##VIDEO ID:7_OqDVTH3M8## this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers right let me call to order the meeting of the Southampton select board for November 26th 2024 at 6: p.m. and if we could please stand in say the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you right good thank you thank you so we have a pretty full agenda tonight we'll see how we can move through it pretty efficiently I hope lots of guests and guest speakers tonight so um do we have anybody here who is for citizen speak that is not on the agenda Robert here Robert Floyd College Highway uh for years I've been hearing people weigh in on the town meeting meeting on an evening at 7:00 versus what we historically met with on um Saturday morning and I did some research and it was way back in 2006 Seems Like Only Yesterday though um the Floyd galleryy is closing they're selling the building because of that a lot of people have been coming just to weigh in say hello every single one of them whether they lived in town or not complained about how more difficult it is for them to drive in the evening okay so I and it was changed from a Saturday morning to a Tuesday even flippantly because somebody wanted to be available for soccer games on Saturday and there was a lot of out cry about it back when and it died down so I'm thinking out loud I was wondering make my thoughts to the select board just consider maybe sharing it with the bylaw committee and maybe it's time to consider changing it back to Saturday morning MH okay and there would be more people coming uh the benefits we wouldn't be so rushed to end at 10 and if we did have to adjourn for a second evening it would just continue perhaps on a Saturday mhm and um I just think it would be beneficial for the whole town in general okay good to know yeah I believe that is said in the bylaws that's something the general bylaw committee byw advisory committee would have to take up okay okay thank you good thank you for that check that out all right um just one small announcement I'll make um we last um meeting we had um a review of the hazard mitigation plan uh and a couple people were having trouble getting in on the chat to uh give their comments but since then it is up on the website um it was pretty well publicized actually I did go back and check and it was in The Gazette it was in uh on our on our um website and Facebook pages Etc so please do uh there's an email there to write into Scott if you've got any comments about the hazard mitigation Plan update uh we'll probably keep it open for what another week maybe or so um so please um if you've got thoughts about it um questions or additions just write into the email that's provided on the website on the Facebook page and we'll get that moving forward okay all right great hi Stephen okay I think our first order of business tonight we have a Bartholomew presentation so our folks are here from Bartholomew our investment company and uh please come on up and introduce yourselves and uh whomever is going to give us the lowdown here and we have new material Stephen this is from June just that's material Jun what you gotd thank you that's September stu okay yes sir go ahead hi madam chairman my name is Chuck Patterson um senior vice president of Bartholomew company I have with me Alex Bartholomew who is our chief investment officer and Brian jamros who is one of our vice presidents not with me is uh Sue Kelly Michelle Nukem and Kathleen uh Kaki who we've met in the past um just for you at home uh we are investment advisory firm OT wher our broker dealer is commwell financial Network which is the largest broker dealer independent broker dealer in the country uh National Financial Services our custodian and they are a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments bolian company we manage uh just over5 billion in assets under management of that over 3 billion is City and town money for over 300 Municipal entities here in the Comm wealth New Hampshire um Maine and Rhode Island me personally myself personally I should say I a former treasurer of the town of shury former treasurer of Tasco Regional School District and past president of mass collector treasurers I am one of the main speakers at their annual School and I teach their investment class I teach their trust fund class and I don't know whether it's good or bad um when they need something answered about Investments they call me matter of fact I was one of the key people that allowed us to now talk about The Prudent investor statute that you guys hopefully will adopt soon um what we have today is we're going to talk about as you requested September performance September 30th performance so that's what you have before us um just to clarify what you had excuse me what we had in the past was from June 30th this is we give this to all our clients it gives us a quick summary because the treasurer in their investment policy statement they have to attest that they have reviewed who we are they also have to give an economic overview it's in your policy and then in the body of that it gives you all of the three accounts it gives you the accounting report that you all have seen plus it gives you your investment policies then the last section that you have is Mass general laws so what it does it ties all of the stuff into a nice big picture so that the taxpayers can understand what your Treasurer or a Treasurer is doing here in the Commonwealth so we'll start unless you have questions so far I think when you when we were before you the last time we talked about three buckets of money we talked about your general fund and then that has a certain law trust funds and then op so I'm going to turn it over to Alex so we're going to first talk about your general fund that's going to be chapter 44 55 uh very has to be your Investments have to be under one one year except for CDs you can invest in the mmdt and all local banks the mmdt there is no absolutely no guarantee by the state I know it might have been said no by their own I think you have received in an email where we stay their actual I think all Investments there's no guarantee on rate of performance it's not based on past performance correct no but mmdt has unlimited depository Authority Under M General law absolutely but there's no guarantee of loss there's no guarantee on any investment no but they're not insured but they're not insured or but nothing in the stock market is insured by FDIC only if it's in a local bank and by law we're prohibited from investing in credit unions even though certain municipalities get away with it by saying they put their trust fund over there but FDIC does not apply anywhere in any investment in the investment account I I think the only confusion John might have been at least on my part when I heard mmdt because it's a state thing I had in my head that that was a sort of a self-insuring fund and then it was not so thank you m I've learned thank you madam chair so I'm going to turn this over to Alex and he'll talk about your general fund very simple account and um I think you'll like what has happened so far this year thank you good evening he um nice to meet all of you uh nice to uh be here for the first time in front of you um as Chuck said um we do have three investment accounts and we're going to start with the lowest risk and work our way up starting with the general fund account um what you have in front of you is a performance summary portfolio summary um as of the quarter ends September 30th um and at at that point in time as you can see starting on page two this is a little under under a $2.8 million account um and as Chuck indicated this portfolio is very simple this type of portfolio really was not used for 15 years post 2008 when interest rates were at zero but since 2022 in interest rates went from zero to over 5% in cash um this type of Investment Portfolio really became a thing again um a lot of money poured into money markets a lot of money poured into the m mmdt but there's a lot of communities across the conth Across the Nation really um that are looking at the risks that they have in Banks where they're not making enough money or uh deposits that exceed FDIC insurance and saying what else can we do with it how can we take advantage of higher interest rates this is that solution we buy treasuries um inside of one year now certainly there are communities that will buy CDs longer to try and get a higher rate of return the problem there is that you are limited by the FDI IC Insurance of $250,000 and we working with millions and millions and millions of dollars that becomes uh cumbersome to manage um because we have to make sure we don't overlap with any deposits you have of course and uh you can only do so many uh positions in the portfolio so on page two what you'll see on the Le hand side here um between cash and treasuries is that we have a current yield of around 5% on another page here we're going to look at the yield to maturity so in this portfolio and the trust fund portfolio we're going to always look at current yield and yield to maturity and Total return all these numbers tell us different things and we want to make sure always to educate you on what numbers mean um so that you you walk away from these reviews feeling that you have a good sense of what's going on in the portfolio so current yield is representative of cash flow not necessarily Total return it happens to be a high number in this case because the market has come our way we're able to buy High coupons at um even discounts below 100 um per Bond and the current yield in the portfolio at at the end of the quarter is nearly 5% that is gross of fees that is not net of fees current yield when we get the total return all of those numbers will be net of fees as they always are starting on page three we look at the investment activity since Inception which is just May of last year like I said this type of Investment Portfolio really wasn't used for 15 years post 2008 but after 2022 um and for the last couple of years we've started to see these types of investment portfolios open up again and be funded because of interest rate opportunities so since that funding with money coming in money going out which you can visually see at the B the bottom of page three we have a nearly 5% annualized rate of return which is net of fees as you can see um there in the in the the verbiage on the third line from the from the bottom there on the left um fiscal year-to dat number is really just the first quarter of fiscal year 25 which is only 1.3% so as you continue to carry that through another three quarters and we continue to acrew at prevailing interest rates that number will make uh make more sense in terms of uh annualized uh opportunity um does anybody have any questions on these first two pages before I move forward okay thank you now I'm not going to go Page by page on all these reviews I know you have a busy agenda um I just want to hit you know the main Strokes here if you please turn your attention to page 4 what you're going to notice is that um we have an average yield to maturity of 4.67 in the upper right hand corner compare that to the current yield of 497 and the annualized total return of 494 all these numbers are clearly in the vicinity but as you you can see current yield being higher is not representative of Total return expectation sometimes it's higher sometimes it's lower but we are in this vicinity of between 4 and 5% currently based on Market markets uh rates have come up a lot right in the last um 6 weeks or so um but not necessarily in this part of the market because the Federal Reserve Bank is continuing to cut rates they started at 525 before the cuts we are now uh 75 basis points lower after two meetings and expect that to continue going downward with not an expectation now of where when they will end or where they will end um it could be next year it could be in into 2026 as you continue going forward to Pages six and seven you have more performance data um you can look at the performance and all these accounts on a trailing performance time period year to date one year 3 years since Inception or calendar year by calendar year now when you look at this portfolio versus um benchmarks that we're using those benchmarks are 1 to three month so 90-day ladder of treasuries if you've looked at the interest rate curve over the last couple C years it's been inverted what that means is that cash has been at 525 which is the overnight lending rate for the Federal Reserve Bank and as you go out further 6 month one year 3 year 10 year interest rates are actually lower so we have a a laded 12month portfolio which over time will outperform cash but in a period where we have inverted interest rates um cash will outperform a latter treasury portfolio it doesn't mean it's a bad investment it simply means that um what the market dynamics are over the last couple of years but over time we want to take full advantage of the ability in a general fund account to go out 12 months in a treasury and outperform cash um over the longterm over a market cycle and as the FED continues to cut interest rates that is exactly what we expect to happen Okay um if you look lastly on page eight sorry page nine as of September 30th we had be before reinvestment so this is the end of the quarter and we don't let cash sit we only have cash in these portfolios based off of liquidity needs or simply because it's a a maturity that hasn't been reinvested but cash does not sit more than a couple of days or a couple of weeks based on our uh buying a fixed income um so what you would ordinarily see is more treasuries laded out quarterly throughout the 12 months at the end of the at the end of September based on liquidity needs of the community sitting in the highest yielding Money Market at 5.2% as you can see in the far column on the right on page nine um and fig gxx um we are making sure that we keep cash in the highest returning um portfolio so this is the safest part of your Investments we either have it in treasuries or we can only buy money market Securities like fig gxx there that are backed by government securities treasuries and agencies um or the bank deposit sweep program which we sweep out of frequently throughout the month to access the higher yield okay so our total portfolio then is it the 2.7 that's correct so as of September 30th the portfolio value is $2.75 million Chris can I ask a question sure so when I compare this to the the uh fiscal year 2024 summary of the internal documents that you supported not the um not the statements but your own spreadsheets it show can you speak a little bit to the fact that it shows in red a loss of $2,668 in general fund money and why the lay person at home May interpret that to be a loss on general fund money is that from the annual that's on the annual report on page well I'm getting there uh one moment it's under where you have the COA Center and then the general fund under on page 70 maybe there about uh fiscal year 2024 change in unrealized gain or losses and and specifically why potentially a a non-educated person may see a negative $2,100 and say why are we losing general fund money sure that's a that's a great question um so with the accounting report which for all of you that have seen the binder that we have on June 30th or have it in front of you this is what we're referring to so there's a tremendous amount of detail from left to right in these accounter reports do you want know um it's not numbered it's called page 10 of1 it's the last page in the portfolio review section which I know you're doing it digitally so these present significantly better in prints and hard copy than they do digitally they really look like a um you know difficult to follow um PDF um so it's deep in there um in the portfolio review section I believe it's ordered trust funds OPB and then General funds last but uh to answer John's question um which is a very good question there is a tremendous amount of detail in these portfolio um accounting reports one of the pros and cons is that we provide these accounting reports for the community depending on whether they're Mark to Market or Book value so Ina joural account you are marking to Market so if Securities go up in value you mark up if the Securities go down in value you mark down the return for the general fund over fiscal year 24 was $51,988 in net earnings minus $2,160 in change in market value that change in market value also includes change in accured interest so if we had treasuries mature or pay coupons crude interest interest gets reset and goes down in value doesn't mean we lost money we actually made around $50,000 in value for the 12 months for the general fund for the town of Southampton that's under the net earnings column that's correct so again marking to Market um which your Treasurer and your auditor will do every June 30th at a minimum they would have marked around $50,000 for this portion of the general fund in total return and not a loss but seeing the breakdown of it um from time to time especially when it's in the unrealized certainly can be confusing yeah no and I I'll just say for the record i' i' well Chuck specifically I've had relationships with Chuck for over 15 years and you know I don't question his Integrity or his work and all that so I'll Reserve all my questions for our current Treasurer afterwards but I I don't necessarily have an issue with I do not have an underlying issue with bethu and how they invest it my bigger issue is we seem to have adopted a practice from the 90s and we've never looked back to adjust to it even though the market changes which is not Beth's issue that's our treasurer's issue so I'll Reserve those questions when the treasurer takes the mic okay like it that thank you thanks okay thank you John okay uh as you may recall those of you at home now we're into the second bucket of money this would be your trust funds your stabilization your CPA your Cemetery Perpetual care funds okay so they will fall under chapter 4454 as you have heard the law has changed as of not this past August August of 23 that's going to allow cities and towns to adopt The Prudent investor statute which is 203c so now currently this portfolio is governed under that legal list of Investments about 22 stocks or so and then Alex will get into how it's being invested if you were to move to prudent it would only amount to your trust funds not your Cemetery perpetual care and not your state I I'm I'm sorry CPA it does Cemetery peret care I misspoke it's CPA in stabilization cannot go prudent everything else in that account can I misspoke can I ask a question um what about gift funds does that throw fall under the trust funds I know we have some modest gift funds they're kind of old a bit around for decades but TR list do they show up in the trust fund list they they would show up in in the trust fund section there would be some discussions internally that you would have here on whether gifts can receive their own interest or not receive interest that's a discussion you would have internally but trust funds and gifts for the most part here in the Commonwealth are handled the same way and it's a debate internally if you receive a $100,000 gift um it's hard to say to the donor you don't get your interest M and that's the discussions you would have with the donor uh but if it's a gift for the most part here in the commwell gifts a handle like trust okay okay and that means they would fall under if you chose to go prudent so I'll turn her over to Alex to take it before you leave the mic just given your your reputation and the fact that you're a former Treasurer I know the answer to this but can you tell the people listening at home what the issue is with the legal list because people hear legal list but they don't know who's overseeing it how often it's updated and why the mcta has pushed for so long for the puen person to be adopted um thank you because we're going to come up with this issue whether we move to adopt the provent person or not but so okay uh through you madam chair um John makes a valid point on why do you want to do this as you'll see in the portfolio that Alex will go go through you have about 22 stocks but one quarter of them are one industry