Uh, noting the time and the presence of a quorum, I now call the finance committee to order as we eat pizza. Noting the time and the presence of quorum, I'd like to call the uh select board meeting to order.
Ready, John? Hey. Well, um, thank you all for being here. I know it's early and maybe you just ran home from work, so thanks for thanks for being here to be part of our budget workshops. Uh this is an annual
event where uh you hear a lot from me throughout the year, but this is a night that you get to hear from all the unbelievable department heads that we have that are running all the services that are provided to this community. So, it's a fun night. Uh you're going to learn a lot. You're going to get to meet some new faces. We have a lot of new people uh working here that maybe
weren't here last year. So, I'm excited for you to meet them all. Uh I just wanted to go over a few logistics before we get started. Uh we will be going through several departments in the budget book. Hopefully you have it on your computer
or in front of you because we'll be referring to it throughout the night. Generally the presentations will follow the order of the budget book with a few um changes. I think the fire department is going tomorrow night instead of tonight. Everything else should be in in the
order as you see it. Um, as I mentioned at the budget presentation a few weeks ago, there's a lot of data and details in the budget book in the first 33 pages. Uh, there is one page that we've revised because we
got our free cash certification over the weekend. Uh, that has been handed out to you. Um, so you can just slide it into your book where it goes or keep it however you want to handle that. Um, if you have questions about that, Ellie can address
those afterwards. Just to introduce the team that's up here now. I'm John Manerati. I'm the town manager. Tom Bean is our deputy town manager. Ellie Anderson's a budget director. And we are going to get started with department presentations. They will present sitting here and then if there's a group of
them, they'll all go and then as a department or as a group, they'll we'll take questions at that time and we'll take as long as you want for questions. Um, and if there's a question that we can't answer, we'll we'll write it down and get back to you. But we're going to do our best to answer everything we can. And if you have any comments or
questions, this is a great time to to hear from you all. So, uh, Tom, why don't you take us where we're going and, uh, we'll get started. Thank you, Johnny. Good evening, everybody. Um, so starting us off tonight will be the administration and finance team. Uh,
everybody could come on up here. As they're coming up, I'm happy to introduce everybody part of the finance and administration team. To my left is Ellie Anderson, who you just heard is a budget director. Up at the table here with us is Kristen Callowette, the town accountant, CJ Carroll, the principal
assessor, and in the second row of the team is Mary Beth Zbeck, who is the human resources director, and Patrick McIntyre, who is the treasure collector. Uh we'll go right through the budget book as it lies. So, the first person who will be be presenting for the uh
administration finance team will be Ellie, who's presenting the finance director's budget. So, I'll pass it over to Ellie for now. >> Yeah. Sorry to touch your things. Okay. Good evening. As John said, my name is Ellie Anderson. I am the budget
director and I have been with the town for three and a half years now and I will be presenting the finance director's budget on behalf of the entire finance division. The finance division has experienced some transition in the past year as you all know. Joanne Norton, former town
accountant, retired at the end of 2024 and Maryanne Fleckner retired in August of 2025. Theresa, former treasure collector, left the town in spring of 2025. And as a result of these changes, Kristen Cowet was promoted to town accountant and
Patrick McIntyre was appointed as treasure collector. Over the past fiscal year, the finance division has continued its practice of sound financial management and financial reporting. We have received the award for outstanding achievement for the
FY2024 popular annual financial report, also known as the paffer, as well as the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting for the FY2024 annual comprehensive financial report,
also known as the ACER, which is a more in-depth version of the annual audit. Both of these awards were from the government financial government finance officers association. This is the fourth year that the town has received the PAFER award and the 11th year that the
town has received the ACER award. The town also reaffirmed its AAA bond rating from S&P Global in spring of 2025. The finance director's budget, which starts on page 39, carries the costs for other
post-employment benefits or OPED, the Middle Sex County retirement assessment, all general fund health insurance, workers compensation and property liability insuranceances, general fund debt service, and most of the town hall's postage costs. In FY2027,
there have been significant changes in the health insurance budgets to better align how we budget with where our actual costs are. As shown on page 41, costs have been shifted between the various health insurance lines and funding has been eliminated in some
lines altogether. This transition will both improve spending and budget clarity. The health insurance budgets shown are based on an on an analysis of actual FY2026 health health insurance enrollment and a projected 15% premium
increase from MAYA. The town's workers compensation and property liability insuranceances are offered through are offered through MAYA who is projecting an FY2027 cost of $417,000 between both of those types of
insurance. This combined cost has been split between the two budget lines according to each line's proportionate cost in FY2025. The Middle Sex County retirement line reflects a 7% increase over FY2026 and includes the discount that the town
receives for paying this assessment in full on July 1st of every year. The town's annual general fund contribution to the OPED Trust has been adjusted to $100,000 in alignment with the recently approved OPED funding policy presented by the town manager
last month. The town's general fund debt service budget has increased and is consistent with the town's debt schedules. The increase in FY2027 is related to the introduction of annual debt service for the DPW fuel depot project, the complete
streets and storm water projects. All of which were approved by voters at the 2024 annual town meeting and were borrowed for in May of 2025. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Ellie. Uh just a quick housekeeping note. Um we're going to go through all the department
presentations and then at the end we'll be ready to take any questions. Uh, and next up for the finance and administration team is town accountant Kristen Kowette. >> Hi, good evening. I'm Kristen Kowette. I'm the town accountant and I've been with the town for 19 years. My
accounting team consists of Jen Archinbolt, Kathy Wyn, and Brandy Rando. The accounting division maintains a comprehensive and detailed general ledger for all town financial activities. We prepare and submit all required
reports to the department of revenue such as the schedule A and the balance sheet in preparation for free cash certification. In addition, we reconcile cash accounts receivables to the books of the treasur collector process a bi-weekly warrant
that consists of payroll and payments for all town invoices. We also provide continuous training and support for all employees on payroll, accounts payables, and general financial reporting. The accounting division recently went
through a significant transition period. And with the addition of Brandy Rando, who transferred from Treasury is now and who is now a staff senior staff accountant, we've been able to improve our day-to-day operations. Additionally, the accounting division is
working with the human's resource department to streamline how we process new hires and payroll. We continue to work on introducing and implementing time entry to all town departments to reduce the amount of manual staff hours
the accounting department dedicates to payroll process. The accounting department budget begins on page 43. accounting. We transferred our clerical salaries to professional salaries line due to the promotions of Kathy Wyn and
Brandy Rando both becoming senior staff accountants. In addition, we have asked for an increase in travel to cover the cost of our annual accounting school which is held out in UMA uh UMass Amherst in March.
Thank you. >> Thank you very much Kristen. Uh the next up um as part of the team is the principal assessor CJ Carol to present the assessor's office budget. >> Thanks Tom. Hi everyone. Good to see you all again. My name is CJ Carroll. I'm
the principal assessor here in Actton. I've been here for about two and a half years now. With me in the assessing department is Marty Abbott and new addition Chase Murphy. Uh the board of assessors consists of our chair Carol
Leiper Lightner Shrebnik um Leo Fchman and our newest addition as of this month Craig Depalo. The goal of the assessor's office is to assess all real and personal property at full and fair cash value resulting in fair and equitable taxation. This includes maintaining a
database of all parcels in town, reporting to the Department of Revenue, and following their guidelines and requirements, analyzing and inspecting all sales in town, and using this information to inform values, processing abatements and exemptions of all types, and assisting residents and taxpayers.
It is important that the most vulnerable members of the community are given opportunities for tax relief. We hold multiple presentations at the COA each year. And because of this, Actton provides some of the most tax relief in the state, about $670,000 in 2025,
utilizing programs for the elderly, disabled veterans, and individuals in extreme financial or medical hardship circumstances. This year, we saw the hiring of our new assistant assessor, Chase, who's been an amazing addition to the team and has helped in getting our inspection process to run as smoothly as
it ever has. Additionally, Marty was awarded the Lai Merit Award for municipal employee of the year for her outstanding work in the acting community. We also had a successful fiscal 2026 revaluation, which is an audit of our assessing database that the do conducts every 5 years. On page 45,
you can find the assessor department budget. The expenses outside of personnel are databases for real and personal property. Those being vision and RC as well as other tools like near mapap and MLS for sales and property imagery data. Also amounts for
contracted help interim and certification year value adjustments and checking on personal property accounts on an ongoing basis as required by the state. Starting last year, there was an increase in the professional services line, if you remember, uh $16,000 of
which uh is data collection. This replaces a large capital request for data collection projects every 10 years to satisfy the state requirements. Um that's the summary of the assessor's office and thank you and I look forward to any questions you have.
>> Thank you very much, CJ. Uh for the treasure collector's office, uh Patrick McIntyre will be here to present. Good evening. My name is Patrick McIntyre and I have been your treasurer collector since July of 2025. I'm supported in the office by my new assistant treasurer collector, Naomi Kwanza, who joined the
town in October of 2025, Emma Biza, who just celebrated her one-year anniversary earlier this month, and the part-time clerk, Anne Miles, who's been with us since 2024. Our office collects over 75,000 real estate, personal property, motor vehicle excise, and sewer bills
each year. You can see in the performance metrics is that the town has maintained a 99% or higher collection which is quite impressive. We also collect and process over uh other town receipts such as building permits, recreation fees, and other general receipts. We also respond to requests
for tax balances owed, paid tax statements, and other general customer requests. As your treasurer, I'm responsible for all monies of the town in this general fund, but also in funds such as stabilization and the trust funds. We invest the town's funds at the highest possible rates, taking into
account safety, liquidity, and yield. Recent accomplishments for the treasurer's department include moving the town's trust funds from the legalist to the prudent investor as was accepted at town meeting. We also worked with our financial adviserss to implement base fund, an online tracking, excuse me,
online tracking software for better transparency and reporting of the town's debt. And lastly, we've been working with the building department to implement and review uh tax payment statuses during the building process, building permit process. A permit is placed on hold until all taxes are paid.
Goals for 2027 include bringing in person credit and debit card processing to the finance wing. This will allow my office as well as the town clerk to take credit and debit cards at the counter. We're also streamlining the town's banking setup to increase in interest, income, and better efficiencies. and
we'll be reaching out to properties with delinquent taxes to offer them payment plans. In terms of the budget which starts on page 50, we look to increase advertising which would be advertising those accounts that we are forced to put into tax title. Dues and membership as well as professional development are
slightly increased to allow like the accounting department the ch staff to attend the mass collectors and treasures association annual school in Amherst, Massachusetts and to continue their education and ultimately become certified by the association. Thank you for your time and I appreciate any
questions you may have for me. Thank you very much, Patrick. Uh, the last department for the finance administration team presenting tonight is Mary Beth Zbeck presenting the uh, human resources budget. >> Hello. As Tom said, I'm Mary Beth Zbeck. Um, I'm currently the HR director and
I've been with the town for six and a half years. The human resources department supports over 200 active employees across the town and approximately 300 retirees within the Middle Sex County and Massachusetts teachers retirement systems. Our work includes compliance
with labor laws such as FMLA and ADA, classification and compensation, employee benefits, recruitment and hiring, collective bargaining, training, performance management, and employee relations. At its core, our role is to ensure the town remains a compliant,
competitive, and a supportive place to work. And our budget starts on page 51 of the budget book. In FY in FY26, the the the department navigated several ongoing challenges, particularly recruitment within um
specialized and public safety roles as as well as a continued increase in complex FMLA, ADA, and workers compensation cases that require a significant amount of admin oversight. Despite these challenges, we made several important improvements this year. We complete a smooth leadership
transition in the department following the retirement of the previous director of admin and finance. And we also redesigned the town's intern program to include structured learning hours across departments, giving interns broader exposure to um government operations and improving the town's early career talent
pipeline. We also developed and implemented a targeted social media campaign um specialized with within public safety roles to support police, fire, and dispatch hiring. That effort resulted in in about a 50% increase in applicants for those roles, helping improve
candidate pools without increasing advertising costs. Looking ahead to FY27, our focus is on stabilizing operations, improving systems, and protecting service levels. Our staffing goal is to build a fully is to fully build out the department to a sustainable structure consisting of
myself um two full-time support staff and also a part-time benefits um administrator. A major goal for FY27 is the successful successful transition of Medicare eligible retirees um who were on the Etna um advantage plan and move them over to the Meer Blue Cross Blue Shield
advantage plan. This has required careful planning, clear communication, and close coordination to ensure uninterrupted coverage. Um, finally, we plan to continue strengthening the workplace culture by expanding lowcost but high impact employee recognition initiatives.
Um, from from a budget perspective, there are a few notable changes in our FY27 budget. Um you'll see a decrease in personal services due to the reclass classification of the director of admin and finance position as well as a decrease in our overtime budget to better reflect um the trends we've seen
in the past three years. Um at the same time we are um requesting increases in two areas. Um first in our advertising budget um to continue to modernize how we recruit. Um and also we're asking for professional development funding so we can properly support and train new staff. Um, overall
our focus for FY27 is to make sure the HR operation is stable, responsive, and keeping pace with the needs of the town. The goal is to keep things running smoothly behind the scenes so departments and employees can stay focused on serving Actton. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Mary Beth. Um, and
thank you to the select board and finance committee members for this opportunity tonight for the team and myself to be able to present the finance and administration budget section to you. Uh, the group of us are ready to take any questions on that. um section of the budget if you have any
>> uh questions from uh select board. >> Just a couple. >> Okay, >> thank you all for the presentations. I just have a couple quick questions. Um in the accounting
division it looks like um the professional salaries and clerical salaries um have experienced some changes and um Kristen you mentioned a couple of promotions which probably
explains um some of the the increase to the professional salaries but it also looks like the clerical salaries may have been um that more than well not more than but almost offsets that increase and I'm just wondering was that a position that was eliminated there are
still four FTEES or is it just that the roles have have changed with those promotions? >> It's just that the roles have changed. >> Okay. Um and then I had one question about the treasure collector division.
I'm looking at, you know, 8 to 10 years ago, we had 100% um collection and we're still, you know, above 99% is still really fabulous. I'm just wondering if you have any any insight. Um I'm thinking that that
review of the uh taxes being put on pause before a building permit is issued, like that can help. But are there other methods that maybe used to be used? Not that you were here. um or other ideas that you have to >> sure
>> potentially get us back up to 100%. >> I think sending out the reminders to people that you know they are delinquent. Um some people when they their mortgage is paid off they forget that they actually have to make the payment. It's something that just automatically happened. And what I've seen uh the trend here is amazing. You
know 99% for however long. The the trend that I see if there was going to be a falloff on collection rate would come with motor vehicle excise. And what I've seen is 2025 to 2026, there's actually been an increase by just like a couple hundred thousand. So people are still buying cars, which means people are
still being able to afford their housing, being able to afford their taxes. So sending out reminder letters to get them to catch up on their taxes. And then through the building pro building permit process, we've caught a few of those. I wasn't expecting to catch any, but I did catch we did catch a few, but it made payments. And again,
I think it's the same situation where the house is paid off, escrow was taking care of it. Oh, now I have to write a check to the town. >> All right. I've got one question for uh HR. I noticed that uh the senior work
program. Uh you've adjusted the budget downward, I think, to more closely um reflect the actuals. Is there do you have any insight on why we're not getting a lot of folks in that program?
>> Um I will say the majority of the advertising for that program is done through the assessor's office downstairs. Um we have a flyer saying um you know if you want to learn more about the senior work program when you're making your tax payments to CHR. Um that's really the biggest pool that we see um the senior work
program come from. Um, so yeah, over the past 3 years, we haven't come very close to that budget, which is why I decreased it a little bit, but um, so the trend isn't going down. It's it's staying stable. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> You're welcome. >> Uh, I have a couple questions. Um, hope my committee doesn't mind if I just ask them first and then maybe can bounce a couple questions off the list. Uh first thing for everybody um the new hires
that landed in 2025 uh that happened after you know after the month of January if you could just um go through them in the hiring dates because uh change in compensation year-over-year part of that's going to
be due to a full load of that person being in the payroll for the year and that will help explain some of the compensation variance and I just want to make sure that we know and then um secondarily on that list is that if any of the departments have any open
positions that are budgeted but are not filled. So I may just start with that. Uh and that so for I think the question is we budgeted the budget didn't change when the position became vacant. So, if the position was budgeted at $90,000 a
year, that's still what shows in here. And if the person that we hired comes in and makes $87,000, then we didn't change the budget. They just make less. So, we can give you the date that everyone was hired, but it wouldn't change the budget.
I'm trying to understand the variance between the actuals and the budget, and that would help me understand the difference between that. But if we can take that offline, it's fine. if you don't think it's worthwhile going into. >> We we can we can certainly do that um not live but we can do that afterwards. >> Yeah, I just u I'm looking at actuals to
budget not budget to budget. So that's why some of my questions might sound a little bit different. Um a question on the tax relief. Um I kind of what I was listening to uh when taxes get p what is the when someone is late on their taxes
um is there a process for them going late on their taxes to tax relief? Is there a path there or is that how's that work? >> You can start. >> So for the the past due taxes they just they just acrew interest until they can
either talk to CJ or work something out. So I guess can you clarify what you mean? >> All right. Let's say somebody um doesn't pay their taxes but it ends up because of the hardship and then they try to get tax relief from the town. I'm just
curious like how does that go from you know one department to the other? Like is there a process or is there how does that work? So each each fiscal year would be treated diff differently from a tax relief perspective because the it's a different application, different
qualifying timeline um for every qualifier. Um so what I can say that may help answer your question is that regardless of someone's standing in the previous year, their application is treated for the current fiscal year. Um,
and then that being said as well, the due dates of those applications are due prior to the end of the given fiscal year on April 1st. >> I don't know if that's helpful. >> So, someone has to be proactive in applying for tax relief um if they're
having challenges paying the bill basically, right? >> They have correct file. >> You can't file for past years unfortunately. Yep. >> All right. Thank you. That answers that question. Then I have one question for Mary Beth. Uh you you had said uh there
was a and I just missed it in my notes. You had said there was an ask in HR. Um and you just I just you said what you said something and I missed it. >> I said a what? Sorry. A >> you had said like at at the end of your speech you had said that HR had there
was something you were asking for in your numbers and I just missed it. >> Oh. Um, so it was it was in our our advertising budget um to look for new creative ways um in case we need funding and also professional development for new staff. >> And then okay, that's what that was. And
then my secondary question was um is uh the are you seeing um it my perception is that the answer is there is success but is there are you seeing success with the change in the hours um with the
applicants and the hires? Is that helping retention? >> Absolutely. Um it's it's a key selling point when we hire, especially non-UN positions. Um I think in every interview I've been in since um September, you know, if someone was on the fence when we mentioned the 36 hour work week, it
kind of makes it a little bit of a better deal for them. Um so I think it's a large success. People seem um we we get a bit more applicants, especially because some surrounding communities are either 40 or 37 and a half um hour work weeks. Um while here's 36. >> All right. Thank you. Um I'm gonna defer
now to team Steve. >> Sure. Um this is a tossup for anybody in accounting. Um the uh professional service audit budget seems to fluctuate between
uh 63,000 and $80,000 from year to year. Is there is there a difference in the scope of work from year to year or Um, no, the scope of work is the same and it does I'm trying to think. I think last year's audit was 79,000.
