thank you very much uh good afternoon it is February 4th 2025 this is the organization reorganization if you will of the finance committee of the ambertown council I'm going to ask uh the members of the council and uh also the non- voting members to uh Rec say that they can hear and be heard I'll call on you to the best of I can in alphabetical order uh counselor
present uh Kathy Bob hegner present Kathy Shane I'm here Andy Steinberg presid Bernie kubak Tom Porter pres and I'm is uh Alicia not here uh yeah I texted her just now
but that's correct she's not here okay um so uh the floor at this point is open for nominations for the position of chair of the finance committee Bob hegner yes I want to nominate Kathy Shane and um I I want to also state that uh I I am not running again for finance uh chair because I think it's time for
someone else to take over Kathy do you accept the nomination yes I do thank you Bob all right are there any other nominations at this time Kathy would you like to say anything um sure um I'm I'm delighted to be able to take on this role um I think as everyone knows I've been on the committee since the council started um and
um I'm just gonna Alicia I see Alicia's just joined um hi Kathy thank you hi Alicia can you hear us yes I can thank you thank you so we have gone through the beginning of the process of the nominations for chair of finance and Kathy Shane has been nominated are there any other nominations I just want to make sure that now that Alicia's joined us we have that opportunity see none Kathy I'm going to now ask you to proceed okay I'll I
I'll be very brief but I was underst studied to Andy um and learned a phenomenal amount and then with Bob so um this time around I wanted to step up and take the lead as chair which I know is a a lot of work and including just helping us stay organized so I am happy to do so okay given that I'm going to ask uh for people to vote in in favor or
not or abstain uh for Kathy Shane we'll begin with councelor hanii I vote for councelor Shane Bob hegner uh councelor Shane Kathy Shane Kathy Shane Andy Steinberg I vote for counselor Shane Alicia Walker um I vote for counselor Shane and Bernie kubak support
councelor CH Tom Porter support as well okay Kathy I turn the meeting over to you and I go back to the audience thank you thank you Lynn um and now we are open for uh nominations for vice chair um and uh so I will look around the room to see if there's anyone who either would like to be Vice chair and nominate themselves or who someone who wants to nominate someone to be Vice chair
uh seeing no hands I will nominate Bob hegner Bob um I'm looking to see if anyone else has got a hand up and I I guess I need to ask you Bob are you willing to serve as Vice chair yes I'm willing to serve does anyone else either
want to nominate someone or nominate themselves uh seeing No Hands uh Bob as Lind did would you like to say a few words uh just that uh you know I've served as the chair for the last year and I've tried to uh give everyone a voice on the committee and I will continue to do so as a vice chair uh under Cathy's leadership thank you so seeing no
hands up I will go around the room to get the votes of everyone and I'm instead of doing it alphabetically it's easier for me to do it by the order of the faces I see on my screen so first is Andy Steinberg I vote for Bob Hector uh Kathy Shane I vote for Bob Mandy um I vote for councelor
Bob hegner Bob I vote for Bob hegner Tom uh Tom Porter I support the vote for Bob hegner Bernie kubak support Mr hegner and counselor Walker um I vote for counselor Bob hegner so I think I got everyone on the screen and it's unanimous and I uh Lynn you asked I see you asked to be put back in the audience um I am not sure who
has con I don't think I'm host so that would be Melissa will have to do that so jumping in in my role as chair um I did make a I I did for once print out the agenda um which which I usually just look it on the screen but I have a hard time looking at F faces on the screen so we've set it up where we first
hearing public comment um and then we'll we'll get to what's on the agenda for the day so we are now open for public comment and Melissa since I am not I don't have control I don't think I can I see one hand is up yeah so I just allowed the me to talk that's okay
perfect Arley you've joined the room and you can talk I think your mic you're unmuted so go ahead hi can you hear me yes yes we can and as I think everyone knows it's up to three minutes and please identify yourself Arley gold South ammer um so I keep hearing um over and over that the Town Council has no more Authority or or jurisdiction over the
Jones Library project the money has been approved so that's that okay so now the library doesn't seem to have uh their share of the money to put into the project at the last trustees meeting I heard the report uh that they have 10 million and you know they need close to 14 million and I was also uh told by a friend that
this 10 million includes two million of pledges which they haven't received yet and the federal 2 million so that they actually have six million right now um and now the T Town manager says that he will not sign a contract until he has proof that the library has all their money so little old me out here in the public a taxpaying citizen has to wonder so one person is going to
decide if the library can meet its financial obligation and I don't know what would constitute proof in this person's mind um if any part of the Town Council has Authority and jurisdiction over this aspect of the project it would seem to be this committee um you know the issue that my friends and neighbors are very concerned about is that the library won't have enough enough money and the town will
have to you know approve more money to keep the project going um that the Town Council has every right to be involved in this aspect of the project just seems to be common sense because if the library doesn't have enough money it's the town and the taxpayers that are going to FP the Bill thank you thank you orley
I think that um is it for public comments so we can move on to the agenda for today and the first part um you're in charge of Melissa we have the first quarter financials health insurance projections and Cherry seat projections and I think I think everyone in the committee Melissa let us know that the first
quarter was in our packet and just so you know I I just logged on just before the meeting and I see that the minutes that we're going to be looking at were put in the packet they weren't there I don't think this morning so Melissa go ahead you're you're muted Melissa but we see your Zoom um we see your Zoom but not if you're trying to show a screen we're not we just we just see your uh it's
funny connect to zoom window I don't want to share that um all right let's see I I don't I don't think that's my if it is my share I don't it says it's B's share yeah so that's why I can't take it down so Bob can you unshare your screen I didn't mean to do that thank I just
hit a random key okay I'm me close that and then I'm gonna do share so now now can you see the report yes yes and if you could um move in on it more to make it somewhat more readable
I think that's better how is that for others I can see it okay we're good Melissa okay are we ready for me to scroll down yes
absolutely you know I and I I think well I I I guess I should speak for myself I think most of us had a chance to look at this so maybe okay maybe you want to do a as you're scrolling give a summary of what we're seeing or what the take-homes are from first quarter yeah so
it's easier for me to look at the data that's just the way my brain works so um but but I guess um what the the takeaway from the first quarter is that um things are are um you know kind of where we expect them to be the um there are several departments that are um more than 25% of the way through their um expended budget but that is um based on
normal timing in the um departments for example like Cherry Hill That season um you know is in this is in the summer and the spring so they they spend and use their money you know at the beginning of the fiscal year and then they're sort of on break right now until they start up again um you know in the spring again um the Medicare uh reimbursements they can only come in twice a year and so that's why you know there's not a whole lot
to see there um motor vehicle um the commitment one is build in um you know February March uh time frame and so the I would say that 85% of all motor vehicle bills are collected um in the in the in the early spring late winter so you won't see a whole lot of Motor Vehicle excise collected in during that time um There's a summary of kind of where we
are with hotel motel um and um the pilot is um you know mo most of the stuff from our internal pilot payments that we we call Pilot payments from our Enterprises we transfer that in the first quarter so that's why it all it all it's front-loaded in the fiscal year um expenditures are um you you know right on track at
