[Music] meeting of the finance committee it's Wednesday April 2nd 2025 uh this meeting will be audio and video recorded please stand for the pledge of allegiance
i pledge allegiance 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 well welcome folks uh we're going
to take uh everybody in order here so Dian Menard our DPW director is up to that first we put the generic heading of DPW but it's multiple budgets as you know go ahead floor is
yours good evening all right i guess we'll start with the the highway all right um most everything well the the if you want to start with the salaries everything is uh ex um the same except for contractual
um and the longevity that's increased is because of um it's no longer in the it used to be built into the salaries and now it's taken out and it's separate now so that's that's where that
is um everything else state level funding in the expenses line items um except for gasoline we increased um a few thousand again that's just an estimated cost of what's how it's been
going that's that's a tough one so and actually it was a decrease in the uh road materials from 200 to 150 so all in all went down actually from 1,6,76
to92856 in that budget any questions on that one Jamie i got a question for you this kind of ties in with this that wasn't there supposed to be like a $1.5 million transportation bond or
something would that be tied in with chapter 90 no that's for the Slokum Street just for that and uh we still haven't had any money released by ANF and how about the
uh that fair share tax allocation supposed to go to chapter 90 and chapter 7 that has been added to his chapter 90 so that's already in there yep that was 70,000 i believe that yeah and there was another amount earlier from the uh so
that I don't think we get the 200,000 yet no okay that's going to become because we get roughly 314,000 I think is the number every year from chapter 90 funds um the for the next 5 years supposedly we got I don't know how much they got
the state got so they're giving us an extra 200,000 for the next five years so every year now we'd be getting 500,000 towards road road chapter 9 funds yeah okay uh snow and ice same thing it's level
funded from last year no questions on that how much should how how much should it be used in snow and ice we're actually We're We're almost close yeah no no we used it up i think we're a little behind but let me see i got it let me
see as of uh April 1 we used 100,959 11 well I got salt in the meantime so that's where that number came in so when
it gets posted upstairs it will be above that okay um yeah see I'm I'm 156 right currently this is as of uh 331 so but we're done with the snow so
that's pretty much it so we're - 46,000 on that oh don't curse us well don't say that yeah we don't see as off today so we're done we had April day April Fools storms before we'll have to wait for May and
then figure out how we're going to transfer something in for that all right street lighting is in in his uh area but not within his purview as he tells me every year
correct uh and uh that we increase slightly and that's the energy costs mhm and we have no idea what as you know what the energy costs
are going to be and uh Mr manard and myself have been talking to the utilities to make sure they take care of our hardware when they start to take the poles yeah they're on the side of the
road i know i've seen them mhm we've talked to Ever Source and they agree that they'll take care of the ones they're doing yeah they've been putting them on the ground as they've been moving along and then they go out and they've been
doing good all right yep um so the only increases again it's a contractual um and that's I mean the tonnage is basically
the same roughly as what we've been doing in the past so um again that pickup I think this is last year next year we're going to have to go back out to bid we had a 5-year contract with um with the trash guys and CESAS both so
next year might be a little different so but this was I believe there was a 3% increase every year so that's just the 3% from last year yep difference how we doing with contaminations we did actually been doing really good with
that we don't come so it hasn't been no initial no pizza boxes in the recycling no well I don't know you get the Domino's boxes they tell you right on the box to recycle me and uh recycling ton a ton right now probably 70
something a ton but uh that's a tough market too again it went from they were paying us to to over $100 a ton it was more than trash at one point and then back down and now we're you know 70 so
that's kind of where we're at with that that's another tough market to to You're not going to put your finger on it you know yeah i think I remember you saying last year that um a lot of places around here don't even want to take take it right
yeah so it's like I said we it's um waste management is the one who takes our stuff and they process it and again a lot of stuff goes overseas so um it used to go to China and I think it's going to like Vietnam and stuff like that now it's different um places it's
going to and that's where it changes i don't know if China's just not taking it or too much or whatever but is there any other company other than waste management that you Well again that's contract we got a contract with them we put it out the bid there's other people that take it but again they came in the lowest at that time 5 years ago when we
did this so they had to stick in just well it's market prices so they adjust by market you know same thing with the fuel it'll adjust you know at but it starts at you know July 1st so we start the fuel whatever that price is then you got a leeway you know up or
down so many things and it stays the same but if it goes up they charge us more because it's a fuel extra increase in fuel cost and if it goes down they do decrease as well so again it's all on kind of market what the market's bearing
it wasn't even waste management then it was somebody else it was Howland when we Howland we have bought out yep correct any questions on seam mass water water next i can get
it again with the highway and all that stuff to the the board i don't know if they still going to make more cuts later on so I'm still I don't know if this is going to be in stone uh or not but I figured I'd throw that out there i think Kevin said that last night he was the
board has not done any personnel cuts to any of these budgets you've seen including any vacant positions mhm
but as I stated earlier it supports intent to look at vacant positions first of which there is one split between sewer and water and then look at
uh any filled positions so currently though it's in this budget now for that position correctly yeah it's still here yep okay and again with the salaries that's um just a longevity thing because it's it's
not built into their salary anymore um the only other increase in the water was um the beard water bills and it's a 5% and actually I believe they went up um eight this year yeah 8.6 they had increased but we're comfortable with the
