recording in kiss the recording in progress you good Dave Dave I am now okay all right good evening it is 7 pm on Thursday April 11th 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 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 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 items on this agenda should make plans for in-person 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 attached to the agenda on the town website from a telephone dial the toll-free number 888 44754 499 and enter webinar ID 814 1681 8974 this agenda lists all the 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 you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all are there any announcements from the committee this evening nope excellent we're back to our usual attendance too are there any public comment from the public see none is there any public comment from the committee the only one that I have is that we still have yet to get back to um the Boys and Girls Club regarding are you smarter than a fifth sixth grader and whether or not we're going to be putting a team together for that so give it some thought we'll have to talk about it a little bit later with upcoming meetings include it for that one otherwise I have nothing for this evening uh do we have a town manager's report tonight no okay do we have a finance director report this evening um not tonight I have primary cour have this reviewing but I wanted to give it to the select and yourselves as well at the same time so excellent I'll have it for next we okay thank you so for next week all right that brings us right up to our warrant for or report for Warrant review tricky saying uh pull my notes up okay so as I was saying to I think just about everyone heard it um Tiffany and I sent out updated letter or an updated form to our email uh about 10 minutes before the meeting started we were working on it right up until then um and at least in terms of the bullet points the 10 bullet points that we have we've made it through all of them they with the exception uh We've mentioned the fact that 40s is in there but we have not fleshed that one out because there's a lot of questions I think that we had probably more for the town manager to answer than anything else um and then what we want to say in and around the override itself um we can pull it up at least if anyone wants to jump on the call feel free otherwise we can just pull it up this way it looks like the second line on my format anyway the first paragraph there's an extra word in there oh it's very possible there's going to be lots of of word smithing on this one yeah actually hey head of uh Financial impact let me bring it back out to a form that I can work with I don't even see the word Financial that Dave are you the one that um are you on the one that Evan uploaded like 14 minutes ago the recent one it has a table in it it's date stamped for tonight yeah just before the meeting I just opened it out of the email no I have an email um that's what I email you should be out of the email the one that emailed out yeah you should be on it then it should be called entitled Dave at the top it should have 41124 at the end so a suggestion do we want to read paragraph by paragraph stop and then be open to revisions it's exactly what I was thinking you want a tag team sure all right do you want to make adjustments on the Fly while we do it I'll do adjustments yeah from the committee so um I have one other question because I don't want to I want to edit this the right way I have this downloaded in award document and I can edit it this way and then put it back up we're cration so yeah you can edit it live you can edit it on the SharePoint you can edit it on your personal computer it doesn't matter at this point because we're in an open meeting deliberation all right so I'll start with the first paragraph then the lunenberg finance committee is reporting that lunenberg financial position is changing and some post-pandemic effects are starting to show that has Financial impact on the town as a whole in planning for fiscal year 25 thanks to the town's conservative practice for many years years the town was able to make it through the difficulties of some Financial instability as a result many of the town's departments are currently operating below their needs level budget there are positions that continue to remain unfilled for a variety of reasons causing strain on said departments that are operating without a full staff so comments for what department is operating below their needs level budget DPW specifically mentioned it Council on Aging is Council on Aging mentioned it uh Library said they were operating at it the fact that we had to pull all the funding to shift over to the school department which means we cut all position increases and paused the police department for the second year in a row I think an argument could be made that the police department would theoretically then be operating underneath its underneath its needs base as you were reading that I was feeling that we should have should have something in there that specifically states that those positions were cut from the original recommended Town manager's recommended budget however you say that you know you're saying they were they're operating under their needs well the they've been operating under their needs all this year the proposed changes and small increases in Staffing were intended to start addressing that and those had to be removed because of the the reappropriation of uh funding within the budget I think somehow that should be come out in that paragraph so we could say although there was a budget presented to more appropriately staff those cuts were made after the initial proposed budget thoughts it's my thought is you're saying they're under staff to me would mean open positions right now not necessarily nothing that has been budget but what they have for open positions vac actual vacancies mhm I thought the DPW was back up to level well remember the the budget that the DPW presented was a needs-based budget not what was actually presented in the preliminary or the preliminary budget well what they presented was an above Target bu I don't see any needs in the DPW that are not being met and when I've asked for what they require over the X number of years and how we should be funding it I didn't get an answer on that do we want to pull that out of here then I just again this I think the sentence is heading in the right direction I just am stuck on needs level budget could we say that the the result of uh as a result many of the town's departments are struggling to operate on a needs-based budget or struggling to maintain operation on needs-based operation I would be fine if it said currently operating below their desired budget okay so take out the word needs and put level their desired level budget or just desired Desir budget desired budget sure okay done how about the last sentence in there in that paragraph I think you can put a period after departments I think that our operating without a full staff is redundant to the lead in mhm so would read There are positions that continue to remain unfulfilled for a variety of reasons causing strain on said departments period period yeah take the rest off okay all right done right so we're good with moving on to the next one then mhm all right I I'll read the next um paragraph as well if that's all right with you because you put that table in so I think you can Workshop that one a little bit more tables I put the table after this paragraph so so the process of developing and then you have another paragraph underneath that right do you want me to read this or yeah that's yeah this one this is yeah all right and then please feel free to stop me if someone wants to make a comment the process of developing and presenting a budget to the annual town meeting begins in the early fall with the town manager meeting with department heads to discuss expenses wants and needs the town manager then presents the proposed budget to the finance committee in mid-February over the following 90 days the finance committee meets with the various department heads to discuss their individual line items budget requests this year additional scrutiny was given to every single line in an attempt to holistically understand the appropriation of all funds and the impact on the operational elements of all departments through the deliberative pro through the deliberative process the finance committee determined the historic budget schedule May not offer sufficient time for appropriate analysis the finance committee then votes on the recommendation of the finalized Omnibus budget provided by the town manager and reports to the annual town meeting as a legislative body acting on the town's behalf the finance committee recommends the approval 5 to one: one of the budget as presented at the annual town meeting so the through the deliberative process of the fine process and the impact on the up wait through the deliberative process the finance committee determin the historic budget schedule May not offer sufficient time for appropriate analysis I feel that's a different thought than the rest of what flowed through there I agree with the statement it may just be like a like a note or something at the end of the paragraph but it it just kind of reads awkwardly in the way it is I agree what if we moved that to the very end of the paragraph So after 5 to one to one of the budget as presented at the annual town meeting and then that sentence I agree that would make sense do we want to recommend that that be looked into and maybe changed for next year I I don't know what I know I know the state budgets uh we have no control over and things like that but are um is that something we want to recommend that things start a little earlier I I think we should do that yeah I will say that like other towns are able to hold their Town meetings well in advance of ours so you might want to learn how they get to that state I agree I mean this year and last year were kind of we had curve balls thrown at us each year in different ways um so that could that's what made it challenging I think yeah the negative of doing it earlier is that we have less information from the State and less uncertainty about certain things the positive thing is we get more time to have discussions and make plans for if this happens we do that if that happens we do this or and so on so I I I guess if it's if it's possible to start earlier that would that would make sense I mean honestly though like we need an extra week for when the um hearing is to when we're needing to put out this report it just it it doesn't seem practical for us to you know because of open meeting laws to really deliberate and prepare a document deliberate on it make the changes and then finalize it I have two grammatical fixes uh the over the following 90 days the finance committee meets with various department heads to discuss their individual line item not time budgets I corrected that got it and then second to last sentence now as a legislative body acting on the towns should be possessive towns apostrophe s behalf okay and lastly the first second no first sentence uh early fall with the town manager meeting with department heads to discuss expenses wants comma and needs the oord comma is a must okay so those changes are made and then that sentence now is at the end that we spoke about through the deliberative process the finance committee determined the historic budget schedule May not offer sufficient time for appropriate analysis so that closes that paragraph with that sentence now we want to say analysis and Reporting or analysis and recommendation or just leave it as analysis say it again sorry it was do we want to do we want to add on appropriate analysis and recommendation analysis and Reporting analysis analysis recommendations and Reporting analysis comma recommendations and Reporting comma and Reporting I don't like the comma there but if you got to have an Oxford Comma just shut up if you don't have an Oxford comma then we eat grandma is that the way it goes let's eat Grandma formatting wise I'm moving the whole next paragraph down to the next page because of the table Yeah so this one I simply started writing and it's I don't even think I I think I stopped in the middle of a sent