[Music] is being audio and video recorded please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge ALG to the flag of the United States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay folks so we have um we're going to continue with some of our budget hearings tonight um so we're going to go
in order um so our first hearing is is going to be with the board of assessors and our principal assessor uh Kelly Costco so Kelly the floor is yours thank you as you can see reviewing um the
budget it's basically level funded minus the contractual obligations of salary as well as um the fact that our C system Patriot Properties also known as Catalyst they got bought out um our local server is not going to be able to
support what it needs to what needs to happen so I need to upgrade that and it's actually going to be cloud-based and that is the change that you're seeing or the increase that you're seeing in the line item um that basically says the camel license fee and
so forth um and the software expense no I'm sorry the triangle certification no where it says repase hold on where it says no where it says no I didn't know where you had put it Jamie basically had plugged in these
numbers and I agreed with them uh the board of assessors they level funded uh my position of course um United Steel Workers were in a colletive binding agreement that's active it's a 2% raise uh the admin assistant is actually
senior clerk now um was a 2% given even though they're negotiating still contracts I believe for asme and then uh the temporary of course is vacant overtime $500 longevity $11,000 so
basically mirrors besides the increase of salary by contractual obligation for fiscal 2025 and then again on the expenses it's mostly due to the upgrade of the C System since the local server will not support the data nice nice lean clean
budget two person show in the assess besides you know what we Outsource so right right is that licensing fee an annual cost uh no that particular we do have an annual cost licensing fee but the Inception year that's the cost to
actually upgrade us uh if you look back in the older um if you look licensing fee is completely taken fee we put the uh the it licenses in it corre it's not on my on the guess
I'm get do we know what the annual licensing cost of this new software it changes every year it changes it really does it changes every year and it's not here because they again they removed and put it to it mhm I have any questions anybody else
have any questions and they know we just we just finished up a a reevaluation year correct fiso 20125 was a reval year yep we're in a 5-year plan so fiscal 2030 which sounds very futuristic is our next reval
year all right good so have to and I'll be close to retirement Believe It or Not by then yeah just so the uh finance committee understands uh there are two things
going on uh one is that uh Kelly and her offic are integral in US estimating what's going to happen with all these debt exclusions being proposed
by the various schools so heard folks have been very busy with getting information from the schools Kelly's been putting together a bunch of what if scenarios and Etc depending on
especially from Acushnet schools because we don't know the exact amount yet that they're going to want and so that is is uh very important to
us right now so we can do the uh best estimate for the public and the other is an issue that she's working on with the director
of the COA and the veterans agent as far as the various exemptions uh for the uh seniors and for the veterans and the heroes act uh that's a joint effort among all of them they're
going to be doing some public education on that too and hopefully that will help our veterans disabled veterans and seniors be able to stay in their
houses if what we're looking at not so so much from the debt exclusion with the town but the debt exclusion for Old Colony could be as high as uh
$1,100 or more and so they're putting together a real effort to try to get to the are most impacted as far as
what they have spending income uh taxpayers and see if we can give them a break and this I mean and this should be information that gets out to the public during the next uh public hearing that the school's going to have regarding this de exclusion because I
know they're having their first public hearing tonight at the Ford Middle School library there supposed to there's another date uh we're going to have in effect kind of like you know how people have job fairs we're going to have that
type of thing at the COA and invite the seniors and uh then the veterans agent is going to also be talking to the various veterans organizations and uh we're
presenting April 1st to the Selectmen to give them their options and they can decide which way to go with these programs mhm yeah because as you know the the debt exclusion is going to be on the ballot
so it's going to be a ballot question on April 22nd so depending on how that plays out we'll determine whether or not it's going forward or not and then and then we get the old colony one in the fall mhm but and that one needs all
towns to pass it yes no majority three out of five no no what is it it's going to be a district wide election it needs 50% plus one vote of the people who show
up at the district election to pass it per town no regardless of where they live correct yep so even though we're majority of the well we're the largest right if so if
map POA and other towns don't want it it it still gets rammed on this road but they want said differently because we are the largest percentage out of all the out of all the five districts where 30 to 35% who shows up on who shows up
in votes will determine whether we're we we have to do it or not well some some so we could all of a cushion it could say no and everybody else said yes yeah that's kind to hang over our head well some people might look at it from like a wealthier community and be like well this seems like a good idea yeah I'm G
to say yes yeah they don't really yeah and I don't have any kids going to Old Colony so sure yeah I don't know yeah so there's a lot of unknowns with that that that's dangerous the vote is spread out among the five
communities then the assessment for the debt exclusion is by pupil population so yeah we have the majority going you will have one3 of the of the
debt exclusion cost yeah that is see yeah so if you're so it's not onethird of the vote it depends on us even though we have onethird of the so they pass a legislature that they're trying to pass where it becomes a lottery system are we still guaranteed the same head
count know point but then our percentage changes every year yeah that that it does change that's why we fluctuate somewhere sometimes at 30 I remember when I used to be the the rep we used to maybe we're at 34 35 but we're we've