So I think I thought there was an increase at one point a few years back. >> Yeah. So 25 actuals were 80, but then the budget for 26 was 63 and now we're back to 80. So you're saying last year was 79. >> So 80 is a good budget. Okay. Yes.
>> Um, this one's or for for Ellie, I guess. Um, the uh workers comp uh insurance increased by 23%. Is that just rate based on experience or are we
having more accidents? >> So, cumulatively, we're build for both workers comp and property liability. That's one bill. So that total bill was increasing to 417,000. But since we're budgeting for them in two separate lines, I took that 417 and
I split it between the two according to spending proportionate spending in FY25. >> Okay. Uh and one for CJ. Um this may be in this book.
Um but there's a lot in there. Uh what was just the year-over-year increase on the total assessed value of the town for fiscal 25 to 26? >> I believe it is in the book there. I'm
sure it is. It's >> not in your head. >> It's not. But the two numbers are in my head. So I can give you a rough number if that works for you. >> It's fine because my tax bill's in my head, too. We can compare. >> That's uh page 33.
I believe it's around 6% in assessed value increase. >> Okay. >> But there you go. >> Your everyone's mileage. >> Oh, I'm thinking of that. That was that was last year's increase. I had the wrong numbers in my head >> to answer that question. Yes. Everyone's
mileage will vary. Some answers we do get live apparently. Here we go. >> Do you not want me to give this live? >> Go go go. >> 7.7%. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mine was bigger for >> um you you got up quickly. Uh has have there been an increase in number of
applications for tax relief? Is there is there a trend or is it noise? >> Not a particular trend. um in applications um if you look um I believe there's also a graph within our pages there somewhere there has been a trend over the last
decade or so of increasing amounts provided so that the number of applicants would follow that trend um I would say if anything it's leveled off in the last couple of years part of that I I hope being due to the fact that more people who need
are aware of it and have already come to us. >> Thank you. Um, multiple people have said that it's been a year of transition that there've been there there's been turnover. Uh, what do you guys attribute the turnover to and do we believe that it's run its course and that it's behind us now?
>> Yeah, I think it's been more than a year of transition uh to be honest. I think it's a combination of several retirements, um, a few people taking opportunities in other communities, and I think that was about it, but I think we're now at a pretty stable point. I
think the finance department is fully staffed. Uh, and some other departments that we were having some u vacancies in have stabilized as well. So, we're in a good spot. Uh I mean if you look at some of the data that Mary Beth has in the book uh they did a lot of interviews in
HR in the last few years and I think that that's leveled off. I think even today I think we only have two jobs posted today which is the lowest number of jobs posted on our website in a long time. So it's a good sign and hopefully it stays. >> And uh speaking of the interviews, uh my next question was on the exit interviews
for mun employees that leave. Uh is there only is it just you who uh who conducts the exit interviews or is there has there been a change in policy since the previous uh director of human resources? >> Um normally it is myself. I've been doing them for the past four years or
so. Um but um we have been involving um DEI a little bit as well. >> Who? >> DEI. Why don't you go? >> Okay, great. Thank you. Um I just want to make sure I understand the OPED numbers. I understand that there's it's in your presentation on Monday to the
select board, you mentioned that it's $100,000 in the budget, it's $300,000 uh from free cash and in the book it says there's another $40,000 from the ambulance enterprise fund. So uh am I reading that correctly that whereas last year we had $560,000 that we put into the OPED trust, this year we're going to
put in $440,000. Is that an accurate rollup of OPED? Uh it's it's yes it's uh the numbers are accurate but there's one missing piece which is the spending. So last year if you recall we put in that
amount but we transferred 300,000 out. >> Mhm. >> So the net contribution last year was actually two 240 something or less. So this year what we're proposing is an actually an increase uh in total contribution compared to what we did last year and I believe the year before.
>> Excellent. Do we have a new I saw Middle Sex Retirement has the new uh anticipated fully funded date. Do we have a new anticipated fully funded date for OPED? The most recent act report which I think I sent out to the finance committee at the end of the calendar year. It's in the mid 2030s. Um I think
that they had accounted for a few things that happened in the last 5 years. One thing health insurance rates skyrocketed. So that required them to sort of readjust some things. And also the the thing the the policy that we adopted where we were starting to spend it down a little bit, they accounted for that and they considered it a net
contribution of 300. So the fact that we're contributing higher than that that net contribution going forward I think will be favorable for our kind of long-term uh liability. >> And I'm afraid I missed it. You said that the the you had presented a policy
on the on OPED must have been in one of the recent meetings. Unfortunately I've missed a couple of them. uh does the $300,000 out of free cash is that uh subject to review every year or is that the expectation that you'll be able to have $300,000 every year out of free cash?
>> Yeah, so it's definitely subject to review every year. I think um this year in particular, we have turnback in our health insurance budget because of the the budget how we budgeted over the last two years. we had a surplus and so I felt confident that we would have
funding coming back that we could assign to that going forward. We can't we can't assume that will happen and we'll have to make that decision on on an annual basis how much we contribute from which source. The change in policy this year was to uh change from just spending
operating and and enterprise funds to also using reserves which I think many communities have been doing for a long time and I think it's a good practice that gives us some more flexibility going forward. Sooner we get done with OPED the better off we'll all be right. Uh last question is on the investment
income. I see that the FY25 uh actual investment income was very healthy more than double what the uh uh what were uh estimating for uh fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27. Uh one uh why such a
great investment income. Did you did you buy Nvidia at just the right time? And uh uh secondly uh is there any why aren't we increasing the estimate of the income for the two following years if this previous year has been this good?
>> Yeah I I will uh some of that is related to the market but I think some of it is related to some new strategies that our treasurer collectors has employed. If you want to expound on that a little bit >> and then we can address why we haven't adjusted it too much in the budget. So, some of the changes in the the banking
uh we create we're creating a concentration account. So, all our funds are going to be pulled in one so that um we're not going to be just moving chunks of money to cover the different warrants. They're going to be taken as they're needed. So, those idle funds will stay and remain invested. I also took the opportunity to take some of the
idol funds that were in other banks and par uh carve them out for some CDs at like 4 and a.5%. So, um I think just in the first couple months, we've seen about 93,000 in investment income on those four C four or five CDs. Um future changes, we're we're trying to get ahead
of it because if the Fed lowers the rate another 25 basis points in the next couple months, I'm trying to lock them up now and hopefully ride it out. But now, one of the big changes was uh the town gets between 13 and 14 million every quarter as part of the escrow. uh
the prior quarters were going to a bank that didn't have interest really attached to it. It those funds are now moved to account that does so and not drawing down on those funds as you know as as frequently to cover warrants. Those funds stay there and they're
investing them you know at a much better rate than zero. >> And then Ellie could you just speak to our our revenue projection for interest? Yeah. So, um, we did decide to keep the estimate for investment income stable
just because of what Patrick had said that the investment income is so economically driven and there is some uncertainty in the economy, especially with interest rates that when we were taking that total $6.5 million local receipt estimate, we kind of decided to distribute it differently instead of
putting too much pressure on investment income. And if I could also just be with the change from the legalist to the prudent investor, I've only seen one quarter so far, but the that first quarter is looking a lot better under the prudent
investor law. Prudent investor rule than the legalist. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the legal list, but it's only 22 base um stocks and bonds that you can get into. Legal prudent investor is a much wider much more diverse pool to to invest in. I just my feedback is I think you've got
room room to uh room to grow on your uh investment income estimate especially if it's already locked up in CD. I think this is a question for Ellie and I was not planning to ask it, but I ran into a department head yesterday at an
event who was concerned that last year the libraries won the KPI kudos for KPI award from the finance committee and he said you're going to ask questions about key performance indicators, aren't you? because
apparently they're doing they're they're watching old film and trying to figure out our moves. It wasn't me. No, no, no, no, no. It's just one of those things. So, I've I have to ask, what do you consider your key performance indicators? Um,
what would alert you to something that had gone south? I would say that it's pretty evolving. This sort of budget division, budget position was created with me a couple of years ago. So I think um my role is to
um oversee the budget, ensure that things and then be support be a support person to departments. We meet quarterly to review budgets and purchase orders, bring the whole finance team in, bring in an administrative
people. Um, so I don't know exactly what metric would tell me cuz I'm I'm looking at pretty much all of the metrics, all the budget lines, all of the funds, all of the time. >> Oh, okay. Well, then let me ask the
question I had prepared before. Uh, I was told I had better ask a KPI question or or somebody didn't have a chance to knock off the libraries this year. Um, where are we being optimistic in our
assumptions? Um, whether it be health insurance trends or grant continuity or whatever. And what would be the downside if those assumptions don't don't hold? I think we're we're we're pretty conservative with our revenue estimates
because you can't go back. Um I don't think we're out on a limb on any of our estimates. Uh and that's on purpose. >> I have one question for CJ. This is a question's a year late. Um I'm looking at this thing with the graph with the taxable parcels. How come it drops? so
much from FY24 to 25. >> FY 24 to 25 >> and it dropped a little more going from 20. >> Yeah, those those things can fluctuate a little bit. Um that one specifically, if I'm remembering correctly, it was 24 to
25. Um so I um I would probably want to check. >> Okay. >> But yeah, the the biggest one would be that we introduced and the select board approved a personal property maximum or minimum, sorry. So, what that means is any uh currently the the the amount is
$2,500. So, any personal property account that's assessed under $2,500 in value, we no longer send a tax bill to. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> That's the main reason. >> Okay. >> Thank you. I think the finance committee is unless Allison's got a question. I
think we're done with the questions. Thank you. Nice job. Nice work everybody. Yes. All right. Sure. Yes. Absolutely. Uh we are uh moving on to another the other side of town hall. This is the land use side, the land use wing we like
to call it. Uh we have a several leaders of of different operations down there that will be presenting next. And I think the building department will be going first which is led by Ed Mullen. do this. Good evening everybody. If you could please turn to page 56 where my
budget lies. My name is Ed Mullen. I serve as a building commissioner and the zoning enforcement officer. The building cons the building division consists of two full-time and four part-time employees. Together, this team is responsible for peritting review, inspections, enforcement, and customer
support services for the community. The billing division counter is staffed by our part-time customer service representative Yan Lee. Yan provides frontline support to residents and contractors and also offers an invaluable interpret interpretation assistance for members of the our
Mandarin speaking community. Additional highlevel support is provided through our newly created permit coordinator position. Congratulations to Jessica Thomas on this promotion. Jessica conducts in-depth reviews on permit applications across all land use divisions. For the building division
specifically, she performs detailed zoning compliance checks on as part of the overall review process. This has significantly strengthened the quality and consistency of permitting operations. Our inspectional staff consists of five inspectors including myself. We have two
additional building inspectors, one full-time inspector, John Garside. John is also a certified building commissioner and he's a sworn health agent with the town which adds valuable cross-dep departmental expertise on our team. Our part-time building inspector, Jack Walsh, retired after more than 30
years of service with the city of Boston. Jack brings in-depth experience to the to the town. We also are supported by our part-time plumbing and gas inspector, Alan Noise. Allan graciously opens the building division every morning at 7 am for us and provides
consistent dependable support for the entire office. Our inspector of wires, Bill Mohouse, is shared with the town of Littleton through intermunicipal agreement. Bill has served with the town of Actton in this role for over 25 years and continues to be a vital resource.
At the state level, we continue to see an increase in mandates but largely unfunded reporting requirements. Um these these include tracking reporting on accessory dwelling units, the fossilfree fuel bylaw building compliance, housing production, solar
installation, conversion to air source heat pumps, and compliance with a specialized energy code. Each of these initiatives adds administrative and technical responsibilities to the department while requiring ongoing training and coordination. Our open gov online software allows us to pull this data
more efficiently. Our permitting system continues to evolve and has become an increasingly important tool in streamlining the review and issuance of permits not only for the building depart division but also across other land use divisions and town departments. This has improved transparency, efficiency, and
customer access. Over the past several years, the building division has strategically leveraged available resources to man to maintain consistent and reliable services. We have transitioned support staff salaries and most inspectors to the building inspectors revolving fund. In FY25, we
began making annual contributions towards our town fleet program for our vehicles. This practice will continue. The building division also continues to absorb the annual cost of the open gov permit software which supports our online operations. In addition, fire prevention officer Jeff Dalton has been
a very welcomed addition to both permit review and inspection process. Jeff, affectionately known as Dalton, brings a high level of enthusiasm, professionalism, and technical knowledge to our to this position. His role, which is funded through the building inspectors revolving fund, has
significantly improved our process. I'm happy to answer any questions after this. We will um have you hang around and uh we'll have the planning and conservation director go next. Kayla Sar. Good evening, members of the select board and
finance committee. I'm Kayla Sauer, planning director for the town of Actton. I've been with the town for four and a half years, but in this specific role as director for just about three months now. I currently oversee both the planning and conservation divisions. Our planning division includes Nate Ryan, one of our assistant planners, and Barb
Ryan, our cultural our part-time cultural resources planner. The planning division recently brought on Matt Curley, another assistant planner, in early December. I want to give a big shout out to Nate who stepped up and managed a great deal this past summer when Kristen Gishard, our former planning director, departed and I was on
maternity leave. The conservation division is staffed by Olivia Barkstdale, the conservation agent, and Ian Bergman, who's back there, um, who recently assumed the title of open space and trails manager. We have also had a transition in administrative support like Ed mentioned
and have welcomed on uh Jessica Jessica Thomas as the permit coordinator sharing this role with the building department. Together planning and conservation support permitting and provide staff support for 10 boards and committees and our workload related to permits fluctuates yeartoear based on the number and complexity of applications. In
addition to permitting, we work closely with the community to implement adopted plans that guide how actin grows and how its natural resources are protected. Starting with planning on page 59. Our core responsibilities include zoning and subdivision review, staff support for the planning board, zoning board of
appeals, historical commission, historic district commission, and community preservation committee along with long range planning, housing initiatives, and managing grant-f funded projects that implement the town's adopted plans. One of our ongoing challenges is balancing increasingly complex state mandates
related to housing and climate with meaningful public engagement, particularly as residents are being asked to participate in multiple initiatives at once. This past year, I'm particularly proud of the planning division's role in advancing the Habitat for all zoning initiative and adopting a
new accessory dwelling unit bylaw, both with both which passed town meeting. In addition, we've completed an updated housing protection plan and maintained our status as a housing choice community. Looking ahead, our goals for FY27 include implementing recently adopted zoning and planning initiatives,
increasing public engagement, especially reaching residents who have not traditionally participated, and beginning planning for the next update to Actton's comprehensive plan. Turning to conservation on page 62, the division administers the wetlands protection act, including management of permitting and enforcement and oversees stewardship of
more than 2100 acres of conservation land in particip uh in partnership with volunteers and local organizations. The conservation division continues to face challenges related to climate impacts, including increased flooding, beaver activity, trail deterioration, and hazardous tree removals, as well as
ongoing volunteer recruitment and coordination. Uh recent accomplishments include passage of the tree clearing delay bylaw at town meeting, the acquisition and opening of Moritz forest conservation land, approval of the open space and recreation plan, and extensive volunteer-driven stewardship and
environmental education efforts. Goals for the coming year include implementing the open space and recreation plan, improving baseline documentation for conservation restrictions, enhancing visitor experiences on conservation lands, and strengthening communication and volunteer engagement. From a budget perspective, both the planning and
conservation budgets are essentially level funded with changes being uh driven primarily by salary steps. There are no significant changes proposed and the budget maintains our current level of service. Thank you. Happy to answer any questions. >> We welcome questions uh on the land use
team for the land use team. >> Okay. Anyone from the select point have any questions? Fran, >> hi. Thank you for your presentations. Um, Ed, I was going to direct this question to you and it's under your ch
changes and ongoing challenges and I was curious if the uh the new ADU law was a just a change or a challenge and I was curious if you know how many permits we've gotten and what are the obstacles
um of of the law. Thank you for the question. Yeah. Um it's a welcome challenge. Um we look forward to um alternative housing initiatives. So I think it's a good challenge to have. Um the um I think
there's nine permits that we've issued uh in 2025. Um and there's two in Q right now for 26. So I think we're going to see an increase continue. We're hopeful. Um I think some of the challenges to the ADU bylaw are compliance with the building code. Um
the specialized energy code actually reduced some of the requirements for ADU as opposed to new construction. Um so the R values have been lessensed and the air exchange has been lessened a little bit. Um but just the the pure cost of construction today is is so high that
that it's still a challenge. Um, and when it's a when it's a connected unit, not a not a standalone ADU, they still have to meet the building code, which is fire separation because it's considered a two family under the building code. So, that's probably the biggest challenge that we're seeing. But, we try
to help guide the applicants through the process and make it as painless as possible because we we really see the need for the resource, the the ADUs. >> Thank you, Alissa. Thanks. Um I just have a question of uh
the goals for planning in FY27. Um the third bullet mentions um increasing engagement with the community, particularly a focus on folks that are not traditionally
um participating in planning processes. Um, and earlier this afternoon I was boasting about the planning division's um, great community engagement efforts to some folks in other towns. Um, so I'm just wondering if you can share anything
specific um, that you're planning to try this coming year. >> That's a great question. I think with a change in the planning department, it's always a welcome time to look at our our processes and see how we can improve. Um, one of the things we've established
just once is sending out at least once a year um, a townwide mailer, a little postcard that if we're taking on a larger planning initiative that helps bring people in who may not be paying attention to our agendas, for example. Um, another thing is that we've been um,
we've been working with the actton housing authority and how we can involve the residents there um, more often by hosting um, workshops there. So just a two examples. >> Thank you. Um this isn't so much a question but uh a comment I'm
similar to um the first presentation. You know I'm seeing a a decrease in the professional salaries and yet I'm hearing about promotions. So, I just want to I guess um call attention to the fact that we're seeing some promotions
or at least job title changes and we're um have I think in um building it was 14% and planning it was um 10% decrease um but no change to services. So, kudos for that. um still struggling to
understand how we can have the same number of FTEEs and promotions and and yet a decrease in those professional salaries. But that's great for great news for the town. >> Any other questions? Jim, >> um, in my brief career of trying to
understand building codes, um, I was, uh, shocked to understand that I couldn't actually in a lot of cases read the underlying building codes because they were hidden behind pay walls. And I don't know what sort of scam allows um,
you know, public public law to be uh, you know, privatized and you have to pay for it. But um I was wondering where is does that cost um show up in your budget somewhere or do you have access to it because of some professional
certification or or what? >> Thanks for pointing that out. It's a good question. We have to pay for access as well. Um so the state promulgates the the building code. We're in the 10th edition and basically the state other than the amendments just rewrites chapter one of the building code and
then the rest is the international code. Um so we have to go through the IC website to have digital access. Um when the 10th edition was promagated, we did purchase two sets of hard copies, one for myself and one for the assistant
inspectors. Um and those are in our office and those are the ones that end up at the counter a lot um when you're reviewing with you know homeowners or other builders on what code compliance might take. Um but yeah for the access I think we're up to $1,000 for two users
on that digital access per Yep. Okay, over you. All right, I'm gonna start with um these are probably two questions for John even though one's going to be across the board because he's probably the best one to answer. But very first one um so I don't have to
ask everybody. What are the two open positions that exist uh that you're currently hiring for? So I'm going to assume that all the other positions are filled. I know it doesn't have to do with this department. I just want to just You said that you're hiring for two open positions.
truck driver and um >> HR assistant. There you go. >> Perfect. All right. And now this is a better question for you, John. If if a very high level high level uh summary, could you uh because I I get with all
these departments and the zoning I get myself a little bit spun around uh between the Patricia's department with the economic development and the things that she's trying to do with um zoning and then the actual zoning and
then the building department. How how do they all I'm assuming they're all talking to each other. What's a summary level way you could kind of describe how they're working together? >> That's a great question. Thank you. So, u certain positions in town have
obligations to enforce local bylaws, state bylaws, international building codes. Um, and those are the people at this table. Um, planning division has all the select boards permits that they help oversee. uh economic development
doesn't have any of those obligations. Uh they obligations are pointed more externally to help members of the community navigate those um requirements. And so Patricia uh and
before that the previous economic development directors meet regularly with planning staff and building staff and their team members to talk about issues that are happening with particular businesses or particular properties or to do strategic planning for things like the initiative that they
brought forward a few weeks ago uh looking at some minor changes to zoning. So uh we have now on the books a monthly meeting which is going to start in January which is this month. uh to talk about whatever's on our minds, but they they also regularly connect um on issues
as they come up. >> All right. Thank you. I'm going to defer now to the team if there's any questions. >> Greg. >> Okay. Um what are your key performance indicators, KPIs?
