Okay, we're recording. Good afternoon. This is the May 13th meeting of the finance committee and this as the meeting that will be on Thursday is a budget review. Um my first order of business is to call the meeting to order
and make sure seeing that there's a quorum and make sure that members of the committee can hear and we can hear them. So, I will just read out names as I see them on my screen. Bob Hegner, present. Andy, present. Bernie, I'm present.
Andy, present. And Alyssa is not here. And I believe Tom had a period of time where he was not going to be with us. And I think that's this. Tom is gone this week. Yeah, he's not. He's back when he's with
you. Um, so we are all here. Um, Paul Bachaman needs to leave in a half an hour. So, we've agreed to do our best. Mandy and I both sent in some questions and try to think of what are larger picture questions that it would be great
to get a response from Paul and then Melissa is prepared to answer them. The other thing that's on today's agenda is for us to carve out enough time to make to have a dis a quick discussion on the
regional school budget so that we can write a report to the council so we can vote on it and write a report to the council. Um and that is on the council committee agenda for Monday night. So trying to get that in after we do the
general budget side would be great. Now we normally open it up. I'm going to see public. We normally do public comments first. So, I think uh should I should I bring Sue Odette in? Uh we have Sue and
Jen are both in the um attendee list. Should I bring them in? They should both come in. I just promoted them. Good. I'm doing one at a time. No, that's fine. Um, so if if there are any public
comments, if you could be brief so that we can move on. So I'm just asking, are there any public comments at this point? Melissa, Amber Martin is from the town clerk's office. You can bring her into I'm working on it. Thanks. Then we Okay, so Amber is here from Okay,
great. There are We can have the minute show. There was there were no public comments. Um there actually there's no not much of a public left either. So So um Mandy um between the two of us I I can think I can start on
on the request that we stay at the higher level um for for while Paul is here. Is that okay with you? And I don't even remember whether I shared mine with you. So I had two Paul one is um there's
uh and and Paul is already aware of this. There is a general statement at the beginning about goals and roads and we talk about chapter 90 but at this point chapter 90 is not the the core chapter 90 not the um supplemental we
get from fair share. It's lo no longer in the capital budget, the the capital plan as a line item called state aid. And when I looked at the appendices for grants, it's not in the grant either. Um and I realized we have to estimate it
for um FY 26, but I actually it wasn't that I downloaded, you gave me the last 10 years worth of of basic chapter. 25 years actually. Yep. 25 years, but it's hovered around the 800 830,000. So, so
my request, I'd like to hear a reason why it shouldn't show up somewhere. I'm not I'm not saying where it should show up. So that when people the statement on the goals is spend 1.5 million on roads and we've got 750 in the cash capital
and without chapter 90, we're nowhere close to that. But with chapter 90, we're on target. So, it's just a request to put it somewhere and I don't have a preference on where it goes. I mean, it's always been in the capital plan so
so people can see it. So, so that's my bigger picture thing. And I think we could label it grant or label it allocation. It's not cash capital. It's not X, Y, or Z, but we could designate it the way we do ambulance fund where we say this is the source. So, I think
we're just at a disagreement on this, Kathy. I think I know you've expressed this to before during the c when we t discuss the capital and you know we don't put all the different levels of state aid into the budget itself and I understand what you're saying that we want to get credit for the chapter 90.
Um I think it's a you know it's fine to identify it. We don't know what that number is going to be for next year that the governor is um recommending much higher amount which is really exciting. I was just on a call with the lieutenant governor and that's they're really trying to push that. We're hoping it'll be more. Um uh so uh I don't think that
we're hiding anything from the public. Um so I um well if you look at the grant page in this year's budget book so it's not a grant. I don't you could call it anything you want. The supplemental chapter 90 is
there but we are missing we are missing $830,000 from last year. You know but doesn't it have to show up somewhere is what I'm asking. not in the municipal budget doesn't require appropriation by the municipal entity. You're you're a town council appropriating local funds.
So, it doesn't require an appropriation. I think that's our point on this is that it Melissa, do you want to speak to this at all? Well, we don't appropriate but chapter 70 either. We we don't appropriate any of the state aid, right? It doesn't it and it was always so I
just for it not to appear anywhere when we actually have it in a budget seems to me flawed reasoning. So I I'll let Mandy just and then I'll I I mean I'll just say so I'm you quite frankly you can do
whatever you want but it is not a general fund account and uh the general fund accounts don't are not part of the municipal budget and that that's why there are many many grants and other funds that do not appear in the budget
and I have never budgeted that other places. I understand that you always have. It's always been a separate sort of standalone. This is how much we got for chapter 90 this year. And I I will say too that yes, the 800 is the base
amount. I think for the last couple of years, if you look at the chapter 90 reporting, which we give when we give the road sort of updates, like we say how much road money there is, we generally get over a million dollars or have in the last few years
because chapter 90 uh the the the message from the governor's office has been more. So, you know, I you know, I I'll own that. is my my my was my thought process and I I hear you loud and clear that you disagree with me.
Yeah, fair enough. So I will over to the two other hands. The only the suggestion Jen made during a JCPC is do a little footnote under the major thing say in addition to this we get a chapter 90 allocation and put a dollar amount in
even if it was last year's but that was a suggestion and it's not in the current document. So, I see both Mandy and Bernie want to weigh in on this. Mandy and then Bernie. Yeah, I don't want to spend much more time. I agree, Paul. It's a disagreement,
but two things. The first is right after we had that capital discussion last week, the council and you received an email from a constituent commenting and stating you said you have this commitment, but you've only done $700,000 because
nowhere in any of the budget documents is the chapter 90 money even acknowledged. And that's where Kathy and I are saying you have to acknowledge it somewhere. Yes, it might not be part of the general fund budget, but the budget book includes, as Kathy said, a grants
page. It includes revolving fund pages, things we don't actually budget, right? Um, as as a passing as a council, um, the the general fund budget includes numbers that we don't have to budget, ug chapter 70, things like that. But you're
you're missing an opportunity. Mhm. To say and show the public in the big budget book how much we're actually devoting to roads and sidewalks. And that's the problem I think that Kathy is trying to
say is that opportunity is being missed. And we have an exact example of what that problem is when it is missed, which is the email we received from a constituent constituent that said, "We need 5 million a year and you're doing 3% of it or whatever it is
because you're only doing 700,000 a year." And I wrote back to him and I said, "Actually, we're more than doubling that when you count our chapter 90 money. You just don't see it in a budget. It would be great to be able to point to the budget book somewhere when everyone that is not council and
involved in the budget is looking at these numbers very closely and trying to ensure that what you say in your opening statement is actually met in the numbers and it's not done right now. So Bernie, I'll let you talk and then as Mandy said, we don't have to need spend
a long time on this because there's a disagreement. I'm I'm not even saying where it should show up, but it's the region. I just want to point out the chapter two things. One, chapter 90 isn't road money. It's a variety of things you can use for equipment. You can use other things you can use for
sidewalks. There's a bunch of um chapter 90 is weird because it comes um with a list of of things you can do and minimum amounts that you have to spend if you're going to use it in certain ways. It's it's a messy piece of legislation. I do agree and I would
prefer if somewhere in the budget book there was a simple statement of all sources in addition to what we've budgeted this is what we also get it could be the last page in the book but I I in that way people won't um it'll be
less mysterious one of the things that's always frustrated me about municipal budgeting and trying to explain it is there's all these twists and turns in different pots of money that people don't see and yet everybody and our staff has to take it into account. So
long and short, one chapter money, chapter 90 isn't simply rope money. It's money and we can use it in other ways. So that's two and two I agree that we should have somewhere in the budget book a list that says all sources in addition to what you see. This is other money
that we're going to spend this year because it comes from other sources. So I I think you've you've heard this and if you do a word search in the current budget book the word CH90 shows up about 12 times and then you try to find a
number and there isn't one. So that's just it's it's and it is a communication with the public that I'm looking about all. So we can stop with that and then my other I think the other big picture one is more a comment.
Um well it's two. One is an accounting issue and then um long-term on page 50 to 51. Uh what I've looked at is that the projected deficits are more than a million every year. Um and that's with
operating budgets being held to less than a 3% increase. So I would like to have a somewhat longer discussion about that. Maybe we have that as soon as we can in the finance committee. Meaning because do we need my question is do we
need to rethink the capital allocation at all? You know can we the second part of my is should we start drawing down on the reserve for capital to pay for some of the buildings you know to pay for the debt servicing. So those were we we
we're running deficits with operating budgets held to a strangle amount. Um so that was my other bigger picture piece. Yeah. So I think there's two comments on that. Um, one is, um, uh, we it's not not unusual for us to show deficits at
the beginning of the year. We show pretty much every beginning of every fiscal year, we show a deficit and we because we're conservative in our in our projections for revenue and we're conservative for our expenses and we know that that changes over time. It's not unusual to to show out years. I mean, we can manipulate that. Um, but I
but I think I think that that's a that's not unusual. We often start you this fiscal year we started with a deficit and you saw that and then we try to close that over time. The second question is more important in some ways and that um what's the allocation for
capital and I think that that's a year-to-year conversation. I think we've really tried to focus on maintaining our commitment to capital because we know both the infrastructure and our major capital projects are going to require a commitment to capital and once you lose it you it's really hard to build it back
in. So, we know that we've already lost a quarter of a percent this year um in order to accommodate the expenses, the ongoing expenses that we have. I think it's a really important conversation when you get to your financial guidelines to have that conversation in the fall.