25% for the Departments that are heavily um based on salaries and us you know expending you know bi-weekly to to our rates but um several departments um again Recreation um like the pools and the Cherry Hill they're seasonal so their Seasons uh impact the spending of the budget uh accordingly um departments like information technology ology all of our renewals of our software that we use
um those payments are due in July um all of our assessments are due um at the beginning of the fiscal year our interfund transfers are done at the beginning of the fiscal year so they show up as Revenue in one fund and um expenses in the uh others um and the way that the library is structured um they um they also pay an assess M so their assessment is charged for the full
fiscal year of their uh for their employee benefits but they also um use the um general fund portion of the library budget um before their Grant um so it will spend faster at the beginning of the year uh Enterprises um you know s similar um experience we charge them their assessments for their fringe benefits and other um fund transfers at the beginning of the
year so they frontload those um we frontload those um expends expenditures um and then this is just the detail of um the individual departments um you know our Revenue sources kind of where we are if there's any in particular that you um want to ask about uh feel free um
and we will do our best to get you an answer Bob yeah uh Melissa I wanted to ask about Debt Service which is on the the last line on the first page of the uh expenditures or the the budget report um so our debt is paid twice a year okay and so um there's like two payments a
year and um I I believe I'm pretty sure that there's some debt payments due in March and um and some do in um you know it it it's not evenly spaced it's twice a year there's a full uh principal payment and then there's a a principal I there's a principal an interest payment and then an interest payment this $1,500 is probably something that's off cycle from other borrowings we because we borrow all of
our stuff at once and then that makes that due date fall in the same month uh of of the borrowing so if we borrowed money last March which I know we did the first payment would probably be due this coming March for the um principal and interest and there would be an interest payment due um so it's a six-month stagger for that so it kind of hits all at once does that include it doesn't include or does that include the the elementary school or
that hasn't shown up yet that that hasn't shown up yet I don't think we borrowed that in the um in the spring in March so my I don't know the exact payment date but it's probably due um March April range is you know it's usually around 12 months from the borrowing date but sometimes they move the um payment date by 30 days just depends but once it's set into its schedule that's when it
will be paid okay thank you Mandy your hand is up thank you um two questions in your summary Melissa you indicated that like short-term rental um revenues are included in the hotel and meals payments from the state do we get any sort of breakdown from the state as to which
are short-term versus Hotel um in a in a way that we would be able to figure out whether if we looked at advertisements of shortterm rentals in our town we'd be able to see if they're paying them or have registered for rental registration permit and things like that or do we not get even any breakdown at all so I'm G to I I can look into that that for you um I
I used to receive those payments in my previous job but I I don't I'm not the person processing them and I I don't recall that ever being broken out separately but that thing that doesn't mean things haven't changed since I was the person that um took that out but my understanding is that they don't they don't break it out in a way that we can share um but I can I can look to see if that's been improved or um or what the receipt looks like but in the past it would just come in as one number Hotel Motel um but I also didn't work in
a community that had the number of um airbnbs or other alternative short-term rentals the community it was very there only a handful so if that so I it may be different here okay thank you my next question is with the expenses on the wastewater treatment plan the sewer fund um you mentioned that they're high because of incumbrances for year-long stuff presumably some stuff where you
contract for the year's provision of sey Florine or something um but well and that's also that you did that big um adjustment for the sludge so we haven't paid all that out yet but know that those costs are rising right so that's part a big part of it I guess my question was last year that was one of the funds that was sort of over um and and it seemed seems a lot higher than
the water fund sort of total expenses at this point in a way um and so are we worried about that one being over this year um after quarter or is that sort of number a similar number that we saw in that we see in terms of the incumbrances and all after the first quarter on a typical year so I know that that the reason that that encumbrance is almost a million dollars is that sludge that went up significant ly and I don't believe and Holly can correct me if I'm
wrong but I don't believe that the transfer into the water uh wastewater treatment P plant of that 250,000 CHS in the budget until next until next quarter um and so that's that will make it look less not not great but it won't look as skewed as a 50% increase because that's a significant you know I believe it was 200 the 250,000 that we
transferred in for that sludge contract thank you H Holly probably can correct me on my H do you want to speak to this before I go to Andy I'm not going to necessarily correct you but I'm I am going to say that the um water and sewer funds particularly the sewer font excuse me particularly the sewer funds will likely have troubles stay within its
budget again this year um the Aging infrastructure at the wastewater treatment plant um pipes pumps um Motors the just the cost of repairs and the age of the equipment the the repairs are um you know much higher than we anticipated so I would say that that is one that we're going to have to follow very closely through the second half the fiscal year to make sure that they can stay
within their budget um but Melissa is correct the um Town Council orders um adding the additional $250,000 for the sludge and there was also one I believe it was $20,000 for the solid waste fund were not voted until January so those will actually not be shown in this report excuse me until the third quarter so um and and Mandy are you following up on the same issue or should I
go to man Andy yeah I was going to I guess my question is is this something that we should be considering and could we legally consider a change in sewer rates midy year I mean I guess we're past midy year but um you know I don't know whether legally we can change rates more than once a year but is it something we should be considering so I I I I don't know legally or not legally I know that what
we have been looking at um as we um prepare for the budget is you know what we anticipate the increased costs are in these departments and we've had internal meetings to um talk about where we think the um where the rate should be based on true expenditures and um foreseen incoming costs so well I don't think it I don't think that we would
change it midy year um we certainly are talking about it right now about what it should be um next year and in the years to come to um sort of cover these costs and um deal with the um infrastructure that needs to be maintained in the wastewater treatment plant and it certainly is um to your point um
a more obvious problem in the um wastewater treatment um sewer fund and and while still there in the water fund it's it's not as um it's not as extreme or as urgent you know it doesn't it's not rise the costs aren't Rising as quickly Andy I guess the follow up on what Mandy was just just asking and then they ask
one other question um I think that my recollection of this question of changing rates mid year um that we've never had to face it because um as long as there are retained earnings or fund balance within the fund itself that there's no reason to consider um making it unless the deficit is so large and I was
just uh wanting to see if that recollection of policy is correct and uh just add it to the conversation if so that would be you know I think of it as reserves but but that and said you know they These funds are carrying reserves in them so I think the question Melissa or Holly is are there enough Reserves that without a rate increase we'll be able
to cover and without a midyear rate increase will be be able to cover whatever you anticipate or re anticipating the cost I I think that we'll be fine I mean unfortunately we've we've had to deal with this the last several fiscal years um over and over trying to find a way um I I I would you know dare say since the co and and a lot of the you know businesses and colleges being shut down we've
