##VIDEO ID:eVJCX2skZVI## okay I'll see you shortly okay sounds good hey guys hey um I have so Becky is um having some technical issues so she gave me temporarily her credentials to get our meeting started uh she's having to like reinstall it on her computer so anyway all right three four five right so this is it for tonight right because we're just missing George and April yeah we said they were not able to join today all right though never mind my Becky tor's name I'm gonna call the meeting to order at uh 6:30 for and uh I think you know Becky's just going to join us as soon as she gets zo up and running on her computer but you never know how long that takes to reinstall stuff um all right so why don't we get started with reviewing minutes from August 12th and uh Susie sent these out last week but memory serves and has any everybody had a chance to look at those any questions or comments okay I don't see any hands oh Cathy go ahead just one thing Susie I'm not sure if you saw my email no I did today I only had a question um in section three regarding uh the Town Administrator position I'm not familiar with callings the situation that that exists a uh contract at will I'm more familiar with saying that uh that employee is an employee at will am I splitting hairs or I think that is what it's called you're right okay fix that otherwise it looked good to me okay I wonder where my okay good um Susie you know one thing I I know that you have a couple different email addresses that I think lately you've been using the same one right do you want to just let the whole group know which email address they should use for you um is it the is it the one that you send the meeting minutes from yeah that would Rec that be fine and and that's probably what happened and I um because I didn't see anything about April and George so I just need to remember to look at that one more often all right thank you okay sure uh yeah I think April's email was just from from this morning I believe yeah um okay so uh I don't see any other hand so I'm gonna make a motion to approve the minutes from August 12th as amended second okay all right uh so what's our vote order going to be today you want to get us started yeah Bob Groves I Hemingway I cashy ey moer ey Salvador I all right okay all right minutes are approved all right let's close that out I'm trying to think is there what can we discuss that might not be trying to think which of our agenda items is sort of less pertinent to Becky um uh maybe our meeting with the uh yeah the superintendent yeah um okay so uh FY and I had um a meeting to uh meet meeting with the new superintendent of the Regional School District uh when was that that was about a week Friday and a half was it is it just Friday okay well no not not the it was a week ago Friday right um okay it's um and just for everybody I think you all know we superintendent um I think believe started on July one if I'm not mistaken um so so she's really kind of brand new she also um has moved to our area from uh the Virgin Islands so you know a big a big relocation for her um I thought it was a really positive meeting um you know Susie I think you know you can you can kind of fill in some of the details um I will say that you know kind of you know my sense when we came into that meeting was I don't think she quite knew sort of like what our objective was and I I I think I think she felt seemed to me to feel pretty at ease by the time we wrapped up that kind of our goal was really just to um kind of encourage her to get an early start on fiscal planning for FY 26 to offer our support um in in kind of working with her in our counterparts at the other towns um we did spend probably more time than I would have anticipated talking about the regional assessment method uh issue um in part because I just I you know I wanted I kind of wanted to get that on her radar and also um uh she seemed interested in it so um so we talked kind of you know we sort of B kind of presented our understanding of the kind history of it and our position and as a followup to the meeting we I sent her if you you guys well those of you who've been on the committee for a while may remember that Susie and I did a little bit of kind of historical uh sort archive uh work kind of detailing the history of the regional assessment um negotiations as when you know when this was a particularly uh kind of top of Mind issue for the committee and we had prepared a timeline document which is something that you know we shared with the committee we discussed with the committee I did send that to her as a followup um just so she could have that um you know if if if she wanted to learn more uh I what else Susie any she say a yeah she talked about the budget she says it's a process not a thing but she is having it audited um and I don't know you know whether that was in the cycle or I didn't really have a sense of that but she's relying on having an audit to help make clear what's there and what um maybe that will give her a better view so yeah her um Administrative Assistant um nby uh nabe Douglas I think her name is um she has a fair amount of expertise in budgeting so she she's um happy to have somebody close by to help her look at the auditor's work and and the budget that they're looking at um she um I mentioned that um part of the process has the factor of having so much turmo ter turnover with uh Town Council school committee other um offices and that that was part of the reason of giving her as as far as I felt that was part of the reason of giving her a background for the assessment method because when we go to a fourtown meeting we run into people who have no history on it and they want to start on this day and um we want to sort of keep track of the history of how we got to that assessment method and um and so I feel like giving her that background helps her deal with the fact that other people don't know yeah I I I think the only other thing that I want to say is um it does seem to be have a kind of orientation towards um wanting to sort of create kind of more efficient teams and I think that may mean that that she's inclined to look for and find sort of areas of redundancy in the kind of central Administration um Susie mentioned that she's she's said that she was going to be doing a audit of the kind of budget team and process um she