never really fluctuated I don't outside of that you you see some of the Sea Coast towns are getting very gray SL summer resident and have not a lot of kids
going to OC but not a lot of kids going to their own School syst system wherever it is yeah bottom line I think this is really crucial for all our residents our you know elderly residents on fixed incomes you know our seniors veterans
who would really feel the impact of this um the especially the whole Colony Deb exclusion you know in addition to ever increasing utility cost I mean they're talking electricity rates potentially tripling if this continues we continue
going down this this road with you know going green everything um that's why the accessories the veterans agent and uh COA are getting out in front of it and
taking care of this good upon that I'm sorry in regards to exemptions just realize um and Brad and I have spoken too they're offering different options on of cost of living jump of the cred and so forth and some
of them can really double in a year or grow quite dramatically but remember that Gap the town has to put back through overlay so just to keep that in mind too I mean where it take they take away from they have to replace for budgetary purposes the taxpayer is not
paying it it's got to come out somewhere from the town back just a thought I mean I'm not I'm playing devil's advocate here no it's a good point so it's a good point and another thing in I know you don't know a lot of the particulars but whatever they the board of Selectmen
choose uh which option there are two options right now for the heroes act if they adopt both it's local option then you're talking about a significant growth uh annually of How High the credit will be so I'm sure the selectman will make u a good decision or an
educated decision on how to move forward with that definitely want to offer it to the community but you have to look at all sides too mhm absolutely so it might not be a reval year but the assessor's office has got a
lot in front of it yeah all right well we're going to keep Kelly busy before she retires so all right I'm hoping to retire soon believe it or not it's almost there all right I'm not age but years of service so I'm
not going to age myself yet thanks for coming in tonight appreciate it you thank you all right next up we have our veterans agent Mr Brad Fish how's everybody you doing this evening good good first first off thank you for your service thank you I
appreciate that um some of you know me some of you don't uh I ended up doing 23 years between the Marine Corps and the Army uh a helicopter crew chief for 23 years I food for 23 years so I'm a little hot of hearing uh but other than that I love doing this vso job I started
10 years ago on Westwood doing it after I retired from the Postal Service um and it's been a great job I love doing what I do I love helping veterans spouses of veterans dealing with the town so so the budget I kind of I've only been here 9
months I took uh about $220,000 off of last year's budget I'm not sure if you know exactly what the veteran service officer does or chapter 115 I gave you all pamphlets and when you get home you can read it but the
quick read on all of it is that it's a program that started in 1961 before the Civil War started the state of Massachusetts new veterans couldn't go back to work or there was going to be spouses that didn't have a husband anymore so they fall into the poverty level I can help them pay their mortgage
medical all kinds of stuff dental and everything that I dish out right now it's about $7,800 a month I'm dishing out from the town 75% of that gets reimbursed of the town every year from the state we are the only state out of 50 that has
this program why the other 49 don't have it for our veterans and spouses I have no idea so state of Massachusetts is great on that respect uh I believe the state of Rhode Island has maybe four or five veteran service offices state of Massachusetts is required that every town and City have a veteran service
officer so in the Commonwealth we have some Tri towns where they're taking care of three towns but out of maybe 360 towns and cities in a state in the Commonwealth we have about 330 vet service offices taking care of vets so that's a good thing yeah so I said the
money that I do dish out I have to take an exam every 3 years pass it through the state and that gets the town reimbursed 75% if I don't take the exam the town only gets reimbursed 50% at that point I would find exam I just took it in October so
we're good to go more years for a while and that's pretty much it I don't know if you have any questions for me my budget's tough uh because I don't know how many veterans or spouses are going to come walking in the office and need help I don't know how many are going to die on me so I tell everybody is like the DPW every year going well how much
we going to need for snow removal how much salt and sand are we going to need I don't know how many do you have currently any time currently I have 14 on the rolls so and we pay for Deb uh burials we had one veteran in town died the week
before Christmas had no family so we were able to pay for his burial which you the town gets reim 75% of that so you're able to reduce the overall budget by 20,000 based on the fact that there's less veterans correct that I have right now and see that it
works out that and I've had this happen in other towns where all right I only put in for $135,000 to pay my veterans it goes up to 140 by June then I have to come back in front of the finance commit and say hey I need this $5,000 cuz it's
mandated we have no choice so I'm just trying to keep it as simple as possible and if I can take 20 grand off that's what I'm going to do and hopefully I should be good yeah and even with your lean budget with your veterans parade that you did it was an awesome job good glad you liked it yeah hopefully we're
going to do that again on Veterans Day I'm only going to do it once a year cuz it's a it's a task on the town and everybody so I'll do it every Veterans Day cuz that's celebration Memorial Day is more solemn so I'll do something at Veterans Park every Memorial Day yeah it's a good thing perfect awwesome I don't if you got any question questions
for me anybody have any questions for brand okay well if we have any questions we'll reach out but you know where to find me yes thank you so much more than more than one way yes onor Revenue sheet lines 23 and 24
are what he's talking about oh okay oh yeah all right very good all right next up Tom clerk Mrs Pamela Bonte the T
thank you thank you welcome back thank you I'm making up for last year with the elections okay well I don't want to bore you um I
did my usual narrative that I do for every um budget hearing uh fortunate ly this year round the budget has been significantly reduced uh because I don't have a presidential election Yahoo we get a
