Melissa you're muted good afternoon everyone this is the March 4th meeting of the finance committee and my first order of business is since we're conducting this virtually is to make sure that everyone can of the
committee members can hear and be heard so I will just call on you as I see you on the screen Bob hegner presid councelor hanii Andy Steinberg president Tom Porter
present and Alicia said she would be late and uh Bernie said he couldn't attend this week so we we are accounted for and we have a quorum um we have an the first order of business on the agenda is public comments but I just
want to let people know that in addition to the second quarter Melissa told me earlier today so this is under the 48 hour rule we'll also get an update on the town budget um as well as uh start looking at potential dates and meeting
dates for the finance committee and I'll show that on my screen when we get to it so at this point um I am opening it to public comment and please remember that you have up to three minutes um depending on how many people want to
speak I may hold it to two and you should be talking about members before the matters before the finance committee so please raise your hand if you would like to make a public comment and Melissa you are you want me
to allow Anna in first yeah hers is the first hand in and you just allow to speak right yep okay hi there hi I am all right you ready I have three minutes is that right
up to three okay all right I'm gonna do my best uh okay go hi there uh this is Anna Ding gothier and I am speaking as an individual not as a town counselor I hope this committee will discuss possible scenarios to increase the school budget in the coming fiscal year
we know that the costs of Education have increased in ways that other departments and services simply have not the methods of delivery have become more expensive for education for example where schools used to purchase a textbook and continue to reuse it for mul years now schools
must use online textbooks and programs which operate on a per year or per license basis adding to those annual operating costs students now start needing Chromebooks in elementary school a lot more expensive than pencils and paper simply put this issue that we're facing is not as simple as being a
matter of the schools not being able to spend and plan within their bounds it is a matter of the work of Education changing Beyond just inflation and more rapidly than other areas of Municipal Services I I urge the finance committee to recommend amendments to the Town
Council budget guidelines increasing the percentage going to the schools to at least 4 and a half% if not five a bump to four and a half% would increase the dollar amount going to the schools by about 458,000 up from the initial three and a half per. is it
enough no will there still be heartbreaking Cuts yes but we can also supplement budgets in other ways which I hope you will consider in your discussion of free cash a while back several of us on the council advocated for delaying spending funds from the budget surplus to give time for the
schools to submit Capital requests for example the Middle School roof I was disappointed when no requests came I don't know why the schools did not submit any requests for those funds but I hope they will in the future and that the council and the town manager will support them in doing so with a new Finance director and superintendent we
need to make sure that the process is clear and accessible I hope the council can release the mindset that equal percentage increases is the fair way to divide the budget it is simply not nuanced enough and we need to release that mindset once we accept this we also need to work to build a better system to
make more informed decisions in the future this will include getting budget forecasts from the schools that we've asked for and not received in the past but working also working along our other alongside our other elected colleagues and not being afraid to look critically at how other Town departments spend
their funds and forecast that spending I know none of you enjoy seeing the cuts to education I know you all do value education and I know it can be frustrating to constantly be told that you don't and to quote find money but what we need for you to do is to stop looking at this as a matter of being
equal but instead Equitable taking needs and Nuance into account we need to stop going yearby year but start looking strategically at what information we need and when and we need to start asking ourselves who is in the room at these critical decision points getting to make the decisions that impact all of
the different Municipal sectors the type of cuts proposed under the three and a half % increase will change educational delivery and services drastically but we can strategically make a difference that stops the necessity of annual Band-Aid fixes and model how to cooperatively create Municipal budgets that help both
our current and future populations I think there is a way we can do something Innovative to improve our process for future years and we can support the schools this year I look forward to working alongside you to find that solution and hope you'll start today by asking how might we instead of
stating we cannot or we always have done it this way thank you thank you Ela um I see four more people do you want to tell do you want me to just take them in um order actually it looks like you've allowed me
to control so I can do I'll put the next person in hey early you should be able to speak um hi good afternoon um so I was very happy that
the Town Council passed a vote to um put into the town manager's goals about securing funds for the library um I just want to say that over time around this issue of the financing
and the library there's always is this um talk about what the town council's Authority is and not to step on the authority of the Town manager and things like that and so I was looking at the Town
Charter and I came across a couple of quotes and this is what I found um the Town Council may require the town manager to appear before it at any time to provide specific information on the conduct of any aspect of the
business of the town that was the first one and then under the town manager uh section the town manager shall be the chief executive officer of the town and shall be responsible to the Town Council
for the proper operation of town Affairs for which the town manager is given responsibility under this Charter so here's a responsibility the town manager is given uh is given a responsibility here
it seems to be where the idea of he's the only one who can sign contract and be the sole decider about things as far as I can tell this is where it comes from the town manager will be responsible for purchasing all supplies
materials services and equipment for all departments and activities of the town and for awarding and executing procurement contracts except for those under the jurisdiction of the school committee Regional school committee and Library trustees unless otherwise agreed
on by said entities so yes this is his purview but it's in the context of him being responsible to the Town Council for the proper operation of town Affairs for which he's been given responsibility
under the charter so um when people are talking about the Town Council stepping on the executive power I think these quotes sort of um speak to something that is a little less I don't know black
and white because it says shall be responsible to the Town Council he is appointed Not Elected so that makes sense to me that that language is in there thank you thank you orley
Maria and I am going to please ask that people hold their comments to two minutes because we have several hands more hands up now and uh we have a full agenda for today Maria you're up thank you Kathy
I'll I'll try to go under that Maria kapiki South amorist uh I am also speaking about the library project I do appre appreciate the action taken by the Town Council to add that Amendment to the goals of the Town manager um I don't
know how much you guys are uh aware of what's going on with things so I'll just let you know that uh a third deadline uh an extension was submitted again without discussion by the library building committee again without discussion by
the Town Council just unilaterally made by the president of the trustees and by the town manager you that has financial implications you should have been consulted on that for that matter the library Capital campaign continues to withhold critical information we they
still will not report on what they're spending they still excuse me still are not reporting uh the difference between pledges and actual money um you still haven't heard from the town manager about what he thinks secured means and
what that would look like at on a very very very good day this project might stay at 46 million but the library portion is 7 million behind according to their best case scenario and it could be much worse than that nobody has
explained how they're going to deal with that and you have not heard from the general contractors it is going to be a half a year that the bids were submitted you all know that a lot has been going
on in the world and um there is you need to demand to know what the conversations have been with the general contractor um the building committee has not had any input whatsoever on the changes to the roof or the other things that are coming
out of the section 106 process and the section 106 process is not over and there is an environmental review that has to happen as well so please finance committee you are the first step to F fiscal respons ability please demand
answers please be critical and please find out you you need to step up I I appreciate what you've done so far there's more to do thank you so much thank you Laura Steinman Laura Ivon Steinman um thank
you my name is Laura ion Steinman I'm a Florence resident I teach at Wild W Elementary School um and I'm on this call today um saying that um you need to change your process and that it be a
nonnegotiable that we fund our ammer and pelum public schools um right now with the proposed Cuts you're cutting essential Educators um I'm not sure if any of you
have children or family members or friends that work in the schools presently um if you do please talk to them as you've probably heard from other meetings people have have
advocated um to say that funds need to be allotted so that we have Equitable education for all students with the current cuts that is not
possible um in in a town like ammer it should not be on the plate that students cannot have an equitable education um so I charge you again to look at the budget and to make sure that
there are enough funds so that everyone can be educated in public schools thank you thank you Laurel um I see Alicia I see you've joined us I just want to make sure you can hear and
be heard uh yes I can thank you Kathy okay uh Rachel hi there can you hear me yes hi thanks for taking my comment my name is Rachel I am a parent of two Fort River Elementary students um and one of them
is soon approaching the middle school this coming school year um and like many others today on this call I'm calling to thank you for your service and your work and your commitment to um our town and the students in it and calling to beg you to resend the budget guidelines um
according to what was said at the end of the meeting on 227 um I'm really urging you and this whole Council to focus on supporting both of our school districts um our children don't you know stop being Amorous residents when they move from
