay you've heard a lot about some of these issues over the dining room table over the year so I'm interested in your opinions as we go [Music] into I I do want to be upfront there will be a loss of hours uh on the job if we adopt these benefits for our part-time employees who are working less than 20 hours a week and you'll have to weigh in your own minds whether or not you think that loss of time on the computer keyboard um is offset by a better recruitment atmosphere and a better morale within the workforce sure personally I think it is but that's why you all are here is to apply the your thought processes to the costs of what we propose and the methods that we propose yeah there's some companies that are going to unlimited paid time off I would I mean frankly kill I'm not sure about unlimited but a single PTO system oh please the simplification of the recordkeeping under that approach is just so much easier than trying to calculate personal time sick leave vacation time a single PTO number I would be highly in favor of moving to a single PTO for the town only if for no other reason than the liability that comes at the end of the the ACR of all the sick time and stuff yeah give them more PTO along the way let them manage whether they're sick or not what that also happen does just I I don't want to get off too much on the subject here but what that also does is that for our um younger employees who perhaps are in Better Health but have families younger kids and such um and are going to come to work for us with only a week or two weeks vacation well they've also earned some what would have been sick time under the old system now they have more time for PTO and they're in good health and they feel okay but I can take that 3 we vacation in the middle of the summer um and on the other side of it perhaps folks that are um well I'm 74 so what can I say starting to age out you know and you got to go get the knee repl you got to do this and you got to do that um but I don't need to take a 3-we vacation cuz it's the Summer and the kids have to go someplace you know so it provides much more flexibility across a wider r range of employee and it's so much simpler for uh payroll because you just it's so many hours every pay period period end of story One Bank um yeah and I know that's not what this article is about but I do think that some serious consideration should be going towards that kind of any other questions on the sap I know there could be quite a bit in there okay I don't see any all right thank you so article 11 I'm going to kind of put in the bucket of the parks revolving fund the state statute that you've adopted allows certain exemptions for elderly and and others and there were statutory limits when you adopted those over time town meeting has increased those limits but you never adopted the provisions of Statute that let you do that so there are three specific provisions of Statute that let you do what you've been doing this article would now correct that and in the next fiscal year going going forward you'll be able to start those increases again you currently have 21 people taking uh making use of these programs two of them will not be able to get this benefit for this fiscal year it's unfortunate the good news for them is no one's going to try to claw back previously granted exemptions what happened happened but going forward upon adoption of these statutes and we did an exhaustive search uh and and many thanks to your town clerk for digging through the records uh in conjunction with the assessor also the Department of Revenue maintains a Data Bank of all sections of Statute that have been adopted by cities and towns they have no record of it being adopted either uh so so this uh will correct that okay question I'm sorry I didn't mean to any questions on that one we can have the assessor uh at your public hearing if you'd like you let us know who you want there and and we'll we'll have them there for you do you think we need would you like them I guess yeah I'd like an explanation what what is this doing okay yeah let let's do that uh article 12 we've had a request for the chair of the budget task force and the chair of the lunenberg municipal building design committee to make a verbal report the meeting would have to vote as to whether or not to allow them do that I'm told those would be less than 10 minutes a piece uh Article 13 you've never been to our town meetings I'm sorry you've never been to our town meetings I'm only reporting what I've been told all right I make no judgment on the veracity of it uh Article 13 is Marshall Park improvements um I I really can't speak to it I believe the park commission has asked you to to be able to make a presentation to you or to the meeting or they're going to come on the 24th okay um and they were meeting tonight as well on this so I I leave that to them article 14 is a citizen petition uh I'm assuming that if Article 13 passes uh that it'll be passed over I would agree all right any questions on 13 or 14 or anything that you want to um give heads up to Anita that you'd be looking for associated with [Applause] [Music] these all right for $5 Milli 5 million is the yep is what is in there they want to borrow $5 million yep uh Article 13 has been reviewed for Bond Council so by Bond Council so it is at least you know correct great uh this warrant is now um I've made some few notes I've caught a typo or a formatting issue as we walk through it here uh it is with our Town Council for a final um squint he's been through it twice we've been through it with labor Council on the sap uh changes um this will go before the select board for a vote on Tuesday evening and I'm assuming from what I heard earlier that with respect to the finance committee recommendation they will all be made at town meeting we'll do it beforehand and then but in terms of printing this booklet