no I didn't actually I finished a sentence um but I did throw in a table which I still have open on Excel and I'm happy to mess around with cuz I I think it reads a little bit confusing but effectively all it's showing is that this is right off of of dls's website and it was I went off of the numbers that the town manager had presented to us last week um that the FY 24 tax rate is 1410 per th000 which um based on these assessed values increasing by 100,000 and I did put in the average household in lunenberg for FY 24 which was the 4814 17 so that's your average household um what the estimated tax bill was for this year and then the next two columns are the fy2 proposed budget without an override which sets the rate at $14.35 per thousand the estimated tax bills on the left side of that col that that portion and on the right hand side the estimated impact so it's just the difference between fy2 and fy2 for so this is if we approve the Omnibus budget as presented this middle two columns will be the estimated outcome regardless override or not so anyone who has a $250,000 household can assume or an assessed $250,000 house because the assessments have all changed can approximate a $62.50 increase on their tax bill after that the last last two columns are fy2 with an override with an estimated tax rate of $14.7 per th000 that gets us up to the 948 136 I think it is for the override um and shows the newly estimated fy2 bills and then the newly estimated impact so again that is the FY 25 estimated tax bill under the override column minus the FY 24 tax bill so with an override and the Omnibus budget the last column is what could be is what would theoretically be expected on each on each property so I wasn't sure if we want if it I have it on the spreadsheet to include the difference between with and without the override but it just got more confusing because now you're subtracting fy2 from fy2 and it's I mean it's easy enough I think we just can acknowledge it verbally yeah or written that it wouldn't be this the uh override and the without the override and the override combined it's just one or the other is the new increase and I believe that's where the town manager got her $37.75 is the average increase with the override and 120 without the override when y 25 tax bills expected to be received the tax rate would be set in the falled out by December 31st so people won't when when does something come in the mail that tells them what their assessed value they get estimated taxes right prior to town meeting they won't know what their new assessment is in the mail right the uh tax classification hearing would be in November and would be so there were any adjustments would be that time the taex classification appearing the values are set by the assessors when did they get their foa 24 final assessments people don't know what their current assessments are it's not it's not it's not been mailed to them an actual tax bill M um that will be mailed by tomorrow or Tuesday so okay but the actual assessments are on well these latest tax bills coming out tomorrow or the next day have the latest assessment numbers as well or would it be strict based on the fy4 assessment it won't have the new numbers on there no because the tax rates are right they are just right so it works the same people wouldn't know anyways unless they went to the website to see what their newly or they went to the gis website and looked at what their newly assessed values were on a yearly basis to see but we currently don't even know what our fy2 24 assessed values are unless we went to the website right it has not been mailed to everyone in town never is it doesn't it doesn't get mailed it's never mailed yeah it is it's on your tax it's on your tax bill sure so you get value is in the usually you get 24 in November like we November we would have in November 23 had our fiscal year 24 assessed value sent to us it's on the tax bill says what your assessment is right on it for FY 24 because they haven't even set the tax rate by then or they would have just sent the tax rate by then this year was a different year because we did estimated preliminary bills for first second and third quarter MH so because the checks rate wasn't set until recently that's why you're not residents AR getting their tax actual tax bills until now but typically it's done in November but the reval process of what was involved it took longer than um past the December 31st Dee okay I see what you're asking now so the new valuations are kicking into the 20 the final 24 tax bill correct or no and there if you have an addition it all HS you in that that final quarter what I'm talking about is the fiveyear revil is that kicking into the 2 last still in 24 yes okay yeah that was that whole process we had to get those so so Chris you've got a point there because I it took me a while to get around to calculating mine but I've got an increase because of the reval and I've got a potential increase with the uh override and the potential change in the tax rate so I mean I'm looking at a similar number for both no actually not the valuation increase is about half of what I'm looking at for the override increase so where you see 230 between the new valuation and if the override passes I'm looking at three roughly $340 increase so I guess my point was going to be should we add a statement in here to say that although fiscal 25 assessments won't be finalized until November your fiscal 24 should be mailed out this week and is available at on the Assessor's website well by the time this is published they they will already been mailed out but they will still be available on the Assessor's website okay so maybe we just say the fiscal year 24 assessed value is available on the tax bills mailed this week and are also available on the Assessor's website better off to go to GIS because in the on the Assessor's website it's listed by I don't even know what it's listed by but it's not in any kind of order that I can understand if I recall it's just up in the right hand corner or in the middle it says your assessed value now I'm talking about when you go to go to try to get historical information off of the Assessor's website there's a file in there that you can get 203 22 21 you open those files and it's a big long list of all the properties but it's not by Street like we you know the other the G is listed off of the Assessor's site which is what I was thinking anyway yeah the the um what's it called the um property card or whatever it is that that's that's what I found to be the easiest to work with maybe most people will know where to get their assessed value I'm not sure everyone does I agree I think we should most people don't even understand prop 2 and a half and they claim to be experts on it I will say the town up in New Hampshire where where I spent some of my time did their reval three years ago and the documents uh documentation of what they found when they measured the properties and the new valuations were mailed to everybody before they were finalized and you had an opportunity to actually set up an appointment with the company to discuss any issues or discrepancies so so just back to this should we just say something to the effect of like individual assessed home values can be found on the Assessor's website and on the final tax bills um fiscal year 24 tax bills mhm it maybe a statement that fiscal year 25 assessed values get finalized in November and mailed out by December 31st of [Music] 2024 fun fact in 1980 the tax rate was $50.2 in lunenberg $50 $50.2 wow so that paragraph would then read from the beginning due to the limitations of proposition 2 and A2 lunenberg is restricted on its annual Levy increase the levy is com comprised of real and property taxes new growth and debt exclusion when the needs of a municipality outpace the levy capacity proposition 2 and a half allows for overrides to be considered an override is a permanent increase in the tax levy spread out to all residents of the Town individual homes individual home assessments no individual home assessed values can be found on the Assessor's website and on the FY 24 tax bills and fy2 tax bills are assessed in November and mailed out by December yeah and then maybe the following table um illustrates the um effect of a proposition two and a half override about potential impact the following table illustrates poten the effects of a the potential effects or I would say the following table you could say allows you to allows one to estimate their property tax bill for FY 25 with and without an override the following table illustr illustrates the effect assessed value with or without an [Music] override the following table illustrates the effects of the assessed values with or without a tax override with or without a l it's not the effects of the assessed value really right yeah it's the it's the the effects of the um two and a half two and a half override well it's in a 2 and a half increase and then a 2 and a half override yeah do we actually mention the the value of the override nope not yet hadn't gotten there like I said I was writing this thing at oh quarter of seven I was finishing that that part of the paragraph so yeah the two per the two portions we didn't really get into were the 40s and the override num specifically because we hadn't voted on the override until last week so I think even before we get down to the follow to the table I think we need to put the portion put a portion in there addressing that there is an override article being brought forward to supplement the schools for $948,000 another sentence right what is that um I'd make it a new paragraph Just say because we're really talking about now the I I agree the actual override so let's make it a new paragraph and say something about how we you know how that was done I don't know how you want to do that but how many pages do we have okay yeah so you have a paragraph on what prop 2 and A2 is what an override is and then go into here's the override so after what the table is illustrating with or without then a new paragraph right no before that she be before and even before those last couple sentences we added yeah the last sentence of this paragraph should end with spread out to all residents of the town and then a new paragraph okay gotcha okay I mean we might we may want to say something to the effect of after long deliberations of the school committee select board and finance committee I put Town manager in there too Town manager superintendent and and maybe the public input CU that was there was a lot of public input for sure in public input um a warrant article has been placed on an article has been placed on the warrant rather for a proposition for a prop 2 and a half override in the amount of give the amount 948 136 it is 948 136 that's what I I had on my paper here no change right yeah we're going to go with no change this amount yeah seeks to provide the school with a budget for level service minus additional Sr minus the one how do I want to say it the hang on I'm minus the SR funds the sunsetting SR funds the sunsetting SR funds yeah or sunsetted sunsetted the eclipsed it's a great Eclipse by the way I saw it okay can we read this then we can work shop it out excuse me after long deliberations of the school committee select board Town manager and with public input a warrant has been placed on the article for a proposition 2 and a half override in the amount of $948,000 [Music] after long deliberations of the school committee finance committee superintendent select board Town manager and with public input input a warrant has been placed on the article proposition 2 and A2 override in the amount of $48,600 it's an article placed on the warrant though an article placed on the warrant okay that's changed and then I would say in order for a proposition 2 and A2 override my gosh to take effect it must pass both town meeting and the um ballot bot ballot ballot question question on what is it May 17 18 May 18th I don't care if it's poison we probably should say on this one that we recommended approval exactly where I was going next for to two four to two with one absent with one absent member so the finance committee has recommended or just recommends recommends approval of the override article and then in parenthesis 4-2 with one 4-2-1 4-2 it's 4-2 with one with