the sixth grade to the seventh grade in the eighth grade in our Middle School I'm very concerned having my elementary school kid move into a middle school that seems um quite fragile at the moment um and I I think that the situation at the middle school and the high school are even more dire than the
elementary schools right now especially with the approved expansion of the Chinese immersion charter school and what funding that will draw away from our district and possibly losing additional students to it um so again like many others who have asked um on
this call to just take a solution focused approach to funding our schools equitably not equally and keep in mind those of us who you know we moved here specifically for these schools um and that's it everything else has been said so I don't need to go on thank you so
much for giving me the time thank you Rachel heat uh hi this is Pete Nolan can you hear me yes yes we can uh so I am uh a pelum resident I have two daughters in the school system here in ammer um and
I'm also a a special education teacher I taught for two years at Fort River and a year at Wildwood uh and I'm able to tune into this meeting today because of a we had a burst pipe at the school today um I would like to say that uh I'd
like to Echo what Laura Von said um this proposed budget um for next year has forc the district to make drastic cuts to special education they've had to remove four teachers um from all the elementary schools or it will mean that um this means that uh the
district will no longer be able to commit to uh supporting co-taught inclusive classrooms and students who learn differently will be spending a lot more time outside of uh their general education classroom and uh I I think
this is a travesty uh We've also been uh in the proposed budget uh forced to eliminate the Intensive reading and fluency program for students with uh the most severe uh types of Dyslexia and these
are students who need one-on-one uh support to learn to read and uh eliminating Betsy dinger's program is uh it's really I there's not a word for it there
you know it's going to cause harm um to students in our community uh that's all I have to say thank you thank you very much and I thank everyone for keeping their comments short I'm closing public
comments there's one more hand up oh is there one more hand up someone else raise their hand yeah all right I'll let one more person in Elizabeth you are with us hi thank you for uh allowing me to speak I am a
taxpaying resident of District 2 I've been living here for 17 years uh I'm just I do want to emphasize what everything everyone else has uh stated um I'd like to all of you to know that I
have two young adults who successfully graduated from our high schools uh my one my youngest student child was able to actually start from kindergarten and um they are both thriving and I just
want to emphasize that is because of our schools I am I I started my teaching experience in New York City I then taught in Springfield in hoolio and I've been teaching here at uh Wildwood school for the last 12 years and I have to say
by far uh my colleagues do an excellent job of educating uh we we our our districts both of our districts um do not just teach them how to read write and do math there's a creativity there's
an in integration of their education that my one uh child who's successful has been able to move on from just the high school and be successful my other child was able to get um a scholarship at a very good
college so I'm just trying to emphasize that all of these things together when you cut um the budget you really impact more than just a couple of um Educators and I'm not trying to minimize that I'm
just trying to say that it's more than what you might think because at the ground level there's a lot of work that happens I myself have written grants for example to help our students get a well-rounded education I won't go any
further I just wanted to say that um please invest in our schools please resend the budget guidelines so that our school committees can um resubmit a budget and that you all work together thank you please end up I see one more
person I think I'll I'll let one more person in but it would have been good to raise your hands at the beginning um we have a very F agenda including talking about the budget I think I've let you in Monica if you
unmute Monique sorry hi my name is uh Mo'Nique Shipman I am a special ed perah at Wildwood Elementary School in my rule um I have worked not only with our most vulnerable students
but I work in almost every class classroom in the last 10 years um accommodating students I have seen firsthand how Cuts have already hurt our students and I am very concerned for all
the cuts how they will affect um our most vulnerable um cutting specials um by 1% just doesn't seem large but our specialed students get
extra time from those teachers to have better access curriculum in the General Ed time periods and that's where they make some of their best
connections these cuts that are being made are going to affect the most vulnerable and the hardest I am pleased asking you to find a way to
not make this a reality thank you thank you mon Monique okay we are going back to our agenda uh and you're on Melissa thanks Kathy so um do you want
to look at the agenda first or do you want to just look at the um I think I think we can right ahead that it's a pretty straightforward it's first we're doing the second quarter okay second quarter and then an explanation of free
cash and I told people you've got the additional agenda item of a Revis uh update on budget projections um so can can you see the screen now uh for the um for the
first or the second I'm sorry the second quarter report yeah it maybe you can make it a bit larger I can read it but I'll I'll wait to see whether the others can read it as well so generally this is just our um
second quarter report and um you know we're halfway through this is halfway through the year we're further than that now but um we're this is the halfway through the year and we're about um we're about 50% in both um revenue and expense a little bit more on both
sides um of 50% of the way uh through the the um the year um there are some outliers of course and um so you know uh do you want me to show the details
that I'm talking about or the narrative what what's more helpful to the committee I think I think you should speak to the high level and then um focus on details everyone's had it in the packet and probably has questions
yeah comments you know Cherry Hill um this is a seasonal operation so that's why they're um you know they don't it doesn't operate evenly throughout the year so it's very typical um for for this um the revenues to um kind of lead
in the early part of the summer months and then and and then at the beginning of the spring and then they sort of have a downturn now the investment um income is performing well above expected um amounts I know that there will be questions about that and I have a lot
more to say about that later but you know it it it it is performing extremely well um findes and for for can't say the words a forur um typically are collected early in the year because that's for
pass due bills so we collect the late fees of last year's bills uh or in the beginning part of this year when people um remember that they they missed a bill or or they C get an opportunity to catch up uh licens and permits um don't come
in evenly because the large permits come in with large buring pilm so that it's not necessarily even um I think we're performing well in that area uh medical reimbursement is just a two-time a year payment um the miscellaneous recurring Revenue
this is our um these are strategic agreements which um the council and committee are well aware are changing in this year so the way they come in um was different than in expected um motor
vehicle bills the first mailing of Motor Vehicle bills went out um a few weeks ago so you might have gotten some feedback about that um those are um that and so the majority of that uh revenue is collected in the next two
months um is the The Lion Share of that that Revenue will come in uh in the third quarter um hotel and motel tax um I is on track and doing well and property tax is about halfway there
which is what's to be expected and state aid is about halfway through which is to be expected um under pilot we include um our interdepartmental transfers from the Enterprises and um those come in one
journ entry transfer so they do not space evenly throughout the year as far as expenditures um you know it they pay a lot of their maintenance fees at the front of the year they have annual maintenance contracts for our um
softwares that they have to pay in July um the big um liar uh is in employee benefits and um we have a surplus in this um we have a surplus in this um
expenditure line due to the fact that this is where we chose to spend the arpa funds that had not been allocated at uh December 31st this was a legal um expense for us to use um on our health insurance benefits um so we uh paid
those bills and so we have um a we have more than our um budget available left at this time um to get through the year um and so we anticipate that there should be a large Surplus in that line
by the end of this year um miscellaneous insurance is our audit costs and other um insurance premiums for like liability insurance um and that
comes uh we we pay the bill early in the year and we're going to um do the allocation of it in the third quarter snow and ice uh we've had a a tough snow year this
year so you know we're spending a little extra um and um veteran service is um more than halfway through a Cherry Hill same thing that's a seasonal operator so it doesn't have an even
distribution um assessments are a general entry that we um do early in the year and should take up most of the budget right away uh same with um most of the um interfund transfers um and the Jones Library uh
has a practice of spending their um general fund appropriation first um and then leaning on their grants and other uh Revenue sources later in the year Enterprises are right about at 50% and
are doing um pretty well you will notice um that the um water and sewer expenditures um that's where the sludge is and so there was an appropriation done um a few
months ago to cover um a large expense that they anticipated in that in the uh sewer uh fund um so I just want to call out um in this here obviously this is the investment
income you know we've we're almost at a million dollars um halfway through the year and then the other big um driver here is going to be the employee benefits where we have um this budget um
of 6 million still available um and again that's because we spent the um the arpa funds on insurance bills and um are not fully use utilizing our um
budgeted amount for the insurance benefit so that is the quarterly report does anyone have any particular questions or do you want to talk about um free cash and how this all
flows to free cash cash first or do you want to answer ask questions about this have questions first I have a couple and Mandy's hand is up um and I also did a quick computation of what I think free cash might look like end of year so
Mandy you go first thanks um some of my questions might relate to the added item under the 48 hour rule about potential budget projections um but I'll I'll preview them here and if you're if you're responsive is just wait till we get the budget projections that's fine
um but I am concerned that in particular some of our revenues are above our budgeted amounts already not above the 50% budgeted but above the 100% expected projection projected revenues hotel