yep okay y yep I just in terms of the booklet if anyone's looking to save money I did suggest to the budget task force you consider a amendment to your Charter which would allow us to mail out a postcard that this booklets now available online and physically you know here the library and such um it would save you several thousand a year uh and um today many people go to the the internet for their information right not everybody but it would be not everyone but many not everybody uh what we've what we've done in in some communities when we've transitioned away from a program in instance um in one Community the city actually went into your backyard and picked up your garbage cans and took them to the curb for you 13 employees were paid to do that and they did away with it but what they did was for uh folks with a mobility issue um they could make an application and we kept one person on staff who took care of those folks we could have a similar issue where folks that don't have internet or have mobility issues uh could make a request and we could mail it to them mailing 100 as opposed to mailing a couple thousand does have potential the other thing that it does is it lets us bring down the timeline uh give us a little more time because we don't have to have the booklet uh off to the printer we don't have as much many things we have to do so it's something to think about you said that was a charter change though it would require a charter change the requirement to mail them out and to have it happen so far in advance of the meeting is is in your Charter okay and I know at least one former member who's on the screen is in favor of a charter review so I'll put that plug in for him but has he been to the Cider House Restaurant yeah would have to ask um all right any final questions for Carter I think this was a a good overview um and we will have another shot at this in 2 weeks to review and have public hearing and so if there are some Finance terms you would like in the booklet let me know if you don't have any but you would like me to draft some let me know um if you have any additional questions or you have you know I've tried to make some notes Here uh or you have specific people you would like to be present for the 24th just let us no okay um and even once you have all your recommendations done we'll make sure they get up on the website as quickly as possible um so the question on maybe this was talked about at the last meeting the financial terms um I think Carter's prior booklets had financial terms associated with it I don't recall if ours do like what does it mean for a revolving account what is a um you know this that or the other yeah what's what's overlay what's free cash um you know some basic terms I you know if you want to I don't know if you use them or not I I don't know we do and I'm not sure everyone understands them I mean most people don't even understand prop 2 and a half um as you're probably aware but um I I I mean I think if you pick out the ones that are in here and just give them a definition for this round that would probably be beneficial uh I'll run it by you com yeah I would ask you to do that if you okay I I am on fairly short turnaround I know you're busy yeah um but I'll try to get you something by Tuesday okay I'm good with whatever you put in there for him quite honestly okay yeah I don't want to step out of bounds I I mean you you guys good with that too I mean yeah yeah I mean yeah the more information to the community the better do you like the summ approach that we've included is that something you normally do or uh yeah we do not normally have a summary do you like that approach I I would also say it's worth considering not printing the entire um article planning board article and cuz it has been in there three times already in just summarizing I I'll ask the select board to because there are a lot of towns that just print the headings and then let somebody know where they can get the full print out cuz I think it's five or six pages yeah it I do think all the the the um salary and um amendments article 9 is probably worth printing as is just because that is a new yeah we started out by just including the paragraphs that were going to have changes and be added and then people well what you know so we realized we had to include the bulk of it for people to really see what was happening sure yep okay is there anything else we can uh do for you tonight um tonight I any no thank you thank you for your time have a good evening chance and a nice holiday weekend okay um uh old business um I don't know if you guys all have the agenda includes budget presentation template Mart Grant split tax rate discussion um any interest in discussing any of those okay um Town manager search committee update uh we met on Monday um the town manager um requisition was was posted to the MMA there's a link from the MMA to a four page uh I thought it was a really good um overview of of lunenberg and the positions and expectations and stuff like that I think the the group did a great job on pulling that together um we had only minor at best comments associated with that um we're going to meet I'm going to forget my dates but um resumés are due on I think the 8th of November we're going to meet a couple weeks after that uh everything from here on up will be done in executive session to whittle that list down to who the screening committee wants to meet with and then in early December we will have the screening committee IES interviews of those candidates to provide the list that goes on to um the select board for for their interviews the only uh names that will ever come out of that process are the ones that go to the select board so we're targeting probably like six or so that will go to um the screening committee interviews and three or so is the is The Sweet Spot on going to the to the select board um so