I would say for the planning division the the easiest KPI would be uh if a bylaw passes at town meeting um and what the support we've received and I think over the past couple years um we've had significant support. So I think that's been a really high um indicator of the
work that we've been doing in the planning division on the conservation side um with what Ian's role does and how Olivia um coordinates with that. It would be I think his uh their volunteer events and how many people that they're
getting to come to their um engagement such as the amphibian brigade, his water chestnut poll that that those kinds of items. >> Cool. >> Uh for building I would say that there's twofold. Um department revenue generation would be a key performance
indicator for the number of permits coming in. Um, of course, the number of permits and also the number of inspections that are performed every year are probably our key that's what we probably track regularly just even week to week to see because it it'll give us a trend. It's a trend that I might share
with the town manager or the tax collector and assessing saying we're seeing a you know a spike like when ADUs come out we were hoping for more quicker but you know we're we're we're seeing it is an upward trend. We hope it continues but those are some of the things we look at. >> Good. And the second question, just
because I don't want to be typ cast as the KPI guy, um what benefits are residents uh seeing today uh from prior planning investments and um where are outcomes still lagging?
>> That's a great question. Um, I think since I've been here, we've passed a lot of new zoning initiatives uh for the South Actton Village, for uh the Powdermill area, the Asbet River Corridor uh corridor area. Um, we haven't seen them utilized yet, unfortunately. Uh, we also passed the
MBTA overlay district. Um, we've had some bites, I'll say, um, for the Powdermill area, um, which has been excited, um, exciting to see. So, we'll see how that kind of turns out in the next couple years. Um, so since I've
been here, we haven't seen the visions that the community has uh decided is their vision come to uh come to play with the the zoning unfortunately. >> Cool. Thanks. >> I just have one more point actually to answer something Alyssa asked. Um the
the reason I was looking at the numbers from 25 actuals to the budget, not budget to budget. So uh one of the things that I I noticed is that even though in several cases that um numbers have been adjusted in 27 they are
conservative compared to 25. So even though a numbers going down year-over-year it's still higher than the actuals from 25. So I I looked you're seeing conservative budgeting. So they've looked at their numbers. They
realized that 26 was too high and they brought the number down to a level not below the existing run rate. That's what I was looking at when I saw the numbers. Um, so unless you correct me, that's that I think that's a pretty accurate
how they budgeted. >> That's certainly a strategy we employ in some cases. I wouldn't say it's it's across the board at every line item. Yeah, >> agreed. Thanks. and specifically I was looking at one of the areas she was talking about. >> So I think that one thing I was
expecting to see with some highlevel retirements and replacements with folks who have fewer years of experience was that decline um there but there were some other surprises in some of the the divisions.
Um, but it sounds like what's happening is like Jessica's now um been promoted but also working not just for the building division but with planning too. And so you've eliminated that clerical position. Same thing with accounting. A clerical position has been eliminated
with that promotion. So, I like seeing this reorganization and using the skills of the people who are employed by the town to to make services um better for our residents um and folks doing business in town um without having
to increase our FTEEs and and either having a level or or a decline in the in the um division's budget. >> Any other questions from finance? All right. Thank you. Very, very nice
job. Nice work, land use. Well done. Okay. So, uh there's still is there still pizza left? There's still pizza left. If you're still hungry or or uh if you didn't get some earlier, uh we are going to move on to our next department. that our next presentation will be from
the police department. The police department budget uh starts on um it's in the table of contents page uh 77 76 and uh it's led by Chief James Kogan. I would like to begin by thanking all of
our first responders and all other employees of the town. Actton provides excellent services to anyone requiring assistance of any kind. As a longtime resident, I appreciate these services in the continued efforts to make improvements to them. Good evening,
everyone. My name is James Kogan. Um I am the police chief in actton and have been for the past three years. I started my career in Actton in 1984 and it will be coming to an end um in the next few months. So, um I'm happy to have had the
opportunity and I want to thank um the town manager John Manerati and the the rest of the staff as well as the town the town select board for giving me this opportunity this wonderful opportunity to to finish 42 years of service to the
town of Actton. I have thoroughly enjoyed it and um again I am honored to have had the opportunities that I've had. Joining me today is Doug Sternolo, our deputy police chief who joined the police department 26 years ago. Our
portion of the actton police department budget begins on page 76 with our mission statement followed by our core values. We are dedicated to protecting the lives and property of everyone through compassionate, professional and and
impartial police services. Together we manage both the budget for the police department and dispatch which are in separate sections. Our police department currently has 47 FTEES and
there's a chart on page 77 and just over 10 in dispatch. The majority of our budget covers personnel costs. We provide a long list of services which are on page 78. The following pages list
some of our KPIs, challenges, changes, and recent accomplishments, which include the successful negotiation of a three-year contract with both patrol and superior officers unions, which accounts for the
7% increase seen in the first line in the first line of the personnel services section. We promoted a recent approve recently approved third lieutenant just this past month to better manage our body worn camera program and assist with the
oversight of our accredititation. The increase in professional salaries is due in part to this new position. Over the past year, we've replaced firearms and completed additional training for all officers.
We've replaced defiills in all of our patrol fleet and added defiills to our unmarked emergency response vehicles in our fleet. We received approval in the past town meeting to expand our female locker room, which will make room for
additional female officers. Construction is slated to begin very soon. Our department goals are to continue to modernize our technology and the use of technology. Um and that re that is um
one of the things we asked for capital a capital request for a cloud-based software that will improve efficiency and you help us use less paper. We'd like to also upgrade our records management system at some point.
continue to hire quality staff to meet the needs of the community and progress with the final phase of our radio improvement project with much assistance from our IT department and also increase preparedness for emergencies and critical incidents.
In calendar year 2025, the department handled 26,468 calls, a slight decrease from 2024. motor vehicle violations or motor vehicle traffic enforcement, including traffic stops, continued to be a
priority. We deployed electronic speed radar signs periodically in more than 30 locations throughout town to help remind motorists of the posted speed limits. We will continue with these efforts. referrals to our JDP or jail diversion
clinician um in 2024 in 2025 decreased slightly to 692. Um section 12's numbers rose to 108 reported in 2025 a s significant
increase to the 83 we had in 2024. The deployment of our clinic, our clinical responder alongside advanced trained sworn personnel continues to enhance response effectiveness and improve outcomes for calls with mental
health components. And we handle a growing number of those. So that's an important metric. Responses to overdose in 2025 remain similar to last year. And I'm happy to report that in 2025 we had zero fatal overdoses.
We remain committed to working alongside of all of our town and community partners, local religious organizations and schools. We continue to build community relationships by conducting a citizens police academy, participating
in national night out, an open house that occurs on the first Tuesday in August. We've had several copy with coffee with the cop events and uh youth academy at Nara Park. and also a third cone with a cop where we distributed ice
cream throughout town at the um end of summer. We also participated in the EV petting zoo for the past three years. Dispatch is on page 81. Uh public safety dispatchers play a crit a critical role
in our daily operations of emergency services. often the first point of contact in both emergency and non-emergency situations. Dispatchers are the vital link between public safety, police, fire, and EMS personnel.
We added one additional dispatcher to meet the needs of a 4 and2 schedule which took effect on July 1st, 2025. And with the assistance of our fire department, the police department also oversees the budget for our dispatch center with a staff of full 10
full-timers, which includes a dispatch supervisor and one part-time dispatcher. Uh there are two dispatchers on duty at all times. Dispatchers take calls and coordinate an appropriate response by police, fire, and EMS. Dispatchers serve
both police and fire departments. Dispatchers answered approximately 5,000 911 calls in 2025. And dispatchers provide many vital tasks, including EMD, which is emergency medical dispatch, which is so important
when someone's on the um phone looking for assistance and helping a loved one or someone that's hurt or injured. Um, in 2025, we actively sought grant funding and have received almost $300,000, including a dispatch grant of $161,000,
the DMH grant, which funds our clinical responder, and the traffic grant, which we received $40,000 for. Um, with that, I'll take any questions. David Thank you, Chief. Um, about how much of
the overtime budget is due to difficulty in hiring? >> That's a really good question. I I I couldn't give you an actual number. Um, and it varies from time to time. The difficulties um we see in hiring
are certainly a factor, but most of our shifts are covered with a with a a minimum number of people. And at this time, we have enough staffing to do that. It's the the sick calls, the
vacations, holidays, and time off that people take to go to court or um other things that impact the amount we spend on overtime. Another factor in in the overtime is projects that are completed
by the town, meaning a sidewalk project or the prospect street project where for five or six weeks we have a couple of officers a day that are assigned there to help with traffic enforcement. So depending upon many of those things, the
um they all affect the amount of overtime we're spending. So I don't know if that was a direct answer but >> no that that pretty much I I'm hearing that and I think this is good that a a smaller amount is due to difficulty in hiring a larger amount due to covering
for sick time vacation time what whatever and then special special projects. Um how many um officer openings are there currently? >> There are currently three. >> Thank you. Thank you. We're going to miss you. I'm
happy for your retirement though. Um for you, we have two clinical staff responder positions and my understanding is that one of them is filled. I know that the second one was filled for a short amount
of time. Um but I'm wondering if that's accurate. We have just one. Um, and I'm wondering how long that's been unfilled and when like what's the plan for I assume it's not posted. Um,
>> it's not currently posted. We do um plan on filling the position. Um, it's been vacant for approximately 6 months at this time. Um, but we've had a focus on hiring dispatchers and police officers. Um, which has been a challenge as David
mentioned earlier. Um, but it is something that we would we appreciate the the work of our clinical responder and having two on the staff for a short period of time was beneficial. So, we look forward to filling that position. >> Okay. So, so once things have settled
then you can turn your focus to that because related to that was what um what you mentioned about the section 12s. I was one year ago looking at the downward trend and thinking oh that's a really good thing but there was a a really big
spike um this year and I know that the health and human services department is conducting a community health audit. I'm assuming that the police department is a key partner in that since you're dealing with mental health calls. >> That's correct.
>> Okay, great. Um I have two specific questions about the line items um in the budget. Is the firearms instructor not an annual thing? Is it every >> It's paid monthly. >> Monthly. Yes. So I I'm noticing that
it's zeroed out and I'm just wondering why that is. If I'm reading this correctly, it >> um it's >> firearm instructor. It's nothing budgeted. >> As the chief mentioned, we did successfully negotiate two contracts
this year. And in that contract, we changed some of the compensation items that used to be paid out as stipens were now part of the base compensation. And so that's why some of the, you know, so there's a couple line items that are totally wiped out. Um >> Okay. So it's still happening. It's just
not coming. Yeah, we it's part of it's now part of the stipen line item which is up above. >> All right. Um so the second question um is about the 80% increase in the police supplies and I looked to see what police supplies were and they were breath test
um cell block prisoner meals um crime scene processing. So I'm hoping we're not expecting an increase in the need for that. Um, is there just sort of a budgeting change that's being made that accounts for that 80% increase?
>> Yes. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. >> We shifted again, we shifted some items around to make them uh make more sense. Put the line items in the right place like books and periodicals. We don't really buy too much of those anymore. So, we combine that with a few others. >> Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Anything else from the select board? Fran, >> I just wanted to say Alyssa took my question about the clinic the clinicians. I'm glad to hear that there will be another one on. Thanks. >> Okay.
>> I have uh two two questions. Um the first one is uh in that same area that Alyssa was looking at the purchase of services the 25 uh 2025 actuals like 202 and the proposed budgets 88,000.
Is there a risk in the budget? I'm not sure if those were like one-time purchases in 25 especially materials and equipment. You have n there's a 94,900 in actual and the budget is uh zero. Could be geography like they could be
moved to a different line item. I'm just concerned that that that's uh that's a >> yeah that's related to a onetime purchase of new firearms for the department that we did at the end of the year when we realized that we had some capacity to do so. >> All right, that makes sense. And then
the uh second question is I was wondering if you could uh uh speak more about the cloud-based software that you're talking about maybe improving efficiency and um if you just sounded like a a nice opportunity.
>> Yes, I'm going to defer that question to the deputy chief. >> Good afternoon everyone. Uh as the chief said, my name is Doug Sternolo. Uh for those that don't know me, I've been with the department. Um joined the academy in 2000, so just over 25 years. I've been
serving as the deputy chief for a little over two and a half years now. U to speak about the uh cloud-based software. Currently, our department uses we use a paper system for a lot of our filing, especially for our field training
program. So field training program is for uh the new officers that come on the recruits. They um partake in a 12-week training program which requires daily they call them dos daily observation reports and for every shift they're
evaluated by the FTO which is the field training officer. So that is a paper system. So essentially it's a 3 4 inch binder. So you can imagine what it looks like by the end of 12 weeks. We've been doing that for you know since I got on it's been paper. That's just one of the um the reasons why we're looking to go
to a cloud-based system where we can access all the records electronically. Um the trainers can share the information with the other field training officers. We have at any time we could have between four and eight field training officers. So you can imagine to with the different shifts,
people working day, evening, and midnight to share that information. You you literally have to get your hands on the binder and go through it to see, you know, how the recruits progressing. Um, another important piece to when we use the sharing of the information is we
want to be able to recognize the great work that they do. So, if officers are, you know, doing outstanding work, we want to recognize them for that. And it's it's kind of hard to go back through the book to to to identify that, whereas you'll end up focusing on the areas of concern and to improve on. So,
I think it would it would help us um just to to better recognize the officer and identify issues all around to go electronically. Um the other reason would be is for other supervisors would have access to this as well. Um I think it kind of goes without saying but just
to generalize put everything together in a centralized location would be much more efficient for the department. Um and so that's just for field training. We would also utilize this program for our communications training officers. So be the same thing. They're on a paper um system as well.
Um we currently we the only thing that we're using right now for our policy we're accredited agency as you're all aware a lot of documentation involved with accredititation that is a cloud-based system that's built off of us manually typing up our policy and we
basically just load it into the um the website the software and we can issue it to all department members. So this is that was a great step forward when we got that program. It allows us to issue the policy. we can provide some training on it and get feedback from the officer acknowledging that they u understood the
training received it otherwise you just you know you're losing track trace they're trying to track down everybody make sure we've all acknowledged the policies um so we have PMA I'm currently for that right now but what happened is when we became accredited through the mass uh police accredititation
commission they are now requiring us to use um it's a vendor called power DMS that is basically that's the only the vendor that um basically it standardizes the um accredititation process for the MA for Massachusetts. So we are now
taking all the documentation that we put in through PMAM uploading it into power DMS which is now meeting the standards for accreditation. So when they come out and do our assessment which we're actually believe it or not we're already going to be up for reacredititation um a year from February. It' be February of
27 already. So that will help us tremendously um to go to that system. That's what we've been looking at anyway. We have no no signed contract, but we're we're very interested in in utilizing that their software because not only do the field training program, they do the policy and they do accreditation. So
what they're all be connected together. Um so to add to this, we also are looking to um digitize our internal affairs and professional standards process. We're we're on a paper system with that as well. Everything gets typed up, printed out, and it goes in a
folder. So as you know with the police reform and post commission we're required to submit you know specific um incidents of complaints and internal affairs investigations. So we're doing all that paper up into the their cloud
but we have no other way of managing it inhouse other than me essentially going through the files and pulling them out. So I think it' just be a useful tool for us um to be able to share that with other supervisors having all the same information and in ease of access to it
and just to get away from the paper. So it wasn't it's not just the field training and accreditation, it's also for our um internal affairs function. Um and also with field training, I think it we've had a couple of field training officers that demoed a few different products. They're very excited about
going with this new software. And I've done field training myself. I know it's it's a very rewarding um position to hold and um it's a very valuable um thing to have within the department. It's very important piece of our whole um process here with training the
recruits and you don't we want to make sure we retain them as field training officers. It gets it's a daunting task when you're dealing with all the paperwork and you know training as we know we're hiring and going to be continuing to hire. So, we want to make sure we keep these people having the the
new the new tools and be able to streamline the process. So, it'll keep them engaged. I So, I certainly think it'll be a benefit um on that front as well. I'd be happy to answer any questions if you have regarding it. >> I just have uh this is a great summary, Doug. Uh uh just a uh one follow-up
question is uh the the vendor that you're looking at and is this something that uh when the police department converts over to it that they have to load history or can they just do a cut over like okay as of today everything here forward is digital or is there some
type of requirement to >> like load some of that paper in that's been you know piling up everywhere? >> They they will assist with a full integration. I've already spoken to them about that. So even our old um files that we have with our other program, they'll merge everything together. I actually forgot to mention this. This is
also the only vendor that will allow us to integrate with our CAD system, the computerated dispatch, which is IMC Central Square and Axon. So we'll be able to essentially have records from when we're field training. You know, the officer will go to a call. The call
number will be associated with the call, body camera, everything will be pulled up there. So here it is. Hey, great job. This is the call you did it on. we'll be able to share it amongst the the supervisors and then also hey look this is an area we need to work on but everything's going to be centralized in one location whereas um right now we we
do have a lot of programs that we're using um separately from that just so you kind of have an idea we have we're using the power DMS like I mentioned for our accredititation we have the PMM which just issues our policy um we have electronic scheduling system
it's called DTS MPTC has it's called Katus, that's where we do all our online training and the post commission, I already mentioned that Axon in central square. So, we have a lot of programs. So, try if we can consolidate a few of these together. Um, I think it'll it'll be a huge help for
us. >> One last follow-up question, Doug, now I'll pass off to everybody else. Uh, let's make the assumption that at some point in the future this happens. um what papers left that the police are pushing around that will remain after if
assuming that this at some point comes true. >> That's a great question. Um off the top of my head, I know for like overtime in details, I know a lot of vendors are still using paper whereas our system is electronic, but we we still have a lot of like paper for invoicing and billing.
