hello everyone um I will call the meeting to order at 7:01 pm and I will start to read the script so uh as a preliminary matter this is Jillian Prendergast I am the chair of the mayard finance committee please permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me uh fincom members when I call your name please respond in the affirmative uh Linda yes naan yes Nathaniel yes Peter yes hi yes all right um and we also have some staff joining us tonight so thanks for coming so Greg can you hear us okay we can hear you yep awesome and uh Kevin hi I think it's the first time saying hello all right I think you're on mute but I think you can still hear us so that's okay right we can't hear you Kev yeah this is why it takes me a couple minutes to sign in I sign in on my phone because for some reason my computer never works something all right well we'll give you a couple minutes I'm going to keep reading the paragraph here so uh good evening this is a meeting of the mayard town of fin finance committee is being conducted via Zoom speakers on the agenda will be participating remotely um and I may allow for the public to provide comment um please note that while the option for remote attendance and our participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public this meeting will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast to individual attendees unless required by law accordingly Please be aware that other folks may be able to see you um so please take care not to screen share your computer anything that you broadcast may be captured by the recording this meeting is being recorded uh and will later be posted to YouTube um so all meeting materials can be found on board dos um which can be found through a link on the town website and I recommend that you follow along uh unless I note otherwise um and now uh we will be turning to the first item on our agenda uh which is budget transfers so um this is why we have Greg and Kevin coming tonight um so if you'd like I can pull them up or if you want to pull them up I can give you sharing privileges whatever you prefer I don't I don't have them up so unless Kevin does like I yeah maybe you should problem yeah and maybe Kevin will just uh just blink Morse code a weekend yeah you can disconnect and reconnect with your phone like I use my phone and the computer at the same time because for whatever reason I never can share screen all right so this should be sharing document and that's that's that's um that FY 2018 is is not correct I don't that's probably just the original format you know like how Excel kind of saves it like that but um fy2 24 in the top right that's that shows you it's the correct version okay yeah awesome that was going to be my question and so yeah I'll give you I'll give you because some there's some new finance committee members so this is how it works um at the end of the fiscal year the Department of Revenue says um you can you can do transfers you can do transfers between accounts and the Department of Revenue is mostly just interested in making sure that you're balanced right you don't you didn't overspend for what you collected but the Department of Revenue does not get nitpicky about the spending part they just just want to make sure you you're balanced and so um so this is the transfers that we do at the end of the fiscal year this is what every municipality does um we've already just through the timing of meetings we ended up going to the select board first so we showed the select board this on last last Tuesday a week ago and um I and what I told the board which I'll tell you guys now nothing really outstanding about this there's a lot of it is um like any organization $50 million organization there's going to be ups and downs in accounts there's going to be accounts that you spend over and there's going to be accounts you spend under or UND spend and um the overspent accounts a lot of them are the normal so um there might be Consulting that we have to do for various reasons maybe we don't have staff and we need to fill in the gaps or maybe we need to get new staff to be trained or maybe we have a lot of overtime that happens too so if there's a department that it has like a shortage of personnel you have to fill in the gaps or maybe there's a special project and you just over time just sometimes happens um um same with um it costs those are hard to predict and we try to every year um but you know you might I don't know how many computers I have to replace because certain number break or whatever the case and then same with um labor costs uh I mean like labor Council so like attorneys so we you know if if I have a number of grievances or if Union negotiations are are getting a little complicated and going a little long I'm going to have to pay a lawyer so um yeah so that's it I mean like you can kind of you can go line by line um but nothing really nothing really was too outstanding what I don't have in front of you and I guess you could ask Kevin is and I don't know if Kevin has done this final calculations because this transfers is only part of the endof Year process and so as and Kevin could fill you in but in Big Picture This is towards this this sort of reflects towards you know free cash eventually right so like what this will kind of this this doesn't say oh we had um I don't remember what the balance was it doesn't say like we only had x amount of excess budget to be able to cover these accounts that were overspent it's saying we had excess budget and so therefore we could cover some of these overs spendings but doesn't mean that's all the excess we had and So eventually you can find out how much free cash you have so I don't I but I don't know that number and it takes it takes a while for Kevin to kind of do all do all the calculations but you can see like we don't really care about it until it's certified right because then that's when we can actually use it I kind of care and so does the capital planning committee because um I mean we care like we can't actually use it I guess should say we care yeah yeah no you're right we can't use it and we don't and so our town mayard traditionally does not use it until until you know we appropriate it in the spring so other towns um do they just have their budget and capital planning cycle early so they so they have a they have a special time meeting in the fall and that's when they do their free cash and so the Department of Revenue um prioritize the certific in their free cash early but anyways you can see like this is not atypical see the big um health insurance number so like we we specifically um make sure we have a healthy amount of health insurance that was that was not I didn't mean we do have a healthy amount of health insurance but anyways um we have a lot of health insurance that's by Design primarily it's because we don't know what my like I don't control the schools for example so I don't know how many I don't know how many teachers they're going to hire I don't know how many family plans they're going to need so there's a variation of subscribers I don't know how many claims we're going to have throughout the course of the fiscal year and I don't know what the health insurance um like what the Market's going to look like so we we always devote a lot of health insurance numbers and um I although in fy2 I'm already a little nervous because I didn't I wasn't as excessive in health insurance in this fisol year as as I had been in the past fiscal year so I don't I don't I'm hopeful that we should be able to rely on free on uh health insurance but I don't know anyways um um I don't know do you guys have any questions now maybe Kevin can you talk now you hear me hey hey I I was only gonna give you 50% for showing up tonight if you couldn't actually I was here early too yeah oh so uh but Kevin did all I I took all I stole all your Thunder Kevin Kevin did all the work to go into this and um but it you know it's cont contributed by um departments you know you have to submit all their invoices and Kevin gives the deadline when their FY 24 invoices are due Etc so there's and um and so this kind of reflects a lot of hard work from All Hands I had a couple questions yeah why why are we paying unemployment do we lay off workers we don't I don't think I've ever fired anybody but the teacher yeah because we're saying we had higher than normal unemployment claims because I because because the benefits which is unemployment covers both the town and the school side so I my suspicion is I think naturally there is a lot of turnover on the on the school department side I can't I can't speak for that specifically but my understanding is a lot of that unemployment does come from the teachers or or of professional but they wouldn't they didn't fire they didn't lay anyone off did they is that the only thing I don't know employment okay don't know I'm not involved with school Personnel I just I just cover benefits the other one I had was we had a lot of overtime for dispatch but we didn't see um because of an unfilled position but we didn't see a minus from saving money for having unfilled positions so we had overtime to cover vacancies but we didn't save salary on Fair that's a good question where we saw where we saw that in other places right we had unfilled positions Kevin can you speak to that I not I'm uh yeah I can look that up right now okay we're about 34,000 under budget um staff okay not a lot but over time obviously costs a lot more and the regular salary wages did you hear that Linda he said um so where do we see it online on we we didn't have to pull anything from um the the staff yeah they were under budget about 34,000 yeah um but they were over under over budget in general okay that's good question Linda so it's not it's not a one for one I think that's the point it's not a one for one but you we would think if we had an unfilled position we would have had some savings and you were right and so like there was but it's um but Kevin there's no like prescription saying you know it's just balancing it so he just looks at all the accounts yep and then two firefighters on administrative leave not budgeted and that's a so we're paying 60,000 more for that correct because I would think if they're on administrative leave they would have had the same presumably the same pay as they would have otherwise okay yes what's your question what what what do how do we how do we owe extra money on that 60,000 how does that create 60,000 and un UN in not budgeted expenses because it seems like they would have already been on the payroll so because they're on administrative lead why does that create 60,000 over budget I thought it would be a wash no that's a good question Kevin can you speak I don't that's actually a good question I don't I don't mean to imply that we over hired because I don't think we've I don't think we've been yeah I would have to check with a fire chief on that yeah that's a good yeah that's a good catch I will I will find out but any Kevin this was it was very clear it was very it was very clear and it balanced perfectly so I'm sure it was a lot of work to balance it perfectly so thank you you're welcome yeah if I could figure it out I do little Clapp OTE um what is what is the SN in the spreadsheet uh salary what does that signify salary yeah so the way we break that's it in our budget we see it as a salary expense or an expense expense expense expenditure so right um and I did want to note for the committee that um there is going to be one last week of early voting so there was potentially some cost savings there um I think in the email you said that was like a state suggestion or something I I don't yeah you're right right now but um I just wanted to let everyone know about that that's it's not the largest line item but I thought it was interesting right because that was the that was the question the selectboard had and so clerk filled me in y I want to make sure I passed that along before I forgot about it and is the you remind me what the OM bu position is again yeah so when um Megan zudo was the assistant Town Administrator but she was also the OMS director and so when she went to a town we shall out name she um that position was vacant and instead of filling in the ATA for OMS again we made Stephany Dugen the ATA for HR and then we put a new position under OMS to be the director of OMS and so that's why when the when the fiscal year started it wasn't already budgeted like that and so we that's that's why it looks like it's overspent because we we started you know already into the fiscal year but in this fy2 we're able to address it did I just noticed it says F 2018 here I mistake you know what I said beginning you didn't even have to say Kevin I already admitted oh did you yeah yeah yeah um but it I I explained that's just the that's just the spreadsheet it's just the saved spreadsheet