had a hard time kind of recouping um the revenues the revenues and the consumption seem to be doing a little better this year um but it's it's still just a little bit early to tell I I think that you know we'll be fine I'm I'm I'm not certainly recommending you know any changes to rates at this point um Andy is correct if the revenues fall short of what we anticipate but the expenditures still are as high as they were budgeted
we could use our um retained earnings to fill that Gap in the revenues to meet the expenditure level I mean we certainly cannot go over on our expenditures that's that's um you know not allowed uh if our revenues are short we can take it from retained earnings uh to increase that I'll have to double check on the retained earnings figure um because we did use some and I I don't think
I've calculated that in quite yet but I can do a rough calculation on that I think we'll be I think we'll be fine it's just going to be a it's just going to be a struggle but we'll get there andy your hand is still up yeah it is up because I actually was originally raised the hand my hand to ask a different question but I was following Mandy's uh line briefly with the other question I asked what I was
going to ask about is the Cannabis revenue and um the reason that I'm always concerned about cannabis revenue is is that we know we have uh said that we estimate at the end of the year after certification of free cash the amount of the Cannabis revenue is what we would base um normally our um suggestion of a
transfer to the um to that particular uh fund um stabilization fund so I was looking at the number and um as always we don't put in an estimated amount because we never know uh enough have enough information to make an estimate for the budget purposes so um then it gets to
the question of whether 12,000 and change is lower than in previous years and um whether there's any Trend in cannabis tax that we should be aware of so that we bear it in mind for the future discussion I referenced though I I I do think it's lower than like it it it dropped significantly from fiscal 24 to
fiscal um I mean from fiscal 23 to fiscal 24 when we made that that transfer and sort of what I understand is that you know cannabis sort of took off um in the early years of it um of it being legalized and it has really sort of slowed to um a much more it it doesn't it doesn't produce
Revenue in amorist or anywhere else in Massachusetts at the level it was in the beginning it's I think that the other question that's been on my mind is whether the uh number of retail establishments and the success of the retail establishments within ammer has been diminishing and uh whether it's something we just have to expect but I'll
leave it to my colleagues to see if they have any further questions along these lines thank you uh Bob um Paul did you want to speak to this before I go to Bob sure um yes I think Andy's absolutely right that you know the the revenues are um going down and the host Community Agreements are being um um not enforced as much by by the uh cannabis Control Commission so I think it's a small
number but it's something we're tracking Bob yeah so last year um I think we got 77,000 in revenue from for cannabis uh this year if if that's you know if the first quarter is an indication we're going to be closer to 50,000 so I do think it's it's going down and I do think um we have to ask the question whether the operation stabilization fund will uh whether it's
sufficient uh you know 50,000 is sufficient to to fund that there any other questions seeing none um Melinda Melissa you could take it down I have a um more General question about quarterly um I sent you I went back because
my sense was we were not getting quarterly reports at the same time during the year or roughly the same time as in earlier years and by this time in the past we had second quarter you know by the first or second week in in February we had it so I'm just wondering whether um what what your best guess on second and third because as you put
it out as we get further in the year we get a better sense of how we're running on revenues and expenses and my yeah so my only other question is there something that has changed that's making it harder for you to for you and the staff and Holly and everyone to do it um that we should know about so to answer your question about when to expect the the second quarter is is drafted um and we'll probably have
it for you at the next meeting um the reason it's not complete right now is we still haven't um done the transfers for the investment income we we have to allocate the investment income to the their specialized funds so that the report reflects the appropriate balance in each fund um so that should you should have that at your next meeting whenever that is assuming in two weeks um I I mean I'll take
uh I I guess I didn't understand that that I was supposed to do this so there I didn't do the first quarter because I didn't know and so um I will um you know I I having done it for the first time this for this quarter um with with Holly's help um I I will say that the way that we in order to present it in the way that you you've always seen it in the past it takes a a good amount of time to manipulate the data as it comes out
of our database into a presentation that is um consistent with how that re that those that information has been displayed in the past we have a couple nuanced um funds that require us to um take the data and then um for example like you know the the most obvious is um our school department we have two different School departments we have our regional
school department and we have our um ammer school department and so the ammer school department shows is in the general fund but it shows in a different um fund category because they operate autonomously from the town meaning under the school committee and so we have to back out of a transfer and put in that that additional information a small change but that means I can't export a report
from Unice and let it run I got I have to hand key in all this this data um and the second um thing is that there's a couple categories where you know it reports in a summary in one line but we have in history always broken those um sublines out and so to continue showing it that way takes a little bit of extra time and you know of course um it being my first time it took me a little longer cuz I you know I was learning the process and um of
course I transposed you know a couple of different numbers before I got it right um and and and Holly had to explain to me the certain uh nuances that are ammer so to the to the point of why it took so long you know I'll own that I I I didn't know I wanted to I needed to do it and the uh the second is um I the process to maintain the same level of detail that you've always received in the past takes a little
extra effort we can't just print a print a report and send it to you thank you and you know I I wasn't I was more just finding out if there's a systems issue and makes this hard so holl's up and hand is up and pulse hand is up as I've asked my more Global question rather than a you know as something happened or is is this very difficult to produce Holly and Paul whichever order I will go first um Melissa is throwing herself under the bus
for me this was not necessarily a job that she was aware of that she knew I can't even historically tell you whether it was the finance director or the comp troller but it has been my job lately but I unfortunately have been buried and it has been um I I I it doesn't it's been less important than other duties um that I've had to do so the reason it is late is completely my fault not necessarily Melissa's fault that is that is on me um and again it
is because it is a it's a simple report but it does take a little bit of time to to manipulate it and make sure that we have all the numbers correct um and as Melissa was saying um you know the collector's office who allocates out the interest literally would just be getting bank statements last week through December so it can't happen until typically around the 10th or the 15th of the month following the end of the quar so that we can get all of the interest allocations and the numbers out to
the right fund so second quarter hopefully will be um more or less on schedule at this point and it is not Melissa's fault it is mine and I wasn't I was more I think it's useful it it informs the budget process is the reason I was asking see see Andy's hand is up and Paul's um which Paul do you want to continue on sure yes I would so I think uh there's two things here and it was great to have Melissa's fresh eyes on this because she said wow this is a very time intensive report to put together