Um not sure if around the station there's probably not a whole lot left after that. >> So this kills most a good not >> we have some things that we're still we're still working on a few other processes that we can uh improve on and upgrade and actually I I couldn't get into all the details but there's a lot
more that's available with u the systems that we're looking at. >> All right. Thank you. I'll guess since you haven't asked a question I'll start with Roland first. >> Thank you chief and deputy chief. Um radio repairs last year were 33650 and
budgeted at 10. What was the driver of that? >> The uh repair and purchase of portable radios. Most of the portable radios that we're using today um I would say a large
majority are 20 plus years old. Uh they break from time to time. The the face plates will break. The um the the mounting for where the battery attaches to the back. um they need to be reprogrammed from time to time. When we
have a new officer that we hire or someone leaves, we have to re get the the radio reprogrammed in the to the to the next person. So, um, antennas, batteries, there's a a lot hopefully with, um, what we're doing with our the
internal system and the upgrades to our infrastructure um, you know, and the purchase of additional radios over time. We will um, that number will go down, but many of our portable radios are very old. >> Okay. Thank you. And I applaud you for
getting rid of paper because we're dealing with it from my dad and it's not fun. Um, contractual ser I see one line says contractual services and the next one says contractual service. So I don't know what the difference is
there and the contractual service is you know budgeted right now at 113,000. What is the difference between those two line items and what's the driver of that? That's is that the software converting over the software
>> the question again what which two lines >> contractual services and contractual service. So line uh >> the medical is >> 940 and 700 >> um >> we we can um one one is related to the
body warn camera program. Okay. >> Yeah. The larger one >> and the other one is uh separate. Oh, contractual services for psychological testing. So, part for when they hire police officers, they have to do pre-employment, not just physicals, but pre-employment psychologicals. And
that's funded through that 5,000 line item. >> Thank you. >> Can I go to that site first? Alex, >> uh, Chief, I'm excited for your retirement. >> Thank you.
>> I hope you are, too. Um, oftent times there are financial implications when the head of an organization transitions. Is there a succession plan for well you? >> Well, I'll let the town manager answer that question.
>> Thank you. Yeah, the chief we were going to announce the chief's retirement next month. So, you're getting a preview of of that announcement. Uh, and I congratulate him as well. Uh we are going to announce the transition plan uh next month, but we we have one and we'll we'll recruit to hire a new chief um
this spring. >> Nothing from there. All right. Uh let's start with Alison because she hasn't gone yet. Um, I'm curious, um, what kinds of community changes do you think, um, have the biggest impact on the police department's bandwidth and your staffing
needs? So, for instance, if we were going to, um, commercially develop more land, have more businesses, does that have a big impact on your staffing needs or certain types of building projects, things like that? >> Yeah, I think the number of people that come to a town, whether it's for the day
or to live there, certainly increase the needs of the police department. there is some studies um that are done in order to figure out what numbers you need in order for to adequately protect a community. Um so the the building of
more residential apartments and um and even bringing businesses in if there's more people in town will need more police officers. >> Yeah, just go down the round Jason then go ahead. This question for the deputy chief uh with regard to the cloud software you said that this was the only
vendor that integrated well with all of our components. Are we concerned with vendor lockin? Um is this a monthly recurring subscription or is there a long-term contract in place because um I would hate for this to be a situation I work in software as well. I would hate
for this to be a situation where uh they don't charge anything to get into the into the software and then you're trapped and you have a hard time getting back out because they've gone and done all this work to help you get your paperwork and all all the rest of this integrated. Are they charging us for the initial implementation? For example,
>> there is a service fee. Yes. For the setup. >> For the setup. Okay. So that and um is there a is there a way out if the actually I'll let you answer first. Is this a monthly subscription or is this a long-term contract? So, at right now for the quotes that I've been receiving, it's for a three-year contract.
>> Okay. And at the end of the three years, do you anticipate that there that do you have experience with this vendor in the past? Do they have a tendency of having large large um adjustment rate hikes? >> I I can't speak to the what the rates
would be. I've seen it all across the board. The rate because we've been looking at different vendors for years now and you we were just kind of going over our numbers from what we've been paying for the ones that we do have. They've gone up a substantial amount just in the past couple years. I think it was over a thousand just for our accredititation membership which is
integrated with the power DMS that we have now. Um our our detail tracking system it was I think 5,000 or so when we joined on now it's 9,000 and that's only been you know less than what was it five years basically. So everything's been going up u quite substantially. Um
I do know that Power DMS is one of the larger names in in the industry. >> Um so I'm very comfortable with that right now and knowing that we want to maintain our accredititation, I think this would would be the the right move for us at this time. >> Understood. Just be careful of lock in. >> Right. >> Um for the uh chief on the in the budget
book, you have a FTE rate of 47. I just want to make sure I heard properly what you said this evening. There were three there are three open police officer positions and one clinical clinical where's my where's my phrase here clinical staff responder currently open
>> so four I guess is the correct answer for >> out of the 47 in your department you have four open positions at this time >> yes >> I love love the hesitation okay um uh and um obviously over the o any overtime
uh estimate is not going to be impacted by a clinical staff responder, but the overtime estimates could theoretically be somewhat ameliated if the if the full staffing if the full number of police officers were on staff. Correct. >> If the full number what
>> of police officers were were fully hired rather than having three open positions. Correct. >> It would have an impact on the overtime for sure. >> Okay. >> A positive impact. >> Once again, Mr. Town Manager, I uh I would ask that you not carry both in your budget. Pick one or the other. Uh that's one of the questions that was
sent in to you earlier. Uh obviously you only received them today. I was only able to come up with the questions over the last weekend, but that's a just a comment for you for the uh chief again. Uh have we lost any police officers to any surrounding towns because of a a
large pay disparity? >> I don't believe we have. We've lost several officers be and I think it's mostly going back to where they um live or where they grew up. Um >> the coral area question that is uh are
we at all concerned about losing any officers to a federal agency that has a $50,000 signing bonus at this time? >> None that I'm aware of. >> I'm very glad to hear that. Um, were there any overtime costs uh incurred last year as a result of any
other federal federal agency having activities in our town? >> If there were, it was extremely minimal. I don't believe it was. >> Excellent. And lastly, were we informed of all federal agency activity in advance of those actions? And were we in
a position to validate that a warrants were appropriate before those activities took place on our our streets of our town? all the ones that the act and police were aware of. Obviously, if there was something that took place that that we didn't participate in or know about, um
whenever there was an action, we had some conversation or >> some amount of advanced notice. >> Yeah. It wasn't specific to who was being addressed or even the location was not um specific as to where they were going. It was typically a courtesy call
saying that they'd be operating looking for someone say on Grey Road. Um, >> and do we have a responsibility to verify warrants before people are removed from our streets? >> We certainly verify the ones that we act
on. Um, but if there's a federal agency acting on a warrant that they have, we're not necessarily verifying their warrant, nor are they verifying ours. Thank you for that information. >> Steve, can I just ask one tag question
to Jason's before you go to uh has the police department um in your recent memory been at full employment >> in the last >> maybe? I don't remember a time when you >> one day I think we were but I it's been a while. It's been
>> it's just been constant for the last >> 10 15 years. It's just very difficult. We did have an increase, I think it was 15 and 16 where the board approved and the town approved um additional four police officers. I think in 2015 and 16
we almost got to getting all of those people on board at at certain times and it's I don't think it's ever worked out where we've been absolutely full, but we've gotten close a few times and we hope to again. >> All right. Thank you. Go ahead, Steve.
A related question is is 32 patrol officers the right number? I know you can't get there, but assuming you could. >> I would say that's a that's a that's a very close number. I think it's um you know we we get by but as as we see um
the number of calls is is pretty much the same but I would say the seriousness of calls is become more more serious and our deployments are often two officer calls as opposed to
one officer calls. So it does limit the resources to a certain extent when you have four people working and two calls that require two officers. So um things are are certainly busier on the on the evening shift which I worked for many
years and I have a radio at my house and I listen often and they do not they do not um slow down very often. It's um it's it's a busy town. You can see the traffic trying to get here tonight. I mean, we're dealing with crashes um and
many incidents involving domestic violence as well as mental health calls. So, um 32 is a is a is a good number to shoot for, but I can see that we would need an increase at some point in the coming years if the population continues to rise and the and the and the um the
number of people in town rises throughout the day. >> Thank you. I have a related question. Are the retention and recruiting uh recruiting and retention issues unique to Actton or is this like statewide regional?
>> I'm happy to say it's statewide. Um yeah, many of the chiefs I know are dealing very much with the same things. It's it's um it's it's a different time and we're doing our best, but it's it's certainly something that's statewide.
Chief, you mentioned KPIs in your opening statement. So, can can you share a few? >> Um, I thought I had, but >> no, I think you said that they were in in here, but there are people who will
watch this on uh ACT TV and they should know what your KPIs are. the um our response to calls um as you can see from page 70 page 80 is um was in um
or actually the section section 12's has increased the the number of calls of that we responded to in by call type has been pretty steady close to um the same numbers as last year and our motor vehicle stops and numbers of citations
have been relatively um the same a little down um from last year but um still again I think part of that has to do with the fact that officers are busy tied up on calls and can't spend as much time um working on
traffic enforcement >> and uh a related question one that we did not discuss yesterday I guess I should disclose that we did discuss that I would ask you about KPIs and you knew that Um but the one we did not discuss
is what indicators would best reflect public trust and um because increasingly that's that's in the era as as Jason alluded to with with ICE undermining uh trust in federal
officers. How do we measure the trust in in our local uh police? I guess it's individual, you know. Um, we certainly train all of our officers in the in the best way we can. We offer a lot of
training and that number has has increased significantly over the past few years. Um, we're aware that we're um that we're under a lot of scrutiny and I think that from the reviews that I have
that have been completed on our our employees that it it shows that they're um they're doing the right thing and you know um trying their best in in a in a increasingly more difficult profession.
If I can if I can piggyback right on that, uh, one of the best things that I've seen, one of the best things I want to give you, um, give you uh, kudos for is the blue envelope u blue envelope uh, program and the fact that everyone every one of the police officers has been trained on it. That's keep that up.
That's the type of thing that does goes a long way in a community like this. So, thank you for the blue envelope project. >> Thank you. >> I think finance committee is done. unless there's slackboard questions. >> I have one followup to the fantastic
summary about the cloud-based software. Um, so it sounds like it's a departmental use, primarily training and and reports and internal affairs. Um, but because of uh Scott's sorry Roland's
question, I don't know, somebody's question about like what paper is left and you said not much. Um, I just want to confirm that the information um on the public when you have to write up a report for, you know, responding to a
domestic violence call or or any anything like that. um is not going to be in the cloud uh accessible to any other entities. Just want to make that verbally confirmed. >> You're asking about domestic violence
reports. >> Well, I'm asking about any report that you might have. You know, I've read police reports that are redacted on, you know, incidents with families, domestic violence. Um so, just want to make sure that that's still staying um not on
paper. It could be um electronic, but it's not living up in the cloud. This this software is not going to send that information out there to be accessible by somebody outside of the the act police department >> only by records request through a public
records request which would fall under the state exemption of any something domestic violence or mental health. >> Thank you. And I guess I just want to um echo what Jason said about um some of the programs that we have um for for the
public like the blue envelope program. And I'm thinking um chief you mentioned that the seriousness of the calls even if the call the number of calls is not increasing that's increasing. Um I love the the community policing engagement
programs that you do the national night out the cone with the cop. um the citizens academy which I um participated in a few years ago and I'm just wondering if other educational programs I know you do at the senior
center um programs for seniors to be on the lookout for different scams um cyber security fraud that sort of thing but something that's related to more mental health rather than being scammed. So,
um, >> mental health for seniors, >> ment well for anybody. So, so, um, that might be something that, um, the department can focus on, >> um, to and and it's it's definitely going to be directed with this community
health needs audit that's that the town is is undertaking, but I'm, you know, you and I have talked about um, self-defense for women in the past. you do those programs, but I know there's also domestic violence services network that that handles um a lot of things
related to do domestic violence, but you know, educational workshops for folks about safe relationship. They do it in the schools, but there could be adults that can that can benefit from that as well. >> Yes. >> Oh, sorry.
Okay. Uh, thank you very much. Got all our questions answered. >> Nice work. All done. Thank you all. You want to keep going or take a brief uh pause? Up to you chairs. >> Keep going.
>> It's up to the select board. I'm I'm fine with just keep going. >> Okay. Dean, >> let's take five. Five. Reconvene at seven. Okay. Okay, folks. Uh we're going to get we're going to
reconvene here and get started or get restarted. Okay. Well, thank you for that break and uh we are going to get back into the budget presentations. We're more than halfway through the scheduled presentations for tonight and our next
uh presenter will be the town clerk, Leo Micardo. >> Good evening. Thank you for having us here tonight. My name is Leo Marcato. I'm the town clerk. I've been the town clerk for a little over a year now. It's been a great experience for me. I'm here
with my deputy town clerk, Alicia Barerack. She's been the deputy town clerk for a little over a year as well. So, we continue to learn and grow and develop the office into a a top level town clerk's office here in the
Commonwealth. We recently hired Cheryl Longton. She's our new new administrative assistant on a part-time basis. And in our office, we've made great strides through the use of new technology. So, we have dedicated time to research available software and
databases that would streamline our ability to serve the town of Actton. Through communication with other clerks in the Commonwealth, we've been able to discover what has worked for others and what has not worked. Even though it may not have worked for a different community, we still stopped, considered
the different software packages and databases that were available and thought about it would work for acting because what what didn't work for one community doesn't mean it wouldn't work for us. So we came up with a few solutions. The first one we came up with was the use of open gov for business
certificate applications. So up up up until this time we were taking paper applications which would take typically about two weeks to process because you know they'd sit on somebody's desk for a few days and then they'd sit on the next person's desk for a few days. So you'd get frustrated business owners and
things like that. You know it held up held up their businesses and whe their ability to open open checking accounts, things like that. So, you know, we looked into that and, you know, with coordination with our our planning department, which Alicia was a part of at that time, you know, she was one of
the key architects for developing that that software program. So, we use that through our open gov program. It it's very beneficial to everybody. Now, typically we turn around a business in less than a week. So, it's very helpful because it goes right to the right to all four different departments email
addresses. They view it and if they can, you know, they can approve it immediately, they do. it's just a click of the button instead of reading through paperwork and things like that. So, it's a much better process. And then the other database that we rolled out earlier this year was our marriage intentions online. So, this
this one was, you know, something that that really it it just bothered me that people had to come in, make time out of their day, you know, and come into our office during business hours. both couple both parties had to come in fill
out the application paperwork at the office. Sometimes they'd be, you know, be a little stressed out there. They're making calls to their families. Oh, how do you spell mom's last name? How do you spell it's like, you know, just all all these other things. Now, online, they can apply for this anywhere in the world. As long as they've got Wi-Fi,
they can apply for it. They can pay for it. And if they got a pause in the middle of it to make that call to mom, this and that, you know, do whatever whatever needs to be done, they can do that right in the middle of it and get back to it later, you know. So, makes it a lot easier for everybody. So, they're
not stressed out at my counter stand there for 45 minutes waiting for the other party to show up. So, it just it just makes things easier for everybody. So, we review the we review the application online. We any any questions we have, send them a quick email. Is
this accurate? We say, you know, you know, if the name happens to be spelled a little differently, we just we just reach out to them, say, you know, is that accurate? You might want to double check that. So, it just makes makes much more comfortable experience for for all parties involved. And then we came up
with two databases after after talking with a vendor at one of our conferences that we attend. We came with two databases. one for committee paperwork which cuz the spreadsheet that we we had been using for the past few years um longer than I've been here it would just
turned into an Excel spreadsheet just with a ridiculous number of lines columns and this and that and it was easily it just quickly became a mess. So every year we we found ourselves fixing it and you know this this is no longer aligned. So you basically had to rebuild
the spreadsheet every year. So very timeconuming this new database we put in everyone's information in once they they're assigned an ID number. So now if I if I create a new committee I just plug in the ID numbers now and all the information just automatically populates
much easier. I can generate reports for any missing information. I can send it off to the various committees like these two committees here. I can send you oh I happen to be missing some information. Can you take quick peek at it? You know what you know is this information accurate? Is that email address accurate? Just double check the
information for me. So, it's a lot easier way to communicate and it just saves a lot of time for everybody involved. So, we don't have one person reviewing everything. It's just becomes extremely timeconuming when you do it that way. So, I'm trying to get away from those spreadsheets as well. These
databases seem to be a lot user friendly. And then I have another one for with our election election information. So, we can schedule the elections through this one database. I put all my election workers in that database and I submit that to payroll. Quick, boom, done. It just won't, you
know, instead of, you know, I have a sign in sheet. I can't read this person's name. So, I have to figure out who is this person that I'm paying four hours to. But now with this, they're assigned an an ID number. I know exactly who it is. I've got all the contact information. I got their payroll
information. Send it off to our payroll department. Done. So, as far as scheduling, I can schedule the whole year on in one day. I have all my elections scheduled out. So, just a lot more user friendly, easier for everybody. Anyone needs a report,
generate a report. Here you go. And then, so those are the two databases that we came up with. So, you know, we continue to look for innovation, you know, through these different software packages that are out there. And I'm, you know, I consider myself a frugal person. So, I spend the town's money
like I would my own. So, I'm not going to just, you know, go with the first first price I see out there. I do my research. I get references. I check on these these different companies that are available to us. So, I'm not I'm not looking for the most expensive person. So, we get the best deals we can and we
get the most bang for our buck. And then, let's see. So, and then we've recently re we we reviewed the town clerk fees. We at the as of January 1st, we raised the majority of them. The only ones we didn't raise were the dog
license fees. So, the vital records were increased. The DBA applications increased. So, they hadn't been reviewed since 2020. So, typically you like to review those every 3 years. It went five. So, you know, I felt like it was a
justified response. I looked at the surrounding communities. So, you know, it was it was fair. it was fair and in a timely fashion to raise those fees. So with that, I'm open to take any questions. >> Any questions from the select board?