apparently has done something similar with the human resources um kind of division within uh the central Administration and I believe that there was an article read suggested that she she reported to the ammer school committee that there were two people that had sort of director roles that weren't kind of kind of seemed to have overlapping responsibilities that has been reduced to one person so I think you know she seems to be um wanting to make kind of a a good faith effort at at kind of removing as much sort of redundancy and inefficiency as possible in I think areas of of central Administration which which may which which may produce you know some probably not like huge dramatic savings but but some some savings um that we'll we'll learn about uh in the coming months um I guess while we're on this topic I'll just mention that the regional school committee is meeting tonight tonight it's their first meeting in I think quite some time and there are two um items I saw on the agenda that are very relevant to us and and our concerns about the the budget one of them is that they're meeting with a woman named Tracy I assume it's a woman Tracy novic uh from the Massachusetts Association of schol committees I think is that uh Mass is that it yeah and um this is a woman who I guess is the field director from that organization and and from her bio I could see that she has kind of a she area of kind of specialization is around funding issues budgeting issues so they are meeting with her tonight or she's giving some kind of presentation they have a a list of pretty comprehensive list of questions for her that um they posted to their agenda um and you know a number of them uh seemed quite interesting uh they were uh let's see if I can share my my screen all right can you guys see this document yep okay let make it a little bigger all right so these are these are just I guess there don't seem to be any particular order and there are quite a bit here so I don't know if they're going to get through all of these questions but um but I think you get a sense of what it is they're going to be discussing tonight um uh I so what what I wanted to tell you all is that I I am gonna at some point in the next week I'm gonna watch the recording of their meeting tonight and I will make sure to take um detailed notes particularly from this presentation and I will share that with uh the committee and it'll include a link uh to the you know the YouTube recording if you guys want to watch it yourself um but I think this you know this I was I guess I was pleased and interested to see this on their agenda for for tonight um one there some things that interested me was I guess uh this this seemed like an interesting question um I I I wasn't quite aware of this but it it I read this as an indication that the sorry uh that the school committee is was kind of unclear and maybe even upset about some of the staff reductions decisions that were made by the superintendent coming into this school year and um this question seems to indicate that there there might be some confusion about what role the school committee is supposed to play in making those kinds of decisions about like sort of where where to actually um make cuts that might be required by um budget I thought that was interesting I wasn't aware that that had that that was an issue Bob uh thanks I just wanted to make a remark that here we are in August to 28th whatever today is and we've already met several times this summer and we're going to be working very assiduously I believe to put a budget together which is some fraction of the school the regional school budget and here they are having their first meeting of the regional school committee I mean I really think maybe someone should just encourage them to work harder on this because here they are admitting that they didn't even know what was going on with the between them and the the superintendent or the financial director of the region and I think that U this this is reflected in what we get for a product that there's not maybe it's because of the turnover in the school committee maybe there's other reasons that I don't I can't say now but it seems to be pretty clear that they need to work on this more or somebody does you know to budget szy I think it's also important to remember that these are volunteers and you get what you get when you get volunteers and in the turnover process for electing and blah blah blah you end up having to go back over stuff um and figure stuff out and I mean I feel like we're lucky to have a fairly consistent population on our fincom but they do not have that and then the other thing is I I feel like that question is very relevant because I think that was part of the dis part of why it was hard last year and we had an interim superintendent who also was probably overseeing some of the budgeting um so I feel like there's lots of reasons to see what happened and I'm glad they're raising these questions um and I feel like some of the questions are being raised for the new people involved and um and now we have a new superintendent so um I think they've done a good job to to bring in somebody to help them and I think that this this is a good first step compared to what got going on last year and remember that the the uh it was January when when a lot of the turnover happened um so yeah it's it's messy and I think smalltown government is messy I should mention that there's a second item on tonight's Regional School agenda which is a discussion item that is labeled this is exactly how it reads on their agenda for towns meeting Dash budgeting process Dash September so um it it sounds to me like they are going to have a conversation about potentially pulling a you know putting together a four towns meeting in September you know that's how I read that that item so so um I hear your your frustration Bob um on the other hand I kind of feel like uh I'm I'm at least I'm happy to see that they're spending um a significant amount of their time at least you know at this meeting tonight uh on the the budgeting issues so it does seem like they are motivated to to kind of work I you know um to work on this soon and and and to spend a significant amount of time on it so anyway um that's the deal I again I will um you know I I'll I'll share some notes with you all um I'm gonna on both