one absent with one absent yeah cuz she wasn't abstaining she didn't abstain does that look like that no 4 to2 and then say with one AB with one absent member not in parenthesis keep it in the parentheses I think one part of the vote one member absent yeah okay and then we can get into the following table yeah before it says the following table it says individual home assessed values can be found on assessor websites and then it goes into the following table which I still think is appropriate because you're guiding people to where they can find information about their assessment right now I think we need to move it you could I'm okay with you guys kind of rearranging slight making paragraphs at this point so why don't why don't we leave it like that and then if people want to word smth yeah if it's just how it lays out on a page or something and right I I mean that's just me though I don't know if everyone else is I'm fine you're fine works for me J okay I'm good at this point all right is that everything we want to say about the override I mean it's it's everything that's factual that's all I ever want to ever talk about the over but yeah I think it's factual and it's okay chose the impact yep all right Capital plan you want me to read this mhm okay historically the capital plan has been funded through free cash tax revenues and unspent capital appropriation from prior years for fiscal year 25 the capital plan is funded exclusively through free free cash 1,6,2,5 19762 appropriation from prior years the proposed Capital plan of 1,317 19 998 is a 35% decrease from fiscal year 24 Capital funding the reduction in capital plan spending is partly due to the loss of $340,000 of 40s State funds and the allocation of $236,000 of certified New Growth is being directed to the school department budget the finance committee recommends the approval 6 to1 of the fy2 capital plan so I think that four fiscal year 25 where you say the million and the 300 it's a little awkward with the was I just switched it you guys working on the same document no she's reading it I'm working on it live for with what's on the screen I'm just I know she's she's typing everything up I just for my own edification okay I just edited that one okay you got to say that again though because I don't know where to edit that now uh so it says now for fy2 the capital is capital plan is funded exclusively through free cash and the dollar amount and unspent capital appropriation was appropriation was just delete was okay okay and then move appropriation before the parenthesis got it unspent capital appropriation dollar amount from prior years okay all right that's done any other edits do we want to add anything else about the capital plan I'm just the the 40s I think it should be 40s State funds in the allocation of 236 of certified New Growth that is being directed to the school department budget done okay looks good all right so we're going to move on to the next paragraph then mhm okay the finance committee has proposed a warrant for a grant writer in the town of lunenberg the intention of hiring a person for this position would be to bring more funds to the town with the hope that this position would pay for itself from the acquired funds that otherwise would not exist through collaborative research it was found that there are grants available that could offer additional funding for the preservation and revitalization of historical land and buildings Educational Tools and Technologies the cemetery commission's needs and the housing initiatives for seniors and Veterans among many others so couple things so this isn't a standalone warrant article is it no no no so it's just it's just in the budget has proposed recommended addition of a grant writer in the budget grant writer Services grant writing servic get that out of there that started since day one and it keeps popping up and it's a requested a lne item I would think or however you want to say recommended okay so let's let's stick with sentence one so Tiffany can get it in there right so the the finance committee has recommended right inclusion of grant writing services for the town of Lunenburg it needs to be I think should say a line a new line item for Grant Services okay that in effect that's what it is so the finance committee has recommended a new line item yep to fund Grant wrer Services fund okay to fund grant writing services in the town of lunenberg yeah okay and the intention is Outsource not hiring anybody this is a consultant position intention contracted contract so the intention is Contracting a person mm contracted Services Contracting Services instead of a person okay great I think you could take out the first seven or eight words and just say these Services would be to bring more funds to the town in the second sentence yeah take out from the intention to the word position can you read that sentence Dave M like the way that you're seeing it the proposal for grant writing services would bring would bring more funds to the town There's a couple words that need to be taken out of there or well potentially bring more funds yeah you can put potentially so there's almost two thoughts in there the first one we should state that the intention is to um Contract [Music] Services and then the second one is about the why we're doing [Applause] it so the intention is to use these funds to Contract Services to contract grant writing services period so really take out most most of that second sentence then yeah so the intention is to Contract Services to bring more funds to the town to potentially bring more funds to the town and could we throw professional grant writing services course well if it was amateur we wouldn't need any money do well the intent is professional but we might get an amateur the intention is to bring is to contract Professional Services to potentially bring more funds to the town correct yeah well concise okay let me read those two sentence cuz I feel like we Workshop those a lot the finance committee has recommended a new line item to fund grant writing services in the town of lunenberg the intention is to contract Professional Services to potentially bring more funds to the town so then we're on through collaborative research so get rid get rid of everything else uh until you get to through collaborative research we found grants available that could be offered so that's Bas those first two sentences and then then the the last half of the paragraph would I think would that we found that there's grants available that we're not getting and that that money could be used to help the town I think somewhere in there if we can kind of slide it in also is to you know at least State what we came away from MMA thinking that there's a lot of money moving forward that's going to be flowing through through Grant processes that we need to be able to take advantage of and this is what we feel would be the best way to tap into that it we really did hear a lot about a lot of different grants that were available to us you know when we did go to MMA already available but there's also my big concern was the fact that there's more stuff coming that if somebody's not watching it we could miss out right even the state doe really isn't moving as quickly as as many other states are with the doe launching Grant Federal grant programs that the state has to apply for that then in turn we need to apply for but that's all coming down the pipe it's not existing even yet right Tom did you mean take the sentence out that I highlighted and leave um that in uh yeah yeah I mean that yeah that that sounds fine yeah it was found that there are grants available that that's fine so change that to it was found me either way it does okay I think the important point to get to people is that there's money avail able and that it's and that the purpose of this is to to get our fair share okay so now that reads it was found that grants are available that could offer additional funding for the preservation and revitalization of his historical land and buildings Educational Tools and Technologies the cemetery commission's needs and the housing initiatives for seniors and Veterans among many others why are we leaving out infrastructure I didn't hear you I'm sorry I didn't hear you I said why are we leaving out infrastructure in that list of of things I mean the big Federal bill was an infrastructure Bill MH I think we left it out cuz we didn't think of it what's that I think we didn't think of it but we can add that no no that's fine so may come come across a little Gruff but it just kind of right please add it where do you want to add that where do you want to add infrastructure anywhere in the list after buildings maybe buildings infrastructure comma Educational Tools yeah okay okay historical land and buildings comma infrastructure comma Educational Tools and technology is there anything else we want to [Music] add did we take out the part about covering its own costs that that did come out yeah I I I wouldn't want to promise something we can't okay right okay I it was also reading it out loud too it's it was wordy it was yeah I think this is a more summarized version okay I'm good with it all right we are moving on to noteworthy to there's different ways of uh saying it paid for itself also so yeah you know we can talk about that after the fact instead of before the fact hopefully we're talking about that after the fact so okay noteworthy topics start with the first bullet so the end of f year 24 will see a 16.39% reduction of our debt service and excludible debt from 3,516 18223 fiscal year 24 to 29399 5612 fiscal year 25 this decrease is the result of a reduction in the sewer debt and a reduction in the msba excludible debt an analysis run by UniBank in 2023 projected a variety of scenarios to guide the town in debt capacity spending over the next 30 Years in total the town continues to have $42 million that will be usable while remaining under debt capacity limits with this number in mind the select board Municipal design Committee in the town will be better prepared to plan for the future Town policy dictates not borrowing more than 4% of our operating budget for non-excludable debt currently the town maintains approximately 0. 7% of our operating budget in non-excludable debt while there is debt capacity there currently does not exist a funding source I think that needs to be another sentence the last one there after the the while there is debt capacity needs to while needs to be a new sentence yeah so non- exclud debt period while there is debt capacity there currently does not exist a funding source correct okay done and we need to put Municipal Building design committee you don't want to design the municipality sure done elementary school thank you I knew it yes okay um so this decrease is the result of a reduction of in the sewer debt comma wait wait wait second sentence yep well no we had the msba excludable debt that's the difference okay okay so which how do we want to word that one then spe that is it's a it's the primary school inable debt HVAC okay so the yeah we could just say Primary School heating exemp Deb exempt debt the primary school heating exempt debt yep comma and a reduction in msba excludable debt for $4.20 done okay thank you thank you I'm good with that any other comments was it for heating or re conditioning the heating or what the primary school the heating or air conditioning let me pull it up it just happened to have the table right here am I thinking they don't have it right here are we sure it's the heating okay we'll double check Jay I'm going to highlight that when did we take that on I have no idea I must have been missing an action when that happened after we find out what it is I'll ask how much how long it's been around okay it still does work out to $576,000 I think 576 691 plus 29 39 95612 3516 oh it is a different number 646 7.12 okay can you highlight the $3 million the $2 million and the 16.39% just want to okay highlight 3 million highlight 2 million and the 16.39% and I'll make sure we we'll make sure those are correct the town manager had offered to check our numbers for us so we'll okay get proper numbers in there for sure the primary school heating heating is high it as well for now until yep okay all right do we want to move on to the next bullet well I just wanted to