>> Alissa, >> thank you, Leo. Um, so I didn't have any questions written down. Um, but I did definitely take note of your uh champion uh full-time
assistant position, but listening to you talk about the shift from paper to electronic and spreadsheets to databases and all of these things that are going to save you time. Are there additional um efficiencies that you can find that
will in in your mind, you know, maintain services or even improve them um with the the current level of staffing or is there something that you >> There's always more we can do. Like right now, we have a vault full of full of books and things like that that I
would love to have scanned which would just make it much more easy just to search for certain items. you know, genealological work, that's a nightmare. So, if somebody's looking for something from 1850, it it could it takes quite a while to look up that information, get it
accurate, you know, to find out cuz sometimes they're looking for my great grandmother on my father's side and this and so they want that information and they're paying a minimal fee for that. So, it could take a take my office a day or two to get that information. And for
genealological research, it takes it's it's a $40 fee, flat fee. We can't charge anymore. So to dedicate one employee to that for a couple days, we're losing. So, you know, I'd love I'd love to see more time dedicated to that
so I can get the information scanned, get get some of these old books bound, you know, so they're they're put together safely because I'm seeing some of the books not in the best condition anymore just due to time. Time takes time takes a toll on these books. So,
you know, I'm very careful with them uh because we can't get those back. We can't get the the signatures. We'll never see those signatures again. So, these are extremely important documents that we that we're responsible for. You know, we take that responsibility very
seriously. So, there's no getting this information back. If it's damaged or or lost, it's impossible to replace. I think I'm seeing a CPA grant application for digitization of those this those
historic records in your future. Um I think my uh since this is the second presentation talking about digit uh um using technology to improve efficiency. Um
and um coming from uh a career years ago in the banking industry when that was ripe for efficiency and technology. I'm sure town government is as similar as that. Uh the one thing that happened in
that industry is that there was a lot of uh quick hitting opportunities and areas and then uh what you ended up with which you ended up with uh departments that had divisions and departments that had their own little softwares and then
>> the town manager, the president of the bank finally decided that they wanted to start leveraging all this electronic information and then having them all talk to each other became a challenge. So I would suggest that uh to continue
on your path, but I would also think outside the box a little bit, talk to the other departments and see if anybody else can leverage the system that you're using maybe slightly differently, but at least >> because the more information you can get
into a similar database, even though it might be different departments and different divisions, it makes it easier in the future to leverage that information for other purposes. is >> what they might be. I don't know. >> Um that's really my main thought. Is there any questions from finance
committee? Karen. >> Hi. >> Hi Karen. Um, so I'm looking at the just the total of the personnel services and it's it's really lumpy even year-over-year and budget versus actual and like one thing I noticed is the the big the kind of a big I think driver of
the variance is the uh line other salaries and wages which I think is election workers. >> Well, it was we could say that >> it was two two staff members. Well, they weren't it's hard to describe that what
they were they worked here for a while and they were never really budgeted for. So, we'd always see that that area go into the red. But now, you'll no longer see that go into the red. You'll no longer see overtime now that we've brought on our part-timer because this
one part-timer basically replaced two individuals that were working in our office. >> So, I'm thinking like close to $40,000. >> We have spring elections, right? So, are we going to be we're not going to be paying people for election workers? >> A lot of people are actually willing to volunteer now, which is great. I love
that. I'm going to try to, >> you know, bug my fellow staff members as much as possible to volunteer. >> Okay. >> Which is great. So, they actually enjoy it. You know, it's a day out of the office to see people, so it's fun. Yeah. It's good.
>> Thank you. >> Yeah. Leo, um >> the population and registered voters graph you have um population seems to be steady if not declining. Is the source of Is this the paper document that you send out to every household?
>> Yes, this is it. So, it's my census that I send out every year >> that a lot of people don't return and I'm trying to figure out. See, I delayed it this year. Typically, you would have received it by now. It went out. It went out two hours ago. So, it hit the mail
the post office two hours ago. So, that's good. So, hopefully it, you know, because the excuse I always heard was it got mixed up my holiday mailings. Sorry. So, it shows up like 6 months later. You know, they bring it in. Oh, do you still need this? Yes, I still need that. So,
>> you can't really depend on the post office. >> No. And that's So, now you know you can email it back to me. Anyone can email it back to me. Anyone that wants to sign it, email it back to me. do it. Any way you can get it back to me is great. So, and then the other thing that'll
eliminate the need for my follow-up notifications that many of you re not many of you, but but many residents received in in the spring, my follow-up notifications, which was costly because I had to, you know, I had to postmark the envelopes, the exterior envelopes,
and then state mandate requires that I I include a postmarked interior envelope, a return envelope as well. So that's a ridiculous amount of money that we're we're wasting on postage. So in order to eliminate that, people just need to
return that census to me. So the quicker the better and then we can get that done, not think about it. We'll get those street listings up to date. Our voter reg our voter edge list will be perfect and it'll be great for everybody involved. So all the data that you get
from people scribbled uh things gets digitized somehow into >> we do that. It's a manual process. >> Thank you. >> Following up from it's great that you're coming right after the police. >> Yeah.
>> Uh do you anticipate you're going to get the same level of responses as you've gotten in years past? >> I hope not. I'm hoping to in that's going to be one of my key performance indicators is how many how many censuses I get returned. I'm going to try to put it on as much social media as I can. You
know, please return your census as quickly as possible. >> What's what's what's to counteract fear? >> Well, it's just I can't imagine everyone's a citizen, right? >> Yeah. But I want my voter registration list to be as accurate as possible. So, if it's ever if it's questioned, if any
year it's going to be questioned, it's going to be this year. So, I want to have it as accurate as possible. I want to be able to provide any documented paperwork that I need to to anyone that's going to question it. I want to be able to have that right on hand. So, oh, any questions can be answered quickly. That's
>> And separate question. Uh, are we still waiting on the home rule petition to allow 16 to 18 year olds to vote? >> We are. >> Uh, is there a statute of limitations on that where it dies on the vine if it doesn't get approved by the state or it just sits out there? >> It's been actually been out there for quite a while because a few other communities have approved it before us.
And it's not it's not like if the attorney general doesn't get to it in the next 5 years, it's moot. It's just stays out there forever. >> Yeah. Well, it so each home rule petition when our legislators submit it for us, it's it's good for their legislative session, which is two years.
So, that happened to us a few times where they we did all the work here. We got it to the state. our our delegation put it forward, but because the legislature didn't act on it in the 2-year period, they said, "You have to go back to town meeting and do it again." So, if it doesn't happen in two two years from whatever we submitted it,
it would the same thing would likely happen. >> Thank you. >> Very good. >> Leo, am I mistaken? Did you just use the term key? >> I did use that. You did use that term, Greg. >> Was that preemptive? >> That was preemptive. But I have a few others. So I want to
see I want to see my vital records increased. I want to see people more people coming to act and to purchase birth certificates, marriage certificates, unfortunately death certificates as well. So anything that they they can come to us for, I want to see those increased as well. I want to see I definitely want to see more dog
licenses. We're in the middle of those right now. You know, I have a goal of of 2500. So, I think if I push hard enough, we can get 2500 dog dogs registered and that would be great. >> Leo, you are now the leading comeback
king cuz last year you would not give us KPIs and now you've got them. I don't know. I think the library should be worried. >> All right. >> Do you have a feeling how many dogs would be unregistered? Yeah. Or like a percentage, you think? See, this is a
discussion that we've had a lot here in town hall. >> See, I feel like So, there's 9,000 households. So, I'm like, everybody loves dogs. So, I feel like there's got to be about 4,000 dogs in this town. >> But others feel differently that I'm a little high.
>> Well, you have pay station at the new dog park if they dogs not registered in the town. A registered dog in a town. >> I feel like I feel like that's going to police itself over there. I >> say it might be a good revenue source. I have a question. This I know that's
not why we're here, but I uh how many weddings do you think that the town clerk's office conducts every year? This is a question for the boards >> that we can there's weddings in this building on a regular basis. What What would you guess
would be the amount we do in a year? >> 32. >> No, we do more than that. I I'd say a with the introduction of our new database, people are seeing the ease of just having their marriages performed by the JPS here at here for the town of
Actton, Alicia and myself. So, they think it's great. They they just come right in. And honestly, it is a great way to do the process because then they don't have to worry about the legal parts. They just get that taken care of and whoever wants to go up on the during their parties, they can have anybody say
whatever they want. >> Why didn't you mention that in your KPIs? >> How many have we done so far? >> Three or four month, right? >> Yeah. I'd say I'd say about maybe six on a good month. Yeah. So, six a month.
>> Yeah. Yeah. So, so we're we're trying to find a great spot for it. Right now, like in the when it's good weather outside, we use the arborum. They love that. They love They love the park. So, is it broadcast on Actton TV? >> It's not broadcast on Not yet. Not yet.
So, I need a robe for that though. >> So, did that and then you also have a bunch of other ones that would be done in churches in act. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> So, how many how many total >> how many total weddings >> marriage certificates in a year? Oh, about 100. Yeah, >> about 100. >> Yeah.
>> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Anything else? >> That's it. Any other questions? Finance committee select board.
>> I just wanted to quickly acknowledge your record requests are down. >> Oh, >> yeah. >> Which is good. >> Yeah, that's a challenge. Yeah, the records request can be very challenging. So, know it's sometimes it's like hurting cats. We got to chase down that
information for people, but it's fine. Yeah. >> All right. Nice job. Thank you. >> Thank you guys. Thank you, Tom. Okay. Well, our next presentation will be from the technology team
uh led by Carl Vulker. >> Hello everyone. Uh to everyone who I haven't met before, my name is Carl Vulker. I'm the director of innovation and technology for the town of Actton. At the end of this week, I'll be here uh for 10 months. So, um not too far into
it. Um I oversee the information technology and GIS teams. There are two IT support technicians, Justin Flynn, Brian Cody, and they both just recently celebrated 10 years with the town of Actton, which is nice. Um sit next to me
is the director of data analytics and applications, Kristen Alexander. She's been here for 25 years. And um we also have a uh application specialist GI GIS analyst Andy Atala and he is a recent
hire for us. I think he's been here two three months now. Um, our department supports a wide variety of services from the wired network to wireless network, email services, telecommunications, radio communications for the public
safety, um, networking between all public buildings. Um, you know, including like sewer facilities and whatnot. Um, um, and just and and our FM radio station, our low power FM radio station. Um, I want to highlight a
couple of accomplishments that we had over the past year. Um, I came in towards the tail end of this. We're upgrading core components to the town's voice over IP system. So, a lot of Cisco gear for that. The team had already started that and then we were wrapping
it up as I came on board. We implemented a new uh electronic voting system. I think we all saw this at town meeting. Um, and it may have looked similar to before, but it was a new system that allows for um instant counting of the voting from between the various rooms
rather than having to to do the counting on isolated systems and report it back to one desk and um tally it up there. I think it went well. You know, it's a new technology. We put it online. We got it in house probably about a week and a half uh before town meeting. There was a
lot of research done on it. It wasn't halfaphazard. You know, I talked to John about it. Um, but we felt we were confident putting it in there and it' be a nice I mean and sometimes you just need to pull the band-aid off and get it going. So I think um you know and we had a vendor on site with it. So uh I think we were careful for it. It's an important meeting and we wanted to make
sure that everything was good with it. Um we have largely completed the town's email system upgrade. I know that shows in the the budget book there was just a miscommunication that it would be a goal for next year. It has been essentially completed. all users are over and
migrated to it and I'm just doing some backend work to get some of the older systems offline but um and that was you know um a large project um and it was you know I started it when I got here and um it's taken a lot of time got a
lot of support from it from staff and everything good you know change is tough this was a big one um but it was good to get that system offline um we also completed uh the phase one of the radio communication enhance enhancement project and the bulk of this
was upgrading the systems at the PSFDs uh PSF dispatch center. So they went from the old Ztron consoles, I don't know if anybody had seen those before, the push buttons and now it's all touchscreen. We updated all the radios in the backend infrastructure and this will help us when we when we look to
phase two um to do Simocast between the different sites and improve radio communication. So it was a a pretty substantial job. It was um somewhat configured prior to my starting, but there had been no gear put in. So, we we did a bulk of it. We got that fired up
right before July 4th. Um and um it disruptive for the dispatch because it was a lot of change, but they did very well with it. And I thought we uh we did it pretty um I wouldn't say seamless, but I think it went pretty well. Um, and then, um, lastly, I'll mention that
the town's GIS maps, there were three of them that were recognized by the state and used an example in their open space and recreation plan workbook. So, I think I credit Kristen and her hard work there to get those um, you know, brought up uh, in front of the state. Uh,
upcoming projects uh, will begin phase two of the radio communication enhancement project. We'll start by reviewing the existing sites, evaluation of potential new sites and additional infrastructure upgrades. So, this will be, you know, looking at what we have.
I've we've brought a RF, an engineering consultant on board to assist with this. So, we'll build coverage maps. Uh, we know we have a very weak area up in North Actton and there is a telecommunications tower that's going up and, you know, we should be able to have
space on that or we will be able to have space on that. And I think that'll be key and also going simalcast. So um that has just started now. I think it'll take a a month or two at least to get through that analysis, get our
coverage maps and then um we'll build out an equipment list and then it'll go out to vendors to to um you know to bid on the project because there'll be different parts of it. There'll be equipment at the base that needs to be installed and if it's upgrading what some of the systems that we have. We
have some old base stations at the sites like great hill and windcliffe. Um and then also be tower work because we'll put new antennas up there. So we may break it out. Um you know town meeting did allocate money for the project and it's good and I think um you know we
want to be careful with it. I think, you know, try to really get the bang for the buck because I think we're we're missing, you know, there's there's poor coverage in here. And and hopefully at the same time, we can save some money to also upgrade some of the radios. As Chief Kogan mentioned, some of those are 20 25 years old and and and some of the
radios that we're looking at 10 grand a pop. Um but, you know, they're critical systems. So, I think, you know, um hopefully we have some money for that left in that that budget. Uh we're working on replacing some um core storage systems that are uh end of life.
Um and this is for you know a variety of purposes. Some data storage. Uh our virtual architecture uses this for storage. Um the stuff we're using now is is quite old and uh we were able to find funding at the end of last fiscal year to buy that. I'm in the process of um
you know putting that in in in place and hopefully within the next few months we'll be able to get that locked in. um systemwide GIS upgrade to ARC Pro that was paused from FY26 and that's something Kristen's team will work on.
Um yeah, there was a lot of transition in this department. It goes went from operations and encompass facilities and IT and um just changes Kristen took on a lot of it. So I think some of the the GIS stuff is backlog and um and we'll
catch up on that and so that'll be one of the projects and why it was mentioned again. Um and then the next phase to integrate scanned historical information into map geo. So that's another thing that um Kristen's team will work on. Um and just some highlights, Kristen continues to
lead the hotline team. It's a very active um on that. I see all the messages. I try to cover for Kristen when she's out to try to respond or send it out to departments. They produced the GIS team produced 68 maps this year. Um it we handle a lot of volume of help
desk. Um you know there's there's a facilities help desk and IT help desk. I see every help desk ticket that comes in try to jump on when I can. It's a high volume and sometimes are busier than others. Um, and I I and I just think, you know,
coming into this, um, the IT system is very complex here. You know, it's it's it's interesting. I love the the the diverse the spread of it. And I think, you know, credit to Kristen for jumping on and taking on a huge load to to, you know, support the IT team. I credit the
IT team for the work that they've done. um because it's it's you know it can be daunting you know if if you don't know these systems you get in here I get in here and there's been a large learning curve um it's been exciting um and I enjoy it and um you know I think the
support of Kristen to get me up to speed on the variety of systems from you know Munis and the procurement system changes from where I've come from so that was extremely helpful and same with the IT guys they work really hard um they enjoy what they do they give great customer
service my office is right outside theirs and I hear them talking on the phone. They jump on stuff and they won't hesitate to get in one of the vehicles and shoot over to the building. So, I think um good stuff there. Um and overall with the budget, we're we're pretty relatively even. Um there's some
changes and slight changes, but I think, you know, I'm taking this first year to look at a lot of the contracts that we have. Um I like negotiating stuff. I like looking for good prices. I don't want to just stick with one vendor because that's what we've done. Um, and uh, I'll continue that. You know, I
think Leo said it. You know, I I'll treat it like my money and you know, I like to get good bargains and um, good support from u um, John and everybody in the management office. And it's actually a pretty great place to work. So, that is my report. Appreciate the time
tonight. >> Thank you. Um, I've got a specific question about uh the radio network. Um, I know you're working hard on uh police and fire. I'd like to see
if you've got any involvement uh and anything you can tell us about with any work you might be doing with the radio system for public works and general government. um you know 10 12 years ago when I was more familiar with these things I know
that a lot of that stuff was sort of end of life then um so and I know there's been some talk about more interoperability between public works and public safety when it comes to communications um the kind of things I'm always worried
about or I was back then and still am um you know increased reliance on cell phones which are great until you have a major major natural disaster and everybody's on the cell phone and you can't get on the the network anymore.
Um, and the other thing these occasional issues now with the solar storms, there was one that was expected the other night um with the northern lights that felt some parts of the world would be uh their cell service would be interrupted.
So, I'd just like to see where we stand as far as not so much public safety, but public works and general government radio systems. >> That's a great question. Um, you know, the focus of phase one, uh, was strictly
for public safety and and strictly for police and fire. Phase two, um, there had been some initial estimates and and, um, data put together for that and that was strictly for the same thing. Um I but I have heard that there's interest
in in um public works having whether it's their own channel um and getting some more um equipment out there. I think it's something we need to look at. Um I did talk to my RF consultant when I had him out and said, "Hey, you know, if we want to throw this this way, you
know, can we do an addendum?" Because I mean, if we're climbing up towers and we're determining that the coverage range is good for police and fire, you know, can we put another antenna up there? And you know, even if we don't have the money for the ground equipment now, can we lay the groundwork for that?