for the town for the finance committee what Northampton does is they run a report out of munice there's no there's no narrative or anything like that we can do that um it's it's not very consumer friendly but it gets out in a timely manner so I think you know we we we hold ourselves to a higher standard than that because I think we're especially a citizen committee I think people expect to have some kind of interpretation of what it means and so we do put effort into that what you will I mean Melissa is and Holly worked hard to get this one that and then there's always double checking because we are
literally typing in all these numbers a second time coming out of the system it doesn't it we can't export the way we thought we would like to and Melissa is looking at this with it is there a simpler way to produce it right now it isn't but we will have a schedule and you'll we'll let you know when you will get the report so and we'll meet that that that deadline of when we'll get them there's certain time it's usually be like five weeks or six weeks after the end of the quarter um and we'll see we'll set that a standard for us to
meet going forward thank you Andy yeah I was just going to ask a question that uh picks up on something you said Melissa that Segways into a conversation that we're going to have in a couple minutes but you had mentioned um Elementary School is being a town Department that and where that fits and I guess that I was curious to know a little bit more about whether there are any expenses regarding elementary school budget
that are reflected within the quarterly report that we're looking at and I think in particular several people have raised the question with me as to whether um any uh School retirement um or OPB expenses are included under other local um assessments so so this right
here is the elementary school budget and so this is something um that we we manually put in because that's run um if I was to export the um the munus report this this is this um this information comes on a completely different report um just so that you understand it's the um 1,000 is our
town General funds 1,500 is the Elementary School general fund and so this is what we have to to manually key in here um and so this is how much they have spent um 3 million of their $26 million budget thus far in um in q1 um so that that's where you would see that in this quarterly
report um uh but their um they're like health insurance and that kind of stuff just just like Town um it's that they're building that into that 20 uh six whereas we're pulling it you know we give you the detail of all of our different departments the elementary school has departments in their budget as well but that's not something we report on um in the
on the town side because we don't have I mean we can see it but we're not the ones who are saying when we're spending different amounts for whatever Department um segments they have within that 1500 fund did I explain that I feel like I didn't explain that very well no I think you did ex the only other question I'd have is back to where I was before four which is uh towards the very
bottom where it says retirement other local assessments includes retirement opep Etc whether any of those expenses um are expenses that are related to uh the elementary schools want to take that Holly excuse me having a little my voice today um so
the the elementary school retirement assessment is part of the town's retirement assessment their OPB and any expenditures that they have on the elementary school side are all completely in their fund 1500 so I think that just a a very abbreviated way of explaining it is according to our books we have spent
$26 million on the schools we transferred all the money to them and it's spent but obviously they don't spend it all on day one they spend it slowly over a 12-month period so that's an adjustment that we have to back out because we show the full $26 million spent in the first quarter they're clearly spending it as it goes down that's the the short of that one um again the retirement assessment is in there but opab and other things are going to be in their her health insurance costs um you
know the town's appropriation cost and all that is going to be within their budget so my guess is that they must you know again they report to the school committee the school committee is in charge of the budget their school committee is the one who authorizes payments out of their budget so my assumption is that they must be doing some sort of report back to the school committee we don't we don't report on that in a detailed fashion at all that is something that the school would do to the school committee and may be something that you know the town would be interested in in requesting and
finding out and seeing but it's nothing that we've ever um it's at least as far as I'm aware it's nothing that we've ever seen before it's reported to the school committee Andy did that yeah thank you okay any other questions on budgeting um you know Paul you know in terms of the quarterly reports at least
I would welcome if there's particular kinds of changes that would make it less staff time and you know if the numbers aren't ready the numbers aren't ready but if it's uh the notion that we're retyping numbers is a little bit scary to me um in a budget process you know as opposed to be able to download a number so if if there are improvements um go for it in my in my in my opinion [Music] agree thank you we'll
do so the next two items are both reports from health insurance projections and Cherry sheep projections so I'll initiate um so when we last spoke and this we'll be discussing this with the budget coordinating group tomorrow when we last uh had our projection we said there were two things that we're waiting for at the end of January one was the governor's budget and the other is health insurance so we have bad news on
health insurance the uh increase that has been given to us is 19.9 2% which is the top range that Maya has which actually tells you that we probably deserve a higher percentage increase but it's been capped um that's a significant number uh you know this is not good news for the town nor for the school department or the library um we have a me just and so what do we do about this large increase and why do we have the increase
first off because we are utilizing health insurance um at a higher rate than our than our what we're paying to the company uh entitles us to basically they're losing money on every every member of our town and our school district so they're trying to make that loss ratio uh more in line with whatever they expect to be in order to make that less ratio better you either use less services or you increase rates uh the only tool they have is to increase rates
um what are we doing about that we can control we have um the state law requires us to have an insurance advisory committee which is made up of all the collective bargaining units in the town and the schools uh along with non-union employees and and town staff and we meet pretty regularly with them to update them on what health insurance this is a shared problem between employees and the um organizations I.E School library and town because the school the employees also their percentage
went up as well um the things the tools that we have are to go out to bid um for a different company we don't think that that would make a significant difference because our claims are our claims people are going to look at what our our exist existing um rate of use is and they're going to price accordingly um we can have a lustr plan which is the the the focus of our conversation tomorrow is to say where can we increase deductibles where can we
increase co-pays can we um adjust the the plan benefits in some way that would lower the cost and that will lower the cost you know there is a you know you do uh item X and it reduces your rates by 1% so I think we have already had that conversation with the insurance advisory committee they seem to recognize the need to do this um for the town barain units we can it's a pretty much a conversation I believe with the school
bargaining units it's actually a an item of um mandatory bargaining I'm not positive about that but I think we've been trying to work through a consensus model with all the employees to say this actually makes sense for everybody so we will have that conversation with our labor groups tomorrow um and that will probably continue over several weeks as we try to sort through what the impact is and what the what the the various changes that we'll put on the table and uh they will suggest will be the
goal is to reduce the percentage lower than 19% um and because it can't get worse um and um and do the best we can on addressing this gigantic impact on our budgets Melissa do you want to add anything uh no not really I mean that pretty much sums it up I mean the the hit to um the budgets like Paul said is is going to
be um difficult um for for all of the groups so it it it hits us all um meaning the library both school areas and the towns side equally um and it's I I'm sure that the school department is um you know trying to figure out right now what they're going to do on to um adapt to this increase um because it is