motel taxes um licenses and permits are nearly at the full budgeted amount and then this miscellaneus recurring which is the pilots um and so you know hotel motels have already surpassed the yearly budgeted amount um and they've been
above the budgeted amount for a number of years um so I you know that's one I want to look at when we get to budget projections as to they weren't really modified in the FY 26 budget projections so I I want to talk about that when we get there as to what we're doing about
that there same with licenses and permits um my question as it relates to this year with licenses and permits are um given that there's no amendments to the budget for projections but this this current fiscal year we changed our
rental registration permitting fee structure that should be bringing in a whole lot more money for licenses and permits I think that's the line it comes in at um is that what is driving part partially what is driving this um nearly
being at the full budget amount halfway through the year and what are then again as we get to the projected amounts what are we doing to modify those to include that increased Revenue due to the rental registration fee amounts um and miscellaneous recurring already surpassed you mentioned that a little
bit it's because I think of this strategic partnership agreements but again when we look at the projected revenues you've projected them at the same as this year's budget and we've already surpassed this year's budget so when we get to projected revenues I want to hear about what we might be doing to
modify them to better match um that's on the revenue side um so it's more of concerns that we've under budgeted again or underprojected our revenues in those particular areas that are going to drive some small um surpluses on the revenue
side on the expense side um I'm concerned that our miscellaneous and insurance is already 168% above our budgeted expense line you briefly mentioned that but could you go into
more as to why that is already more than 50% above what we budgeted um and then um Deb I think wants to answer I have two more um Debt Service is really low
it's only at 8% spent of the budgeted amount uh I don't know whether that's because when we pay debt services in the second half of the year um but if you could talk about that one and then I thought it was interesting that our elementary education has only spent
41% of its budgeted amount is that normal for this time of year to be not near the sort of or nearish nearer to the 50% amount um or not on the elementary side
thanks so if I may I'll quickly speak to the um Insurance one so with the insurance what happens is we get build as the entire Town's Insurance pool at the beginning of the fiscal year in October and then it takes us some time to allocate those costs out to the
library the elementary schools and the Enterprise funds and we have not done that exercise as of yet that typically happens in the spring um when we get a little more time after budget to kind of allocate those expenses out so that is the answer to that um on The Debt Service that is exactly what's happening
is we very likely have not made our principal payments typically there's a um interest only payment and then there is a principal and interest payment later on in the year and we just have not started to pay down principles yet believe we've only made interest
payments um through December so that one um I can go back and I will quickly um while you're speaking um and other people have questions and I will look at the schools I mean the schools control their budget so I'm not 100% sure where they typically are this time of year but
I can go back and do a quick check on where they've been in December the last couple years and I'll answer that one in a minute and I'll let someone else answer the rest of the questions so I think the the rest of the questions were on um Revenue items am I did we hollyh handed all the expenses am
I correct there or did we miss one okay um and so I would say that um I do believe that um that we did look at um increasing both the hotel motel and the um in the meals tax slightly with um our
Revenue projections I thought that was one of the areas that we had pushed a little bit they're not large numbers in terms of the overall budget so it may small like tens of thousands of dollars versus hundreds you know in that me aent
but we can look at that again I I thought we had looked at that but um again we um I'm happy to to look at it again um the um the
agreements um have changed this year um and I will say that we are budgeting in the general fund the amount amount of the agreements that we can the some of the agreements came in very specific to who those funds go to um and
so for that reason um some of the um in the future years some of the um way that the general some of the while we're receiving more money from them they've been allocated to specific departments and so therefore it does not flow through the general fund the way that it
had in the past um looks uh specifically um the language written for the ammer college agreement uh States it as a gift and as a gift it does not flow through the general fund
so in next year um that that agreement will look um while we are receiving a very generous gift from them it will not flow through the general fund the way it has in the past so um
then I uh there was another one that you were concern uh licenses and permits licenses and permits yeah licenses and permits so honestly the Big Driver in licenses and
permits is that um the um is usually a large construction permits which can be hundreds of thousands of dollars and they just kind of come in as the the big project happens so um so while the
rental income would H uh produce um some additional revenue and I think that it has it's not the big it's not the big shift you know it's a consistent small increase versus the big shift that we see in um building permits
year-over-year so sometimes when the building permits um jump up a large amount it has to do with a specific large project and I am not sure what this year's was like last year it was a a building um I I'm pretty sure on the
ammer uh college campus that was it was an enormous permit and it it accounted for a large amount of our Revenue in that year um so I can I can get back to you on what the per what's driving the
permit increases here but there you're right to assume that the rental program um is increasing Revenue but those are not the big do that's not what makes the big fluctuation in that in that line I see Andy's hand is up but Paul are you speaking to the things we just
went through yeah yes yes if you don't mind thank you so just to clarify um uh Melissa when the council raises fees for um the rental registration program for instance that flows into that line item
or to a certain and then that that money even though you you try the council wanted to make it Revenue neutral that Revenue gets divided up amongst the four entities is that accurate yes that's the way all general fund revenues work so any money coming into the general fund
gets based on our current model uh those revenues get um distributed so even though rental registration there might have been or I had heard talk that there was an intent that well these new fees will help pay for the additional Staffing needing in
that department it doesn't really work out that way for that department so in order to um start these new initiatives which do bring in new uh Revenue to the town they don't fully support um the
increase in the cost of that department because the rest of the Group shares uh those new revenues is that what you wanted to clarify okay uh so Holly are you want to be speaking to this as well I just
wanted to address one more I believe um councelor Hani had asked about the miscellaneous recurring and that it is already at about 100% I just wanted to remind folks that part of miscellaneous recurring is the opioid settlement funds so we have already I believe received
about um $80,000 the opioid that is an unbudgeted Revenue that is intentionally going to come in above what we budgeted um because it flows to free cash and then is um appropriated in the following year so that opioid money um and that on
line item I just want to remind folks of that piece thank you Andy you said Andy You're muted I can hear me now yes yeah um on the expenditure side
under employee benefits I didn't understand what was going on uh you said the budget surplus in employee benefits is and then you gave due to arpa funds um and when I
looked on the next page for the actual listing um it looked like we were I I I I was trying to put the two of them together um and having trouble doing that so I wondered if you
could more explanation so it says so we we only budgeted 4 and a half million for only we budgeted $ four and a half million dolls for um Health ins or for insurances all insurances and you can
see that the but we have a balance remaining of 6.7 million and that's because right now the amount spent from this account is
um 2 point to negative it's like adding money into the budget because we paid we paid bills that we had paid for health insurance
um out of this account for for all the insurance we've paid for the first six months of the year and so now um now as we pay the second six months of the year that will probably go
to close to zero you know and then we'll have that full 4 million is dollars left in health insurance well probably probably around 3.8 like we talk or like we talked about
the three we spent $3.8 million on health insurance and so when we get to the end of the year the budget for the um benefits
line won't show the expense of the 3.8 million because we paid that from available arper funds through the um allowable uh Revenue replacement um Clause of and and that health insurance
was a legal expenditure to be paid for prior to December 31st because we didn't have those uh we didn't have those projects that were um allocated for under contract so we had to find a way
to just spend the money so that we did not have to send it back so if I can just clar help clarify so the arpa money is going into is we're using the arpa money before December 31 to pay health insurance so as a result we're not spending money on health insurance
and that will show as a Major Surplus at the end of the fiscal year that will then flow into our free cash okay thank you so um I guess I'm up next I was going to reate it that way Paul as well so I'm you know counting up so that's
3.8 is the expectation and we actually saw a note on this when we were doing banks that all all of the ARA money was being moved but where it got moved to to pay down employee benefits so I have a question and then a couple comments one
if you scroll down to The Debt Service Holly you said it's partly because we're not we start out paying interest but I just looked at what we thought Debt Service was going to be for 2025 and
1.12 million of it is for the Jones Library project and as we know it didn't start so we didn't incur that debt so I think I think an answer to Mandy's is that we will end with um not spending
anywhere near 3.2 so if I just did the simple one if I take Jones out it's 2.2 we won't be we won't be spending 1.1 so it's that's correct I think because when I looked at the capital plan that line
item was in for TW for y25 you know at at as I said at the 1.12 so Holly I think that is a piece of it that it's not just a question of interest and principle but it's something we didn't actually go to the bond market for is