pharmaceutical industry so that's a high concentration in one industry okay second when you do go prudent not only do you pick up the diversification on the equity side but you also pick it up on the bond side it can be both ways so for instance we have towns up in Maine and they can buy uh a caterpillar Bond they can buy a general electric Bond they can buy not I should you you can buy General Electric here um a caterpillar on Microsoft versus here in the Commonwealth you can't so the main reason why the mass collector treasurers um has always pushed for this was to give us that ability to diversify these gifts as you've said from our taxpayers to help grow the account um versus having it uh when you see the list it's it's not it's some great American companies so I'm not saying anything about the companies but it it's just not the diversification that a trust should be able to use and and who currently determines what's on the legal list um currently the commissioner Banks um manages and I use the term loosely manages the truck the the list there more of a clerical aspect to it the only way the list can be changed is by three credit unions petitioning the commissioner Banks and say we would like to see Staples on the list so cities and towns can't do that only three credit unions and as John alluded to before we can't put money in Credit Union so they have re a real no desire to help us um and long story short the drawback or the big barrier that we were dealing with here in the Commonwealth when we've been pushing prudent is that we really didn't know who was in opposition so when we were in the call with mass bankers and we add the word prudent in our investing he said to us that well if it's prudent to be in a credit union you should be able to invest in credit unions aha finally we found out where the opposition was coming from and we can't so there's no desire on anybody else's side to help cities and towns M because we're pretty much standing here alone and then who else uses a legalist all private trusts or there will be private Trust trusts that in their Wills might refer to the Massachusetts legalist so when Alex and I went to Boston uh many years ago they are reluctant to do anything because they don't know what the what effect it would have I think I told you guys the last time about some of the companies that are on the list that were just drawn off because of a misunderstanding of a name so so how how often does the list change you mentioned 22 stocks um it it has not before you were born Chris um it's supposed to be reviewed every July 1st and the commissioner Banks so if you look at the list M fact I had one in my hand earlier today it looks prettier now but that's the extent railroads um it has railroads right so you have railroad stocks um thank you obligations and then all also the only other way it can change at the very end of the list there's fund families and if you notice that those have increased Through The Years a matter of fact Alex's and Alex's team helped get that through fund families can request to be on the list as long as they funds are all government backed funds so if you go back to the June 30th presentation at the very very back I believe one of the next to last pages it will show you all those different funds MH okay and just just for clarity so with the 22 stocks on the legal list then going to prudent how does that open it up what what else do we get okay in in theory your trust funds then can look very much like your opep so it opens up to what ever is out there and our team working with committees um working with your Treasurer we determine the proper asset allocation and risk tolerance and that's where Alex and come in and um so it can really change from when you Alex will give you you know what your total return is now versus what your opab is it's substantial it's substantial being able to move away from that Chris I think un legalist there's multiple layers of handcuffs that limit again can only do what we approve now up until the law changed on prudent person there was an Avenue to get prudent person the local town could adopt it and move forward and and do work around South amp for whatever reason which we'll get to later chose not to go down that path um but once you if you do adopt the prudent person which coincides with the bylaw suggestion that I put forward allows for a wider breath and again you turn it over to the professionals to run it and prudent person is would a prudent person with their own money invest it this way if the answer is yes you move forward if the answer is no you stop and I'm oversimplifying the process but right okay one more thing on on John's part as John alluded to the fact that you could have always done a prudent you could have taken it to town meeting then you could have had your State Rep State Center take it into Boston and then they would have made a Southampton law that second part has been done for us so now all that's left is your local action adopt okay got it okay good yeah and I think in the annual review just maybe to answer Cindy's question in the annual review that we got that is the list of all the funds so the cemetery fund conservation trust Library trust um miscellaneous trusts which would be the alers various others are in that they're not in the September one in that level of detail so thanks yeah go ahead Alex oh yes and you know just to tie a nice bow on that um as of uh June 30th in the trust fund portfolio we're calling it a trust fund portfolio it's really a stabilization CPA portfolio because it's a a $3.6 million account and I look here it appears to be almost exactly $3 million of CPA and stabilization so you your opportunity here um for the trust funds to um be invested Pur an investor um is around $600,000 um it's every um dime counts but unfortunately we still have would have a majority of this portfolio that would be bound by the legalist um so having having said that and and uh that good news you know let's you know quickly and efficiently look at the trust funds because again I want to to be respectful of your time um we have the one click here as of September 30th um but keep that in mind because our recommendations for risk profile in a diversified co-mingled portfolio like this is going to be based off of how much of the portfolio is in things like stabilization how much is in CPA where it's 100% Expendable and can be voted at any town meeting at any time um this portfolio is very conservative with primarily fixed income high quality short duration fixed income and of just over 10% in equity 10% in common stock which is the a subset of those 22 names we effectively own all 22 that we can own as the list has gotten shorter and shorter except for GE over the last uh six or seven years since GE has turned into a completely different company um from when whence it was um the current yield in the portfolio on page two again current yield is not in no way representative of Total return in this portfolio but with higher interest rates we've seen that continue to creep up is at 2.37% so just under $90,000 an estimated annual income again not representative of estimated Total return and I will demonstrate that but total uh of income when we look on page three which is a really good example of this since Inception the portfolio has annualized around 1.8% annualized for a total gain of $476,000 since 2011 um with contributions along the way um fiscal year-to date which is just the third quarter of the calendar year ending September 30th the portfolio gained $122,000 with um a good market for fixed income and equities in this case if you see that on the right hand side there of Page Three As we turn the page the current the yield to maturity so remember the current yield of the portfolio was 2.37% not representative of Total return yield to maturity which is more representative Total return because this is 90% fixed income is is 4.06% now why is that lower than the general funds we were just looking at because of that inverted yield curve the further we go out in this market over the last couple of years when I say further we go out the maturity date is longer two year three year four year 5 year we're actually getting a lower return now over time when the FED Cuts rates as they're doing right now this portfolio will be rewarded for that for that persistence in that ladder is a high qu is a very high quality Bond portfolio with an average rating of A+ and um mostly dominated by treasuries and corporate bonds that are on the legal list on page six and Page seven when um and page eight when we have performance we have a calendar year-to dat return of 5.3% a one-year return of 9% pretty pretty good for a 90% short-term fixed income portfolio the reason for that is because interest rates peaked on in October last year and rallied um fixed income rallied very very hard the 10-year treasury as an example peaked at over 5% and then bottomed out at about 3.6% um here in August and September so we've seen fixed income returns be very very good in this oneyear time period specifically um after struggling uh in 2022 with Rising interest rates um the direction and path of interest rates really dominates the direction and returns that you have in this portfolio but even that 10% in equity has helped this portfolio which needs to be very conservative because it is primarily stabilization and CPA outperform short-term fixed income and at least over the long term be more competitive with inflation we're not going to try and keep up with inflation when it's 9% but these types of portfolios that have longer track records certainly have done that when inflation over time is is you know between 2 and 3% so um does anyone have any questions about the risk profile investment strategy of this you know limited legalist universe and how you know we certainly believe that we are using the tools available to us investing this with the right level of risk for the community because the last thing we need in a bad recession and a budgetary crisis is the stabilization to be at a loss so again everything out of this portfolio except for the stabilization funds can be prudent that's correct stabilization and CPA not currently because we haven't adopted the by correct yeah yeah CPA so U Community preservation funds Community preservation cannot okay yeah so um when you look at your accounting report for any date the last two sections of the accounting report are CPA and then stabilization funds you spoke to the fact that you've laded this towards longer duration Bonds in the present environment of declining interest rates y may be harsh but does that mean it'll lose less than others in a in the future should we expect less annual income in a declining interest rate environment no that's a good question so in a declining interest rate environment like we've seen over the last 12- month time period take that as a microcosm where yields across the curve were at their highest they've been and they've come down since then because of the way we're positioned our portfolio out perform the index by 200 basis points 2% so even though we're buying into the inverted yield curve because of our positioning because of our duration when yields come down we're actually POS positioned to have fixed income price appreciation okay okay and and that oneyear return is again a small example of that okay why can't CPA funds be in this prudent category CPA funds have their own General law statute just like stabilization and they were not included in the prudent investor and Chuck can certainly speak to that um when you refer back to the laws as they're written um stabilization says whatever is legal for Savings Banks that directly refers to the legal list when you go over to the law that created CPA it says chapter 4454 so now you're scratching your head it is the unintended consequence in theory because you're amending 4454 you could use CPA under prudent but it was never the intended method of doing so so each individual municipality has to make a bylaw or vote to let them be part of this investment is that what you're saying when when you take your voted town meeting you will amend chapter 4454 okay and you're going to add in section B that refers to 203c the prud investor statute with that being said when you look at our annual review in the back you'll see the law and again it's never been the intent of the legislature to affect CPA it was always there to only affect your trust funds so if you wanted to take it to council and said hey we'd like to invest CPA Under The Prudent statute you probably could but that's not the intent it would be similar to two years ago the home rule petition path to get to the prudent person which now has been removed from us you could do the CPA you could do CPA but it might be already available to you when you look at the specific law right because when you read CPA law it refers to chapter 4454 if you amend 4454 in theory you could go CPA but I would defer to councel um and see if they agree but it was never the intent of the people that put this things okay and is there a restriction currently knowing that the town hasn't adopted any bylaws to the contrary when you said uh CPA funds could be invested in anything similar to or permissible by a savings bank right no that was um stabilization says that St but C all right so how right now as the law stands how can CPA funds be invested uh legalist legalist only legalist yes does that include or exclude mmdt mmdt is a I believe it's reference that you can use mmdt in everything right and and just because we're going to get to this later up until two years ago mmdt was probably less than a tenth of a basis point correct but today historically within the past 18 months it's much better than that correct right so history has an MMD T um has a usual about a 90day duration it is always going to Trail rates so as John said when interest rates on the short side were 10 basis points 15 none of the treasurers had money at the mmbt now because of what Alex said with the inverted yield curve short rates are higher well you're seeing people when I was in shuby I had money at mmbt but then I didn't so I always use the mmdt as that lever whenever it was appropriate uh to your question earlier about um lowering interest where that question really comes into play is when you're talking about your general fund so if you seen a large number of dollars coming through on your local side as far as investment income when Alex was referring to lowering interest rates by 75 basis points then on your general fund side yes that will really come into play but not so as much on your trust funds but your general fund most definitely so looking at just to the annual review and again just for people that are listening so as we're talking about CPA and stabilization funds the way I'm reading this if I'm correct we had an earnings of 177,000 thereabouts on the CPA account is that right is that in the aggregate all the different PL it's the total of the CPA uh sorry wrong wrong column hold on wrong column hold on that's the ending earnings that's the ending earnings that's the balance of your earnings yeah sorry so the ending where did I see it so for the 12-month time period ending June 30th of 2024 the CPA account had net earnings of $3,000 with a change in market value of another $31,000 do you know that equates to on a percentage um yes I do in the in the performance review a couple Pages prior to that you would look at the the one-year number so the one-year number as of June 30th for the portfolio is 4.9% again in a in a 10% Equity portfolio and a 90% fixed income portfolio and and the 4.9 is after fees that correct yeah we are prohibited now and always from sharing gross return numbers based on SEC marketing rules so what we should be looking at is the change in unrealized gain or loss or just the unrealized gain or loss C the change unrealized is going to be the return you made over the time period and the unrealized is the balance the balance right so you have you know income statement versus balance sheet type of numbers so that's around the 25,000 for CPA right way I'm reading it so CPA is 25,000 in Balance right so that means that starting the fiscal year it had an unrealized balance of NE 5,000 and that's due to the interest rate risk we experienced in 2022 MH and then the three stabilizations Al together would have been about 218 in terms of unrealized gain unrealized gain uh we have uh $224,400 over that time period um there was um significant contributions to stabilization but you know based off of this summary I don't know when throughout the year but it certainly wasn't earlier in the fiscal year because they would have made more but basically all of our trust funds have earned something compared to what we were thinking they might not have been so I think that page it's page 38 numbers in there there's no R numbers no and I think too um as we go through this I think is a you know and I don't know that we've got this up um but uh I think I will ask Jen to post this up on our website so that people can see the annual report and just get an understanding of what that is because we've got you know I know we have our or we had our Cemetery person I guess he's left okay but like the cemetery commiss the conservation people they they're always looking to figure out what do we have in our trust fund you know and just trying to understand that better um and so I think it's important to have that kind of information available to them yep but go ahead please so last thing on the CPA with um PR investor we have other communities that long went for special legislation for their CPA um just keep in mind because CPA is 100% Expendable that the risk profile you choose utilizing the prent investor should be representative of that fact so expand your diversification reduce your concentration risk but you know be be smart and mindful about choosing the right risk profile that um um for the community based off of spending habits and spending expectations okay okay um who's ready to talk about the last bucket of money last bucket um for you at home OPB other post employment benefit this is the money that towns have to set aside for retiring health heal insurance and this came down uh from gby probably 10 15 years ago and then now cities and towns now must that one they had to account for it and then now a lot of towns in the country are stying to set money aside and how this money is being invested is that 203c that prudent investor statute so when you look at when Alex was over the portfolio you're going to say oh so this could look like our trust funds so there's going to be I was in uh a meeting um with a city near Boston and what's it what's going to look like and I said well if you look at your opab that's what your trust fund prudent can look like down the road if you choose to do so thank you okay so as of September 30th again with for the opep trust now the opep trust has been invested with us since 2015 and as you can see in the bottom of page three it has in like it has in every single Community started from near zero and as you've continued to contribute and I'm not sure how you have whether it's in the budget percentage of free cash special onetime um reserves uh you you've worked hard to put money in um and that is all based off your Actuarial study with your actuary um working also conjunction with your auditor to fund this unfunded liability and we are here to invest the long-term portion just like your Pension funds to um generate a higher rate of return and someday after all of us are along and gone draw on it to supplement the budget um what is very common over this time period is that communities with their initial funding of you know $50 $100,000 would start off very conservatively so what we're going to look at is we're going to look at a portfolio that's invested 70% in equity and 30% in fixed income but hasn't always been invested that way the performance reporting however reports it as if it had been okay so keep that in mind um so as we look at this portfolio page two is a nice it's called the sand graph it's meant to represent the asset allocation over time um you can see visually in there although it's