yeah it's just the the header um what is what does the abbreviation stand for again OMS office of Municipal services so that's like the down it's like planning health building it's B our it's meant it's like a if you're opening a business that's where you go yeah want to make sure since I'm sharing do any other members have questions about these um actually can I ask one um so like on the OMS position how does that work um approval wise so you know it's an unbudgeted position does the select Board sign off on that is that within your perview to hire knowing it's unbudgeted but you know you're going to you know fix it with budget transfers at year end or is it that it's like an approved slot and that's why you can hire but it's not in the budget and that was kind of a mistake or I'm just curious how that you know what's the process there I don't believe the OMS director is stipulated in the charter so it's not so it would wouldn't be falling under the selectboard exclusively but I'm responsible for All Staffing so we so I I mean I I also had conversation with the board when throughout It Anyways like when like when when Megan was leaving and I informed the board and they asked me what my plan was and anyway so I just like kept it un for no matter what um but I believe the Town Administrator is the chief administrative officer makes the hiring decisions well unless again if unless it's an appointment for the board but even in that case I do all right let's say I mean to push it a little bit to be ridiculous but whatever um let's say as a fiscal whatever a fiscal constraint measure the you know the budget process decides that we're going to eliminate the assistant Town Administrator okay that we want to cut that position and put that savings to whatever um Can is there a process can we enforce that or you as a rogue Town Administrator said well screw it I want to hire him anyway well that so the assistant Town Administrator is a select board appointment so if they don't appoint anybody then I can't hire that person okay let's say we caught an assistant Library director or I don't know assistant DPW commission uh director well that that would that would Faller to me because the because the and that I mean you can see there's unfilled positions so there's there's there are instances where or maybe like or maybe we reorganize the department and we just don't we just don't fill that position and we create a different I mean that's what happened to Ms like we the um we you know I didn't add a body I just changed the positions like it didn't add an FTE uhhuh but then well where's the savings from wherever that FTE came from right so well Kevin I don't know you can explain but it's it's under the town because I had one less position under the TA hey at the very top there's a salary for HR manager yep Bo Stephanie D okay so that kind of got transferred to the OMS position is one yeah is that a correct assessment yeah kind of but that that transfer really happens between fiscal years when we when we budget more in one and less in the other okay okay thanks please don't take my ATA away from me Peter I really I I really like no no I was just that's why I said to use a ridiculous example okay okay good okay good all right do the committee have any other questions or concerns on these transfers I'm sorry what was the answer on the unemployment compensation um I I was just looking at prior years and looked like pretty consistently it's been about $50,000 so that's like a 40% in increase I'm wondering if that's going to continue in the future or if that was due to something this year wait I'm sorry can you clarify Nathan you said that um it it went up by 50 is it what did you say uh it looks like the um unemployment budget for previous years was about like 50,000 pretty consistently so um that's like a large that's like a 40% increase oh I see the 22,000 is is over I see what you mean now yeah I'm wondering if that's going to carry for is that like a new rate is that going to carry forward into future years or was that like a one time um that's a great question I will follow up with this again as I I believe it's unless Kevin you know otherwise I don't think we're firing anybody in town hall these days so I'm pretty sure that's that's from the school side so I need to I need to I'll get some I'll get some background about about like um employment stuff but you're right like we I mean I do the BET like any account we sort of project as best we can so we look at we look at the history and then maybe some known but I don't this particular fiscal I couldn't tell you if the unemployment maybe was due to like for example if if they if they had Grant fund positions which I think they might have maybe the ERS and I and I apologize if I'm wrong about this but maybe the sers hired which is like that Federal money that they got from postco if they let those people go but were responsible for the benefits then it's going to fall at us for their unemployment so it doesn't so sometimes the school budget is very complicated but I will um I can look into that particular one yeah I'm I'm almost 100% certain it's um School Employees because I see the bills yeah okay thank you right and then unemployment is a factor of your existing salary and so like if depending on what positions and how many there were and then and whatever the state state sets for the rates you know it's it could be could be a lot I I wonder if this is also something that is always part of the budget transfer at the end of the year potentially does that sound consistent Kevin like that like unemployment might be one of those usuals yeah it's it's another one that's kind of hard to predict but so it it could be I think I'm not sure in the past if it has been looks like we budget about 40,000 every year I think Nathan's right I think I did increase it because I noticed that we were consistently like under budgeted that sound right I just have one more question so if the school is doing a similar thing but they're going to go the school committee will vote on those budget transfers if they were over under that's a good question so this is the general fund so Kevin can you can you speak to how the schools play with their end of year with us so they they transfer expenses to the general fund out of if there's money remaining they typically try to use up what's left there and transfer appropriate expenses into the general fund okay have reserves in there evolving accounts okay but do they do are you would Kevin would you happen to know if they do like a similar exercise before that point with um not sure it comes in kind of sporadically too okay from way I'm not yeah I'm actually not this is a good question Linda I've know I again I kind of keep an arms distance from the school's business so I will um but I will ask because I'm curious too okay I'm not necessarily hearing any additional questions on these transfers right now um Greg I didn't see any like document in the past I've like had a document where like I sign it and I say what the vote was and stuff is is that typical to get something like that for this um that's a good question so you know like how you would do for a reserve fund transfer um right uh I don't know it more informal I think this is my first time doing I think a vote is is unless Kevin you think otherwise I think a vote is sufficient because we we we we'll report that you know like and it'll be reflected in your minutes yeah um I don't unless unless you know otherwise does the Department of Revenue require like a some I don't know but what I can do what I can do is if we find out that we do we do need you to do that then I will ask you to do that Julian based on whatever tonight's vote goes yep yeah and that's sort of my next question to the committee is do you feel you have the information that you need to do that vote tonight or there questions that you asked tonight that you want the answers to First is there a timeline on this Craig we would like it as soon as possible um because we this yeah yeah this is kind of part of the bigger picture for transition between fiscal years I mean I'm okay I'm okay to vote tonight personally what exactly are we voting on like approval of this document yes yeah so we're basically voting if you approve them taking taking from the accounts on the right column and putting it into the accounts on the left so and then at the end of the day it all evens out to be zero so it's balancing itself but this is giving you line by line where the money's coming from and what budgets it'll be going into okay thanks and as I understand it the money on the left is already spent yeah yeah it's already spent yeah it's not like it would go to free cash or no that's you're right Linda so like any but on the money on the right if it wasn't being spent to balance this the money on the right is really to show that that's how much less free cash we're going to have and then year over year one of the two columns is higher typically depending on what year it is and that's just not shown here I guess that's true like like every year there's there's always transfers it's it it's we like any organization has like sort of organic changes in every Department in operations so like there's so there's always transfers at the end of the fiscal year how how much transfers we do that that's probably going to vary and Depends like I can imagine like maybe during covid there wasn't as it wasn't as high perhaps because we just we didn't have as many operations things kind of stood at a standstill um and but then we probably had a lot more free cash just because you know we were getting holidays on on health insurance Etc so there's like for whatever the I know that's an extreme example because of covid but there's for whatever reason there's always variation but n nothing on this list really stood out to me as being of like you know like significance nothing really sh also throughout the course of the fiscal year um the town accountant office and each department everyone's looking at their budgets so like a couple of months ago I I because there was a couple things that I wanted to see if we could if we like whether it be consultings or trainings or whatever I wanted to see if we could get it done or as I'm kind of my own department at too like I have I have a small staff and we all have trainings and conferences and whatnot so I have to see if we can afford to go to whatever we want to go to you know as the fiscal year goes on and so um or some people's budgets May adjust because of Union agreements or new hires or whatever the case so you you constantly have to be looking at your budgets and the accountant's office sends out monthly reports anyways and then a couple months ago I made a spreadsheet that just said okay so here's you know like because of this department because of this Department's um unfilled position because of this other departments unfilled position whatever but I kind of made my own transfers if you will to show okay I can afford this but I can't afford that and then I go over that with Kevin so that we're kind of on the same page and I'm not making up numbers and then um and then we go from there so like again like it it nothing should be a surprise by the time it gets to this point um this is just the this is just the the actual dollars and I think it's also important to keep I'm all about big picture so in terms of like what the total Town budget is and how much these transfers are this is less than 1% or something like that yeah it's like A50 million yeah yeah yeah it's like a 50 something million dollar budget and this is you know less than half a million dollars so I mean yeah we did pretty to me it seems pretty good but I mean departments don't deliberately overspend like they they um they yeah they they they they try to stay within budget as best they can can I uh move to approve the proposed budget transfers so I think I don't know how formally it should be but I think it's for the FY 24 since we're in 25 so maybe we should be specific sure so I hear a motion to approve second all right and we have a second by all right um is there any further uh comments or discussion all right um I'm going to stop sharing so I can see to do roll call vote um so I will take a roll call vote to approve the proposed budget transfers of FYI 24 as presented uh Linda yes Nathan yes Nathaniel yes Katie yes Peter yes all right I am also a yes um so that is a unanimous approval um so Greg if you if you do need anything in writing I guess just shoot me an email let me know yep um and I'm assuming that we're not going to have any requests for Reserve fund transfers from FY 24 since that I think that time has passed so um okay so so yeah so obviously these are separate from the reserve fund we have which currently we haven't had any FY 25 requests from yet um which is to be