that correct yes and no so um we are we do have um bands that are renewing and because um there were
allocated funds to uh in debt service to pay down um debt that wasn't issued um we did that we' be paid down we it be paid down more aggressively in any line that we could that stayed within the
same funds so I used as much of that Surplus budget to pay down uh short-term debt in order to save the town money on interest income um for um because we had the money um budgeted for a Debt Pay
down and because we didn't issue the library debt we had other debt so I paid down that other debt more aggressively so so the debts the budgeted debt service line is not necessarily the one we that we'll
ultimately see because some of it is I think I understood what you just said but we won't know what the net is is until the year closes is correct is what you're saying yeah and unfortunately a lot of the um a lot of the debt is due
in May so so that's when you see it R come out May is a very common due date okay and you know the other one that we we haven't yet seen I think I know the reason why is excise taxes since I just paid our cars they come in in February
so the excise tax is running below 50 but I think it's because it all flows it's an annual ex yeah so commitment one goes out in uh February or March and then and basically uh I'd say 85% of all motor
vehicle bills are collected in the spring if I went through potential free cash at the end of fy2 and I know it's dangerous to do that based on a half a year but if I took the orpa
3.8 and the fact that we're running almost a million high on uh investment income and as Mandy said we're only halfway through well that would be we're at 4.8 million at the end of the year I
think and that's why I was alsoo asking about Debt Service if we were under on Debt Service as well that would be another X dollar and I I don't know to what extent we can be looking at the likelihood where free cash and I I also
know that we allocated a bunch of current free cash to Jo to the bang Center so one of the first things we' need to do is get back up to the five carrying 5 perc just you know thinking through thinking where we're going to be
at the end of the year um I don't know whether you have any reaction to what I just said and trying to figure that out yes and I see Holly's hand is up and then I think Mandy's hand might have G been up in response to my comments but
Holly Mandy and Holly my my reaction to free cash is no idea until the fiscal year ends I I can't even begin to judge which departments would have savings which departments would be over I mean we can we can we can do rough back of
the napkin estimates but I would never be estimating free cash halfway through a fiscal year I would as a comp controller never so that's my response no and I think right police is com troller and I don't know when we'll
we'll see third quarter um this year so Mandy we'll go to you yeah um I just wanted I think we're gonna have to regularly let the public know that whatever that budget surplus on the
expense side is next year approximately 3.8 million of it was for arpa and we've already allocated 2.8 ion of that um out of free cash so it's going to be an inflated number um
automatically um but we've already allocated that so I guess my question about that allocation is um when we did that Financial order when the actuals come out at the end when fy2 is turned
from a budget to an actual on our budget projection sheets and everything that 2.8 million shows up somewhere on in in that document right and so will it actually offset the 3.8 million from the
expense side quote Surplus and the health benefits because there will be a 2.8 million expense out of free cash showing up within the within that line so that maybe it won't so it won't show where it won't show where you where
you're where you're saying um Mandy but I do address that in my um free cash kind of General discussion so if you want to wait for that for that question so if show up when you know if I look at a a prior a former BC a BCG projection
there's there's a free cash financing source um on the revenue side and it won't show up as a 2.8 million there and then when when actuals are done for fy2 and then it wouldn't wouldn't it also
show up as a capital budget cash Capital free cash capital reserve 2.8 million expense there too I guess that doesn't take care of the 3.8 that's coming in less from there but but does it it there will be lines for it in the action right
yeah it'll be lumped in um you know with the other transfers so you know like when we have um I mean what when we have all of it together then it will it will show there um as the as the trans
um from free cash into the stabilizations and to Capital so it will show separately as to Capital and then um both at the top and the bottom but it does not um it is not part of the transaction where you see the close of
the end of the year budget surpluses they're they come in in from two different places but um I did make an attempt to sort of explain um how the um you you know how free cash is
developed and and and sort of what this the funding sources are so um Tom are you still on the quarterly the the second quarter because once we close that Melissa can go to the next piece yes yes I I've just got a
very quick question it's a small item just curious um when there's something that has had no activity in the sustainability Department operations I'm just curious if there's a timing reason for that or is is there uh something that has changed about our
continued um involvement with that activity a little further down yeah um note back up second half of that page it it comes right after conservation so my guess
is down just a little bit more a little bit more um sustainability was a new department that was added to the town this year and it is quite possible that we have not allocated that out properly at this
point to point to the new um Department instead of the conservation department so right now those um those are probably still mixed together thank you for pointing that out Mr Porter I appreci appreciate it we will get right on that it is a small thing but it is something
that I I think more than likely um just account numbers did not get changed properly and we just need to do a little fix there I apologize it's a oneperson department Tom and that used to be that was part of
conservation in previous years something must have got mixed up in the account numbers I'm breaking it out there I apologize just wanted to make sure it hadn't turned out to be unsustainable [Laughter] no so I I think with that Melissa we can
go to your uh trying to take on the question of free cash and I guess it's also you know where this the Ora complexity of it yeah all right so this is uh my little free
cash um explanation I guess and so this is definition that we publish in the um in the budget every year so uh where free cash comes from and so free cash is generated from three primary sources the
prior year fund balance which the part that we're going to talk about of fund balance there's a lot of parts that go into fund balance and you know it's a lot to explain how uh our outside accountants our do and
that come to fund balance but the part part that matters to us in this discussion is the unspent part of free cash in a previous year so if we think about okay last year there was unspent balance in free cash there was revenue
surpluses and there were budget surpluses those three things make up the major components of our free cash so if we look at the 2025 free cash certification that happened in November
of this year for .6 million of that um was um the remaining pre free cash of the prior year 1.8 million was um budget that was unspent in various departments
and 4.17 million was Revenue Surplus um and how that broke down is that the 1.4 million was primarily um
the interest income um and we'll talk about that it made up a good portion 43% of that uh of that Revenue Surplus and then the other contributing factors were license and permits Motel uh and meals tax and motor vehicle
excise tax so those were the and all of these just you know to remind everyone these are um economic drivers did you want to say something before I keep going on this sorry I left my hand up on okay
okay okay and then 1.8 million of our um budget surpluses meaning unspent funds um were um those were uh mostly due to staff vacancies and so we'll go into a
breakdown of how those Stacks uh vacancy float into the other uh float into free cash but I do want to sort of make note here that um these were staff vacancies within the town Department
um for the town side um and how those surpluses were generated because um for a number of years we have not increased operating expenditures um to the extent necessary
to deal with the rising costs of all Goods uh so you know lighting bills gas um office supplies um you know maintenance on software all
of these uh areas are rising year-over-year um and before that Surplus is close to free cash the any expenditure where we have not
budgeted enough we you know gets covered by the the vacancy in the department so I just want to to sort of call out that these vacancies that we have is what um is what's creating those those absences I mean those uh surpluses it's not in
like we have too much budgeted for travel or we have too much budgeted in training those lines are very small and they have not changed in many years uh in the town of ammer so
uh this is the budget surplus um sort of breakdown of like what areas it came from so um you know it's been talked about a great deal that this uh $56,000 was from the elementary schools you know how that played out like what
that was caused from I I I don't really know but you know I just want to you know that is that's what of the Surplus that we had on the budget side that's the uh Elementary School contribution and I know that's been talked about um a
lot the biggest um area where there were vacancies uh was this is blue is Public Safety so they had a lot of vacancies in that department and the reason that the
um town or the general government uh category is so large is because all the vacancies that were in planning and development or uh Community Services or um or Public Safety or Public Works
their insurance benefits uh live in the general fund government so that's when when we see the um the Surplus flow through um of the um insurance payments that we made with
arpa funds they'll show up under General government because that's where we house all of employee benefits so you know might be an employee in public works that's uh that it has a vacancy but their
insurance is covered by the HR department or the benefits um expense line which sits in general government um because investment income I go to right to income investment income is um
such a big driver in what our surpluses for um the prior year um and will probably be for this year I just wanted to um share again with the committee that you know over the past 20 years
this is really an anomaly and I do want to say that I have looked at um and I have uh information on so the interest rate uh in these years in like 20072 2008 was slightly higher than it is
today and so the this interest uh income or investment income is driven slightly it's around the same rate as it was in 20072 2008 for what the our legal Investments for
municipality um and so the reason that these numbers are so high again is because we have deferred capital projects and large cash on hand for projects that have been stalled so we