of those agenda items uh when I get a chance to watch the meeting which will probably happen sometime hopefully sometime this week okay anything else on uh Regional School budget process I think you saw I also forwarded you all maybe you didn't get this Susie since sounds like you didn't get some of the emails uh pelum has written a letter in some way similar to the town of amor letter to the regional school committee fting some some budget concerns and um you know I think in some ways it was it was pretty similar uh to ammer letter it says that they're urging the school committee to quote adhere to budget increases in the traditional 2.5% range though we understand that will be challenging and may entail difficult decisions so anyway uh just wanted to keep you all in the loop that um there the region is kind of hearing similar message from from you know from pelum as well Bob yeah I just I wonder whether we should be uh drafting a letter uh representing our views because you know again just to return to what I was mentioning a little earlier we have a we have a different role than the school committee does and we all play our own role in this process of building the budget and our role is that of uh fiscal managers and you know representing the taxpayers interest their role is to represent the school and work with us to develop a budget that is Affordable that is that will pass town meeting that will be acceptable to the other four towns the other three towns and so we have to work together but we do have our role is to remind them that we need we have certain budget targets that have to be met and we have to sort out and they have to help us sort out priorities because we can't just address every single need that they uh they detect so I think that John tricky's letter was excellent and I thought it was extremely nuanced and represented the whole picture pretty well I don't see why we couldn't do something like that maybe not right now but yeah you know uh yeah so I mean Bob I I think what I would say is I would like us personally I would like us to um prepare um assume let's Okay so assuming there is a four towns meeting in September right we're gonna want to enter that meeting with a statement whether it's something that we actually share with the region or it's a set of talking points for us to have um in our back pocket um one way or the other I think we should discuss um probably at our next meeting um kind of what what are the key points that we want to communicate um uh excellent that we'll find out about idea so again it's it's it's on their agenda tonight to at least discuss yeah the process and a potential meeting in September so I I'm I'm assuming I will have an answer to that you know um when I get a chance to review this their their U recording from tonight okay um but I but I agree I think you know in the past particularly when you know assessment method was um a much more controversial issue I felt like we we often spent time in our committee meetings prior to those fourtown meetings really writing down a set of talking points and and I found that was really useful and it helped us all kind of communicate a consensus position um for our town so I think we should do the same thing Jim well WR if you if we do write a letter we could practically copy and paste everything that John tricky said it's a really great letter and he covers he covers you know everything from from residential being a taxes completely from you know coming from our school you know coming from our um um local population I mean just all the issues are there and he really you know he really spells it out um he really spells it out well so so it would be pretty easy just to just follow the format that he's laid out and make the same points Becky you're trying to um I I I think he was about to say you know we do not need to return to um the alternative formula I mean I think his points lead to the conclusion that it's time to drop what Shu sp's been lobbing for for years so I I'm not of the same mind that all those points I mean they only lead to backing out on on shuberry and um no longer um having an equitable assessment is the way I read the letter so I'm I'm not seeing it as in the same light Jim Becky I I guess I missed that because I didn't take that away from that letter myself he he sort of he sort of walks up to that and and and sort of and then he he stands there he looks at sounds like he's gonna go there but but he doesn't actually go there right yeah right but he sets it all up his argument is all right there he sets it up yeah yeah yeah uh it's it's this yeah uh let's see is Right already the town of pelum has to adjust to the transition to the statutory method of assessment from the regional agreements enrollment based method which has entailed 4% increases so yeah I mean it's yeah that sentence suggests that maybe there were a couple more sentences that were in a draft of this that that maybe got got dropped I don't know but but yeah did does sound like we should be prepared I guess maybe that's the point we should be prepared for this conversation to for potentially a um you know pelum to propose a return to the uh enrollment method yeah let me just say little background yeah Bob first of all they just are building a affordable housing uh complex right now in pum and and I talked to John about a lot of things last year before we put our budget final budget together and he's anticipating that when that that project is complete it'll change the math for them in terms of the statutory method in their favor so I don't think that he's really anticipating fighting against a statutory method on the contrary I think that he believes a statutory method will actually serve the interest of his taxpayers going forward interesting is this development going to be like owner occupied units or are these rental no they're rentals I believe and it's I think it's going to be I'm not sure what the numbers are but it's quite a few um units that will be a Target their target U customers if you will are going to be people who are limited incomes and those of their families will be uh given some consideration ahead of others so yeah because of the ABS it's by it has automatically going to reduce their average household income when that place is occup yeah right so just for for maybe this will