Morning everyone and uh welcome to uh February 11th um meeting of the point county commissioners. Um we have a quorum and um it's good to see everybody. Um, this meeting of the county commissioners is being conducted in person and by remote means in
accordance with applicable state laws. Um, those wishing to participate may do so either in person or by accessing uh our meeting uh through Microsoft Teams. Uh, for instructions on how to join the meeting remotely, please go to our website, Barnstable County website, kickot.gov, and check out the meeting agenda on the uh on our website under the meeting center menu. And uh that should get you into the meeting. And if you want to be recognized or need to be
recognized, you just need to raise your hand. So now that we've called the meeting to order, I'm going to ask everyone to join the commissioners in a pledge of allegiance. The flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Now I'd like you all to join us in a moment of silence to reflect on the bravery and the
sacrifices of all those who have put their lives on the line in service to our country. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is public comment. Is there anybody here in person who would like to be recognized? How about online? And do we have anybody online? Do you see anybody? Ian, Robin? No. No raised hands. No raised hands. Very good. All right. So, following public comment, uh we have placed on the agenda uh an item called communication from the Assembly of Delegates and
uh we've invited the speaker and her members of her leadership team to come vote for us to update us on some of the fine work that's going on over at the assembly. So, I'm going to turn it over to Susan Warner, the speaker assembly. Well, thank you very much and I we appreciate coming in and and bringing you up to speed. And from time to time there there are some um more in-depth kinds of things that we're involved with that just take a little bit longer and rather than bog you down with all of that kind of detail, um we'll probably do it this way, which is one of the more complex
um things that we've been working on for over a year now. I think it was December 21 23 that we started this. Um and it's a proposed home rule petition number 202601 um which is for a high value real estate transfer fee for the for yearround housing. Um, after we reviewed uh the Cape Cod Commission's housing report and a number of other uh areas of of uh uh people coming in and talking to us about what they were doing like the housing assistance corp and others.
Um it became apparent that that you know we have we we collectively all over the the the region have have done many studies on the issue but but um we're have been unable to create some kind of solution that might move however small or large um a uh um some type of of um start to to try to help solve that problem. Um uh it just seems to be getting worse and worse and and uh we we don't
want to find ourselves in a situation in which we we can't get any service people and once the bridge work starts that could present an even further problem for for our smaller businesses that that are um relying on people who come uh over the bridge to work with them. Um so uh the uh Elizabeth Harter is the chair of the economic the standing committee on economic affairs and this particular um uh petition was presented um by um delegates green from Falmouth, delegate from
um from Harwitch Ali from Province Town and delegate Tai from uh Dennis and um was submitted in uh on December nomber 17th, 2025. Falmouth delegate. Yeah, indeed. Yes. Uh delegates Gesson. Yeah. He and he was he was the the original sponsor. Um the um we approached it differently than we ever have before and found that that approach wasn't necessarily the best way to go.
Um we we tried to gather a lot of data um current data from local towns and communities uh uh all of whom have you know some kind of issue with this and and it just made people it didn't it it's not one that we'll be following up with again. But um but we straightened that out and and um um we moved to kind of a more uh straightforward one and and actually uh change some of the language because the language was getting confusing with because this is not an ordinance. It's a it's a
it's what they call a home rule petition and it's uh what do they what do they say? It's a um a leg a home rule petition under charter 91 is is the most direct route to approach the um the state assembly with this and and it it or the state um legislator yeah legislature. Thank you. Um so uh we then started having a number of um meetings with the communities coming in
on on days that we also had a regular assembly meeting and and heard additional viewpoints from a variety of of uh of people. And um what's been interesting to me is that um there are points of view on this. there don't seem to be a lot of middle ground, but we I I wouldn't say that we know for sure once it does go to vote in the assembly if it's if it's going to pass or not. Uh you know, it's it's it's pretty much been even. And some of the people with
whom I spoke initially who were against it have now after getting a lot more detailed information about how it would work and that the towns each um it's it's voluntary and so towns have the right to uh uh to opt in or opt out. If they were to opt in, then they would get um uh the uh uh the money from the whatever um housing goes through and then uh if they opted out, that money wouldn't
they wouldn't be charged and it wouldn't go anywhere. It wouldn't go to, you know, wouldn't go to the another town or anything like that. It would just um uh not be done. We also had the uh I mean there was a lot of things that we had done. We we had the um the deeds um folks run us a two-year uh expectation of how much each town might legitimately expect based on a two the two years prior. Um, and it was quite uh quite an interesting uh finding that everybody everybody
would would would benefit from it and uh in in a in a a way that could make a difference in their housing um in their housing that the the housing is not simply as many people are still saying for it's not simply affordable housing. It's housing that could be uh that could be some community, some town wants to help uh people who are just uh new people who are trying to move here uh and start a life here to to maybe um uh get their uh down payment because they don't have
enough for down payment or it could be um you're better at all the all the things it could be. Um well the main the main gist of why the reason we started this is because I know in my town and talking to other um housing coordinators there's no money for the municipal employees we need I'm sure you know county employees I'm sure you know it's very expensive and we can't get the people we need um a place to live there's money for afford capital A affordable there's no money
for attainable, you know, for the young people, for municipal workers, for nurses, for doctors, um to keep people's families intact. So, that was um really the reason behind this. And I'm sorry, I can't remember the number. I think 15 um towns and and if you count the islands, it's like 11 to 11 15 um home rule petitions have been filed by the towns themselves. I know Nantuckets
has been sitting there for over 10 years. So the towns that want a transfer fee are at the end of their ropes. And so we said, "Well, we'll try it this way." Um because and we talked to I talked to a million people plus we had hearings. Um and what the home this home world petition does is we looked at everybody's every town's home world petition and incorporated those so that the towns
would have a range you know so a it's voluntary b the percentage can be anywhere from.5% to 4%. threshold can be anywhere you want over a million. Um, who pays it is up to the town. Whether it's residential or commercial, it's up to the town. We tried to leave as much as possible up to the towns because what this is really supposed to do is help the towns use their funds. Um, and the least
amount of money that they will keep of theirs is 90%. So, um, can I make a suggestion? Yes. Um, in the interest of time, okay, given we we got a long agenda, um, I do think that this is a topic that we definitely want to put on our agenda and have a more in-depth conversation with you and whoever you want to bring into the meeting. But what would be helpful for us to know is to get a sense of at least process-wise and timetable what you're looking at when you know because I'd
like to be for us to be thinking a good time frame for us to have you back the the we are very much at the end and um you're at the end of the process. Yeah. At the end of the process and we've done we've been on this for a year and you anticipate the assembly at least coming to some decision one way or the other or however it is. Yeah. this the assembly would would yeah ultimately vote and and the the end result then is um based on the charter 91 um is that it would uh advance uh to the Massachusetts General Court and and um while we don't know what their point
of view is at this point, we do know that there is a very huge housing bill that uh uh that was put forward and that they're uh looking at now themselves of what what they can do to help uh towns and communities across the state to uh to to start to deal with this particular issue. Right. And one of the reasons that we're the towns or the people that work in the towns are excited about this is because there are um suggestions that the transfer fee be imposed, not voluntary,
and that 50% of the money raised would go to some entity um that would oversee everything. Now, we all know the county doesn't want to run that. Uh um we're not sure who would run it. Um so, the point of this is to really let the legislature know what the towns want. Flexibility, voluntary. Um and we've been everybody's been going back to their towns and getting input. So our schedule is
today it will be hopefully the final economic affairs committee where we're going to discuss amendments that various delegates have put in and other people have suggested and then if all goes well we'll be voting on it at the next meeting. Um because it's been forever. I've talked to every next meeting we could turn this on because they'll be voting that afternoon possibly. What's that?