Okay. So, I I will just leave it because it's the operating budgets in the past. We may have always had two and a half, but it's it's slightly under 3% for for all of the operating budgets when I did did it. you know, it's uh didn't round up to three. Um, so Melissa, I see you
have your hand up. Yeah. So, I was just going to say that we've we always budget those outyear formulas have been in that in the spreadsheet that way for years. We always budget a smaller increase to try and understand what that looks like for us. Um, you know, when we're going
year to year, like you know, what if we have to what's it how bad's it going to look? And I know that there was a question also um not only on the capital allocation but on the OPED whether or not we could leave that at the 50%. And I will say that both Holly and I felt
strongly and I'll speak for her because this is something that she was very upset about that we did not do this year that we have a policy in place that we are going to increase that year-over-year. And we understand that the um that that may be that that may be
taken off the table when we get to the current year at hand based on the conditions. but to not have it out there says that we're planning not to meet our our own um our own plan for funding that liability. So that that's why you know
we put it in there and we know that it was changed in this year um and then we put it back uh in future years knowing that you know you're going to have but it makes it part of the conversation and I think that that's
what we wanted to do. We wanted to make it as part of the conversation and to say these are real obligations and you can choose to to to make decisions around those obligations um based on priorities of the day, but we to to not
put them in there just says, "Oh, we're we're just not going to pay attention to that anymore." And that was that was my again my opinion. And guess what? You don't have to deal with me anymore. So there you go. So, Mandy, Mandy, um, and and I'm going to say that those are my two, if I had
to say what are the biggest picture, I think the others can easily be handled by the all the staff that you brought in, but Mandy, do you want to chime in on this or add or segue to another topic? I have two big picture things. Um, one that might be easier to answer
than the other one. So I'll start with the one I think is easier to answer which is um you've you've stated and we can say in the budget book that the operating side u well the expense side of the operating budgets there's the payroll side and then there's the
like equipment it's not really equipment but expenses that aren't payroll um are being level funded and you can see that in the budget booked. So what kind of effect is that going to have on the provision of services in our town? It's huge and um I think you will hear that
as and it's a I think a question you should ask your um the major departments especially you know DPW and police and fire they can tell you exactly um the impact on that and you know it's been you know we prioritize as we said in the budget we prioritized our people but
that has left the expense side to be level funded and we could you know we're making up and um but it's it's getting worse and worse in this year's is really really really tight. I think um Holly could address that too when she's back from vacation.
Um so it I just had a conversation with DPW about it yesterday that the devastation on their budget in terms of just when you have an equipment repairs that come out of things like you know we don't have a resource a a reserve for that. you know, we've lived off of
vacancies quite honestly. Um, you know, vacant positions leaves some reserve in in the year, but um it's for every all the major departments. You know, fire especially this year has had a lot of equipment failures that have to be absorbed within the operating budget. Um, and we're scrambling to meet to make
sure we meet all those bills. So, it's big and it's not to be underestimated what that's going to do because we haven't kept up on the expense side. So can you predict in general terms if
if what types of services presumably when when the money runs out the money runs out you know so it would be seen more towards the spring and summer of next fiscal year. Can you in general terms predict what what that might do to those services? Like is it that we would
be mowing less or driving our vehicles less? Yeah, I think I think we take more of the discretionary funding out first and Melissa can weigh in on this as well. Like if there are trainings, you know, the former police chief said, "Cut my budget, but don't cut my training budget
because that's the most important thing for his his staff." But there are things that are um that aren't oper aren't strictly um core operational like fixing a piece of equipment that needs to run um for for the fire department to run an ambulance or whatever as opposed to we'd
like to send these two people to a to a a training for you know paramedic training or something like that. So there's some things that could be delayed. Um but there so I think that that's the biggest challenge right now. Melissa has her hand up. Melissa. Yeah.
So, I was just going to say that we have traditionally um over the last several years funded that through vacancies and so we still do have vacancies in the town budget right now like so like um but obviously there are less
vacancies because we we froze some positions. So that the amount to um move um the sort of the truck broke is most often the thing you know a piece of equipment broke. Um and sometimes we we have come
to you um for um for money um at at free cash time like when we know like when I mean it was it was different in the sense that it was for the sewer department so it came out of their retained earnings but it was a similar operation where the
contract to remove that kind of service the contract to remove sludge is what it's called in the in the wastewater system cost the cost on that escalated so much that it was just there was nowhere to get it Um and so that's when then we'll have to come to you for
emergency um repairs or or appropriations uh based on on operating needs. Um and so in that case it rose he knew it was going to rise but it rose so much more than he anticipated that we had to come back to you. So, you know,
that might happen if we break a certain kind of equipment that is so expensive that that might happen again that we just don't have enough room in the discretionary or vacancies to to adapt to that. And and the other thing we do is we we like around April, we we we
tell people just stop spending money as best. You know, Holly has a very um strict review of all expenditures and requests for expenditures because um it dep and she looks at every budget in terms of you don't have money to do what you want to do and so because she's we
start to put a start to strangle that a little bit. Andy strangles. Yeah. I was just curious as we're having this general conversation whether the uh planning to not build positions which is
what is being proposed for so public safety and general government positions. Is that going to affect the amount of uh carryover that might come
at the end of the next fiscal year? Will it uh will it affect how we uh the amount of money that is built up because of staff vacancies? Well, we'll have to see what that looks like. Um you know, we can compare it to
what we did in FI24. um what we carried over based on unspent budgets. Um you know a lot of a lot of that unspent those unfilled positions which we have a lot on and with police and fire especially and um uh will be absorbed in different
ways with the expense side. No, I I um Mandy, um I I wanted to switch directions unless you have comments on this still this one still. Kathy, I think that's a good thing to
note, you know, and and some of it may be, you know, when we do an executive summary, it's a good thing to put pull out because it's not department specific. Um, and just the only comment I have on this is we in one of the
public comments there was a um, uh, that the the schools have to budget for those operating expenses and you don't necessarily have to. So I didn't know, you know, that whether they I have to look at the school budgets to see how much they've level funded the same kinds
of things because my sense is for the most part they didn't. Um but their expenses are quite different. You know it's uh cost of a van driver and you know buses. So just would the schools to the ex you know the schools can't stop
running in the spring just don't spend anymore you know I I have no they do they do the same thing we do we're we do all we all have to manage the same situation you know so but but we have the you have an easier ability I guess to come back and say we need an
emergency allotment. um be for and I'm talking just the expense side of the budget. Yeah. Well, the schools have that opportunity as well. Okay. If they're and we don't come as as you know, we don't come back to the council looking for appropriations for operating.
Okay. Bernie and then Melissa, you're you're muted, Bernie. I probably should keep the microphone out because it'll keep me from saying things that are outrageous. Um, I I'm having a tough time. I always have a tough time with these discussions because I've lived municipal budgets for
over four towns and um 40 years. And I I think we do um and Paul I've given Paul enough grief over his time here, whether I'm on a committee or not. Uh I think Paul and his staff do a remarkable job of skating on very thin ice to bring
this thing home every year. Um, I am firmly of the belief that we are underst staffed and underexpensed on the town side, the administrative side, and find myself reminding people that if stuff in town hall doesn't
work, everybody goes broke. Um, so, you know, we need to we need to keep that in mind. I also like to point out that school budgets are uh school budgets not really it's it's sort of a sort of a spending plan because schools are authorized to spend that money for any lawful purpose and they
can slip and slide all over the place with their budgets. We aren't quite on the municipal side. We're not quite we don't have that degree of flexibility. So it takes a different planning. The other piece that I'll and this is my you know this is my last term on the finance committee so I'll repeat
this a couple of more times. Um, just because the town is not for profofit doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't retain revenues because those retain revenues are the source of funding for capital projects. Capital is
important. It's the source of revenue um when we run into an emergency situation regardless of what piece of the town you are. And um uh you know these are these are lessons I think we need to do a better job of
somehow communicating uh to the to the rest of the rest of the community and uh to the folks who operate the uh the the regional government. Um so that's I'll get off my I'll get off my head horse right now and um but I do want to
say thank you to um to Paul and his staff and Melissa. We will miss you. If we could get you to reconsider, please. I guess people have already tried, but no. Um, so so again, this is tough
stuff. And so that's it. Yeah. And and I'm I am taking notes, Bernie. So you should be looking at the executive summary when we write it this year, too, to make sure some of these thoughts come back in. So, we've got a few more minutes of Paul's time, Mandy. So, did
you have another one? I did. Um, so I asked a ver variation of this every year, but when you look at, and this goes beyond the general government section, but DEI, senior services, recreation, library, all do community
programming. um when we look at their programming, how are we ensuring that it's neither duplicative nor overlapping, not just in the programming that's offered, but in the scheduling and you know efficiency
of making the programming happen. So it's not just making sure that X reading event say or X um sports event is not offered at the same time in two different locations. that's making sure two employees aren't trying to contact
the same people. So, do do we have employees that are essentially duplicating work because they're setting up these similar programs for similar populationations but at different locations? How are we looking at restructuring the departments to ensure that there's robust programming but that it's created and offered in an efficient
manner? Yeah, I would respond to that by saying there's a lot of collaboration and um support for each other. So you're right that you know library does programming, recreation, uh DEI, crest, there's a lots of different departments that are all in the same space but they
really are and seniors even uh so but they're communicating really well together. They say I'm planning on this this would be great for my how and they offer support for it. Um I think they try not to um overlap or duplicate and I think you know Pamela and Philip are here they can speak to DEI's role
because we really have tried to uh and they have taken the initiative to include uh DEI initiatives in all kinds of um functions that the town offers for instance at the sustainability fair um really important to have a DI DEI perspective there uh DEI was present
crust was present so um because that's s these are not siloed uh areas and being able to include and welcome people is really important and you know I think you know the library has a very robust initiative and has has um and they they
they're available you know they they bring books to lots of different events and you know for the global um affairs um um event that was so popular so po had just so many participants in it um you know people could take out library
books right then and there. So, I think that I I I hear what you're saying in terms of like are we overlapping, but I think it is more like collaborating and um and I think again Pamela and Philip could probably address this since they're in the room right now and you
could probably talk to Ry or Sharon or um anybody about how they work together because it is really they're talking to each other all the time and Angela in our office and Sam as well. Bob, do you want to follow up follow up on that? I I don't want to I I want to
just mention one other thing before Paul leaves. So um Okay. Can I be fine? Yeah, absolutely. And this was I won't revisit this Melissa with my question was also the HR has a twoperson team. DEI has a two person.