be helpful for Kathy um this this statutory method has two wealth related factors that um are used as part of the calculation for determining um kind of What proportion each town is going to contribute the overall um assessment required and one of those relates to like median household income and the other relates to um property values like the equal I think it's I forget what they call the equalized home value or something to that effect uh essentially an average home value um so I think Bob you're right that you know at least one of those factors sounds like might you know change significantly for pelum if if that's a if that if this development is going to have a number of residents uh Susie and they have new growth in housing I think I think it's hard to know from here where we really are at um shoot bar has some new housing coming in um so we will think about it and we'll work on it but we don't know some of the pieces yet and I can't imagine why amest isn't rolling in New Growth money so actually I think I need to find out because there is building everywhere so that's new tax dollars coming in for them tax revenue so um I think pelum will be happy to have more kids from their town in their school that will help that issue um and their eqv will go down there's that'll help their formula and they have new building so we'll have to see okay um so stay tuned I hope again I hope to have some updates for you in the next week um all right uh I think what I'll do is now pull up so um I should have made this clear in my email today uh I uh just I sort of took a a really a very rough first crack at our budget request letter um sorry and uh I will share that now I certainly didn't don't want to suggest that we're locked into any of these changes I just wanted to get us kind of started in the on the process of kind of developing a new letter so this is really something we need to kind of collectively um draft so uh just to get us started Here's the the the budget letter Kathy just for your um information this is kind of how our budget process begins we send a letter to each of the department heads requesting a um you know a proposed budget in this case for FY 26 um so there's a there's a corresponding budget form that we'll look at in a second um and uh and so the typical process is that they return their budget forms To Us by the end of October and then um we begin a kind of a calendar of every one of our meetings we typically would then meet with one or two department heads to discuss their their budget proposal ask questions have them discuss any significant changes either positive or negative um in their new proposed budget um it's it's an opportunity for us to ask some questions get see clarifi clarification and then um we'll do that with every department head um basically between now and you know roughly February and then we you know at that point will start to actually you know utilize their proposed budgets that to look at um you know a proposed budget for FY 26 and which we will eventually um have to vote on whether to recommend approval of or not so that's that's the process so um I guess I'll just you know I don't know how uh not sure how we'd like to do this but you know I just made kind of some changes really to just the first two paragraphs which usually are s of Preamble um so I just said uh you know looking back fy2 was a challenging fiscal year our annual operating budget increased by almost four and a half percent over the previous fiscal year was a significantly larger increase and we have experienced in recent years despite this our budget related articles were passed with only a small number of percent votes an annual town meeting uh faced with a number of financial challenges we must continue to communicate work together to that end finance committee will again assign one of its members to serve as a liaison to each department that person will be a conduit between your department and the finance committee if you have any questions about the budget process we recommend you contact the liaison assigned to your department so any any comments suggestions additions deletions changes to these first two paragraphs I think it's great AJ Okay thank you uh all right everybody's okay with these with this so far okay all right um the rest of the letter I didn't really be necessarily a need for any significant changes let's talk about the third one um we commend departments for minimizing operating this is exact this is basically unchanged from last year we are asking you to present a level service budget for your department this year this is our starting point please review the financial needs required for your department to maintain the current level of services you provide make note of changes that may cause a significant increase or decrease from your fy2 budget so I mean I made an assumption here that we want to provide the same guidance that we have for the last few years is that does does anybody have any feedback about that Bob I think you muted Bob I want to raise an issue which is that inflation has been a pretty serious uh issue for us and for every town last few years and I I don't know what the numbers are shaping up to be for next fiscal year U but it seems to me that it's going to be above the normal Al two and a half% that we usually historically have have uh have had to deal with in our budget process which ended up being a overall increase of two and a half percent that is two and a half perent for salaries and two and a half percent for other uh anticipated expenses would equals a two and a half% increase in budget for level Services now if we're going to have a greater than two and a half% increase in salaries then we need to look at other ways to keep the budget within that 2 and a half% if that's our goal which I believe it is or should be so how do we represent that in this in this um letter to the department heads or do we want to because I think we should I mean there has to be attempt on there has to be an effort on the part of a department head to maintain some some some kind of fiscal uh restraint or something of discipline to at the end of the day don't we want a two and a half percent increase next year so that we don't have to go have extraordinary methods that is this uh so-called um uh I can't never remember that's a tongue twister