If you could come back in two more weeks, we could have an agenda. Have you as an agenda so we could, you know, cut out that time and really go into it because you'll be voting probably if all goes well of what you're saying today uh two weeks from now. No, we vote next week is our meeting. Oh, that's right. You're on the odds. We're in every other week. Yeah, that's right. Okay. I'm sorry. That's a good thing because I would like to see what the assembly comes up with and that's in front of us so we can we can discuss, you know, the actual ordinance or the actual petition. Yeah. I mean,
we've been discussing it for six months or over a year. You've been invited to every meeting and um we'll be Yeah. And and I Yeah. And I can also, you know, I can I can send you a a summary sheet uh um which which I don't think we've sent you. But as we've been going through points, we have been sending um individual material that deals with those points um to to um not only you but to um all of the managers and um is that right Owen ask that question? Yeah, go ahead. You can
Owen that question. Have you been sending that to the managers uh to select? Yeah, Owen Flesh from the clerk of the assembly. Yeah, all of our um distribution goes out to all of the select board members and bar. Um I know it's a lot that they get so maybe they haven't seen it, but we've been careful to communicate directly with them and so that stuff is generally available. So hopefully we can get back to you in a in a we're on YouTube. All the economic affairs committee meetings are on
YouTube. We've had two public hearings about it, but you know, that's up to them what they want to look at. But I think that this is probably the the most the most valuable just wanted to let you know we most valuable thing. We appreciate you. We very much appreciate you coming in and uh we hope ask you to stick around while we go through the dredge. Yes. Yeah, we will. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So good to see you. If I pass Do I move? Yes, you have.
Exit stage left. Thank you. Thank you. I apologize for not knowing all these details. No problem. It's a different different details. Next item on our agenda is general business item number 6A. proposed ordinance 26- named regarding emergency appropriation dealing with ice breaking and dredging. Is is Ken Cerillo here? Ken, come on up. You going to be in the hot seat? So, I'm gonna ask
Michael to kick this off for us to give us sort of oriented on what's been going on. There's been a lot that's been happening. I should call pulling the hair out of his head and got shrinking too, Michael. All right. Thank you. Um, we it has been a busy uh few days. Uh, but we are, I think, in a good position pending uh vote on the proposed ordinance that's in front of you. Uh, and then and then ratification or vote by the Assembly of Delegates. So, um, Julian Seir, our senator, state
senator Julian Seir, convened convened a meeting, uh, on Monday, uh, based on a phone call that that we had had with him uh, on Friday. Convened a meeting about the, uh, issue of ice um, affecting our harbors, affecting the commercial fisherman. It's frozen ice and yep, it's uh, it's the real it's it's real ice. Uh, yeah. Not not the other ice, right? Um, in any case, uh, we are proposing, uh, to adopt an emergency ordinance which would allow us to expend, uh, $50,000 towards, uh,
emergency, uh, the hiring of a of a private sector tug company to break up the ice, uh, in a number of different harbors. Um, as I said, the Assembly of Delegates uh will hold a virtual meeting on Thursday uh to to vote that appropriation and address that appropriation as well. Um, we have reached out, Ken has reached out to a number of different contractors. Uh, we believe we have found one that is capable of of doing the work and uh if all goes well on Thursday at the assembly,
we will uh look to uh trigger that uh start uh as early as Friday. um this week. Um just to give you a little bit of background, the Coast Guard does not have ice breakers per se. The Coast Guard does have large ships that do come in and and well large uh that do come in and uh and do some ice breaking in the harbors that it can. It does uh Woods Hole, it does Nantucket, does Hyannis, and it does uh the Vineyard, and obviously to accommodate the the ferry boat that goes back and
forth to the islands. Um they have they do have a 40 some odd foot boat 49 ft boat uh that does uh come in and clear harbors unfortunately that one uh is broken and uh so we uh we have been asked to step in um any monies that we expend on this not that this is the big issue right now but I do want to let you know that any monies that we expend uh Senator Seir is uh is graciously uh trying to um make sure that we have the the ability to uh tap into a supplemental state budget sometime
uh later in the spring. So So we do look for for uh reimbursement if uh if possible there. Um we also talked a little bit about uh some of the challenges and and I'll turn it over to Ken here in a second, but we talked a little bit on the on the call on Monday about some of the challenges that the uh that the dredge faces uh because of this ice uh issue. We have one dredge that's stuck in Suit and uh and that is putting us behind schedule on a number whole host of different dredge projects primarily excuse me in Chattam. Uh so Senator Sears has already begun a conversation
with the state uh division marine fisheries to talk about a waiver uh talk about waiverss of time of year restrictions to allow us to get caught up uh as we head into the the warmer months. Um I already mentioned the supplemental funding that he will be looking for. Uh and I also want to uh just just mention uh one of the options that we looked into was the possibility that uh towns cities and well towns in this case uh could use uh their snow and ice budget in order to fund ice clearing. Um,
the Department of Revenue has said, "No, that's that's not an eligible use uh of snow and ice uh money." I think as as this board probably knows, snow and ice in a municipal budget is the only uh line item that can be legally overspent and then made up later on on your recap. So, uh, so had it been available to do ice clearing, it would have been an easy, uh, fix, so to speak. towns could have hired ice breakers to come in, do the job, um, and just added it onto their snow and
ice expense. So, um, so if that requires a rule change or a law change, uh, Senator Sierra's has, uh, committed to taking a look at changing that so that that funding opport, you know, that funding, uh, mechanism, uh, could exist in the future. So, we have iced in harbors about once every 10 years. Um, so it's not something that happens frequently. Um, but I think there are things that we can do uh later on to uh to make it a much easier uh process if we if we have it again uh during
our lifetimes. But I'll I'll turn it over to Ken and why don't you get us give us right now real quickly. Um you know there's there's three major parts of this puzzle. You know access emergency access which is one of the harbor master's concerns. Uh commercial fishing. There's three or four ports that have boats that are tied up that can't get out. And then of course the damage to the municipal docks and private docks. On the access point, it's important to point out that the towns often will provide an emergency response in anticipation of a coast guard response at some
point later on. That's particularly the case in Chattam, right? But it's also the case in other areas as well. So the mitigation, you know, it's not a one and done. You can't just bring a ice boat in to break up the ice and leave. you know, it has to be done with the tide going out and obviously wind shift as we're seeing now in the north side. Logistics priorities, you know, trying to align uh the the right place, the right boats that uh companies have and then the costs. Um so the main areas that have the concern right now, you know, we have Dennis where we are on the
north side in Suit Wealthy, the whole town pier area. uh on the south side, Harwood, Sakatucket, Witchmir, Witchmir is actually a location where the Coast Guard fuels. Um and just a quick note after what the update from this morning is the 49footer that has been out of woods hole that was intended to go to the north side, you know, ended up breaking down, had it hauled out, put it back in, had it hauled out. So, it's out it's out of the water again. So most likely, you know, we can't rely on that as a solution, which was what we were hoping last week because they were going to send that uh to Witchmre first uh to Haritch first. Then Barnstable
on the north side, you know, the whole harbor, we show you some pictures quickly. And then the three bays area uh stage harbor right now seems to be clearing. Uh it was not heavily impacted, but the bigger issue there was the Coast Guard, you know, being able to get in and out. But this morning's update from the harbor master was that right now they're kind of okay. And Mashby has all the embainments from Wuay Bay over to Pompanesset Bay with a couple of their channels and again for commercial fishing aquaculture there. Uh this is from the commercial fishing alliance who's
obviously been incredibly supportive of of this effort primarily because of wealthy suitt you know those three main ports and stage. So from yesterday some photos you know this is the entrance over at Blush Point going into the harbor. It's very bad. This ice is thick. It's like six inches thick. You know that the winds over the weekend pushed it in. Today it's moved out a little bit, but it's it's not going to melt quickly. This is Katou Town dock.