You know, these are small teams and to what extent do we actually have a a four-person team on on some issues, not on every issue. And as the human rights commission, so I had a similar question and I think you've that answer works well for that. And so so Bob, well, you
you have a few Yeah, I just I just think it's time to start planning for what we're going to do with Wildwood. I know it belongs to the school. it doesn't belong to the town, but I mean it's going to be vacant at the end of June of next year. So, it's now would be the
time to form a group to start thinking about what we're going to do with it. Um, so I don't know if it you've you've thought of that or not, but um I do think and and also like any any of the the other vacant buildings like the South Street, whatever it's called, the
the school on the South Common, um we need to we you know, these are these are assets that we have that we need to, you know, figure out what we're going to do with them. So yeah. So So just um you're absolutely right about Wildwood. It's a major major policy decision for the town
assuming the schools say we don't need it for education purposes anymore. Now we have done some assessment of Wildwood. We have a we have a scanned you know 3D drawings of the entire building so we know uh you are you know Rob Morris is here. he can speak to a little bit more if he wants uh in terms
of what that building looks like, what its capacity is and you know the reasons for abandoning it as a school are are very real, you know, but it might have some life in it or it might be right. But that that's the the threshold question. Same for the South Ammer school. Uh we're looking at that we're
uh looking at that as a potential source for affordable or senior housing or something like that. So there is some investigation work being done by staff on that uh with consultant support. So, both of those buildings in particular and Rob has his hand raised if you want him to address it. Oh, Paul, do you do
you also do you need to run? I I'll jump when I when I need to. Appreciate that. Okay, Rob. Uh, thank you. I just wanted to add in addition to the building scanning and 3D walkthrough of the building. It was part of our facility conditions assessment um pro uh project
this year. And although we're still finalizing the recommendations and the details of those reports, uh we will have a lot all that baseline information about the existing conditions of the building this year. And Rob, I'm assuming that you have the extremely
long section of the uh DNA report that was on building condition because they went through with this and wiring. Yeah. I mean, it's a section of one of the initial Yeah. I mean, it's now out of date because the building's two years
older, but Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. So, Rob, when when are these going to be finished? When when can we kind of start, you know, talking about reuse or or or surplusing or whatever. Or Bobby,
Bob, you're also saying when can we read these reports? Yeah. I mean, when when are we, you know, when is it going to be when is the survey, etc. are going to be done so we can start you know doing what we need to do. So the building scanning project is
done. So we have existing conditions drawings and 3D views and elevations and site information uh and fly over. All of that is complete and available uh including 3D walkthrough of the interior of the building. The facility conditions assessments are all in uh I'd say
advanced draft form. You know, we are we are at the point where we are questioning some uh pricing on estimated cost uh from this firm that is from down south and you know had I we believe have to make some adjustments for our area
and public bidding and so on that we're just working through those details. Uh drafts are available. If we were to distribute them, I would say do not focus on the dollar amounts. I think they're uh extremely low in the condition that they are in and we're just trying to get those finalized so
that the reports uh so it works better with the reports and the recommendations but the general information is all collected the on-site work of the firm is complete. So yeah just in to support that. So, so these are drafts. We have the first drafts. When you put something
out there, everybody latches on to the numbers and then they say, "Why'd it go up?" You're like, "Well, we're not we're not even there yet, right? We have to do the due diligence on from our staff's expertise." So, I think we're when those things are prepared and ready. And I think we're not too far away from it.
But it it truly is just a staff capacity and, you know, availability to work through those with the firm. This department is a staff of one with Jeremiah doing most of that work and others helping when we can. So, uh, this year for sure. Uh, yeah, I wasn't
putting pressure. I just, you know, I just would like to know that when they're ready so we can start really thinking about what to do with these facilities. So, you know, that department has done made great progress in, you know, using ARPA funds quite honestly and achieving this.
Oh, Bernie, real quick. Um anchoring is a real phenomenon. So you know when you do reports like this the number you the first numbers you see are the numbers that you remember remember and you latch on to. So it would be better to report a range and if you're going to report a
range start high. Um the other thing I would hope is that for both Wildwood and for the school of st I hope there's a bring the bulldozer option. Um, I think we we we can waste a lot of time and energy trying to reuse a
building that we've already said isn't terribly useful. And I have not been in the school that's down the street from me, but I'm watching it over over the years. Let's bring the bulldozer and use that lot for some
better to a better purpose. And I I have no idea what's in it. Look forward to reading that. But again, um, bring the bulldozer, you know, demolish the building, recycle it, uh, has to be an option, I think. Thank you. Hey, you are now on record for that.
Okay. So, I'm going to exit now. Thank you. If you're Yeah, thanks very much, Paul, for squeezing squeezing over a bit. Y Thank you. So, um, Mandy, I I think Melissa, you
uh put our two sets together so we can avoid overlapping. Um, I had I can I can guess a couple of the ones that I would like to have an answer to now if we can. Um, so maybe I'll go first, Mandy, if
that makes sense to you. So for the elementary school, the extra money that we're putting in out of free cash, the 1%, it shows up on the expense side as an expense for the school, but I couldn't find it on the revenue side on
how we pay for that. And yet the revenues and the expenses balance. So I I I think that it accidentally um Holly caught this um u last week is that it shows up in the miscellaneous. It's combined it's
combined. It's combined in that number. Um and um and I guess that's also how we did the last how we did it last year. So I think that that the ARPA money ended up in that miscellaneous number or something like that. So, so in one part
of the five-year forecast it's separated and another part it's not. So, um but but it is there uh it does tie but you're right it is mislabeled. Yeah, I assumed it had to be somewhere otherwise would wouldn't balance. You would be spending money you don't have. So, um so
that that was my question on that. And then um this this is more a minor one that um there's a list at the very beginning of the staffing and what's changed upon on across departments and
on facility it shows no change from the prior year but on the facility page it shows an increase of8 FTE and I'm pretty sure that's all Bob parent and you know I don't know what year he became part of the budget and I know The first time he
was on our budget was all ARPA funding. So it was one one of these. So I'm just there's a just discrepancy on one page which shows no staffing increase there and another page that shows a point8. They both have the same total. So it's
not totals are different. So that is just purely um I don't know when the ARPA money ran out for support of him but I know I my memory is three years worth and so I don't know where we are in the three years. Yeah. So I know that
he's fully funded in this um fiscal year and so that like you said we must have not tied out all the the different places and I believe that he um I believe that he was absorbed in fiscal 25 maybe half a year um because
we we didn't we didn't have any staff on payroll after December. So anyone that was um being staffed as of December had to switch. So, we probably just didn't manage the transition quite right then. Okay. No, I
can I can figure out how to write that up, but it was just that it it's it is a position that has it's if you've been on the council for a while, it's a new position that we have, the special project coordinator, and it's been very useful. And initially, it
was proposed as temporary to get us over the hump of all these big projects, but the big projects aren't going away. So, right, it makes sense. So I I think we should probably in the finance report on this general staffing and when we do facilities, Bob, when we get to the
facility side, we or we're at it now should just point it out. So yeah, and I can I can look back to um to what you're talking about and sort of I can figure out exactly when it switched and and where we made the mistake in the in the budget like that. Okay. Then the other
one I have that I think both Mandy and I had is on the employee benefit page and then health insurance. It shows the number of people, individual plans, family plans, and it seems to add up to more than the total staff. Are we
carrying any school staff at all in our health in in the health insurance amount? when I just it's it's uh I understand the difference between family and individual, but if I add the two up, it shouldn't be more than the total staff. Mandy, I think you had this too.
Just trying to figure out how to make those numbers match up. So, I I haven't looked at it, so I'll have to look I'll have to look at that and and understand um that. But I I will say that um so I'm not
I'm not sure um how the um the elementary school, you know, like because they they're on our bill, but I know we separated um you know what I mean, like cuz they're considered town employees, so they're they're part of one thing. And then um I
do know that we also um you know, we ensure retirees. That's part of being a municipal employee. So, I don't believe that it's in that count, but I that's the other thing I could um look to, you know, like a a postretire who um who's
not who's not yet Medicare. He's not yet Medicare. Okay. Yeah. So, I I I don't know, but I will I'll look into that and find out like what the what the what the difference is. And I I I looked at last year's budget book. It was the same
thing. So, it's it clearly whatever we're doing we're consistently doing. But I just couldn't figure out how to make those numbers. And Mandy, do you want to come in on this because I was just trying to The other the other one I had was more general and do we ever
compare our health insurance choices and the structure to other towns? Um whether it's retiree benefits andor, you know, are are we particularly good? Are we about the middle of the pack? I think benefits are important to keep people.
So I'm not saying that we should reduce them in any way. So So I will say that it was to my detriment to leave the town of Ammerst as far as my benefit package. Okay. Okay. Amanda, do you want to do you want
to come in on the benefits? Yeah. Um I for me it's just easier to refer to numbers because I think that clarifies potentially the question. So the staffing summary on page 44 indicates the municipal government has 256 FTEES. Um on page
97 the service level chart um implies that there are over 1,200 employees. If you look at the life insurance line there's 1,263 life insurance policies. I guess if you look at the health insurance line there's
over 1,500 health insurance policies. So that has to And so I'm just trying to figure out what do the service level lines include? Do they include retirees? Do they include library employees, school employees? What do those lines include that the
staffing summary on page 44 does not include th those numbers are more indicative of, you know, the double number of W2s we produce and that kind of stuff. So I it has to include the schools and or retirees as well. So I I um you know that that $1,200 1,200
number is close to the number of you know like employees that the town of Ammerst has which includes the schools. Um and so my assumption is that it includes retirees as well. But I I'll dig into that because I really that huge
disparity means it's a bigger picture than just the municipal of the four majors, right? because library and um schools are technically one uh are technically under the same employer as the town of Ammerst
whereas the regional school is a separate employer that's the only one that is fully separate than us but the dollars that are would just be for municipal employees not the schools is that correct because I looked at the elementary school has a line for health
insurance so I'm thinking that maybe the people you know, all the people, but they don't match up that um Holly is the, you know, digs into that number. So, I I I haven't I wasn't the one who went through it. So, if you could just
But I'll find out and and just get us an answer, Melissa. That's Oh, okay. Great. You're unfrozen. Um, do you want me to just do you have some other ones or Yeah. No, I have some other Well, I'm seeing the staff that's here, too. So, I
had I you know, I'm Sean is here on it. So we um we well in in finance my one question is we've reduced the finance department by an FTE. Y what
does that do to the functioning of the finance department? Um Paul explained who that person that slot was, but just we're losing you, so I know what that does to us, but Right. So Jen might be able to speak more about how that impacts the department because that was
it was a frontline service person um and um that position because I know that it's one of the questions we have here. The reason it's sort of confusing is that that was a shared position. and it was point4 in the assessor's office and um six in the uh treasurer collector's
office. And so then that position was eliminated and that I I I will say uh that position was the only position where there was an actual person there, but she um she was able to transfer to um a vacancy in another department that
had um a larger percentage of vacancies. You you you know what I like a a stronger need maybe. So, she is still with us. She still works closely with Jen and the assessor uh in the treasur collector's office and and with Kim in the assessor's office in her new role in
the um building um inspections office. Um but um because there is some overlap of the type of work around building permits and the the kind of work that that she's doing in the new role. Um but it it does impact the um the frontline
um service levels. Um and Jen can probably speak better about that because it is her office and and covering that that window and coverage. Jen there. Um so yes, that position um covered our central service counter uh
every morning from 8 to 1 and then went to the assessor's office in the afternoon to help with um administrative items. Um so what that does is it it puts more rotation for coverage up front on the existing staff in the office. Um
so we're just trying to um redo workload and make sure everything is getting covered. Okay. Um, on page 82, there's a organization chart for the finance department. Is that position still
listed on that chart or was it removed from the chart? Is it that customer assistant under the treasurer collector line on the chart on page 82? I on the chart. I believe I removed it. Okay. Yep. Thank you.