uh the the the reserves of uh of overrides or whatever it's called Uh you remember what that term is at AJ we dipped into it last year oh uh ex Levy Capac excess Levy capacity excess Levy capacity correct thanks but uh yeah I don't I don't like that and I think that the taxpayers deserve uh the law is the spirit of the law at least is that two and a half% is the maximum we should raise taxes in a given year so anyway I'd like that as a goal for this committee it may not be achievable it wasn't we had to work hard to minimize that excess living capacity but we did do that last year we did did have to to do that and some of the some of the ways we did that were with M money that's not going to be available I believe this year because some of the money was spent was from Grant sources I think that are no longer available but anyway could we could we represent that idea in this letter is that something we want to do uh CZ your hand up the 2.5 is a goal for um the tax levy we were able to raise the um budget by 4.5 because there's revenues that come in not from taxes so in the end we haven't seen the recap numbers we don't know if it went into excess Levy capacity or not because their new growth is a guess um and I think I think what we do know is that we're looking towards level services and what we don't know is how the revenue is going to work its way out it's too soon to know that and I do feel that the Departments have been very careful to not be um to to to maintain those financial um demands and that's in this sentence uh this is in the paragraph there um that they um I can't find it right now but that the Departments do try really hard and I do think we're a little flat-footed about inflation and I don't know how that's going to um get met but it's too early to know and so I feel it's legitimate to say we appreciate the way they work within the constraints and we are reflecting Town meetings wish to work towards L services and I think we can't go any further with it right now and it wouldn't be um helpful because they are being helpful already right I I guess the the only other comment I want to make is is that I I I I don't recall when the Personnel Board actually calculates it's Cola um increases I I believe that happens around January or February I know Kathy you're you're new to the is that is that right Becky yes um we have to wait for the January report to come out in the first part of February George okay has it like on a Tickler right so you're right so I think Bob you know we'll have a we'll have a we'll have an understanding at that point right about what the um kind of what the impact of inflation is going to be at least on um you know cost of living increases um well you know I'm just trying to say I'll try to put it very bluntly we are the finance committee we're the Watchdogs we we operate between the taxpayer and the found government and we're try to maintain uh we try to reduce the load on the taxpayers to best of our ability while maintaining the services they want and they need so I think it's important for us to represent our point of view which is we hope to keep spending to try to them to continue to encourage them to continue to try to keep spending under control so I don't have a I don't have I'm not ashamed to say that's our role our role is not the same as being a cheerleader for the Departments our role is to be the Watchdog for Town spending that's really in our mandate uh and I think it's it's proper and right that we that we take that position without being antagonistic I'm not saying that just putting a note in there that we hope that they can maintain help us maintain uh the growth of the budget that's all you know yeah you want them to grow the budget no to maintain control over the growth of the budget okay yeah I mean I don't want to you know I don't want to sort of descend into like a long sort of philosophical debate here Bob I mean I think I think I I have a just a slightly different view of our role than than you I don't think our role is I mean in some ways one can interpret what you just said there as saying our role is to advocate for as [Music] um as small a budget as possible right I mean and I think that may be your your position um but what I would add to that is that I think our role is to sort of balance the um impact of budget decisions on taxpayers minimize costs I think the kind of Watchdog framing is is totally appropriate but I think we do have to balance that with um the the fact that our town supports a level of services um that are currently being provided by our schools our fire department our Highway Department etc etc and so you know if our interest was to you know simply gut the B and I'm not suggesting you're saying this but to gut budgets to get them as small as possible um I don't think that would be an outcome that is in line with our you know our role right because it that would mean that it would have those those cuts would have a significant impact on the kinds of services that the town seems to overwhelmingly support and at least as reflected in how they vote you know year after year on our budget related articles so I I just I the only thing I would add to what you said is that I I think I view our role as you know um looking after the taxpayer reducing the impact on them while balancing the town's uh kind of stated interest in maintaining a set of services that they that they value um so and to me that the the concept of a level service budget does exactly that right it insure it suggests that they shouldn't be expand in you know costs um they should be maintaining the same services that our town is essentially approved um you know this this past fiscal year um that said if you have a specific sentence you wna propose um you know you have the right to like make a motion and you know suggest I like time to think about it so it's got this document this afternoon and I didn't look at it to just but i' say okay I'm not I don't want to be misunderstood but I'm not I do believe that there are checks and balances and that we have a role that's different from Simply advocating for Town departments 100% we want I've been told by a number of town officials including you know major departments to say that they're happy that I asked questions hard questions that them want to defend their request I think that's