break this year um so I don't know if you want to um if you want to go line by line or you just want to touch upon the items that are adjusted and some of them are just
more of a re reallocation so the the most of the increases just contractual increases mostly yes yes um I did increase my temporary salary by $1,000 but I reduced my overtime salary
by 500 and the purpose of um increasing that ,000 is uh because we're working on the master plan and we're uh doing the bylaw update for the town which where it's all
being incorporated into to that and as a matter of fact we should be having on the town meeting warrant um the uh approval final approval of a zoning map we've had maps that have been approved uh through the
AG's office but they haven't been um cumulatively put onto one map so um the planner is looking to do that at town meeting um so that's one step in the zoning uh process other than that there was another
increase uh of $400 for Vital Statistics um every year I am obligated to bind all of our Vital Records all of our births deaths and marriages that we've registered and
the last two years due to the presidential primary the presidential election um that's something that I haven't been able to do um so unfortunately what I last year the $600 that I had did end up going back into
the general fund um but I do have to make up for that this year so I am asking for an additional 400 and I think oh the postage too oh postage has been decreased oh actually no I'm sorry it has
increased on on this one um yeah last year was the first year and I think if you remember correctly I had to go before you to for a reserve fund transfer so we weren't I I tried to estimate the numbers as best I could uh
but I was short on the town clerk side but over in the board of regist side um so I'm just kind of balancing that out that this is a work in progress but um between the two postage line items I'm
down significantly I I want to say it's about it's about $111,000 oh okay okay um the bulk of that was the vote by mail ballots um the all of that processing
sending out letters for errors and um getting Corrections and things like that yeah okay the other thing you will notice on this as well for the travel uh as well
as on the board of registrat is that I have increased the budget line item for travel and the reason for that is um I'm not going to be here forever as
much as I love what I do um I don't know how many more years that my husband before he retires says okay this is enough we're out of here um yeah but I my my goal is um because I I do I I say
it all the time because I truly mean it I love what I do I love the people I deal with um as far as I'm concerned I have the best job in town um but uh I do want to start training my senior clerk
in the role because I don't ever want if something was to happen to me I want to make sure that the town is protected and has a qualified backup um in my absence um so I am looking to I I he has
agreed um and he's actually in the camera room right now and I know he's cursing me but um he has agreed um to go to um NY which is the New England municipal Clerk's Institute um it's a
three-year program um in order to become a um a certified clerk um it's not only about clerks it is about being well-rounded in your position to manage people the um budgeting process there
are all classes and trainings on that um Eric joined me in September of um it was a year in September so it'll be two years this September and he's done a fabulous job um and I'd really like to
see him continue to grow um his roots are in a cush net um I think he would be a great successor for me so that's that is why I have um increased the line item no I think that's a great idea that you're doing
that you know because look we have a lot of departments where some somebody leaves and we don't have somebody to come in and and fill that role that's right behind them right um so that's become problematic over the last few years so this was great that you're kind
of thinking along those lines thank you I I feel as though we have come so far in advancing the town clerk's office I mean we still have a long way to go um but we've come so far and I really hate
to lose that momentum and and he's really picked it up he's doing a really good job so I want he's motivated to do it that's great yeah yeah awesome and I'm a firm believer that if you help
your your staff and they'll be loyal and they'll want to stick around um I know obviously money always talks as you guys all know um but it's important that I help to develop my people too so good feel that's that's awesome news thank
you all right good any idea when dog licenses are coming in oh good lord yeah I had to talk about the thorn in my side well there there was a delay last year too right there was a delay it
was not as bad as this year um I spoke with um one of the women last week um she put me in touch with her department head um and now I'm being told they on back order so I I really think what
happened was they Consolidated companies um from last year from businesses that had sold out and what's happened now is St there's a turnover of staff so um we're kind
of you know just print dog licenses my gosh you I get the machine to do it was going to say and let me let me tell you I with we've always had a specific way that we do our kennel licenses um and I wanted to continue to
do k-01 being the kennel license and then a tag number after that oh no no no no that was shot shot down um it was going to cost way too much money in front of something and as it is
the licenses have already gone up so much um but we did do some restructuring last year um we did away with the one to four dog kennels so that um that has helped a little bit but it's still it's
it's a costly and I think we I've talked about this every year our Animal control officer is very specific that she would like the brass tags or the stainless steel tags because they last longer um and they don't they have a tendency not
to get all marked up so if she's got a dog on a pole she can actually read it um we used to do the black enamel filling um of the lettering so it made it easier for for her to see but because of the cost it would and those all have
to be done by hand um there's actually a person that has to put it in yeah it it's that's what quite it's quite the process I've learned a lot about so far ahead but we've slid so far back this but I would
like to add I come before you every year and more recently um to express the need for a new dog program uh because the vendor has not been supporting it um I
just found out that our amazing it group um Tony datat was able to take our dog program off of the old server MH and put it onto uh well actually he's got it now we only had it on one computer program