sure maybe inance in total the town continues to have $42 million that will be usable while remaining under the debt capacity limit maybe that could it be just that um the town has $42 million available um um or something like that it's just a little wordy there and I'm just not sure it's not available unless it becomes a schable debt so it's not available right it's not like we have it sitting in the cof it's not there but I mean it's we we could use it we there's a it's a it could well yeah okay um do you want to use the word would instead of well like 42 million that would be usable while remaining under debt capacity limits is that under debt capacity limits or is that the levy ceiling like what do you or no that's so that's under the debt schedule you know Town managers famous slide that she like that she show that's the policy the 9% whatever that's our yeah the 14% is yeah the 11% and the 4% for net excludable and non-excludable so if we total those ones up we end up with a capacity of $42 million as we have other things falling off over the next 30 Years this was the report that we had requested last year right right and that 42 million is limited by the 11% correct not the aggregate of the two correct yep but but so then I think it should say debt capacity policy limits okay so do you want to change 42 million that would be usable it's not usable though we have to because it's it's debt capacity spending we would have to take on a a well we'd have to go out and actually get someone to give us a bond and finance a building basically and then we can actually start levying that amount out of the the taxpayers so it's not like it's just sitting available so it's it needs to be worded we need to make sure we're wording it absolutely Ely correctly how about could become available yeah I I I just thought wordy but I I I understand what what the chairman is trying to say so I I don't want to yeah say something that's not 100% accurate either Jay just said potential borrowing which I think more people understand potential borrow up to 42 million per the policy per the right okay okay how does that sentence read so potential to borrow up to 42 million per the debt per our debt policy and can we make that like 42m instead of all those zeros sure yeah 4.2 * 10 the 7th [Music] yes that's I prefer 4.2 E7 E7 okay could you repeat Elementary School High School heating system is what it was called not Primary School no okay so Elementary School slash High School Heating and it was in 2016 and it was Turkey Hill that's the elementary school so yeah it's before I moved here so I don't know for like a new boiler a new boiler system I don't know Heather what was that though a bond or was it a a Exempted borrowing article I don't know I just have the amounts in yeah cuz they if it's Turkey Hill they replace the boila system over there around that time that's what I'm thinking that that I think that's what that's what would be and at the time I thought it was still middle school but maybe not and then they convert to gas or something that's true it was something to do with condensing boilers and then fuel type yeah why is this not the old high school parking L just put dead capacity policy limits so that kind of encapsulates what everyone's capacity policy you said great dead capacity policy limits mhm okay so I'm going to go back and read from the second sentence of that bullet okay so this decrease is the result of a reduction in the sewer debt the elementary school/ high school heating exempt debt and a reduction in the msba excludable debt an analysis run by UniBank in 2023 projected a variety of scenarios to guide the town in debt capacity spending over the next 30 Years in total the town has potential to borrow up to 42 million that will be usable while remaining under debt capacity policy limits so that is what was amended that sound better yeah sounds good if that's the case then we want to change the 4% portion because that's based on the the 42 million is based on the 11% policy of excludable debt so I'll highlight 4% with the 16.39 and the 3 mil and the 2 mil I think we can just change it directly because it is it's our our our debt capacity policy that the $42 million is based on is on excludable debt which has a limit of 11% of our Levy of our Levy of our yes of our operating budget excuse me so 4 to 11 so Town policy dictates not borrowing more than 11% of our operating budget for excludable debt done and take out non for instead of non-excludable it's excludable debt okay done and that we currently maintain as of FY 24 7.84% instead of 7% so that sentence reads that currently the town maintains approximately 7% of our operating budget well do we need to get into I don't think we do because it's going to get really confusing really fast because this now takes out the second part of the sentence which is we do have a funding source for that it's you Levy excludable debt it's the non-excludable debt that doesn't have a spend a funding source so I think we just take out the whole town policy dictates portion we just leave it at with this number of mind the select board MDB mbdc and the town will have a better will be better prepared to plan for the future yeah cuz we're more or less trying to tell the public what is available not what's not available right exactly so we're deleting the last two sentences the completely all right let's do it y done never existed okay I think that's a subject that we need to make sure the task force discusses thoroughly as to how we're going to get back to a position where we can do short-term borrowing cuz there's a lot of pluses to short-term borrowing MH in certain scenarios small overrides like those towns my we deliberated on that much though throughout this year so I don't know that's worthy of being in our report no no I agree and that's kind of what I I think that's why those two sentences should come out as well okay what the reason for putting that last sentence in there at least for now was to acknowledge that that's probably more leaning on bias than fact at this point is why I think I probably put it out there is that it does kind of lead towards the well if we don't have the money to spend it we clearly don't have enough money so therefore override which I think that gets more into positioning rather than factual so I think they should come out cu we didn't really deliberate it ready for our next bullet no cuz this one's baffling me this this was a tough one to try and get through all right we're going to take this on ready all right the municipal building design committee various previous iterations of this committee discuss on an ongoing basis the buildings in town that are in significant need of repairs Replacements and recurring maintenance to avoid ongoing repairs I think we should Workshop that sentence first yeah so I'm not going to read we need it h so we did so one of our lines that we said we were going to get into which was pretty broad-based was statement of the upcoming needs Services buildings upkeep expansion replacement salary Etc it was extremely ambiguous bullet point yeah just that lead in sentence those do we even need it well IT addresses the what we've done in the past and that there is a committee design dedicated to that process well the municipal design building design committee has not briefed Us in about a year and a half so I don't know why they're mentioned here that's why the various iterations put in there as well to address the last what was it called before Master something or other building reuse committee yeah do we want to say that like instead of various previous iterations of this committee we say what was it J that was that was one of the first committee was a building reuse committee would just say that um we just say that it's uh we don't have to really Define who did it but it is clear that there is um um I mean you know we don't it's irrelevant who yeah who's done it but it's clear that they the buildings need repair maintenance and uh and actually probably mod in modifications how about we just drop the first sentence and work workshop the second one there we go to take that I that's what I was thinking so just take the whole thing out and to start with the town will need to invest serious funds over the next 5 to 10 years to mitigate more building disrepair but we could add on to that too get into all right so that's now going to be the first sentence of this bullet yes okay we're going to so to me without wordsmithing yet the town is facing the need to fund building repairs um perhaps new buildings in infrastructure so to me that's all kind of like Capital right large Capital items so the town is facing many large Capital items for building building repair and infrastructure somewhere though in there we need to make the point that if we don't get our general maintenance in into a timely schedule that what he just listed is going to be exacerbated tenfold because if we don't take care of anything then we're back to build it don't do anything to it for 20 years and tear it down or it falls down becomes a 30 School Street which is quickly becoming a TCP right well maybe that could be at the end of a paragraph that says that talks about this and say to say that we we encourage a uh you know but but get this thing done first that we first need to to in invest or maybe expend money um over the next 5 to 10 years to um improve the the uh the town's buildings and infrastructure and infrastructure and then I think Dave your point on operational maintenance planning is also a valid but additional point that that could be a bullet point on its own just you know yeah cuz even like salary Administration seems like its own bullet as well like I said we had just the L so we just threw it all into a single pointet cuz it was on no no that's fine just I think I think the first attempt is just throw everything throw everything down uh onto the paper and then we can we can sift through it and figure out how to we can let chat GPT finish it for us yes that's how everything will happen in the future isn't this what AI is for that's what I said MH MH so I've made salary Administration a new bullet we'll you know move on to that one and I think the rest of this kind of needs some more work shopping so the town is facing many large Capital items for the buildings building repairs and infrastructure and the town will need to invest serious funds over the next 5 to 10 years to mitigate more building disrepair for shouldn't we say just something like the finance committee recommends urgent plans to be established associated with these major Capital Improvements at the end or instead of huh or instead of instead of what everything else just one sentence yeah or I mean State what the problem is and then make that recommendation and just yeah call it quit there take out the part about what's paying for it take out the part of what the funding sources and replace that with what the finance committee recommends right yeah I actually agree with that so where is it so you want to keep the language of the town is facing many large Capital items for the buildings building repairs and infrastructure and the town will need to invest serious funds over the next 5 to 10 years to mitigate more building disrepair so how does everyone feel about that sentence as the opening sentence to the paragraph I think serious funds should probably be significant funds I don't know what like I I agree they have a grumpy face on them so the next sentence listening to everyone that I jotted down is recurring operational maintenance and planning is imperative to allocating funds productively and that kind of talks about keeping up on these buildings so that we're not the town is not spending more money on buildings that are about to fall down mhm and then we could say the finance committee recommends yeah immediate urgency in [Music] establishing plans for infrastructure buildings what is the finance facility these operations we're recommending what in particular though plans for those urgent plans urgent plans urgent planning urgent planning yeah for these Capital items and maintenance sure okay all right and then we're in agreement we're going to take out the whole funding sources right yeah yeah right let me clean that up all right I'm going to read that back because it's