had the arpa money in hand which was $1 million um starting um in like 2001 2 or 21 and 22 um and then we had the um the
uh revenue from the bond for the school project which is just now beginning to spend we have several capital projects meaning um a fire truck that was been on order for three years that might cost a
million plus dollars so if we have two or three or more of those projects so now we're talking 20 to $25 million that we are earning interest on at a pretty decent rate in the four to 5% range but the reason that our investment income is
so high is because we have the cash on hand that cash is being spent so that's why I am reluctant to project that into future years because at the interest rate even if they stay at five by four or 5% and they
are slightly coming down right now um if we don't have those kind of cash reserves on hand we won't be able to make this kind of um investment income so that's my that's my that's my talk on
that then the other part of um this um it you know a big focus of this has been about the local receipts and the local receipts that are driving income are motor vehicle receipts rooms meals and
uh permits so I did a 20-year look back of all uh local receipts which is this this here in the turquoise and then I did just these major um drivers the ones that seem to be performing above um what where the other local receipt might be
more stable and so you can kind of see that they sort of um they move up and down and they kind of move up and down with the whole of the the local receipts so I just want to point out that there are Spike years in local receipts and
that years that um some things perform well other things don't and that um it's not it's not a clear elevating line it's sort of of more of a Rolling Hills um Revenue
source and then finally I just wanted to look at all the components that make up local receipts because this has been a large topic of conversation and I want to remind people that local receipts make up between I looked back over a number of years between 8 and 11% of the
overall Revenue received for the town so it is even if you um push those receipts they are not they do not make a substantial CH change in the amount of services you can provide they do not um
and they they're slightly inconsistent year-over-year and so that's why we always conservatively um budget for them so that in the down years we don't feel that hit um so the big drivers the biggest things are these uh special
assessments and this has to do with um our inter Department well where we charge the Enterprise this is for general fund work so that money flows in um that's a very stable number we know what it's going to be every year it doesn't we don't miss the that's not
something we underestimate we kind of know that ahead of time and we make that entry you know 18% of our investment income in 2024 um 18% of our local receipts in 20124 was investment income so it's it's
20% of a small uh of of 20% of 10% is that's that's that's that's that driver it's a very small part of the overall picture um and in years that it was 150 which was not too long ago it's going to
be one of these small slivers um motor vehicle excise is again 19 20% that's a big driver that is something that is more reliable and that we can kind of um push year-over-year and we try to move that up quite a bit this year uh meals
tax ends up being about 5% of the overall pool of this and um these pilot payments in 2024 um were about 8% but like I said that's a number that based on the language of those agreements may
change and so here uh where um councelor hanii had talked about before so our certified free cash at the beginning of 2025 or the be in November when it was certified was
$10 million the um we took out the opioid settlement um the reparation stabilization and these are sort of planned um surpluses we don't budget for these monies so that we can know that we
can put those monies aside for um special reserves for these purposes um we spent $75,000 on a waste huler project we spent uh we moved $3.9 million to our Capital stabilization for
future projects we bought a sidewalk equipment for uh 140,000 there and here's the withdraw for the bang center of the 2.8 and then we did a supplemental
appropriation for roads and sidewalks of 500,000 and so this brings our free cash balance down to 2.6 so that's where you're going to see it as it flows through so when we start next year our starting free cash balance
is 2.6 and you'll recall earlier in the presentation we started at 4.6 so we're going to start at a much lower number when we go to certify our free cash this year than we did last year because we
spent this sort of 2.8 earlier than it was certified right so we expect it to flow through but we spent it now um because it was available and for um the committee's information
this $2.6 million essentially $2.7 million represents about $ 2.73% of our general fund budget so um we we aim for maintaining a balance of 5%
and we are below that right now it's a planned below that and the reason we keep 5% is so that we have the flexibility to do things like this and I'm not concerned about it but it does mean that our starting balance to going into next year um is going to be smaller
so when we get our certified cash next year and it's $7 million and not um 10 that's why thank you thanks Melissa and Melissa
will'll put this in the packet so um we we will have it that's the line in the agenda that says cash free cash explanation um are there any questions on what we just heard comments or questions I it was very useful and thank you for
the charts because I have a district meeting coming up where at least some of these charts will be very useful from what I have already heard are some of the questions about the year that just ended okay I don't see any hands um unless I'm
missing them so I think we are that's finished and now um what I'd like to do is go to Melissa has updated the budget projections so if everyone's
okay I think we have a enough time to do that now and then have a quick set discussion about planning for the our future meetings um because that was sent to all of you so is that all right to to put that here before we get to
agenda setting with everyone I'm seeing heads kind of nodding all right so you're on again Melissa okay I'm going to try and find here it is if I can just frame this Kathy so
staff have been looking and listen Holly and other staff have been trying to work on our projections to see how we can tighten up everything and we're beyond the comfort zone at this point but I think this it's still um an attempt to
create more room for to increase budgetary and I also want to frame that that it's this is not just the schools but right now the town side when we're looking at our budgets is over a half a million in the hole and we've never been that big in the hole at this late in the
year and we really are struggling with how we're going to meet that um that that deficit in our budget ourselves so um so it's a shared problem that's with the schools and the library and ourselves as well so but this is our latest projection and we'll see we're
going to walk through it sure and before we get to that um one other thing that we wanted to talk about is that we have the um good news bad news and that is that our health insurance has gone up still double digits however we have
worked with the um Insurance advisory committee and what was originally projected as close to 20% in increase 19.9 2% increase has been reduced through the work of the insurance
advisory committee and um our um insurance provider in plan design changes um to bring our premium increase down to is it 14.2 yeah uh percent so that was a an
enormous um contribution that all of the members of our um our our collective bargaining group participated in and it is an agreement to to shift the cost of health insurance
back to the user if that's not unclear so um that is everyone um in the town stepping up to say um Now's the Time so yeah just to add on that so just credit um all the unions are at were at the
table the proverbial table we sit in a circle actually um and by shifting uh co-pays by shifting um deductibles and by increasing those it really does shift the cost to the employees um but we had not done that for a while and so we had
that tool that we could uh Implement and so I think everybody recognized that this is the year that we had to do those things um I mean nobody's happy about a we're not happy about a 14.2% increase but it's closer to where we had been projecting at 133% at the time and I
just want to credit our leaders who are in that room from the you know teachers the fire the police the DPW the SEIU um all were represented and just uh Steve Gan who is our uh fire assistant fire chief is the leader of the group and
retirees are also present so and the town of pelum as well as present so um just a credit to to his leadership and to the staff of our the work that our staff have done to try to get as much as we can out of
this yeah so um just as the the top of the uh projections here um I just wanted to call out because it was a topic of conversation our last discussions is that both motor vehicle excise and uh
hotel motel um and meals tax have been increased and those were some of our what we thought were our large increases and then of course the biggest increase um and I know that I will get feedback
on this um is that we increase the um the investment income to uh 500,000 um which I recognize is significantly less than we have
um we've collected this year um but I was I was uncomfortable going more than that um based on the fact that in the 18 years prior to 20 23 it had never been above
500,000 um did did Mandy Joe want to ask a question before we moved on it looks like it because some of these numbers have not changed since the last time we saw it but Mandy go yeah um this is where my my I I see that you raised well
hotel motel is still projected where it was back in February for BCG at 700,000 which is a rise from this year's current numbers of 620 um but when you look at current receipts meals has brought in currently meals and hotel motel together
have brought in over a half million dollars halfway through the years um presumably both of them are fairly steady six months and six months that we don't necessarily have a unlike other
local receipts that you know where exis motor vehicle excise doesn't come until February hotel motel and meals presumably are fairly steady year round um meals is was budgeted at 400 and they've brought in 214 already but
hotel motel was budgeted at 220 for the six20 for the current fiscal year total budget and has already brought in 314,000 um so if you double that half million you get up to a million which is in line to FY 24's numbers and well
Above This 700 and above fy20 three numbers and just slightly above fy22 and we were closer to coming out of covid so i' I'd like an explanation as to why you're uncomfortable going a little higher on that number given the trends
we're seeing with them running towards nearly a million a year in FY 24 projected at this point to potentially be close to a million a year I know we won't know um right you know and and same with licenses and permits when you
look at the licenses and permits it's already 875,000 for this year alone it was budgeted at 991 um that budget has the projection has only gone up $2,000 yet the lowest number in the last
four years is 1.3 million and so to me those are the two that seem low balled when we're trying to push and I guess I'm just not quite hearing reasons why they're