our role to ask questions to have them justify their request because it's hard-earned dollars by many people who pay an extraordinary amount of their income towards supporting the system and our average uh our mean household income doesn't represent doesn't really tell the whole story there's a lot of people below the the mean in the media so you know those people are paying a lot of their their annual income towards this this town government I care about them and I think that's what we all should so I totally agree with what you just said yeah we have to care about everyone well if somebody is well off they they can afford two a 5% increase in their taxes without any without break a sweat but it might make a big difference to somebody who who who's not you know that's that's my point all right so you know um point I think you know for now let's I mean I think this what do people Becky I'd be curious about when you think we need to get this letter out um is it October yeah October 1 is great so so Bob yeah so so Bob I think what I what I'd like to do is maybe set as an agenda item at our next meeting to approve this letter okay um so if you have you know something you want to propose some language maybe you could you know kind of draft that between now and then and and and then bring it to the meeting and you know we can we can look at it and okay great discuss it vote on it Susie last year we got the uh I got the budget forms and the letter out to departments on September 19th and we need to do that because they have to work on the budget and get it back to us um by the end of October and um yeah so and there's some few other things to talk about but that's what I'm that's the history yeah so I think so I think what that means is kind of our deadline will be to uh have a finalized letter at the end of our next meeting the 10 I think which I think will be on the 10th um and uh and that'll put us in a good position to you know to get this out to folks um it does take a little bit of time because um we we those budget forms that department heads get are is you know they're pre-populated with the specific numbers on their FY 25 amounts and that's very important to see that represented next to their proposed FY 26 numbers so I think if we if we wrap this up at our next meeting I think we'll be okay TimeWise Susie and so I will start the pre-population I I guess I'll check in with Becky about how final the final numbers are um and I can do the pre-population then we're only having to copy the letter and a attach it to everything and get them in the emails and it takes a while to do all those emails and get them out to the thing so I will have them pre-populated before then okay really appreciate it okay uh Bob yeah just on the following paragraph on Capital planning I'd like to ask you and Becky both uh yeah your recollection is there's a slightly different process that the the final request has to be at the latest of February 1st but normally we ask for submissions well before for that isn't that so oh yeah yeah so we should represent that initial time when we expect these requests to come in the deadline uh for all requests was February 1st but the the origin the the initial was I think November 1 yeah so we should have that amended that way so so can I just say um change this to November 1 is that reasonable yeah yeah but you have to mention that the cut off a firm cut off of February 1 exists in the bylaw all right so Capital requests how about if I say should be submitted to the capital planning committee by November 1 and then November something like that yeah yeah uh by November 1 and no later than February that and we not be accepted past February 1st yes I would mention the I would just put in parentheses um as stated in the bylaw yeah so people understand that it's not just a policy for this short term or something that we're making up today all right and and as stated in our bylaws will not be accepted past February 1 like that yeah okay bobes work yeah okay the there is a line in there it says the budget request form has a section to note any Capital requests and that's part of how the Liaisons help um focus the departments on making that so that's the one that comes in by the end of October um if you want to State it again then you can do that but that that the process used to be that it was a part of being aware of it through right writing out their request and including their Capital being encouraged to understand their Capital items yeah what in my experience on the capital planning committee is the the details of their requests were um like we we're too we're we too lengthy to actually include in those budget forms so sometimes they would just put like a phrase and then of course the capital planning committee would get like a packet that explained what they were requesting and would have the documentation of quotes and that sort of thing um okay the only other fault I had just occurred to is maybe at the bottom of this letter should we actually include a list of the liaison roles since we we kind of we know who those are um uh okay so maybe I'll add I don't I W waste our time doing that now but um since we voted on those I think two meetings ago maybe last meeting I can't remember when um we can actually yeah we can include that um at the bottom of the the letter okay uh Cy and then in terms of the scheduling I think we learned something last year we had a highway up first and Steve ended up submitting a a second Highway budget later I think we might do better if we ask here's a suggestion we ask the financial team people to come early and give um because the year unfolds and people that have a lot of um capital and um stuff like that might need a little space so uh where did I that um here it is um yeah so I don't know if you saw this Susie but I I did pull up I did kind of create a tentative yeah I saw schle but all all I did was was just list the dates and then essentially cut and pasted the same order you know that we had last year right yeah we should we should we should Shuffle things around that and the other thing is last year we started on November 14th so I don't know if it'll make much of a difference to the treasurer assessor accountant and collector whether it's um more than a week early um but those guys could come first and the library I