expected so that's is the full amount right now so I guess we can also wrap out our fy2 24 requests so we're not going to assume to get any more of those so that's also good to know okay great um all right okay so yeah so while you're here I did want to sort of just talk about the timeline so we're going to have a really tight timeline for the SPM coming up for when our comments will be due is my understanding um and I wanted to get an idea from you if I could bug you before you stepped off the line was about my understanding the articles for STM are due sometime in mid August like maybe the 13th or something like that yeah um or the 12th um yeah and then our comments are due like the 2nd of September I think or maybe we can get an extension to like the 10th or 11th that's a good question so um I'll you're you're right because you're probably reading up the same timeline sheet that I have too so I am yeah yeah yeah that's fine so um this is how it always works so we we back dat it according to when the um publisher says they need the the they need the um proof of what's going to be published from us and and we tell the publisher when we want it in everybody's mailboxes right so that's that really sort of sets sets the the dates of these things um however the select board traditionally has not looked at not not that they haven't looked at the finance committee comments but they don't they don't edit they don't change I don't either like whatever I get from the finance committee that's the finance committee's comments and recommendations right but we do like to have them in hand so that when we hit send in the email to the publisher we have it's a full-on warrant so there has been select board members in the past who have been reluctant and outright refused to vote because they didn't have all the finance committee comments and therefore they felt like the warrant was incomplete um most of the select board though says you know the select board has approved the publishing of the warrant based on the articles that the select board has has submitted not based on whatever the recommendations of the finance committees I know that's kind of a complicated bit to say if I don't have all the recommendations and comments from the from the finance committee by uh September 2nd in order to be on the select board's approval two days later on September 4th um then that's that's because I mean and if you don't have it by then it's not the end of the world it means we've done it before where we send it out to people's mailboxes and it just it doesn't have some of the finance committee comments but it and then eventually right we'll we'll we'll do a printing and we'll put on the website of what the finance committee's comments may be for those for those certain outstanding articles right now I don't I don't have a solid sense of what other articles we're going to have I I you know the usual includes like amending the general fund budget because we get the because we get the state budget and then um right there might be one or two planning board there usually is um and then whether or not we do it do exclusion in the fall I'm not sure okay um Greg we don't mail the special warrant do we sorry I don't we don't ma had warrant I will double check that that's why I might you might be right here I thought we only mail the annual I'm I'm gonna I'm I'm actually reading along so I will get back to you on that as so that I'm not you might be right Peter no it does say um it says uh in the bylaws chapter one section one the warrant for the annual town meeting and any and all special Town meetings shall be printed in a local publication or or delivered to each household at the discretion of the select board and made available a town B the post office and da D so like there so um usually we stuff it in the act un limited okay okay I mean like I'm unless unless unless my sheets wrong that's that's from byos okay um great so yeah so I mean if they're not due until the middle of August we might have one single meeting um before so I don't know know I think a special town meeting there's a lot less articles than an annual town meeting maybe usually um so there's probably not going to be like 37 or however many were in the last APM um yeah yeah but I think there'll be some big big ones for discussion so that's that's my only concern um so you know we did appreciate that you sent around and forwarded it to the rest of the committee some of the estimates of costs that you all did um which were nice about you know the potential um I'm jumping on to number two of our topic here which is uh open discussion for the joint board meeting topics because I'm pretty sure this will be a topic the STM will be a topic at that meeting um some budget projections for how much that might cost if it's you know assuming $35 million request for an override for the school bleachers um and I think in the email you were comparing and saying renting bleachers would be something like 55,000 or $54,000 a year some some number around less than 60 that sounds right I think that's right that's right um I'm trying to double check my notes but [Music] um the the question I did have is the followup in your estimates you're doing the three and a. half million that's just for what you're getting from the project manager as a quote which doesn't necessarily include like running new electricity or Plumbing or water or or do you know if it includes those things that should be all-inclusive so because we don't should inclusive yeah because I haven't budget for that otherwise so we so the so um like in the utilities which is water and sewer you know the uh the budgets are based on an expected number of services for like just regular services and residential developments and Commercial developments not for something like bleachers that we haven't we haven't planned for haven't authorized so the that 3.52 whatever whatever the number was um from the project manager and you know as informed by our contractor designer that's it like that's the whole that should be it should be the whole thing um start to finish including contingency right so there's a percentage of of in any budget particularly for a bud a project there's contingency as well which I don't remember there's a rule of thumb usually and depends on the project but it might be 5 10% but they they tack that on as well so it should all be within it and that number has changed even in the last six months because inflation and otherwise like the our Consultants try to do the best they can to sort of predict out um what the cost of the project may be and you and typically you want to ask conservatively because you don't want to go back to town meeting if you don't have enough budget so um yeah so that's there's the rub so like if we if we went to town meeting in the fall and asked for um you're right it is an override it's a type of override which is dead exclusion then um a dead exclusion override um is only for the life of that project and I if I recall bleachers are only bonded for 15 years whereas like in like elementary school is like a 30-year Bond but but a bleachers is only 15 but again like and this is in the finance committee you all know this it's not really the cost of the bleachers it's the cost of the building and and and all the utility works you just mentioned like it's the the bleachers is steel like it's framed my understanding is most of it's pre-fabricated offsite anyways but the it's the the true cost like the the like the cost cost is the fact that you have to do bathrooms so like you're building a building and you're and you're running water to it and electricity and ADA compliance and Roads and whatever like like you're like that's that's the real cost so Greg it does that 3.5 million doesn't include the impact on the town's operating budget to keep the lights on keep the water running have have maintenance on it that's a great question yes you you are right Linda so right that does not change the operating budget so the operating budget should reflect separately right you you need to budget for those costs too just like you do any other Capital project um right that that only costs for the installation not not for the operation and that and that should come out of the school budget right so when the so the you know as informed by public works or whoever like this the school should say you know I don't know what their maintenance plan would be I know that was a topic that was brought up at at right one of the joint meetings I think those sort of questions came up like who's custodial cost and Etc it's good questions I mean presumably they they had a budget already for that because they were running electricity to the to the bleachers um and you know the old bleachers they had to they had to they had to do the Press Box and stuff this might be a bit Yeah I think there's no bathroom situation no there was no bathrooms at the old Bach they were renting they were doing porta potties I just wanted to clarification I guess based on some emails um it sounded that renting porta potties isn't even on the table due to Ada and plumbing concerns straight up so is there a reason to compare those costs at all that's a great question and I and I replied back to Jillian who forwarded me that same question that I am also confused by by compliance with the building code and ada8 compliance because I how have we been getting away with portapotty all these years and I think it's because um I think it's because the bleachers existed for so long they were grandfathered into whatever compliance there was so we were providing my understanding is portapotty presumably ADA compliance um Porta Poes but so anyway so I asked that question back to our project manager to say like let I need to be clear about like what what are we supposed to do here and he said he was going to follow up he understood my question which was like I'm not talking about the new bleachers and I'm not talking about the old bleachers I'm talking about like if we had to go forward with only continuing to lease bleachers can we do ADA compant Compliant uh fori and I would assume like the answer is yes I mean if the if the state is okay with you renting bleachers I would assume the state would also be okay with us using ADA Compliant portes but um but isn't part part of the answer probably that the change to the plumbing code that requires the bathrooms is the last year or something that's that's a fair point too so the so the plumbing code is and then the amount of bathrooms is based on how many seats you have so I you're I think you're right Peter so anyways I I need to I'm waiting once OPM tells me get some clarification that's helpful but either way like my my understanding is and maybe this goes back to your agenda Jillian the school committee is expecting a vote like the school committee has been invested time and money into the bleachers and the bathrooms and the and in this project for a long time so uh my suspicion is regardless of checking a box through ADA Compliant Porta poodies I don't think that's what the school committee wants I think they want like bathrooms and bleachers yeah I've invited them to come talk to us um so I'm trying to nail down a date in August for them to come and talk to us it sounds the articles are not yet finalized um so I'll be up front and say that and they are also potentially considering an operational override for the schools but um to I think in the past at our last joint meeting they talked about how they de did a lot of their Reserve funds um in the last cycle so my understanding is they might potentially come in the Springtown meeting for with a request for an operational override to support the budget of the schools so um the operating budget so I also wanted to put that on people's radar too so it's all a little bit um he said she said this might be coming up there's nothing in stone right now but I just wanted to throw it out there um and I also I'm sorry go ahead oh sorry j so I cut you off but the senior center committee is also considering proposing any yeah an oper operational override in the fall sorry yeah and we'll know more their meeting this Thursday and then they'll probably do have some more information for the quad board meeting on the 30th but unless there's other money to be found um it's probably an operational override and then for outfitting the place possibly a debt exclusion or or some Capital funds somehow but they're drafting that article I had a question about the um the the bleacher Bill proposal and how it impact uh taxes it's assuming a level debt 15 years at 3.5% um does that seem like a reasonable uh interest rate I've noticed on a lot of other Town estimates we seem to default to assuming a 5% interest rate oh good question so we got that from our consultant so it's so um I think that comes from Hilltop which