um you know the average and the usage so the 5% should be enough to cover it dan do you know if uh if New Bedford has has changed um the amount of fluoride they're adding
to the water well um they that could be a possibility because it seems like they're always changing people over there when they first started it was all the same guys and now it's all new people and so um as far as the testing it's not that's not it ain't been an
issue with that water testing but are they putting that it probably it could be you know what I mean so I'm I couldn't give you an answer on that one okay i could find that out for I can actually call I I got people in the office but I used to know people that were in the plant before and like I said
it's changed all hands now you know all these people yeah because how is it measured in what parts per million correct right yeah so yeah I'd like to know that number of of what it is um just just curious because
a lot of health issues can pop up with increased fluoride added to the water some communities have banned it yes yeah i mean it's you know you getting a fluoride in your toothpaste
yeah it's it's basically it's basically a form of a neurotoxin is what it is so I mean it's I don't know i mean I just I think that needs to be really looked at uh closely um it could you know could be tough on young kids you know get too much
fluoride um you know potentially cause some bone issues so again the beet has to you know we both go through D for the standards and everything so they're definitely under more um view from DP
than us cuz we're their treatment plant and I would you know you would hope that D's watching it you know what I mean cuz they have to give it I'm sure is bu I that plant puts out like 9 to 11 million gallons treated a day out of that plant
so I would think they uh keep an eye on it yeah you know but you know what I mean does stuff slip by the cracks i don't know i'm sure they're watching but how much they really know about it that's that's a whole other question but anyway I can I can find numbers i can
check it out that's not ours but any other uh questions on the water yep uh you'll see in sewer and golf we've worked in direct
costs and there'll be some changes here we haven't because it's not an enterprise account it's just a reserve and uh at some point I'm sure we can crunch the figures but looking at
what happened when we did the sewer the difference between what was put originally in over the years by Mr menard and uh when we crunched the numbers the difference was
4,400 for sewer and the break is uh 7030 between water and sewer for a lot of this so uh looking at the potential of maybe $8 or $9,000 difference uh looking at the
water budget we didn't think it was a valid exercise right now and we've got a lot of other things to do to balance things out sure but this number it's fairly close uh
because they're up you have 7,500 on us uh it's 35 the fringe benefits health and vacation is up at 35,000 i'm less worried about that than with the golf
and with sewer even though sewer's a lot less i just wanted to try to get it accurate cuz it's an enterprise account so again um the only increase was from New Be and that was the uh the increase
from New Bey basic the same everything's level funded across the board on both water we have any pending or impending uh mandated inspections like infiltration
what is that every couple years the uh the inspection requirements that was Yes that was mandated again that was D and getting what sewer lines inspected and holes yeah for water it get do we have any of those coming um not this year no but probably the fall when we'll have
some more coming in we just did we did most of all our mains and manholes we finished it so I think they let it go a couple years and then we're going to start back over again so So it's like every two three years we have to do that right yeah well that's because we we did it in phases so we didn't do the whole system at once so they did one one
section one year another section the other so we finished the whole town now yes so we're all good we got whatever we found we fixed and was a few manholes it really wasn't that bad a lot of the stuff was new the stuff in ' 06 is new we have some on this part of town
it's from the 80s but it's it's still plastic PVC and you know it was just more of the manholes and stuff we can come get some infiltration from there you know so but water loss on the water we do every year so that's it's it's
basically with listening devices so we have a guy come in and and do um you know leak detection every year on the water oh yeah so yeah we do every year thank you it's uh not only
that you've got the MS4 that keeps going on for the storm water correct and those uh reports have been issued every year they're up to date and we're going forward on that and if you want to give them a thumbnail sketch about what's
going to happen on Sloum Street with the project yeah we're going to be doing that uh whole new drainage and water main water services uh curbing sidewalks asphalt so it's uh they're starting actually I got to put the sign up and
I'm going to put it up tomorrow they're starting actually next Monday April 6 is the stop um they're thinking sometime in September to finish the project so um they was just saying skim coat until the spring well the binder maybe binder for
the winter and then top coat in the spring possibly but who's um DW no no it's not DW it's a Bisco and they're out of Fall River it's a company out of Fall River again they won the bid um so I haven't worked with this company
yet so we'll see yeah any plans on addressing the the um the bend on Main Street where on the covert there where it kind of does this before you got that swing to the left at the bottom of the hill
go down um just past driver range was a solar farm yeah right before the Yeah so you got that covert that's there and it if you on the shoulder it kind of dips pretty hard oh yeah yeah yeah to where the basin is yeah well that wasn't on the list but yeah we can look into that
that wasn't one of the roads that we're looking at this year we got 400 job signs on especially now social media yeah cuz a lot of times when you go around that bent a lot of people will try to avoid that yep but all right can
I give you guys a little hint my road material budget's 200,000 so it used to be 200 now it's going down to 150 i had to do line painting last year line PE you got to get done that's $50,000 so now I'm down to 100 catch basins got to get clean they have to be clean because
of the NS4 that's 25,000 so now I'm down to 75,000 it's only so much you can do right dpws like horses horses want to pull but if you leave them tied to a tree you ain't going you ain't doing nothing no I got it
so any questions on sewer yeah how we doing with uh you know equipment heavy equipment all the the vehicles and stuff like that the other thing it's actually we're pretty good i needed a sweeper again we've been asking for the last four years that ain't but I'm trying to talk the select board into