become a shorter paragraph the town is facing many large Capital items for the buildings building repairs and infrastructure in the town will need to invest significant funds over the next 5 to 10 years to mitigate more building disrepair recurring operational maintenance and planning is imperative to allocating funds productively the finance committee recommends urgent planning for these Capital items and [Music] maintenance still sounds a little bit choppy but yeah we're getting sounds yeah it does I think it's a little redundant between recurring operational maintenance and planning is imperative and the finance committee recommends urgent planning for these Capital items what if we took the period out and said allocating funds productively and the finance committee recommends urgent planning for these Capital items and maintenance give it a shot we can always I mean we can fix it fix the syntax of it yeah I'm fine with that the main points are down there as long as we don't change the general premise of it we can just we can okay fix the order of things and make it read more smoothly okay everyone else is fine with it y okay moving on so change to the salary admin this is going to be its own bullet yeah this is now its own bullet I have numbers for you when you're ready to all right so when I say blank you say number exactly change to the salary Administration plan if approved at the town meeting offers an appropriate First Step at addressing employee retention within Town departments there are currently multiple open positions within the town of Lunenburg and for a variety of reasons low salaries have been consistently mentioned the proposed sap changes will increase the FY 24 Sal salary line by salary res reserve line salary Reserve done line by $ 9,771 and 61 cents has that CH changed at all do you know have these numbers from the um sap committee changed it all okay okay and the FY 25 salary line by salary reserve line again yep this one is $10,995 and 87 okay let me read that back okay the proposed sap changes will increase the FY 24 salary reserve line by $897 61 and the FY 25 salary reserve line by $10,995 close bullet we could say we could end it by saying something like the finance committee looks forward to additional consideration by the sap committee or continued I don't know let's leave it alone we like what they're doing Dave wants them to go to PTO is it one of the that's right two warrs the uh what's the article number uh give me one sec shouldn't we we recommended we recommended it we did you want to unanimously right I believe it was unanimous recommended that unanimously yeah should we enter the article finance committee recommend yeah we'll see what our chairman has for the letter now right I think it's unanimously right yeah I don't remember I didn't write down what arle number of I'll give you the number and how the whether was unanimous address s Administration plan historical commission do you want to say that the salary Administration plan in there yes that was N9 and 10 In Articles 9 and 10 uh article 9 was amending the code Chapter 70 schedule a for adding and changing and amending position titles and grades article 10 is the wage schedule yeah so it would be 10 so it's 10 and we recommended approval 7 to zero right uh what was it before uh I think we did it the first time so we had we were all here we had Gan with us right yeah yes yes 7 to zero so the finance committee unanimously recommended the salary Administration plan in article recommended approval say that again recommended appr of the salary Administration [Music] plan got salary wage wages to help improve employee retention employee retention and Staffing mhm employee retention and what was the other one Staffing you can probably put after approval seven uh to zero yes yep in parenthesis right y okay the finance committee unanimously recommended 7 to0 the salary Administration plan and the salary wages to help improve employee retention and snapping in plan in article 10 yeah I think the the basis is there for sure looking again okay does anyone else have anything on that good I think is should say we recommended approval of article 10 at the beginning not the end 7 to zero to approve to okay so add two s committee's recommended sell Administration plan now okay all right I pop that down so anyone else have any comments on that one think we're good okay the only thing I have on 40s I just emailed you something cop I just copy and pasted it and I emailed it to you Heather so you can make sure I'm not lying misrepresenting just put Chris Menard says and we're all good CM according to Chris CM the world according to Chris okay so Lee in fy4 lunenberg was told that there that we no longer qualified for 40s smart growth State funding this impacts both FY 24 and FY 25 and resulted in a reduction of x amount of dollars in our cherish she allocation in fy2 the FY 24 reduction further impacted free cash estimates for FY 25 is that accurate so [Music] off so it's a reimbursement so say 4S smart grow reimbursement that shows up on our CH sheet and the or um necessarily say it will just affect the wouldn't that have resulted in free cash in 25 going to be yeah we'll be able to make it up but if it was still there in 24 and wasn't taken away wouldn't we have had an extra 340 in free cash which is a number mhm so bottom line is that last statement without a value accurate or should it just be removed but it won't be a $340,000 it's not like a direct right it's not a one for one effect I think the important point is that we lost Revenue 24 and and 25 and I guess the question would be is is is that you know we don't know what the future holds but it doesn't I don't I'm not sure what the what the um if we'll get money in 26 I mean we don't know are we you know are we sure we're not going to get it I haven't really heard much on that yeah we don't know I I think this is one area where our legislators are trying to um fix that again for us but we don't know in 26 well let's also remember it's not a direct funding source it's not like chapter 90 where we we get the number and that's what comes to us it's it's reimbursed at the end of the fiscal year or towards the third quarter of the fiscal year yeah but I mean it's still money we sort of plan on it but that doesn't mean we're guaranteed to get it which was the issue with this one well the issue with this one was yeah sort of didn't we know how much we could get reimbursed for the Max and then or theyes yeah or an estimate of that and then um we get it so we have it in our budget so it basically we're losing potential Revenue I guess is probably the right word so the maybe our response is that we that we recommend that the town continues to work with our legislators to to to help us the state legislators to get um to determine or something I I'm not not think I think a separate bullet should be that we encourage members of the community and our town officials to continue working with our legislators to what their email addresses in there and all seriousness well I don't know if you need I suppose it is on the website people really want to it is you know so you can I guess just remove that last statement I didn't remove anything I just added the finance committee recommends the members of our community and our town officials work with our state legislators I would put that as its own Bullet at the end though cuz at the end of everything everything all right cuz while we're trying to while the whole point of this is that we're trying to figure out how to make make this work with the funds that we have right the final takeaway is oh by the way there is also a state aspect to this which can be pressure can be applied from everywhere I'll add to that later so do you think it's better to leave the the numbers off of this for now and just say late in FY 24 lunenberg was told that we no longer qualified for 40s smart growth State funding this impacts both FY 24 and fy2 as a reduction of income or reduction of funds and not put a number in reduction of reimbursement red of expenditures I just said on the cherry sheet cuz that that's a true statement in our Cherry yeah and resulted in a reduction of $340,000 in our cherry sheet allocation in fy2 right or cherry sheet reimbursement yeah reimbursement yeah cuz we're specifically calling out 40s and you could say F the FY 24 reduction further impacted operations in the current fiscal in the FY 24 fiscal year so the FY 24 reduction further impacted operations in the current FIS in in fiscal year 24 don't say current cuz that's good yeah how was that covered was that covered out of just free cash yes how did we make up the differ how did we make up that loss of reimbursement for for this year so we'll just have a a lessened free cash amount right right which sets us up for fy2 as $340,000 under our free cash that we would have been anyways that's why I think it all ends ends up being free cash is is that correct that we because but when we found out that we weren't getting 340,000 in reimbursement for 40s we didn't go to the schools and say you need to give us $340,000 we just said okay we'll take it out of what we have available which is well we will okay so our actual New Growth our actual receipts act right okay so we didn't actually have to do a transfer or anything from free cash there was which okay does that is that appropriate to be in here that like the conversation I mean we could again address conservative you know fiscal responsibility allowed for I think we've hit on that already which we did talk about at the beginning I just think you want to hit on the 40s as a being contributing to additional stress in the budget so although it's a small paragraph everyone feels like it's kind of encapsulating what needs to be said yeah I mean it stressed our fol year 25 budget and honestly it probably put a capital item below the line mhm cuz in the end it would have turned into free cash because we usually take those additional local receipts above what we predict or close out the books and minus it ends up as free cash right because we haven't already because we've already spent right what we said we were expecting to get and anything above and beyond that has nowhere to go other than free cash with this year it went to continuously or to figure out or to fill in the hole that we have okay yeah okay anything else on that or we're good y all right moving on second to last bullet no it's [Laughter] not why did you add more uh there's four more that we have from we added from last week that we can kind of we didn't even touch on the task force yet okay so we have nothing on them nothing on we don't have the task force in there we don't have the police hiring plan pause and we don't have all the other positions being paused okay which I think either Dave or Jay brought up earlier all right let's keep going then y so fair share funds millionaires tax have begun to make their way into lunenberg the town has seen an increase in chapter 90 funds of $240,500 3 to be used for roads and transportation additionally School me School meals remain free an associates degree at local community colle colleges for those over 25 years of age is free and encourage the school committee and and the finance committee encourages the school committee to research funding for upgrades for facilities improvements in schools K through 12 that's an awkward very awward aw to do with a fair share say that again what's that got to do with a fair share so the three things that the so after our meeting where we talked about have we actually seen anything for the schools cuz it was supposed to be pushed towards chapter 90 in schools yeah um Mr L and reached out to me and sent me an article that expl explained exactly kind of where it was going towards the school side of things and the three portions that he kind of highlighted were the school meals being free yeah the associates degree for those over 25 being free um and then upgrades for facilities improvements in k312 schools but that's all it said so we that's why we were saying well we haven't seen any of that and we haven't heard any of that from the schools so encourage the school committee to reach out and say what's available cuz I haven't seen anything come in from that I don't know all I've seen lunenberg get is free free lunches