I you know I think On Target to have the select board interviews hopefully late December early January and then have a a town manager in January I think there might be a gap in there and it's going to be interesting with budget seizing I mean the person's going to come on um and Carter's going to have to and our Charter does limit I think to six months so um I I do think a recommendation coming out of this is you know we got this committee together and we we kind of stumbled a little bit on how to how to do things we probably need to write down what our recommendations are for the next time a a committee like this comes in play you know for example this this um consultant has been fabulous I I think that should just be standard course that we you know upon hearing that a uh Town manager is stepping down we we hire a consultant and we establish the board so that we don't lose that time but those those are my thoughts at this point not the Committees so all right uh any any questions on that when's the when's the deadline for Middle resumes oh um November 8th I think y yeah I think it was the eth yeah sounds like you're moving right along that's good that's really so four weeks yep I think it was like four weeks yeah all right um budget task force um I I guess Jean you're the alternate right for the budget task force do you have anything related to that uh no I wasn't able to um do the zoom meeting so I'm going to look on um YouTube and then I can update next week okay all right yep okay thank you um I don't grant writing services I don't don't think we have any need to talk on that that was something Evan was working on he was going to contact a company regarding that okay also yeah the budget presentation template we went over that in the last meeting um I don't know if we got the a final sample from Evan um I have not had any conversations with Evan I've reached out to him a couple times but he I've not had the chance to talk with them so if anyone has anything on that um let me know where it is I did miss that last meeting I yeah I don't know where it is I okay I I'll I'll try to get to Evan again on consolidation of services departments you know um for for consideration you know the school uh facilities director has resigned um if there's ever a time for consolidation of services I think facilities is the one we've always talked about um I I I think the school committee may have already posted a requisition on that but it would I would I I would highly encourage thinking about a single facilities director across both isn't that a is that a CH Charter change is that required Charter change I would assume that the schools does not the charter probably does not call out the facilities director and the schools so and I don't think we did a charter change when we established the facility you know director on the municipal side so I mean we don't have a real say in it but I I do think that there's efficiencies in that and I think um I don't know I to me it would be a good move for the town [Music] but okay um minutes I I did not get a chance to to see where we are on um minutes I'll have to I'll have to get that I did have a note from um Dave from when he was still on the commission of a an update to the September 11th or something minutes so I passed those on um for inclusion Mr chair can I make one comment I think I gave you the wrong date I I think that was actually the uh August 28th meeting I was looking at that uh August 20 second meeting I'm sorry okay little confused okay I'm sure we'll figure it out thank you good thank you um all right committee reports let me just go around the horn Jean any committee reports okay Tom um I attended a um a u Zoom meeting on Project 211 which um I'm not sure it was run by U Regional school committee group uh but I think uh our representative um Scarsdale was part of it he gave the opening speech and project 211 is 211 of the 3 something uh districts are getting the hold harmless amount of money on Chapter 70 as we are in town and um basically what I got out of the meeting was that the way they calculate Chapter 70 which the people on this committee has seen and maybe many people in town have seen various different presentations it's a bunch of formulas and they explained that it was created in 1992 uh and it was probably good back then but it's not good now and one of the things that's hurting towns like us and Regional uh areas is that um the enrollment of students has shrunk even though we're growing as a town our enrollment is probably going down and many others are and it's they they um the state basically gives you more credit more money the the better you're run the more perfect you are as a town so you need X number of students per per uh uh school and this and that and if you don't meet those criteria you don't get as much money and because all the towns are not are not meeting some of those requirements they're not getting them so what they want to do is to go back and look at those calculations and I think as our chairman our new chairman has has talked about over the years that these these calculations are olded and they should be redone and should be looked at uh at at the way things are now and and you should the the intent is to um give more money or to encourage local districts to do the right things whatever that right things are um and to discourage them from not doing the right things and uh rewarding them with more money if they do the right things so um that is still what they want to do but they just want to change the formulas around it's not clear to me how that will work and how that will uh uh if that's even possible um but if 21 of the 3 you know 16 or whatever the number is 61 or districts are just getting the bare minimum increase every year there's probably an appetite for it uh Statewide so I think that's a good um I um I'm on the list so