getting one this year because with that extra 200 and that extra 70 that actually covers the sweeper that we didn't know we were getting that money that's the way I look at it because you can get that out of the chapter funies uh chapter 90 funds so it's not you know
going to the taxpayers and stuff so that's how we actually get our our paper you know you know a few years back so I'm trying to hopefully they'll they'll go with that but that might be a tough one so that's basically kind of really the the trucks and everything we're good
with and most of the machines except for the sweeper all right good any other questions nobody else has any questions for the guys have a good night thanks for coming tonight appreciate it take care
see you bye bye okay next up is our treasurer collector Jonathan hi Jennifer hi how are you good how are you good thank you introduce yourself your first time meeting with you all
thanks for having me i've been here now a little over a year my background I was the assistant collector in for a year but worked there for eight years so I'm happy to be here welcome very good great
to have you thank you so much um so I'll start with the salaries the only changes is the contractual and longevity one of the clerks makes for 15 years and as you can see we're
reflecting in the total for the operating budget the offset or indirect cost paid by the enterprise so that we look at the bottom line it was reflected
in uh the motions to fund the operating budget etc but uh I think this puts it out there clear and we've had a number of uh fee increases
so all of our bill print are going up we use hoppers for payroll bill trust for our printing for taxes and our PKS for our motor vehicle jamie you got anything to add or I'm asking for full funding for the
assistant treasurer collector even though that position is vacant now our intent is to fill That's the position that handles payroll for both the town and the school
so who's so who's doing that now uh you're looking at it between uh the uh accounting office and the treasurer collector's
office we've uh been operating with two just two people for a long time okay nice to have different offices plus uh
people from my office good to have checks and balances back having someone in the accounting office yeah definitely mhm and uh it's good to have some people that
are working for the town in the financial areas that have worked in different areas in finance so that they know what goes on in the different offices
so we can every now and then say "Oh uh yeah it was over here but you're taking insurance you're taking administering all the insurancees this regionalized
office." No I think that's good for somebody to have a background like that where they can you know interchange between roles you know so just it's definitely an added value for sure yeah we were sorry to
lose our assistant treasurer collector but she is now the treasurer collector in a neighboring town we are the uh training train training ground for a
number of places the police department everywhere well hopefully Jennifer sticks around for a little while yes I plan on it all right good good glad to hear it yes overall their budget's only up $10,000 from last year so that's and
most of it is though like I said all the services are going up fees yep okay anybody have any questions for Jennifer no well it was a pleasure meeting you thanks for coming in tonight and look
forward to working with you absolutely me too thank you thank you bye take care bye okay next up to bat is our conservation agent Mr mark Mittton hi Mark welcome hello nice to meet you all hello uh
again I'm the new agent Mark Minton uh having a good time i didn't know I was part of the farm system but um tell them your background so I was a federal employee with Noah for on and off but not on and off for 35
years I did a variety of different things in there when I was with uh Noah uh when I retired in 2000 I was working well I worked out of this area for a long time but my office was uh the customs house
downtown i have some background a lot of um fishing uh related experience but I also have u worked on Atlantic salmon up in Maine and a lot of stream restoration i went to grad school for wetlands
restoration a long time ago and couldn't find a job in it so of course it was always a job to get back on a boat so but um uh I've been enjoying uh felt like it was a real opportunity when um
saw the position open and it it really kind of fit in it fit in with my interest um I still teach at a community college up in Boston part-time but um yeah it's been a great experience i enjoy I enjoy working with people and
certainly do a lot of that and enjoy the other um staff here and I see Andy's still here so great so I can um so this is the first time
I've um been in front of um the committee and so I guess I'll start off with with the salaries um so I think you all know that I'm halftime or part-time 19.5
um and I'll tell say this uh as I said to to um Jamie uh it's not really a halftime position and I'm putting in more time um and because you know it's it's it's interesting stuff and so um
but so that's a big change I think in the um um in terms of salaries um in concom um I started in July so right after the start of the fiscal year I believe and
um and I know well previously I know that uh the clerk uh was was covering uh some of the duties of the agent so um I think that's changed as well mhm
um let's see um just one thing to note and I um I'm just looking at the the figures I have there was I don't really think it's important but there was some um the reallocation of salary there was
a coding issue that um actually Jamie brought to my attention and uh so that's been resolved i've worked with Jen and so you can see that um I guess with um I don't know
um what else what what other details you want I um on the salaries I there's um there's overtime um that that goes to um uh the senior
clerk and the majority of that is for the time she spends at meetings and overtime and above and beyond her normal hours uh what other stuff and I'm happy to answer any specific questions i'm hopefully I'm
covering the uh information you want uh you're interested in um there's a little bit of um travel in in in the budget um it's not not a whole lot i I think
that's going to go down um potentially um the clerk we were providing as almost a service to some applicants to to register things like uh orders of conditions with the registry of deeds in
fact the act the Wetlands Protection Act clearly states that it's up to the applicant to to take care of that so I I I don't know the expenditure there it's it's pretty minimum but that that's one thing so we're we're letting people know
now that that's their responsibility uh training there's a uh I'm jumping around my apologies there was $1,200 in that and we've used um uh I've used a little bit of that
probably the majority of what's been expended and uh also um a serpent uh annual meeting and and most of that was training with um Mass Association of Conservation Commissions which