still that much lower than what we're actually seeing on the ground year after year so I think that you are looking at what we're seeing year after year um as economies recover and I
am more pessimistic about our future maybe than you are and so I um I would say that the um the hotel motel tax is and building permits are reflection
of the economy and as things in the economy change those numbers are less stable so right now um especially in the building industry this threat of you know what's going to happen with the
building industry and Rising costs due to decision that are being made elsewhere I'm not sure that those permits will continue so we get permits based on large construction projects that are already in the pipeline I don't
know what the appetite will be for construction in the pipeline going forward and while you point out that we have this rental permit that is not what's driving those those large licensing permits they're several hundred th000 for very large
projects uh apartment complexes large buildings on college campuses that feed those um those permits and so I don't know that you know year to year we have one or two that sort of drive that um
and move that number quite a bit but they're not the base of like I'm doing a kitchen room model or I got to put a deck on or I need a roof today th that's not what driv those big numbers it's the um it's the development in town and so
while I hope that it continues I don't know that it will and that's why um I looked at a history that went back more than the last couple of years so that we could look at what happens when the economy changes and I nothing would make
me happier than to be wrong but that's why we budget conservatively um we're pushing the numbers more than more than we have in the past we we hear you but that's I mean that's
my answer on why um I I believe that these numbers are more aggressive than they've been in the past but still um within the normal um guise of our conservative budgeting
so we don't um find ourselves trying to make up for a a big dip in um in a revenue line that we that we that we can't make but we we can't find somewhere
else Andy yeah on the hotel motel I was curious and and meals taxes um how frequently do we receive payments from the state and are they
uh uh done U evenly throughout the year and amount we get both do we get larger amounts in some quarters than others so it's it's a quarterly um quarterly
payment um for hotel motel meals tax I think we receive it it's been a long time since I actually processed the payment but I I think we receive it like in April for March quarter 1 two and it's based on um what those um with the
restaurants and the um hotels are reporting for their sales because it's a percentage of their it's a sales tax um a local option sales tax so um for instance um
the the hotels here are always busy in the spring um you know because of graduations and such and they tend not to have a whole lot of business in January so it's seasonal in that sense um my assumption is that our meals tax
um is probably greater during the school year just because we have more people here in town but I I don't know that I haven't I haven't tried to track it so well we're on this page I'm looking at the projections as of
uh the beginning of February so the last time when you did the increase and the one a lot of the numbers are the same the one actually declined miscellaneous was at 340 and you've dropped it to
115 which makes the local receipts line also drop um I think that's the one change I saw on that so rather than it be an increase compared to it's why did you drop it so that has to do with the
language of the um ammer College um agreement that um designates their um their pots of money to specific projects that um fall
outside of like just to use forever whatever the town wants so if we put it in here as miscellaneous then that implies that it's for the town to use at the town's discretion their language in their agreement is um very targeted to
um specifically downtown business improvements to roads and sidewalks okay but they weren't they didn't exist in fy2 that that agreement and we on misscellaneous had
340 right so they used to pay an ambulance um fee um for the services that um they they receive from our ambulance services
they've elected to instead do a more rich I mean it's a it's more than they I think they previously paid I Holly might be able to correct me like a 180 for ambulance services that
the town provides um to the campus and now they um are um giving a gift specifically um to um to the fire and police department I won't push you hard on this because
I'm just quickly comparing them but when I get all the way to the bottom line the result I think of that one changing but I don't know what else is the projection of revenues is a little lower than it was um it's about
you know it it's a little lower than it was a month ago so I'm just looking at the total um yeah it's because of that one line it's because because if they've moved it but it's still more money it should show up somewhere in revenues is
what my assumption would be no it won't it's a gift so gifts don't show up in revenues interesting correct and and the same would go for the schools they get a $250,000 gift from the from uh college that goes straight to
them and okay all right I I will stop but Mandy I was just going back and forth to see what what was higher or lower and that was the one that's lower and I don't think anything went I don't think
anything went up um the community preservation you know some things at the bottom I'm not going to worry about because they're paid for in a different way um so um Mandy's hand is up in Bob's and we haven't even gotten to the expense side
yet so so ambulance fund went up by about a half a million dollars from the last projections in early February it's because of their Capital their Capital request um was higher than we had anticipated so when we started to put
the capital budget together we've you'll see when we get to the expense side that we've increased their um their Capital um requests and so it's an offset um and I do believe that we probably made up a
little bit of the decrease in the miscellaneous um from ambulance receipts because there might have been some room there so I I do have a question about that and I know we don't have the expenditure side up yet but um the ambulance fund has on Revenue side 3.4
million now projected um you said the cash cash Capital ambulance fund will be increasing but even when the ambulance fund was projected at 3 million in February the cash Capital ambulance fund line was only projected at 4 point 450,000 so it's now at 674 can you tell
me where the rest of that difference between 3 million and 600 whatever it is that that extra sort of two and a half million that is coming in in revenue for ambulance fund is there a place in the expenditure side that it is dicta to or
is that actually ambulance fund revenues that are so two parts all the operating budgets so yes so so yes um so to the extent that there's cash capital for
ambulance fund I.E we're going to buy an ambulance with ambulance fund that's 6754 and this goes in and comes out the other 2 point something million I think it was 2.5 and it's now
2.8 um that brings the ambulance fund up those are that's from ambulance receipts so the ambulance company or the ambulance providers I.E the fire department same people um when they do
an ambulance run some of their runs are paid for by your insurance my insurance Medicare whatever they bring in um several million dollars a year in that Revenue that goes to the ambulance fund
some of that ambulance fund money is to buy the equipment that they need in order to operate an ambulance and some of it goes as a transfer to the general fund to recognize the cost of operating that general fund expense I.E the
department so they do not make enough money to fully support a fire department that provides ambulance services however their um Revenue that they for this does supplement the um their department but
it doesn't supplement them directly it comes into the general fund and therefore once it comes into the general fund in this way it gets broken out four ways very similar to um the rental
registration money thank you so it's actually those ambulance fund receipts in a sense are supporting all of our schools too when we increase that number year overy year right I mean
yeah Bob so I I want to get back to the issue about the the roads and sidewalks within the bid is that is that Grant going direct or that gift going directly to the bid or is it to the town in order to deal with sidewalks and Roads within
the business improvement district it's to but I can address that so it's it's really a does ated fund to support downtown improvements it doesn't specifically say roads and sidewalks it's for downtown improvements the bid has nothing to do with it that just
defines the area so bit the nonprofit bid has nothing to do with this these are Town funds that we would allocate you know and what we had talked about was specifically was the improvements to the town common uh the additional maintenance cost of of addressing the North Common which is a new new thing
that we don't have and also the the things that um front on their their property IE the in on boltwood and places like that so so where does that show up does that show up in the expenditures or that that'll be a gift that's a gift account basically gift
account okay because they they for the college defined this as a as a contribution so does Spence for also show up in the gift account Paul yes thank you Andy
the M uh when we get money from other sources to support um Services U and I'm thinking right now of uh is the example
the Eeps money we get for the crust program does that show up in this page or um in the expense side of this uh chart or is that uh dealt with separately so grants are reported
separately these These are only general fund um accounts so um when so everything that you see above um above other financing sources is a general fund revenue and then anything below
that is a non-general fund Revenue that has been transferred into the general fund so we don't report on this we don't we don't do um operating budgets on Grant funds so um there are grants um
like you said for the crest Department the police department the dispatch received not not grants in the same size is maybe the crest Department um the school department sees many grants it's part of how um Council and aging
receives a grant um so lot lot um lot lots of Grants come in and they they're not reported um in this um in this part of the budget so when you um are considering
Public Safety on the the allocation of funds and if the uh Grant funds disappear but we want to maintain a service at the level that has to be accounted for within your
budgeting beneath the uh correct so right now um the um I know for um dispatch their their grants are usually around training so they don't support staff it's just something that helps
them support training but if that should go away or they need additional training above that Grant then that was something that the general fund would have to support in particular the uh Crest Department that you asked about they do receive a large Grant however most of
their staff is paid for under the uh general fund and that's the budget you see in the budget book last year um was um for their staff and um a small operating
amount okay uh the reason I asked the question just so that everybody knows uh I don't to hide this is it um it's sometime we're going to have to get get more of an assessment of it