Um well I'll stay on the finance department and this is a question I guess a combination of you and it may be also Holly but we've the last several years um as you know the investment income has been higher than we put in
the report uh we had in the projections and it was because of the delayed capital projects and that we're the money was sitting there ready to be used. Do we to what extent do you know already
um what those projects are likely to be in FY26 or is that always uh you know and on JCPC so people know that the we're we're on three-year lags between ordering a fire engine and we get one where some of the other equipment it's
on a lag so we budget the money but we don't spend it. Um, and I'm thinking that a I know a big chunk of it was the school, the combination of we moved five million out of reserves and we uh secured bond and so we'll be spending
it down. But do you have a sense of just looking at what's in the queue? You know, are we talking about there's a regular five or six million in there that's earning interest? Um, and then of course we don't know what the interest it will be earning is. And I'm not
asking for a specific answer, you know, and to what extent you can internally see that based on, you know, lags on it's booked to spend, but then we're not spending we're not going to be spending it in a 12-month period. Um, so and some big projects that I'm aware of just
because we were looking at them to make sure that we um well, that doesn't that's not true. Um, I was thinking how the radio project, um, there was a delay in the procurement and so therefore that money didn't get spent because it was
borrowed. We didn't borrow for that money. So that's not part of our cash reserves. Jen can probably talk about um how much she feels like she has in surplus right now and how quickly it's going because I know that before um I think just even last week I put in,
you know, I send them little little warnings, you know, we're about to spend $2 million on the warrant this week just for the school project alone. And that's not that's sort of com the common place every time we get like a well you know Kathy you've been in the the school
building. So those those are going to start to move really fast and then um we'll start to move um fast on um the library if that construction project gets going once we start um laying that and then that we know I think we've
heard that we're going to get delivery on some of those older vehicles now. We don't have a lot of vehicles in this uh round. So those I don't anticipate us having a lot of money laying around for. And then the only other thing is like,
you know, is a project stalled? you know, so um of the you know, I'm thinking of the big ticket items, the the uh the maintenance item, you know, how quick is Rob and and Jeremiah ready to get moving on spending
that million dollars or did they have a project already lined up? But that I know that they haven't I don't believe actually Rob can speak to that that they haven't procured it um at this time. So, you know, that's kind of where the I I mean, I guess I I don't have a good
answer because the smaller dollar things like the 20,000 here or the Yeah. Uh, you know, they they they go fast. Yeah. No, no. I I realize, you know, I'm more um for everyone to know, there was 500,000 last year in JC that was in the
capital budget for roofs that was still sitting there and we put another million that's a fungeable amount can be used in any way for buildings. So there's a million and a half that will be sitting in this kind of an account until Rob, Jeremiah, and others figure out how to
spend it. Um, so that that's all I was wondering to what extent we can internally see that's happening. And it's about the your your everyone's reluctance to overestimate revenues, you know, when we don't have a good reason
to do it. We've been low on investment for good reasons on the earnings. So I won't belabor that anymore. Mandy, I think the rest of mine are more minor. Um just Shan is here on
it. There's still a budget for buying new software for the finance department and we were told in finance in JCPC that if we do that there's a licensing fee. Um, does that lying be hit us in FY 26
or is that not till 27 is my qu you know like is it in the budget in anticipation in it or is it so so I can I can speak to that Kathy um you know cuz it's my little special gift to you your package but but we would we wouldn't have a
licensing fee until the um software is procured and and selected and I think that um the decision was made internally that while um I was a big advocate for and I believe uh Jen and and at least um Sean and and at least some of his team
were big advocates for it as far as being an efficient use of um staff time and you know as we sort of shrink our departments and how we can more effectively use our people that it was a tool. Um, so there was a a reason for it, but that that decision on which
software to implement and when to start that implementation should be left with the new finance director so that they um, you know, choose what works best for them. Okay? And and if they choose that this is not a good idea for them, then
it'll go back to finance committee to use for something else. So I I'll go through my um I see we've got the P Pamela Young and Phil my questions for both of yours was just
this twoart two person departments and working with each other um and I think Paul is has already answered that um pretty well but if you want to respond to that and then on on accounting um and general category
No, on uh town clerk, there's been a huge decline in registered voters. Do we have any idea why was one of my questions and the other was there's been a big increase in services for notary services and if anyone's tried to get things notorized downtown. You used to
be able to go to host Hastings or Bank America. So I think everyone comes to the town now. Um do we So my question for that one was do we charge? So those are three I'll just line up and I don't know whether Phil and Pamela want to talk anymore about these. You're you're
two twoperson departments and you've got you're doing human ser human rights commission. You're also you know you're you're staffing other department of committees as well and how that all works. So sure I can jump right in. So we staff
both the human rights commission and the commission um for persons with disabilities. Uh when I started the position, this DEI department actually staffed four committees. They um were also responsible for the CSSJC and the
African Heritage Reparation Assembly. Um African Heritage Reparation Assembly, Sunset It and the CSSJC um is responsibility of the crest director at this time. Um, as far as your question about collaboration or partnerships or overlap with the other
departments, um, as uh, the town manager said, we work in collaboration with all of the departments that you mentioned. There's not an event, a large event that's planned in the town that does not include um, as part of the planning commission, members from the library,
members from Wreck, um, members from the crest department, and the Amoris Global Village is a perfect example of that. They were all invited to the table. They all participated and they all had a role to play in the planning of that event. And that's true for all of the major events that we have. I think the other
part of the question that the town manager did not address is that um the DEI department has reduced the number of uh large events that were ha that we're sponsoring. In the past, we held events for almost all of the cultural and
ethnic groups in town. So, we had Junth, we had Lunar New Year, we had Black History Month, and um we decided to move to one event that would allow us to really showcase all of the various members of the community and their
cultural and ethnic backgrounds and that would allow um all of those members to come together rather than having uh distinct events that didn't attract um everyone to the table. So, I think the global village um did bring everyone to
the table and and folks had a chance to see and learn from other members of the community. Thank you. So, men, did you want to continue this or do you want to shift to my Sue question? Yeah. Well, I'll stick with
DEI because maybe if we finish all the DEI questions, we can let our DEI department go. And if we stick with one department, we can maybe not have everyone stick around the whole time. Um, you know, that thank you for the answer. Um, that that makes sense with
the large things, but but when I was looking at the DEI upcoming objectives, it says things like expand youth events, including youth entrepreneurship program and youth know your rights program. And I look at that and I say our recreation department has a lot of youth events. Our library has a lot of youth events.
um these are not big events necessarily. These are like ongoing programs and all. And what you talked about in your um in the budget book on on page 87 about expanding youth events are also in some sense some of those smaller ongoing events. And that's where I was asking
the question about are we duplic duplicating h how are you collaborating with others to make sure say DEI is not planning a youth entrepreneurship program at the same time the library is planning one things like that. So, so how do they walk or that you plan it in two
different locations and to do it twice, one one in bangs and one in the library. How is that collaboration or ensuring that duplication's not going on that way? So, I think the first part of my answer also is the part of the answer to this question. But I would also say that
there's a distinction between some of the events that we're doing with youth and the events that are being um done or sponsored by the other departments particularly the library or or recreation which has a more of a sports focus. the um so our events have been
designed to really meet the needs that were requested from the CSSJC or actually that was the community safety working group that report uh which asked specifically for youth empowerment
events that um include some targeted events for students of color and youth of color. Our events are open to all in the community obviously, but the focus has been um meant on sort of uh addressing some of those needs. And as I
said before, there's not an event that we plan where we don't have a conversation with other departments in town to make sure that we're not um duplicating efforts. And uh generally we're asking for help be because we are
a department of two. it would be it's nearly impossible for us to do all of these events without assistance from other departments. So, we lean heavily on on Crest. They're our next door neighbor in on the floor, but we also lean heavily on the library. And as Paul
mentioned, you know, the library, I think, has attended every event that we've planned by showing up by bringing books. Um, we've also had wreck uh attend almost every event that we've planned by showing up and providing um programming for younger kids or
assisting in other ways. Thank you. You're welcome. So, um I saw Sue turned her camera on when I got to town clerk and elections. So, I had the two on this.
It's not I don't know what we can do about it, but it was a big decline in registered voters. And then the second is do we do we charge for notary services because it's even if it's a marginal fee, it looks like we provide a lot of them. Yes. Yes. Hello everybody.