um provide wetland you know basic wetland act type trainings they're they're really good so I've done a couple of those my background again is had a lot of experience with regulatory you know I did a lot of rule making and regulatory
stuff and while the specifics are different you know it's it's uh the processes you know figure out the process but so those trainings have been really helpful training cover any of the board members cuz they I know when we get new members on the board they tell
them to go and see go to these training events is that that part of this um they they they a number of them the commission went this this year there was a a training this month actually or sorry in March and I think we have two new members but I think basically
everybody went it was their annual conference it was up in Worcester Holy Cross so I think they all went I don't that money didn't come out of I don't think it's reflected here i it came out of wetland protection act funds it was my understanding so was it separate i
I'm not This is for staff training okay so it's not the actual commission well we we used it from the wetlands fund uh which is an appropriate use well I think all all of the
commission went didn't they or all but one all but there Yeah everybody went i think there was uh I'm sorry one I think one someone cancelled at the last minute they couldn't go so and and we got actually we got the money back so I
think that was um yeah they refunded whatever that was but I think there might have been two that didn't make it but everybody else went and I don't know if you have specific questions my apologies oh I know you're doing a great job overall uh we're not going to complain when
somebody comes in and their lower budget is is less than what it was last year so um we can't ask for anything else other than that um the only other question I had is how are we doing with um like MS4 permitting and compliance and all that stuff
um so I've been the agent is myself uh is storm water i just um uh is it one of the uh national estuary programs i'm I'm getting ready to set up a meeting with them um uh my
apologies i just sent the email a little while ago just curious the MS4 permit we're up to date on everything's up to date okay yeah so there's some support out there going forward as you know we've got a stabilization fund we put
money in every year to make sure that we have all the engineering support we need to do all our MS4 permit well that all had to be in line anyway for the master plan right yeah but it's every year we
have to do so much to stay current with the they call it a permit but it's really a mandate right right so okay all right nice to meet everybody tonight all right thank
you good job okay next up to that is our building inspector Mr andy Boba take your time yeah unfortunately that's all I can do i think you know Andy
I think so but just in case my name is Andy Bubola and uh here on behalf of the inspectional services department plumbing gas electrical HVAC zoning all of that um with the exception of
contractual uh increases you're going to find for the second year a level funded budget um with one slight change uh we have a uh deputy building commissioner his name is Jeff
Fabian and what's happening you know behind the scenes that you don't see from the public is trying me trying to mentor him so that when I do retire that Jeff can kind of uh hopefully take the
reigns mhm um he's a great candidate really easy to talk to easy to deal with um and there's a minimal amount of money for him for inspections and um we're keeping the training budget the same
uh due to the fact that I've been doing my job for 41 years I've reached a lifetime membership at our monthly meetings and that saves the town over $2,000 a year in training excellent so that's you know it's a big plus for the
town um where there's not a monthly fee um I have not put in for a dollar's worth of gas i use my own truck uh I go to meetings i was in Framingham yesterday um the town doesn't see any uh
instate travel for that i I tend to do that on my own so we're trying hard to keep uh a top tier department and to keep the expenses in line which I think we've done well absolutely have to be
taking that on a cuff on your own yeah that's Thank you but um it just kind of you know I I do better in a four-wheel drive truck because some of these sites are not easy to get in and out of you know especially after lots of rain and we're getting more rain all week so it's
going to be you know a challenge sometimes getting in and out of these places um how much do you think you travel per week like mileage um minimal minimal um 50 miles in a week if that um
probably less the instate travel is monthly to go to Taton um and once a month it's either Framingham Charlton or downtown Boston okay um so and again
those you know they're not uh expenses that the town sees and I'm happy to answer any questions um Mr kelly or the committee anyone mr kelly would it be appropriate to
mention the potential for fee increases uh yeah the he's along with a couple other department well you tell them what Okay you how you're looking at Sure um last
year at this time when I met with you I had mentioned that we were extremely low on fees mhm so uh Lori and myself did a survey a survey of eight communities of like size and population and a comment
was made last year that we include the median income when it comes time for fees so in that uh eight communities at the bottom of the proposal is the medium income uh for
each community mhm so we can see what the fees are um what we've proposed and what the average of the other communities are so how does that progress does that have to go to vote at town meeting or charter it's got uh
there's information uh this department has provided information to the selectman they're waiting for some other departments and we're looking probably to do the whole thing all at once so it
just takes a vote from the select board right advertisement and vote good i mean I think that's a good I mean I think that's something that should be looked at every year you know to be honest with you is you know the what are we charging for fees
because it it cost us so much money to run this town and you factor in inflation with that and how can we how can we just keep this the fees stagnant and when we need you know some new growth you know I mean because that
goes towards that correct um so I think it's something that should be re-evaluated every year how Well it goes to the local receipt i'm sorry i'm just curious how the permits how have you seen the increase in new
building permits or how So yeah so the interesting part was I asked Lori today I said I wanted to compare the first three months of 24 with what we've done this winter and we didn't have a winter and when I got the numbers we saw that
everything had doubled and then some so we usually have about a four or five week period of time in dead of winter February early March uh we didn't have it people just were out and about lots of things happening in town lots of