think Susie I'm sorry for cutting in but the financial team typically is waiting for information to put into their budgets you know Ryan's waiting for health insurance to firm up um there's usually they're waiting on software updates and how much those are going to be and the issue that happened with Steve was he had been hired October 1 right um so that is an odd situation typically the highway department you want to try to schedule as ear I because once winter hits you might not get them back in there um you know you could have no snow that year but it it becomes a problem I've had to cancel a lot of um Highway and move Highway around once you get into December and on so um I I guess I'm just saying I don't think your logic holds up on the long term um although it would have been you know help ful last year but I don't believe our financial team is as flexible as you might think um okay you know one thought Bob I see your hand up I'll get you in just one second is I also I I I was unsure about whether to include November 5th on this schedule um so we may decide that we want to start our meetings on November 19th but I I wanted to at least include it in the draft in case folks start it would benefit us to to start on The 5ifth Bob yeah I just want to Echo what Becky said first of all that you that obviously Steve was brand new to the job and I didn't really had any I went to see him just before that meeting and he basically resubmitted what what what what Tim had so he wasn't ready to do it because he was just brand new to his new responsibilities but he also came back to us and met with us again to revise it more than once so we're always immutable to that it's not ideal but if circumstances change we can adjust by having him uh appear again uh if something changes in his request so I I don't have a problem with him meeting on you know early part of our our our process the 19th or or so I just got to make sure I speak to him he's been B hard to get a hold of lately yeah Becky do you do you think the fifth is just going to be too early for any of our departments or I think people might be reeling from the oh when's the election it's the 6th the fifth no the the election the election is the fth Tuesday theth you're right we can't hold you should not hold a meeting this is definitely not that that certainly makes sense all right so let's yeah I'm gonna move everything down okay well that answers that we we are not meeting on the 5th okay all right and then we're trying to hold a a special town meeting um between the 5th and the 26th I think um okay so that'll be fincom activity too okay um and remind me what what's going to be the main agenda for that will will that there's a few things we have the $25,000 fund for the police um we have um potentially a vote on um nonresident voting and there's potentially um money will have to be voted for the um the second audit that we need to do this year got it and there's a couple other things I can't remember well we have would one of them would one of them be the CPA request for the track potentially yes yeah will will the teacher contract affect the money no uh the teacher contract is um Almost 100% settled and will not be it'll be settled um in the next day or was settled today but it won't require more funding than the budget has initially correct that's it could only yeah it couldn't settle without you know if if it we yes they're doing it within the money they have great okay all right so somewhere in here at one of these first couple of meetings we're going to we're going to have to discuss um some warrant articles um but we not exactly sure when that'll be but but so maybe it'll be on the 3 maybe be on the 19th but okay um so what just in terms of order does this do so Susie I don't know do you does are you comfortable now with beginning with Highway um given Becky's explanation yeah and that Bob's said we ex expect that people will come back if they need to yeah yeah okay help so um so in terms of order does this does this look does this look right to folks yes is it on screen Becky yeah yeah yes oh nice I can't I'm on my phone oh okay so um uh so so Becky well first of all I should make sure I've got the right right I've got November 19th as our first date and I'm I'm assuming that's not a select board meeting because I I just took you know I just started this on the same two weeks cycle that we're on right now um the cycle we're on right now is the normal select board meeting right CU we met we're meeting on the select board night tonight oh we are oh okay um yeah remember we couldn't meet yeah okay yeah so this is all right can you forward us the dates and then I can help because I um yeah I'll keep the order of the Committees the same I'll work on the dates once I get them from Becky okay so but it's sounding like we we probably will do the I I assume from that we're probably going to do this on the 12th and then we we'll go from there uh but any then I'll leave it for now okay all right so then I yeah um so I think you know I think we'll keep this order we'll fix the dates um and then uh I don't know Becky is there anything you can say at this point about when our when might expect uh annual town meeting is it going to be a similar timing as last year or yes yes from what we know we're going to do uh we're gonna again return to our amended bylaw date of the fourth Saturday in April and that will bring us 26 that's the 26 ail 26 wasn't it 20 oh it was 27 last year wasn't it the 26 um it's not a that would be that's creepy it's the 26 okay so that means we'll probably end up doing maybe a budget info session on Thursday April 24th I mean tentatively I we usually do it on I think the last couple years we've done it on the Thursday before anual town meeting okay all right um okay well I'm gonna just leave this as is for now but um we'll we'll fix the dates and at some point we'll plug in you know when are we meeting with the select board to approve warrant articles when are we gonna need to have um an approved final budget An approved annual report and those details but okay so I think we're in good shape for getting a letter a budget request letter a schedule and a budget form um out shortly after our next meeting so when is our next meeting because of funniness yeah yes so let's figure out because I I I totally forgotten