certainly more than we had hoped and um and I know that for us um we're not um entirely sure at this time you know how to manage that within the the town's you know budget just yet you know given what the increases um in Revenue are um and and the increases um for this health insurance is significant and hopefully we can get it down a little
bit but I it's going to be significant either way and um you know that cost that comes at the cost of something it cause it cause it comes at the cost of doing something else um and that's just the reality for not only uh the town but the school and the library so and just just so you know we had budgeted we had been putting in 133% in our working numbers so this is higher than what that number was um so the closer we can get to 13% the better off we will be so
we had already factored in the 133% as did the schools um so it's really that that Delta between 13 and 19.9 to that we're working through um Mandy and then Bob is what the order I see um a couple of questions um the percentage is awful um it's hard to get a gist on how awful it is with we're not talking raw numbers is compared to the 2 and a half% increase in the budget um
you know so what is that total that 19% increase in raw numbers how much more will we be you know like I I don't expect you to maybe know the answer now but you know how much more is that from last year and then I can look at what the prop two and a half is and see how how much of that Pro two you know of the two and a half proper tax increase is it assum subsuming like is it subsuming more
than 100% is it subsuming 80% of that increase I I I'm just trying to get my head around how much is left of the typical increase or that 3% you know or if we talk about the 3% we've already sort of agreed on amongst the four you know in that operating revenues how much of that raw number is the healthcare and is it more than that raw number um that's question number one question number two is um Paul you seem
to indicate that the agreement to change health care plans is not a bargaining for the town but it is within bargaining for potential or you think it might be within bargaining for the schools um if that's the case and the schools can't bargain that is there any type of circumstance where the town would have a separate sort of insurance
plan than the schools because of how all of that works yeah so it is something we if I may Kathy so so um that is we've had that conversation you know because we're looking at all everything's on the table um you know we have some rough numbers I think but I think we'd like to give you precise numbers in terms of that the property tax increase versus um the um the dollar amounts because that will be more
real to you I know um you know I think we try to work through a consensus model with our labor Partners across the board um we don't really know what it would look like if if if one unit went off and sought insurance by itself I'm sure the region could do that if they so chose they're a separate governmental entity they could seek their own but I think they try to keep their um all their members in both the elementary and the region together and so this is a um but we don't know what that would look like
um so I think our first tech is to work with our you know collective bargaining partners and try and say we all understand this a problem because it's it's it impacts our our employees across the board so that's our first take take Bob I had a lot of the same questions that that um councilor hanii had um the only other question I have is and I think this is implied by what you said said Paul is if we were
able to change the policies to increase deductions or deductibility or things like that would we be able to see some Savings in this fiscal year or would it be next fiscal year that we see the savings so yes so it's plan design is the thing that's on the table so that's that's something we have um a fair amount of control over um the savings would happen on July 1 that's when the new rates go into effect uh enrollment happens in April I believe when we have our open enrollment period and then we get to see how the head count
and sometimes there's some drift you know people um look at it the other thing we look at is um uh we look at what the group insurance commission is offering and that is the primary insur for the University of Massachusetts and all government state government um we are below that even with this increase um but that often you know we often have people who are employed by both entities and they can choose which Insurance um you know one partner in one place one partner in the other so all those things
are on the table we need to compare all that data this is relatively new information for us and we just shared all the information with our members of the insurance advisory committee a few minutes ago but but if I understand correctly then we're stuck with 19.9 2% this fiscal year no no no that can change I'm sorry yeah we that's the number we want to chip down okay got it thank you so Paul I want to jump in on you said it's use um I'm
assuming that you're getting somewhat below the total use level um so if you broke it out into Pharma uh Pharmaceuticals versus Hospital everyone expected a jump back up in hospital because covid people postponed any electric server no one wanted to go to the hospital that didn't have to go to the hospital I the hospital wasn't taking them so we knew that was going to jump up but we've got a bunch of new drugs on the market that
are zooming in terms of use so are they giving you enough detail that if if the plan design discussion starts it can be um laser focused rather than what would typically that go up on a deductible you know as opposed to treat something differently yeah so we share our claims data with our insurance advisory team so they can the committee so they can look at it we look at the large users you know the top 10 top 20 those are capped there's reinsurance for all those large users if
if you get a a a person who's spending you know whose care costs 500 $600,000 a year that's all capped so but that's so that's taken out because that's the benefit of being in a larger pool um what the insurance companies have found that yes Insurance jumped up right after covid I I mean medical use jumped up after covid but it didn't go down it stayed up much like construction cost it jumped back back up after covid and and then it just stayed and so it's stuck uh there's additional costs being
incurred by a lot of the hospitals especially the large hospitals in Boston with new collective bargaining agreements with the nurses and just that everything is costing more all the all the hard devices and things like that so I think that there's a lot of things um the um we have some drugs that are being utilized it's the first time that what I've been told in history that there's been a very expensive drug that's also head wide usage uh this is these are these weight weight loss drugs that are
multiple thousands of dollars a month at times and um usually it's a high-cost drug that's limited usage or a widely used drug with um with low cost um this is the first time there's a high-cost drug with high usage and that's part of the Pharmaceuticals plus cancer treatments Etc thank you Bernie Paul I'm assuming that the schedule the pharmacy schedule
under the insurance policies the town buys is is similar to the one that I have under the GIC which is there's a range so that the the more expensive drugs there's a greater coopay for the more expensive drugs yeah is that is that true yeah that we you know brand name drugs we we steer people away from them to generics and things like that okay thank you so that's the first bad news story and then you have the second one to
tell us right so the cherry sheet projections Melissa uh yeah so um not necessarily bad news okay they're just not as good as they don't fix the problem how about that yeah um so I I prepared a little um something and it is in your packet but I put it in there just this morning so I'm going to share um my screen again and um
what I did is I took our um you know our our trends that we um have presented in the past and I just added the 26 estimates to these um you know to our our state aid um versus our assessment versus our net Aid and um so what you can see here is that the increase this year um when you when you get get to the net of it it's like $117,000 and I'll show you that as I
go further down um the these um slides um but you know it's a fairly small increase um a lot um based on the fact that the the increase um to the receipts is quite good um uh I believe just over 500,000 but the increase to the assessments is uh over 400,000 so that's how we end up with as much Surplus um to be added to next year's it's not as
a big of an increase to next year's Revenue as we might as hope because you can see that's less than uh 1% um of the overall um in the net um increase to the to the town and I also uh did you know this here you know Chapter 70 School tuition unrestricted Aid is the Lion Share of it um similar to we've presented in the past um but you can