inquiries and one of the things that people are really um looking at is the new accessory dwelling unit bylaw that the governor implemented that came into full effect on February 4th um so there are a lot of people looking to take
advantage of that there's pros and cons of that um there there's definitely some folks that are not happy about it and there are other folks that said you know what we can't go out and spend 175 200,000 for a lot and then put a house on it uh
we find a lot of demographics here uh families that you know have a sibling that is going through a divorce that needs a place to stay they can't afford the rents um there's a lot of moving parts for this bylaw um not all of them
favorable but most of them I think are it's not a bad idea i was I was going to say something funny having an accessory dwelling in case you're in the doghouse i think there's neighbors that could agree with that
can you rent it out all right is there anything else I can do for you folks tonight i think that's it thank you very much thank you for your time thank you Andy thank you again Andy have a good night thanks uh Mr
chairman uh just to keep going in uh this type this vein I'd ask that we take up the weights and measures which I know is a tiny budget but I just have an explanation of what's going on okay
in the past uh there's been it's a very small budget as you can see but in the past there's been a sealer of weights and measures every community must have one
we've been lucky in that we've been using a gentleman who also worked for New Bedford now he's retired from New
Bedford he's still working for us but as far as the membership in the association and some supplies we had to add that to the budget so it's
uh $1,050 but I I just It's the type of thing that you've carried it for years without any expenses mhm and now I'm adding
expenses and I found in my experience through the years that it's not the $500 million account that someone may ask the question on it's how many batteries am I
buying or something very normal that does come up though you can almost guarantee it so I wanted to get in front of it yeah what's the requirement to be a sealer or waiter through weights and measures i I know you have to go through
training and you have to be a membership or have to have a certification right uh before meeting was mentioning some night with PJ Keing is that different that's that's totally different okay they that's they have their own name
that's the people who are tasked at certifying the weights on their scales for each load so they have multiple people that do that but we're not funding it that's all
people doing that yeah okay now this is uh for example uh the gas station has to have the pumps certified that they're accurate right a scale in a delicate test or a market
has to have a seal to show that it's accurate in the old days dairies would all be uh there'd be tests as far as the bottles of milk
nice part thank you there you go jersey i thought you'll buy I'll get one of those accessory properties i get a little mini house so it's in the vein of building inspector we have CR of weights and
measures so uh next one is accounting we've hired a assistant
accountant it's uh a woman named Jamie Velasquez uh to be uh transparent I have known
her and worked with her for a number of years when I worked in Stoton i've known her since uh she was when I was in Stoton she was
the budget administrator and licensing administrator for the and then she went on to be the business manager for DPW sewer and water and Stoton is a seriously
larger budget than we have mhm uh she uh has 20 years experience and she's already hit the ground running uh we are finding a number of
accounts subsidiary accounts for example that it might be that a overtime account was charged when it should have been a salary account or a longevity account was charged when it
should have been an overtime account uh she's just taking them all apart i have 100% confidence in her and uh I'm very happy she's here she also uh lives in
the area one town over and like me when I was coming from Milbury to here you relish the commute when you can cut it so substantially
and don't have to drive through 24 in the uh traffic uh in the accounting uh budget we have progressed upwards in various
advertisements uh up to the last one was $95,000 and we do not seem to get a lot of people applying that have the credentials that we need mhm uh the
board has not approved this budget yet but as you can see uh I have uh taken uh by uh moving some money out
of the enterprise account to try to bring it up to market it uh as I said the board hasn't approved this budget yet there'll be discussion on it with the board but it's
been it's my recommendation if they're going to go with a full-time accountant that you're going to have to get up in this salary range cuz we had one person come in at
95 and left a week and a half later oh so Jamie Jamie I don't mean to interrupt you but so the this lady what what's her name again jamie Velasquez so is she is she coming
on permanently yes oh as the assistant accountant okay okay so All right so we're So we're still in search of an account a full-time town account uh as you know
uh I am a short timer mhm and the number of people I see getting hired as town administrator in other places
have small if not negligible experience in finance they seem to be coming off out of economic development procurement
uh human resources uh a number of those fields whereas uh they do not have an actual
uh background in treasurer collector and accounting or even either one individually and so it's my going to be my recommendation to the board that
this is such an important position that I and looking at everything that's coming in you're going to need very strong financial people to
help offset the uh transition someone new in i was lucky in that I had been a interim finance director and and in a couple of
uh communities and so had that background when I got here it's a a skill set that is uh you can see the number of vacancies
around for town accountant or finance director and as Kristen will tell you you can also see the number of vacancies of a school business manager
uh especially around this area and that is going to be something else because you are also going to have on the other side of town a new business manager at the schools so you're going to need to
have a strong accounting department here to make sure the things run right so this uh this position the town and the
um treasurer collector the additional funds being covered by the enterprise fund how does that work like how did that can be done that way the with an enterprise
account you can charge salaries of estimated work done by staff and all of the fringe benefits all of uh the expenses
for example uh insuranceances health insurance pension uh PNC insurance on buildings so because they're it's an indirect cost or an offset right so they're hand