incredibly hard unless you look at them regularly to see that the risk profile has changed over time but on page three we've made 5.65% annualized on this portfolio which I would not describe as a 7030 portfolio performance over this time period because it hasn't been um however in the first quarter of this fiscal year the portfolio is made 5.2% Alone um we don't tend to look at short-term performance like this in any of the accounts but this is what's presented in front of us so we're we're going to look at it um and so we're at nearly $160,000 in total return Neta fees cumulative since 2015 as you've continued to contribute money and generate returns in the market um calendar year to date as I start turning my to page four is 12% just under 12% relative benchmarking again is actually higher than that uh the one-ear number of 22% um outperforming the relative benchmarks three-year number struggling at 2.66 versus 4.5 longer term numbers is 6 and 1 half and 5 and A2 um as we build these portfolios up we have worked hard with all of our communities to uh increase the risk profile that helps long-term returns it helps the Actuarial study and as they get to a size that is appropriate and we are getting there with the towns opep trust we start adding in institutional Investments these are things like private equity non-treated real estate private credit not only do these types of Investments um help your return expectations but they also help your Actuarial study because Actuarial studies for the UN for the funded portion really are indicative of your forward-looking returns so if you tell your actuary we have $500,000 in obb trust but it's sit in the bank somewhere they can't exactly project you're going to make a lot of money with it that hurts your discount rate hurts your unfunded liability but but if you have it invested appropriately if you have it invested with private Equity Real Estate you have an investment policy statement that says that which you do have an investment policy statement um that increases the discount rate that increases your forward-looking returns and helps your unfunded liability the town doesn't have these exposures not because the town has said no but because it hasn't been at the size needed to do it yet but we are getting close as you continue to fund and and uh more and more communities across the Comm are specific threshold the dollar threshold or um the the half million dollar threshold which you're at is a is a big marker and we can start look going in that direction so it's certainly something that we will be talking about going forward and um uh you know I I I expect a foregone conclusion that we will we will start moving in that direction so you know the market commentary of this portfolio is obviously and you look on page five which I like looking at a lot when doing reviews because particularly one with the track record it tells a story we can look at all the calendar years and we know generally what happened we can look back in 2022 and see the portfolio was down nearly 18% and we know what happened that year Rising interest rates Rising inflation negative equity prices negative fixed income prices there really was no place to hide um and we underperformed um but all of the calendar years around it starting with 2019 have all been double digit um total returns starting in 2019 177% % 14 1.5% 10% in 2021 and the last two calendar years 14% and nearly 12% here in the first 3 quarters of 24 um that's more representative of a 7030 portfolio than it was in the beginning so we want to continue to invest this portfolio at this roast profile this is where 80 to 85% of our clients are invested in opep um the next step is just to include private Market so as you can see in the oped portfolio compared to trust funds compared to General funds that are bound by different um various Master general laws um the world is more your oyster and um we can do a lot more um but you are you are able to take on more risk prudent investor doesn't mean you have to take on more risk it just gives you the option uh Chris y go ahead how the OPB yeah how often if all does it rebalance and do we have to trigger that or is it automatically triggered at a minimum we're going to rebalance annually our Blended benchmarks that we Track Performance against rebalance on January 1st um we will do trades throughout the year if if I showed you a transaction activity summary every single calendar year there's always trades in and out um when I say in and out I mean rebalancing variances or changing Securities changing asset allocations based off of market conditions um and no you do not need to trigger that okay and and then um sorry it's okay and then um earlier you talked about opep should be 7030 however we're not quite there yet no you are there now yeah well now y so when I look on page 59 sure and I see the total rate of returns should I be looking at the 7030 Equity bonds as a benchmark to our actual performance so that's that's one of them I mean as you know in in all data analysis um sometimes there's not a perfect data point to look at so we provide as part of our you know our culture of Education we provide several Blended benchmarks we have three here one the first one includes um stocks bonds and hedge funds as representative by Alternatives the second one is stocks bonds and liquid Alternatives which are uh daily liquid smas and then the the third one is just stocks and bonds so we want to provide a portfolio that is outperforming on both a relative return basis but also a risk adjusted return basis that's not something we can really Garner from this page so even though the performance of the portfolio is 565 since Inception and 7030 bench mark is 7% again it hasn't been invested that way over the same time period but this isn't a good representation of relative risk beta Alpha up capture and down capture as we wanted an Institutional portfolio um that that you would expect from a pension system or anything like that okay but as a as a general lay person when you look at these rols of numbers yep over time year over year M shouldn't we be able to draw our line our eye to a single Benchmark and say this is where we're trying to get to we haven't been able to get there yet because we haven't had the funds to get to the full 7030 but as we progress past the million and the million um it it just seems like we should be able to call out a benchmark whether we're there or not are beating it or or getting close I mean if this is saying 7.07 if if we were 1% it'd be a different conversation I I would say these two numbers are relatively close compared to the the assets that are in the portfolio if we had a $5 million portfolio it should I would argue it should be closer but time over time select board over select board we change every 3 years you know we should have a consist a consistent Benchmark to look towards so under that disguise should it be something other than the 7030 on this page no going I mean going forward I think all three of these benchmarks have Merit again it's it's it's because we are we do have alternative exposure so if we just looked at the 7030 Benchmark understanding that we have 15 to 20% of the portfolio Alternatives it's going to not give a clear picture of experience um but then again how do you you represent Alternatives do you use hedge funds do you use Liquid smas do you use uh just private Equity just real estate so looking at things from different angles and understanding where the differences lie helps in understanding The Experience helps in understanding how we're invested differently and why their performance was similar or different so it's not meant to confuse in any way shape or form it's not meant to um misrepresent it's it's really meant to educate and provide more information so that in an institutional environment such as this we can have those higher quality conversations with our committees with our treasurers that we work with Okay but aiming for the uh 7030 Equity bonds is not a bad Target right well I think what I heard by definition that's where the oped yeah no it's it's. that's our that's our Target right um and again we we need to be long-term providing a Investment Portfolio that outperforms all these benchmarks um I just don't have the the date on the top of my head you modifi I knew you did I knew you did I had something to say right I drove all the way here in traffic I got to say something better let you speak at least right yeah hey that's okay and it was terrible out tonight my goodness uh so the portfolio started on uh good evening the portfolio started uh 2015 uh February it uh was 6535 then it on uh I'm sorry these dates are backwards May of 2022 it went to 7030 um and then uh just for a reference point did you give me that date again May of 22 yes may of 22 so let's keep that in mind that is early on in 2022 is performance so increasing risk profile for a Perpetual asset is never a bad decision timing wise but in the shortterm increasing risk entering a bad Market that was probably the wrong year to do it hindsight in hindsight but hindsight is 2020 and what we tell all of our clients both private and institutional is it's never the wrong time to do the right thing for the long term y it's a good I to remember that one okay good anybody have uh yeah I'm the representative of the ordinary citizen on this board um I'm sorry my name is Cindy Palmer and I'm the representative of the ordinary citizen on the select board therefore and these are all far more expert than I am but John and Chris and and Stephen and Dean what is our responsibility at this point I we're listening to this presentation I'm sure everybody at home understands it completely but maybe not so I just wonder what what is it that what are our steps at this point that we need to be thinking about what is the takeaway for the other ordinary citizens in South E I just say two things from my point of view one is I think we need to take a look at our investment policy make sure it's up to date with where where we are now and what's happening out in the bigger World cuz I think we did look at it probably three three years ago I'm thinking maybe we did um I know a previous select board we we re reauthorized it or something I'm I'm thinking um but then take a look at what we want to do for a town meeting of looking at going into the um The Prudent status um and see if that's an option for us to do that John right and additionally I would say and again I'll I'll say this for the second time I I have no problem with the profession ISM or the performance that bolom does they're they're one of probably a handful of groups within the Commonwealth that are good my issue is more of we seem to be still on the 1990 model and we've never adjusted for real time changes and that's an internal issue no they're they're working as direct 1990 model in our in our government our investment policy was set up then we've never adopted the opep we've never gone to and you know before she our Treasurer gets up there and says that our treasur has been before the body before and before I was even on the select board advocating to adopt the prudent person and this is the body that allows it to go to the voters or not um that being said you know it I think our role is just to be the sounding board to let the citizens hear what's going on here and to show that yeah we're not going to you're not going to make the rate you should as a municip municipality you should not be making the rate returns you're doing in your in your private portfolios because your private portfolios in theory are taking on much more risk than what's allowed to happen with general tax dollars or general funds in that nature um but looking forward and going forward times have changed and we have the consideration to adopt mgl chapter 4145 sub section 47 which then creates a committee versus putting all the author leaving all the authority with the treasurer to decide what's going on a Treasurer that is you know trying to run the office in the day-to-day to then throw on the prudent person and add this other stuff is just compounding and adding to it when my argument as I propos this at a public meeting is it's time to adopt this other law that allows for a committee and then the treasurer is acting you know it's basically adding a Citizens portion of bolom or whoever the agents are to look at this stuff and review this stuff so that the treasurer and collector can focus on the collection of taxes the balancing of the books the turnovers of revenues and receipts in a timely fashion I'm not looking to add more work to the treasurer I'm looking to diversify which then does mean in our community of 6700 people three citizens have to come forward to fill this role should the bylaw pass and it isn't the finance committee it's a different no but I'm happy to appoint Reggie or nominate Reggie for the office but but I think as we grow this is just too much to just keep piling on one person or one office and we need to expand and again Bethal is operating 100% within the guard rails that we have established and I think it maybe we need to change some of those guard rails under the existing laws that are allowed and maybe performance won't increase but maybe it will it doesn't matter that's not the drive of at least my point of view I'm not saying you got to give me 14% you got to beat the average weight of Return of of the S&P like double yeah but okay and just looking at this we the last time we as a select board signed off on the investment policy was 2019 so it is time yeah yeah time to take a look at that again and I I see it as a risk to be restricted to this legal list of what 20 whatever stocks that seems I said it wasn't very Diversified that list um so I see that as a as a risk in itself so as a town kind hems us in a bit Yeah hems Us in yeah seems to be good all right any other questions for the folks here if not thank you very much for coming I think Ed thank you we've learned a lot tonight I think we've asked our questions and uh hopefully shed some light on things and I think we've got a a better sense of what we have for options out there because even if we had talked about The Prudent thing last year which we probably did it didn't really sink in in terms of well you guys might need to think about taking some action because we could have brought this earlier on perhaps but we will have Town meetings ahead of us in the coming year so U we'll take a look at the idea and see what we can come up with well thank you thank you very much thank you for the opportunity to come before you good night no thanks for taking your time thank you very much appreciate it all right do we have any other thoughts Jen you want to add something to the mix here are we going to is the treasurer going to address and speak out about the specific bylaw as requested or is that not on tonight's agenda uh we didn't have it on the agenda per se good tonight can we reschedule that for another public hearing um for the new the potential new bylaw so that would you talk about I'm sorry correct I mean I only sent in a proposed agenda that we'd hear from bethu and then we' dive more into details in the treasurer's office and right I think I'd like to put that on in in a future meeting in early December sometime to talk about that and what that would look like okay okay we've got a long meeting tonight with various people waiting for I mean the poll hearing is not till 7:30 we can't even have that hearing for 25 minutes okay um well if you've got specific questions I don't know do we have do we have a draft of a bylaw that we would have to adopt that we'd have to the bylaw committee will be meeting soon um I thought this this board submitted the Mass General law you have a draft Yeah okay to the to the bylaw committee hold up for a second just yeah no no that's not what I'm talking about okay you're talking about the committee the forming I have a draft of the committee is she come on up so you've got what you've got a draft of The Prudent investor one right okay sen for day treasur collector yeah so so I don't I don't have a draft for to form the committee okay um I support forming the committee do we can we get a copy of some other towns just take a look at or how does that work if if I might Chris I believe our Treasurer submitted the draft of the prudent person along with the annual report I think it was like the last three or four pages with her recommendation that we adopt it prudent person okay yes so we have that she did send that in yeah my questions are more about the committee right but I just heard the treasur say she supports right the creation of it so how do we go about creating the committee is the is the whole we adopt Master General law section 45 yeah or chapter 41 section 45 and what comes first I guess if we have to have a bylaw or something ready for town meeting well for it's a copy and paste 45 into a bylaw to get the voters to accept it but I think it sends okay a better message if both the select board and the treasurer collector are endorsing the adoption of it MH and if we do it at a special meeting because then the bylaw calls for the election right or the appointment then we can do that at a regular meeting run that off in the next year all right I'll um maybe maybe I think I only sent that to you and Scott I'll send to the whole committee yeah okay why don't you do that yeah share that information with us okay all right good any other things that you'd like to share from the treasurer's point of view on this whole investment scenario are you generally comfortable and happy with the Investments as you're seeing them and your level of communication with Bartholomew or they with you and yeah I'm comfortable they come out um they do a semiannual review every year an annual review um they send the quarterly reports um I think that they pretty much covered everything MH in their presentation um but I'm happy with what they're you know how they've invested the money okay with the with the um trust funds in particular because again as I'm seeing those with concom and CPA and and Cemetery and all those folks you know all those boards and committees are always I mean from what I think I understand they can only spend the interest on those funds if I'm not mistaken they usually can't do anything more except dip into the interest on whatever's been earned it depends on the depends yeah most of them are only the interest yeah so it's depending on how that trust fund or whatever has been structured within that board or committee or okay that's why basically how the will is set up like how the whoever donated wanted it to be spent so I think it would be beneficial I mean I I would like you to put the the annual report up on on the treasurers page on the website but let's take whichever that page was on the the listing of all the the many the trust funds and just just copy out that page and send it to each of the Committees that are listed there so Cemetery concom alers whoever was listed there so they know what's happened for the year because I don't know that they have a clue I send it to all departments are they all on there Scott not Department no because these are committees they're they're not commission would would be I can just send it to the separate committees that's one I don't want to myself in a place where I'm defending an independently elected person but the data is there the the issue why the Committees can't see it is because we're not getting the turnovers and everything processed and posted in time to close the books and open up the books because once you do then the starting balance and ending balance hits there yeah and I you know I think the treasurer's office has a role to play and why that's not happening but that they're not the sole owner of the issues there but if we can figure out timely turnovers we have the ending balances and then it'll go to the committee through the reports versus having a supplemental if we could just get timely with our accounts yeah I guess I don't know how much okay the department heads whom ever see the the revenue and expense reports I don't know how much the various committees I mean it wouldn't hurt for them looks at those