the dog program the licensing yeah it wasn't compatible with uh the current versions of Windows yes yeah I I've talked to him about it yeah yes so I actually just had it installed on my computer so for the last 13 years I haven't had access to it unless I went
out into the front um so I got my steps in every day but but uh he uh now has it installed on everyone's computer and he's working to get it off of that old server whereas before we had no hope um but now
uh that is tremendous because the dog program really works for us um you know it it's not online uh but we are working with uh the company to bring in uh credit card license uh credit card
purchases in our office um so that will will be a step in the right direction with fiscal times way they are right now I can't come before you and say we need an additional $18,000 annually for a dog licensing program
when it's bringing in 24 or $25,000 in Revenue just just does I can do up Ace spreadsheet for you that would work great I'm just kidding trust me when I say I'm very detailed with the information that I need so um and the
program works great so um if we have Tony and he can fix it for us I'm I'm thrilled yeah they basically extended the life of what you have exactly yeah cuz it was I I remember the story basically it was restricted like Windows
XP or something like that and windows yeah or window right yeah and it wasn't forward compatible but yeah I know right so that has been helpful um as far as everything else the board of registrars
uh um we are going to have two elections uh from what I understand we will have a um the election next April but we're also going to have one in November for the Old Colony um School Vote and that's
going to be a special election so um that is still up in the air as far as the financing of it but I will say that I did I did incorporate that into the budget because I would
rather not be have you blindsided that load him okay so it would have been even even less budget but elections elections do it every time and I I thought I was only
going to have one this year I was so excited oh well um let's see and for town meeting and elections I gave you the actual ual breakdown of what it costs uh with what I need for Staffing
the clerks the wardens um so that way you don't have any questions on the amounts very good anybody have any questions for Pam almost up thanks Pam thank you thank you for the great job that you do we we appreciate it and if
we have any questions we'll reach out okay both you and your staff yes my staff ising amazing when I go whenever I go in there everyone's always very pleasant it's a nice atmosphere yeah yeah you know you're in there I say that out loud you don't know
what we say when he walks out I'm I'm the mean guy no he's not no not I always say I have I'm sorry I love everybody in town but my staff just clicks you that's good that's important
thank you again than all right so that covers our hearings for tonight um Jamie you wanted to talk to us about some uh updates budget yeah you've got the revenue sheet in front of you I've not changed any of
my uh predictions estimates uh I have put an updated uh revised not ation in the corner Su I did notice that in Circle B already thank
you for that uh we put an update as far as the FY 25 actuals the only one I'm really uh wanted to verify was the water services one that hasn't been updated but we'll
get that but it's not going to change my estimates that much until I know what's going on uh and I can figure out if there are any rabbits which ones can are eligible to
jump out of the Hat uh it's very disappointing when you look at the situation uh and I'd like to say that
we've got about 500,000 without any rabbits an increased Revenue education increase is 1 million1 100,000 that do including o Colony I'll
repeat it that's 1,100,000 yeah 700 these are round figures 750,000 is the Acushnet School District through 350,000 is Old
Colony neither one has responded to sufficiently to where they have to be to for us to get a balanced budget as far far as our joint accounts go where it's on the town side but it's
for uh all employees school and town insurance and pensions uh there's right now an increase of $332,000 the next highest increase is in public
safety that's $174,000 out that $147,000 I'm sorry was it 147 or 174 174 sorry yep uh I was distracted sorry part of that part of that amount is the fact that in the budgets that
we've prepared so far we're trying to be truthful as far as the overtime budgets go for police and fire what's the breakout between police and fire do
we know that as far as the 174 what's the breakout between the two departments uh well if you take out that increase in overtime yep just let me get to that it's only
59,000 because you got to remember we went from 130,000 last year to when we did the cuts to 70,000 for the fire and then we did a
55,000 cut in the overtime budget from 400,000 to 345 for the police right now police is at 344,000 it
those budgets were balanced yes but they're balanced because in may we go and we try to then rebalance them by being truthful about the overtime and those two departments well how can we
argue that we have a balanced budget if we know numbers are false but it's permitted for us I get that it's permitted but it's not but you're right and that's why we uh we're we're putting it out there and then we'll have to see where we go when we
try to balance the budget uh the next highest is water even though water is not an Enterprise account the increase is 109,000 but that's be primarily because
of the increase from New Bedford so it's it's part of the budget but it isn't the next increas is General government
$23,000 Public Works without the water is only 16,000 these are round figures culture and recreation is 8,000 Human Services is negative 14,000
So when you say General government what does that entail which what gets lumped into that uh everything from the town administrator's office town clerk assessors accountants treasur
collectors uh Park no that's culture and uh Recreation so what percentage of the town's budget makes up that $23,000 increase uh I'll park
it 35 25% uh no not even close okay when you look at education or do you mean the town half the town to half the town half Town half
yeah uh it's probably well overall it's probably 10% okay so this is about 10% of the budget yeah okay what you're looking at is
including mandated raises and some necessary increases taking water out of it the town side increased
$92,000 the schools increased $1,100,000 okay so what that tells me is that the townside is very lean MH the townside is very lean and for us to continue to provide level
Services where we can do it this year you're not going to be able to continue to do it over a 3 to 5 year period we can do what this year you can