Uh well fleet. These are just in from this morning from the harbor master Kavanaaugh. This is now the damage side. Oh yeah. until this is a little bit of a different play because now we're, you know, what can you do? It can get worse. And this is sort of the gift that we'll keep on giving because this is going to be hard to find contractors to do the work on top of the expense and it's a big ice field.
Still well for you. Yeah. So to the one where I'll be selfish because the original this whole thing started with us trying to find a way to get a solution to get us working. You know we kind of stopped two weeks ago and uh we have been really literally frozen for a couple of weeks. We finished that area one down the bottom. We need two and three. We're about only about a third done. Uh we do have a waiver now for the entire month from fisheries which is good because this is the winter flounder time of the year restriction. That's right. So they've been the the DMF has been
very very helpful as always. But it's in very bad shape. It's as it's as bad as Wealthy, you know, I'd say, if not worse. You can you can look at the ice. It just keeps right on going out the harbor. Well, I knew when I asked Ken to bring in photographs, we would I wouldn't let I wouldn't have let you down. You know that I could have sent you a few, but um Well, you ask and you shall receive. Uh but it's bad. I mean, this is this is the dredge frozen and we can't, you know, it's it's it's safe. It's secure. It's certainly not going anywhere right now, but you know, once that
ice starts to move, we have to start to worry. But this is looking out to the jetty and it's this is yesterday and our pipe that's sticking out. So, we're, you know, we have a problem, but I think the other issue really goes back to the the the other points that were originally raised. And then the last part is is that you know we do have as I said to Michael you know it's um this is like trying to find an air conditioner in August. It's not easy to find any companies that are going to be able to say oh great one they're all busy right now. So we do have one that you know is ready to roll and to provide uh the ice breaking that you know is needed at the very least
on the south side in Haritch which is you know commercial/ coast guard and then obviously on the north side in Wleley and Sissu as the two primary places. Okay very good questions commissioner. Yeah just commissioner you know there was a time quite a while ago when the harvest would routinely freeze. They're talking about 20 30 years ago and at that point Coast Guard the fleet was a 44 steel 44 foot steel halt vessels and they would keep the harbor open you know but now we're into this rigid inflatable era and those they're not ice breakers you know I'm s I'm amazed though that
the Coast Guard hasn't made provisions someday the cold weather would come back. Yeah. Well, they have they have one, you know, the Shackle, which is the the larger of the of the of the class that did come down from Boston and has been running Nantucket Hyannas to keep the ferry lines open. That's their primary mission. The smaller boats, you know, very these are also very old and there's only the one that's here. So, you know, it's not I think it's it's an aging fleet, which is really the problem. This is a priority not just for the channels, but also for the approaches. For instance, in Chattam, you have to be able to get to the pier. stage harbor, you have to be able
to un load and unload and even take your your your tender out to the boat to get there. So, it's a big issue for fishermen and I know that uh as I said, as you said in your station, you every day they can't get out. It's a day lost. So, this should be a priority. Any questions, Warren? Any questions? No. Okay. Commissioner Lions. Um it looks like it's nice day out there. It's not going to melt. I know it's not melt, but um so say we we appropriate this and by the time you
get there on I mean maybe I think what it sounds like how really doesn't need it right now and um but you start getting to these other places at least now we know that there's money available if something happens like this again I would imagine we don't have to spend it just because we're appropriating it if all things change. Absolutely. Okay. You know, the water temperature yesterday on the south side is 28 and a half. So that's salt water. Yeah. Yeah. It's not good. So it's not a not a quick warm up. In order to move this along, we have to take sort of two votes. The first one
is a declaration of an emergency that an emergency exists. Um I'm going to make that motion and then I'll leave it to my other to um initiate the second one. So, um, I'm going to move that, uh, a determination exists that there is a special emergency under charter section 3-7, section B, uh, justifying a call for an emergency meeting of the assembly of delegates. Second. Um,
any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? It carries unanimously. Commission. Mr. Chairman, I move to approve the proposed ordinance 26 to be numbered to authorize the emergency appropriation of $50,000 for harbor ice breaking and dredge mobilization for introduction to the assembly of delegates. Second. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any more discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I opposed and carried
unanimously. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck. All the town's harbor masters will be very pleased with this. Well, well, we're pleased. Uh until then, thank you. Yeah. For hanging in there through the duration of this weather. That's great. The next item on our agenda is the annual designation of the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod as the official arts agency of Barnstable County. Um, we have Chris Kazerian, the director of grants and communications joining us to update us uh, briefly on all the great things that you folks have been doing and what you anticipate doing in the future.