because they're handling some of those they're handling a lot for for the department yeah you look at the I for example the golf course every day the treasurer collector's office
gets and uh cash bag with all the receipts and everything from the golf course and it goes through the treasurer collector's office and then it goes up to the accounting office
you have uh all of the sewer and water bills that come in and are processed you have all the purchasing that's processed through the accounting office uh so is this it's my understanding years
ago that uh one of my predecessors was trying to charge a number of other things to the enterprise accounts well philosophically I do not believe that for example the town administrator's
office should be charged a portion of it even though technically I oversee it it shouldn't and administer it it shouldn't my office shouldn't be paid for by the enterprise accounts
you hire a town administrator to take care of the whole town and you fund it appropriately but those the finance offices really spend and it's almost you
can quantitatively analyze it a certain part of their day day by day on the enterprise and reserve accounts processing all of that so it
makes sense um so is this the first time this is being allocated this way it's it's the first time I'm putting it on the spreadsheets that way but you have had for example fire with the
ambulance has has uh picked up uh the assistant account part of the assistant account and you have had uh the treasurer collector picked up by golf but when uh I started to look
at started to fill in on some duties and started to look at what the two finance offices were doing for the enterprise accounts uh I was realized that not only is it an
opportunity to actually show how much they do for the enterprise price accounts but it's also a an opportunity to in
effect you've got an enterprise account is supposed to be almost a run like a separate business mhm and so yes those departments are almost like consultants to those separate businesses
now does the committee for the for that particular enterprise fund do they have to sign off on on this no it'll be part of their budget or reflect it in their budget that's why uh we spent so much with the treasur collector we in you
getting a new uh budget right before this meeting was because we were trying to make sure we did everything right and figuring out the duties and figuring
out who does what and uh I did not do it for the treasure collector assistant treasure collector because that's one of my philosophical things if in the future
uh someone wants to propose it they can propose it but I think that since the prime duty for the assistant treasurer collector is payroll it does it for both the school and the town that's one major
function you're not going to start to divide it among all and I've seen attempts between the school and the town to divide up start to divide up health insurance pensions uh payroll as far as
who does what and it just gets to be a quicksand swamp mhm to try to figure out and I think Christian would back me up on that that you don't want to get in there
you start uh arguing over uh uh dollars literally and it just doesn't work well this almost you know it it truly has it by doing this it it's truly an enterprise
enterprise fund where um it's not coming out of taxation because they're they're funding some of the stuff that you know would traditionally be covered by the town yeah um and last year you saw I was
89,000 and change we did for some of the fringe benefits and everything uh we've done a lot deeper dive this year and it's going to be more money coming out
of the uh uh not a lot different but it's going to reflect actual insurance costs actual health insurance costs uh uh Medicare costs pension costs
i just I think it's an important issue because it comes up every year um you know especially for people that are new to the town and who you know who might be watching this and you know well what's an enterprise fund well this is it's what it is it's you know they like
our golf course is fully funded they're they're self-funded you know their user fees essentially cover just about all of their cost for the most part i mean you can if you want to really nitpick which does happen um and we've seen it happen over the years um but in essence
it there's barely anything that comes out of taxation um to cover um the enterprise fund and it's and it's it and they've they've been operating like this for years
in a previous community I was in we operated the ambulance service as an enterprise account but for because of the how much work the
ambulances did and how much reimbursement from the government did not match the cost of the services that after a number of years of having
to actually go to the general fund to supplement in the enterprise account of the ambulances do stepped in and told us we could not operate it as an enterprise
account anymore and we had to operate it as a reserve account and so you have two accounts here that
operate as enterprise accounts that we are in this exercise proving that they are paying their way well and you know when the golf course is paid off in a few short
years it's it's going to make it's going to be even a bigger asset for the town well it's uh an asset now oh it is uh and it is a
uh an probably one of your major attractions in town because uh really the only attraction I mean it's I wasn't good at saying that well I think it it potentially lead to
become a bigger attraction down the road are there any questions not that there's answers to not that there's answers to uh I hope we can uh as I go out the door I can assist in
hiring an accountant and if anybody knows a municipal accountant who'd love to relocate to the south coast please call them it's a uh good
job and it's a growing area we have the trades now m uh we've got two more accounts technology and cable and dancing a little bit to help Nick Nick
walks through the door shortly i don't know if you want to take a five minute break make a motion to recess second all in favor i uh back on do I have a motion to reopen our finance committee meeting so
moved second all in favor i okay mr chairman uh the technology and the CV budgets are before you right now i might be able to explain some of the budgetary aspects but I cannot explain the
technology aspects of it so uh thank God someone just walked through the door who cared welcome Nick good to see you yeah nice to see everyone thank you um so to recap
to start with salaries so there's just the contractual salary increase there but we are going to appropriate a percentage to cable since we do do a good amount on the cable side as well so by appropriating maybe we did like a
60/40 split there that kind of helps save some money but realistically that's just going to help reduce the expenditures increases for like contractual and all the subscription increases so to get to the expense side now the really only big increases are