have the services you have today next year but we won't after that probably not okay okay unless something changes got it and we have an increase
in our health insurance I can't announce the figure because of the fact I've got to present it to the board of Select but it's about half the increase that a number of communities around here are
getting hit with and I will say I will say that the range seems to be between 10 and 24% of the towns and that's health insurance we have no increase in Dental or
Vision if the schools Do Not Mirror the town as far as a lean budget then it's going to be very difficult to balance a
budget as you know we have a hiring free and we will probably uh be looking at other than Finance where we need Certified Financial people but uh we're going to probably be
looking at eliminating any vacant positions what's the uh What's the total deficit again beside I know the the schools combined with 1.1 1 million 50,7 including water and Olive government and the joint
accounts and right now all we have is 500k to allocate towards that deficit and the join accounts are approximately 330k I have a question um the
750,000 deficit for the school does that even touch the additional money they're asking for for the uh humidity is isue that's that's a capital item y so that's not part of the operation this is just
the operational buet do we have after do do we have a a breakdown of where that 750 increases coming from did they present that no we haven't gotten that yet so they didn't when they presented the budget they didn't I've I've got a copy I can have
made for you and we'll scan it and send it to you it was like like a summary yeah it was a sumual summ it was the US so it wasn't a line item detailed thing it wasn't the one you had last year no no but even I can pull out because I
have them with me the last four years worthed why is that no surprise you know but even I think it's four years which year would you like to let's see let's look at only only a tax accountant would be like absolutely right absolutely right
like I was looking for something like this right like the fiscal year this is 2022 is where they broke down the increases by like salaries instruction Contract Services professional development we didn't get that yet they yeah they did a summary of that oh okay
okay oh jeez the whole thing this print's getting smaller and smaller that's Colony right and we're geter we might need to start doing this electron ially so we can zoom the saying um either that or I need to increase the strength on these things
because this just isn't working anymore all right I have to try M but that's what we've got so far I can make copies but we're going to get more than that I hope so I mean I think we we we need to like but I also think we need to
give direction on what it is we we need to give the ask last year we gave the town the town gave the school a Target right and I think that's what they're looking for so I think we need we need to give them the ask they're going to need that they need that so we need to
figure out what that the problem is we have I'll have this with you and I'll share with you we have a $350,000 increase with the old colony yeah a 3 30 the with the joint accounts
if if let's say the town stays where it is and we don't eviscerate the towns side and there's about under $100,000 increase in the towns
side you're looking at if we wanted to think about pulling rabbits out of hats you're looking at at Old Colony maybe A1 or
$150,000 increase and a cushioned school system $100,000 increase I can't see us making it at any other way with the fact that fixed costs being what they are as far as the
insurances and pensions and assessments like that yeah I mean that's probably realistic you're looking at the town with less than $100,000
increase okay so we're saying O Colony 150 a cushion at schools 100 100 I got to ask how do you come up with that allocation considering o colony's budget is a fraction of the
schools Old Colony uh last year if right now it's 350 right last year $132,000 was paid by this town from our
overlay Surplus account right to retire debt right so if you take that from that you're at around 200,000 instead of them putting it
into a stabilization account which they did so and I and I I don't think I'm it maybe you guys are following this but I don't follow I'm I'm not following so we they they assessed 12 something or
$130,000 higher we covered some of that by pulling money out of overlay Surplus last year when we balanced the budget y they had a debt right which was our share was about
13 for the of the science lab something like that right that they retired yep so they do not have it this year right when we told them what we were doing last year we said we do not want to see it in
your budget again next year it's in their budget it's just they didn't decrease their base 130 and then go and do their budget but so it's what what are they
cut where are they spending that money if it's not going to the debt I guess that's the part that that I'm struggling with it included debt now the debts gone so where's this money going for example in one line I saw y year after year they
put 20 25,000 okay into stabilization y this year they put 100,000 that's just one line so so they're they're okay they're building it
in to their budget yeah so I got you but we were the only town that probably did that right who how where did that funding come from everybody else took it out of I don't know where the hell they I think the point to to me now I'm starting to
to to understand it like to me it's like hey that stabilization number shouldn't be 100,000 drop it like that's the comment I get that there there there's money going around but the comment is no you're not get that's not appropriate under the under the current situation so
you're dropping that that needs to be dropped that's the comment I don't care how it got funded last year and what really needs to be done especially by the finance committee is to say to an
entities such as Old Colony uh we'd like to see year over year for the last four years all your reserve accounts all your stabilization accounts and all your revolving accounts I know a number of uh
towns pay for their culinary uh operations totally out of a revolving account and then to see their DN or end which is
emergency well as is in effect their free cash yeah I mean to to be honest with you Jamie I I have a list say it shocker shocker totally um I I think we need to know
those amounts for everything not just o Colony not just the scho like District I I all of ours even the town like I I think this is the year that we definitely have to have our pulse on everything to understand