So, Chris, welcome. Thank you for having us or me. Um, so I've been here at the Arts Foundation for four years. We've been around for 39 years. We're going to be celebrating our 40th anniversary next year. So, we're starting preliminary preparations for that. our longest running program, which is why we're here, is our grants. We give out grants. We've been doing that since 1989. Julie, our executive director, uh she's been here since uh August of 2015. And when she first started,
they were giving out about $15,000. We just last year gave out $173,000. The since 2020, we've given out over $830,000. Of that 180,000 has been from the federal government, the NEA. Uh we received $150,000 grant of which we gave $139,000 to 14 arts organizations to help in their pandemic recovery. We we received in 2024 a $30,000 grant. We uh matched that for 60,000. We
gave that eight individual artist grants. We were awarded another $40,000 grant last January that was rescended unfortunately in May said because it didn't fit with the president's priorities at the time. So uh we appealed that we we lost the appeal. We're applying again under one priority and we funded through our grants, we funded uh initiatives, projects focused on using the arts as a conduit for helping with health and wellness, individual and communities. So, individuals with
Alzheimer's and people with Parkinson's disease and substance use disorders and mental health. So, we're going to be applying as a local arts agency uh to uh receive some funding for support arts projects for health and wellness, strictly for health and wellness. And so, we would take that money, we would match it, and uh if we're successful, this is competitive. You know, it's a the NEA uh and hopefully it's still around. Uh but uh we would learn in November
and then they would announce it in January and we would give it out next year at some point. So that's uh our that's why I'm here. So uh we need this designation. We can apply for the funds, but they won't award it unless we have this designation. And we have uh a few other programs. our arts access program which is to connect all children in the region to the arts. We received last year an anonymous donation which allowed us to hire a coordinator for that program. So
uh that's nice. And then we have a creative exchange program and we received some ARPA money in 2022 that allowed us to really reimagine that program and that's focused on personal and professional development for anybody who's working in the arts. Um, and we just onboarded 15 artists who will spend the next four months through May uh, developing a business plan. They'll each receive $1,000 at the end of of completing the program. They're taking workshops focusing on the financial side of the creative business. It's
great. Commissioner Lions, no, I uh, have always supported the YS Foundation. I uh, give Julie my regards. You've all done a great job. It's just gotten better over the years on on how you focused on what your real mission is and um I am happy we do this all the time. It's very helpful to them. I totally support uh giving this designation again and and whatever support we can give especially in your uh big birthday celebration next year, I think um we should help
you, you know, get that out there and and make a big deal out of that. That's great. Thank you, Commissioner Burst. Yes. Uh, I agree with the sentiments expressed by Commissioner Lions and I'm sure the chair does also. So, I will move to approve the designation of the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod as the official arts agency of Arsal County. And I second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Um, I ask for a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. The carries unanimously. Good to see you, Chris. Thank you for all your
work. take a photograph with uh this official. I'll allow it. Okay. All right. All right. Okay. This is the evidence that it's it actually happens. All right. Thanks. All right. Here you go. Bingo. Congratulations, Chris. Thank you. Don't spend all the money in any one place. Okay. Thank you. Nice to see you. Stay warm. Yes. Stay warm. Give our request to Julie. Stay at least free. She's in Boston and at the Mass Cultural Council today. So busy day for her.
Thank you. Good weather. All right. Good. Moving right along. The next item on our agenda it is the section on the fiscal year 2026 second quarter revenue financial update from Carol. Morning,
Commissioner. Good morning, Carol. How are you? I'm good, thank you. Um, so just for the record, Carol Capola, I'm your finance director and treasurer. I'd like to share a presentation with you of the second quarter financial results. I'm assuming it's coming up on the screen. There she is. I'll make sure. There.
Just a bit of a delay here. So, hold on, please. Okay. So these are financial results as of December 31st um 2025. That was just last just a couple months ago. Um sorry here we go. Um the um finance department is currently or was currently um um managing a little over $82 million worth of cash. Um
that's it was as of December 31st, 2025 over a 100 funds. Um we have 24 bank accounts now, not 23 and we could talk about that at the end um as to why. Um and then we you know we have stable results um for revenues and expenditures um throughout the departments. We're watching very closely um some utilities, some salaries um but um we certainly are um keeping a watchful eye on anything that we may think might be needing a little attention.
So revenue for all funds here um for fiscal year 26 this is um through half of the fiscal year um I'm just providing you information with regard to um the operating budget Cape Cod commission dredge and um and all the other um significant funds here at the county all of them are rep all hundred funds are represented here in revenue information expenditures as well. I added um the the percent um amount expended of the total
budget and as I have mentioned before there are some costs that we have right up front um in July such as the retirement assessment that we pay that right in July on July 1st. We also have some debt obligations that um that um debt service that needs to be paid um that when it comes due in July as well. So, those are really upfront costs because otherwise you'd think that you would see somewhere around 50% spent here and it's a little
um um a little in excess of that. Um Dredge Enterprise, their um busy season is starts in the fall as you know. Um and so um although they're tapered off right now um I'm sure that that will be resolved with your actions today and the assembly's hopeful actions tomorrow. So this is just providing you with information with regard to expenditures through December 31st.
Breaking this down a little more. Um the I'm just providing you revenue really by department in the general fund and this is um also by department just finalizing um the information here. operating expenses. We've broken this down to salaries, fringe benefit, other expenses. I've separated out debt service for this presentation and we'll
continue to do that. And then we've got some other funding sources which include OPE and PAS stabilization. Um salary and fringe here just nearly 75% of your total um operating budget. providing you information here just by um separating it out by department, budget versus actual and then um the by department the percent that has been utilized or expended.
So just to wrap things up with regard to the general fund revenue and expenses as I mentioned we're watching closely some utilities salaries and laboratory supplies. laboratory supplies have increased significantly the cost of because of tariffs. Um so we have some strong results in your lab as well for revenue. Um and that's really based on the the influx of um support that you've provided to them whether it be for personnel or
um equipment. Um and so you're seeing strong results um with regard to revenue for the lab. And I've looked at historical trends with regard to other county revenues and you're right on target. Um as um David Murphy um the assistant registered deeds let us know um last week um that as of January 31st your registry numbers are up five just over 5%. from last year actuals, not from the budget because our budget, we tend to budget more conservatively,
right? I'm providing information here with regard to the Cape Cod Commission and their revenue as of December 31st. This is all broken down by line item. you'll see the environmental protection um that first half of the assessment that the county provides to all the towns um was due in the second quarter. Um the second half of that assessment will be due in the fourth quarter.
and breaking down Cape Cod Commission's expenses here the same way that I've broken them down for you for the general fund. U moving on to Dredge. Dredge had a significant revenue um influx in the second quarter of FY26 and then breaking down the expenses for Dredge in the same manner as I'd broken them down for the general funds. pulling out debt service at this point in time for you to separate that.
I wanted to take a closer look at stabilization funds and the the order regional commissioners have made um it a priority to put away funds or to safeguard funds um for particular purposes. Um this is just providing you and the public information with regard to when these u five capital five stabilization funds were established and um through through the ordinance process and providing you with um December 31st balances of those funds.