is our our bonding consultant so like I I would would trust that you know like they they look ahead and and that's probably conservative like they don't want to undersell right so they they hopefully it's less than three and a half perc cool yeah also there's also probably a factor of the the time like it's only 15 years so maybe there's a difference between their calculations of a 30-year Bond versus 15-year Bond but I think a lot of is just timing so uh what the Market's like and and the yeah how much Bay you get for your buck this is also based on on you know like um the average single family home value at a certain point in time which I don't remember what it was so depending on when you actually go out to bond because you don't you don't need to bond about 500k yeah 55k so if the if the if the average single family household changes values which it will like values always go up and especially especially presumably the housing market will reflect the the school being underway you know like there's there's who knows what the factors are going to be but um yeah so this is only sort of like a snapshot this gives you like an idea but if there's another you know house value you have in mind you can use this the column to the left of it with the per 1, 100K to you know if you're like oh well this house is 300K or this house is I don't know 700 or something yep I'm just multiply that number okay stop sharing yeah so I'm hoping to get the schools in here to talk about that um I was also I don't know if anyone has any other lingling questions about the bleachers but I have a question about a different topic so before I I've heard right um I will add Jillian that there's a budget subcommittee meeting on Wednesday night and the and the chair for that who's Jeff Swanberg he said he expects to talk about preparation for July 30th yeah okay yeah I was going to pick your brain and see if you had any ideas if there is going to be an article on the budget itself just like changing the budget a special town meeting yes there is anything keep in mind that that's expected because it it it it reflects the state budget so when the yeah so I I usually underestimate for the state budget revenue revenue from the state budget and so the um and so we usually adjust the general fund to match whatever we're going to get from the state right okay yeah I was just wondering if there's any oh my gosh surprises that we should oh no I think you I think uh uh the fact that I've that we've mentioned operation will rde a couple times tonight is enough of oh my gosh for me so like I I think um I know yeah yeah I'm good but I'll I'll let you know like honestly I'll let you know I I don't I I do suspect planning board ones um but I don't remember why and then um and then the oh and then the the Council on Aging chair sent me an email asking for Town Council review a um a bylaw change to reflect a change in the charge for the Council on Aging basically to go from five members to seven so okay and then the bylaw Review Committee already endorsed it so so but again that's kind of language stuff not not exactly budgetary okay I think those were those are my main questions tonight unless anyone else the committee has any other questions but Jullian on the on the topic of the July 30th the the select board um gave some direction um and um and H asked the capital planning committee to come to the July 30th meeting prepared to give an overview of the capital planning committee's recommendations for priorities so that and I think cap committee meets tomorrow night so they U so that was sort of like the marching orders from the select board okay yeah that's good to know my impression was that the goal of the meeting on the 30th is to talk about our priorities as as a as a townwide as a group to sort of lay it all out in the table and say these are all the things um that are being considered and you know the needs of the town's people in the various departments and sort of talk about how that might impact us especially with the percent of The Debt Service um which is something we talked a lot about at the last right needing to try to keep it under 10% is of the budget yeah it's a good idea if you if you have like specific questions that you would like me or or or My you know Finance team to like look into that we can do that and then um because I offered that same thing to Capital planning committee because I don't I want the capital planning committee to feel like they have the answers ahead of time of course yeah okay yeah that's um that that's also one of the reasons why I requested or asked about the revenue sheets um in a prior email so we're doing some um future planning so Nathan has made a really nice spreadsheet um that's like sort of like between what the Colin Center made and sort of the more simplified spreadsheet that I made with Bob so it's sort of like this nice middle ground it's the goldilock spreadsheet great um so we're looking at you know potentially making something like that um for revenues but I couldn't really find like I can find the expenses from the HS in the past did I reply already to that Revenue I apologize if if you're if you're waiting on me uh I think you said that it's it's in batches or something and you weren exactly sure if it was in the right batched format right now or it wasn't most recent one okay I'm I'm going to look back and see what your questions were because not that's I apologize if if I've I didn't mean to leave you hanging or or send me a new email and ask that's okay I wanted to also just touch on it too because I want to make sure that the request was sometimes I I don't write as clearly as I intend in the email what I'm actually asking for um okay Jillian can you can you share that report that you have the Goldilocks one you the oh yeah sure you can yeah maybe email to me yeah sure yeah um we can do that yeah so this it's just covering the expenses right now so um yeah it's I'll give I'll give a little a little teaser plug before before you guys uh jump off but this is this is the July 8th one so this is the old version yeah I think you just sent me a newer one recently um should I open that one instead uh yeah because it has the it has revenue and it has them combined and yeah or I have it up if you make me a co-host I can I can share my screen oh perfect yeah uh oops how do I do that what did he do I still can't figure out how to do that Greg so I just make the person the host that's fine I don't I know you told me how to do it but there's no co-host button I can't fig I'm not I'm not judging you whatsoever I I don't I don't know what I'm doing either this is impressive so and it's really nice because it expands too so like if you have a question about one of the line items you can expand it it's real nice yeah so um expenses on FY 25 aren't quite finalized but I was just I got very slightly different numbers just noodling around with um the leecher project I made two different versions here um this is if we punch in a $3.5 million um Bond at 15 years at 3.5% um it impacts the total tax revenue up here because we are assuming that you know we're going to issue a like debt exclusion to build it versus if we rent it at $54,000 a year and again it's assuming an override um so it's assuming that that would increase the uh Levy base um and yeah so have 54,000 down here it carries it up here and it adds it into the base Levy um with prop two and a half percent um for following years cool um yeah so this has all of the you can jump into any any group here um these are all expenses and if you if blow it open it has all the account numbers shows what we spent uh in Prior years um fy2 I don't have the actual like detail account numbers yet so it's still running off of estimates from the prior year but uh I remember at one point Greg you suggested putting 2.5% in for salaries so it's just assuming each year salaries are gonna increase 2 point two and a half percent um if no value is put in it assumes the thing stays level um there are a few things in here like like you know we got some information from the superintendent on when uh salary negotiations there's a new teacher contract next year he said it was going to go up three 3.1% for two years then 2.8% for FY 28 so that's in there there's some stuff from uh Solid Waste you know Justin said that our hauling contract ends in fy2 and you and that the new contract ra maybe going to cost another 20% so stuff like that's in there um and basically yeah like you can mess around uh on the expenses on any any line item on the account and say like oh what if uh r&m Vehicles what if that increases by 50% then updates here and here and here this is I I appreciate that forecasting because like those exercises what I do annually like every department does it we look at like I I like you just said like I get told the cost of whatever it's going up 20% and and now that kind of blows out my forecasting going forward but but this is good this good context um so yeah so I have it going forward like three years um revenue is a little less clear to me I mean the levy limit pretty straight forward you know you have it goes up by like two and a half percent each year um just kind of I'm assuming new growth of $350,000 U each year going in the future um but then this tool down here you know I was just showing you you can set you can set the years you can set the interest rate and you punch in the full value of the loan on the first year that you're G to start paying it and my calculation came out like a little differently from what that one for the bleacher rental was I think they were estimating that it was going to be a um let's see here what's new debts would be so my calculation came out to be $311,000 um and theirs was saying more like like $332,000 and you know there's also there as much you know it changed a little bit year to year depending on how much interest was left and this model it's just assuming like whatever going forward it's you're paying the exact same amount for 15 years um but you know it's roughly right um right yeah and you know I don't have like the exact exact numbers but you know it's it shows Revenue minus expenses projected for the next couple of years um and it also has The Debt Service here so you know if we have $3.5 million added to uh it's like a capital expenditure that we need to issue a bond for it's going to increase the total debt service um up to 11% versus if we go with a bleacher rental at 54,000 um it's going to be 10.5 then maybe 10.25 next year and then 10 it's going to get closer to the 10% goal that we want it to be at um yeah yeah so that's that's basically it um and we're gonna like check over this and refine a little bit and make sure those calculations are are correct I hope in the next meetings that's excellent I just to speak about that for and I'm sorry Julian you can shut me up at any moment this is your meeting but but just speak about de for just a half a second longer uh Justin DeMarco DPW director pointed something out at the last joint meeting where he said you know we have a a solution not not perfect but we have a solution so to speak for smaller capital projects or or expenses like police cruisers like we use free cash and then we have a somewhat of a solution for super big projects like new elementary school we have dead exclusions but we don't have anything for like the sweet spot and a lot of towns will have have like a certain amount of bonds that they do for these like million dollar $2 million sort of and then and you sort of maintain now we we kind of made a step in that direction um we did $50,000 just towards generic Capital so the capital planning committee has like 50 Grand to play with but but but my vision would maybe be more sophisticated where it's like okay so if we put $200,000 down how much how many millions of bond millions of dollars worth of bond value is that so you're paying $200,000 a year but you get x amount of bond value that that would be that would be reflected in your debt overall um but you would only be paying 200 $250 $300,000 I don't know whatever I don't know what the number would be because it depends on how much you need but um and then and then you get then you start solving these million dollar projects anyways that's a bigger conversation but I but I and I plan on having that with capital planning committee see if we can kind of crack that nut well well I mean it theoretically uh you could punch in you know if you're issuing a bond for $200,000 here you know has space for up to four different things I kind of designated them as Senior Center DPW to garage and storm grains just because that's what we were talking about as big Capital expenses but yeah if it was just kind of like you know miscellaneous and it's a small you it's probably G to be closer to the what we had for the um what for the