Um, I haven't talked extensively with John about it. I think it's something I know that it's it's it hasn't been presented to me necessarily. Is this, you know, um is part of the phase 2 project, but um I'm certainly open to to
to talking about it and and being smart, especially if we're climbing up towers and we're going to spend money for people to go up there. If we can put, you know, a piece of antenna cable on another table in advance, um, it might be something that we look at.
>> Sounds like a worthwhile subject to discuss during the select board's goal setting session in June. Uh, comments from other select board members. David, >> thank you. I don't think you mentioned the network upgrades in this building.
Um are they are you do you have those coming in the coming year? >> Network upgrades in general >> switches and things. >> Yeah, this we have money in the budget. Um it's not necessarily specifically in this building. The the the library is
our core building. That's where we have our core infrastructure switching. We have um our edge firewalls that connect us to the public internet are end of life and those need to be replaced. So, that's one of the things I want to look at, you know, relatively soon. Um, and
then just across, I mean, every building that we're in, every um, pump station that we're in, whether it's a a building or whether it's a, you know, a casing on the road because we didn't put a building in there like McMandis Manor, you look out there, uh, every one of
those has a switch in it. Um, you know, switches you should get good 10 years. I mean the the you know the switches that are basically throughout the the town are Cisco switches. So we didn't buy you know we bought there's been good stuff that have been bought and I think we're
going to have to replace some of those and just be prepared for those. The firewalls will be expensive. Um the core switching will be pretty expensive and that's going to end of life shortly. Um so it's just you know it just catches up to you. Um and I think the way I'm going
to look at that is I'm going to target the more critical ones. you know, to make sure. And I'm still doing an inventory of some of those. So, in this building, there's just there's standard switching that connects this floor, the the ground floor, the the second floor alto together, but those are
they're not a dime a dozen because you're going to buy Cisco when you're going to you know, for the interoperability, but um you know, it's not bank breaking. It's just you've got to chip away at those at some point. And and in a related thing, um um the
Wi-Fi, especially in this building, is spot not spotty. Um it's weird, right? It it it it works well for certain computers and it doesn't work well for other computers. Um um the uh computers that have a problem will have a
continuous problem. Computers that don't have a problem will never have a problem. Um, and the situation is much better than it was a couple years ago, but it's not perfect. And um, uh, so I just me mentioned that I don't know whether you network upgrades include
Wi-Fi upgrades. >> It hasn't necessarily. I mean, we've there's I know that our our core Wi-Fi system is, you know, a certain flavor and I can see that there have been some adjustments and some other gear purchase
that's a higher end, a higher level. Um, you know, as far as staff, I can say from what I see, um, we don't get a lot of complaints about the the Wi-Fi. There have been some complaints in this room and we understand that we made some changes. Um I think some of this room
was was limited by bandwidth and I've increased one leg of that um to our Verizon. It was we had some pretty low bandwidth in that room and I think that's helped with Zoom meetings. Um most of our staff I think in the building are generally wired at the desktops. It's it's kind of the way that
I would always go. Wireless is great but there's a lot of interference. Um but it's something we we have some infrastructure. So if there was specific stuff and maybe we talk about flying a bit more if you're hearing more and I'm just not hearing it cuz what I find with some of the staff here is they put up with a lot of stuff and I'd rather they
just come and if if we're having a lot of issues like that. I use the Wi-Fi at my desk all the time because they had a wired desktop. So I I try to stay on top of that. Um but if we're hearing specific things I' I'd love to get in more detail with you. >> Thank you.
I think this is a question for Kristen. I'm um intrigued by the next phase of um integrating scanned historical information. Now the map geo is the GIS. Are they two separate things or
>> map G map is the public facing um version of the GIS? Okay. Um the online Y >> I learned something new. Thanks. And um as for the that project, we've scanned and connected um all the permit
data um from two thou November 2015 to the present. Um so this phase two of the project would be looking at everything before November 2015. Yeah. You're welcome, >> Jim.
Um there's a connection in my mind between um the new clicker systems and our um select board goal to experiment with um more satellite voting um at town
meeting. Um, but I'm I'm not sure from what I've read about the systems, it seems like the the network at uh the senior center isn't part of our it wouldn't work with the clickers or
not. Can can you help clarify that? Yeah, without putting myself into too much trouble, no, it is it is the the senior center is connected on our fiber network and I think if we were to look at doing a remote like a satellite of that and we
wanted to use the clickers, we would need something to be on the fiber backbone. It's just not going to work over a public internet whether you do VPN or anything like that. It has to be over the fiber network. So, the senior center has um our fiber. Well, it has fiber into it. It's some of it's Comcast
and we're working on that, but it could be a viable option. >> Thank you. I don't I don't have any questions. I just want to confirm um my experience with the department has been that they are hardworking and great customer service. Um, I also wanted to
just mention that the mapping the is really really appreciated by a lot of residents in town as well as staff. I hear from people frequently about how great it is. They can get so much information from those maps. Um, I appreciate your focus, Carl, on the on
the upgrades. Um, you know, the functionality and performance as well as, you know, security bringing us into this century. Um, and I will say that I concur with David, the Wi-Fi is a little bit weird. Um, but I I have a computer that sometimes it it has trouble and
sometimes it doesn't. So, I don't know. My I guess my computer is weird as well. I have noticed um the connection is uh a little bit unstable oftentimes in the conference room of the library and also room 9 in this building. So, just FYI, I
don't know why you're not hearing about that from staff, but that's something that I've experienced um in different meetings. >> It's good to know. Thank you. >> I just have uh one question. uh since you've been here for less than a year and are you sure I'm sure when you start
there's a laundry list of things that you kind of have to do and plow through and then you have the list that you kind of sort of have to get to and you're going to get to that when you can make make it there. Uh I'm interested uh well finance committee uh is always focused
on long-term financial planning and since you're new and there's going to be a point where you're going to be off the I have to do this list and then you're going to finally be on the list of these are the things that I want to do. I'm curious as to um not a timeline, but
just what are things that you've seen that you would like to do um for the town and in your department that haven't been spoken to so far? The things that I'd like to do, um
you know, you're right. I've talked about a lot of the core stuff that has to be done and there's just no way around it. But uh you know some of the things I want to do is the way staff can access the systems remotely. You know we have right now we we we use old style
SMB shares file shares. They work great but you got to VPN in and you've got to have a domain join machine and that's all well and good and there's there's security to it. Uh but it limits your sharing ability. You know we also have a small portion on Google Workspace because I think there was you know there
was a desire for that. Um, what I'd like to do there is I'd really like to take advantage of the Microsoft licenses that we bought into. We decided to do that. We're an ad shop, Active Directory, so Windowsbased. Um, and our licensing will cover some of
that, at least in the short term for um, uh, users, you know, they they I I'm going to mess up on the drive letter. It's either the P drive or the whatever. It's it's their personal drive and one drive can support that. It's it's a it's an interesting area because I've been in
this business for a while and you've got the people on the Google side, you got it on the Microsoft side. I think, you know, there's arguments for both, but I think we have some money invested in Microsoft. I'd like to do that. I'd like to make the the ease of it a little bit better. And I, you know, it's always, well, I don't want to so hard, but we
can't lose security. I mean, but um, you know, using cloud-based storage is is secure. We can two factor it. Um um and there's been some good stuff that's already been in place prior to me getting here. Um so good stuff like that. Um
what else? Um you know, whether you look at um like an internal internet system or something like that, staff pages, you know, a lot of stuff we do is documents are put on a fileshare and they're they're hard to use. And I'm I'm I come from more of a
system like an internet. So, it's like you get a new employee, it's it's really great to and I'm probably going to kill myself for trying to have a good idea here, but it's great to be able to go to one spot and and just be able to look at it and um um and it's something, you know, that I haven't had a chance to
talk to John about or the rest, but I think it's I think that's an important thing like when I started, you know, just I had great onboarding, don't get me wrong, but I just, you know, it's like, you know, I'm a self I like to figure stuff out for myself. And if you can have a place to do that and and the last thing I'll just mention is like
Munice. So we use that and to use Munis right now um you've got a VPN into the system and then VPN's a appliance to to their systems and I think that's just inefficient. Um you know I'm used to using SAP system that you can just get
from any desktop and I think it's ease of use. So we we do have a remote work policy. I know some people will work at home. you know, you should be able to just pop on and and VPN is a great tool and there's probably still some stuff needed. So, we are looking at that with Munis right now. Tyler is rolling it
out. I think it's a benefit for them. I think they've done it probably kept it on behind VPN for a long time just for their own you know as you know their security and you can you can reduce bots and you can reduce people hitting it because you're just saying you know the town of acting can hit me on a VPN and
all that. So I think ease of use type of things is that I'd look at um um and you know there's just there's a lot that I think we can do. There's a lot of core systems that I you know really focused on. You know it's risk mitigation. Um we're not I don't think
we're in a bad shape. I think we're moving along. The email was a big thing and that consumed a ton of my time. Um but we're we're we're past the hard stages of that I think. And then you know get the storage online and that'll be a much easier less disruptive thing for staff. Good answer. Thank you. Any questions
from I'll just go Jason. I skipped Jason last time. >> You didn't skip me. It's okay. Um uh what is our virtualization platform? Is it VMware? >> Yeah. >> Uh were we hit do were we hit with new licensing costs or do we still have time
left on our uh on our uh VBF licensing? >> Great question. Um it's perpetual right now so we're okay and we're not that far out of whack. We could run on it for a little bit. We're at eight. Um, but you know, it's something we'll have to look at when we go go to upgrade because with
Broadcom taking it over. The prices are astronomical. I mean, people are jumping and and it it's hard because VMware is the gold standard. You know, I you full host. I can move stuff around um and you know, take something down. Um, you don't
want to lose that. And >> so, you said we're on perpetual currently on perpetual licensing. The what matters is the what matters is the support contract. When is our support contract do? >> Uh 20 I think we got it through 28. I I'd have to look.
>> So you you bought you bought a three-year contract right before they did the >> somebody did. Yeah. I didn't buy it. Yeah. >> John, if you did that, congratulations. You had perfect timing. Um you have the >> Kristen, thank you. Uh just so you know, I work in this industry. The industry
average for VMware licensing is a 450% increase at the end of the at the end of that period. >> So you had just been asked what uh what do you look forward to? I would strongly recommend you have you have a ticking time bomb for when you need to get off of VMware. Uh by all means don't go to
Proxmbox, but look at Morpheus and look at uh Nanix. You're going to have to get off of VMware. VMware does not want to do business with customers this small anymore. Yeah, it's a shame because it's it's a it's an incredible platform and I was surprised to see it. >> Yeah, they've the Broadcom has pissed in
the punch bowl pretty badly on this one. >> Yeah, it's interesting you said about Proxmon because I've had some guys that work for me that love it, but >> no, don't do that. Um, are you concerned about the current shortage of DRAM as a result of AI having bought up every
single open wafer for the next next year? and do we have the ability to ride out 6 to 12 months so that pricing can come back down especially if we're looking at buying a new storage array um now is not the quarter to do it in >> yeah the storage array we already purchased good
>> so that was purchased >> uh into the fiscal year or right after >> what' you buy >> Dell power store >> fine um and uh how do you plan to avoid vendor registration uh where the vendor where
VAR gets all the points by doing a registration. Uh when you go to buy the Cisco core and the Cisco edge switches, that's usually on the order of 42 to 48 points. Um are you going to make it clear during your RFQ that you will grant multiple you would ask the vendor
s Cisco or whoever you choose to be your new core to grant multiple uh multiple vendor registrations so that the VARS don't get you know 40 points plus in the in the purchasing price. Um, I haven't got to that place. >> If you'd like some help with that,
please. If you'd like some help with that, as you get closer, please let me know. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> And if you're ever one or two 10 gsrs short, just let me know. I've got about 400 sitting in my office. >> Thank you. >> Karen was
Karen, do you have the same level of detail as Jason did on the IT stuff? >> I promise not. I must say I stay up at the high the higher level again I'm looking at the total personnel services. Um was there a big jump in FTEES from because it it goes from FY25. Do you
know what the number of FTEEs would have been maybe in FY24? Was there did this department? >> No, there was not a big jump. Okay. >> No, it's just um >> no FY25. >> It says there was 6.375, but then I was
just wondering what the Nobody knows what the rest was of the year. I'm just Okay, because the total total comp went up 22% from FY24 to FY25 and then it came in, you know, a little under budget in FY25, but then we keep
budgeting off of budget and so it came in. So, you know, we have this big increase. It's I I feel like the gap between the budget and reality, it's just going to keep growing if we don't reset the base. >> So, I think uh >> this is like all all departments. It's not just this one.
>> Ellie just reminded me. So, in 25 there was a position that had been part of the town manager's office that we moved into the IT department. >> Okay. The FTE did change >> and then that person has since retired. >> Okay. >> And that's why there are zero FTE in FY27.
>> Zero change. Okay. because still like so if there was 6.375 FTEES in FY25 that works out to $109,000 per FTE the FY26 budget would work out to $125,000
off going up off of actual instead of off of the previous budget. >> Okay, >> that's a 15% increase in the cost per FTE. That's a big jump. And then now FTEES are staying the same from in the budget from at 26 to 27 but still another 7% increase.
It just seems high. >> Yeah, I think we we have to uh maintain a workforce and part of that is making sure that people are being paid competitively. There are very few IT people that want to work in government. We thank uh the two that are at the table with us and we have to pay them to
keep them here. All right. >> That's gonna be my question probably on most of the departments, just FYI. Thanks. >> So, um, like laptops and things like that, is there a replacement schedule?
And if so, is it I know one of the last time I checked on this, they were buying laptops instead of leasing them. You know, like my company, they I they lease a laptop in three years next in two more years or a year, mine's going to be replaced again.
>> So to keep ahead of, you know, obsolescence. >> Sorry. Um, I could say that we're probably a little bit more reactive right now than we we need to be
with uh laptop purchases. You know, we stay on on um we keep enough because stuff happens. Um you know, um I'm not opposed to looking at leasing. I did leasing early on in my career. I never
liked it. I never I never had much luck with it. Maybe it's changed in these years. Um, I think you you could get more more than three years out of a life of a laptop. Um, and I think it's just to be seen. Um, you know, when I first went from desktops and started giving
staff laptops, I was nervous because I, you know, and and but I think times have changed a little bit. You know, people count on those laptops. I think they're treating them better. Um, >> what's that? >> I hope so. >> Yeah. It's it's a it's a it's a tough
line, but I mean um you know, people will still break them. Um you know, if something happens, I'll admit I broke a laptop when I first started here. It was the dumbest I the first laptop I ever broke. I went over to the PSF. I put a piece of paper in between my laptop, closed it. It had a
little staple. I cracked my screen. I went over there in the closet and I'm like, and we got it warranted. It was free. We got it covered. So thankfully, um lesson learned. So I even learned a lesson. Um um I don't know. I'd have to look at Leon if you had a a good uh suggestion
in that arena. I'd love to I'd love to hear it. It's I've we did it for a lot of the public radio station I worked for and um for years it was okay. I mean we we were leasing our servers at the time, you know, massive compact ones. And um we got out of it. Um, and I think, you
know, you buy good stuff, a good laptop, you don't buy the lower end and and buy decent enough processor, enough RAM, you should get plenty of time out of it because, you know, the the stuff we're putting on is more intensive, but it's not like we're jumping tfold, and we're not doing video editing and stuff like
that. We're doing a lot of, you know, relatively um, easy computer tasks, web-based stuff. Um, so Carl, you're going to get the new guy discount. So, I could ask you about your
key performance indicators, but you can also say I'm the new guy. Ask me next year. >> No, I I'll try to give you a couple. I think, you know, for me, my KPIs are, you know, system uptime, um, network uptime, I think they're different, and
application uptime. Um, you know, some of the stuff now is, you know, Munice is a big application that's not I I I manage it to a certain degree. I mean, I just a VPN and stuff like that, but um, you know, the connection to me is more important that that we can
get out um, you know, with a dual WAN type of thing. Um, I think, um, I did write one down because I was prepared for you. uh uh endpoint systems. I think it's
important, you know, I want to see my compliance at endpoints to make sure that, you know, you know, desktops and stuff that's within my purview is up to where it should be, that we're not riding Windows 10 until, you know, we shouldn't be. And um it is too late, but
you know, we can only work from the from where we are. And I think, you know, same with servers and and stuff like that. I think that's it's just hard to keep up at times and I think we can get on top of it and um so that'll be one of the things that I want to look at and
and the second question I'm I'm intrigued with the uh innovation in your title too. So, one of the topics that the editors at the act and exchange are currently debating is the use of artificial intelligence.