that we were we were screwed up um okay see the 17th it's going to be not the 10th yeah right right not the 10th so either the third or the4 it might have to do with when the um for town meeting is because we would want to have a conversation more pointed about that so yeah so I know it seems but okay so given that should we just just um plan on meeting next week and getting back on and maybe it's a short meeting I don't know but just getting back on schedule I September 3rd is the primary oh yes that's right that's that's that's that's why we ended up uh meeting tonight right okay right right we could do the fourth so we can't do the third all right does Wednesday the fourth work oh yeah there's a number of other meeting um let's see I think there's so and the second is Labor Day uh so okay what about they're not on the schedule yet but SE uh the Board of Health is on the 4th uh building committee and assessors are also on the fourth but there's no assessors meeting but there's could be a building committee meeting I'm uncertain of course it could be posted already I can check I'm looking at the calendar it's not on there just the board is on there I wonder if we meet on the 5th yeah that that it might have to be the fifth uh Thursday the 5th does that does that work for folks Susie what's meeting on the fifth can you see nothing nothing's on there now I'm on the calendar okay that's might work Kathy Bob Jim does that work for you guys yeah okay yeah well we'll see I can make it work try to make it work all right all right so tentatively we will meet on the 5ifth um and then the 17th and we'll be back on on track um okay so uh at our next meeting on the 5th we'll we'll finalize the budget letter we'll discuss potentially um you know our our position going to four towns meeting which maybe hopefully that'll be happening sometime that month and um I think those those will be the big items for that meeting okay and just so everybody knows that I didn't make any changes to the budget form other than updating the fiscal year number but I assume I assume that form Works did anybody see any need to edit or alter the the budget form itself I'm not not even going to pull it up okay all right uh so that's that um so yes if you if you want to make suggestions for a budget request letter if you could write them out and bring those to our next meeting on the 5th that would be great uh the next thing on the agenda is an update on the teach contract negotiation but Becky I think you gave us the update right so we're it sounds like it's it's almost there well um I believe I yeah there you know it goes through this process they make a little this or that and then it has to go back and we're waiting for it to go back and then come back and say final so okay I think we're it'll it's imminent it's imminent okay but but the um I guess the important update that you share tonight is that as far as you know there's no there it's working within the parameters of what was approved yes for in our for their fy2 budget right yes it's great okay good uh okay I don't have anything else on the agenda um but let me open it up uh so Bob yeah I just want to ask you or Becky Becky would probably know this when when are we going to when is the library new library uh loan going to land on our budget I think it go it go it's basically a year after completion right so after the rule of thumb so whether it lands in 26 or 27 it should land in 26 if if they can yeah it it it'll depend on when they're when the completion is but it'll be the 26 or 27th physical year 20 not you know what I'm talking about yeah I do not this year but it'll be the following year unless we go in you know past July and we're still finishing construction then it'll likely go into 27 yep okay thanks okay sure uh um any other business to discuss tonight um okay so I will send um I'll send an email to the committee and and and for for George and April to make sure that the um what do we say the 5ifth yeah the fifth works for them um and Becky you can let us know if there are any conflicts doesn't sound like there are but uh if if you learn something pretty sure there's a concom meeting but that should be all right it's just if anybody else meets um Personnel Board rescheduled for the 29th and if that meeting actually happens then we should be fine for the fifth okay uh Jim hyway just just out of curiosity what is the reason why we cannot um have a meeting on on on voting day uh especially this voting day coming up where it's going to hardly be of much consequence anyway um is is there a rule about that or or what because I mean it shouldn't really interfere with uh with our ability to be able to attend such a meeting I'm just curious it happened originally because when we're how it's too much for Town Hall you know when we were all in person but then I know we're not in person but we're still hybrid for some committees and it's also with you know there's people are have split attention we've just you know the select board has just avoided any election days for their own meetings and for a special town meeting or anything you wouldn't do that because the town clerk is straight out and it's at this point with just a zoom meeting yeah you can have the meeting but most people are um H you know running around trying to vote you don't want to keep people from voting if they're getting in from late uh you know work late and yeah it it's just practically it it's just a better practice for the community it supports voting now I I would think that we're that being since we're we all attend our Zoom meeting that we're sort of independent of all of that we wouldn't really be a it wouldn't really be a problem for us specifically maybe for other departments it would be but uh I don't know I just I just curious that's all might be something that the select board would need to confer with us if that there's enough reasons that change that they could think about it differently but I would believe they would have something to do with it okay uh Bob make a motion to adjourn a meeing second right want start offi cashew I closure I Salvador I all right okay thanks everybody thanks for the progress see in a couple weeks or not yeah a week a week a week in a couple days yeah all right bye guys by bye August August schedule once a [Laughter] week see youall