the uh in October of course the uh Council wrote a letter to the governor um that U talked about the importance of the Eeps money to our crust program I looked at the uh Governor's budget and
there was no money for that line item in the Governor's budget and I was trying to figure out what that means for future planning so if I can respond to that so I think Lynn put that in her president's report that uh our conversations with
the um Senator our Senator and State Rep had identified the fact that this again which it wasn't included in the governor's budget last year but was included by uh action of the state legislature they're going to again try to get the money into the budget but
there's no sure thing about that so but that's so it's a very real concern for us can we I suggest we go to the expense side because I want to come back to this issue when we look at your expense projection and also the way we see FY 25
expenses okay so this is big news in this budget right so this is us um so we I I mean as you stated the the above the revenue side did not change uh dramatically um
and and in any way shape or form so um you know how did we get to a 4% and we did we did choose to um present this as we always have in the past is evenly distributed among the four major
operating areas um I think that on the last presentation of this we had already cleaned up the capital and sort of made sure that um I'm not sure when we did this but we made sure that the debt and the
um and the capital expenditures uh for the um for like the ambulance were in line with what you know what we had submitted so that our our jcpc reports could
balance to these reports um and so what the major change is here is that we've um tooken a careful look at um some of these um miscellanous and um unappropriated expenses to see if there
was any room to um be less conservative and so in the area of reserve for abatements and exemptions we have um decided we we've had a standing practice that is you know sort of in line with um
D that we um we allocate 1% of our um tax revenue to reserve for abatements and exemptions and we've um we've took a look at this and thought
that perhaps we could um instead of doing 1% we could do half of a percent in this year and see um how that would flow through because we that that was something that um that we could try this year to see if
um to try and push the budget um on on um so that so that we could get to the 4% again this year we might have looked at um or in departmental transfers but I'm I'm not sure if that change from
last time or if we changed that a few weeks ago I'm looking for any questions or comments on this and I have one Mandy so obviously this is good news I I thank you for for looking at um the reserve
for abatement and exemption um it's one where you don't get an idea year after year whether you quote needed at all because it just disappears in the actuals for obvious reasons um M and so I appreciate that look of of trying to
figure out what we can do with that um Paul earlier in this meeting you mentioned that um this is an uncomfortable budget for you but that this is this time of year you're not normally facing a deficit and this year you're facing a half a million dollar general government deficit is that even
with this 4% increase and if so um what does that mean for services um in general government and then I have another question about the region Mandy I also don't see one I
don't see the half million so um it the bottom line has not a half million but what I what I think what should I met I said earlier in this meeting that at this point when we're building our budgets for fy2 uh for FY 26 we are about $540,000
in the whole um I think this this is brings us another $140,000 I think Melissa this Yep this brings us another 140 gone from 3 and half to four so we still have a significant hole um that we have to fill and figure out where that
and we don't know we're just we're still going through Department by department on what their budgetary needs are so I guess let me use lines that the schools have used your level Services budget at this point I know it might not
be considered level Services is uh approximately $400,000 dollar above the 29.3 56 million that is listed here exactly I would no actually not I would say it's a it's level Services minus any
kind of cost increases for for fuel for energy anything like that it's a flat expense budget but we the first thing we do is incorporate the salaries and we're with just doing the salaries and the health insurance we're about a half million dollars in the
whole I'll let Cathy go I have a question about region I I think Holly was going to speak to this also well I think that um Council Hani just sort of hit it right on the head is what I wanted to try to explain to folks is this budget projection is the entire
Town's budget Elementary region and that uh and the libraries and the municipal and that 27,000 that showing is a surplus in all four budgets together when we're trying to do the revenue what we are trying to do now is to live
within our number which was the which is the 29 or yeah the 29.4 million currently and Mandy Joe just I think explained it how I was going to explain it when we try to take all of our departments and fit them into that
number that's where we're short we're not short in this projection currently but the difference between what Paul was stating was about a $500,000 deficit and you're seeing 27,000 two completely different things and I think I think Mandy explained it as I was going to so
I was going to put my hand down but thank you so I um if we and I'm not saying that the council necessarily would go there but if we said uh give schools more of what you
just found so leave everyone else at leave library in town at three and a half what would the increase for the schools be so the the amount um that um includes the increase
for the town and the Jones library is $153,000 so then um if if you took that away from the town and the library that's what would be available to be redistributed to the schools
okay thank you and then then I just want to come back call to to me which seems um the grants are somewhere else so if in let me stay with FY 25 which is the year we know if
crest's Grant has come in and it's paying for it equals 30% or 40% of our budget and and our budget would be both salaries and benefits how do we ever see
that the general fund is having a supplement to it from the grant fund so it's not carrying that in terms of um the full amount so it's what Andy was asking for if if we're not showing the grant here but we
know say we think the crest whole all of Crest with Benefits runs at a million and we bring in $400,000 of a grant how do we ever see that where do we see it so all grants for the library the schools both schools and the town are
all in a don't aren't aren't part of this this is how you're dividing up the T Town's tax dollars this is not a the budget document this is projecting how you want to expend the town's tax dollars that's the question that this this document tries to address when you
um if there if we get a grant that happens to pay for an employe then that means that that that would show up in a surplus for the next year the grant that um Crest has Isn't to pay for its employees it's for all the other work that they can do there's some you know we can pay for there I think there's
some provision for some staffing the uh implementation manager for instance that isn't part of our normal budget so for any of our departments you know schools all of us I mean there's lots of different grants that we all get uh that are report they're reported in
the budget book you know we typically provide a total list of all the grants on the town side we don't give a list of the grants on the school side we that would be in their budget if they wanted to provide it or not you're saying that the the grant crescat doesn't do salaries at all it pay I think I just
have to look I think pays for one person yeah okay okay thank you Mandy so um this might be addressed tomorrow at BCG but I am struggling with what to do about the region and the regional
assessment and our responsibility to the region versus the other three towns responsibility to the region um our responsibility to our own taxpayers um I I I I'm going to go on for a little bit because I'm struggling with how to word
this too um but this Regional I don't know what the school committee will do but the superintendent has been aiming for a 4% total assessment year-over-year increase and there's been a debate as to how to split
that amongst the four towns because we are a four Town region and there doesn't seem to be agreement on how to do it if we followed the regional agreement we would have on our assessment a year-over-year 2.33 increase plus
$350,000 um it would be on the prior number $220,000 less than we were budgeting with a 3 and half% year or the 55% year-over-year increase that if we followed that method we could reallocate
to say our elementary schools but instead we are the superintendent is asking us to allocate that to the region and reduce pel and leverage assessment share by 220,000 essentially having amr's
taxpayers reduce hel and leverett's tax property tax bills um if we increase and and because they're asking us to do three and a half and pel and lever to do less than their Regional agreement
method if we increase our assessment willingness to 4% year-over-year is there have you talked to the superintendent about the other four towns also increasing their assessments
for the year so that it's not a 4% year-over-year for the schools for the regional school it's a 4.x per because it if we do it and the other towns don't basically what I'm struggling with is the schools are not getting any more
money the schools are still getting a 4% year-over-year total assessment increase and basically we're sending money to the region to subsidize and lower pel and lever and Sho B's own property tax bills
and that doesn't seem right to me yet I at the same time when I I listened to the regional budget hearing I had a couple of thoughts nearly every commenter I think there was one that did not live in ammer which then presents my
other problem of if amer's parents are the only parents that care about the cuts do should we be forcing a regional agreement again I'm not sure how to word this right but if Leverett pel and
shoots be are perfectly fine with a 4% year-over-year increase with whatever they're getting and ammer parents are not should we be gifting this to the region above it and and not necessarily pushing for a regional agreement method
if the other three towns won't agree to that split um yet if we pushed for a regional agreement method the region could have 270 some thousand more dollars so I guess with this proposal I
guess my question to Melissa and Paul at this point is where does that money go is it going to subsidize Leverett and pums and lowering their year-over-year increase and their assessment more or is this going to be
considered a potential gift to the region above and beyond that 4% year-over-year increase that this superintendent has been aiming for um for the region is is sort of my first part and then I I just don't I'm still
struggling with the rest of how does a fourtown region work when every single commenter at the regional hearing and even school committee members said we want it from ammer and ignored the other three towns when we are a four toown region can I just build on what because