And one of the things that we've noticed is that the Actton Town website gets significantly more traffic than the Actton Exchange website. you are a
bigger news source than the news source in town. People come here to uh to get their information. So in in in since you're that important in the media uh
mix uh and keeping people informed, what are your thoughts in artificial intelligence? >> Well, I mean I think me I think it's great. I think for, you know, I think we need a policy here and and how to, you know, make sure that we we're properly
informing staff on how they should and should not use it and what they can use it for. I think for a website like that, um, you know, you could have a little chat bot on the side of it, but the thing is it comes with a cost and you want to weigh it because it's not like I
can put this build this chatbot and people can buy them, but if you want to have the APIs that are going out and getting the data to return it, is it worth the investment to do it? It's it's a cool idea, I think. Um, you know, could we have better indexing on our
site that'll offset that? I mean um you know maybe if the prices come down it may or may not be worth it. Um personally I think for tech support it's wonderful you know because I've come you know what days of scraping blogs and forums and stuff like that it just but
you got to be smart about it too because you know I think you you can be fooled into thinking it's it's the answer. Um um but I think it you know if you use it wisely you can you know do good stuff with it. But, you know, I think, you know, we do need more of a policy. It is something John and I have talked about
briefly, but um because I think you it can lure people into being careless and putting data in there that they shouldn't. And then, you know, you don't know until it it affects you somehow. And it's usually you get egg on your face and then you lose the trust of people and whether it's the town people,
you never want to lose the trust. It's like managing credit cards. don't ever, you know, if you're a business, I mean, TGX can do it and they can survive and come back a couple years later, but uh we're not TGX. And I think it's just, you know, well, they just put a credit card down machine down in uh the clerk's
office to do some payments through city hall systems. And I did push back quite a bit on that. I had a lot of experience with it. Make sure it's like a pull, you know, we should not have like um you know, unencrypted data, credit card data on any town owned computer. It's just
it's a recipe for disaster. I think it's and there's just too many solutions out there now not to do it and you just sometimes have to push the vendor a little bit. Got off track but um I think AI is the same thing. There it's got a lot of good tools in there but um you have to be cautious with it
unless you want to invest in it then you're all right. >> I think we've exhausted the topic. Is that fair to say? Thank you very much. >> Nice work. Nice job. Well done much. I'll be in touch when he's taking time and then we if we
have time for Dan we can get to him. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. So, uh the next group that we'll be hearing from is the town manager's office which has a few uh uh offices within that. So, we're going to get
started right away um with that budget and Tom will direct us to where it is. All right. Hi again, everybody. Um, if you wanted to turn to page 91 or refer to 91, um, that's where we'll begin for the town manager's office. So, the town
manager's office consists of uh John, myself, executive assistant Lisa Toml, who's at the back of the room here, uh director of economic development, Patricia Casa, director of diversity, equity, inclusion, Wiku Kosigible, uh sustainability director Andrea Basera,
environmental analyst Lauren West, who's at the end of the table, and outreach specialist and energy advocate Sophia Dar. Town Manager's office had a very busy year in 2025. some of the highlights and accomplishments that are in your book. Uh those include the curing proposals for redevelopment of
three and 13 school street that will help revitalize the area. Uh recently the town also entered into a purchase and sale agreement with a uh local developer to redevelop those parcels. Uh we su successfully implemented new recruitment and retention programs that
are aimed at stabilizing staffing levels. Uh we are awarded a number of grants that include a $1 million grant from the FY26 climate leader communities decarbonization accelerator program that'll be used to help defer the cost
of the town hall HVAC and emergency power replacement project. Another highlighted grant that we received in FY26 was the FY uh the housing works infrastructure program for the Fort Middle Fort Pond Brook wastewater treatment facility equalization tank. Uh
these two grants highlight the $4.8 million that was received in the past year and the over $23 million that have been received townwide in grants in the last six years. That's a pretty impactful number. Those $23 million over the past six years has helped
the town complete a lot of projects and initiatives and programs that would not normally be funded through the budget due to constraints um and other funding needs. uh we implemented a successful reorganization and opera in operations department. You just heard from one of those departments, the uh innovation and
technology department. The second department that was split from that group is the facilities. You'll hear from them later. Uh we recruited a number of new department heads. That includes the director of innovation and technologies, the facilities manager, human resources director, the director
of economic development, planning director, and a number of other department heads throughout the year. And we also had a pretty fun accomplishment. Uh we further the town's art program and initiatives by installing two different art murals uh at two different locations. One along
the great road corridor and the other one in West Actton. Uh turning to the budget, the town manager's office budget reflects a number of changes and impacts this year in FY27 rather. Those include a reduction in compensation reserve of 125,000. typically that that is higher
um and budgeted higher during years where we have uh union negotiations. If we recall at the 2025 annual town meeting we um town meeting approved a number of those collective bargaining agreements. So, uh, we've reduced compensation reserve as such. Uh, a 500,
I'm sorry, a $53,925 reduction in clerical salaries and wages, uh, as well as an $82,875 reduction in professional salaries. Uh, that is a result of shifting the salaries for two positions to different
departments where these two positions were shifted to in FY25. Uh those are um the position for Laura Ducharm who is the community services and transportation director and uh Rosie Murphy who I'm blanking on her position title now but she uh was split between
the human health and human services department and the town manager department and she's been shifted completely to the health and human services department. Uh there's an increase of $30,000 to the real estate rent leased line item. That is for the upcoming 5-year extension on the 30
Sbury Road lease agreement. Uh we're in current negotiations with the owners of that property and the lease agreement is up for renewal at the end of 2026. And finally, an increase of $25,000 for the legal services. Uh there's been an
ongoing need for continued support from legal services. Uh that's both um town council with A&K and through our labor council as well. Uh this $25,000 increase better reflects what's been spended as actuals in prior years and anticipated ongoing support from them.
Uh overall the FY27 proposed town manager's office budget is actually a decrease of $23,900 or 11% of the overall FY27 budget in comparison to 26. You also see that there are two other budgets located within this section of the book. Uh the
commission of disabilities and the cultural council. Those two budgets are proposed as level funding. Uh I would like now to introduce the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, Wiku Koshi, who will provide some information on the great work that her department's
been doing over the last year. >> Hello. Good evening everyone. Um chair, members of the select board, and members of the finance committee. Thank you for the opportunity to share an update on my work this year. This month I'm celebrating my third anniversary in this
role and I'm grateful to continue serving actton in this capacity. To begin with the basics, my role as director for diversity, equity, and inclusion is led is to lead, support, and sustain initiatives that strengthen Actton as an inclusive, equitable, and
welcoming town where all community members can thrive. The work I do supports both the public and the town organization. Externally, I serve Actton, including those who live, work, as well as visit here by expanding access to information, strengthening
civic participation, and helping ensure town services are equitable, accessible, and welcoming. Internally, I support Actton employees by partnering with departments to strengthen practices, improve systems, and build the tools and relationships needed to serve the public
fairly and effectively. This year, one of the most significant accomplishments of the DEI office was securing a $50,000 community compact best practice grant, which allowed Actton to launch our first ever municipal equity audit.
This audit is already producing meaningful results. We've completed more than 15 focus groups with actton community members centered on a variety of different populations. Um we're building on that and we're going to be having additional public sessions um in
the month of January and also in the beginning of February. Um as well as we're having um staff focused sessions. So this work is being facilitated with my office, the department of health and human services as well as a consulting
group 3x3. The goal is to gather actionable information that helps the town reduce barriers, strengthen service delivery, and improve trust and transparency. Alongside the the audit, I expanded public engagement through the town's first DEI calendar, which
supports year-round recognition of cultural observations and local events and help strengthen belonging and visibility across Actton. We also hosted well-attended public programs. Thank you for everybody that attended, including documentary screenings um co-sponsored
with the AB um school district as well as um um a partnership with the Commission on Disabilities. I've also collaborated with the police and now we have our the annual cone with a cop. Um over the summer I supported three interns as part of our efforts to
strengthen pathways into public service. One initiative I'm especially excited about, hope everybody else is, um, is that we're launching Actton's first public service academy. This is a 10-week program that I'm very proud to
have designed and developed to give community members a behindthescenes look at town operations through staff-led sessions, facility tours, and direct engagement across departments. The goal of this is to build civic understanding,
strengthen trust, and help inspire civ civic leadership, whether through board or committee um service or town meeting or long a long-term public service. Because this is a oneperson office, efficiency and capacity building are
central to how I operate. The DI office is effective because I work through strong partnerships across the town rather than duplicating efforts. So this year the collaborations have included like I mentioned before the department
of health and human services, the AB school district, a variety of different commissions. So the COOD as well as the DIC commission I'm sorry commission on disabilities is COOD and DIC is diversity equity and inclusion commission. um also collaborating with
the police department as well as other town departments. Um this partnership-based model allows one one position to generate broad impact by coordinating efforts and aligning goals and moving initiatives forward in a
focused and practical way to keep this work strong and effective. I also want to name what I need from the town um and from the public. So participation, feedback and support. The success of DEI programming depends on people choosing
to show up and engage. Whether this is attending events, joining sessions or participating in focus groups or even enrolling in opportunities like the public service academy, which everybody please tell a neighbor, tell a friend. Um feedback from community members is
also critical. um and because it helps ensure that initiatives remain responsive and focused on what has the greatest impact and continued support also helps us to be able to sustain this kind of work. Finally, I want to
emphasize the budget value and return on investment of this work. Even without an operating budget, the DEI office brought $50,000 like I mentioned in external funding this year through the community compact grant. That funding strengthens
town operations without drawing on local revenue. Beyond grant dollars, the return on investment shows in practical outcomes like improving service delivery, reducing barriers um that can create downstream cost, strengthening staff capacity and building civic trust
and participation. All of which um support more effective and a responsive local government. Looking ahead to FY 2027, my priorities will be implementing high impact recommendations from the equity audit, strengthening internal
tools and practices within departments, um, and continuing to expand civic participation and workforce pathways through the public service academy and the internship program. So, thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you very much, Monico. Uh now to
present for the economic development office is economic development director Patricia Costa. >> Good evening members of select board, members of the finance committee, especially those who I have never I haven't had the chance to meet in person
yet. Uh and good evening my colleagues who are here today. Uh my name is Patricia Costa and I have been uh with the office of economic development for the past nine months and I appreciate this opportunity to provide you with an
overview of the office's role, recent work and current priorities. The Office of Economic Development is responsible for attracting, retaining, and supporting businesses in Actton. And the work is guided by an agenda of initiatives
that align with priorities established through recent planning efforts uh just to name a few. These include the strategic economic development action plan, South Action, South Actton vision, and vacant storefront designation for
great road. But above all uh our priorities are shaped by the direct input from local business owners that uh is gathered through daily interactions, one-on-one assistance to businesses and by the support of the economic
development committee that I work close closely with uh to achieve our goals. Uh the office uh relies on technical support and financial resources from some key partners including the following. MAPC, Metropolitan Area Planning Council, the Massachusetts
Office of Economic Development, the US Small Business Administration, and more recently neighboring municipalities through regional collaboration. These partnerships uh are critical to the to delivering support to the local
business community. Um the office of course has faced the several challenges over the past year uh including construction activity in town and its impact on local businesses particularly at Kellis Corner and Powderme Road. The limitations in septic
capacity which affect our ability to properly attract the new businesses. uh constraints stemming from some uh regulations set forth in our zoning by laws and ongoing challenges faced by small businesses of course including the
fluctuations the normal fluctuations in demand and the broader macroeconomic uncertainty. But despite these challenges, the office has made progress in several key areas and I will mention a few. We have focused on bringing together businesses
and nonprofit organizations through campaigns and events designed to increase pedestrian traffic and expand market reach through crossarketing opportunities and cross marketing collaboration. Some examples uh include
uh participation of the office of economic development and some local businesses in two bike share related events with the office of sustainability. Uh the senior night out which was held last year at Velvet Vine Cafe. It was held in se September and it
brought together uh three small local businesses. These efforts will continue in this uh fiscal year cycle including um two events that are already in the agenda. A health and wellness event uh that is expected to be held at Gold's
Plaza and the Latino Festival on Great Road which will bring together a Mexican restaurant, a dance studio and discovery museum. So by doing so we expected to combine businesses, arts, music, dance and uh eeries. Um in June in June last
year, June 2025, we organized a brunch with business owners uh here in this room with the participation uh of local businesses and the US Small Business Administration and also the Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Office. It was an opportunity for businesses to
network. We successfully secured $50,000 grant through the vacant storefront program and this grant will provide $10,000 tax rebates to five businesses coming to great road to vacant
storefronts. This initiative we understand is a key tool in addressing storefront vacancies along the great the great road corridor. Uh the office has also supported new and existing businesses including uh some examples
the new Audi store expected to open to the public in Actton uh on Powder Road in this this spring. the relocation of ABside networks uh to 100 discovery way and a request from methods machine tools
to establish a foreign trade zone at their Actton facility and outreach to to key property owners to discuss grant opportunities that can transform underutilized properties and blight into
attractive businesses. businesses that can host economic activities and also serve as places to foster community connection and community bonding uh in order to organize the input uh that the office of economic development receives
from local businesses and also generate some metrics for the town to work with. I'm currently uh conducting uh uh the work with a group of three volunteers from the Actton Boxboro High School on the preparation of an economic
development survey uh that has been designed to better understand the demographics and the expectations of our local business community. This uh this data this input we expected to put together and prepare a report that will
serve as basis for our future work. Looking ahead to 2027, the Office of Economic Development intends to continue efforts to attract new businesses and retain existing ones through guided campaigns. I could mention a few for
example act on restaurant week shops mall and also with events to stimulate pedestrian traffic as well as through appropriate support to arts culture and recreation that we under understand intersect considerably with economic
development. Uh we expected to support business expansion within town through guidance on tax incentives, grants and technical assistance that has been available to businesses. We intend to strengthen Great Road as a diverse
corridor that combines retail and recreation but but that can also be more welcome to other business activities. We expect to deepen collaboration with neighboring municipalities with a focus on regional economic development and
with Actton's uh strategic location along route two. Uh we also plan to advance uh grant applications that support our programs programs targeting uh specifically Great Road and South
Actton that we have been considering priority areas and we expect to compile the data collected from the ongoing survey with the volunteers into a report that will feature the profile of actton business community. I look forward to
continuing this work on behalf of all those who live, work, shop, and invest in Actton. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Patricia. And now to present the sustainability office budget and highlights is uh Lauren West.
>> Thank you. Good evening, members of the select board and finance committee. I'll keep this short. I know a lot of you heard from me plenty last week. Um, but Actton Sustainability Office was created in response to our town's 2020 climate
emergency declaration with a mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance climate resilience, and guide the community toward a clean, equitable energy future. Information on the sustainability office begins on page 99 of the budget book. In FY2025, the
Sustainability Office secured more than $621,000 in state and regional grant funding, including municipal vulnerability preparedness or MVP funds for climate resilience planning, Massave community first partnership funding for an energy
efficiency outreach position, and Mass EVIP grants for electric vehicles and public vehicle charging infrastructure. Additional funding supported the Minute Man Regional Bike Share Program, sustainability fellows through a federal energy efficiency and conservation block
grant, and support for the food waste collection program through the mass D recycling dividends program. In addition to grant-f funded initiatives, the sustainability office earned the MMA innovation award for its clean energy coaching program and joined the
inaugural climate leaders cohort, positioning actton to leverage significant additional clean energy and energy efficiency funding. The office completed the planning phase of MVP 2.0 and finalized the hazard mitigation plan, unlocking future state and federal
resources to implement climate resilience projects. We also expanded community engagement through new outreach methods, including a targeted including targeted mailers to multifamily residents with energy efficiency resources and hosting the
first heat pump pizza party, which attracted 120 participants in an effort to increase awareness of clean heating options. On page 103 of the budget book, we've included charts detailing Actton Power Choice Green subscribers and total clean
energy coach requests in FY2025. These are two of our KPIs. Um, and page 104 contains data for the year from our town-owned EV chargers. Looking ahead, the sustainability office will continue advancing the
implementation of the climate action plan in alignment with the town meeting climate emergency declaration. the select board sustainability policy and long-term town goals. Priorities for FY2027 include accelerating high impact
emissions reduction initiatives such as continuing to electrify the municipal fleet, town hall, and the red house. The office will also expand community-f facing programs by growing the reach of the clean energy coaching program, supporting volunteer partners like
Energize Act, improving recycling access and education, particularly for multif family residents, and streamlining decarbonization and energy efficiency resources for renters, small businesses, and the commercial sector through the community first partnership.
As part of these goals, the sustainability office will continue to leverage state funding opportunities. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Lauren, Patricia, and uh Wikico. We are happy to take any questions that you have.
>> Select board members. >> Alissa, >> thank you. Um thank you all for the presentations. I think these three offices um really demonstrate the ability to engage participation from
residents, leverage other funding sources. Um and there was a third thing I was thinking um oh rely on reliance on volunteers. There's so many volunteers who are who are um making these programs that you're
engaged in possible. Um, I have just a couple of specific questions. Um, I'm super excited about the public service academy. Um, I don't know if there's going to be a space for me. Uh, I was a little
surprised pleasantly that one of the goals is workforce pathways. Um, and I know our internship program has resulted in some employment opportunities. Um, is that what you're thinking about for this as well as civic engagement that maybe
there might be somebody who goes through this program and says, "I want to apply for a job with the town." >> Exactly. Yes. Because the age groups that we're targeting is anybody between the ages of like 18 to
old. Um, so yes, for that exact reason, if we have somebody who joins a public service academy at 18 or 16, um, hopefully we can be able to spark some interest in public service work. >> Great. Yeah. Um, and then I also have a question about uh, one of the economic
development plans um, the MAPC cultural arts um, report. Do we know a timeline for when that is going to be ready, published? Uh the report should be ready uh by the middle of the year. Uh they
are currently conducting some interviews with key stakeholders. There's going to be a a public hearing uh I could say like a community meeting uh with some key stakeholders soon uh expected for February and then based on these inputs
they are going to prepare the final document. >> Thank you. Um, and then I think this question might be for the manager. I'm just looking at the cultural council uh contribution of $2,000. And I don't know
if that has always been that way since its inception, but I'm just wondering um like how many years have we been contributing that? Has it ever gone up? Is there any chance for that to go up in the future? because I know the cultural
council gets a lot more asks for support for their um projects and programs from the community than they have funds to provide. >> Thanks. Uh so this is not the funding that's I don't believe this is the
funding that's used for grants. >> It it um so I'm the leazison to the cultural council and Actton gives this small amount. Boxboro gives a small amount. I don't remember the exact figure, but it's less like $500. So, that actually gets pulled with the money
that they get from the Mass Cultural Council. Um, which is they're very grateful for. They they're excited to have the support from both towns. Um, just wondering if there's ever room for I've never fielded a request for more funding in that line
item. It's the first time I've ever really noticed it. Noticed it. Okay. If you have a request, um, I'd be happy to look at that next year. >> Okay, great. Thanks. Other questions from the select board? >> Fran, >> I don't have a question, but thank you
so much for all the work you do. >> All right. I'm sure there'll be questions for my team. Uh, since this is the town manager budget, I have a macro level uh number. the uh if we look at
total postage, total printing and copying, and then supplies and other supplies, it's like 400 grand. Um, and after listening to two presentations tonight about people and departments looking to do things electronically, I
think there's maybe an opportunity there to, I don't know, maybe find 25% of that. I'm not saying you're going to find it this year, but um as a future budgeting item to dig into that to see if there's opportunity of knocking that
down by um finding other ways of doing things. Um because in the future if we could save half of that, that's a couple people, a couple FTEEs. So, let me go around. >> Yeah. So, I think thank you for the question about postage. I
>> I know you have to mail things. >> Well, but the thing about postage is is the stamp price has never gone down. So, uh well, maybe it has, but not that I not that I'm aware of. And so, even if we try to reduce what we're mailing, the cost for mailing is going to continue to
increase. And one thing that happened in the last few years is mail and ballots um became a thing. I mean, they used to just be for absentee voters and now they're for everybody or they're they could be for everybody. So that's additional postage that we're required
to um purchase every year uh when there's an election. So some years there's not that many elections, but some of the years there's a few. U so we we definitely would look for ways to reduce postage, but um some of those things are with are
not within our control, unfortunately. >> Understood. Um the uh the other supply number is I don't know what's in there, but it's 131,000 in 2025. So uh which page are you on? >> Um none of the pages. Um I have it's an
aggregation of your numbers. >> Okay. So that's So we're we're just reviewing the budget documents. So I'm not familiar with that. >> It's a total of your budget doc documents from there. >> Wh So which I'm just I'm just saying you don't have to point to the number. I'm just making
the comment that in the future u there's I think there's opportunity to look at those items. I'm not asking you to prove the number or give me all the minutiae of it. I'm just saying that um I think there's an opportunity there
um as you move forward in time. Uh any questions from finance committee? Craig, >> I'm I'm not sure if it's fair to ask you about KPIs, but let me just be consistent
and how would you prioritize your KPIs because you've got lots of them. >> Sure. Great, great question. So, uh, two ways. Number one, grants. I think um that number before of 23 million over six years is a pretty good proof of um a
lot of success in the town and in this office. And then another one, the goals that are set uh annually, both short and long term by the select board that the town manager's office tends to focus on um when they're completed in the short term and the progress in the long term. Uh that's typically how we um identify
whether or not we've been successful in the prior year. >> And and the second one is not a question. It's probably more of a challenge, Patricia. This year during restaurant week, the
finance committee and the select board challenged each other to say which one of us was going to support the local restaurants more actively. I don't think anyone kept tally. And so my challenge to you is next year
you need to come up with an enforcement mechanism to basically say, "Okay, show us your receipts because you know what? I think there will be another challenge coming." >> Challenge accepted. >> Um John or Ellie or Tom? Um the head
count shows the decline of less than 1/ half of an FTE. Uh but when I look at the um clerical salaries and professional salaries on page 97, they go down by about $137,000.