because this is you know the probably the worst year MH that since I've been on the finance committee we seem to keep saying that every year no but it's getting and it's getting worse though no it wasn't and and this is the thing in the early years it wasn't like this no we didn't
struggle like this that wasn't where the money's coming from I think since you've been on maybe it's you well but if you it's like I it's like I've said numerous times to you well I know two and two and a half plus
New Growth there isn't a lot of new growth but we had we had we had some good times where it was where we had it right and we were not conservative we were just like woohoo new money time to spend but happen your two and a
half your tax levy go goes up about 3% a year yeah keep staying even with the inflation let's say somewhat it's not but your local
receipts go up 5% a year your money from state aid goes up half a percent right to 1 and a 12% if you have a spike in a particular year that's
where you're losing ground oh we all know that I mean that's been a point that we've been making for a couple of years now state and federal a has dropped off so much well it's not keeping Pace no no our representatives were here and they're going to work on
that it's all got to get corrected yeah we'll see all takes time no matter what it all takes time nothing's instantaneous okay I got a question stick into the whole Colony um
issue that with the whole new school was there a survey done cuz we gave money towards that yeah like a feasibility study yeah you they came in took money for a feasibility study y uh all of it's
been done you're at the stage where the they're being told by the state and effect what to put in the new package so the study was useless cuz the state's telling you guys
need no the St that presents the need yep the state tells you whether you can do you have to do a new school or you do a new Wing or fit and then we'll tell you how much it's going to give
you for that okay so no decision is made yet there and it's a laundry list it's a laundry list of what they will actually reimburse different things for different parts of the design for example you
don't get anything for uh athletic fields mhm so if you put the new school where the old Athletic Field is and you have to replace an athletic field you don't get any state reimbursement for
that and different parts of the education facility are reimbursed differently okay and the reimbursement amount is dependent
on the town or towns and your uh how many boxes you check yeah which is why some of the other cities around us can build a school and for almost nothing
but we will not be in that camp yeah that's been a an objection from town administrators through the MMA on this whole school building assistance and when they start to talk
about public safety building assistance and other municipal buildings we comment that it's great that they're considering that but don't put it in the same formula that you're
doing with the schools because then it'll all go to the urban areas and nothing will come here of course yeah that has that has to but it has to do with the uh just for what I
said this both Old Colony and a cushion at schulls have got to get real yeah right I mean this is what we have before us you know there
there's not going to be any magic ways to generate extra Revenue you might get you might get a $100,000 more in state aid you might the legislature always gives more
money than the governor however sometimes it's 30,000 sometimes it's 150 you have no no forign knowledge I just saw I just saw today
that the house uh rejected the the the governor's proposed prescription tax so they rejected that so the governor can take the potential revenue from that out of her budget which I think they estimated was around 145 million um so
that's that's going to go byebye so if there's if there's less of that I don't see how we're not going to get more money I don't see how we're going to get more e well you also should be concerned with the
fact that the state is supposed to pass their budget by July 1 if they don't they will go to 112th budgets and that 112th budget means that
month it'll be a monthly budget based on the year previous so the local Aid you'll be getting will be the year previous one until they actually pass the budget so
you whoever is sitting in this chair is going to have to monitor that I don't see it doesn't make sense to me that they they can pass their budget by July 1st when all these
municipalities have to present a budget to town meeting prior to that it's crazy and it just doesn't make sense right I've seen budgets go 112th and the legislature
finally passes them in November December after an election [Music] yeah I think uh the sooner this committee and the scho
committee get together the better well I mean I think there's going to be another joint meeting with Board of Select us and the school but um so that's that's I think I think the budget subcommittee and maybe you folks like
you did in the past might it might help to focus Comm no the school now I mean we're down to I mean it's it's the last Wednesday of of March and we've had how many
you've heard how many budgets like what's what is they've they've they've revised their original point preliminary once right now yeah and cut it a couple of hundred no but I I mean just in general right we're had we've had three tonight and uh we didn't have
last week we still have the big ones we have all those so when do we have to have these all done I'm just thinking like timing uh end of April as far as me getting a warrant to
the printer okay so sooner than later um I mean so even though Town meetings J June 2nd right I can get it maybe the first week in May yeah I think we're going to have to end up going into the first week in
May yeah cuz we got April vacation we'll probably have to meet through I'm not going to actually be here the first week in May we got Zoom you huh we can zoom you well if you remember last year we were doing the budget right up to the last minute I know every
year just to balance it cuz we cut we cut it three timesan if it gets really bad I guess we could do two meetings in a weekend I mean we cut the town budget last year three times before we had the big ones big police Fire
EMS DPW so those are the those are the big four no Library already came they done um see Way's done yeah and there a lot of them golf were no change golf Department uh yeah but I mean the
Enterprise accounts that's we will come in on I mean the only you'll probably see an increase in the uh offsets for the Enterprise accounts but that's it yeah I mean the only way this
we're going to be able to present a BAL Balan budget this year is going to be basically much bigger cuts from both schools m because there's not going to be much to cut on the town side so I mean like s says we got to