bleachers um and yeah theoretically that's going to in yep that there that's what you're going to be adding each year and up here hopefully that gets added to the debt exclusions yeah so it adds this much revenue as well yeah it' probably be it would it wouldn't be $200,000 it would be $2 million like like Bond Bond issuance they don't usually like to go below $2 million there you go yeah yeah yeah actually that's pretty close I thought I did think it was about um you know about $150 $200,000 for every $2 million but again it depends on the market getting ratios and time and and you know I mean it's it's simple enough to um you know oh man interest rate is really bad it's gonna be six% and that that's the wrong column uh at 6% then it's you're looking at 210 instead of you know 178 um you know you can change the number of years on the loan and yeah great just cool that's great it's a good exercise I mean it is it is kind of like an organic thing because you know like I'm always negotiating two contracts at a time and I'm already and like cost of stuff changes all the time like you even saw on the transfers like we we over budgeted fuel in FY 24 but I was told fuel costs are going up so in FY 25 I don't know where it's going to be so and the cost to keep the lights on goes up significantly every year we're negotiating that townwide um electricity contract though maybe that'll help well we already have that so the so um we've been negotiating um for Town facilities energy usage for years like the so um I don't I don't like to keep the the the cost to keep Town Hall lights on is a different cost than you and your eversource bill right so the so I negotiate for a different supplier for many years we've doing that and and that's for national gas and for um electricity so we get we get the the juice comes from the eversource cable in the town hall but it's coming from a different Source than than residents and that's the proposal from the sustainability committee which is to is to go with the um electric aggregation program which says okay let's let's for residential and Commercial let's bid out for a different supplier but Town facilities have been bidding out for a different supplier for many years so what you see in that budget is a reflection competitive bidding we've done for years yeah I didn't realize that thanks for sharing welcome but I don't I but so I have locked in rate for Supply but eversource changes their delivery charges I think every year so I I don't control that and I don't and there's no there's no competition so like I you don't control that you don't control the weather I mean no man no but we but but we but we can when we can try to find a better deal we try to find a better deal we appreciate that all right um yeah so I think that was my main topics that I wanted to ask you questions about um tonight we still have some other additional topics we're going to go over um does anyone else in the committee have any questions um for Greg or Kevin okay welcome to State for the rest of the meeting if you want but I also want to be mindful of your time so as always as I always do so um you're welcome to stay but uh not required we're going to continue on our meeting I'm gonna go home and take some night yeah Kevin's Kevin actually was not in today he was sick so he's now he's going to home oh yeah all my friends have covid so hopefully recover soon or it's not Co because they're they're having a pretty rough time right now I don't know well we appreciate you signing on when you're not feeling great thank you thank you Kevin all right have a good night guys everyone thanks thank you uh Julian what's your's what is your next topic because and if you'd like me to stay I can I mean admittedly I do have a selb meeting tomorrow and a budget meeting on Wednesday but I know that's why I'm trying I know it's like meeting season right now so um okay so I think I'll I'll give a couple more uh questions or topics on um The Joint board meeting from my understanding we're going to talk more in depth about um the spreadsheet uh that Nathan was presenting the future planning okay and um we're also going to talk about our Lia on roles to the other boards and committees so we'll see if the same people would like to be on so but I I mean sort of our our run-of-the-mill and routine so it's okay and but for for like for those of you um I'll see you on Wednesday at the budget subcommittee yes yep thanks GRE thank you guys yeah all right yeah so um I don't want to take up uh too much time for the rest of the committee either tonight but I think we can be very efficient um so the I've been talking to um to the select board um about what the topics are going to be at the July 30th meeting so we've already sort of touched on that uh it's not going to be the intention from my understanding is it won't be a formal presentation or discussion it'll be more of a discussion period where we talk about what are the priorities um and I think that's why they've asked the capital planning committee to sort of summarize some of the capital priorities um that are coming up so um it sounds like the school bleachers might be potentially the furthest along at least in terms of quoting and estimating and getting some of the the background information on um it's not entirely clear to me yet uh if they've gone to the CPC yet the cultural preservation committee to see if any of that could be supplemented um I think as we've talked about in the past they cannot supplement the money that goes towards the Press Box or the snack track or there there's certain things that they can't use the the CPC funds for um but I haven't heard how that meeting's gone yet um so that's that's all I have for the July 30th topic for the joint board meeting so my understanding is it'll start at 6:30 uh I requested it to be hybrid um but it'll also be in person at the fire station like last time I believe the senior center committee is going to have representatives there and I'm on the 30th they've got a draft warrant articles and a draft um ballot question that they're working on and circulating so I think that will be on and that's one of the capital planning committee's priorities I think is so it'll overlap a little bit there okay yeah that's great because my understanding is August 6th is if anything is going to be on the ballot that'll be the deadline from my understanding the ballot is a little earlier than than the warrant y yeah yeah I think the warrant's not until like August 12th or 13th or something yeah and the RFI um Greg issued the RFI and they have gotten some responses so they have an idea of what a lease and fit up will cost so they have some um you know they're getting some information and my understanding of the process is they did the RFI they'll get some estimates then they have to do the ballot and the town meeting warrant and then say January or early next year they'll be able to actually do once if they get approved for the funding they can do an RFP and um move forward with potentially leasing a a spot would it make sense to get Greg to do some kind of an estimate like he did for for the bleachers to see what it is per year or is that something we can easily do Yep they're they're absolutely doing that yep yeah and so there's a Le um and and the capital the capital cost would is minimal and I'm not I'm not sure how they're going to do that that would only be for the fit out and like the RFI responses that I saw when you lease a space you actually get a credit a pretty substantial credit for the fit out but depending on where they go that those fit out costs will be more you know how empty the space is or how already developed the spaces so it's going to be a a variety but yeah they did look at the impact on the taxpayer and it's it's pretty minimal the numbers are just so much lower but but leas would would be an operating override so that would be you know say 150 added to the tax Levy and that would be forever but we can use the estimates from the bleacher here to derive that so I mean that 300K of total debt service is the same thing as doing an operational override for 300,000 so if like 1110th pract probably right no half I thought think we were talking about about 50,000 150,000 for the lease would be in the right well right it would be the same impact yeah yeah so it would be about every year it would be every year for forever so it would never go it would never go away right and just you know for members to think about as we talk about all this stuff so these are likely to be two override questions on the fall you know special town meeting warrant that we as a committee will have to make recommendations on um and it just I mean we haven't seen you know that many overrides so um people should be thinking about what priorities are and then you know compared to you know potentially 12 to 15 million in the future for a new Senior Center and then all of the capital stuff that Justin outlined at the last tri board meeting um so anything we recommend this fall should be in that context right and that's what I've urged Jeff um to think about he's the chair of the select board now so so um W you know not to only talk about the bleachers at this joint meeting but to talk about it in the context of everything that's coming up because you're like oh it's only $35 or oh it's only $75 but if we have like five or six of these things coming up like that could potentially be a burden to the tax people so I think it's important to like lay I want to I was like we need to lay out a timeline that that my suggestion thinking about what's coming up what has to be done when and this is what the capital planning committee does quite well for the capital things that they look at but they don't look at everything and we can't predict everything but I think it's important to lay out there what we do know so that's that's my soap boox and I'll get off of it are there any other uh questions or comments about the July 30th meeting nope all right so when I get more information on when it will be and you know if there's a hybrid link I'll also share that um we know it'll be at 6:30 on July 30th but uh if there is a zoom link I will share that I requested one um okay so I think we can go on to Future planning so I don't know Nathan if you have any other topics you want want to go into so I did just share I circulated around I just emailed a couple minutes ago the spreadsheet to everyone I also just posted it on board docs too so it is also publicly available this new July 21st version um I did request as we talked about the revenue like some more information on the revenues in the past from Greg um but I haven't gotten those yet is there anything we can do to be helpful for the spreadsheet yeah well One play around with it and just make sure I'm not like totally like make sure it like makes sense um Linda I feel like you've got a really good head for that sort of thing um I I the the numbers don't match up exactly with the num for expenses with the numbers on uh the spreadsheet Jill was working with and I don't I I think we talked about that last time um and it might have been the difference between like what what's originally budgeted and then what how it gets amended um does that sound about right I think the number you're talking about is like the ceiling the levy limit and things and they're not always matching completely that what you mean I meant more the expense side of things because for Revenue I took like what was on your sheet like exactly all I did was um what what year does it match or every year or uh let me let me pull up I'm not sure we had actual even FY 24 in the prior version yet I think that because even tonight we amended FY 24 right we with all those transfers well that's true dad actually gets reflected um yeah so this is what I have for um budgeted expense or expenses for previous years um fy2 is not updated that's just projected um but if any any of you could look up something for some of these prior years and just just do like a you know second pair of eyes on it um and then I to calculate the interest rate um here what I'm using was a template I downloaded from the Massachusetts State like website for you know how for calculating like Capital like expenses which seems pretty clear and I I sort of figured out how their formula worked and I just put it into my um my template here uh and that is where is that go Debt Service here we go so um this is what I'm using to calculate um the annual payment each year so that's taking you know the total here um the interest rate here and then the terms uh and so but that number came up a little bit differently from how it was calculated on the sheet that Greg showed us just now and um the also I saw on another town website they were saying that Capital expenses start at like a smaller amount and then they start to go up over