how did we even get that that's all schools get free lunches because it's all schools in the state get free lunches yeah see that's that's something that came up last weekend when I was talking with other finance committee members uh from around the state is that there's other Revenue sources that come into the school that don't even hit the town Town's budgets do we see an accounting for that yeah they State the state grants and the the federal gr be in their budget yeah we do Dr Burnham has a whole slide on it that she does where she talks about what's what grants they've brought in all grants are trct in in the town as well special yeah okay so I agree with the first two sentences on here but I I didn't see any dollar value make its way through the budget to the schools and Associates degrees has nothing to do with our budget nope yeah yeah so I would strike all that's College I mean personally I would put a statement here that the state has not met its promise as to using the millionaires tax for for schools the state has not met well I don't know if we want to yeah don't know exactly associate degree is it's not an opinion it's a fact but well it depends on what you consider schooling to be if if you're if you're in compassing it as just School in general an associates degree is schooling so it it does meet that it just doesn't help anyone in our town that's our school budget doesn't yeah it doesn't help our school budget it might help no effect on our school budget right right so if we take out from associates degree I would just take out additionally on to the end we haven't seen anything in the schools okay so take out the finance committee recommends the school committee looks uh resarch or do we address it that other than free School meals but how does that get to us that's probably an unfunded mandate prob negatively affecting us it would be it's it would be directly on the parents to pay for it if the parents wanted to have school lunches we we have revt track accounts that we're supposed to put money into and if we want and our kids go in they buy lunch and we have to pay for those lunches that doesn't exist anymore rev TR still exists and if they want a second meal they have to that's fine but how through the budget does school free School meals get to them through the budget it does not but it is still a school related expense it just takes it off of the parents as opposed to off of the town but as a finance committee that's not my charge my charge is analizing the budget how does free meals at the schools occur where's the funding line for that I think the town pay is paying for that not the millionaire tax I think this is another unfunded mandate no they the state not funding it the state's funding the the the cost of the food and so on how through their through the how they they did it uh during covid they all meals were free they did it the same way these are the numbers that I was talking about a few minutes ago we don't see where these revenues are coming from so there's been a billion in Fair Share spending in the current budget adopted last summer 52 23.5 million will be spent on education and 4765 million on Transportation so part of that 5235 million went to fund all schools in the state's lunches so I wouldn't call it an unfunded mandate it's called that directly paying to the school doesn't come through the budget it does not come through the budget no but it never does anyways we should mention it well I guess we could put in there that as of now um there hasn't been any uh direct funding to uh local K through 12 we can say that maybe that and then maybe um I do I am curious about this facility improvements at K through2 schools portion because that sounds like there's money out there for all of the issues that our buildings are currently facing right like 5235 million is it through grants though or is it through that's why we put in the we we recommend this or we we encourage the school committee to look into it we could but it's not our charge it's on our buildings it is our charge they're are buildings they have superintendency over them the same way that the select board has it over the other buildings but we're over everything okay so do you want to hear what I took out or I have highlighted two take out sure all right CU this is short I'll start again so fair share funds millionaires tax have been have begun to make their way into lunenberg the town has seen an increase in chapter 90 funds of $240,500 to be used for roads and transportation as of now there has been no direct funding through four grades K through 12 and the closing sentence could be the finance committee encourages the school committee to research funding for upgrades for facilities improvements in schools K through 12 you can just say through facilities improvements that's their jurisdiction is K through 12 all right so what are the thoughts about I'm fine with that as of now there has been no direct funding for grades K through 12 instead of through well why don't we just say direct budgetary funding for the for the school department yeah okay there has been no direct budgetary funding for the school department [Music] all right anything else nope I like the last bullet so according to npr.org take it as it is uh 224 million will go to k through2 programs including free lunch and implementing quote clean energy in schools so I don't know I encourage the school committee to reach out to the governor encourage repealing the millionaires dos all right we moving on to what our what we have listed as our last budget now sure okay the finance committee has initiated conversations and advocated for the consolidation and streamlining of redundant departments and services between the town and the schools it is anticipated that these conversations will continue past this budget season to be initiative taking for upcoming Seasons I'm good with that at the end of that sentence the end of that paragraph do we then want to insert what I've left highlighted to say the finance committee recommends the members of our community Our Town officials work with our state legislators I put it as a bullet point above it okay so in between us recommending the school committee to research funding for upgrades we're also going to so a totally separate bullet that says the finance committee recommends members of our community Our Town officials to work with legislation right well we and then we could expand on that to advocate for additional Revenue sources for the town what was our cherry sheet increase this year the last well it's a decrease isn't it it's a decrease this year yeah we negative cherry sheet this year because of the yeah I'll pull it up exactly or at least from what I think that should be the lead into to that bullet yeah the fiscal year 25 cherry sheet decreased from fiscal year 24 by old cold wait for it I'm scrolling last year as a result of decreased by 1.04% no that's NOP hang on that's total that's total that's total what' you say J said don't you got a financial number not a percent somewhere local receipts available funds budget number this is the FY 25 available funds correct is it the No No the cherry sheet I had it as the cherry sheet but that's free cash that's the Enterprise budgets that's this one here oh it is for number 752 111 752 even right thank you so the FY 25 cherry sheet decreased by $1,752 what did you say the what right here yeah from FY 24 does that include the 40s yes and would you like the the exact number for the 40s I have that too now if we want to scroll up instead it's it's worse than 340 it's 342 and change okay so from FY 24 yeah yeah okay all right that is well that's not all because we have other bullets to work on yeah we lost veterans benefits we lost school choice tuition and we lost smart growth those three decreased for this year do you want to add that um no not specifically no veterans benefits that's a reimbursement isn't it yeah our veterans benefits went from uh they uh I mean they dropped $500 they dropped from 53,3 to 52,800 so I would assume that means we've lost a few veterans I assume correct it's if it's a reimbursement on veterans benefits so is that the lead in though to encouraging folks to I think it's the perfect leading for it speak to the legislators about that that sentence actually is before it so it says the finance committee recommends the members of our community and then it talks about so you want to see the FY 25 cherry sheet decrease by right from and then the sentence that's what I would yeah that's how I would recommend the lead into it okay yeah all right done do you want to scroll back up to the 40 uh the the 40s number specifically the 340k since we're giving exact numbers for everything else so this impacts both fy2 24 and FY 25 and result in a reduction of $340,000 it's actually 342,000 yeah $192 $342,900 $92 okay that's done those are all of the bullets we have written so the last two would just be the hiring freezes or the the position increases the salary increases on hold if we want to address that salary increases so all of the not salary increases um the town manager explained it a much better way than I did there we go uh due to recent developments and discussions with our current trash Haller nope yes and the recent vote by the Personnel committee on recommended compensation and classification schedule for non-union employees for FY 25 the following changes need to be made to the primary preliminary budget so that includes the so waste increasing to prepare for when that goes through the roof um The Reserve account Reserve fund account going up the salary reserve line going up to cover the sap stuff and then the cutting the additional hours for it admin cutting the additional hours for the accounts on Aging the additional hours to the rec department director the teen hour the teen librarian the data collector line the it Hardware line and the active health insurance line so couldn't the cuts and I be all rolled up into the discussion we had on their on the desired budgets in one of the first paragraphs that we Ted I mean yes and no the reason for these is primarily because of Harvey right put Harvey aside you were talking about the hours I thought but the re so all of this changed because of the discussions with our current trash hauler and the recent vote by the by the Personnel committee so those two to events is is what led to all of this other stuff happening not they're not Cuts they're just not being they're not increasing right there's no they're they're no they're not getting the requested increases in hours so could we I mean what do if I'm the reader of this I'm a a citizen here could we say something about the only budget uh the budget was because of these items um um the only new I think we hired a new the assessor data collector right but that Line's being cut from I think 10,000 to 5,000 or 15 to 30,000 to 25 okay but that's it was that's a new position right yeah yes so that's the only new position so we should basically say that and you know and that I mean I don't know if that's going to create an issue but I think that's obviously a good thing to do back based on what we know from last year um but I'm just thinking what do they as the citizens can absorb in in this we give them too much they're going to just glaze over and not say anything so we are so I'm just trying to think what's our second paragraphs the beginning of our second paragraph say cuz I thought we addressed the so it says the process of developing and presenting a budget to the annual town meeting begins in the early fall with with the town manager meeting with department heads to discuss expenses wants and needs that's the first sentence of the second paragraph So what we're discussing I think my first question is where does it belong in the report or does it belong in the report or does it yeah I agree I think I just think it's kind of boiled up into that expenses wants and needs and I thought we had something care about level service but well my concern is that by putting these in it almost sounds like there's like a hiring freeze or a an pay increase freeze which is not it was the first actually the case it's just this one we have a large trash bill coming potentially right there are positions that continue to remain unfilled for variety reasons but