give them a Target this is what we need MH we got to give them the ask we we haven't given an Ask yet we have to do that right right and and then this you know and I think the the ask for kushit school district really
depends on sitting down with Old Colony and getting real with them first because that's the Gill in the room because they're an assessment I I was I caught I caught some of the uh the board of selectman meeting uh when when Aaron was
here and there was some topic about something with the transportation line not it wasn't in what he presented right so that's so that's like the unknown right and that's what you guys are waiting to hear about oh these are a number of things but that's one of the
big ones but there are a number of others that various members have questions on right so you know our schools can't just think you know we're not just picking on them it's it's like these are
the biggest budgets that take up the biggest percentage of the entire Town's budget the school is probably close to 60% of the entire Town's budget so of course that's going to get looked at the most and that's where the biggest ask would be um and they're probably
watching this I'm sure I'll probably get an email tomorrow morning um when I look at my emails uh but it is what it is I mean you know I me we've talked about it I think last year about the number of full-time positions that were added over
the past several years right wasn't it like 13 mhm 13 14 there was I can go through so approximately it was like 13 full-time positions that have been added So eventually that was going to rear its ugly head to where it is now right
and it's the only the only way that I don't know how they're going to get it down that much but there probably going to have to be some Cuts I mean um potential layoffs I mean I don't know I mean I'm I'm not going to tell them what to do with their budget we'll give them
a Target and that's all we can do and that's and then they hopefully they can work with it you know they'll have to I mean we're all feeling all the Departments are feeling pain um and it's not just our town it's everywhere and again it's a problem
that's above us which I've said before state level and then even beyond that there's from what's happened the last couple years there's a town I I just talked to the Town
Administrator that's a neighboring town that there within 8,000 of balancing their budget but $8,000 $88,000 but they've
cut that' be nice they've cut substantially and they've eliminated every vacant position we I I agree with you that I think we have to probably cut the vacant positions that we haven't filled in the
numbers that you gave us have we done that yet we haven't done that part yet uh the on the town side right yeah primarily yes we have already done that in the my estimates yes and how many in
how many positions is that that we've eliminated uh knowing we need account right we need Finance we know we I uh I'm going to defer until I because I haven't presented all the cuts to the
board of selectman yet understood I wouldn't want to say something and then have them say no we can't cut those two positions mhm yeah I mean uh part of the problem is you know you have we have these
Union mandates right for contracts that they don't take into consideration the struggle of the entire Town's economy you know so they have their contract act that it says 3% Cola
and that's like no matter what no matter how bad the town's doing doesn't matter so that we can't keep Pace with that well we're not keeping Pace with it anymore as evidence by this well you
can't I mean you're looking you're looking at the school district looking for an increase of 750,000 you're looking at Old Colony looking for $ 350,000 where the town
is looking if we were most truthful as far as overtime and everything else and we didn't have this these issues and just
looking straight As a budget we'd be looking at no more than $200,000 how can somebody look for 750,000 and 350,000 when the total operation the
rest of the operation of the town is looking at somewhere right now between probably 75 and 150 well and last year our school were
only over a little over 300 if I'm not mistaken and enrollments 330 was the target we gave them and they made it right enrollment goes down the costs keep going up is that 750 is that
is that contractual stuff or is that both that's what pres school I have this is that's just what you know right now the bottom line yeah yeah I mean a lot a lot of the increas is probably due to mostly fixed cost
salaries eating up most of it um remember they don't pay for health insurance right it's on us right and that's where that's the difference because Old Colony is paying for the health insurance in their budget
where our schools are not and so what all colonies increase was 19% for health insurance do we know what the number is a year ago we offered them right an to
come with us in the purchase of health insurance what's What's the total cost of the health insurance for our town employees uh like the it's got to be a portion of what the total is it's 2 million and change hold on I'll look it
up that's employes answer the employe answer yeah employes in the school system we tell whyde and then seeing what the I'm
estimating and this will be able to give you the uh figure if you back out but 200 2,214 215,000
2.2 yep is health insurance for the for the School Employees I mean we have about uh 60,000 workers comp
insurance that the school's part of that the town's covering yep we have 292,000 these are all estimates right now of uh PNC the buildings the towns
cover that's townse school so you're looking at probably 2 and5 million just for uh insurance is because I backed out
some that are particular to place in fire maybe 2 million so the work 2 2 mil7 2 million6 that the school accounts for and that's not in their budget not in their budget not in the school
district's budget and uh when I looked at it the last time the health insurance they were about 2/3 of the our health insurance costs two3 well that kind of goes along with the overall Town budget because they're
close to 60% of the overall Town budget so you know that's CL that's right along that ballpark so that's that's a lot of money so and this is and this is part of the reason
why we have to ask for the you know for them to help the most because because they're getting a lot of help from the town to cover these costs you have to figure out the fixed costs like health insurance Etc
first when you're doing your budget and then look at what's left after that to divide up among the various departments including the School departments but they have to recognize
that so so now we just you know we're going to have you know the big meeting with them uh we got to figure out when we're going to potentially do this now um sooner probably