Um and I have to dare say that this is probably my last Zoom meeting. No, I'm kidding. Um, so the the voter registration, so this is kind of old because it goes back to 2020 when COVID hit and all the students went home. Um,
that's our transient population that raises or lowers the number of registered voters in the town. And when they went home, they all registered to vote at home and voted by absentee ballot. But at the same time, the votes act brought on the ability to vote by
mail with no excuse. And so I we saw this when they came back that you know we did a voter registration drive a couple years ago and tried to registered voters up on UMass campus and we kept hearing from people oh I'm already registered at home. I'll just do a uh vote by mail ballot. That was the cons
that was the answer that was given. We didn't get one registered voter all afternoon. So that's what's happening is there's been a shift. People are voting in their home communities even though they're living here. So, um it has been creeping up a little bit, but it's not to the levels where it was in past years
before we had vote by mail. And then on the notoriizations, um we did actually raise our fees because as you can see from their levels, what was it? Um we did like 1,260 notoriizations in FY22 and 11:06 in FY23. It it's getting it
got to the point where our customer service assistant was standing at the counter almost all day long on many many days and I says this is getting crazy. So we did raise our notoriizations from $5 to $10 per notoriization starting on J July 1st of
2023 and it's gone down a little but it's still right now I just did a quick scan. Um we've done 817 authorizations so far this year and we're not even done with the fiscal year. So it has gone down. Sorry to interrupt. Can we say
thank you and farewell to Pamela and Oh yeah, sure. Absolutely. Pamela and and Phil, you you can you can leave us. Your time your time is valuable. Thank you very much for joining us. Yeah. So that's that's pretty much those
are the uh yeah answers to your two questions. Those those were my two. Um, you know, I I um I think Mandy, you had one about planning for the elections. Um or or I
Yeah. So, let's stick with that. And I don't remember exactly what your question was. Yeah. I mean, I could be wrong, but um so I'm sure Sue you will correct me if I did my math wrong on estimating elections, but the current fiscal year had two elections to run. Um
the fiscal year that we're talking about FY26 budget likely includes just one election to run I think. Um but the budget for elections has not been reduced for election worker pay um in
FY26 as compared to FY25. So can you just explain the reasoning behind not reducing that pay in FY26 to match the number of elections being held during the actual fiscal year? Yeah. Um, I've actually never touched that budget. We leave it alone. And I think the reason
for that, Hollywood, know. Yeah, you're nodding. I think I think it's because in case there's a special election. Um, you know, that sort of thing. So, I we just leave it alone. And we'll end up being one of those departments where there's excess cash at the end of the year that other departments can borrow from. You
know, I I tend to not spend the budget. I very conservative, but going forward, I mean, you know, you could do what you can. It depends on costs that you're you don't have any control over. But anyway, as far as that goes, I don't touch it.
Thank you. Um if I I think I've covered all of mine, Mandy, so if I could just talk to um with Holly not here, I'm going to make some assumptions about why we do that. And my guess is that if it goes up and down
like that, then it's hard in the year that you know that the elections for it to come back. And so it's just easier to have it based on a high ele uh high um number of election years and have that as a constant. And then, you know, if
the department doesn't overspend, you know, and doesn't use it to, you know, have special lunches or something like that, then then um I'm I'm kidding. Of course, she would never do anything like that. But but you know, if then then you
don't have the problem like, well, like all of a sudden this year we have to go up and where are we going to get that from? It just I that's my assumption on why we've we've always done it that way. That's what I figured, but I thought I'd ask the question. That was my only elections clerk
question. Hey, I am you know I had a more global question that is probably impossible to answer just on the town council support. I see how many meetings are listed that are town council related at some point and this this is not for
anyone on the screen to answer. I would like to know how much staff time we consume as the council um and and just figure out if there's some way of uh aggregating that between committee meetings uh council meetings um the
number of meetings that were listed and Melissa I know how many meetings you go to um so it that was just so I will post my that was one of my one of my questions I will post my questions because I think we or a time intensive
council and I don't know whether that may be normal but Cassie are you referring to are you referring to I think it depends how you count staff time if you're including the staff who attend all the council
committee meetings and the council meetings or just the clerk's time um and so on. So I I think you you know you and I could get together and dive into that number, but if we're all set with Sue and Amber um and maybe Sean,
can we let that I have questions for it? No. No. So Amber Sean, but I was just thinking, you know, Dave Dave Zomac staffs the CRC go for I don't know how many people show up at TSO Andy on a regular basis.
Then we're staffed minimalistically in school building because I can run the Zoom meeting. So Angela signs us on and leaves and then we have about four staff people in that meeting. So it just it just struck me that there's a lot of
people. We just got Jen coming now to the school building committee and to the library building committee, you know, in terms of replacing Melissa. So it's it's an observation rather than I need a number. But um it's a lot of meetings
that are being staffed by the staff. Yes, it is. We can run some reports. Yeah, we can run some reports um based on our Zoom usage and give you some estimate. Okay, thank you. So I just I
will say Kathy, having worked in several other communities, the staff time for this council is more than than your neighbors. It's not a good or a bad thing. It just it it just is it's a different structure and it it demands more
attention. Thank you. Uh Melissa, are you speaking about communities that have city forms of government or town forms of government? Okay. City forms of government. I've worked with both. Uh every community I've ever worked in has been a city form of government, either
with a town manager or with a mayor. So those are slightly different, but but I I've been in five. So So that's good. And maybe I'll do a an exit interview with you, Melissa, since you're not you're not leaving the
country or the stage. Just um so Andy's hand is up and Mandy's hand is up, but I am done with my this was just so everyone knows this was my section of the budget. So why I did more but I am completely done with my
questions and if there's no other questions of um the town the uh town clerk elections then we could thank Amber and Sueette but I see Mandy's hand is up and Andy I
will call on you too. So, while we've got Sean here, Amber. Yeah. I just have one more that I forgot on my town clerk's office. If Andy is yours, clerk, go ahead. Okay. Um, I noticed a spike in public records request. And so, this is
similar to the notary question, I guess, which is how does that spike affect the clerk's office ability to do your other things? Um, and and how do we help with that? I wish you could. It's it does impact
um in each request that we've had, you know, some are easy and simple. I send it out, I get the response, I send it out the response out. But others take multiple people, multiple departments, multiple research. Um we can bill for some, we can't bill for some. We do have
to involve the town attorney. It's just it depends. And it's just, you know, um I know Bob Parent, he's been involved heavily in some of these public records requests and he, you know, he's always joking, this is a full-time job. I says, I know. So, I don't know, you know, it
is almost a full-time job. I do believe there's state legislature, there's some um senators and congress people looking into this in other parts of the state um because it has put a huge burden on the clerks. I don't know what's going to come of it,
but you know, I guess all we can say is that when it gets to the point where we're not doing our other duties, we're going to have to say something. It's not quite there yet. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Anything more for Sue or Amber? Andy?
Yeah. Actually, um I was going to go back to something that you had raised, Kathy, which was the question about whether the council is absorbing a lot of staff time, but it's not just the council. uh having observed Ammeris
government for quite a number of years before we had a council, we've always been very committed driven and u have had probably more committees than a lot of other communities have and I was
wondering about whether that is having an impact on the clerk's office because of the need uh both to monitor um appointments and uh postings and
meetings, but also things like uh um adherence to requirements like um conflict of interest trainings and um you know is there are is that a huge
drain on the office now and um cumulatively is there any way that it could be made more efficient? if it is. Um, well, you know, I've been here since 2005 and I would say that there probably
aren't that many more committees than were around in 2005. You know, some come, some go. Um, it's not a huge drain. We do share the responsibility with the town manager's office. You know, they send out the the letters, the appointment
letters. They keep track. they have their own database and we have our own database for the swearing in and handing out the paperwork. Um it's kind of a split duty. So I haven't seen it really go up that much over the years. I mean if it has it's very slight.
So um but yes it's definitely a board and committee heavy town. You know our book is a 3-in springbound or notebook that's full. It's full. Um so I guess that that's an answer to your question. Is there any other part
that I missed? No, I think that's generally it. And right uh I guess we you were asking about uh the committee that I chair TSO. uh
and uh we you know the Guilford and Paul are the principal people who regularly attend or frequently attend meetings of that committee. Um but one of the things
that we've been working on quite a bit is um the the whole transportation element of uh the community and there seems to be always an interest in that
and uh if I looking for duplication of staff time that's what we've discovered as we've been looking at the transportation advisory committee proposal is uh general Generally, it's uh that we ask we have multiple
committees that do the same thing, both council and non-counsel committees, and every time you have to make a presentation multiple times, it it detracts from your other work. Um, and that's something that I think that all
of us just need to be aware of. But I'm not sure that uh see you it's a budget question as much as an efficiency question. Yeah. No, I I was focusing on it as efficiency. I see Athena's hand is up.
Just a really quick point about your question, Andy. I think a lot of the work that is involved in um supporting all the town committees is spread across many different departments. So, um, if the ECAC decides to hold extra meetings,
that's not necessarily reflected in a lot of additional work through the town clerk's office, but it is for the sustainability director a lot of extra uh time posting meetings and packets and organizing materials and finding meeting space and so on. Um, Bernie's committee
just uh formed another subcommittee. So, the charter review committee is now three separate committees that posts meetings and packets and materials and so on. and that's not reflected in the budget. So, you'll see a lot of that spread across the different departments that support committees, not necessarily
in the town clerk, Bernie, and just sorry to throw shade at you. I'm I'm just I'm like at this point I'm one/8 of that committee. Um but I'm I'm I'll I'll be willing to take the blame for it. Uh that's the charter review
committee which wasn't resourced. um you know we we have Athena to to lean on and we we came back to the council asked for money. Um again having observed this town and served on comm community committees in this town uh every
committee generates demands somewhere in the system and some of the stuff the committees do would probably be better done by staff if we had staff available but we don't necessarily have it. we're staffed kind of thin um or we don't have
a good resource pool. So when I was in uh uh uh Franklin County, I could rely on the FCOD to uh to to to boost staffing for me and I didn't have to have committees uh to to do some of the work. See, it's
a complicated matter, but every time we generate a committee or a subcommittee, we do generate work and we do spread it around. And um that is incremental. It builds over time. And uh I can also tell
you Sue is being modest, I think, in terms of trying to to do the cat hurting and getting everybody in and sworn and and u keeping trainings up to date and everything else. That's a um that's a headache and you know if you
miss if if you miss one person and someone there's a a complaint or a concern that becomes timeconuming in and of itself too. So um it's a good question and I think we need to be careful when we say well we'll have another committee.
So, I'm since we're talking about staff time, we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, six staff here. So, I do we have more questions for clerk. Do we have any questions for Sean Hannon?
And then we've got Rob Moira and Jen. Um, Mandy's hand went up. So, I'm just I want to let people go who we don't and you're muted. Sorry. I have questions for Sean and it but not the clerk's office. So you have and and so I if no one has
any more for Sue and Amber you can uh we thank you for your time and thank you for the work you do for the town. You can leave or you can stay but I'm just you're no longer you're on demand and anything of Rob Mora here to watch. Bye everybody. Yeah, I've got to do public
records requests. So thank you. Planning and conservation's next week. So yeah. Yeah. So Rob, you can also unless you want to stay and then I was just here for any facilities questions because I Jeremiah was unavailable. I can Yeah. So
we'll well the the ones I the ones I listed would be great just to get I wanted you listed 10 buildings 14 buildings that you're doing the studies on. If we could just get a list of the buildings and the question that I asked earlier and Paul took notes on. Can you
also do Crocker Farm uh the school? And so it was a question uh do you have the capacity to do the same kind of assessment of it to complete the things? So and Paul said he'd make a note of it. He thought it was a good idea. So I kind of had that one answered earlier. So
okay. So nothing for me at this time. Yeah. The Yeah. the list of all the list of uh buildings that we cover and the list of the buildings that have been completed were actually included in the memo that we prepared uh in and sent um in March, but we can resend that. Right.