like two years before it reaches like a like a normal amount does that make sense to anybody else as is that something we see on Capital expenditures I think that does sound right because in the school like 80 million aren't they they we're only borrowing as we need the money so we don't like Bank borrow the whole 80 million and Bank it I think uh that's so that's short-term uh lending before we do the final bond amount um but even when we do the final bond amount yeah for some reason municipal bonds don't do the kind of straight line equal payment every month that you the way you would calculate a mortgage it VAR slightly every year and often has a declining payment a slightly declining payment I don't know why um Greg's amounts I think are not a calculation but from Bond Council so I think they would be more accurate it's just that for some reason the municipal bonds just you know don't do the straight line kind of mortgage calculation that we're all probably familiar with yeah yeah that's what I was wondering about um so do you think this is like close enough to work or is there yes yeah I mean I think 300,000 is the operative amount not 310 or 305 so but but so you're saying it's close enough yes yes sorry that's what I yes I think it's close enough anyway okay um and then okay so then then the other note on you know the debts increasing over the first couple years like short term um spending and whatever uh so on my master expense here fy2 does not have the uh the Green Meadow School um debt in it yet um oh so here in the combined view I added that in [Music] um would dead service somewhere I put it here we go green Meta School so it's it's in here in this sort of like work in progress um combination of the two and that's just copied from you know your spreadsheet Jill and your spreadsheet had the note of like is this going to be the price every year going forward and that's my question too because right now it's it's assuming that it stays constant yeah I don't know that would be a good question for the the building committee should know that which would lead into our later discussion of Lee aison um and I did have a qu I did have an answer for you about the net difference between the expenses and the revenues yeah so my they mine do not zero out they only zero out in the years that are estimated like we don't have the final numbers for does that make sense so like the number for fy22 is like 122k difference so I have a difference of 613 so like half a million dollars difference okay not that big they're all yeah this is the challenge we'll get to um so there's two you know there's a couple of things that will change I mean actual expenses actual income but I thought in Jill's last spreadsheet the only actual we were putting in was New Growth correct um but we could show that without factoring it into the total because I still think we should be showing this with a zero deficit um I mean that's the way we pass it at town meeting we to my knowledge I mean we're not allowed to do a negative we can't have a deficit and then to my knowledge we've never not spent money that we expected to have um free cash the next year doesn't it isn't that how it works Peter well no that's based on actual income and expense oh yeah this isn't collected this is just budget yeah and I think it's I mean we could get into endless revisions of this trying to put in actuals um I think the relevant number is the budget and then you know if the budget's way off it should you know the actuals should inform the next year's budget and we would make a change to the budget um but yeah I'm inclined to only use the budget numbers in these planning tools because yeah you just don't have anything to tie it to also the if we use the budget we can always tie it to the town meeting warrant and we don't you know get into um oh which numbers right in different versions and you know I mean trying to get actuals out of Kevin is ridiculous anyway they never want to give up you know it's very hard to get actuals after the fact um I found so um just for for my sake shouldn't the so the stuff that I'm have as like expenses like all of all of this junk that's like I've for for that I took from like numbers from you Peter um are those act the budget numbers no they're budgets so the annual town meeting budget I doesn't go into this level of detail for each department does it no so uh it does go into more detail in the appendix uh yeah but it's not that useful because it's just salary and expenses um so this comes from the spending reports I think we talked about this last meeting yep that and then you can tie or I've been able to tie the total general fund budget in those spending reports to what was passed at town meeting and it really does line up and you know the total at town meeting we pass a public safety education uh DPW uh and those kinds of line items and they do tie out uh at least for past years and but and like what's the gap of time between you know town meeting and uh when you when you're able to get that report um it well I'm assuming it will show up in the July spending report M so um the monthly spending reports that they post on the town website uh include the budget okay so once we get one for July of 24 we'll have the fy2 numbers I mean Theory we could ask Kevin now I don't want to add to his saying it fiscal year end um you know he's working on trying to wrap up FY 24 um so I've always been willing to wait for that July spending report yeah I mean that makes sense to me it's just the way that I I set this up it's like oh there's a four Monon gap between town meeting I mean like a six-month Gap from like you know January when Greg's first putting out a prelim preliminary budget um until I can plug the the numbers in if we're waiting for that that first report of the new fiscal year um so does this make sense or should we be doing something that's more closely based on like the warrant budget the warrant budget lacks so much detail I I just don't know that it's useful trying to tie that in because you've just got you know a $4 million line for Public Safety as opposed to all this detail which is you know I think has a lot of value okay and it's yes yeah I I like the detail too so it's good to know that we'll have that information soon yeah I mean potentially if they ever fully implement the idea of budgeting through whatever that web thing is um and then you know people are constructing their total budget by filling in all the line items you know we may be able to get access to it earlier um but you know at this point it's not until they plug it into the town accounting system that you know we get the budget broken down so um does anybody have any questions about this spreadsheet so we're concluding it should be budget not actuals and then say like at special town meeting we're going to amend the fy2 budget we use that amended budget or how do we do that I would say yes um as one member and that's what's reflected in these prior year numbers so we you know at this point would plug in FY 25 when we have the detail and then if there are changes made in October then we can pick those changes up with the November or December spending reports that should have the updated budget in them I think that's what we've done on past versions of this spreadsheet so I think that that would be helpful for me to follow as we have done in the past if it's not a burden to do so but then the transfers we just did tonight which were for a prior fiscal year those we wouldn't see those in updated spending reports that's correct yeah okay yeah okay um I mean if we get a June spending report and there's often a relay in the June one the final one of the fiscal year getting posted I think we would see it there in the actuals I mean so I forget so the the fire department firefighter had was one of the changes I think so we should see a deficit in that account in the June spending report and that's what Kevin's trying to cover yeah and Nathan does your model capture free cash at all and what we what we could use that for well theoretically free cash is this number here okay the positive okay yeah yeah so that's just Revenue minus expenses y that no that's I I mean theoretically I get what you're saying Nathan but um again if these are all budgeted numbers that number that Revenue minus expenses really should be zero and as we pass the budget every year it is zero the free cash comes from the difference between the budget and the actual so you know Revenue that comes in higher than budgeted and expenses that come in lower than budgeted and that's what comprises free cash we never really have any unspent money for the budget because we're spending every dime we can so yeah I know this number is like way too high um so what's my Revenue I don't so the other thing is um the the numbers for rer um I think there's some yeah we would have to look back the pro one of the issues is the revenue as we develop the budget the expense stuff gets a lot of work and it's easy to trace and then you get the final expense budget you know from the town accounting system there is not the equivalent for Revenue so trying to track the change es to revenue estimates as we it's not as well tracked as the expenses are so trying to fill in the top half of that spreadsheet for prior years is always a challenge trying to figure out you know what is the latest number we were using for local receipts and then you know what version of the state budget were we using for state aid when we constructed the budget it's always a little challenging um but yeah we should look at it I I can try looking at some of my stuff uh Jill you said you sent this around to everybody yep okay I'll look and see if I can figure out you know what I think it might be um but yeah we generally don't have you know $600,000 surpluses because I know we'd spend it quick we'd have a c nice Capital line if we had that um yeah I would double check maybe it's like adding your subheader twice or something weird in some of the categories I was trying to look at the the high level items and compare them to the the old spreadsheet the quote unquote Bob spreadsheet cuz I had those I had Greg check all those numbers to make sure they're right yeah the the differences I was getting were not this they weren't like half a mill more than half a million dollars so the the revenue matches from your spreadsheet Jill and expenses here so you're thinking that maybe something is adding up twice in expenses on this report maybe or maybe it's not adding it i' have to I'd have to sit down and look you had um that's my know I don't have an over you have an overlay assessment in here um on your expenses and I don't I'm not sure I have any overlay assessment here is that something I should be [Music] including is that actually is that part of our budget I remember talking about that for um at for a town meeting but I don't remember how that actually appears my understanding it's always in the the high level spreadsheets it's not on it's not on the annual town meeting as an overlay assessment as a line item really no um it's not I think in the past we used to do it as a separate article um okay I think I think Greg has developed the practice of you know essentially deducting it from Revenue um but not appropriating it so is there anything that this is will be useful for for the um the July 30th meeting um is there anything that we we can do we have any thoughts about debt issuances versus overrides we kind of just need to see the presentations and figure it out at the uh at that meeting I did punch the numbers into just for the bleachers that we got from Greg um for like you know all the caveat that we just went over for how the numbers don't quite work out 100% um this is roughly what it would look like if we issued a $3.5 million debt issuance versus renting for $54,000 for you know the future um I mean I'm kind of incling personally towards renting rather than building given the fact that we're already above 10% Debt Service any anywhere we can I mean and I would ask that question too because they're saying the bleaches would be 15 years and that's such a short time right we'd have to spend that 3.5 million every 15 years well were they saying that was the life of the bleachers or I thought well what do you have oh you have 10 years but I thought grg said they bond bleachers for 15 years so the expected life of the bleachers is not is is something I thought that was the term of the loan that was the term of the loan but I thought the term of the loan was based on the expected life like the school is 30 years because we're expecting the school to last longer so maybe the bleaches wouldn't last 15 but they wouldn't last as long maybe as long as 30 I don't know I would ask that I'll ask that question what's the expected wife um not to to to bring it up again I guess