I have no idea would hurt for them to see the report so it's fine to they don't need 100 page report they need a couple pages that are relevant to main quarterly report one page just showing like what they have maybe interest interest is mostely the Expendable what's been earned i i as you know I've been involved with the alers for several years but I will find our accountant to be wonderful if I go in there and ask questions about what's been posted that I see as interest I'm now thinking that's interest from the Investments it's not the principal it's posted in a different account as interest and and an account that we can spend however what I don't understand Jen is given this large pot of of trust funds this report here how do you differentiate or determine whoa this little alers fund that's only you know got $117,000 in it and is earning interest how is is there some kind of mechanism to say you get you know 33% of the whole the whole lot and that is a mystery to me well barthol yes I like yes but and it's by the 8 and 1 half by 11 spreadsheet that as long you know I mean you're looking at these monstrous accounts I total you know Millions but very very simply oh good um you have you could have a hundred accounts you could have a million accounts okay for every one of them and they have a percentage of ownership of the whole so if you have a a $1,000 account and you have $10 you have you know 10% or whatever 1% of the the fund and then we reapportion on that accounting report that same percentage of gains losses okay realize gains income so that's how the accounting report is built based off of each fund's percentage of the bigger number that makes a whole lot of sense and so that's all sort of computed in some kind of big computer it's a big Excel spreadsheet yeah yeah that's that's all I we we'll just try to make the information more so that's the document I would share if you're going to share I would sh the 8 and 12 by 11 spreadsheet by fund not again at the committee level or the department level just that piece they could find their line item they could see their pce no exactly yeah they don't need the 100 page report they just need to understand yeah just that one page where they fit right okay and and let them know if this is the case that they can go to our accountant who's always willing to you know print out these things for me so that's the way right way to go that's you Bradley and you always do it very highly to me yeah but think how much better it would be when they're just timely right and they're in our monthly reports your responsibility to make sure they Tim I'm not the chair well we've got that already written down so we've had it we've had some meetings about that and that's uh getting closer and closer so yeah anything else on that no I'm off that okay anybody else all right so we will keep uh keep working we will figure out um how we have to look at whatever language we need to do to look at the uh prudent option and and whatever we need to do for bylaw also need to um pass the the mgl that would allow us to adopt um reopt mgl chapter 32 so so we can form the OPB declaratory trust okay we need to do that also at the next town meeting so and that's for the the audit are asking us to do that so that would be the third by law in which I they may have touched on it but they didn't go into any detail during this public hearing as to why we should or should not adopt it right well the Auditors have recommended that we do adopt it um do you have detail about why not that's another I guess real quick where are the pros or cons so you guys one of the first ones to adopt it years ago and in that language that you adopted it didn't have the real formal way trust is set up in the Commonwealth how they're spent who's the trustee who's the custodian so when you reopt you at some point in time you were going to have to do it so all the towns that went first are now having to go back in and reopt it just to get in the original Law it didn't tell you how to spend it read adopting the OPB trust correct that's all you're doing 32 B20 that's all you're doing just reopt it just you know when you look at our handout in the back you'll see what it once was I think maybe a couple of paragraphs now it's multiple pages okay so that's all you're doing you're just reopt creating a trust and then technically you have to have a declaration of a trust that has to be recorded with the um town clerk we can provide that um for you your town gets recorded and so on and so forth so it's cleaning up and making things all nice and clean and orderly okay okay look like we've got a few articles for a special town meeting coming up actually if I may through the chair uh we spoke to your town uh Treasurer last year about this time actually excuse me I have a little frog in my throat with the uh with the information for the reopt the Declaration uh excuse me adopting the 32 B20 we gave her sample language okay to do so and we wanted it to you know the Auditors and coincide with modernization Act of November 7th of 2016 really just cleaning it up and to coincide within the the modernization ACT change I know there was some uh change of town administrators and uh so it just hasn't been done yet it's just some housekeeping yeah okay that's good to know great and the original date was May 21st 2013 that you passed it for OPB may1st 13 yeah it was Article uh 24 all right okay thank you very much thank you have a good evening all righty okay thank you Jen unless you have anything else I'm good okay thanks very much for that all right uh we have our um public hearing at 7:30 so before that I'd like to jump ahead we have one other person who's here visiting um Bridget from krro here we have APR document to sign if you'd like to put that that's under the first item in new business I'd like to move that forward while you're here and then we'll slowly get back to our poll hearing so talk about this APR for the haml family to sign um yeah so the town should have received from the Massachusetts Department of agricultural resources the APR document for the uh haml land also known as Glendale Ridge Winery and this is for the east side of the property approximately 30 Acres that's being placed under the agricultural preservation restriction which means a restrictions being granted to ensure the land will use and perpetuity for agricultural purposes um this is majority funded through state and federal funds but a portion the local match as required by the APR program is coming from CP CPA funds 22,500 this is part of the big package that was voted in Under the Mountain Waters project at last town meeting December 5th 2023 okay um and so the town is being listed as a co-holder in the Restriction as part of providing that local match and um we're asking to have the select board signed the Restriction itself and then you've also received the invoice for that 5% local match okay and I'm looking at this so it looks like all of us need to sign not just one all of us need to sign on this okay um okay does anybody have any questions or discussion about this I think when I I'm sorry when I looked at this a little earli do you need Conservation Commission signatures as well no it's either or so okay before can do that okay so can I move oh you want Ste had question no I thought you no I wanted to make sure you saw Cindy yeah go ahead that's it I was going to make a motion that we I think you could do that sign that we the select board will um accept that uh and sign to uh implement the agricultural preservation rest restriction on the Lendale Ridge Vineyard um property that's part of the mountain Waters project does that sound right yep have second second by stepen any further discussion all right all those in favor I I I I all right John will return but anyway four four and one uh absent at the moment and do we have the final documents to sign or we do I didn't know whether uh the haml had to sign first or we did or whatever so just however yep okay so do you want to take it tonight is I think it'll be notorized andc so we all just need to sign it before we leave Lucy can notorized it after okay on camera okay very good um and just a point of clarification again this is for the east side of the property the west side of Glendale Ridge Winery is going to be placed under a traditional conservation restriction and that'll be coming in 2025 that'll be a separate thing right yes okay so this is only about the 30 Acres right now correct okay thank you there we go okay and then there'll be a couple of other things that are still part of that Mountain Waters thing that'll be coming up for us moving along yeah sounds good all right glad to see it moving you have complicated timelines and slow turnaround from many multiple critical Partners but more you can give us Advanced knowledge and our clerk to distribute the final documents that we're going to execute very much abely understood because a lot of those will probably have much more detail in terms of conservation restrictions lat out much more than this did in particular I think particularly where either we own the property or we receiving uh conservation restriction as a primary holder um we're a co-holder and we have little um exposure I would say y yes we're committing or we have committed the town funds and so we signed the document yep no that's good so John we took a vote on this while you're absent um I'm okay with it you're okay with it yes can we uh count you as a 5- vote or sure all right let's add John in as a as voting okay I assume the vote was to approve it it was there L there you go very good okay so we will do that thank you br all thank coming and sitting through all of our investment policy hope you learned something all right people let's see what else can we Pi up for quick business here I moved to accept the resignations of uh Mark manino Southampton public safety building committee effective November 13 2024 resignation of Cynthia McBane Council and aging board effective 116 2024 okay let's take the two resignations first we have a motion can we have a second second all right all those in favor I I I all right and then reappointments motion to move the reappointment of Robert zba zba zba C Council three-year term to expire 6:30 2027 and Dean Madson yeah I think it might be Deana mcfaden but fadson o Dean yeah coun uh cultural Council three-year term to expire 6:30 2027 okay I have a motion second by Cindy okay all those in favor I I all right very good all right uh Bradley you're probably going to be a little bit longer how about if I jump over to Scott with your report yep try to get a couple smaller things done here first not that they're small mean to say small they're very important uh some things are some things aren't um it's okay so I I was able to meet with uh dreamers cannabis so we were going to have a host agreement uh ready in probably a couple weeks and uh they're minable to coming in and and talking to the select board so we're going to try to schedule that um considering November is now almost over uh maybe early later December early January okay hopefully um the green energy Grant the lighting projects been completed although we did have one light out in COA today I got them come back and fix but uh so that's all done for the um the town hall library and police station and now we're just we have to finish up with the uh Norse controls so hopefully it's we're going to be doing that in a couple weeks over uh winter break um we have a new concrete pad big announcement yes yeah it's actually paver so looks really nice looks really nice all credit goes to Judy and Randall on that one have any any input on picking it out or anything like that so that looks good um we had our online budgeting uh all board meeting a couple weeks ago um Judy is slowly closing the budget deficit by selling off all the old excess equipment uh she's up to almost $10,000 wow so um not only are we getting rid of the old equipment but we're we're having plenty of space now so so I'm assuming that a lot of this is vehicle related more so than computer related yeah the trucks we got a few big big bids on yeah all the computer stuff like $25 stuff like that well that would be good so a question on that the uh the receipts coming in the 9,000 and change coming in uh how can how does that get utilized does it have to be closed out to the general fund certified free cash and appropriate next year or can we use it to pay the recycling fees of the 4500 computer monitors that are down the basement the first one but I I would like to get to the second one eventually all right yeah absolutely and I'd like to get a dumpster for Town Hall out of that money too so um uh we're going to be having the sewer feasibility study uh meeting with tyan Bond uh next week on December 5th uh I've included that in the package as well a lot of fun reading for Thanksgiving it's very good product thank you and uh we have a tenative agreement with uh between the town Local 98 that I'm hoping to um have a draft in for next meeting MH answer a question yeah go ahead so Scott you mentioned a dump for Town Hall I do know that the board of assessors especially not the board the uh the employees in the Assessors office have worked really hard to determine what could be you know possibly recycled so be sure and give us a good upfront timing on that cuz oh yeah it won't be till spring person that works really hard on that and we have we have stuff in the basement too that absolutely yeah no there's a lot of um spring is that what you're hopefully yeah I think I don't think we're going to be able to make it through the winter so we have a lot of old stuff that just kind of is hanging around true yes it' be cheaper to get a dumpster than to have Randall uh use his person hours to go back and forth so right good okay all right folks oh um reports can we can we act as if it's 7:30 and start the public hearing yeah I mean I'm thinking anybody else I was just about to say anybody else who was maybe going to come for this I can't imagine that they're going to come in at 7:29 so um let us go ahead and let us uh have a motion to open the public hear I move to reopen the public hearing of ever ever source and Verizon New England Incorporated poll hearing located at 33 manhill road for the purpos of the requested permission to erect a line of polls installed underground count woods and cables reason being that the new primary cable will be used to provide service to 33 manhand Road the current service to be the home is from the right of way and is currently an aerial trespass determination of the plan board as 116 2024 has been forwarded to the select Board second thank you thank you thank you all right okay so we have the uh have it open uh do we need to vote on that all those in favor I I all right we'll declare the hearing open at uh 7:26 um Jason you want to come back up for us thank you for waiting and all the residents from manhan Road area appreciate it so give us just a little update I guess you went to planning board in the meantime since we saw you correct okay want to give us the rundown there uh I believe they said that everything would be okay with them as long as we don't damage any walls or trees yep okay I'm on the planning board so just reiterating that and so just to reiterate so this is no longer installing a line of poles it's going to be just an underground conduit from one existing pole and you're putting in one new pole down at toward 33 manhand is that right we putting in a new poll at the beginning of the right of way we're removing a pole in front of 33 Manan and installing a pad Mount Transformer okay all right all right and we have a note here from Paul demon the chair of the planning board uh saying that they have looked at it through the scenic uh roads chapter and bylaw and every Source has certified that no trees or stone walls will be disturbed during the trenching uh and that planning board had no um no objection to it they didn't feel that they had total jurisdiction on it because it wasn't doing anything with that and we don't have a town bylaw yet but the town bylaw committee will be working on one for Scenic roads um so with that does anybody have any comments or questions anything yeah no I'm just is everybody in agreement that not every not here is everybody in agreement we can have a a moment of comment from uh residents are here somebody would like to speak for it and then somebody who would like to speak against it is the way we usually do it um Justin vet I live at 34 manhan Road um so I attended the the planning board meeting which as a resident is very disappointing as a taxpayer and a rate payer I witnessed a fight between two board members it was also brought to my attention that one of the board members that is in this room resigned that day as they stomped out and let's talk about the topic that so what that is though cuz that was the topic for the day okay and that board member has been one of the people in these meetings that has been directing and driving a lot of things going on so with that though I've been to a lot of these Town meetings being on the other side as I used to work for ever source as a manager of gas construction um not seeing the town really backing the residents there was other residents initially that were opposed to the polls being erected on the street until they later then saw what it looked like when you actually went up the road um and then with that how these Scenic roads are treated in town and by that I mean they're not they don't seem to equally be treated and even just upon manhand road so on manhand road ever Source went from having poles above ground to now they're going to trench our road I don't know if anybody's measured it I measured it today not very wide I'd really love to see the plan for getting us through through seem there's only one way in um there's a RightWay that still exists on two of those properties so if Southampton is so concerned about holding the value of a Scenic Road and especially manhan Road eversource needs to put those polls back where they belong according to those two Deeds cuz that is the part I'm having a very hard time to understand the town brings up these are a Scenic Road they pushed ever Source they had original plan then to go back to the drawing board that's the rate payer's money because it's a Scenic Road so I'll accept that those polls will be in my that yard and my yard the rest of my life and I I'm fine with that but it needs to be held equally this is one very short road if we're concerned about this being a Scenic Road and no trees being harmed and poles then those poles need to go back in that right of way the statute I believe in the mgl talks about roads and sorry trees and stone walls correct and that is what so they have to do excess tree trimming now because of where these poles are and they did this in the 9s this isn't super old work so if we are concerned with maintaining the beauty of this road we're more than half of the road has power lines on it then those poles also need to get put back where they belong if we're going to hold eversource and make them rerun all these plans it can't I don't understand how it's both ways that's kind of where I've started to not understand and then Russellville Road all this upgrade work was done and then up into Montgomery more Scenic roads where were all the meetings on this and where I don't know we we could only act on what we have before us we've had others come before us with Scenic roads and it's very clear we have an mgl chapter to follow there is no Scenic Road bylaw in town even though we have adopted Scenic roads at various Town meetings going back to the '70s okay so what I just said earlier is that the bylaw committee because of this coming forward as well as some recent activity on East Street where trees were cut down erroneously and without proper notification of anybody in town office there is more impetus Now to create a bylaw which will have some teeth to it to enforce what AIC road is about and what we do about them so yes there has not been much enforcement over the last 20 years I agree with you so it doesn't mean that we have to continue that way right and I'm fine with