Because what I'm in memory then is it was 10 and in the budget book it says 14. So I was wondering whether that 10 was the full list and there's another four that I didn't know about. So I read that. Yeah. Yeah, there are 14 buildings that we um that we list as maintaining
and covering, you know, repairs and regular routine maintenance of. And then there were 11 buildings that were subject to the facilities conditions assessment project that was, you know, a contracted uh uh project with a vendor.
Uh so those are those are two different numbers, but the the 10 to 14 I think is the number of buildings that we actually work on every year. Okay. Yeah, I I had a question. What are the What were the four that were added in FY24?
The four that are new to the list that didn't show up in prior budget reports and and I'll just say that when I started helping years ago when the when it was a a townwide facilities department, there were only seven buildings on the on the town side. So,
um I'm not sure what year you would be looking at exactly, but the the four most recent include the Hickory Ridge buildings, uh the animal control building, and North and Central Fire Stations, uh that were not typic uh in the past managed or overseen by the the
town facilities department. Okay. because it I I'm just looking at the budget book on page 113 and the the number of uh facilities managed jumps from 10 to 14 and the square feet mean maintained is doubled. Um, and so
there's got to be some bigger buildings in there there. There are. Yeah. The So, I think what explains the most of that is Jeremiah a couple years ago started um doing a lot of bit a lot of work at the garage, the Boltwood garage, which is a giant number, 50 plus thousand
square feet. So, I think that's probably the one that's made the most difference in addition to the uh the fire stations. Okay. And there was a in the discussion or they talked about as a challenge that
we're we're seeing more evening use of buildings. Um and I'm wondering what buildings are being used in the evening that weren't being used before. Uh I'm not sure. Yeah, I don't think it's that they haven't been used before,
but maybe it's slowed down quite a bit. uh you know the Bangs obviously you know gets a lot of uh use uh off regular hours uh for our staff and the Mson building uh gets a lot of activity both
in the upper and lower uh spaces uh and then the most recent the new space that we're responsible for is the North Ammerst Library space that is just you know that's only months I think of being live with reservations. Well, this is this goes
back to FY24. This is what I'm looking in the budget book. It goes to starts at ends at FY24. So, yeah. So, the the just the usage started picking up following COVID. I think from what I remember back, you know, before 2020, the Bangs
uh center was used quite a bit at in the evening. And I think we've just we we shifted around staff where we used to have late night coverage there. uh more uh more custodial staff on site at the banks and you know that position ended
up covering town hall and there was some you know extra uh buildings taken on Mson and North Ammerst where we need to provide part-time custodial staff as well. So those individuals move around throughout the week and you know just kind of spread out with the same core
group that we had or number of employees that we had. Okay. I just I was just curious as to kind of what what was happening. But thank you. You're welcome. So I think those are the questions for you Rob and then Mandy said she has one
of Sean. So again if you would like to leave us you we thank you very much for your time. Thanks everyone. So Sean um two questions for me. Yeah hopefully you can answer them both. Yeah. Um the
first one is um the there in the service levels um which is on page 101 I guess um there's a huge like more than quadrupling of YouTube channel just in FY23.
Yes. Talk about that. Um yeah. So thank and and thanks for sending the questions over ahead of time because it gave me a chance to to look at this. So, I don't have an answer for it, but what I can do is I can share with you um
I did take a screenshot through the reporting we have. Um does that show up for you? Yes. Um through the reporting we have of um our YouTube views. So you can see these are the top five events or
the top five um recordings on YouTube for FY23. Um and you can see the viewer numbers. So board of health meeting on May 11th. I should know what was
discussed then but there were 5200 views of that finance committee May 26. I guess the finance committee committee meeting must have been interesting that day. um 2300. Um so you can see these are the
um the five most heavily viewed items in FY23. Um and then you get up to FY24 and the most heavily viewed item had 428 views. Um and that was the
African Heritage Reparation Assembly followed by the town council on May 4 on March 4th. um at 226. So you I guess I don't have an answer why the numbers went down.
Um just that it it does seem legitimate. I went I went through and looked um I looked when we were putting the numbers together for the budget book just to make sure you know because there was such a dramatic change to make sure
I reran the numbers from the from FY23 to make sure that I didn't make a mistake that time and misreport the number higher than it than it should be. Um and these are these are different than Zoom meetings, right? These are the
you Yeah. Yeah. So what happens is um all of our meetings are recorded in Zoom um and then weekly um somebody in it takes those Zoom recordings and uploads them to YouTube um and puts them in a
channel. So um it's possible I work with Athena on running the reports on our Zoom viewership. It's possible that we saw more live Zoom Zoom viewership in FY24 um and less after the fact in YouTube.
So, we don't we don't go with a few exceptions, we don't go live on YouTube. So, if somebody were watching if somebody's watching the council meeting live, they're either watching it on Ammeris Media um or they're watching it they're watching it on Zoom. um if
they're watching it after the fact, they're either watching it on YouTube or um or they're watching it on Ammeris Media. And so I guess one of the other questions, there was some questions about Ammeris Media. Um yeah, so I' I'm happy to ask them. Um they won't have
viewership numbers for live views, but they will have viewership numbers for um for streaming views. So if somebody goes on Ammeris Media's site and streams it from there, um there should be a record
of that with Ammeris Media. We we don't see those numbers, but I they should they should have that. So my question around Ammeris Media, just since he's raised it, Mandy, was is the contract with Ammeris Media is that build to the
IT department? No. So the uh the way the contract with Ammeris Media works um is every 10 years. So, as it was last signed in 2026, the town signs an a franchise agreement with
Comcast. And part of the agreement with Comcast is this was in 2026 or 2016 was that 5% of the cable TV subscription fees 5% gets added onto that for the
subscribers as a franchise fee and that money is given from Comcast to the town. That's money to provide PE PEG services. So, public education and government services. And then from there, um it was
a select board at the time negotiated a contract with Ammeris Media um for um to essentially to turn that money over to Ammeris Media to provide those services. So under the current contract that that
expires o in midocctober 2026 Comcast pays money this Comcast subscribers in Ammeris pay money to Comcast on their bill. That money goes to the town that money is then given to Ammeris Media to provide these services
to provide the PEG services. Um, so we don't we don't the town doesn't pay um the town itself doesn't pay for Amoris Media, but the subscribers, Comcast television subscribers in town do pay
through their cable bill and they pay for those services. We don't pay any more or less um or we don't pay any less if they don't cover more meetings. Um the town manager under the current contract because they got shifted um
with the um with the charter the town manager can request additional meetings be covered um and it's it's up to the town manager and Ammeris media to negotiate if there's an additional cost for it. And you know the specific one I
had but you won't be able to answer this is the value added of having Ammeris Media cover the finance committee meetings and it would be mainly if someone is at home at 2 o'clock in the afternoon wanting to watch us um because
otherwise not on Zoom correct it was not on Zoom. Exactly, Mandy. You know, so it's um you know, Ammer, so I have found it useful for a couple of the other kinds of meetings where I um want to watch it live um and not on Zoom, but
but yeah, Mandy, that was my question on the is is it useful middle of the day to have this piece? So, you probably can't answer that. So, it's it's a larger, you know, right? So what what I do know is
it's obviously very different now um with Zoom. So Ammeris Media is not sending somebody to the town. Previously they had to send somebody to the town with a you know when it was on the first floor meeting room with a camera set up so they could broadcast it live and they
could record it. Um, I couldn't answer how much staff time it takes at Ammeris Media, but it it's they're setting it up to broadcast and then they they record it and and broadcast it. Um, so I would anticipate
that, you know, the that the negotiation will be a little bit different this time around because it's a it's very different now how they um how they broadcast meetings, which meetings they broadcast. And so um
the other thing to remember is the contract um was originally negotiated when there was town meeting and select board um and it was modified when the charter change went into effect. Um but there was there was little modification
to it. They changed town meeting to and select board to town council meetings and they you know there were some other little changes. Um but that's um it's they they're not sending staff to um record and broadcast meetings and
in the same sense if somebody wants to access the finance committee meeting now they can do it through Zoom and they can do it through YouTube whereas previously they either had to be in that you know they had to squeeze into the the first floor meeting room um where there were
probably three extra seats um or they or they had to watch it on TV. It's so I you know I'm conscious of the time and we have one other not relate no and I don't want to cut you off at all but I'm conscious of your time and also we have one other thing we have to do
that's beyond the the review of these sections the budget. So, does anyone have any additional questions of Sean, Jen, um Melissa that have to do with this section of the budget? And the because the thing we have to do is the
vote on the regional school budget. Mandy, I do. Um one for Sean and then the rest go to the town council and town manager's office and they're related. Um um for Sean, you had in your budget some of the whatever the
descriptions of ongoing or projects or whatever um that you were talking about integrating timekeeping systems with Munis for police, fire, recreation, and schools. Um so could you talk more about what the town's IT role is
um for school technology grades? Yeah. Yeah. So um so for anybody who doesn't know the school the schools have their own IT department um who manage the the vast majority of their technology the the role that the town has um in
collaboration with the schools is the um the fiber connecting the buildings um was put in by the by the town and for the most part um town it manages that um the internet connection we share with the schools so that's something managed
by town it. Um and then the last big one is our financial database. Munis um which is hosted on the town side is a shared um database system with the schools. So the elementary schools have
their they're shared in with the town database and then there's a separate database for um region and separate database for pelum. So um the schools are they have their own timekeeping system currently
um that does not does not automatically bring um the payroll data. So all the payroll data happens through our mun system on the town side. It does not bring all of that in automatically. There's a manual process there and the
schools are looking at automating that. And so the town's role in that on the schools side of things is um just simply supporting them getting the data into the right format so that it can end up in our payroll system. The schools the
schools have been doing the lion share of the work. the school IT person has been doing the lion share of the work on that, but they are um they are looking to integrate that to to basically save save a lot of staff
time. Um and that is something that we do the town IT department bills back to the schools. So we take our munus bill and some of the um town it staff time and every year we we send a bill to the schools and so the schools pay the
schools pay their portion of that. Thanks. Yeah, Andy. Yeah. Uh Sean, you mentioned uh Ammeris Media and Comcast the uh fact that the contracts are nearing an end. You don't have that in
the upcoming objectives section uh for things that are coming, but uh that's going to be a um yeah, I think that's going to be a fairly major problem this year because there have been so much change in the industry.