but if we don't we need to solve the question or not us I guess someone else needs to tell us if we even can do the rental because if we can't there's no comparison anymore there's only one choice it's either do or don't I mean we have to have something in the inter room so it's something we'd probably have to factor into our calculations and like that if we say build bleachers it's going to take them however long it'll take them to build them so during building their I guess but I would assume that the the rental pieces for a longterm view wouldn't be on the table anymore so it might might be different costs different factors involved yeah well uh that's what I have for future planning um Peter I really appreciate it if you could take a take a look at it and help me figure it out why some of these numbers aren't quite quite right uh yeah Nathan sorry I was just going to say do you feel it's manageable like has the has the um time that it spent keeping up this report been doable for you or has it been a little overwhelming uh no I mean it's it's I mean there hasn't really been much like maintenance of it right like I had one set of numbers and I've just been like playing around with showing that same set of numbers in different ways um and figure out like what different like percentages and stuff I can make pop up um in terms of like managing it that's going to be like when we get that July you know report and I'm hoping I can just kind of you know vook up it based on account numbers yeah um but uh yeah I think I think it's manageable at this point all right it's good all right uh yeah so if I get the revenues from Greg and them I'll forward that on um you all right um I didn't have any other topics for future planning anyone else have anything to try in on there and then thanks very much for the lovely work on the spreadsheet looking nice thanks all right um so one of our last topics here tonight is liaison um so has a bit of a background oh I got to take host back I'm like why can't I share my screen reclaim host okay so as a bit of a background generally what we do at the start of every fiscal year is um we talk about the different committees that are present in the town um and we usually have someone who is a liaison so what does a liaison do they don't have to attend every single meeting um of this other committee or board but they sort of act as a representative of the finance committee so say for if example there's an annual or a special town meeting article that's sponsored by one of these committees that liaison to the committee might be the person who approaches them and sends them an email and asks a question um like a clarifying question about the article or you know hey do you have any articles coming up um or they keep on top of the large items and they come back to the committee and say you know this isn't an article or something but I wanted to let you know XYZ is something that's coming up at you know the budget subcommittee meeting and I thought that you all should be aware because of XYZ so it's sort of helping to keep the committee in the loop of what some other groups are doing and what their main concerns are um could potentially impact the finances or could impact our recommendations on the town warrant are there any questions on what what a liaison is clarifiers that I can help with all right so I'm not hearing any so basically what we did last year was we sort of said you know hey these are the key committees that we think we should definitely have people on um and you know keeping us abroad of the important news and then these are also some other groups we think are important um that we would like to have someone on so we've tried to capture you know all the different groups in town um and you know some of these committees might have lessened in priority so for for example I don't know if we really still have two voting members on the green meal building committee because that's something that obviously did go for an override um ad would probably know best um I mean I think it's a committee that still exists because the school is not yet built um but I'm not sure how much role members have and generally as the finance committee meeting we're not allowed to vote in other committees um unless there's a charter mandate on it but generally we are Representatives that come and give recommendations but we don't vote because we want to be an independent Financial board so yeah I don't know that we need on that one at this point they think they're still doing some design and construction approval things that I I feel it's important for us to be a part of but but I don't know that there needs to be two non- voting members yeah and I think you know that's that's something to think about as a committee here I can do you remember who appointed you I don't um I think it was Alana well would she appoint me I I think I took her spot I think she was and then I took her spot but cin was appointed at some point too so I just I don't remember who requested that there was two of us so I'm gonna ask them if we still need two of us um I guess I can always ask Greg but this is sort of the lay of the land of um you know and like Greg said the budget subcommittee meeting is coming up soon so I think out of all of them that might be something to think about if we'd like to keep the same representatives there um you know obviously you can attend any town meeting as a citizen um we just need to make sure we don't have a quorum which is four people because if there's more than four of us then I think we have to post a meeting notice if you're going to participate in the disc question so yeah this is this is sort of a lay of the land of the groups here and um you know some of these have finished but if there's other committees that or if there's committees that people are very passionate about I guess now is the time to let me know um if we could maybe get this done tonight tonight that would be great if you think you need more time on it I'll put it as an agenda item for next time too but um want ask I guess it's Peter about the school committee because does the school committee have a pretty regularly their own budget committee and I'm wondering if if they're going for an override if we need if we should have someone trying to um focus on that part of it if there is a um um so yes I was the I guess rep uh Lea on um I certainly did not attend most of their meetings um although I talk to Natasha a lot um but I mean you're right to some degree they um I don't know what their budget subc committee meetings are like yeah I think I tear my hair out um yeah I don't know um can I talk for one second Jillian yeah of course you never have to ask question yeah yeah yeah um I did want to throw out there just for people to I mean as I look at this list I mean I think the Li on the select board um school committee are important um but budget subcommittee is you know one of the Committees where you get a lot more information and I mean there's just a lot more discussion and kind of informal stuff I don't know that I would say there's a lot of decisions made there but it's where there's you know more updates on the budget on an ongoing basis um I mean I think Katie and I try to do a decent job reporting back um but you know if if someone wants to be on that um you know I think I've been on for a couple of years I would like to continue but you know certainly um if someone else is itching for a more active role that uh may be a place to focus uh so I'm just making a pitch for that yes I'll say I I never went to a bylaw committee I think I think when I first got this I kept looking and I think they weren't meeting and I I'm sorry to say I never went um and I'd like like to maybe get off of EDC I'm having trouble getting there they meet in only in person and they don't meet at 8 AM they meet I think I think it's 3 pm and it's hard to get there but it's a fun it's a it's another one where you get a lot of information because they talk about businesses coming into town um I'm just finding it hard to I I've missed the last couple of meetings and you can't do it by Zoom they only do it in person so I might want to ask to switch to Capital planning CPC Capital CPC is capital planning to understand that a little better I don't know I think and that's on Zoom that would but if anybody else wants it um but EDC is is it's a very nice group of people and they really work hard um and the meetings are interesting I'm just having trouble getting there right so I'll take you off here um and we don't have to have AAS on to every committee either um I'm not going to be able to make that time because I have a job during the day so especially if it's in person not gonna work yeah it's in person and yeah uh I'd be happy to if we need a second person for Green Meadow I could take palvin's place up there and then um just that's a if needed it fits my I a civil engineer by trade so that fits right in with me and then also DPW I could take that [Music] one and Jill I I don't know planning board if there's rules run who um but if you want to lighten your load you're on a lot of committees I'd find that interesting that would be great and appreciative um I think the summer reuse committee is not a thing anymore like they gave their final report so I think we can probably delete that one um and maybe the trash task force did they submit their report I think there still a great question know okay they exended the contract for a year so they get another year to to make their decision I feel Justin updates us pretty well on that too I don't know yeah so I mean that that was sort of Cav's passion project so that's why I put it on this list um hope we're not feeling passionate about it we don't have to have it on the the liaison list do you want to add the senior center committee because I'm the I'm I don't have a vote but I am um the finance board representative yeah so I'll put it uh Council on Aging Senior Center committee is that fair or do you want them as two separate things yeah yeah yeah that's that's fair y okay I'm curious about both cpcs which seem like they take the same time and I you know [Music] guess I guess uh we don't have anybody for Capital planning at the moment didn't Linda say you want to do that I mean I would I I would I would do it but naan if you want to do it um and I think we ought to have someone on CPC I don't want to be on that because both at the same time too many people on that yeah so which CPC sorry the community preservation or the cap I wouldn't want to do that I just I'm too close to some other people there so I don't want to to be too much of a conflict personally okay but that's just so she wanted to do the capital planning I mean I would be but if Nathan wants to do it I'll defer I'm no take it I'll I'll I'll do the community preservation right um I think Capital planning was going to be Linda yeah unless unless you were overriding and claiming a chill no I wasn't I don't know why this is what happens when we start getting late in our meetings it [Music] um yeah I I would like to stay the EAS on to the select board um but that's the only only one I think I might override um okay does anybody want to try and kick me or Katie off of budget subcommittee you're really angling to get k something I would be happy to I was bad at making a lot of the meetings too Peter so I could step it up this round if no one else wants to take it not be a bad thing if you want to show if you want to show up your spreadsheet Nathan at budget subcommittee meeting it might help them warm up to that idea but that's true I don't think it's a re oh all right I mean I'll I'll check out a budget subcommittee meeting once in a while I I just I'm leery of overc committing myself right and that's why like that's like one meeting that we it's better to have both both the finance people go to so if you don't want to overcommit we could delete off other ones or maybe say next time instead yeah give you an idea what I did in the past I I only was on budget subcommittee meeting and I refused to be on anything else basically so yeah it's a slightly different thing with budget subcommittee um we're on there as non voting members of the committee it's not really a liaison to the committee right it's like being on the Green Meadow committee it's a real you're a member of the committee um just listen and ask questions yeah I don't know okay if if uh Peter and KD are okay being on there then okay for me yeah okay yeah sounds good okay all right uh so I'll I'll ask Greg if we need to do anything to nominate Nathaniel to take um have spot on the green meow building committee because they technically were was a member um for the other committees usually what I do if this is going to be the final list um I can send a email to the chair of that committee and say so and so has