And this is just showing you uh a different way to look at the balances in those funds and when they were established. Good. And again, um this provides you with the same information but gives you a history of um when they were established in 21 reading right to left and then as of 123125. Um ordinance 26-02 was approved in January of 2026. It appropriated 3.7 just over $3.7 million
to capital stabilization. and th though that that transfer happened um the beginning of February and that's not so that's not reflected here. So why do we have 24 bank accounts now instead of 23? That's our little personal thought. No. No. So we we our finance department speaks with um um some of our counterparts in other states uh other county governments and we ask them what what are you doing to protect yourself against vendor fraud or um other types of fraud. So we
signed on with um Wells Fargo um and u Wells Fargo was is one of the um largest US banks but um all of the largest US banks rep um represent um best practices with regard to um these kind of verification tools. So the largest banks established their company, it's called early warning systems or it's a system that Barnesville County now participates in to validate
um bank accounts of vendors. So we're really pulling back from issuing paper checks because paper check there is so much fraud um surrounding paper checks. But how we said, how can we verify that John Smith company has the a bank account and an address and an EIN and they all match and what systems are out there that we could partake in um that will allow us to do that. And this is this is the system. So, and you might ask what the costs are. So,
it costs um $65 a month to have the account with Wells Fargo and 40 cents a transaction. That sounds pretty good. And that's what I have for you today. Excellent. Questions? Yeah. Commissioner, you know, I see Christie here. I I noticed in your presentation on salaries for the Cape Cod Commission that the salary line for the first six months was much lower than the Could you pull that up? Sure. Maybe I maybe I missed it. Um and I think that um um
and they may correct me if I'm incorrect, but the Cape Cod Commission budgets You want Cape Cod Commission budgets um 100% of their personnel costs in their operating budget and then as grants come along they're charged to those. Do that just to confuse us. You said I think no actually they're doing it to leverage other money. understand that. No, I just noticed that anomaly, so I thought I'd ask about it. That's it for me for now in case you got something. Okay, Commissioner L. No. And I appreciate that you're being proactive as far as the cyber security and
checking those accounts because we all know they're getting more sophisticated and they look real. They're not necessarily real. So, uh, I'm glad that you're doing that and thank you. Looks great. It does. Looks terrific. Great. Thank you as always. Anything else you want to add? No. I just want to say thank you again for job well done. You and your team. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Very much appreciate that. Yeah. All right. Next item on the agenda is the FY27 proposed Cape Cod Commission. Just had a little preview. So Christie,
come on. Great. Gail. Gail, come on. Whoever come on. Come on. Oh, she's so used to being in the background and she keeps everything running. How are you today? Good. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to be here
to present our budget. Um again, for the record, Christy Senator, the executive director for the Cape Cod Commission. I'm joined with by Gail Coin, Maria McCauley, who you know is our our leadership team for finance. Um so, what we want to do this morning is provide a general overview of some of our agency priorities for the coming year, and then we'll walk through the budget in as much or as little detail as you're interested in this morning. Um so, what I've handed out to you is our 2025 year in review. Um while not comprehensive, it does provide a high level overview of many of our priority projects from last year. Um so
what I'll highlight are just some of our agency initiatives that we're going to be focusing on for the coming year. Um and as you recall, one of our major initiatives last year was the development of the updated regional policy plan for Cape Cod. So a lot of what we'll be doing really is focusing on implementation of the regional policy plan, those policies uh within that plan that will um really be uh helpful to Cape Cod. Um we'll also be implementing the Cape Cod economic development strategy for Cape Cod. Um really looking at that SDS as that document that can really assist our
communities in promoting economic development. Um this also helps us to maintain our economic development district designation through the federal EDA um really helping us to provide support um to our and technical assistance to our communities. We'll be continuing to implement the regional housing strategy and many of the recommendations within that plan. as you know, that takes many partners um to really focus on some of the strategies within that plan, really providing those year-round um opportunities to accommodate um our year-round population. We'll
be continuing to work on water quality efforts, of course, um certainly advancing many of the recommendations that were developed as part of the freshwater initiative. Um securing funding to continue with monitoring and expanding that program. um of course focusing on transportation and the implementation of our regional transportation plan, our transportation improvement program and our vision zero action plan which is something that um we'll be prioritizing over the next several months. And then one of the recommendations within the regional policy plan that we'll be advancing this year is the development of
a regional open space plan. Um a lot of focus really needs to happen over the course of the next 12 months on that balance and really where we should continue to grow and where we might want to continue to protect open space going forward. So really prioritizing that is something that we'll be focusing on and then continuing ongoing communications with our communities really um providing that community engagement to um solicit feedback on many of our regional priorities. So um this is a short list. I didn't go into detail on anything um related to the water protection
fund which we'll continue to administer and manage related to coastal resiliency which will continue to be a priority of ours. Um but wanted to just provide a high level overview of some of our priority projects for uh the coming year. Um so with that I'd love to hand it to Maria McCaulay who can run through our budget um in brief and I think what you'll find is it's pretty similar to last year but we're certainly happy to go into uh detail on any particular element if you'd like. Mhm. Keep commission's budget for fiscal year 2027 refle reflects overall increase
of 3% and it's very similar to our current FY26 budget. Um but I will um go highlight go ahead and highlight few device. Oh I can hear you but sure I'll try to speak up. Um staffing staffing levels are maintained at FY20 nearly FY26 levels with one part-time planner position increased uh to full-time from 0.6 FTE to 1 FTE. Uh we're budgeting salaries to include standard step
increases and 2% cost of living adjustment. We're also budget budgeting for the anticipated increase in the health insurance which we anticipate to be uh 15%. Um commission's retirement assessment um for fiscal year 27 is increased by 6% which is uh about $27,000. Um commission salaries and benefits represent 84% of our budget. Um so this is what's driving the increase um of the budget but we were able to reduce our consulting budgets in FY27 by 115,000 or 14%.
This is how we managed to keep that budget increase to 3% because we reduced the consulting budgets. Um FY26 budget included consulting funds for two projects that were being completed this year or will be completed this year. Um this was the regional plan data collection and Cape Good Commission's website. Um so uh by taking those two projects out of our budgets um FY27 consulting fund budgets are basically um reduced back to FY25 levels. Um and on the revenue side um we
anticipate a 2% 2.5% increase in the environmental protection fund assessment um which represents 60% of the commission's revenue. Um, we are projecting that the grand revenue will remain about the same as FY26, maybe slightly higher and we're budgeting 1,275,000 in the grand revenue. That's based on the grants that we're aware of this time. Commission staff will continue seeking new funding opportunities and apply for grants throughout the year. So, it may end up being higher,
but right now we're budgeting we're budgeting similar amount. Um and as in previous years, we have not reduced our budgeted um $200,000 um dollar revenue from license plate funds for the support of economic development council's work. Um and revenue from um miscell from regulatory projects um um and from u miscellaneous projects um is reduced by about 95,000 um and that's again
because of those of the planetrics projects in FY26 we budgeted um a revenue of 100,000 and these were the contributions from the towns towards the the planetrics so now we're taking out those contributions out of our miscellaneous revenue and we reduce that revenue to 135,000. Um, and this is a high level overview, but we'd be happy to either go into details or ask your questions. Ask any questions. Answer your questions. A question later on in the presentation,
but maybe the Carol or Michael can answer me. What What does a 1% increase or decrease in healthcare obligations represent in dollars? Would you know that off the top of your head? No, I just I just anticipate that you know the we're guessing as far as what the what the numbers will be. It could be 13% be 12% which would be a significant you don't have to worry. We'll get it later. It'll be a significant amount of money in the budget.