I would think what you're asking Mandy is why should we be tougher on moving toward the statutory method which is what's in the agreement and we're we're starting for it from it when we don't do this and that's a a towntown kind of negotiation that's not within the school
committee so it's it's looking to our town manager Finance director whatever or the finance committee I think that's what you're asking correct you know that there's a methodology that well yes and no I mean it it's a lot of it was my own struggles with what do I do about the
region but yeah how how much should we if we're going to go up to four but the whole agreement the whole total assessment will not increase one dime why should we go up to four because we're basically lowering other towns
shouldn't we stay at three and a half percent and give that extra half a percent money to the elementary schools for example and redistribute it that way I Melissa's hand is up so I have what I hope would happen
and so what I think the intent is that we're trying to do as much as we can to be supportive of the region and listen to what people are asking for and that doesn't take away from the responsibilities of the other towns so
just because ammer is going to go from three and a half to four I think those discussions about the other Communities going to six or seven should remain and maybe they don't go up as much as we do
but you know we've we you know without you know without doing anything different than we always have we've always tried to be fair and distribute this evenly and when they ask for give us more and less to to
the library let's just I'll pick on them because they're not here right and and and say um well that seems unfair what we we'll give you as much as we can and if that's more than what the statutory
agreement is then we've done everything we can so why are you asking more of us when we that this is you know we're struggling too and and I think that we just need to find a way to say that and
I don't want this to become an US versus them and it's not US versus pelum or lever or shutesbury it's what can we afford what makes us all work and you know what it's a bad year for all of us it's not any worse for them or any worse
for us it's just it's just a tough year and I think that you know if we pull back from what we've always done then then then we then we are not supporting the schools but I don't think
that there's any advantage to going above and beyond what we've always done in order to help um when it doesn't benefit the schools when they don't actually get more the idea is that this actually gets the
more that was my my thought on it anyway I don't know if that's how it'll work out but you know while we're talking hopes and dreams there we are yeah so I think that um we can control what we can control and that's what we're trying to do um based on you
know we always said when we would if we could produce more revenue and project and you in your guidelines you said tighten them up tighten them up which we have done and now that's why we're presenting it to you now in the normal way excuse me the way normally way of assessed it now I think that the
question that Mandy Joe brings up is important it's like if this is a net zero for this region why why do this I mean we could do the g go through the gift route again um as we have in the past um but I think that that um really
is a decision by the school committee in terms of what the budget that they're going to approve and the assessment method that they're going to recommend Mandy and I I'm also conscious of the time um it's 355 so I'm not saying I'm cutting this off but I'm just
conscious no I I could go on forever and and I'll deal with some of it at BCG tomorrow but but um I I just want want to make two more things um so from what I've just heard from the two of you Paul
and Melissa you do not know whether this would result in actual more money for the region at this point that three and a half to 4% increase because you have not talked to the superintendent or school committee obviously about what they might do with an extra half a
percent from us um so maybe we'll find out tomorrow what that might be um uh and I guess number two is I'd like your thoughts on how to advocate for moving to the regional
assessment with all the numbers I've crunched even if we were at the regional assessment last year and we were at the regional assessment this year giving amers $220,000 more dollars to hand to the elementary school as I would call it um pum would need to increase their
year-over-year spending by 11 and a half% %. right now they're projected to only increase their year-over-year spending by 6 and a half they are getting farther away from their Regional agreement method by over $80,000 um they were $80,000 away lower
than their Regional agreement method last year and at the 65% year-over-year increase they will be at $140,000 plus under their Regional agreement assessment method um that's why I talk about 220 ,000 that we could
put to the elementary school if we forced the regional agreement what are your thoughts on how we best help our taxpayers get the
best money and services for their taxes when I look at this and say we could put that 220,000 to the elementary schools and reduce their quote op rating deficit or
help you Paul reduce yours um when in theory the region would get the same amount of money by by forcing or advocating for that Regional agreement method what are your thoughts on some of that and how to best do that I don't have good putting you on
the spot yeah I don't have really good answers I mean we we were working on the the getting to this 4% as of this morning quite honestly um and feeling like we felt comfortable where comfortable is an odd word but to say we were willing to put this out there um I think there's a real conversation
that be had with our colleagues in the other other towns but um um yeah I just don't want to speculate with how thinking deeper about it well I think that might be a good way to close this because we'll have to return to it when we're when we get to
the budget we don't have enough time um I don't want to keep people longer than four um time to talk about uh meeting schedule you have in the actually I don't think Melissa you put it in the packet but we'll put it in the packet I
sent it to everyone you know potential meetings and I what I had proposed was similar to what we've done the last couple years where we meet twice a week in May and that generates enough meetings if we group departments
um to cover all the Departments and have time to do our report and the one missing member for today said he liked it and if we were asking for volunteers because the other part of the process has been someone takes the
responsibility for one of those uh uh groupings and both does questions in advance and then writes up a section of the report and Bernie offered to do either General government or DPW so he said I won't be here but I'll take one
of those to so he gave a nod so I I see Mandy you have your hand up and so I don't want to take a lot of time but the other thing you should see is when talking with Paul and Melissa on what we have coming to us it's possible we might
not need two meetings in MA in April so I had one as possible cancel so that knowing what we're going into May and that was based on we've got an Auditor's report coming to us we've got CPAC coming to us we have a couple others but we don't have it looked like we had
enough meetings without having to in April so that was the one other thing I wanted to flag um it wouldn't be cancelled but we might not have to so I see Mandy your hand is up on I think this topic correct yeah just the meeting
schedule um I think we need times because you and I on Thursdays have a four to six meeting every other Thursday in May and so I know the budget ones tend to go more than two hours so if you were looking at 2: p.m. to 400 p.m. you
and I would struggle two of those four weeks to make one of them without missing parts of another potentially so maybe a poll for times on Thursdays that might work for people or a poll for times on Fridays that might work for people
before we get to our next meeting for that one okay so it's it's looking for the second meeting in May and is it a Thursday and if it's a Thursday what are some time slot so we could do that Andy yeah
um one the regional schools usually doesn't since uh that it's a separate process and we will have probably had to voted on it already it's not going to be um part of
it so that was just general comment U the other thing that as far as process is concerned um I was wondering if there's a way we can consolidate as Sean did last year is is
Melissa gonna do it this year to take questions from all counselors members all members of this Committee in addition um and to the obvious ones that
come from the person assign to make sure that we have the base questions yeah if I didn't put that in my memo I meant to Andy absolutely that we would let people know what's coming up um we don't have a schedule right now I just did groupings and it would be all counselors as well
as everyone here gets their questions in and we get them in before the meeting that addresses that as much as we can that would be absolutely and Bob I see your hand is yeah there one other thing real quick I don't have to come back
again uh and that's just a request to Melissa to add those items to the packet uh right after the meeting because I really um I have a presentation tonight to a district meeting and could use one of them the one about the
uh free cash free cash is already in there it's already there right yeah thank you um yeah I just wanted to say that um I do think we do need have extra meetings in May I mean I've been through this several years as Andy knows and
Kathy knows um and um I I I you know it is important that we split things up um and I'm very comfortable with any of the the groupings that that you that aren't claimed by other people I I'll be happy
to pick pick any of those um so um I've done DPW before I've on uh Enterprise funds which are now folded in with DPW so um but I can do other things so okay and then I see
Mandy and I just want to let people know that Alicia had to leave and said everything looks good to her so that was a a whatever Mandy yeah sorry I just wanted to respond to Andy um we ran into this problem with the regional schools last year we can't vote on a regional
school budget unless Paul proposes one and proposes the financial orders so maybe a future agenda item once we know what the Region's budget vote is is a discussion with Paul as to when those financial orders are going to come to the council whether they'll come with
the overall budget or whether they will come separately okay um and then I guess another potential future agenda for next meeting or the meeting after might be some stuff that comes out of BCG tomorrow we don't know what will happen at CG but there might be some stuff that
comes out of it okay so that thank you everyone I mean we we managed to cover a huge amount including an item that wasn't on it thanks to the worker staff that I I gather what you were saying Paul that you were working on this up to an hour
before we met or two hours before we met so and BCG will see what we just saw tomorrow so getting that in our packet is terrific and so I thank you everyone who put extra time and energy into it and I think we're ready to adjourn so I
make a motion to adjourn a second and I'll go around the room Bob hi Kathy CS Mandy hi and Andy Mandy and Andy or counselor hanek and
Andy so we are adjourned at 405 so we did quite well thank you all very much see see some of you tomorrow at JCB bye