volunteered to be the liaison from the finance committee meeting um and then do like an introduction and say like um what we do pretty much almost every other committee knows um so like it's like a procedural thing and say you know like when you do forward out your agenda could you please include them so they know that you're going to have a meeting or whatever um so if this looks like the final list think finds the final list I think I might say we should do a vote on Green Meadow building Committee just so that yeah I just wrote a note about that I'm not sure how that works I was gonna ask Greg uh but yeah since they're a non- voting member maybe we need to do that I was gonna ask before we took a vote because I don't know if that's the procedure I don't remember if he was appointed um like I don't remember if dick appointed him did Dick appoint you Katie no I don't think so no it was finance committee appointed yeah a member right okay yeah then we can probably do a vote then I guess and I'd throw budget subcommittee in also as a vote yep y okay all right so I'll make a motion to for fy2 to appoint Katie and Nathaniel to the Green Meadow building committee and Peter and Katie to the budget subcommittee I will second the motion to um appoint Katie and Nathaniel to the green metal building and Peter and Katie to the budget subcommittee okay um I have a motion and a second do I have any discussion all right hearing no discussion um I will take a roll call vote uh Katie yes Peter yes Linda yes Nathan yes Nathaniel yes I am also a yes so uh that is unanimous so I will send an email to Greg to let him know of this nomination to make sure that he includes Peter and Kate in the budget subcommittee meeting notes and minutes and Etc uh and then I'll ask Greg if we need to forward anything to the Green Meadow building committee to let them know of our appointment too okay excellent uh and it sounds like everyone's okay um with the rest of these lists right now okay so um so these will be our Liaisons I can send emails out to the different heads of these committees uh letting them know to include you uh in future agendas and emails uh so I'll save this I'll also publish this on um Bo docs great so I'll stop sharing thanks everyone for your support on these Leons and other committees um um y so I think now we're on to our routine agenda so um I have a couple of minutes to do approval on so I will pull those up uh the first up is the meeting minutes from 6:24 um so um this was meeting with the capital planning committee uh and I updated the reserve funds to be the most recent ones no problem um so this was our last meeting of this our last meeting of FY 24 I believe um I think there was one more after this right one more after I think we met on maybe not when yeah been 624 I don't think we would have had time next ju July 8th yeah it says number six next meeting July 8th oh and that was the meeting that we were appointed that did came on yep yep okay okay um do I have any comments or discussions on this meeting minute no all right um I would make a motion to approve the meeting minutes of June 24th 2024 I second all right and Nathan seconded um any further discussions or questions no so I will take a roll call vote to approve these minutes Katie yes Peter yes Linda yes Nathaniel I wasn't there so do I abstain here procedurally you sure can sure you can either there's no requirement though that you abstain okay well I'll abstain I wasn't there okay don't obstain uh Nathan yes all right so that's one obstain five yeses math okay um all right so now we have the July 8th meeting minutes um jul I have a quick question for Linda because I know um when I started doing the minutes I didn't know that I needed to send it to the clerk and um Linda do you do you like are you sending it to the people I have not I have not that was my next question is um how or maybe I could do that with you Jillian offline to see now what what we do with these minutes because I don't know what to do so I can send these ones in from tonight um that's what I did all last year is when we approved them I send them to the clerk myself um but in the past and it would be helpful um potentially going forward if um the clerk so that's that's you now Linda um once they get approved you send it to the clerk and I can walk you through how to do that um I can send you an email I'll seec you on the next the email so you can see what I do okay yeah so you'll copy me on the email and then I can do it and then it's anything else we send it to the clerk and then the clerk takes care of posting it on wherever on the website yep that's correct so you send them and say these are the final minutes that have been voted on and approved for XYZ and you know I usually say like this is for whatever meetings and it says it on the title of the note uh the file too yeah so um and that's all they need and they just post it on there okay and do we do any anything with the recording or or do you do that um I send that to wavm to be posted um I don't think other people zo account yeah yeah so I can send that to the zoom account and I send that for wavm to post so so you do you'll continue to do that okay yep if it's helpful I can seec you on the email that I send to and this is what I did in the past with the the clerk with Kavin I would send the email with the link to zoom um but it's not going to have the link to the YouTube because that won't be posted yet yeah okay yeah if you copy me then take it over and do it y that would be good they never send me anything back they post it on YouTube so like they don't send a link back saying here it is posted but they're always posted on YouTube so it's pretty easy to find um okay all right um okay so now up are the meeting minutes of July 8th um so this is the first meeting of the fiscal year so the town moderator opened um the meeting uh and we appointed all of our different positions and uh talked about the planning did routine agenda and then this is the new fiscal year so thanks for updating the fy2 so that that is 2 250 so there's no transfers because we've closed out to 24 so that's perfect I move to approve the minutes of July 8th July 8th 2024 and I will set the minutes oh I beat you um to July 8th 2024 you beat me all right um so we have a motion in a second do we have any further comments discussions no all right so we'll take a roll call vote to approve these minutes of July 8th um Katie yes Peter yes Linda yes Daniel yes Nathan yes all right I am also a yes so the meeting minutes of July 8th are approved uh and I think we have one more that right no that's was it that's all we have um so that's all the meeting minute the meeting is approved the minutes are approved from those two there's just two of them yes okay great um I'm lost here we go okay um um so updates from the chairs and members is our next topic um so my updates are um dick Downey is interviewing um people for our open position uh that because we have one open position on finance committee um if you know of anyone else who would like to serve um we can send a there's a link on the town website to fill out like an application um so if you know of anyone uh you can let me know I can forward that to them um but he is in the process of um interviewing candidates so I wanted to let you know that that is something that is ongoing and I think that was my my main update for tonight uh I'll let you know so hopefully hopefully um Tasha will get back to me I'm trying to schedule them for a meeting in August um I'm assuming it would probably be so our next regular meeting is August 12th um because we meet on the 2D and fourth Mondays uh and then the next one will be on August 26th so um that is and that that is my updates just letting you know about those schedules and I'll let you know as soon as I get the update information on the July 30th meeting for the joint board meeting I'll forward that on are there any other updates from other members of the committee so the only other one that we might want to um invite is um the chair of the senior center committee at if if if they are going to be on the warrant in the fall in case you wanted to um ask them questions do you know um whom that is it's Jerry Colbert is the chair and the 12th and the 26th are going to be after the well then we would have the war if there's a warrant article we'd have it in front of us um right and I think that's the tricky part is that if the Articles aren't due until like the 13th or something after our meeting we'd effectively only have one meeting before our comments are due yeah well but the but since it's a ballot I think the ballot is due now I'm confusing it August 3rd or August 6 or something the ballot is due 12 and the warrant article so they're going to there would be pretty similar I think um right so either either of those dates maybe if Natasha couldn't make it um do you know Jerry Colbert is the person Ser you said yeah he's the same as Green Meadow I think do you know if he uses on his emails the mayard address or the Yahoo address GF car is it GF car is that um I have it here I do too yeah at yahoo.com y yeah yeah yep the Yahoo one is preferred I think that's yeah I think that's what I get emails from him at yeah okay okay um I can send an email about that oh if we voted in the other members on the Committees do we need to vote Linda in for representing the Senior Center building committee I feel like for consistency that we took a vote when they formed the committee I don't know I don't know if you need a a vote for the next fiscal year but we might do we do that Peter every fiscal year I wasn't sure I don't think so I I I wouldn't have said we should revote the Green Meadow except that we were changing the people right okay I mean that seems fair to me because it's not changing so the only other group is um they said there's going to be a town meeting article on the bylaw change for the Council on Aging um about the number of voting members yeah and I'm not sure I haven't seen article I don't know if we need to have them okay but maybe maybe we don't and then and then well then planning board did Greg said there was going to be a couple planning board articles on the warrant that is what it sounded like um I'm assuming I'm assuming it might be amendments in the past it's been amendments to ATM articles that have like missing legal leaps in them or something but I'm not sure what they are this year so but when I get them I will forward them as soon as I can all right any other updates from other members nope all right um and we sort of went over the future planning for our next meetings already um so we have the joint meeting on the 30th uh and August 12th is our next Finance meeting currently scheduled so um as topics at that meeting I'll see if the school committee can come and give any presentation I'll also reach out to uh Linda as you suggested I'll reach out to to the um the senior committee to see if um they're able to come to talk about their potential articles um so I'm hoping that at this meeting we can talk about the STM articles um I can also put uh an agenda item on there if we want to talk about future planning uh I'll put our repeat on there as as we always do um I will miss miss that meeting Jill on the 12th just to on the 12th okay yeah all right um if more than one additional person will miss it please let me know I think we need at least four people to have a quorum so um I know it's h it's um holiday season like uh people taking summertime off and stuff so [Music] um yeah just let let let me know about that so thanks thanks for letting me know Katie appreciate it you got it um are there any other topics we'd like to add to our next meeting on the 12th so I have STM articles future planning and routine agenda so the future planning would be like the future projections no all right I guess if you hear anything interesting at budget subcommittee meeting let me know I could potentially put on um like FY 24 25 amendments um but I think that would fall under STM article discussion okay sounds good all right so I guess uh that sounds like our topics for next meeting um and then I'll add on guests as as they let me know if they're available are there any other large articles that we know about that might warrant us to invite guests maybe the CPA if they're going to if we want to understand the school bleacher situation but we can probably learn that from the you can probably learn that from the schools all right okay great I think that is that is all the topics I have unless anyone else has any pressing topics tonight no anyone like to make a motion to adjourn I'll move we adjourn [Music] right all right Linda moves Nathan seconds all right roll call vote to adjourn Linda yes Nathan yesel yes Katie yes right Peter yes all right and uh I am also so yes um so we are adjourned thank you everyone