see that the um increase in the assessments is what's driving um you know what was a fairly decent increase um from in in Revenue um the the increase in the assessments is so much greater by by by percentage that um we you know we only end up with the the small um increase overall and this is by
each category and this is from um you know from the the DLS website um and you can see that um we have a significant um you know a small increase in Chapter 70 um a 2.2% increase in um unrestricted Aid and those are our two big numbers there's a um there's a big increase um
in um Charter tuition reimbursement but that is um as you know um just a portion of what we had paid out in previous years um for Charter reimbursement and that uh Charter reimbursement does sort of stay uh just like um it doesn't go directly to the school um and then um you know veteran benefits that's really about um veterans you know how much benefits we're giving to Veterans
so an increase there doesn't really um isn't really you know it's it's an offset of a portion of the money we're we're spending or that we spent last year and the same with the um uh the um exemptions we get a portion of that back and then you can see that the big drivers in the assessment are our um you know Regional Transportation which is going up a significant amount and that's
for our pvta our portion of the pvta assessment and um what's new uh this year that we didn't see last year is a charge for special ed um and then we have a significant increase in um both um Charter sending tuition and choice sending tuition um which is what's you know that that money out um it's what's
you know making up the the difference here so I'm looking for hands uh maybe I'll jump in is the cherry sheet you showed us just for municipal and there's a separate one for the Regional School there absolutely is a separate one for the Regional School okay so I don't so let's first um if there are any questions on this and then find out what the Regional School side look like
Bernie yeah these are of course the governor's numbers right yeah okay so we can hold out hope that that they go up that it go well typically it does go up but how much it goes up is always a guess but that doesn't mean that uh means this is a start um not great news but it's a start um Mandy
state owned land even for the year so that's clearly a we're in a hold harmless with this new formula that they came out with and talked about at MMA and what are we going to do to you know push the state on that I guess I'm not what do you mean I'm not sure what your question is I I guess
it's in in the last couple years that state own land number has in 50 some thousand a year you know somewhere between 20 to 50,000 a year and it's being held at a 0% increase this year um despite all the building going on despite everything we knew it would be bad um after MMA but but what can we do to and should we be doing to you know fix
that problem is I guess is what I would say I mean it's a problem yeah no I think it's a political solution I think you're absolutely right it's the one thing that would make the biggest difference to us the the focus of the state t tends to be on not bu you know land not buildings and that's the sweet spot for us and there's not an you know I we have had those conversations and I think every counselor or every administrator should be you know hammering at the state which we do and
uh continue to have our local our state officials who have been true advocates for us to continue to push this and I think we have strong voices in the House and Senate now so I think that can make a hopefully they'll be more persuasive Andy I was going to say pretty much what Paul said which is why I pulled my hand
down in the end we've had this discussion in the fiscal policy committee at the MMA and uh it's a difficult issue because well there has been reform in the uh state-owned land pilot it has really been driven by um concern of communities that had uh been um the
way the way the state owned land that is just land is valued and that um there were a few communities that had very unusually high uh returns for the amount of land they had because they're uh like Cape Cod communities that had very very expensive property and so there was an effort to
try and do more for some of these very small towns that have tremendous tracks of state-owned land and that was where the um a lot of the state budget increase in state owned land came from but since they were only still valuing land and not buildings or uses of the land they have not done that
uh it is never endured to our benefit um I have tried and we've gotten some language within the MMA U policy to pursue this issue on behalf of towns where there is a um substantial impact on the community from the state on land that is much greater than the value of the land without any buildings
on it uh but I U I think that it is a political question that is going to take a lot of time I um to to actually see if there's any U movement within it and it is a discussion that we should be and are having with our own legislative delegation that's surely the only thing I
could add any other comments on this okay Melissa you said you either put it in the packet or you will put it in the packet yeah I put it in the packet okay and I think there's one other thing we want to mention was which in reviewing the the council's budget guidelines Melissa's been working on local receipts and looking at what those numbers can do within our professional judgment are are are safe to say and do you want to talk about the some of the
adjustments that you're making on that Melissa um yeah sure so um I don't really have the um projections um ready to show here just because so I feel like so many things are changing in the past week or so um with the new information we've gotten and um just sort of different environments but um taking your um what the council put in its guidelines um into account um the
areas in which I um adjusted some things um were um the motor vehicle uh went up slightly um the um interest income went up significantly um the um permits and um licensing went up a good amount um and feel like there was one other line that I I went up a little
bit and everything else kind of stayed within you know a percentage or two that we we usually um move it but those were the areas that I thought that we could move a little bit on hotel motel hotel motel maybe yeah um so uh the the other thing um is that um Holly has um you know gone in into the um retirement assessment and when um when going through the detail of
that um the actual assessment to the town portion versus the Enterprises was slightly different and also I had put in our estimated number um with the total assessment that um the Retirement Board charges us we do receive a a discount if we um pay the bill in advance in July which is our practice and so when we take into that
um that into consideration there was a significant Savings in that line so we were able to um what I think we're able to do is push the um the percentage of increase to the four towns to three and a half I I'm pretty sure to to the to our four departments to our four departments yeah to three and a half um so that's where I I think we are um
with that but you know we're still looking at it and like you know um like Bernie said you know if the numbers from the state you know get better if we get um more information about um something else that was Stronger um then maybe we can look at that I I will say that I'm you know of course the only place that we can really move
um estimates I is those local receipts which is a very small portion of our our Revenue source and so and I'm uncomfortable um moving them much more than we are right now um given the political environment and what that means for the economics of the future which you know might be great might not be great I just don't know that I mean I think this is um Uncharted Territory and um you know I'm of the cautious nature
so there that's I'll just say that um and and I think it's you know prudent for us to be um safe um in a in an in an unknown environment so yeah just just to frame that so tomorrow at the BCG meeting we'll be talking about a 3 and a half% increase instead of 3% increase um you know but I think what Mist done has looked over 20 years back history to say what does it look like and I think that's been really instructive looking at a
long period of time so that's a piece of good news it's not fantastic it's not huge amounts of money but it's we're looking every everywhere I'm I'm looking for any hands on that because this is actually a good segue into the next item on the agenda Bernie um if memory serves there's a we we can we can be in considerable difficulty if
we miss on our local Revenue assessments and have to and don't collect what we say we're going to collect that rolls into the next year and so it's not a question of well we guessed wrong it's a question of we guessed wrong and now we have to pay again so um you know I understand the the caution and concern about uh about local receipts uh there don't don't have the uh the data in front