that it just has to be equal across town not because certain people might live on a road on manhand road um but with that looking at the permit so our road is 18t 6 in a couple spots the majority of it is 17' 6 and it's a cliff off one side it's an embankment on the other that's extremely tight how is eversource going to trench a road okay and get us up and down the road so how can we approve such a plan to move forward okay well I don't know what happened with the planning board but I assume you also come on up Jason you also had talked to I believe our Highway Superintendent at one point in time and showed him what you were planning on doing if I'm not mistaken that is correct so fill us in a little bit I know you're you're very frustrated with this I get it we are too let's get it done tonight I agree um I reached out to the Hadley office the Hadley overhead supervisor is working with the superintendent of Highways on the plan to to install the conduit okay um I was they already um submitted a permit I don't know if it's true or not I don't work in the had the office but that's what I was given so Chris can we break this down a little bit so at least I I didn't attend the planning board meeting but my understanding from what I read is the planning board ruled that it was outside their their jurisdiction because no trees being strictly based on those two issues no tree impact no stone wall said it's outside and they kicked it back to here the primary reason and anybody can speak to this but the the the the primary cause that that triggered this was the was I believe the the um acknowledgement that there was an aerial trespass happening and it's correct in in addition in addition to that because of that one or multiple land owners would also like a for that issue to be resolved but B and and this is where I haven't gone up and done a visual but I think the pole is running through what I'll call the backyards yes that they they feel that that's part phase two so if you're going to fix the overhang fix that as well right yes okay and then and then to your previous comments that you just made is if they're going to if they're going to fix that the overhang Let's Go the whole way and fix the back piece as well which I whether or not that can to be accomplished or not I don't know but if the solution was fix that whole thing money wasn't an object bury the whole thing and the road would support it would every be everyone be okay with that and then the the the so the other question that I don't know that maybe ever those lines running in the back are not um residential lines I'll call they're they're of more power for the they're primary is that even something that could be buried that that's a Delta line so no they couldn't bury Delta they'd have to convert it back to Y in order to put it in the ground um that's not the route they're trying to go right now right so leaving it as leaving it as a for the power source the only way to fix that would be move all those poles out SC Road correct and I was informed by our office our land use department they have no intention on relinquishing the right of way that they currently obtain so so so phase one eliminate the overhead the aerial overpass every I assuming everyone's okay with making that happen the question is can can the property owners leverage that to solve the second piece which is get rid of the backyard poles right which can't be whether it's possible or not that's the argument that's being it it can't be quid pro quo like that y they can't be done okay all right does anybody else from the audience have anything to say yeah yes I okay without belaboring this David Cory former Road um thank you cuz that clarified a bunch of things years ago the utility company ran through private property it was easier to do there was only probably one or two land owners my parents being one of them after the fact the utility company in several places in the town of Southampton has taken power lines from private property relinquished the easements I believe and moved them to the street they had the opportunity to do this in the '90s and some individuals I don't know who what did not want the power poles put in front of their houses they ran on private property the utility company did in fact move several of those Montgomery is a much more recent example the utility company seems to have a a a method of or a policy I should say of moving utilities from private property and easements which my grandfather granted years ago also to the street they did it on Montgomery Road I don't believe there was any pressure inflicted on them when they redid all the lines five six8 years ago I've lost track they took them from private property and moved them to the street there's an opportunity here now for the utility company for the town of Southampton and this was bypassed in the '90s they started that work on manhand road and several individuals stopped it they used the uh Scenic Road as an excuse I'll use the word to prevent them from cutting a couple of trees which they wound up doing anyway they took my parents owned I believe at the time owned the property Poss I lost track and they took it out that's what Justin was referring to um they have an opportunity now instead of spending a whole bunch of money I believe my personal opinion is there's some politics involved in this someone is preventing the you company from moving it several officials in the in the utility company that I spoke with personally said it was it should be done that this should be taken out of the backyard now that's not the responsibility of them now they're just trying to avoid the aerial Tres pass but there's going to be a bunch of work done 50% of the trees on that road are dead anyway the utility company would have to maintain the lines in the future which takes care of pruning and it would still have planning board oversight to take care of this they can't cut stuff without permission that's being set up for U policy now what by law however that's going to go there's an opportunity and you as the select board and also as the residents should be telling the or talking with the utility company to try to get them to move the lines to the street again this was started in the '90s and it was they did 50% of the road and that they were stopped the this would be a moot point none of this would exist so in any event there's a bunch of history with it and the utility company and whoever else is missing an opportunity here to rectify the whole situation okay well that may be part two can we get through part one tonight I hope so okay all right all right all right did we have a motion oh right Chris sorry one more person sorry my name's uh Jesse Turon 22 man Road and we the neighbors we all want the polls move to the street we all agree with it maybe the plan board if we all agree we wanted then maybe the planning board would agree with us to put push it on the road and to push them to put it on the road so everybody have power the next new homes that get to be built there new building Lots will have access to power we're still going to have the same issue of there's new homes going there that the polls going to be on private property and they still won't be able to build you know so maybe should Now's the Time we can't speak to them because they won't talk to us but you they'll speak it'll speak to you guys for sure so we need you guys to step up for us and do this for us and get it done for us we started this 30 years ago when I built the house there so we need you know to push it and get it done right for you know future neighbors that are going to move there you can't you know that's what I have to say anyways okay thank you thank you all right so we have a motion J oh yeah I was like to make a motion for ever to allow ever source to install the electrical conduit on manhand road uh for service of 33 manhand Road all right we have a second friendly Amendment okay uh in Reliance on the assertion by eversource that they would not um affect trees or stone walls right we yes we can reference they the so we talked this round and round yep okay and we never got more than the verbal I don't know who there are all kinds of issues floating around here beyond the one that we're dealing with tonight I'm not going to address that but the key thing about what we have to do tonight is in Reliance on an assertion by ever source that places them outside the jurisdiction right is that Assurance in written form or are we just going to accept the verbal testimony we have that in the letter from the planning board where they B their presentation at the planning board then the planning board chair has given us to us in writing and I think that's all we're going to get planning board chair in writing yes so there's nothing in writing from eversource we don't have anything from eversource the planning board the planning board I do not know we wrote it to we emailed the planning board saying we wouldn't damage any any damage or alter any trees or stone walls okay so let's say we have it in writing at the planning board so without Amendment we're looking we have a second I think Steven seconded oh I don't know who seconded it uh I'll second but I open for discussion after Okay question so somebody just said that 50% of the trees are dead and um maybe that's true and I also think that power lines don't do well when dead trees fall over the top of them um so consequently I hope that doesn't prevent this the statement that um River shorts came up with from removing dead trees or trees that are on I mean it's s of a given that they're going to take care of trees that might fall on the on the lines this is going under the ground under ground it's going underground Going Underground we so the dead trees are a totally separate issue all we're voting on is allowing them to do the trenching put the conduit in underground that's all we're voting on second it okay okay all right any further questions um I appreciate that we've got a full room here tonight for this hearing uh that was not the case for the planning board discussion and I'm quite you know as an elected representative I'm quite concerned that there's a diversity of goals that are being sought and we have only been presented with one thing on which we can act and and it's very frustrating that if you'll allow me the tail is waging the dog it's a very imperfect solution because each one of you would design something a little bit different I'm very sensitive to that and I fundamentally reject that there's anything personal about this I have the public interest in mind right I have the public interest in mind and I have no idea what the ideal solution would be there's a process that needs some more work it's outside of what our jurisdiction is okay well I would just before you call for the vote I would just say that um a a from my point of view a vote in favor of this is saying let's just resolve the aerial trespass and then let everything else go the way it is this is the last stop if we deny this request for lack of options then additional options have to come back to us and I sat here as a select board member 2 and a half years ago when the when the public re I forget his title but he's the public relations person for eversource came before us and we had a discussion about creating a bylaw that going forward all developments had to have underground wiring to ensure power connections and he sat right there or stood right there and said we will never support that and at the very next meeting we move forward with our own Municipal electric process now half the board was doing it under the disguise of fiber the other half was let's control our own destiny so if we support this which is great it eliminates the the overhang and the but then that stops all discussion and we won't have we we will not be permitted additional discussion about the phase two right this is the only tool in our arsal yeah this is the only the only we we can we can pass an order ordering Mike Kane to come before us as the public relations guy for in the former State Rep but you know it's just going to be public talk and and it's not it's not this Representatives issue because where's the supervisor where's the district manager you know he's in discussions with the superintendent she he or she has never been here so Jason the whole purpose of this petition is to relocate an aerial trespass there is no face to we eversource purchased rights to that land to use that land to put the poles there and carry wires it seems Maybe I'm Wrong it seems like people are trying to force the utility's hand to give up something they purchased to move the polls to the public way at the rate payers expense on a street where we'd have to take down a whole lot of trees a road that you guys are already saying is is a road that that's not what we're here to discuss we're not here to discuss moving the RightWay we are here to discuss if you're going to give us permission to alleviate the aerial trespass by installing two conduits one wire from point A to point B i' I agree with you but again as five people representing 6700 people and they're here I mean if it wasn't for this issue the last three meetings we wouldn't have had anybody present for our public sessions there is there a way to take action on what's before us tonight but then also try to request a meeting with whomever at the district level to come before us or have him a subcommittee meeting with the district level person one or two of us from select board and a couple of the residents that would like to and I guess that's what I'm saying Chris is if if this passes the motion that's on the floor right now if it passes as a select board that should not be the end of our story understand because clearly there's other issu there's other ISS issues that need to be addressed and and you know I see Ever Ever source's point of view I see the citizen point of view you know and we lucky five since sit here for three years at zero compensation are stuck in the middle MH yeah no it's true but I think that would be maybe a possibility but let's uh one more comment and then we're going to take a vote on this and then we may take another motion so John I appreciate and Stephen what you've both said tonight as being the resident that has the aerial trespass I have no issue with waiting I'm not going anywhere I have two young children that are here I plan on retiring in Southampton and being here the rest of my life my idea is though the money that's being spent by eversource which is all of our money as the rate payers to do a project that is like this tiny little Band-Aid when there's all this other work that needs to be done as I mentioned before the polls going forward from where they moved the power lines originally are from the 50s and they've both been heavily damaged by large pine trees falling on them snapped guy wires everything there's more pine trees that are going to come down on my property mhm that eversource is not cutting and I'm definitely not paying to cut them but they're outside of their 10t right of way the other thing with that right of way that they have because of how old this easement is they have no way to access it with a vehicle it abuts hoo's property and one end the road and there is a stone wall on the way on the other end and they are no longer welcome to come up my driveway to get to their power lines they're over 250 ft away from the road so you're not even reaching it with a bucket truck so from a safety standpoint because they destroyed my driveway they've destroyed my yard they've cut trees well outside of their tolerance Zone cuz it's only 10 ft mhm not 18 like their rules require so that is essentially where we're at and I do appreciate John and Stephen seeing that and if it means holding them up from moving this aerial trespass to get eversource to come here and show us a comparison of price of what it's going to cost to put this thing under the ground or move these poles the resident that that's at 33 they have 7 Acres we've all seen Southampton people are going to build houses that's 7 Acres southampton's going to lose tax dollars on in the future of somebody building a home because how are you going to get power to those when they're only going to run one line there's no other way to get there did this all not start because of an aerial trespass well I think there was a fire well so and it's been a long time coming so I've tried to get eversource to come out and so when the tree fell on the lines it took me now I worked at eversource at a time mind you it took me multiple phone calls and every time because the power was still on and then the person would tell me oh yeah no it's all set and I was like no it's not finally I went and got somebody after making some calls and they were like oh my goodness this is still here and it was almost it was almost 5 days that it sat there and again because you can't see it from the road every single person's like lights on lights on lights on away they go mhm because you can't see those power lines and it's right in front of my front door where I walk outside my kids walk outside mhm okay I have a question for the board before the vote please not a comment last comment not a comment question question I saw the permit that's issued by the town there's no time limits or anything else on this or access like just been said there's roads 17 18 ft wide there's nothing in there as uh how the road will be blocked or anything else or what work conditions so if the board issues this there's nothing on that permit says they can't block the roads so we can't get in and out of there for how long I don't know so just a thought and there was no nothing political about this board that I know of the comment was made for something from 30 years ago and continuing somewhere else thank you yeah John I just want to get something clear my head so the the the permit the permit to do this work which is on the table to be voted on right we have a motion in a second on the table right but with an amendment yeah as amended but concurrently whatever the title of the person at ever source is the director is currently working with our Highway superintendent to ensure that that the super our Highway superintendent ultimately endorses the road the plan which would then spell out in theory close your opening one lane that piece is ongoing at the moment right we don't have we don't have any information on that unless you do so I guess I I would the maker of the motion if potentially they would add a third paragraph that says this is um only approved upon the highway superintendent's signature but that's they can't trench a road without the highway superintendent sign they hav but you can be okay that per issue but there's no time constraints on it or conditions or the how going to actually be done or how long it's going to take that's fine I mean I'm I'm going to vote against it anyway so you can leave the motion the way it is I think that I wouldn't put actually I I would leave that up to the highway superintendent that's his his remit right determining what restrictions and safety concerns have to be put on that establish right and I and I would just say as an overwork department head they're going to take the least course of action if it's not written and directive by this board they're appointed Authority they're not going to take the extra steps exactly but so before we want to hear the motion read back very first part I I don't believe we're issuing any permit we are not no we are endorsing the finding of the planning board that we have no Authority Under the scenic road that is mgl right and then so that is based on the assertion of source that they would not do anything that the to St so the motion the motion is only to accept the planning board's findings period and then then there would have to be another motion afterwards right is that what you just said Stephen we are my my motion was to give ever Source the permission they've requested to install the Conduit on he's approving the whole plan because they had gone to planning board but we do but the motion is to approve the plan the plan to put the conduit down and put the wire to that pole toward 3334 manhan