the permitting software went up 2,600 the assessing nearmap software went up 770 and then the website also because they switched who I guess they use for their back end of building the websites changed there's a $3,500 increase there
so that brings that up to around I think a little over 7,000 now a year um and then the other thing would be the the alarm systems so right now that was in town building so because again somewhat technology related so we are
going to pull that over to it and that covers town hall parting ways the COA and the two historical buildings so all in all the increase would have been $12,370 but with shifting some of the salaries it's
really only $7,700 so and uh we are looking to bring content manager in uh into the munis package
uh you'll see part of the cost of bringing it in in the uh technology part of the free cash article and then the license yep we it's here yeah so we were going
to use free cash for the one time implementation and installing fee and then the rest would be just about I think 5,000 it was $5,414 for content manager but also at the time of building the budget last year versus now we were able to drop off
another module that the town wasn't using but we're paying for so it it really did offset there to actually just still give us savings on the mun side too explain what content manager does content manager is really cool so if you go into look at like a bill or like
whatever you charge in Munice you can actually click on the paperclip and it'll pull up a PDF after you scan it of course but it basically you can attach all PDFs to any like invoice or anything that's in the system you can do for W9s you can do for everything so just incorporate them as part of your
database yeah and makes uh the need for multiple copies of invoices in different places and everything go away if it goes well you'll see a decrease to the copy
machines next to you yeah and and for the what has to uh be brought in as far as just space and
files and it can go off it can follow the trail office to office once it's been put in it is this something that you're you you're doing or the or they're going to have somebody come in and add it no like
Tyler Technologies which is the company that runs MUN they would they have like an implementation team so that's like they have to do this so this increases part of that cost that'll be that'll be the free cash part yeah the onetime cost to implement it tyler doesn't do any
Tyler doesn't look for free yeah and it's it's everybody's really excited about it because it you could have multi instead of having multiple copies of an invoice and
having people in different offices all conversing about it they all can go on this intermunist look at it and you can be questioning payments or
uh asking what uh why uh somebody did something asking why uh why is it in this account when it really shouldn't be and it's real time too cuz I remember the board of slement were mentioning yesterday that this is they will be able
to just select something and it's like to the minute I guess okay yes so I guess discuss cable um the only really change on this is just going to be then the offset from
the IT salaries but in talking with Jamie I know we want to keep that $100,000 line so we kind of just broke it up a little differently but still leaving some in the main salary line in case there's ever any changes or
anything like that also uh the the opportunity to use the system And you might need someone there to help
you if you wanted to use it in other ways for communicating with the public mhm in the future is to look we're not we're
not increasing the line we're just leaving the opportunity for you to use it in multiple ways the fact you have a studio in the school you don't want to mention that so to that point to that point I was I just I've been sitting
here thinking about cable TV right you know and how we how we're struggling to make revenue uh do we have any idea like what how many people watch the local cable cable TV channel any analytics on there's no way to to
find that out cuz I was just thinking of you know how we advertise like the meetings that come up right let's say somebody wanted to advertise their local business you know um I don't know they can can they do that I don't know if that's allowed yeah I don't think you
can yeah it's like public it's like NPR I think it's public access channels I don't think you can But well I wouldn't want anything like NPR but but in other towns in other
towns uh there have been an a vibrant production arm that uses it on local matters for uh like talk shows
i've seen that to to folks at instructional shows like uh cooking shows I've had on uh restaurant reviews on local restaurants where they
focus on the local restaurants it might not be an advertisement but it's a backdoor way of saying "This is what we've got in town and these are the dishes that they specialize in." You
could do it on the golf uh like the guy that does the golf um Isaac mhm he can do like a little I have a lesson a demonstration or something yeah but I'm just but I'm just thinking I'm trying to think of like is there a
way that we could produce revenue generate revenue it's uh well CATV is here because you allow the cable company access to the
uh the lines the sky on your cable bill that the franchise fee that basically is the revenue that goes to the town so all of cables just is funded through users from Comcast so that's how that kind of generates money
so the whole cutting the cord thing actually becomes counterproductive because you don't get hit with the franch franchise fee if you're not uh buying cable so people that are just doing internet takes away the franchise fee from the town so it's kind of like a be careful with it you know commit down
the road if it's going to what you know 20 years from now if it's going to be there the way technologies going smart TVs Roku etc you might not be on cable
yeah because I mean right now nobody utilizes our local cable channel for like a I think years ago they used to somebody had like a talk show or Wake up right yes i think it was wake up a
Kushnet yeah and um with Mr muga that Yeah wasn't it his son that somebody took it over like you and I do that like a little podcast right i I had in Milbury in Milbury we had
probably 20 shows produced a a month that by you know I remember growing up it was the same thing they they have a whole bunch of different programming but they have like four or five channels too cuz it's the city so they have a people can just stream on
social media for free they're not No one's watching it anymore what do you think Eric it should be like a like a political shtick or what i got I got a tire anyway all right we got off on a tangent as as usual it's running late it's
running late yeah true perhaps our bedtime okay any anybody else have any questions for Nick thank you Nick thanks for coming in no problem good seeing you you too yeah thanks for flying down appreciate it uh I'm going to look at the list that
we've done and the list that we haven't done and probably tomorrow or Friday at the latest and what I think can be done without