these are all the these are all filled positions I believe what the exception of the do we have a dataor yet we don't as a result many of the Town departments are currently operating below their desired budget and we changed that from yeah we Chang the word to desired on right so I just think that incorporates all of this okay okay so we don't need no all right so that's one checked does everyone agree with that is there any thought of instead of just budgets budgets and Staffing levels right in that sentence that you just you could say that because because the police depart that's what we pulled back on was Staffing levels most of it was you know planned wellth thought out Staffing increases that we had to pull them all back right so that would then read the town's conservative practices for many years the town was able to make it through difficulties of some Financial instability as a result many the town's departments are currently oper operating below their desired budget and Staffing level and Staffing level and Staffing levels mhm yeah okay so that's changed yeah that takes into account the hours and the police officer position and all of that yeah okay so then we have one more just the task force okay where does Comm recommends a financial task force check need a budget T we will solve all our for right so is where where does that belong compris the volunteers first of all do we need to take a vote on this because do we actually recommend it we've we talked about it a lot but I don't think we I don't think we voted on it if we did I I mean is anyone outwardly against having a a budget task force to look through everything no no okay we'll wait until Dave gets back just to make sure but yeah unless someone has a disagreement with it I don't think we need to vote on it but um that's going to be bo of Select board isn't it yes yeah it would have to be made from the board from the select board doesn't have to it does why we can't make a subcommittee or anything who said I asked already asked who Heather well they already said they were going to do it right they they talked about I heard that so it's that's that's good and they're going to pick the we can make a subcommittee for a task for a budget task force do whatever we want can we for the legislature with impunity yes I don't know about that who's going to challenge us the legislature the Ethics Committee the legislature what did I miss so we were talking about whether or not we actually take a vote on whether or not we recommend a budget task force and I wasn't going to do unless anybody had some hesitations for them trying to spin it in my head a couple of different ways I mean at this point I really haven't had a lot of time to really think it through it sounds like a good idea but it may be throwing us into the weeds too for an extended period of time trying to do what's proposed closed with that um I think it's bottom line so far is I I support the premise MH of of creating that task force because there are an awful lot of things that we could be doing differently and 3/4s of the state and the cities and towns in the state do things totally different than we do I don't think we're ready to [Music] go to the point of supporting or not supporting that at this point that's that's just a um how can I explain it it's something that's intended to be dealt with after we get past town meeting and election so I think that's that's when we could you know when it when it starts to be discussed a little bit more and what the charge is going to be I think that's when we decide whether we fully support it or not guess that raises the question of does it even does this even need to be in a report no since it's not something that exists yet I don't basically what I just said yeah I I I agree it doesn't need to be great point so we don't even have to vote on already said they were going to do it so it's it's even moot actually they haven't I don't think they have yet I think only Rene has said she's going to advocate for it like oh she did well then maybe we should nobody disagreed with her let's put it that way who won't even be there all right so let's strike it and we'll just finish with we have y yeah perfect done okay so I have one more question you have a couple of things that you're going to add in there there are three highlights so is it better to just email what we've all worked on collaboratively to you and then you'll pop it up onto SharePoint no uh email it to me and then I'll double check the numbers I'll email it out one more time okay for everyone to R respond individually okay I'm naming this the same thing but it says live at the end rev Dash yes all right so we're we're good thank you thank you wow oh I can stop sharing now all right that brings us up thank you thank you watching us live acceptive brings us up to Old business does anyone want to discuss the budget again no no sure let's start all over let's scrap it and restart yeah uh how about the override no no no no excellent uh we have two warrant articles that we have deferred on and both had them pulled up uh they are one second articles 4 and Article Five I believe yes four and five so article four is payments of prior's expenses and Article 5 is amendments to Appropriations and sources of funds for FY 24 do have an update on both of those great so we do have um prior year expenses that will be on the warrant um their details um that weren't paid by the end of the year mhm and that amount is $1,994 55 might we get more no I've asked the that's that we're going with that number otherwise they have to wait till the fall okay and the budget adjustment article will be the snow and ice our number with the last snowstorm is approximately 226,000 that we'll need to make a budget adjustment from and my recommendation is to take that out of the reserve fund cuz we have 275 5,000 in that account and there will be a minimal amount as well for the salary Reserve to make that um supplemental amount that will be needed in fiscal 24 mhm isn't the reserve account the one that we vote on to yes if they're need to be any actual requests which we haven't received any requests for a number years for to take money out of that account otherwise we've historically used that as uh to tap into for end a year at town meeting for Budget adjustments but couldn't we just do it for the snow and ice and not even have a warant out and pass it over at town meeting um that's a matter of preference I mean we've something an article at town meeting yeah well it'll be we still need to we still need to do yeah um the Sal reses I'm sorry traditionally we don't fund it out of uh the reserve fund though haven't we covered it many other ways fre cash this is the first time I can even remember doing it out of Reserve we've used the reserve fund before to cover this for some not entirely but at least a portion mhm yeah okay we don't typically have that much in the reserve fund we typically carry 75,000 that was the number that we adjusted in the fall right before the pro forma tax refresh my memory does the Reserve balance carry over to 25 no it would close out it closes out okay any questions on those ones yeah I would recommend that someone just come and ask us to transfer the reserve account and we not even have a warrant article on it yeah and it's also a transparency too tell meaning what transparency that the voters are seeing but and that's the whole purpose of the reserve account though is for us to be able to handle unexpected yes we've that large of an amount we've never done [Music] you want to make a suggestion Chris I think I just did make a suggestion are you making that a motion of a suggestion well I don't know that we can force them to do that but I don't know since I've been on the finance committee I've never seen one go I've never even had one come up I think it should become practice I think we should start putting more money in the reserve account for unexpected and but my preference would be to not even have an AR article on it just balance it out now and skip over the article it can be also if we consider it uh non-controversial be included in the consent calendar as well okay I'm going to vote no recommendation but if someone wants to make it I would prefer that someone come to us and ask for us to allocate money from the reserve account cuzz otherwise I don't even know the point of the reserve account I mean the whole point is for this situation in my mind why not use it from a business standpoint it makes sense to me but I haven't I feel like I haven't been on the committee long enough to really have a strong opinion about what I believe the right thing is to do like if this was Private Industry I know what way I lean Reserve accounts are for that you know in fact but I also I'm hearing the point of that you're making which is and stop me if I'm wrong about this transparency and you're bringing it to the town to have everyone else vote on it too I think we have a lot of ways we do things in this town that tends to neuter certain boards and commissions in town in centralized control and into the select board and I think that this is one case where we should exercise our control come to us for that Reserve account that is in our control and we will we will allocate it if that's the right thing to do you got to start using the finance committee in the way it's intended not as some last minute group to write a report I mean ultimately we're the ones that are supposed to be presenting the Articles to town meeting historically it was us preparing the budget now it's we just can influence it and I think a lot of the mess we're in is because we're not in control of budgetary decisions in this town and we've given that responsibility to the um select board the executive committee it'd be like having no Congress how do we make a motion to continue this conversation so that we're we have more time to dig into it oh we can just defer to town meeting and then we get to have this whole conversation on town meeting floor well I mean in general as a whole I think what Chris is bringing up is it's a valid thing to continue to discuss as a group and as a town like I think the discussion on how this this committee should be used is something we should discuss in the offseason in general right but I just think that this is a case for if you're tapping into the reserve account which we control you should be asking us to release money out of The Preserve account not playing it till the end and saying by default it's just going to happen cuz it's either going to turn into free cash or it's going to um we're going to have the you know in essence the select board make that determination so ultimately town meeting not select board yeah but uh so I'm I'm okay with the 11 the $1,000 article I will defer on the other one with a recommendation that you just come to us and say release it and pass it over at town meeting saying what we balanced our budget throughout the year any other thoughts on the reserve account article anything we decide tonight's not going into the warrant anyway so what we just let it go to town meeting yeah I age we'll talk about it there that's where I stand too well that's what I was saying if we continue to defer then we get to actually have this discussion on town meeting floor doesn't we don't have to raise our hand to have a comment made right okay well also can we add four future topics too it's it's already on there [Music] okay all right so let's take article four first which is the thank you let's take Article 4 first which is the payment of prior's expenses in the total in the amount of $1,994 55 do anybody want to make a motion for that one I'll make a motion that we recommend approval on that one second all right motion is made and seconded to recommend approval any further discussion all those in favor say I I I opposed we are unanimous six to zero one absent uh for Article Five the Amendments and to Appropriations and sources of funds for FY 24 in the amount of about $226,000 from the reserve fund which currently has about $275,000 do anyone want to make a recommendation for this one we are currently deferred so we can just not make a recommendation we have it deferred fantastic we are deferred unanimously we are deferred still [Music] okay can start writing your speech for that one four score