I'll I I don't know if other people uh will get uh invited to these but I will I will I will continue to go to them and I'll let anybody who wants to know about them I'll I'll pass on their email address so that they can get it too it's um I didn't participate other than listen to it but it was uh it was a education and uh a good sign that um at least some people are listening to towns like us cuz there were a lot of towns like us okay thank you did Municipal design meet um I was away and then unavailable for a while I think there was some meetings but I couldn't attend it okay I I did see a couple emails back and forth between our chairman and uh but I I I didn't really would they going over the RFP I think that was a lot of what that was discussed but I really didn't have a lot I was very busy with other things and I couldn't do it but I I just kind of glanced over a couple of letters I can um I did let our chairman of that committee know because I missed a couple of meetings that and I I just wasn't available that I am available uh into and so if there are other meetings I hopefully will be invited to those because I I do want to keep the finance committee informed of what's going on there and also you know have a some input on it too well and it says there's going to be a report at this me yeah I I I know our chairman has been asked been wanting to do that he wanted to do that last year and um uh at the last uh at the annual meeting but he he couldn't make it so I think maybe this is I don't know I again I I when I saw that I wasn't surprised to see it but I'm not sure what the expectation is I can find out more okay and all right Dave did you have any Dave J uh I I watched um was the sewer SE commission the other day on the video they um whoever the business manager they hired only lasted like a week and left um they've interviewed uh the DPW director and some of them commission members interviewed a second person who they liked and I think they were going to check references and then uh the next meeting make a decision they're going to offer a job or not so and they're still looking for an assistant the sewer business manager but they want to hire the sewer business manager first okay all right and then um so for mine we also had Capital planning um yesterday last night uh and the police came in with with theirs um so um the primary things are um police cruisers this year I think next year there was um radios um and then the only other thing is they are looking for additional space which would be in the facility's budget but um on that second floor additional office space and I think they've talked about that in the past at least that Capital planning I forget if they've talked about it here um is that unfinished now is that is that second floor is that it's like partially finished it was described as being like 3/4 finished um but they would need like drop ceilings and some cubical set up and something like that so so we'll see when uh Chris does his uh we we'll see that um I mentioned earlier Parks is is meeting tonight um to finalize um the uh warrant article that they originally had wanted to have that the Springtown meeting but um Heather was too kind of busy I think with other other issues at the time so it got pushed off and I think that that's all I had um let's see what's next uh topics for future meetings um is there anything pressing on anyone's mind other than the next couple meetings focusing on special town meeting think that's job one for the next until till the meeting yeah okay um there was some dates in here MMA annual town finance committee annual meeting on 11:2 if anyone wants to go they it is reimbursable special town meeting on the 12th at 7 um I know I had thrown out there in the email the potential of meeting next week but um seeing as we got this week's in um I'd recommend that we we just hold to the the 24th with the 7th if if necessary um but so our next meeting would be on the on the 24th all right um public comment is there any public comment from the public Dave hey CHR um yes a couple of things I'm pretty EXC excited about uh what's being brought forward a town meeting uh you know through the budget season last year and going into uh special town meeting I'm sorry going into Springtown meeting and the issues that were starting to come out with the employees and the benefits and all of that uh many of us made the comment that we were still in the 18th century with uh those benefits and it's exciting to hear what's being done already and uh your comment about uh PTO I think is very appropriate the whole rest of the world operates on a PTO process and it's much simpler and I believe much fair so uh exciting to hear that uh one thing I would like you guys to uh consider at some point here in the near future I was the reaon of the DPW and I think it's important that you get somebody on board uh to communicate with the DPW director especially as you're heading into uh the winter months uh so that you're aware of uh challenges as they come forward uh with that department um I think that's about it for me for this evening thank you all right thanks Dave all right I don't see any other public [Music] um any public comment from the committee I'll go around the horn maybe Jean any public comment no okay no no Jay so we have three vacancies we do have three vacancies um so hopefully we get one filled next week there is a appointment meeting for that um I think on Tuesday so maybe next time we'll have at least 5 but then even if that happens we will have two um and if anyone wants to come out of retirement um that's been on this board before that would even be a bigger bonus right so and I do not have any public comment um I would entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second all right uh roll call Jean I um Tom I Jay I and I for myself we are adjourned thank you thank you