Um seems a lot for half an FTE. Thank you. I can um I'll take that question. So we throughout so you've heard a little bit about transitions and you've heard about all the people we've hired and I think in the middle of all that we've taken the opportunity to reorganize and
restaff. So where we had different positions at different levels we've brought in different positions at lower levels or in some cases in very few cases higher levels but in some cases. And so I think there were um
a few people that left that their their replacements were at a lower rate of pay uh which accounts for part of it. >> Okay. So it's just a mix of people that you hired versus the people that left >> and and the then there was a halftime position in the budget that accounted
for a portion of that funding which we transferred out to a different budget. So um >> Okay. Um, one for Patricia. Uh, if I read the consultant study on economic development
last year, I read a lot about sewers and whether we needed sewers on Great Road. How much of an impediment to commercial development is the lack of sewers on Great Road? This is a situation that the town has
been struggling with for a long time and it uh solutions for this uh require a great amount of investment and uh cooperation with other departments as well and I'm uh aware of these uh this
need and this is something that we uh intend to uh focus on in the upcoming uh uh year. >> Okay. Uh, and Alyssa is I've been coming to these for a long time and that uh cultural council number has always been
$2,000 as long as I can remember. >> Go ahead, Jim. >> Um, sorry to go out of turn. Um, just remembering this one. Um, so for the first time we tried something new this year. uh which was to have our our
public relations agency um create a website for transportation. Um and I didn't know if that was a um a public relations expense or a transportation expense or something else.
We secured a grant to do a mobility management study and part of the scope of the grant allowed us to invest in some outreach materials which included a website. So, it was a onetime cost. There is an annual cost that we'll talk
to Carl about, but um he he won't notice. How does the grant landscape look presently? Are there any concerns? Because every day I'm reading things in the news of headwinds.
That's that's a good question. And I think we we haven't had a lot of federal grants, although we had a pretty big one for the ASA Parliament House, but aside from that, we haven't had many federal grants. So although a lot of those have changed, um I think a lot of the state
grants that we go after have dedicated funding sources outside of government. So I think you know, for example, all the green ones are have a revenue source from Rex or and other things like that. So I think they're stable. Uh the governor's office grants that we heard a
lot about tonight, I expect those to be continue next year as well. Um earmarks in the state budget are still being requested. So um there certainly could be changes, but they haven't happened
yet. >> I don't think any other questions from finance >> board. select boards. Good. Thank you. >> Nice job. Um, that was the end of our scheduled program, but we do have the facilities manager here if you want to
hear about the facilities budget. Might as well, right? Take it away. >> All right. Thank you, John. Uh, yes. Joining us today is, uh, Dan Wlette, who is our facilities manager, is making his way up here. Uh, I'll hand it over to
Dan. >> Uh, thank you, Tom. Uh, good evening, select board members and finance committee members. Uh, my name is Dan Wlette. Um, I've been with the town for six months. Uh, tomorrow actually. Um, I oversee the day-to-day operations of the
facilities department. Um, our facilities department here is made up of, uh, our crew leader, John Fleming, uh, three custodians in Dave Marosian, Cody Bailey, and Dave Cuchu. Uh, we just hired a crafts person, which
I'm very excited about. Um, so we have someone um, with some technical abilities um, to fix things around town for us. Now, um, Andrea Restine is the director of our projects and procurement. Um, and then I have Kim
Gorman, who is our part-time office administrator, and Dale McGelbury, uh, who is a longtime crew leader for the town, is now a part-time employee for us. Um, our departmental functions, uh, are we provide regular cleaning and
custodial services to town facilities, coordinate snow and ice removal um, for a number of municipal buildings, uh, making sure that the sidewalks are safe for everybody to get in. uh notably town hall and the library. Uh perform general
maintenance tasks. So things that break around all the buildings, we fix that. Um respond to facilities emergencies uh 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. So HVAC, HVAC system outages, um
power outages, stuff of that nature. Um, and we facilitate annual inspections on building systems. So, elevators, fire safety equipment, uh, security and fire alarm systems, HVAC systems and boilers and plumbing systems. Um, so basically
we keep the buildings running. Um, which with the age of some of our buildings can be a challenge, but it's a a challenge that I welcome. Um some uh recent accomplishments uh in FY25
managed the cleaning and light restoration of all of the monuments around the town common and town hall for the actton 250 celebration. Um town hall gutter replacement. Uh Isaac Davis plow case replacement which a lot of you probably walked by on the way in
tonight. Um and a department restructuring. So we uh which included the promotion of um a longtime uh staff member and John Fleming to crew leader uh and the appointment of uh myself as a full-time
facilities manager. Um, some of our FY27 goals are to uh reduce response time of facilities, help desk tickets, uh, complete the roof replacement at South Actton Fire Station 2, um, complete the finance wing
renovation and town hall electrification, uh, hopefully. Um, and complete 17 Woodbury Lane, so get that up and operational for folks to use. Um, and additionally, um, go out and
hopefully secure some CPC funding to get the bell tower restored up on top of town hall here, get that bell ringing for everybody again, and, uh, get all the clocks to be the same. So, they're actually reading the right time. Um,
couple of ongoing, uh, challenges. Um, more or less it's the aging equipment in buildings, right? So, um, Actton is a very historically minded town. Um, and our buildings are historic in nature. Um, which is great and I love working on
them. Um, but it does pose some issues as far as aging HVAC equipment and stuff. So, uh, we have some capital projects planned for FY27 that are going to try to address some of those issues. Um and yeah that uh a couple of performance
metrics. Um we just started recording these. So um facilities helped us tickets closed in FY24. Um we were 223. Uh and then in FY25 we were 517. There was a large jump because we
switched software. So the tracking got a lot better there. Um, and as many of you probably saw, I sent an email out last week. Um, we're now launching a new room reservation software. Um, so, uh, in
FY25, um, the facility or the municipal properties department, um, booked 780 meeting rooms for people. So, um, you guys are going to be able to do that yourselves. Now, we'll still have to approve them, but um hopefully it's a
system that everybody enjoys using. And uh like I said in the email, if you have any issues with it, please reach out to me. Um if you turn to page, uh 16 of your budget, uh or of your budget book, that's where our budget is. Um we only have a couple of large notable
changes this year. um street lighting and traffic signal and security are coming off of our budget and being moved over to DPW. Um they manage the upkeep of those lights, so it made sense to move that over to them. Um and then
there's a 23% reduction in electricity cost. Um and that's going to be um due to the utilization of net metering credits to make up for that um that drop. Uh, so that's it for me. I'll welcome
any questions that you have. >> Work our way down. Fran, you first. A >> lot of hands. >> Mine's quick. But Dan, I literally got an email as we were sitting here asking, "Why don't I hear the bell ringing at night from a town's person?" >> Really?
>> So, yes, I think we're all missing it, but in due time. >> Yeah. No, I I It pained me to shut it off. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> Jim, >> welcome here. Um, >> thank you.
>> It's great to It's great to have you here. Um, a question I have is, um, when when you're repeatedly, you know, having to repair or work with old equipment, um, how does the process
work for, um, figuring out, recommending, and deciding that it's time to upgrade? Does that stay within your department or is there some other departments involved or how does that work? Because it seems like you're
you're the ones with the eyes on, you know, seeing, you know, how things are decaying and how much time and money they're taking to maintain. Um, so I'm hoping you have a big influence over the upgrade process, but I understand
there's other factors involved. Yeah, I mean um we take the recommendations of our contractors when it comes to HVAC. Um and plumbing is uh are the two biggest ones. Um they'll
they'll pretty they're pretty good at letting us know that it's time. Um this isn't going to work for you anymore. Um and outside of that, the decision is pretty much always financial, right? So, um, does it make sense to keep fixing something or does it does it make sense
to we're going to have to seek money to to upgrade that piece of equipment? Um, right now we're in a position where we can keep fixing everything, but that's not going to last forever. >> Just to follow, so I don't think your
budget includes the replacements of of of systems. Is that right? >> Um, the building grounds and maintenance line. um is is where we pull money from when we do need to do something something like that which is is why you
can kind of see a fluctuation uh in that budget line over the years is my understanding. >> Got it. Thanks. Yep. >> Thank you. I think my question is very quick. Are are is your department also responsible for um our facilities in um
our recreation spaces like uh uh the narrow park facilities and things like that? >> Um general maintenance, yes. Custodial maintenance, no. So um if they have something that breaks, uh we'll go up and take care of that for them, but they
have their own custodial services up there. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Go ahead. Thank you for the presentation and I'll echo Jim's welcome. >> Thank you. >> You've been here for a little while. Um I I hear from other staff in different
departments that you're great to work with and I really appreciate that you jumped right in um shortly after arriving to work with some not only staff but elected volunteer library trustees and commission on disabilities folks um on over at the citizens
library. So I appreciate that enthusiasm. I have a question about the um increase in the professional salaries. So the the total personal services is only going up
by 10%. But I'm just wondering about that 98% increase right above it for professional salaries because the FTEES are remaining stable. And I didn't hear you mention a promotion which was the answers my other questions about
different departments. Uh, I can take that one. So, if you look above the regular PERM, um, decreased by $66,900. Uh, that was for a project manager that was shifted into this line item. This line item funds both the director of projects and procurement and the
facilities manager. And through um reorganizations and other departments throughout the year, we're able to transition additional money over to this department to be able to fund the uh facilities manager. Okay. When we had talked about the reorg before uh this was part of operations where IT and
operations were combined, I'm sorry, facilities were combined and there were some salaries that were spent in the IT budget that could have shifted over. So, we were able to do a couple reorgs and and fund his uh Dan's position through this. >> Okay. So, it's a geography. Um I'm glad
you mentioned um the procurement officer and project director. Is that her title? I just want to give a kudos to a shout out for Andrea Rristine for managing all of these 250 projects that are listed here. The 250 um the
monuments, the the case um working with artists. Um it seemed like it was a lot to handle and she did an excellent job. Um and also thinking about her position as procurement and project director. I I
noted in the um accounting department there was a note about the workload that's added because of all of the grants that we get which are fabulous um but they have unique reporting requirements. I'm just wondering if there's any if she's handling just bids
or if there's any support that this department offers to accounting um if that's even possible or if it's a completely different skill set or if there's maybe no capacity in that position. So just curious about that. >> Yeah, that's a great question. Thank
you. So um Andrea does play a pretty large role in a lot of things um for reimbursements and grant reporting. uh Andrea is involved with almost every procurement and solicitation that goes out and then management of projects as well. So she's played a vital role in
ensuring and I'll use ASAP parliament as a great example uh our compliance with HUD for the $600,000 grant. She helps uh develop the reports that required for uh bianual and annual report um reporting as well as uh reimbursement submissions.
So, the accountant department um handles of course everything internal and they have a a piece of the puzzle in this, but Andrea has played a large role in and making sure we're compliant with grants as well. >> Um, no, no particular questions. I'm just looking down here on your
contractual services. you're carrying $200,000 and I presume that includes a lot of the things like uh maintenance contracts for generators, elevators, uh
that sort of equipment. And I'm happy to see that you've got a good number there and you know certainly want to encourage you to make sure that you stay on top of those keeping those maintenance contracts up and running. um
uh sprinkler systems as well. I mean, there's a a whole list of of mechanical systems that you have to take care of that you have no I'm sure you have no particular um familiarity with. It's a wide set of
uh of equipment. So, um I think in in the future, make sure that it seems like you've got a good number, but make sure that you maintain those numbers and maintain those systems properly. Um you know, the obvious example was the uh
when the emergency generator in this building finally died. Um you know, it's caused huge problems and huge expenses. Uh so, it's important to keep that stuff maintained. Uh that's the only point. Welcome aboard. Um hopefully we'll have good
news about the CPC grant. >> Thank you. Yes. And uh yeah, I'm in full agreement with staying on top of all of those contracted services. >> Great. I got uh two questions out of you did
explain that there is a 23% reduction in electricity from the prior budget year but when you look at the actual spend in 2425 in the budget amounts 24 was 338 25 is 495 and the budget's 2011
can you just get me grounded again that 2011's enough money to cover that line item I take that one. >> Um it's it's not enough to cover it. We're going to supplement that with net metering credits uh through energy efficiency funds. >> So you're getting tax credits like to you're getting
>> we have uh we the energy efficiency fund is used to offset utility payments uh to help us stabilize that account and um we intend to use it as much as we need to this year. Is that similar to natural gas? Because that's down from that's
budgeted down 20 30 grand from the run rate. >> Yeah, I have it. Yeah. Yeah, it's budgeted. Uh it's at 110, 25 was basically 150 and 24 was 140 and it's at
110. It's >> Yeah, I know. I know. We did a procurement through power options and this is based on the the cost that we're estimating to um to pay for that next year >> and so it's going to be different than the prior two years
>> based on what you're seeing. >> Yes. Is that similar to the and I understand it was explained that building grounds and maintenance bounces around uh but just looking at the prior two years you're like at 300 284 and then the budgets even though it's up
from the 26 budget it's 267 which looks like it's still short short money it' be you're saying you're coming in lower than you did the prior two years. Is that if that makes sense it makes sense. I just just asking the question.
>> Yeah, we we tried to limit increases where we thought we could and this is another example of that. >> So, it's about and then the last question is actually probably for Ellie or you John or Thomas. Um what is the in your definition? What is
your difference? What qualifies someone as regular perm and what qualifies somebody as professional salaries? We had a lot of conversations um tonight about people moving from one bucket to >> um so on the gas get back what Scott was
talking about. we've locked in our gas prices going forward on natural gas or is that something that's you know is gas recently spiked up today was a huge jump and no and I'm just
concerned that FY26 we're going to be a big number over on that as well considering that December was so cold this year and as you know tonight is it's been colder this winter than last winter and obviously that means our heating especially here in town hall, be working
harder to keep up with the cold weather outside. >> Yeah, thank you. Uh Lauren just reminded me that we do have a three-year contract um with power options for the natural gas for most of our buildings. Not probably not all of our buildings, but most of our big buildings.
>> Thank you. I'm not going to ask you about KPIs because you actually mentioned them, but I have a professional curiosity. Since you're the new guy, did do your colleagues tip you off? Do you watch video from last year? How h how did you
know that was a question? >> I I had three and a half hours to sit in here and prepare, so I knew it was coming. Do you have any questions? Um, right here in the book it says that you had uh 18 projects listed for bids
and you reviewed 23 bids. Does that mean that the vast majority of projects were were either no bid or were completely uncompetitive? >> Um, so no. Uh, >> go ahead. From what I understand, and we
can clarify it, but the 18 bids that were listed there with the ones that Andrea held uh handled through the projects and procurement office that she solicited. She worked with project dog um and followed 30B and 126 and all the other um processing or purchasing
requirements. The other ones were ones that she was involved with whether they were just solicitations because they're below a certain dollar amount or she was supporting other departments with those. We can clarify clarify that with her, but >> understand what it looks like, right? >> Yeah. Yes, I do. I do. We did. And just
for the record, for the 18 or 19 seal bids, we received many more um responses than the 23. It was a very busy year. >> Good. Otherwise, it's not competitive. And then there's what's the point in doing it. Um and are you the person who's going to be reviewing the proposals for the town hall
electrification equipment? >> I'm part of the team that will be reviewing the proposals. Yes, I know we have a directive in town to be decarbonized all the time. 100% amen. Um, in the interest of doing the right
thing and in the interest of being able to have political cover if doing the right thing is easy. Um, please make sure you come back with a ROI uh ROI evaluation for both the green
version that you guys want and a dirty version that may not be um may not meet our carbon plans. But we we are allowed to have an exception. Uh and if you don't show any if if the two numbers are similar, then it becomes a no-brainer.
If one becomes significantly cheaper or the green investment has a forex uh ROI time frame, then that becomes a much more worthwhile conversation to have. Not doing any of the ROI analyses, one
analysis being don't do anything at all. I know that's really unpopular, but that's an ROI analysis that needs to be done. If you don't put all these analysis forward, you may run into the same behavior that happened at last year's town meeting where the lack of information led to the led to the
project failing. So my friendly advice is make sure you have your ROI numbers for all three situations. And then my last comment I see as one of your goals for fiscal year 27 to complete a 17
Woodbury renovation. Sorry. Complete de develop a usage and reservation policy for 17 Woodbury Lane. Do you anticipate that the onlining of that building is going to require any amount of FTE?
>> Uh, no. >> No, it's going to be absorbed by the library already or by the town hall staff already. >> Yeah, town hall staff. >> I would ask you to please keep to that. Uh there should be no reason that an FTE or even a part of an FTE should be
required for a building that we voted down at town meeting. >> Understood. >> Given the volatility in various ways to heat things, expenses such as electricity, natural gas, etc. Um I would love to have the HVAC system look
at a dual fuel. My brother got an airsource heat pump installed and they were able to still being compliant with the grant piggyback it on top of his oil system so that if there was a failure of one it could use the other but also he
can choose which way to go. Um so if that's something a possibility I would love to see that as an option. >> Understood. I >> think we're done with questions, right? Slugboard.
>> We are. >> Thank you. Thank you all very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you everybody again. >> So, um, thank you all for your attention and for your thoughtful questions. Those are the presentations that we had planned tonight plus one. Um, so we're
going to reconvene tomorrow night unless you >> You promised we had to stay here till 10:00. We can stay till 10 if you'd like. Um, >> no, thank you. I would need to >> The amount of departments we have left to cover are less than we did tonight.
>> He's still talking. >> Sorry. >> The departments we have left to cover are >> um >> I I think I think we're we're good with continuing tomorrow, right?
Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Uh all in >> favor I >> finest committees adjourned. >> Select been moved to adjurnn. Someone make a motion. Second. >> Hey. All in favor of adjournment say I.
>> I. >> I. >> Lisa that was David moving. Alyssa seconding.