road we do not have details about the trenching the permit how long it will take access to the road responsibility to approve that in all cases ever sour doesn't really have to come and ask for our permission to do this they do this as part of I guess their policy to reach out to the to the towns that they interact with for these things so this isn't something that they necessarily had to get our permission to do right no and we understand that they're working with the highway superintendent the district person is working with it so that's that's one layer but then we had talked about other outstanding issues here yes that need to be address so I guess my question is the work the work cannot happen unless this motion passes we can't we I mean we could table it we could vote it down they can't do it eversource cannot move forward without an affirmative vote of the motion that's on the table right now that's correct yeah right okay and that that motion does not take into account some of the other residents concerns about dead trees moving poles all of those kinds of things and the use of taxpayer money to do this particular job right nor does it take into account any written assertation from the highway superintendent on his view on this it's only verbally been responded to us even though the highway super intendent is a direct report of this board yeah we do not have that I don't know if he's talked to you Scott about this at all yeah I've been I've been going back and forth Randall today so I think we just found out they were actually going to mole under the road I thought they were going to do cutting the pavement but Randall does have restrictions that he's going to be placing on that so okay so again I would say suggest that the the motion be amended to incorporate any restrictions or modifications that the highway superintendent deems appropriate okay so we have another I'm only suggesting I'm not making it as Amendment that's happening anyways that has but it's not it's not formally not unless we say yes unless we say it has to happen those incorporating that those words but that's subject to us saying yes yeah I'm asking right now so if we say if we say no or we don't take the vote it's a mute point yeah yeah no I think I think no we need to just decide here okay so what do we want do do we want to take the vote do we want to table it I'm hearing all sorts of things here I got to tell you I am confused I'm absolutely confused about how to be a good select board member and represent our community right now really very St I I I would say the direction needs to come from the maker of the motion okay let us let us take a vote unless the person who made the motion wants to change his motion assuming not let us take a vote we have a motion on the table and a second I would like to change my motion to all to add an amendment that we will require the the the wording um as suggested by John uh for the the highway superintendent incorporate the recommendations of the superintendent Highway superintendent y okay so we have that on the table now all right can we take a vote please all those in favor I Dan yes anybody else I know I seconded it but I don't all those opposed no I'm going to abstain abstain one Stephen I'm going to abstain I I think we're on a wrong course here and I just it's not clear how the select board has the authority to fix it I appreciate John's attempts it's so we we have a yes A no abstain obain my vote is a no so we have one yes two Nos and two extensions okay at this point in time so it it fails to to pass this fails right now but let us so can I ask take can I ask Plan B forward J Jason a question certainly who is the authority who who what is the name of the position or the person who could speak on behalf of ever source is it like a district for you're talking about a land rights person District who's district manager or who's I mean I know who the public relations officer is but I'll have them reach out to you like I don't want to waste anybody else's time I'll I'll have our people reach out to your people and we'll figure it out from there let's see if we can get a more holistic plan here okay I think we're generally looking somewhat favorably toward the conduit versus what you did but I think we've got many other concerns by the but how can you force the utility company to relinquish rights on I understand that but that's not what we were here to do we voted down the motion so that's the okay thank you so I think we would like to try to figure out a way to have some further discussion with residence with some members of Select board not the entire select board one or two people that would like to be involved in that and whoever is the appropriate person at the district level from ever source to talk about how can we solve the problem a little bito more broadly uh more holistically if you will to satisfy more than just one immediate need and I think we that t respectfully I think whoever the district manager of eversource is that we we should formally request in writing yeah um a a meeting with them in addition I agree I would like the highway superintendent and the tree Warden here for the meeting because other things that I'm hearing is that a majority of these Street and and honestly I'm going to have to take a ride up there this weekend that majority of these trees are are in ill- fated Health which is a reoccurring theme that we've heard and that's on us we don't need to we should not be relying on ever source to clean up our trees so if there's a separate if there's a separate appropriation or things need to be happened let's get all the facts and figures on the record develop a plan I I respect Jason's point of view that um from his his stance you know we can't force ever source to move it and he's probably right from a legal point but we can certainly force a public discussion on the record in writing that's all we're trying to do and and to to that extent I would suggest that we for um to avoid additional cost that we pick a date 60 days out and continue this hearing to avoid holiday and everything coming up I'm going to say sometime in January that we would take a look at one of our January meetings and and the meeting with the district person from ever source and all that doesn't need to be part of the official poll hearing so we don't have to hold the vote there but we can have a fact finding evidentiary based discussion to get to the root of this try to develop a a path and honestly part of this is going to be on the taxpayers in Southampton not necessarily eversource we're using this as the the the hammer to get them to the table but there's a I think there's a bigger conversation needs to happen Okay no that's fine all right so with that I think we need to actually formally close the public hearing please no last more one thing please are we done not really just one minute that's where the politics comes in we Ved Jason doesn't I I think we're done I think we're done okay I think we're done is there a time to to bring this up for the select boards take five minutes at the outside it doesn't have at a public at a uh public meeting of the select board public session when it's not on the agenda citizens speak you have time at the beginning of a meeting anytime yeah motion to motion to close adjourn journ whatever you don't want to close why want to keep it open to adjourn this portion of the poll hearing for future well we took a vote it didn't pass right so I say keep the public hearing open push it out 60 days in those 60 days let's have these meetings and potentially come up with a solution cuz otherwise you have to post in the paper and true okay that's a point valid okay uh we don't have a date for our January meeting however five meetings from tonight five meetings from whatever date that is that'll be January all right got that Scott all right so we have a motion on the floor second all right so the public hearing will be continued to five meetings from tonight and in the interim we will do our best to gather all the interested parties and have some discussion okay right but by written formal request yes yeah okay and we'll have the Town Administrator reach out and uh do a letter Source M okay uh with that all those in favor of that I okay any po no all right so that passes okay I think we're done guys thank you very much for your input appreciate it all right thank you all righty Bradley you sure you want to go next I don't know Bradley yeah why don't you come on up Bradley what else you got for us we let [Music] you Jesus hey something sounded like it was fairly yeah think whatever at the beginning and it got more complicated every meeting we talked to I think here but all right Bradley come on up town accountant go for it Bradley a town accountant this is my department update M uh so my current priorities are closing fiscal year 24 and the tax rate recap that I need to input data with the assessors Department and Town Clerk and some other departments help out to get our tax rate set by I forget what the deadline is but I know it's in December mhm so with the fiscal year 24 close how close are we to closing out what do we what do we need to do because you've got paperwork to file at state level right yes uh so we need to reconcile cash every month Jen and I Jen the treasurer were up through June we had two small I believe their voided checks something that weren't on my books but were on her cash activity so we need to reconcile those but pretty much done with cash receivables we didn't rece uh reconcile month by month we're reconciling each tax portion of Water Motor Vehicle personal property doing it all one year at a time so I did get new receivable uh reconciliation files from the treasures Department today that I need to look at and we're working our way through that I'm finding that I'm missing commitments I'm missing a batement uh reports from certain departments that I need to get before I can match the treasures numbers so after that I need to investigate deficits to make sure we're not having big deficits on our books and going to get a free cash number and then our free cash number is deducted for those deficits MH and well the last fiscal year I had issues with the school accounts so I need to reach out to the school and make sure that they're copacetic with our data if they match their books so I'm going to do that sooner than I did last time and I need to work with Scott on the indirect cost so we set an indirect cost for both our Enterprise funds water and transfer station we set a number and then there's this huge calcul once the year is over to make sure that indirect cost of all their benefits and other small little costs that come from the general fund they pay their portion but we need an accurate number which we haven't really done and that that indirect cost really covers what they sh yes we don't want to overcharge them or under charge them so I need help with that because it's always been way too complicated for me to understand it's this big file and it just seems too complicated for what we're doing so just Bradly on that point so as you work with Scott on this is the out is the goal to reduce to writing or something so somebody because I think you came into this with like here's a number no real explanation as to how we get there and that and you're working towards an outcome of let's let's explain this in PR in writing so the next person could just kind of walk through it is that the the goal okay to me it seemed like we were just going off of like last year's number every year we just said oh it's too hard to comp to get this number so let's just use last year's number building a procedure or workflow to just a procedure maybe a written Finance procedure which would probably help us too with the auditor I would imagine to have a few more things written down there there is a standard for um you know indirect cost to calculate I think that we haven't really updated it or looked at it for a while so that's one of the things that we started to do last budget cycle we just didn't have enough time um to actually do it so big one is obviously with water department yeah yeah okay good mhm so fiscal year 24 close and tax rate recap right now is my priority there's also maybe fiscal year 23 audit things still coming my way they haven't talked to me in a while but if they do come up I will address them okay uh going with fiscal year 25's budget my department we're doing just fine U My Town account in expenses has $1,072 available which is just fine I don't have big expenses other than a $300 expense in March to go to uh educational programs for the Massachusetts Municipal accounting Auditors and whatever there's a big big long acronym that I go courses every March at UMass to learn take a test and then really the only thing el else in my budget is the independent audit which is complicated that we don't have set and stone number number for the audit this past audit we're still getting invoices for so I had to dip into this current Year's independent audit line item which means that there's only 34,000 left over that we can encumber for the next audit which we need to keep in mind when we're budgeting for fisc 26 do do you know cuz if we if we sign a commitment letter it's x amount of money if if they're going above and beyond that there must be extraordinary circumstances or billing that's occurring do we know why is it is it outside of the U the the trigger for the federal audits yeah I believe those were things that they said they would reach out to us and say there's new requirements to tackle and they need to charge us more money because they're doing this now didn't we sign we signed the audit engagement letter for 25 with a price tag on it wasn't it 47,000 47,000 I believe it was 47 I thought it was higher 47 or 49 or something like we we budgeted for 47 but the engagement letter was higher I'm quite sure I don't recall exactly but so that's what you're saying is because when we budgeted for fiscal year 25 we didn't have a number for the audit so we just used the prior years 47 okay I got you oh I see okay yeah and I couldn't find a contract the threeyear that we talked about earlier I couldn't find that okay Personnel updates you may know that I've we've hired a assistant Town accountant Tom Kennedy he joined October 8th 2024 I've trained him on just about everything I do in case I'm incapacitated in some way uh he's or take a vacation or take a day off more likely I'll be [Laughter] incapacitated planning a good holiday everybody's laughing at okay uh yeah I trained him uh he's there he's ready to learn he's helpful uh the big thing I've got him to do is review revenues which is a big thing that I know everyone's eager to get up to date yes and I feel it was more on me to uh explain why it was behind it's really we have a new software it's just different than the last software and it took me a long time to figure out how to review the tax postings it's just automated system the money comes in we have to code it specifically so every time this type of U meter charge comes in it goes to this account Jen finds these postings makes a batch sends it to me and it's hard to review based on the documents I have compared to when we had the old software it was easy one: one now it's I'm going to wait till all the tax postings have been brought over from the treasurer and then then I can run a report for everything in that month and see all the batch numbers then I can get them so I figured that out with Jen's help so now we I know how to review everything I've taught my assistant how to do it I think we're on a good Pace now Jen has I think she has all of September ready for us and we've gone through all the easy packets and then it's just reviewing all the revenues so I think we we're well on our way to getting to date okay good great and I know we had seen a um a memo I think Scott you'd sent us around something that you and Scott and and jened sat down and agreed with revenues and when they were going to be caught up to and so forth so thank you for for that and I hope we can keep to that that schedule yeah okay good so yeah that's one thing that Tom has been very helpful with this I have three responsibilities to do sometimes I would let the revenues go until a Friday when I had nothing else to do right so now when he's sitting there doing nothing I can say review revenue for sure yeah if he's not doing anything I have stuff for him that's another does he need any any uh further training outside of you I mean you mentioned courses that you take at UMass but is there something that would be appropriate for him to attend or a DLS course or I mean I don't know I can talk to him about that if there's anything that is appropriate for him to to learn that could help out take the load off of you and just share the workload a little bit easier uh if it's there I think we would probably welcome that idea um if that's there but mhm CU I think what's going to be coming at you fairly soon if it hasn't done much already is going to be procurement stuff I mean we've got lots of lots of things coming down the pike I think with you know a variety of of contracts that we would like to get done and as our procurement officer I think that will be keeping you busy with uh scopes of work and rfps and so forth yep yeah so in the new year I think that's going to be a big chunk of what you'll see from this end of the table I think but yeah good anything else yeah just plans and events for the next 6 months closing fiscal year 24 um my education program in March y I still want to organize and remove documents from the accounting office there's a lot of do big packs of paper that are older than I am and are dusty and I sneeze in there my Shredder is broken so I can't shred them well we may have to have a shredder day here for Town papers in general that's something that's always on my mind is I I know the fire department has the valley shred people come up on a regular basis or Valley Green whomever they are I don't know why we couldn't extend that to a shred day for Town Hall once we determine planning one for December January to double check with determine what what is a what is possible to be shredded and disposed of yeah per per regulations but yeah yes I do have destruction uh like approvals for certain accounts payable invoices right so have that ready Scott mentioned that yes I could send my assistant to help other departments when he is just sitting there and we were up to date with revenues so that's possibility and the final thing is my three-year contract expired on September 27th yes so I we are getting closer and closer with the uh the compensation plan so that will be coming up very soon um to get that taken care of so that naturally leads into questioning three years in how you feeling well compared to my previous job I'm happier because I feel that I'm contributing to something and I'm seeing progress I'm seeing uh the police chief I'm seeing the fire chief I'm seeing them and talking to them it's more rewarding than i' any job I've ever had good GL he so if we're successful and giving you a good contract you're willing to stay on for another 3 years uh yes good answer very good and what is your I mean if you know off the top of your head when is your first uh deadline to file anything don't we have to file for um schedule a sometime probably November 30th November 30th and that's not going to happen unfortunately but we'll still beat last year's record yes can we be close to it yeah last year's record was hours before town meeting I know we can't we can't do that again please cannot that's why I'll be more proactive of getting the school on board and seeing how to fix any deficits right okay there anything you need from the assessors or the board to help with establishing you said the tax yeah I'm going to reach out on Monday to tell the assessor's office where I am and where I need help okay the board of assessors meeting on Tuesday just I'm not sure the board is as helpful as the principal assessor but let us know if we can right very good I do I do think though you know at least for my spot on the board you know Bradley who was involved with your hiring three years