Yeah. No, that's a that's a good point. I think there was talk about it going in the town managers um upcoming things, but I don't think it made it in there. So, it is it is um the last time I I luckily and andy was pretty heavily
involved in it last time too. Um had the the joy of going through it last time um as select board and then Andy was also part of the negotiation committee um as an as a select board representative. So, it is it is a big process. Um it is
going to be starting soon because it does um we are actually in the renewal phase. the renewal phase starts um three years before the contract ends which is October 16th of 26. Um so we are in the renewal phase. Um, one interesting thing
that we do get out of that is, um, there's an ascertainment process that Comcast does that the town does with Comcast and Comcast as part of that will survey town um, residents, town cable
subscribers um, and they will ask questions about um, their viewership of the the peg, the three peg channels. So, um, at some point, I would expect probably in the the coming months, we should get a report from Comcast that
shows, um, basic satisfaction with Comcast, satisfaction with Ammeris Media, their how often they view, um, stuff on those channels. So, that will be interesting to see and we'll be able to compare it to last year.
Andy, it is in the town manager's budget on page 79 as an objective. Okay, perfect. Okay. Yeah, that that is helpful. Uh I think the ascertainment's just the beginning of the uh process and
it's going to be u interesting this year because the amount of revenue with cord cutting that has happened for standard cable. Yeah. is great. So that the amount of resources
that are going to be available for Ammerst media and for the town are going to be substantially decreased. And I'm not sure how this is going to play out for the next round. We've really moved
into a new era of providing PEG services. A lot of it is being done uh through Zoom. Yeah. you know, we're done ourselves. We're and uh we're not using Ammerst media for the same
purposes to the extent that we are. Uh so it's going to be we're really in a different era. Yeah, I I agree. Mandy, did your hand go back up? Yes. Um but I'm I'd be happy to move on. My
question isn't for Sean. Okay. And is there any other question of Sean or Sean? Sean can leave. Okay. There was one more question on the list that I have a really quick answer to if you're interested. And it was just about
um notes um there was a question about for both DEI and it for staff transition um savings. Um and that so there was if you look at our personnel budget um it's slightly down this year pre compared to
previous year and that's simply we had somebody our um information specialist left last year and we hired a new one this March um and that person is at a lower step than the previous person. So that's that's why you see a savings
there. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. So my final question relates both to the town council and the town manager offic's budgets. Um particularly with payroll. Um threearters of the clerk's
clerk of the council's salary is in the town council, one quarter is in the town manager office and the town council payroll number is increasing by 11,000 plus dollars. Presumably all three quarters of the full salary because our stipens are not increasing this year. Um
the other one quarter in theory should be in the town manager's office, but the town manager's office total salary increase is only $4,000. Um and that is supposedly supposed to include the manager's 3% increase in salary as well as the um other
2.75 or 1.75 FTEES um in the manager's office as well as the clerk of the council's one quarter salary. and I just don't see how the math works um amongst the two. So, I would like an explanation as to how the town manager's office payroll number can only go up is only
going up $4,000 when that when I do the math can't include all of the step and cola increases that the council has voted for the manager and then presumably the other one quarter of the clerk of the council's salary increase as well as the assistant town manager
and another 75 FTE. Um, I just don't see how it works. So can someone address it? Yep. So I can address it if you like. So um part of the savings that you're not calculating
there um is the um Sam is three quarters in that the communications person and that position was held by Briana who had been here a long time. So she would have been at the top of her range whereas Sam probably didn't come in. I don't know
the exact step differential, but there's usually a significant amount of savings when a a a long-term staff person leaves at the top of the range and then someone comes in closer to the middle or the bottom of the range. And so the increase to the town manager is being offset by a
savings in a change in personnel and how those shifts. Um we always budget for the top of the range so that you know should we get someone that we want to offer a higherend salary to it's available but then when they come in there that that uh salary is negotiated
based on the um the staff member individually and then there's another um you know also we the the only things that are budgeted in this year's budget right now for all
staff half um because none of the contracts have been um none of the contracts have been finalized. I mean with the exception of course of the town manager but is all the colas we we assume a cola so that we
can negotiate in good faith but any um any increase beyond that um that that that cola or change in a contract amount is held in a in a
um in a personnel line separate from each individual department. You know what I mean? So that so that that that's in the employee benefits line, right? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I'm sorry I couldn't think of the word. Thank you for that. So I think that that
is and and I do know I'm not sure if it was also Oh, one of the other questions was about the um community some P off community CPOS and just sorry to add on to your answer
about um the communications manager that position was reclassified as well. So, Brianna was the director of communications and I think innovation, she had another one of those long titles. Um, and that was uh reclassified as communications manager. So, it wasn't
just a different level in the steps. It was um I'm sorry, it wasn't just a difference in the steps, it was a difference in the level as well. Thank you. But the the CPO position that um has
been um has been um basically um Angela Mills is taking on that role right now. So there won't be a new position. I think are we I think that
covers this and uh Jen can either stay with us or not. But the other item we need to do today because the council has scheduled a vote on the regional school budget is we need to have either a very quick
discussion or just a motion to recommend an action by the the council on the regional school budget, the operating budget. We've already taken care of the capital budget and I'm seeing Mandy's hand is up. I don't know whether it's in response to this, but this was on our
agenda and it's on the council agenda. So, Mandy, yeah. Um, I can I can do a motion. I would like a quick discussion after the motions. Um, and there are two, I believe, so that I can write this up since I'm the person writing up this
report. Get a little idea of why the motion's going the way it is. But, um, I believe there are two motions to make. Um so I'll make the first one which is to recommend um the council separately consider and
act on financial order FY26-02 um the appro well what is that the Ammerst Pelum Regional School District FY26 budget um and appropriation of the town of Ammer share pursuant to charter section
5.5C. See, that was that was a long enough detailed motion that you if you've written it out, maybe we'll put it up on this. Well, I I had it I had it shorter. I tried to add a title and I don't even know the title. It was the recommend that the council separately consider and
act on financial order FY2602 pursuant to charter section 5.5C. And when you say act upon, do you mean approve? No, I that's a second motion. This is the section of 5.5c is the section that allows the council to um with what is it
um um um consider separately consider and act on a portion of a budget because it would be prudent to do so. Okay, that's the section. So So we have to vote that separately than the actual budget. So,
I'm the motion that I just made, if there's a second, is the one that's recommending the council take that action as a separate thing. I will I will second it and then um she she read it quickly. Does anyone
need to see it up on the screen? Okay, this is just we should vote it separate. This is asking I understand that we're we're taking it out of the regular budget, the full budget and we're focusing on the regional school. Um, so then do you want to say what the
second motion is or do you want to have a discussion of the first motion first? You should vote this one first. The second one's going to be to recommend the the financial order. Okay. So, is there a discussion of this before we move to the budget?
I'm not seeing any. Yeah. I I just want to confirm that this u that we're talking about the 4.1% increase 4.81%. 4.81. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And and you know I had I had just
so people know I had asked have we done this before because I don't remember pulling the regional school out to completely vote on it separately. And I think um this year is different because the other towns are all voting on it and they want to make sure we vote on it,
but I didn't get a clear answer why we're doing it this way. But it's No, no, we we always do it this way and uh because we've always done it at the time of town meetings. We don't want to wait till the end of end of June. And uh so Andy, have we done it did we do this
last year, too? I just, you know, it was not done last year, but it was done the year before. So, I pulled the draft motion language from the year from the FY20. That was just I did last year. We had it. It was very late because we were we're messing around with the with the
Okay. So, it was the 8.2 and then the six and all of that last year. That was the problem last did anyone second? If not, I'll second. Yeah, I seconded it. Okay. Thank you. So, are we ready for a vote on this one? Okay. I will call for a vote. Bob,
hi. Kathy's a yes. Mandy, hi. Bernie, that was you. You're gonna have to unmute so I can hear you. I could see your lips. Yeah, the Space Prize networking support and Andy. Yes, it's unanimous with
uh two people absent. I'll write that up or Mandy will write that up. So one okay then the is your hand up Bernie? No. And Mandy second motion. The next motion is to recommend the Coun Town Council approve financial order
FY26-02 regional school budget assessment. Second. And um this is the one where we should have a quick discussion on it. Um, Mandy, why don't you lead off on it and
then we'll put it to a vote. Yeah. Um, so, so my thoughts are and I I'm interested to hear others thoughts. Um, it's above guidance although it matches the April vote of the council. Um, it does match what the school committee
voted. Um, the biggest thing for me in supporting this one, I'm not I'm not too thrilled that it's above the council's initial guidance. Um, I had struggled with some of the comments we received last week in
response to some questions regarding the budget itself and prior statements on in potential loss of positions that really just haven't that that don't happen. And it's a good thing it doesn't happen. I don't
want to say it's not, but it means it I I struggle with when a school committee and school district says in March that if a budget is passed, it will lose 12 positions and then when they actually do show the current FTEES, two or three or none are lost. Um that that this budget
that they're claiming and state will lose 12 positions. I I can't equivalently say it will um because of past statements uh past actual data. It's not statements, data, um, that show that those statements tend not to be
accurate. Um but the biggest thing for me here is I have been concerned that all of these guardrail votes in the past years regarding changes to assessment methods um and the regional agreement to change and put these guard rails in place have been moving us farther and
farther away from the regional agreement method and putting that burden on Ammerst taxpayers in favor of lessening the burden of funding our regional schools from other town by to other towns and that this budget gets us back
to what all four towns in the regional agreement have voted. And that to me is one of the most important parts of saying yes, we should pass this budget is it gets us to that regional agreement method. Um we are one of the least
affected of the towns in getting us to that as a yearover-year increase because other towns have been artificially lowered in their assessments um due to the modifications to that assessment method. Um, and so they're stepping up.
I feel like for comedy we need to too, but um I'm still not happy that it's not within our guidance, our initial guidance. So, uh, does anyone I have a comment and and Mandy has offered to draft this so
that we'll have a report, but um I agree with what you just said and what I would like to do in the report is not just talk about the 4.8% 8% but talk about the share of the budget that Ammerst
will end up paying for to point out that is roughly it's not exactly equal to the number of students our share of the students and that the others will be roughly equal. So it's not that we have moved money onto other towns budgets but
we're more in line with if you're 5% of the enrollment and you're 78% of the enrollment whatever. So, I'd like to just put those and we have um Mandy there in one of the background pieces and I still have it. I think I saved it.