of me so I can't go back over 20 years to see how frequently or how reliably uh these repeat but the only thing that we can truly count on in terms of the town's budget is getting something like 98% of the property Dash Revenue so anytime we uh we start um maneuvering around the edges we're we're taking a risk and I just people just need to acknowledge that
so because I did it I'll share it with you um Bernie so this is our investment income and I I will say that in this particular graph I did truncate um I I want to make this bigger I don't know how how it shows for you on the screen um but I did truncate off 24 because 24 goes like off the chart and so it's not that I want to hide
that but I wanted to show the variation um in the 20 years leading up to when the uh investment income spiked um and so you can see that we've never had um investment income above uh 500,000 until we hit 22 23 and 24 where where it went you know admittedly just off the chart um by comparison um and I will say
that I did some you know my memory serves back in 2004 and 2005 and 2006 that's when I could get you know8 and n% CDs so that's what I remember from my days of of working in a treasury Department and so you know now we're getting around five and it's going to between four and five now for um investment income but like we talked about um in the past we have deposits on hand today that are
um shortterm deposits meaning a couple of years that we have those um because of delays in capital projects we have money on hand that we didn't have 20 years ago um to make that investment income on even though the interest rates at the time were um significantly higher than they are today so that's sort of the history you can see that it it PE you know in the early 2000s and that's when we had those High interest rates
um and then stayed really low for quite some time and now um you know uh this orange line is you know what we were estimating which obviously is very low and this is when um you know it went to 700 in two 2022 and um and it went you know to over a million um last year so you know it it jumped twice significantly but I just wanted to show that
yes it's very high right now but um it does peak and Valley and this is it has a multiple years of unusual and then the other one I looked at um oops that's just everything um this is licensing and permits um and so you can see how that kind of goes up and down and so while I pushed that that um receipt um to be slightly higher um it
does with the economy the um the building industry has Peaks and valleys so those were the two that I chose to just really dig into I can dig into some others but um you know that that is the um rationale behind um you know the thinking of of why we're conservative because what you don't want to do to Bernie's point was um where the actual goes below the estimate and then you have to
make up this difference from somewhere else Bernie do you have followup comment just another just another caveat here when um reference is made to our investment income in the stock market there isn't um you know we can't we can't hand our tax money to Warren Buffett and say here uh you know generate something we we're restricted by a lot of pretty plain vanilla kinds
of U instruments and so you know we're not uh we're not shoot as they say in as they say in the market we're not shooting out the lights right yeah so uh Bernie's referring to the legal lesp and that's why most of our short-term Investments end up in money markets and CDs and so that's why I use the CD rate um because that's you know and and it has to be fairly short term so that we can pay our bills when they come du too
thank you so we have next on the agenda is the letter uh the school committee letter that was sent to us or response that was sent to us um commenting on the guidelines so yep I well I shouldn't say I'm jumping forward I just want make sure we were finished with this part yeah I I just don't I don't think you there was a correspondent sent
to the council am I missing something did the council did I don't think the school committee sent anything to the council I didn't think they voted on anything no no no we it was in our packet with that label but no wasn't from the council right so the school committee hadn't voted on anything it hasn't been sent yet so at the moment there's not a letter to discuss okay so this okay give me some sense of what what you're saying is it in our packet where we're supposed to discuss it or are we
supposed to wait I think it was included on the agenda in case um they had voted and sent it on so the committee could discuss it but it was a draft that was included um in a school committee agenda I think a week or two ago okay and as far as I know we haven't received it they and they didn't vote on it so nothing to discuss at the moment okay thank you I was prepared to ask some question questions and I'll just send the questions in um okay next is
Council order FY 2505 in order appropriating funds for a portion of the town's amoris Capital program and uh it probably it's best to show that on the screen yeah so this um as you know is the council order um that um for roads that um was originally presented back in the fall and then um was voted down and then now um was asked to be
sent back at a at a different dollar amount for 500,000 um for roads and sidewalks are there any questions or comments about the order Mandy it's not a question um it's it's a comment on on where my vote will be so I figured I'd put it on the record um I'm going to vote against
recommending this um not because I have a problem with roads and sidewalks but because I would like to see this transfer in the FY 26 jcpc Capital plan to be discussed at jcpc as an additional 500,000 I think it's time that we if we're going to be using free cash and end of year end ofe preash excess because of endof year surpluses that we roll them
into the next fiscal Year's jcpc process um that doesn't mean I would it that that's all I'm gonna say and so I will be voting against it here Andy I guess I'm G to take the opposite perspective and say that I'm gonna be voting for it uh it is consistent with
prior practice of the committee but most important uh every year the cost of construction goes up further so putting your spending $500,000 and being able to use it during the coming construction season during the summer of 25 um is going to be a lot more valuable and do more work pave more roads than if
we hold it and it ends up being in summer of 26 and I think that the um delaying it will do that um uh diminishment of value because it'll push it back a year so I am going to uh support this Alicia um I think what Mandy said was really interesting and I'm just wondering if there's any reason why we
can't both approve this and see if there can be a discussion at jcpc for the additional uh 500,000 um let me quickly respond to that to the extent if if we approve that the money has been spent so there is not any money for jcpc to consider and so normally jcpc is looking jcpc is looking at
the 10 and a half% flow from that as well as the road money we get in terms of the budget and uh what the there's this would be presedent setting we haven't done it before with one exception during covid we shifted some money out of reserves into Capital so that we could spend some money but for the most part this shifting it out of free cash so Alicia if we vote this um
the money is not there for jcpc to look at in the context of everything else and it's also for the current fiscal year as I understand it rather than the jcpc is the year that starts in July this allows us to be spent now I mean now as Andy just described what what the now means not not tomorrow because the roads have ice on them was was that an explan was that clear the way yeah that makes sense thank you Kathy okay Bob I
just wanted to point out that we're this committee can only make a recommendation to the council the to the council has to vote this uh for it to be um you know an appropriation so we're just making a recommendation and I'm I'm going to vote in favor of it because I think I agree with with Andy um Andy's comment that it's important to get it done this
year um any other people's comments um then I I have one um Mandy's conceptual idea that if we have and I did as as people know I missed a finance committee meeting when you were finalizing the guidelines and we've left very uh interpretable wording is the way I would talk about it in Surplus but the idea
that if there is Surplus at the end of the year um beyond what the targeted funds that it would go into the capital discussions rather than we would just make make an expenditure out of it was embedded in those guidelines although it doesn't say thou must it it indicated that we we could and that's something that we haven't done in the past so Mandy you you know you're you know what you're proposing is would be new on rather