uh having the selectman actually give me input on a number of we haven't sat down on any budgets with the selectment really we've sat down on as far as revenue goes
uh we've sat down a couple times as far as the school budgets go but the school budgets are still $1,100,000 of increase and they haven't moved well that's I mean so a lot of these smaller
budgets aren't going to put a dent into that into the current deficit we have we can't afford that so right now we're you know if meals tax comes in where I think it will then we're out of instead of
500,000 600,000 i know Sue's not here but she'd be happy to hear that but uh until I see the final on the excise and the govern the governor's figures get erased and the house figures come in
which I'm not expecting more than a $50,000 increase how about you Christian do you think it'll be more than that might get a little bit on chapter 70 maybe maybe if they increase it from the
PU per pupil but that's negligible so uh you know we're looking at between 600 maybe 700,000 increase in revenue shaking and baking everything and the
the our the Kushnet school system eats that and we're at a deficit without even looking at OC so I guess nothing else gets funded that's all right can't fund anything else well it
actually means that uh a number of budgets you people haven't seen yet are the budgets that we've actually taken and removed positions from other than water and sewer which you heard
about tonight that there's one there because we're waiting to see if anybody else is willing to move positions they're going to do uh police fire and EMS i mean those are three critical departments in this town you've got
you've also got the uh selectman selectman's office and a number of accounts under the selectman and you've got uh some other accounts and you've got uh the which
this the joint accounts which are the fixed costs and uh we do know that health insurance will be 9.9 which in any other year I'd say oh
my god but in this year I say thank god just round it up to 10 huh round it up to 10 but uh you're seeing 29 it's like the gas station yeah but you're seeing you're seeing you're seeing an awful lot
of towns right now that are 19.9 9 18.5 just I just I don't see how any of those three departments that I just mentioned police fire and EMS could take a hit in manpower it's going to put our public safety at risk
are they looking for cruisers again well I'm sure they are they didn't get any they didn't get any last year but that's got to even though it I philosophically you know I don't like to take it out of free cash for cruises i think they
should be in the operating budget well this year you've got to well I was going to say they we can't do it two years in a row right and it's got to come out of free cash well we have some difficult conversations with uh some departments
coming up so next So you're going to send send me a list of some of the easy things we can go through next week and so we have and I I will be willing to uh cuz IA is
meeting Monday on what the health insurance will be so and that's the union reps get to meet management doesn't meet it is not part of the
IA and then we can uh uh brief this committee and other folks in town on what the health insurance will look like
what the uh PNC workers comp we're going to have an increase in workers comp just because of the comp the claims that have come in uh but I think
we can offset it in some other savings all right we're going to cover next meeting in a minute here um does anybody have any old business to bring up i also I also will bring that transfer on the uh police uh the training for the
police department and the uh software so they can use the software we do that tonight cuz it got approved yesterday right with the selectman but it wasn't on the agenda oh so I I've got to bring
that in on uh next week yeah because uh you've been paying for it for a number of years and never used it all right so there's no old business
anyone have new business to discuss Eric yeah i just want to bring up uh I mentioned the fact my wife running for school committee i did submit a letter to the ethics commission and I did get a response back um it's kind of detailed but short version in the letter uh the
attorney stated that there's no restrictions for me to be on the finance committee with her serving on the uh school committee and it gives an explanation if anyone wants to read it uh I gave a copy of this to the town clerk's office and Pam says that one
copy needs to be presented here and entered into the record and Mr kelly if I could give you another copy that you could present to the selectman because they are our appointing authority and they need to be aware of this is what you need it before the election so it
should be or after the election uh well she's uncontested so I mean it's however you cuz they're meeting on the 15th with the school uh on the school budget uh the
uh fincom it's been the board has asked that the fincom be there it will be at the COA but uh we could put it on the agenda for that night or we could wait till the 29th i think it's probably more
appropriate on the 29th that's fine that's fine but anyway so I just want to present all right um all right let me get back to future meetings here in a second so next up is uh we have some minutes to approve from January 22nd
2025 um in attendance was myself uh Sue Delgado Pete Penoy Eric Chu Kristen Flynn Eric McGlenn and Bob St jean motion second all in favor i okay minutes are approved
uh next meeting is next week so we're going to go over whatever i'll bring the insuranceances in and whatever else I'll send I'll send to Kathy the list like I did with this one and then uh the following week uh like uh Mr kelly just
said on Tuesday April 15th at 4:30 is the meeting at 4:30 at the council it's either 4 or 4:30 4 or 4:30 so the board of selection is meeting with the school um I don't know if we all have to be
there as an entire committee i mean I'm planning on I'll be there if if it would be safe if we posted it so I have down on my calendar the f the the 16th on that Wednesday that we were
having a joint meeting with the board of select yeah but that's on the articles on that's public HBA that's a that's a debt exclusion that's right okay all right got you we have two meetings that we Yeah with the school yeah i'll run
around i can go to I'll be there all right so we just have to I'll be there until probably 6:00 if it go I have to leave to go to a meeting at my work um for 6:30 so I can be there until 6:00 okay so I just we just have to figure out is is it at 4:00 or 4:30 just so we
can um I'll sit and get and then Kathy will post we'll post that so we'll end up having um basically two meetings that week the 15th and the 16th text busy busy week well it's it's
safe to post so yep thanks okay that uh I think that covers everything for tonight motion to second all in favor i All right we are journed good night heat heat
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