Yeah. Carol Carol Carol points out literally uh the health group is meeting right now to set the rates. They they were meeting at 10 o'clock. So by the end of your meeting maybe we'll have the question was a little premature. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. The big debate is over weight loss drugs and how they're right. Yeah. And at Mass Municipal that was the big topic. Is that right? That's what we're going to be for. Okay. Commissioner Lions any No. No. No, I mean it's very straightforward and um you know it's there's a lot of other things we
could be talking about but that's not what we're here for today but um it's very good clear and you're facing what every town and municipality is facing. We have the healthare the health care and the salary is really killing everything but particularly the healthcare and then the utilities and expenditures. It's not even really manpower as much as it is what goes with that manpower. So, um, it looks fine to me. I have no questions. Commissioner B. Yeah,
I'm not going to I'm going to take this opportunity before we vote to say that I'm I'm on the commission as the commissioner's representative and I was at a 4 and a half hour meeting on Thursday and I have to say that it was very wellrun. Credit to the uh the chairman and the staff and everybody. And of course, not everybody went happy, but that's how it works. So, thank you for that. I missed dinner, but I know. How many meetings do people actually all leave happy? About the same as our meetings. No, they they actually most of them leave happy. Some
are more contentious than others. And the vote was unanimously almost unanimous. So it wasn't it was it wasn't contentious among the actual members of the commission but there were people obviously my question Christie and for your team is the challenges in retaining personnel recruiting personnel bringing new people everyone seems to be challenged by this um in Yarmouth uh we've developed a number of initiatives and programs to help uh attract uh we use bonuses and other sort
of tools to help folks out. Uh I'm just curious how how serious is the challenge for you folks and what are some of the approaches that we're taking to it's it's a really great question and um something we talk about regularly because we have a really great team and we'd like to make sure that we're retaining a really great team and when we have open positions we try to reach as broad as we can to bring people in. If they don't have somewhere to live it's it's really difficult. So, um, we try to be really opportunistic in who we can hire and how we can bring them in. Um, we do have a hybrid work environment which is incredibly helpful for many of our team. Um,
and that works really well for our staff. So, um, but it is still a challenge and making sure that we can continue to offer um, uh, increased um, colas and other opportunities like that to increase salaries to make sure that we can attract the staff that we need that can really do the work that we need to to do. Well, we're going to have more of a conversation about this. um you know at a at the at the at the full county level because it's it's it's been challenging you know for us all and again you just follow what's happening with the municipalities their ability
to hang on to people uh or to hire people has become more and more difficult vacancies are becoming more challenging to fill and it's it's just become a hot topic of conversation with the town managers and select boards around that cape and uh I think for the work that you do um it becomes very you know obviously it is a challenge and I think we need to keep you folks in mind as we look at strategies and and tools to maybe overcome this problem overcome this crisis
because on the one hand you're under pressure to keep your budget increases you know within a certain level but on the other hand you know that there are other things that you could probably use dollars for in terms of uh attracting folks so I just I think it's something that we need to always be alert to and I just want you to know that we're we're uniquely sensitive to it and uh we'll be wanting to continue this conversation sort of at a broader level with the entire county. If I can just make a comment and I know this is like uh years in the making and it's not going
to happen overnight but uh you know there was a time here on Cape Code I think that when it was a sleepy fishing you know 15 fishing villages and maybe farming areas you know kids growing up here wasn't a lot of you know uh we didn't have all the techni all of the technology we have today. I'm sure if they had the opportunity to go to school and I talked to some people who were born and they died and wealthy but um you know like in their 90s but telling me about how it was back then
and growing up and like this is like now where's Bill and I got to get out of here and you know they went and had their life and then came back home and retired. Um there's a lot of opportunity for kids today in the educa, you know, if we can gear our education. It's not just bio uh diversity and it's not just uh you know about the ocean and there's real jobs, there's research jobs, there's um finance jobs, there's uh management jobs, there's fiscal abilities. And somehow if we
can really impress that, you know, on what are you going to do with your life? And you know, it's today is a is a weird world. I don't think many kids actually think of anything other than an influencer. I'm going to be an influencer, but if we could really make it more attractive and they are wellpaying jobs. It's not like they're hanging around to work at a grosser. So, um, there's going to be some kind of interaction with with the curriculums and the schools. And I mean,
I'm not saying just we're going to do one one track with kids, but to also let them know these things are available. You might have to go off school to to get some of this. Maybe not. I mean, we have our own community college here that's doing a pretty good job, right, Mark? and uh especially in the history department but um uh which is also crucial to know. Um I just think that we we have to keep promoting that this is a place where you can grow and uh develop a career
and and have a good life here and not have to keep bringing other people who just might want to live on Cape Cut. I mean I'd like to live in a lot of different places and nobody's helping me live there. And um so I think that we have a pool here that we could cultivate it. As I say, it's going to be years in the making and years in trying to get that through to some, but um I'm not sure if kids understand that there's a lot of opportunities that they they love their clothes. Well, I think if there's one area that I'm and they would take care of it. Yeah. There's one
area that I'm particularly interested in seeing us sort of try to be a little bit more expansive is in professional development and training. And I think anything that we do uh you know countywide should definitely keep your ideas or concerns in mind. It's um this is this is for us to advance people in our organizations often times we have to look within and in order to empower them in order to take on senior positions in our departments or in our organizations. It requires access to