than spend it now put it in and if you put it in it doesn't become part of Roads it becomes part of the pot um and then becomes allocated back out so is there better use of it I would have um I like the concept of that the free cash extra free cash decision doesn't get made in an interim period that said it gets available for c for pieces but I
since we as a council we voted to ask the manager to do this um I'm going to stick with my vote that was asking him to do it because we did hear quite a bit from residents that this is a high priority for them so anybody else want to comment before I Look to uh a motion to as Bob pointed out this is a motion to recommend to the council that they approve this rather than we're
not spending the money right now Barney we we have a a chronic shortfall in the the kind of infrastructure money that we need not just for the roads but for uh for other pieces um you know whether it's the source whether it's water uh whether it's storm drains culverts so you know I I I would think that should the jcpc wish to do that do have a discussion about this they might
want to generate a list of priorities um for the manager's consideration should surpluses occur this is some areas where you could Target those spendings so it doesn't look like this we can't call this Christmas in June it's not uh we we're constantly short of money for for for this kind of stuff and uh uh I I think we we could do better uh the jcpc could do better if they developed a priority list of
of expenditures should new revenues uh become available dly noted and you have two people who will be going from Finance to jcpc have take are taking notes oops I'm sorry I took this down so are are we ready to um entertain a motion on this so I will move that the finance committee recommend to the council
that the council approve appropriation and transfer order FY 25- 05b is there a second I'll second any further discussion if not we're putting it to the to uh a vote and I will go around the room Andy yes Kathy is a
yes Mandy no Bob yes Elisha yes uh and did I get then uh Tom Bernie support and Kathy is CS so it's four yes one no of counselors and both of our residents
are our yeses is support thank you we have one two three four sets of minutes on this agenda and U when I checked early this morning they weren't there and now they are there so I started to read them and I
see a few of them have either typos or some odd wording in it um so I don't think they're quite ready to approve unless someone went through it with a a fine tooth comb and have edited them um so I think I see Athena's hand is up on these this have thanks Kathy we have a new menaker and in all honesty I didn't have a chance to look at all of these I I think I looked at the first set that he sent in um so if you'd like I can take a look at those and then we can put them on the the next agenda but
the first set that's on the agenda should should be in good shape because I did edit that extensively okay I just saw one I mean it maybe just and if people want to authorize me I saw one in the March March 5th that seemed to have me say the same it was a something I said and it seemed to be that I said it twice it might have been that I said it twice but it's the same it's we don't need to do a ver verbatim on the minutes no shade Kathy but it could have been the case if
you said literally the the same phrasing so if yeah you said the same thing twice does it matter I mean just right so it emphasis should put emphasis instead DAV say it was in the March 5th set so if people want to give me permission to read it more carefully and just fix it um I don't know whether people had a chance to look at the other three and
I also looked in back packages we have many more minutes they just haven't been on the agenda that had been prepared they were in draft minute form so um I would like to find out if people would consider a process if I find out the whole sets of minutes and I give you a list of all of them that various people raise their hand and take on one or two to read them quickly and then we bring them and we could do them as a group
but I'm willing to entertain any other way I would just like to get through a backlog so we can start fresh um on the minutes so March March 5th was the one where I saw some OD wording um and I didn't get a chance to look at April 2nd or May 3rd so if anyone else got a chance to look at them all and thinks they're fine then I think we're we can go Bob I I did not have a chance to look at them
but I will volunteer to to look through all the older minutes if you want to assemble them Kathy okay because I kind of feel responsibility that I should have made sure that we um approved them so they weren't sitting Libo so then I see one sort of odd wording that I can work with Athena to fix on March 5th um and it's around Shane and their two sentences and um if we want to get through that one or we can just assign all of them to Bob and I'm willing to go with any
suggestion here this is to me it's housekeeping to get us up to uh as current as we can I don't see any of their hands so maybe we'll do the whole set Bob including March 5th so I can just get that too Andy I was going to just suggest leaving it to the chair and the vice chair decision okay so we will do that so then the next item and I think this is uh
the only final item is a meeting schedule um it it it appeared that the 2 o'clock on Tuesday worked for everyone we're in the past and I shouldn't say in the past because it's probably very that 2 o' Tuesday was right after the council meeting which gave us time along more time than Bob had in the past year for if there was a report to write we could write the report and we could all look at
it um so if that was the case the next council meeting is next week so we we off a cycle so I don't know how important or not important people are but every other Tuesday and then as people know in May it's more intensive in May um Mandy yeah I mean it's always easier to talk when we have it dated out but I would prefer a regular schedule that isn't necessarily attached
to the council meetings because Council meetings are not always one in three um and so it it would make it I would prefer something that is like two and four or one and three um and sticks to it unless there's an actual holiday on a Tuesday um except obviously when May comes around we are likely once a week if not twice a week um so so your so Manda your suggestion it's either the the first and the third week or the second and the fourth week
yeah and if it was the second and the fourth week we would meet again next Tuesday correct then we'd have three meetings in February well yeah then we would you know I I it's you know we can we can say February is the odd one out and we met this week and then we meet the fourth but does anyone have any preference of second and third or second and fourth or first and third Tuesdays of the month Bob
I I think I I think first and third uh work for me just so we can count as as as councelor haniki said we can count on that as you can we can set our you know we can set our minds to that and sometimes it'll be the you know the week before the the Council next council meeting sometimes be weeks before okay so then we will I will work with whoever I need to work with whether
it's Athena or Melissa to get out a schedule that gets us to May and then we can have a discussion on what the May schedule looks like but then June July August through the rest of the year will also be this um 1 and third does did that work for everyone yes yeah I let me just interject that typically um after we uh hit the Finish Line in June we we want to take some time off so
I would I would maybe make you know July and August just one one meeting per month okay great so you're saying that in general it's two but it's not we don't have to meet twice which would be which is perfect y any other um talk or ideas about meeting schedule okay there there weren't there are
no items that weren't intent anticipated by the chair because I wasn't the chair but beyond that there are no last minute items but I see Tom's hand is up Tom I have a last minute item um thank you Kathy for taking on the responsibility and congratulations on your election and uh Bob thank you especially for your service this past year thank you thank you for
that comment and thank you for your participation yeah so I think we are um coming to a close at my count I think my clock says 3:39 so do we have a motion to adjourn I'll second and I will go around for about Andy yes Kathy say yes Mandy hi Bob
yes Tom sure yes Bernie I object Alicia yes and I I really want to Melissa and Holly thank you for the extra work that went into today and I know the extent you're working behind the scenes not only is it budget season but it's a complicated budget season maybe even more so than in the past so thank you both very much for being here with us and for what you both do
and with that we are adjourned at 3:40 in the afternoon thank you thank you