later so sue I know you're probably going to be really busy and you probably won't be able to do like a I'll try a meeting with them no I'll try I did you did you did you come with us last time I think you yeah so three of us
right so I'd have to have to one of the Selectmen was there too yeah um hoft was there hoft was there with Sarah Dr
Bailey I don't remember Hy I think cuz they're not going to be ready to present their final budget to us right now anyway no um yeah but I think just coming out giving them the Target that we're going to need or the town's going to
need is probably prudent M so next next Wednesday is uh April 2nd so we got to figure out what we're doing next week because we don't have I'd like to uh bring in DPW next week
okay and if uh any of the uh other budgets other than public safety uhp I'm going to work on the Enterprise budgets
and uh uh maybe I'll be able golf yeah maybe I'll be able to bring those in uh DPW and Sewer bring that those oh that encompasses all that right so and
uh there are a couple of the Town budgets um as long as the selectman say release them to come in uh I can
bring them in but they're not going to be final because we've already cut positions out of them mhm and if we have to cut more we're going to cut more cuz the board of selectman's mandated to present a balanced budget
right under with's your consideration as to your recommendation on it and we are nowhere close M because of the
schools all right so I mean we can run around and cut let's say $50,000 and it means nothing oh no that's it it takes it it takes two more positions out of the town if you're going to just go after all this little nickel and dime
stuff that's not going to put a dent in it no yep not without the schools doing it unfort unfortunately I mean it's probably going to you know be positions it's it's something that you know we've talked about in the past that's nothing
new so so I'll put together a list of POS either positions that are going to be eliminated or they're going to be taking off the books people that are going to be are
reassigned to positions and then have their position or reassign duties on the town side but the town the town the thing that the town side is already very thin
to begin with and I don't believe the town side has added that many positions over the last several years no but we have unfilled position half a librarian in the children's room one thing I can remember that is it so I
mean how how can we just how can we pillage in the townside when they haven't been adding anything for the last several years but then you have other departments that have you know the schools added how many like we said full-time positions over
the last 3 4 years 13 and I don't know and the positions if I eliminate a position in the town it's 20 30 $40,000 position MH the positions they had in the school
are $90,000 but just to be clear the positions we're talking about for the town are evaluated currently unfilled positions that we going to take off the books that are being funded is that
correct yes okay that's at this point yes right now yes if it gets worse then we'll have to okay I understand yeah so that means the town on the town side they have less
Manpower unfill yeah just clearing the books but your points taken all right so going back to next week's meeting DPW so that's going to Encompass Highway water and sore I'll give you a list of
town departments after I talk to the select one when you going when's out da so well just so Kathy knows yeah so Kathy just have that on your radar you know DPW and then potentially golf right and that's
going to probably be it for next week and and that list of the ones okay if there's any all right and then you'll convey that to me and then I'll email Kathy well uh Tanya and Kathy go back and forth all right Sydney yeah they do
a good job communicating so um and we just got to make sure we get Lisa's email correct I'll talk to Kathy after okay all right so that and that's I think that's about it so we
have the only um anybody have any old business I will be bringing in a reserve trans for for the 5,000 once it goes through the selectman on the first okay to so we can get
training to use the software for scheduling assignments and payroll at the police department than you've been paying for for years okay have we heard anything on that 1.5 from the state that we're supposed to be
getting from 2014 yeah yeah they're working on it okay told us okay yeah all right I thought that was supposed to be like a check that week or something the week after wasn't it it's in
the answer from an email that I haven't got it's in the mail but we're cutting the Personnel in the post off all right new business I have something for new business I just want to bring up that um as probably everyone's aware my wife is running for
school committee she's un opposed so it looks like you know she she's going to get it nice um based on that I have submitted a formal request through the state ethics commission to get a written
opinion uh as to a conflict of interest with me being here appointed and her being elected uh I submitted that I was told it would be 30 days before I would hear anything so okay uh once I get that I'll F you guys in
all right thank you thank you so so if there's ever a question people there's a question because my wife's already been questioned about it um a letter a formal letter has been submitted to the state Ethics Committee who oversees the I hopefully hopefully
it's not an issue when you can stay on yeah I I think I'm all right from what I talk to him it sounds like with the fact that we only present a budget and the budget is actually voted by the by the the voters by the residents um I I think
I think I'll be all right yeah and if you could also clarify with them that under this town's Charter it's the board of Selectmen who actually presents at the budget at town meeting yeah I mean
yeah the finance Comm we make a recommendation that's how I that's how I put it I so we'll see what happens but I explain that there MH very good uh there is a set of minutes to approve from the meeting of May 8 2024 I don't have the
minutes in front of me so I don't know who's in attendance um pull it up usually PR quick I wasn't I wasn't able to print it out this fed probably still in here no I found it
in attendance was Mr oh shoot I clicked on the wrong thing I clicked probably still faster okay uh uh Mike you were present myself Benoy Eric CH uh Bob Ferrera
Kristen Flynn Eric mcglen and Bob St jeene okay I'll make a motion all in favor okay minutes are approved um next meeting date is next Wednesday April 2nd uh right here 7 o' and and we'll have a
couple departments coming in you'll keep us posted email yeah just yeah be on the lookout during the week for some emails and motion to adjourn second all in favor we have jour
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