professional training and in many cases the burden should not be on the employee. Um I mean to some degree but the burden should really be on us to find ways to do that. The town of Arnstable they provide graduate level tuition coverage and um all you all you have to do is uh make a commitment to so many years continuing to work within the organization. But that that's a that's that's that type of tuition assistance provides a huge benefit to the organization
as well as to the employee. So I think these are the kinds of things that we need to start really thinking hard about commissioner. Yeah. I'd just like to say you know I'm impressed with the professional expertise of the of the staff of the Cape Cod Commission. I mean we have people there who education and experience and transportation and architecture and historical preservation and you know they have great skills sometimes it's overlooked by their critics but uh you know that comes at a price I mean there those demand those skills are in demand we have
to meet the demand I'm disappointed um in the the 2% cola um especially if it doesn't keep um keep up with the consumer price index which could come out higher. But, you know, I have my budget mavens there and they tell me that we have to do this. I I so I have to go along with it. But if I had my if I had my brothers, I would um tie the callers to the consumer price index, you know. Okay. Very good. Do we have any other questions for Christie and then? No. Is there
anything else that you wanted to dive into at all on Kristen? No, this is good for today. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Good to see all of you. All right. Enjoy the nice day. Change. And the next item is the FY27 county. Going to give us a an overview and some introductory comments. Let me give you an overview and some introductory comments. Um the uh I it's always
unsettling to come right after the commission because they give you such a great booklet and all the giveaways every everything that looks nice here. I wonder what happened. We're not we're not good at um you know the visuals the thick page that we usually get to go through. I guess that comes later that that's coming. That's coming. Um, no, I just wanted to uh just give you a little bit of background and and uh go through some of the highlights in our uh budget this year. It's been an interesting budget year and my hat uh goes off to Carol and Vera who uh really took
the lead on developing uh this year's budget um and let me uh either suffer the slings and arrows uh or or the accolades, one or the other, whatever comes. Um but I do I do appreciate uh their work to to really formulate a solid budget this year. Um if you recall your budget me uh memo to the departments um generated back um end of December January um asked them to prepare a level services budget um and and try to retain and maintain the staffing from from 20 FY26 levels
this year. um and and look at very carefully any opportunities to make create efficiencies and and uh and create better opportunities uh for services to that we offer to the towns. Um so within that uh context I will say that there's uh there are minor exceptions. The exceptions are the commissioner's priorities. Um in particular as an example is the composting initiative. So um so I just sort of highlight that as as one of the only areas where we really expanded the service levels
uh in this in this year's budget. Uh we also uh committed or you asked uh the departments to commit to no additional uh FY27 staffing uh unless the uh there was an offset uh revenue offset that would uh cover the cost of that new position. Um we um also asked the departments to uh department heads to think creatively about about the services they offer and then in terms of of how those
services are uh carried out by staff. Um a a good example of the creativity that we came up with was the uh combination entomologist and horiculturist position which covers uh I think some of the needs of the county better than uh we've been able to cover in the past. So, so good idea, good uh creative thinking. Uh overall, um we built uh the budget based on some assumptions. I mentioned that the health group is meeting right now to determine uh FY27 rates. Uh however, we plugged
in 15% increase uh and asked all the departments to plug in that 15% increase for health insurance. um other uh utilities uh natural gas 5% 15% uh excuse me for electric rates and so on. Um so that's built into this year's budget. Our my hope and expectation is that the rates health insurance rates will come in at something less than 15%. Um but we can revisit that uh as as we go uh go forward. Um let me just give you some very general observations uh as it as it uh pertains to this
year's budget. We we set out uh developing county goals uh back the end of December and January and some of those county goals are reflected in this budget. Um one consolidating uh IT purchases to the IT department. formerly every department had an IT line and which meant that every department um was probably overbudgeting for for what their IT needs would be. Um it is the backbone of what we do now. It's not it's not relegated to each department. Uh it's really provides the backbone
of what we do. So we've consolidated um most of the departmental uh IT expenditures into uh one line item in IT which you'll see but um but I think that uh will help us develop more standardization uh much more efficient way of of uh of uh purchasing uh IT hardware and software um now that it's now that it's we're proposing for it to be consolidated. Um we also are looking
and will continue to look at the communications function. Um we have uh lowered the overall cost of communications uh in this budget and uh we'll continue to look at ways to to streamline how we how we uh communicate uh with our constituents and and uh both internally and externally. Uh I mentioned the composting program. We've developed uh we've added $75,000 in the budget uh to secure a site at Joint Base Cape Cod and to permit uh the use of that site as a compost facility. Uh we've
also budgeted $30,000 in revenue which represents $7,500 per upper Cape Town um that that will be contributed to that effort. Um, and we've also uh consolidated a lot of the early retirement um line items into one line item. Um, early retirement, which seemed like such a good idea at the time, is sometimes the gift that keeps on giving uh because we have an obligation uh over over the long term
uh for anytime we offer u early retirement u benefit. Um so again just sort of on this specific budget some of the the general uh pieces health insurance I've talked about uh retirement assessment increases are due to increasing salary uh and also past increases in staffing I think um you know when we increase uh staffing costs when we increase salaries uh there are residual effects uh later on including uh retirement assessments that that we also have to pay. So,
um I don't disagree with the commissioners at all about uh making sure that our our the what we pay people is competitive on Cape Cod. Uh we want to make sure that we can hire the best people, but we also um as as the budget uh doomsayers, uh sometimes we have to make sure that we're accounting for those residual costs that come come down the road. Um we added uh shared regional housing uh office. I think uh this every the commissioners know uh quite a bit about this.