We had the rolling five-year average of the actual enrollment that gives you separate from the regional agreement gives you the people share. Um and it's not an exact match, but I just would like us to point that out that this was
getting us back to that. Um and then the other thing having watched the school committee initial discussion that ended up with the one the budget we have in front of us I would like to talk about the total increase in the budget because
it is more than 4.8 because we're getting back on so the regional school to to raise the level a little bit on what we're we're talking about. So we're we're it's a different way of saying this is we're paying our fair share and
the budget is going up by more than 4.8 because all of the other towns. So just trying to capture that a little bit in our report to the council. Um so all the counselors understand this. You know we had uh just not everyone well Bernie
wouldn't see but we had a recent public comment saying well we're only is 4.8 8 and someone else is 14 and so you know why aren't we paying more because there wasn't an understanding of the shares so I just would like to make sure we write
enough about the shares and there was an option that the school committee didn't vote for that would have kept us to four if it had been shared you know and it would have been more cuts so so just that was the thing I wanted to add to
what you just said and we didn't get a clear answer about the ability of students to walk across the road back and forth um and take uh classes at one or the other schools. And my
understanding when I heard the answer again during the school committee meeting is that because the schedules aren't aligned, that's extremely difficult. So, I'd like to just make a comment on that, that you can't use resources as efficiently as you might
for the extra courses if you could get to a certain level of student enrollment if you allowed the students to move back and forth with the same number of teachers. And this is more music, art, languages. Um, so I'd like to just put a that that should be a goal of doing it.
And if we ever were going to move the middle school into the high school, it would have to be they'd have to be aligned, you know. So, I just like to make we had that discussion briefly and the answer was the teachers can move them back and forth, but the students
can't. So, that would be the other piece I would want to do that, you know, accepting this um because the school committee did and the other towns have voted on it and it's a way to move this forward. So, I see Bob's hand is up. So, I'm comfortable voting yes for this, by the way. Yeah, I'm I'm comfortable
voting for it for the reasons that Mandy had had had stated. Uh but I do wish to pose a concern which is the overall increase of the budget is 6.5%. Which is unsustainable. Um and I don't know what
we're going to do next year. Um but we can't we can't increase 6.5% next year. Um there there ha there I mean we I think it's very important to get this whatever the you know whether it's
a a a reconfiguration of the of the budget coordinating group or whatever we've got to get this thing moving so that everyone has a common understanding of what the schools need and how we're going to provide it. And and I agree with you Kathy the idea that I mean
scheduling is I mean, you can fix scheduling. I mean, you know, when my kids were going through the schools, there was a there wasn't a schedule difference. Um, and you know, they they did fine. So, I don't know what the what
the issue is why they they've changed the scheduling different, but it's it's I mean, it's that's just something that we're imposing or we're imposing on the students. is not the students are imposing on on us. you know that I my
understanding was that there's a team model in the middle school and somehow the way that's set up makes but yes I'm not even talking about the curriculum other than it's not a good idea to not have them aligned I you know yeah it makes no sense and
you know um anyway so you know there was a you know when when my kids were in high school my younger kid they started with two uh study halls you know to to instead of one study hall. So they were
cutting back but maintaining a a certain schedule and you know he and both he and his older brother took classes at uh one at UMass, one at I think they both took them at UMass when they were in seniors.
So you know again I that that part of the the equation also needs to be emphasized that we have these other you know We have these great colleges, you know, great college and a great university, you know, within walking distance of the
high school. And we we should be able to figure out how to use it use these that res those resources better than we do. Bernie. Yeah. And those those resources from the colleges are something that I
think that they could be generous with uh without getting into the whole um uh mandated payments kind of thing. I mean it's something that the that they could do in uh re reasonably well I think and uh
would provide a genuine contribution. One of the things I would like to suggest is a sort of is that there's been a number of discussions about having sustainability committees or this committee or that committee or a 15 person committee.
Um I would strongly suggest that we not have another committee. I would think that um the town manager and administrators and the superintendent should sit down with both
the uh uh local services folks at the department of revenue and the appropriate staff at DESIE and ask DESIE and do to um take on a study of the funding
and the funding situation and the ability of the towns to raise revenue to take that on and report back to the towns. Uh that takes a lot of the politics out of it. That takes a lot of emotion out of it because then you you get two um pros, if you will, or three
pros or however many desks in local services chooses to assign to do an in-depth study. It might take them a year, but they'll they they've produced some pretty good studies. I think local services have. I've used them and I I think they're uh
they're very skillful people. Uh so rather than try to do it ourselves and get into pitching uh uh accusations or stances back and forth, uh let's see if we can get those resources to bear uh
bring some attention to the funding problems because I I do agree with with with Bob. It's it's been said over and over again. we can't continue to have six plus percent increases and hope to um continue to finance the whole municipality. Never
mind just the schools. So that would be my my section. I'll I'll um you know I'll support this. I'm not happy as I agree with councelor Hani that not happy that they've gone over the guidelines but I
think that was you know that handwriting was on the ball right from the start of the budget discussion. So um this is a reasonable compromise and I I I think I could end up supporting it. Is there any further discussion on this?
Yeah, I mean I tend to generally agree with all that was said. Um, and the uh reality is is that there's a politics involved with the school committee.
There's politics involved with the four other three towns. And uh what uh happened um in the end that brought the number down for Ammerst brought the number up for Pelum and
Leverit. And so you and fairly substantially and there was a lot of anxiety that especially that was expressed by lover but I'm actually in more contact with pelum people as it turns out than I am with lover people
this year but I think you know there everybody's feeling the stress about this and it belongs to all of the communities. Um we did raise the question um as a result it went back to the school committee school committee
brought in the test people and the testy people um said hey you can't do what you want to do and they put they they essentially said you have to go back to the regional agreement we're not going
to allow this uh making up of a um an amount each year whether you uh you know no matter what you call it whether and so that that's what happened and I think that we for those reasons really need to
just do it and uh be supportive of the other plus other two towns two of the other towns have already voted um I had a couple questions one was was this technically I don't think this was on the agenda for today's meeting. Uh,
we put it on we put it on the agenda. Y I had Melissa add it. Okay. Cuz I was looking at the agenda that was posted in the pack. I I I actually never looked at it. I just asked it's in the list of topics
which is where it needs to be. And the other question is where is the order itself? The order was what? So, there is an list of orders on page 296 of Paul's final budget, which is where I got the order
number and the assessment. And it has just a line item of appropriating 19,7448 for order number 226-2 regional school budget assessment. And it's under the raise and appropriate number. So, it's got an order number and and the
assessment. Is it Is it FY2602? It's on page 20 296. No, no. What is the Is it order FY? Order number 2602. Okay. Um I actually have it. Uh then I finally found it and
um I think that it's pretty straightforward. Um, and I just was, it's only really a sentence that the town approved fiscal year 2026 Ammerstella Pelum Regional
School District operating budget of 37,77,171 and the town be assessed and it gives the number 19,7448 based on the un amended ammer first pelum regional assessment method of an increase of
4.81% and to meet that um such appropriation authorized the town to raise in the same amount of money. The reason I went through that all is that I raised a question at the council meeting that no one had an answer to, which is
um do we this year not have to vote on the assessment method itself? And I think that the answer is coming out yes. And that because that is no one's provided us an order to that
effect. Andy, in the past there was a vote to amend the assessment method. this year there's no amendment to the assessment method like you read in the order it's the un amended assessment method so we don't need a separate vote okay so I just wanted clarity on that um
so I think that uh we're said if people are want to actually see the order I can share screen but it's not necessary so Andy if you would send it if you have found the wording of all of that. If you send it,
we can attach it to the report and it will have to be in the council packet in the format that it needs to be in the council packet as well. I think that it was actually in it might be in the council packet. It has been in a prior
council packet. That's how I found it. Right. Because I will I will send it to you um as immediately after we adjourn. Yeah. I'm I'm just saying that Mandy I think it would be good to do that and then we have the other thing that I think is useful is the request that came
to us shows the total budget you know where where the 4.8 eight. I'd like to have both those documents in our report. So then when we're talking about the total budget is going up by such and such, people can see what we're talking about. I I just find it useful not to
refer to something that's in a packet somewhere. So if everyone's okay, I know it bulks it up, but it the rep the words in the report can be short, but the documents will tell people what we're talking about. So, any other
discussion? If not, I will call for a vote. Uh, Bob Hegner. Hi. Kathy is a yes. Mandy, hi. Bernie, yes. Support. Support. I I got it. And
Andy, yes. So, we will record the vote. So, thank you everyone for staying over. My watch says we're 10 minutes over, but I thought this was a really terrific discussion on a report and um Mandy has
offered to do a draft and we'll try to get it back to today is Tuesday. We'll get it back to everyone to just check the wording on it the way we always do with reports um before I submit it to the council. Is there anything else? Um, the one the
one request It probably won't come till tomorrow morning, Kathy, because I forgot I had something going on tonight. I I don't think you know in instant gratification is not necessary, but but that it's almost written. It just needs some stuff added and tweaked.
So the the I already put this out to everyone but to and then Bernie said if you you want him to consolidate to the extent we can get the questions those of us who don't have an assignment for a section if we're reading it. Mandy seems
to be reading the whole budget book which I'm eternally grateful for. um get the questions to the person who does and to the extent we can we can send a consolidated thing through to Melissa rather than asking staff to merge two
lists so then uh people won't get you know we didn't do that with the safety group Andy so they got two separate lists but we'll try to do that going forward and then if there is general agreement once we get that consolidated list we'll make sure everyone sees it um
on the committee and we'll post it in the we'll post it in the packet. So with that agreement, I just want to make that's a process agreement. So I think we're ready to adjourn unless anyone has any remaining. We are Thursday is
um Thursday is the 15th. So it's a 4:00 meeting. It's our one off to avoid colliding with TSO. And so we're there with uh public safety. I will look for a motion to Oh,
I'll make a motion to adjourn. Also move. Okay. And I'll call for a vote. Bob I. Kathy say yes. Mandy I. Bernie. Yes. And Andy? Yes. We are adjourned. And
thank you Melissa and Athena for stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay stay staying over thank you very much to everyone we are journ