ago you know you've you've come over a big mountain there's more Mount bigger mountain to climb but uh you've got your staff on right and I I think at least all reports that I'm hearing by the board is the internal finance committee is working well together they're regularly meeting and talking and communicating and I'm from my point of view I'm seeing forward progress you know of course as the business guy I'd like it all to be resolved right away but you know we're making forward progress and it's getting better and we're beating we may not be meeting the deadlines of filing but we're beating last year's deadlines of filing so if we can just continue that process over time we're eventually going to write the ship and uh I for one am glad that you're willing to stick around for another three years yeah no absolutely yeah and I think too you know in in all fairness too we threw a a little bit of a monkey wrench in the works by putting in new Financial software right which has taken probably more time than we had even anticipated for people to learn and get really comfortable with that and yet the overall hope is that by doing that that is going to give us a much more efficient process on your end but it's also get going to give the select board a lot more information in real time so that we understand you know how we're making good decisions on how we spend the money in town so that is the long-term goal still uh and I'm hoping that we will you know sort of reap the benefits of that a few months from now uh as that becomes clear Dan Yeah question I know that the elementary school is the largest part of our budget and like the most complicated thing for you to have this input is there any conversations or guidance we could have with the school to somehow help them present the data to you in a way that would make your life easier or you mention your assistant may have some extra time I don't know if that would be overstepping his bounds to to volunteer him to help them and some way such that it makes your job easier to get the data ready for your input utilizing my assistant is definitely a possibility it's really they have a lot of turnover in the past few years and things like that but I remember we were way behind and last year in getting their reconciliation their accounts to our accounts and all I needed to do was send them the file I sent them last year of we had a file that had their numbers like their account numbers compared to our account numbers and it was simple this column this this row and I just sent that to them and then they said oh that makes everything so much easier so I think if we send something similar again and just show them here's our numbers for this account and this is how it compares to your number look at your number if does that match or does that not match and then show them all the data in that account and are you in regular conversations either through you or through Scott with Don the new business administrator or the assistant business which I think only just started but is there at least have you seen an an improvement in open Communications between the school department and town office versus a year and a half ago we did meet in person recently what was it last month and that was nice but I think we need to keep pushing the issue maybe I'm meeting a phone call every month just to probably not a bad idea I mean it's the largest town you know contributing to the school system I think we ought to 55 cents on the dollar yeah we ought to at least uh touch base you know maybe that could be a a regular kind of end of month you know where where are things and just get a sense of what what maybe they're having trouble with or what we're working on and that would be maybe some good information to share okay very good thanks rley not so fast as the as a duly conscripted warrant clerk I just want to add my thanks it's a pleasure working with you and I second what all of my colleagues have said and it spares me making a long speech very very good thank you Steve sorry I didn't mean to slide you there all right Scott say I do want to thank Bradley for his work on getting the budget early this year um and getting all that stuff done and changing the format um and if uh you want another nap after the turkey uh the library actually has their budget already in there so oh wow wow wow wow that's amazing good they so get they get the the award very goodd well yeah they need a a separate little prize there for being the first in but no I was about to add actually as we close out that I'm really looking forward to see see how this revised budget process and structure uh plays out this year because I know we were you know not not haven't been and I've been on the board five years now it's never been a great process and we we've we spent far too much time nickel and diming and trying to figure out where to where to you know borrow from Peter to pay Paul kind of thing on any account and so I think we uh hopefully we'll have a much better understanding and a better budget narrative to go with it which I think will be really really important so thanks for all your work on that the last budget cycle John saved us by showing that that doubled up the expense yep so if we keep that in mind I think it'll be can't I can't promise I can pull that out again at least I'm aware of that again so that part won't happen again yeah job that down yeah good thanks Bradley appreciate it all right thank you very good all right okay let's keep moving on uh anybody have something on select board reports any of your Committee just canum highlight information okay highlights um open space committee has uh I think I said this last time we've been approached by a couple of land owners in town that are um it's it's kind of followup to the work we've done over the last several years and um uh some interesting conversations have begun and some followup is required and um out of respect for their you know doing it in a confidential way until we have some public information I'm just going to tell you we're a busy committee um and the uh let's see that's all on that one Board of assessors um we have heard more than once I have been approached personally about whether or not we really understand everything related to the pilot project related to the hoyo Waterworks and bottom line are we collecting the right amount of taxes so uh we the board voted to um engage an expert a title examiner and that person is going to be supported by our administrative um assistant who's a paralal and you've heard me say that and is very organized to look through all documents and maybe even go to the registry of deeds and determine a bunch of things and come up with questions we still can't answer and so we are engaging somebody uh as on our contractor budget um uh and that's Barbara Webb she was on the board um she left because of um personal reasons but she still works in a in the title examiner um um world and has many years experience and is eager to help us and has given us a bit of a discount on her usual rate so um more to follow on that but I want people to know that we have not ignored the request to figure out whether we're doing the right thing with and what is she actually going to look at though right he's looking at a ream of documents and it might include Deeds it might include other titles when we're when was lan Acquired and then reading some of the uh agreements that we've enter to over the years um old research has been done but only partially done um we've heard this um uh I will say the uh Kathy mcgall and our Administrative Assistant discovered that there was a question about how did we ever acquire XYZ property and there was nothing in the regular file about that but then when somebody else came in who had property next to that property there it was right in there what the what the deed should have said or did say and things that just were not always uncovered it goes back to 1897 and there's a change in when you can tax for what property at what rate based on a law Steven tried to help a little bit when he was the um um select board um liaison um others have tried to help over the years I I'm really looking for a final definitive report is to the extent that we can possibly do it or what we don't know and what what else needs to be ask and I've let Scott know cuz I don't know if over time we'll need to get legal involvement to you know go back to Ho for some of this what is what is the um the belief right now of of the anticipated cost say this again what what what do you what does the board believe their initial aapocket cost to have this work done versus what they suspect they might be looking to capture I.E are you going to spend $10,000 to collect 500 no we're $40 an hour for about 20 to 40 hours we're not sure okay it's not 10,000 I just I was making up numbers there but I'm just where I was going with it yeah thanks we don't know what's going to we do know that there's this thing about stumpage fees we don't know that we've ever collect stumpage fees for the fact that yeah I know that the fact that um a lot of stumps up there today there's a lot of stumps and some of these stumps only became stumps in the last couple of years yeah and some of them were stumps a long long time ago and probably never get the money on them but um we've got correspondence that sort of doesn't have answers to it course no I'm I'm curious that you know when the outcome comes up and what it is I just I guess I was just more curious what the initial cost you mean would be to hire this yeah about $40 at 20 you know maybe 20 hours to start and then you reassess seems reasonable right on right now this is under the State own land line item is that right no a pilot with the oil gas and electric is spelled out separately and it had to be uh approved by the state legisl so it's part of Master General law somewhere along Lin G and electric ho water Rue ho Water Works yes I'm sorry right who by the way the uh the general manager lives right here in town I do and gee I hope he's listening because we're really trying to do the right thing you know yeah but in our in our revenue report is that not the state owned land two different things two different things no state state owned land is land in town that's actually owned by the Commonwealth Andor fish and wildlife or you know divisions of the Commonwealth not and where do we see it in our there's a there's a there's a separate pilot yeah where is it the revenue report it's in the revenue it's up on top and it's um there's two pieces one is the Hoy Waterworks and there's another a budding municipality that pays a small fee possibly Montgomery or honey or Westampton have to ask the treasurer well I anybody that wants to comment or ask questions or make sure we're following doing the right thing we're um yeah I'm not catching it right now but okay I I think you're doing the right thing having taken a look at it it is gasly complex and it does involve deed research I'm convinced because the schedule of when and how it was acquired affects what you can collect correct and it's really important to fairness across town that every land owner pay their Fair responsibility of the board of assessors to make sure taxing people fairly and taxing entities fairly so that's the quick report on that as we get more information I probably will ask for a time to present to the select board so that you understand what we discover if we can and we'll get questions from there payments in Lou of taxes yeah what pilot is yeah y Okay so just for revenue for last year is it around 50 Grand 70,500 yeah lot of ACD yeah part State cherry sheet or from hoio Waterworks no it's it's a bulk deposit and and the more I think about this I supect that hoil gas and electric does do something because they service the county road portion and the town they have poles and that and they have gas service there's a portion of our town that has oil gas and electric as their utility that I didn't even know so should that be looked at too John well I would just ask Jennifer or Bradley for the detail of what what are the three or four deposits that make up that account so that's o Gas and Electric okay okay very good and final is the uh Board of Health and there is nothing to report because they haven't met they will meet again in a week okay all right d m's easy just the technology committee is looking into a couple grants which they've talked over with Scott so um he's aware are those that are coming up all right technology grants okay Dan sorry Dan Stephen uh nothing new since we last met okay we get together frequently all right John uh local school committee had their had their meeting and um pretty much business as usual in the um the two big things is we are December 3rd will be the training session for the new improved uh security system enhan ments that were done at the school um that's all moving along rather well and then um continuing to work on the uh the safe roots to school project through the mass um uh I met with and PPP B met actually was very brief and I guess those items will come up at the next at our next select board meeting mhm okay very good that's it all right great and on my end uh just a bunch of meetings scheduled so bylaws will be meeting shortly master plan is going to have its quarterly meeting uh in early December as well um and we have not had a quorum lately for the last couple of cost efficiencies meetings so we're going to try to rectify that a little bit um but there's a subcommittee that is going to maybe work with Scott a little bit on the um the um hello at our Capital assets yeah Capital assets for um police and fire and water and Highway in particular um and I guess that's about it I'll get into the 250th huh public safety building committee uh public safety building committee met recently and right now we have our Architects taking a look at how to um reduce a little bit the footprint of what we had anticipated to be the well was the first design anyway of the public safety building uh they have or will be talking to both Chiefs uh to understand how they think that they can make a few um few cost-saving measures uh and they're going to take that as the lead and then be working on that over the next month six weeks thereabouts and get back to us on that um Senior Center building committee also has met and nothing new there they've been talking about how to go about uh looking for an OPM for example um and how to you know think about the kinds of information that we would need on that so thinking ahead a little bit on that but uh nothing nothing definitive on anything right now uh COA board will be meeting very soon I believe in the next week as well so lots of lots of meetings coming up that I seem to be involved in okay um moving on I guess I do have one um yes it was a little weird how this came about but the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission is uh one of my le is on responsibilities they sent me a notice about their executive committee meeting which really doesn't involve me but I did zoom in and it happened to be uh the night that they presented and approved the contract with Southampton for um the 117 125 College Highway so I guess with the executive committee approval we're ready to finalize that contract and see if we can um not only get off to a quick start but compress the time frame that they initially proposed U but otherwise I love good love that great all right good well that kind of leads us into new business so let me um kind of go down through the list here um we've done the haml APR uh arpa fund status um we do still have a couple of questions and I I need to do one more round probably with Jen and and Bradley on this but it looks like um we still have got at least 50,000 that I think will be out there to reprogram I don't personally think we're going to need all of that for um wage adjustment um we do have a couple of other things I think from Scott's point of view is are coming up if you want to mention those briefly or uh so one of them is instituting uh the new permitting software uh we got Cote in from um from point software um so there's a few things we have to work through and reach out to some of the different departments but it should be around $10 to $133,000 uh to implement that and what that'll do is um it'll have a completely online permitting system as well as approvals for the entire town so if there is a building permit or assessors or Health Department issuing a permit all the other committees and boards and departments would be aware of it and would have to sign off on it so circulates electronically yeah does that does that include the validation of no back taxes owed yes the treasur would be involved as well so it would involve licenses uh Treasures assessors Clerks Health historical planning zba building obviously lot uh Town Administrator and maybe historical but each one would have different levels of access so historical wouldn't get everything but they would get anything that would affect probably concom would have to waigh in if there was a wetland issue or once we have our Scenic roads bylaw Etc at least even though they may not initially be a issue that at least they would be aware that is issuing a building certificate and say you know and our concom agent is saying he wait hold we might have some Wetlands back there right that no one thought about yeah I think it it it sounds like it would increase just transparency and communication everybody being on the same page at the same time I think that's our part of our problem is we've had just delays and understanding something and you know an action has been taken and it's like well wait a minute nobody came and you know got you know at least had a discussion with another another department on that so hopefully that would be one thing so just just to say there's a couple things like that that are coming up um and uh as we approach the 250th anniversary um I might try to also indulge the board to see if they would be willing to entertain a small amount of money toward um putting that event together um so just to say that we do need to save some money aside I think for wages as we've done uh in the budget already but we had said that we wanted to um you know Reserve whatever we might have left over but I'm just conscious that we've only got two more meetings before this runs out and we need to have it program so um Chris I don't know I I would just throw in there based on Bradley's feedback if there is an existing shortfall right now on the audits yeah that I don't want to I would prefer not to wait for free cash to get certified to move money to allow the audit to continue right so I I would rank that in probably one of the top five or 10 projects just to square that away yeah yeah I I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that um so there may be a couple things like that and I think we we should still have I I did send a note out to um to Randall and and Dan Holmes from TY Bond just to see if they think that they will get through that last portion of the Culvert study in time because we have about another $25,000 that has to be requested as a reimbursement for that Grant uh from the state and so that turnaround again is very very timely to be done and Scott's going to be checking in terms of what it means I think from the state's perspective because they keep changing some of their process on this but when they say they want all the arpa money obligated what does that mean is it's more than just our decision obviously we vote on it I read it on my little tracking chart but that didn't hold it so it's got to be some level of a procurement something um so we need to just be very clear on that so that we get all that done in spite of all these crazy holidays that are coming up so Stephen thank you for circulating the tracking spreadsheet um there was a calculation that was not um identified in the right hand margin and it calls for a set of over under you know excess funds that might be reallocated plus it calls another random cell that's empty G36 do un Bradley's report maybe or who whoever it's a funds yes it's a it's a park line okay and um it was a formula created by the author I don't know why