it's well written in the handbook of uh of town uh town finance committe town finance committees it warns very much against what I just talked about in its Preamble yep so read it I put the newest version into the uh to our drive already it's in the SharePoint under um [Music] where is it specifically under my my recommendation is do not try to read it at 11 o'clock at night no don't do that associ sleep there we go yeah the it's in the association of town finance committee's folder it's called the finance committee handbook HB 2021 it's the most recent one all right any other discussion on warrant articles do we want to go back and revisit anything I'm happy not to Fantastic yeah no I'm good we do have some minutes that were sent over I haven't even had a chance to read them yet so I'm just going to kick those on down a little bit further uh are there any committee reports can I just on minutes we got to go address the ones that we do we can't find I'm planning on when we have like when we're done with all of this stuff I know it's I know it goes past the time we're supposed to we've gone way further than on other times so I'm I'm GNA I'm okay with pushing it until kind of after everything settles down okay um any time any um committee meeting reports uh one I don't know the parks had a um cleanup day at the town um Beach building so um ripped up the carpets and the um particle board underlay on it um in getting ready for putting down a new a new floor in there there was a dumpster uh it was like 20 years worth of trash thrown away um so it's look look pretty good by the end of it and was all volunteer uh folks that that went in and volunteered their time to to rip that up so that was a good Community event you want to plug the next one coming up for Earth Day they're not Earth Day related but there are some cleanup events um they're not Earth Day related no I I was corrected on that last week um oh boy um I always thought they were yeah I don't think they are but um there are cleanup events and if you go to the um the rec department you can sign up for those and just in general if you want to clean up roads and stuff you can go to DPW and get slightly different yellow bags I think um to be used for walking around and cleaning up so there's one that's kind of sponsored through parks and then the other one is I think anyone can do maybe on Earth Day is when they typically do them got it any other committee reports so far not really a committee report but I attended the asso assciation town finance committee meeting on last this past Saturday um specifically about uh smart growth I Mr Cronin was there as one of the presenters so I in one of the Q&A sections I asked him what was going on with that moving forward and um he proceeded to explain to the rest of the finance committee members what I was talking about and how it impacted us so on and so forth and basically at the end of that presentation he said at this point nothing's being done with it so if we expect anything to be done with spart growth we're going to have to really put some pressure on the delegation to get them to make some kind of decisions on it um they did um go through the proposed changes uh in the Municipal empowerment act as it's being brought forward now um I S I think I sent a copy of the presentations to all of you um I wasn't real impressed that they were really helping us much except allowing us to tax our our [Music] um users of businesses in town Mo and uh creating a couple of committees and um allowing amortization of um deficit spending for emergencies and one of them that I thought was personally I thought was crazy was allow us to um extend out debt for schools to 40 years instead of 30 years yep um you know the minute they said that I said buildings are falling down in 30 years under the present scenarios why would we fund them out 40 years and still be paying for them um so anyway that's you know they went over that it was a good presentation it was a good good chance again like MMA but in a much smaller setting to be able to talk with other finance committee members um and as I said earlier there are many cities and towns in the state doing things totally different than the way we do them and doing it successfully um including DPW and Facilities maintaining all facilities and DPW responsibilities throughout their town or throughout their city and the school takes care of the schools um and one one member who's been at it for quite a while said that you know if you're not a Regional School District you got to remember you're a school department you're a department of the Town not a district he he made that point a couple of times um I also had the uh pleasure of sitting with one of the members of the Arlington finance committee who are 21 members strong and he says you know the first thing was everybody looked at him oh that must be really tough and he said no we all work together and we get it done so I I think we really need to look at how we have the structure this town set up and start looking at what other towns are doing and see if there's some advantage to moving in those directions more topics for future meetings we'll need a bigger stage that's exactly we're going to need a bigger boat need a budget for that though uh the master plan steering committee meet uh met on the 5th um and interestingly one of our members brought up the last time that there was a master plan steering uh uh master plan report done which was I believe 2002 it was started in 1995 and it was an envisioning forward to 2007 and they redid it again in 2002 and if you look at what their needs are and what the town's needs are now they're almost identical to what they wanted back then um interestingly though there were some data that they they took out of there for what the charges were what the priorities were um what they thought could be done and what projects could be done and we had about 30% of the projects that they suggested actually made it to completion including the pavement management plan um there was I believe the trash bags came out of that or trash at that time everyone had their own trash and so the trash conversation started then um there were but the remaining you know 60 5 70% were either started and not finished or were never started or there's no information as to whether or not they were started so you can assume they were never started so we start we talked about after the the charge of the the committee is over having another committee or some type of an in of a you know someone to stay on top of it kind of a champion to stay on top of it and recommend continuing with projects and whatnot uh we also talked about large area properties for with um the chair of the select board Mr Jeff um for future events um clearing prop for example the 300th anniversary coming up or or other town events and whatnot so he listed off a couple properties to use um and then lastly uh there is going to be a another survey launching the last survey launching um on May 4th they will be at town meeting they will have a little table set up with QR codes and um information packets and and hand out surveys and whatnot and there will be one more public meeting on the 30th of of April as well at six at uh 6 p.m. at smok stack to go over that again one thought I had when I was I cuz I actually listened to that meeting um cuz what else would you do on Friday night exactly but um whatever goals they do come out of that we should probably include that in our in our um annual budget process and say how is what you're proposing to do here map against the plan of the town it's a good idea they uh are we doing our best to have a report ready to go for special town meeting in the fall um not with finalized information at all cuz I think it's a three-year plan a three-year project um but at least an updated plan with what's going on and to kind of start that conversation but I'll take that back to them as well I that's a good idea um other than that as far as the Board of Health goes the EPA came out with new regulations for pasts so that is going to drop the levels down to about four parts per trillion which is going to mean that we are failing on a number of our wells and our water services for those that are on Public public water supply um so there will be some Financial impact coming through with that one that is not directly through us but will directly affect the town at least the people that are on public water um so there's water department meetings coming up there's doing as I believe it was the special town meeting water district I'm sorry the water district district thank you um they received additional funding for information to the public and education to the public so there's meetings coming up I encourage people to go and to see those if you're on Town water because it's it's going to be important coming up you only have to be in the water district correct you don't have to be in on Town water right right right right cuz I'm in the district but not on Town water so I could you're still invited you can go yeah okay that's good I'm in the sewer district I don't think I can go to the Sewer sewer meetings though I don't know how that one work um lastly who's free on um speaking of Fridays April 26th from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. I'm sorry I missed that who's free on Friday April 26th from 7: to 9:00 p.m. oh this is for the uh are you smarter than our sixth graders I I I can attend I can't no hard no hard no all right so I'll message um Miss Russell directly then and see if she's available if she is we'll have a team of three at least I'll go to let's see topics for future meetings other than the two we have so far anything else for now okay upcoming meetings we're scheduled to have one in two weeks on the 25th I'm going to keep it for now and I'll post for it just in case but unless anything comes up I can't think of anything that we're going to need to do if you post late on that one I won't have I accidentally I was I was yeah you you were getting text messages from me town manager was getting text messages from me I posted on Saturday I was terrified it didn't get posted for tonight yeah um yeah I don't see a reason to meet unless I agree completely unless someone wants to come forward with request a transfer I'll keep the date open but um5 I'll send out a um I'll just send out an email before that if there's anything that we need to do speaking of the reserve fund not to stretch this meeting out but to stretch it out a little bit um we know a line item is been depleted oh are we not are we not making a transfer to to uh balance that out or is that going to close out also because in the past we've made the transfer for our meetings yes we're over budget for our meetings right so we do that at the end of the year right November yeah no June no end of June June okay and then we'll see about next year's budget if we need to increase it again um after that May 4th is annual town meeting we're finally there and then two weeks after that is annual town meeting or annual Town election with that uh is there any public comment from the public this evening we have one person on the phone sounds like no sounds like no if you do want to unmute I think it's star n to unmute uh while we're waiting is there any public comment from the committee I I just want to say May the 4th be with with us all at town meeting because it is still May 4th oh it will be yes just on a lighter side because it's been a very serious budget season and it may go into May 5th yes we may go into May 5 we'll be quick sure move every question right after the start of the first discussion um What's the timing going to be on consent calendar because we have select board has the first or has a bite at it and then we also have a bite at it before town meeting for usually the 25th meeting is the consent calendar so we may be meeting on the 25th for the consent calendar right that'll be a quick meeting at least then I'll throw one item up there and that's it yeah I mean we could potentially do that on Zoom if that's the only only thing we need to do we could it's up to you that's a chair's call sure um all right any other public comment anyone want to make a motion to adjourn so moved second all those in favor hi we are adjourned at 9:28 p.m. everyone have a great night