they included G36 but it's an anomaly compared to all the other items what maybe yeah I'll get with you just to be sure I understand which page that is because I'm I'm probably part of the problem on that as I'm trying to figure out how much money is left over because we know certain things that have finished and we know what some of money of is that we have but um sure to be the spread we will get back to that so just to say that I think Scott if if there are some things like the permitting software whatever let us try to put forth something on our December 10th meeting so that we at least talk about it whether we approve it or not it's another story okay all right before you move on I need to add something to my report that I forgot to and it's important there was a chapter 61 um application um that came before our last planning board meeting I mean board meeting regarding pomoy Meadow Road and uh it was signed off by Conservation Commission was signed off by planning board and I said the board of assessors were not ready to sign off because I needed to do more research and we discovered because the landowner came directly to me and said that was never meant to be in chapter 61 um and we got the attorney that she hired to write a letter to correct they there was a mistake on the part of her realtor and the attorney that they thought it was in chapter 6 look through all the paperwork nonetheless it's been corrected so that was never in chapter what's the address on I was trying to find it I'm sorry it didn't formally get to select board yet we heard it was oh yeah right we didn't the S didn't vote on it right because the others had not right um it's the upper end of P sorry yeah it's the upper end almost in um in eastampton okay so it's a mood issue then what it's a mood issue yes is it currently class ified in the assessor's office is 61a no okay it isn't no so it was a mistake on their realtor part okay so I just wanted to clarify you will not see any more on that it's resolved because it was never in 61 partially en all right okay uh close out of 24 I think we heard from Bradley I don't know if we have any other questions on close out of fiscal 24 or the audit of 23 we just have to double check in terms of that costing on that um audit for for let make sure that's not a rolling forward budget problem yeah yeah and just be sure what we have written down there yeah okay um the railroad sewer study Scott I know you've included it for us here but it's not for discussion here is it or you're going to have a separate meeting with the sewer study committee is that right yes yeah so that's going to be on the 5th and I also reached out to um December 5th uh December 5th KD KP log just to get some updated language for the um changing the rail banking agreement so I'm just waiting for that okay all right and that'll be an iners meeting or Zoom or okay in person so that'll be a meeting that will be advertised if others are interested in hearing about it so just 50,000 ft somebody who has not had the time to read through that report since Judy sent it uh is it still looking favorable that we may be able to accomplish what we're looking at from an engineering standpoint yes okay what do you mean from a cost point of well that's that's separate argument but I'm just engineering wise it looks It's Not Dead on Arrival 40% of what I thought it was going to be so it's it's a big number but it's not sounds like we've got another donor coming for right yeah yeah I think from the engineering just looking at it very I just skim through it looked you know engineering wise it looked kind of interesting but I I sort of had a pause when I got to the the price tag number yeah but well I you know all what we've been talking about tonight is how do you get a prudent return on your investment yeah and is this a prudent way to invest in Economic Development yeah over the next 50 years and it it's not only to serve this new newly acquired property although that could be a big economic engine in itself it really is to benefit 250 Property Owners uh in an area of town it's densely developed ACA for protection and um subject to I mean it's it's long developed so old septic systems are not what you want to have to protect your water supply M yep I'm sure we'll hear in Greater detail when we have the meeting on the 5th so that's that's good I'm glad that's scheduled at least uh land use planning update so stepen alluded to it a little bit do we have a contract in so we do get I got the contract from Ken um Thursday or Friday last last week so I just had to take a quick look through it it's a pretty standard contract and uh I'll send it to you uh to be signed okay perfect all right very good okay next and schedule kick off date yes yeah right yep good all right next thing up is uh holiday leave so this came up um it's basically holiday leave is not quite the right terminology here in a way it is but it's holiday Office closing was the title of a draft select board policy that um it just been a a draft for our consideration as we talked about we had had our Zoom meeting and approved U uh employees that we had um identified that um could be taking the half day off on a day before Thanksgiving Christmas and New Year's um and uh so this was trying to not have to do that vote every year and do it at the last minute but to try to put something in in writing so we do have a draft policy before you if anybody has any comments and thoughts so I did I did read it um and I I come from the uh if I print my HR hat on if it's not written then it's open to interpretation right I I would suggest that we add language uh Thanksgiving Eve is a fixed date so that's not a problem but the way I read it it calls into question the what if is Christmas falls on a Monday Christmas Eve is on a s Sunday therefore do we get the half day on Friday is it the business day before I it doesn't it doesn't clarify so I'm thinking when when Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve falls on a business day then it should be but for example when the holiday Christmas Day falls on a Sunday or even a Sunday M Christmas you're not getting the closest work day half it's it's it's meant to be if it's actually Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve we close early on those days of their business day okay what it say at least that's my take I'm not saying you have to whenever Christmas and New Year fall on a weekday yep eligible employees may leave work at 12:00 p.m. noon the day prior to that without taking personal time off for vacation so with that and when Christmas falls on a Monday the prior day for that for Town Hall if you're not in the special group that gets a half day on Friday could be interpreted to mean that Thursday which is now 3 days before the Christmas Eve yeah but okay so what you would like to suggest is that if if it falls if those two holidays fall on a weekend day Tuesday Wednesday or Thursday well or just if the eaves if Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve falls on a normal business day that day shall be a half day so if Christmas Eve falls on a Saturday you don't get the 22nd off as a as the half day with the long weekend follow me second so when Christmas and New Year's Eve fall on a business day Scott is pondering this you get the half day this I mean just with juneth the last couple years has always been like how we phrase things um but juneth see what you're saying yeah that's a moving holiday as well so yeah should the eve fall on a normal business day it shall be a half day right but if it falls on a weekend or if it falls on Friday for example town hall is closed on Friday with exception of three employees mhm so therefore if Christmas Eve falls on a Friday you know yes the three employees that come in that day it should only be a half day but their salary they wouldn't be here anyways I'm just saying I want to be clear that it's not at least my intention is not to back it up to the 23rd 22nd 21st right to create that half day okay Scott and I'll take a look at it does that make sense yeah so yes I think so yeah so yeah if if it if it falls on a Sunday does it mean that you get the half day on Monday well Monday would be the holiday cuz it's the eve you're talking about Eve right Monday's the holiday anyway right yep correct it does go back till Friday or Thursday okay I think we can tweak that a little bit SC you and I can work on that real quick other than that I thought it was well written short three paragraphs yeah no typos so we'll we'll we'll do that and then as usual these select board policies um they can posted on the bullet board for 10 days so we'll work on it and see if we can get it tweaked out and I guess we'll probably have to bring it back to the meeting on the 10th on that um 250th anniversary Scott I don't know if you can show this up perfect thank you very much so folks um those who maybe are still with us tonight the 250th anniversary committee Loose as it is I'm not uh please please give me a few more minutes um uh has been trying to meet we've had three meetings so far we have another meeting on December 4th at 600 p.m. upstairs on the second floor um we've had about 8 to 10 people come each meeting has been a different group a couple different people each time but we've uh had various um people from uh boards and committees uh that have shown interest come and present lots of ideas so we've got ideas we've got a priority list of what we want to do what we might do and what we probably can't do and then we've been trying to plug it onto a calendar to see what we can do to start off the year in January um so with that um we also talked about the idea of having some separate subcommittee that is really devoted to merchandising and both for fundraising so this is a potential logo uh that has been volunteered to the committee uh produced by Becky nimons who's uh part of the Southampton Historical Society um she is a graphic designer person uh works in that field and took it upon herself to spend some time and just sketch out something that might be um usable uh in talking to her this as obviously in black and white tonight but uh the way she's done it it is able to be as big or as little as we want it so it could be something that could be a logo not only on Publications for example but uh or on our website but also like on a smaller bit on a mug or on a t-shirt or she's made it so that it can be usable uh without much further do uh it is also possible to do uh in color if we decide what our town color is colors are I don't know uh and then just a note that she has the church in here and the uh Sheldon's uh ice cream The Old Mill Area uh she had obtained permission from both entities to use that on the on the front of this uh and in between you can see are some apples and pumpkins and whatever just to sort of signify the AG cultural part of town so this is something that Becky has offered uh free of charge she's willing to continue working on this but uh not unless the select board would approve it uh in other words if if we don't approve it she's fine but if we do approve it she would be willing to continue uh tweaking this a little bit if we wanted to or to help us um take it to the next step uh that said there have been a couple of other uh designs that had been brought to my attention that are more sketches than anything else um and honestly at this point in time I think it would take us a lot to probably go out and search for a real another graphic designer it wouldn't be Becky I'm sure um to search for a graphic designer and have the funds to pay for that somebody to do that and I think that is perhaps not the wisest way to go so we did not um open this out to anybody this was totally volunteered um so I wanted to run it by select board tonight just to get your reaction and see what you think about it um and whether this is something we want to pursue in terms of having a logo for the 250th anniversary so any comment or question ideas thoughts anybody yes yes ma'am um first of all Becky did a beautiful job it's catchy it's big I love the 250 in the size and um I think it's great I I have a little concern about two things um neither of those structures are municipal buildings and I just think that maybe we should have Municipal a municipal building there little concerned about even though it's historic the church CU that may not appeal to everyone in town it's one of the most historical buildings in town is it is so I'm just throwing that out I'm not saying no I'm just pointing that out and the second thing is there's a lot of Southampton in our country and in the world and I just wonder if we could put an MA somehow or would it really ruin it those are the two thoughts I had right away okay we could maybe throw in an MA in there somewhere mhm good point yep okay okay anybody else so I I go along with Cindy with with with the Massachusetts whether it's ma or however it might be on the back scroll because for comparison sitting right here there's the town seal right right which which the church is on and I don't I don't know the build the house next to it but I'm assuming it'sa Academy yeah um you know I somebody on their own accord who's a resident came forward and put you know I think maybe a little feedback because again when if you're not from here and you hear Southampton and you're in the region you think of New York Southampton New York so exactly yeah but other than that I mean I'm hey I I applaud her for the creativity and me too you know design it I'm more of a color person but that's just me yeah well and and and this can definitely be oh absolutely you know put into full color as she called or full color so I guess the question is do we have something that we consider our town colors I know many towns do it's it's the web page huh the web page that maroon and is that kind of rusty color that is in the town seal up there that that building at the bottom that kind of rust color is what we were trying to match when we did the web page so that is one color but um I don't know what else kind of goes with uh if there were a two-color scenario but um I would I would suggest that um that maybe Becky look to see about a color that compliments or would would naturally flow with the existing web page mhm right because there's the color palette and ultimately that's where we would post it right so we don't want some neon yellow yeah there mhm MH yeah and then once it's approved I think we should find money and order patches and I think all the for one year all the police department uniforms Highway Department uniforms and fire department should have the patch on there we go you know let's embrace it yeah okay well here good all right okay any other comments or thoughts all right good well thank you I withdraw the comment about the church it's everywhere andwhere and that's fine okay good all right well thank you for the feedback I will take that back to Becky and I should we um shall we take a formal vote on this just to say that we like this with maybe a couple modifications here and there so that she knows that we are fully serious I moved the select board support the design thank Becky second all right all those in favor I I all right there we I will let her know that thank you very much all right uh we need to take a uh quick look at our calendar for our next meetings before we go into these things because uh before we get a warrant real quick because our meeting is on the 10th and I believe on the 24th yeah and I I was just going to say you know um that's not happening a as a Catholic I don't know about Christmas Eve but b as someone married to a first generation polish family that only celebrates Christmas Eve I will not be here on the 24th me either cuz it's my birthday so there you go so I definitely won't be here you know question you want to get a lot of stuff passed go for it that night yeah really um do we want to try for the 17th have it you know yes uh oh I no I can't do that shoot I'm not here oh dear I can't do that we need to have two meetings there well in in um December cuz I'm well I say that I don't those generally aren't heavy on the budget no they wouldn't be although we need to probably we need to Chomp down on a couple of these yeah we might need one for the salary yeah salary Compensation Plan um and any arpa stuff too um could well instead of 24 I mean is there any desire to to back up one night to the 23rd a Monday night would work for me more than any I mean rather than the week before um with the intent of trying to keep it light yeah no it would be just to do it whatever necessary stuff we have don't look at me what's anybody feel about Monday the 23rd does that work for people's schedules or not it's okay with me yep oh no I'm sorry my daughter's here I will do it I will get here if I can but bring her with you sit in the audience I don't think that'll if we keep it we we'll try to make a very light meeting we'll have you know whatever we need I'll do my best I'll do my best to get here otherwise we could back it up to the 19th or something but I you know I don't know that we'd be are you zoom on the 23rd well um I was hoping to be do a zoom maybe on the 23rd yeah and and it's just going to be absolute just pick the essential stuff that and I'm just thinking you know of course my head's around arpa but that's not the only essential thing so let's let's aim for a zoom on the 23rd okay let's do that all right very good thank you on that all right uh if there's no other business that can't wait Stephen would you like to pick up our famous warrant read here oh I I would just double check that first dollar amount yeah so um I'm going to Omit reading the first line and let you in on all the rest I don't know how to reconcile the decimal place in that number and therefore I suspect it yeah um an error and I don't want to perpetuate the error so no further ad do this the reading for today is p 25-6 16 the amount is $345,500 next one is PD 25-16 the amount $ 56,86282 PD 25-16 a in the amount of $244,600 56 W 25-17 the amount is $475,000 $475,500 p 25-18 the amount is $344,999 4.35 PD 25-18 57,124 24 W 25-19 the amount is 1 milli 783 8668 pd20 PD 25-20 353,000 58,4 5413 very good and I do have the um cover sheet for the warrant that you omitted there temporarily so w 25-1 a in the amount is 36 so $3,692 2016 yeah I wouldn't have got have got that one all right very good all right we have failed two sets of minutes to approve I'd like to just take them separately because I know there's there's a little error on one of them so motion to approve October 29th 2024 minutes second all right right there this is the one that has a little issue and that's on the purpose for the public hearing as we talked about tonight cuz it says requesting permission to erect a line of polls which is not correct and in parenthesis it had install underground conduit and cables so um way the damn printed material read straight from urce yeah so anyway but it should just be install underground conduit and cable I believe who should so that should be just one correction that's the only thing I saw there so with that correction um if nobody El saw anything else uh we'll take a vote all those in favor I I all right I wasn't present okay motion to approve the minutes of November 12th November 12th anybody see anything there second if not Dan second yep okay all those in favor I I all right both both minutes are approved one with a small change on October 29th um old business looking at anything there Scott anything that coming up May The manhand Bridge update or no um nothing else in there you've talked about Surplus Disposal Green asset planning you know we're just trying to do the audit I think that's one thing that we're going to try to do right regie emailed earlier today about willingness to do it all right great so I think we've done through most of these things is there anybody that has toj second you guys are quick all right um I think uh we have a motion and a second reasons to be part three all right we are adjourned at 9:01 and happy turkey day every Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving hope everybody still has it yes hope everybody has a nice holiday with their family and friends e