Uh it's $157,000 expense. Uh we will receive that as an offset on our revenue from the towns that are availing themselves at that shared regional housing uh office. Um I already mentioned the composting um and the utilities. Um we have also added in $40,000 to complete a classification and compensation study. Uh the county did one three or four years ago that needs to be updated to address specifically what Commissioner Bergstrom was talking about, you know, the comp competitive
uh salaries and and uh and making sure that we can offer a salary that's competitive with uh with other similar uh salaries on the Cape for similar work. Um so those are some of those uh major expense drivers. the revenue uh what drives our revenue uh we've increased uh it revenue uh by about 40% which seems enormous uh but that reflects the agreements that we have uh with the towns that's still a conservative estimate but it does reflect the the agreements
that we have with the six towns that we provide services for. uh it does not uh not uh include any future expected future uh services that we uh think we we probably will be offering towns uh other towns in the within the next year or so. Um the increase in court revenues is 21% um and that is uh not not relative to rent payments. It would be nice if it was, but it's relative to the things that we expend on our buildings that uh or services we offer that
get reimbursed uh by the state. Uh we've seen we're projecting a 22% increase in lab revenues uh due to fee increases and also the volume that of uh of work that the lab is seeing. Uh sorry. Um and uh we're seeing an increase in registry fees uh projections that are based upon uh the registry's conservative estimates. So on the expense side um I can go through a
little more detail. I just want to highlight a couple of things. Uh one the regional housing uh shared regional housing initiative which has been very popular um but is also uh expense uh revenue neutral. uh the uppercape uh composting I've mentioned um information technologies um I've also mentioned um in in finance we have uh dropped one employee uh one position and uh and so the
salary line item within the grant fiscal officers reflects a reduction of that one one employee um let me ask why that was uh we have uh switched to uh contract services. So the contract services I think uh Carol has has determined uh are effective and not as uh not overall not as expensive as as natural that okay I think that conversation. Thank you. Um yeah so um the professional and
technical fees and finance have gone up. uh those are associated with additional administrative fees uh associated with a clean water trust funding of the PAS capping at the uh fire academy. The increase in software and hardware uh reflects the full implementation of our grant management software and a transition um to a hosted version of Munis, not not a local version of Munis. So that's critically important for us just in terms of um just in terms of cyber security
um to get to get that hosted uh somewhere else other than with us. Um let's see the um facilities uh you'll see a a huge decrease in the innovation building. I think the commissioners know as of March 1st we will be moving out of the innovation building completely and so our presence there uh will be nothing and so that the expenses of that building will be transferred to the sheriff as of uh March 1st uh this year and so obviously in FY27's budget we don't need to
reflect uh the expenditure of about $80,000 just to maintain and and deal with that building. Um, we have budgeted in cooperative extension about $15,000 uh to cover the cost of a potential I emphasize potential uh move, office space move. The uh the extension is uh negotiating a continuation of the lease, but we're not sure that that would uh come about. So, so we plugged in uh $15,000 to cover a move um with the extension. Um we have also uh carved
out uh household hazardous waste out of out of a couple of the different uh divisions within cooperative extension and we have uh incorporated those into one uh separate division referenced as household hazardous waste. Um, and the intent there is is uh make it easier budget-wise, excuse me, make it easier uh if we transition the um that particular division uh combine it with another division specifically. We're thinking probably combine it with some of the health and environment
uh work that goes on. So, uh that will be uh coming um up as a discussion uh later this spring, early summer regarding comprehensive restructuring of how we how we run the county. And so that's um so we've we've just taken that piece so far and moved it in preparation for that discussion. So otherwise otherwise relatively um budget neutral. Um just in terms of health and environment
uh department we have uh added uh a couple of weeks to the testing season. Uh so that's provided an increase in seasonal testing uh line item. We've also uh are having to incur $17,000 plus or minus for the cost of a new uh soil gas meter which I think uh I think was in front of you uh several months ago. just forformational uh purposes. Um we've increased laboratory salary
line item uh by about $81,000 that represents additional position the additional position of deputy director and the elimination of a part-time business manager position. Um we have also sorry um we have also increased the uh lab materials uh line by 70 over 72,000 uh which reflects just the uh increasing cost of lab materials dramatically increasing cost of lab materials but also
uh the the uh volume of business that the lab is actually doing. Um, we've el excuse me, eliminated uh part-time administrative assistant position in um or eliminated the uh general fund impact on on the uh public health nursing uh division. Uh so that's a reduction of about $25,000 there. um our fringe. Um I just wanted to mention we have budgeted I I talked to uh talked to the board uh
several month or so ago about changes potential long-term changes in our in our health insurance. And uh one of the items I talked about was uh offering employees the opportunity to opt out and paying employees for the opportunity to opt out of our health insurance uh plans. Obviously, an employee couldn't opt out unless they had alternative um an alternative health insurance plan, presumably through through a spouse or or some other uh possibility. We
budgeted in this budget $135,000 um which would be the we project would be the cost of offering a stipend to everybody. Um, and with the hope that that we would uh see people opt out of of their current insurance plans, which can cost us, you know, in the neighborhood of 20 to $25,000, um, and uh, and instead take take the opt out uh, stipen uh, which could be $2,000 to $5,000. So, we
have budgeted that in. We haven't developed that uh or had you vote on those uh policy changes, but um but if if it survives through the budget, uh we'll come back to you with uh with a policy um policy provisions, policy change proposals um on that. We um we've also I think as Carol had mentioned earlier the early retirement and uh and uh hospital retirement um we have lumped those
into uh one line item. Um but again I note that we don't have final retirement numbers similar to how we don't have final uh health insurance numbers. Uh so we're using figures that have been tenative figures which have been provided by the uh county retirement association. Um we've seen an increase in uh the uh county retirees department um just because we have more retirees and uh and the health insurance for retirees is going up just as as uh everything is going
up. workers comp. We have uh an increase due to uh uh salary uh you know payroll increases as well as uh that's just general increases and all of our insurance products and I mentioned the uh $40,000 for the classification and compensation survey and um and I think that is pretty much what I wanted to go over. I do want to point out, oh actually I will
uh also point out the dredge um for the most part the dredge uh remains about what you've seen over the past uh several years. However uh that we have added a deputy director position at uh a cost of about $125,000 and uh and that represents within the dredge department that represents about a 7.8% increase. So dredge is a whole another issue. How we how we contend with um rising costs uh right across the board and how we adjust the the fees uh will be an issue
coming up uh over the next several months uh both with the commissioners as as well as the assembly. So we have to figure out a way to uh easily adjust our fees. Ken has commissioned um some work on on coming up with a flexible rate um which is what he's calling it uh that will allow us to adjust the rates you know specifically for uh site conditions and mobilization costs and things like that. So so that will be coming your way as well. Um so I will point out um so we have
uh over $650,000 uh in new expenditures uh which are reimbursible expenditures. So it adds on the expense side, it adds on the on the uh revenue side and uh so that represents about 2.6 uh of an overall uh expenditure increase. Um, if you back that out of our our total increase, uh, we're looking at a total increase with that backed out of about 3 uh7%. Um, obviously we are,
uh, it's a balanced budget. We're meeting our revenue projections. Um, and, uh, I think that's that's about it. I don't know if Carol has any additional items that you want to touch on, but that's generally what we're looking at. So, thank you. We have a new platform for you this year, too. It's a digital budget book that we um let me see that we will um have that go live after your meeting. Um,
and so I just wanted to let you know that there'll be a link on the website um, so that the public or any interested parties can see what the proposed budget is. Um, and just that's all my comments were. Okay. Excellent. For the public at large, what's our overall budget increase as proposed? What's what's the bottom line number? the overall budget increase. And I I hesitate to announce it this way because again, the county budget's a little different than town budgets. Um because
we add items on the expense side that we know we're going to be reimbursed on the revenue side. But when we for the headline account for the anticipated reimbursements, yeah, you just Oh, we do. So that's what drives the revenue increase, right? So we're looking at about a 5.7% increase in total spending. Commissioner B. Yeah. A couple of things. First of all, a couple of new positions. One in the dredge and another one in the um health department. Um in the past,
the assembly has focused on new positions. I mean, I think maybe going back a couple budget cycles, we said we weren't going to do that. I didn't think it was realistic at the time. Um the dredge the the lab or that shows an increase in revenue also does the revenue enough to compensate for the new positions. Okay. So that's covered. And what about the um the dredge? We're saying we're looking at the fees and other related increased expenses to cover or hope to some maybe not this
year but to cover the the new position. So that should be covered. That should be covered. the we run the dredge obviously as an enterprise fund and and so the revenues we generate you know have to match the the uh the expenses and if the expenses outweigh the revenues then you're looking at a general fund transfer out of the general fund into the dredge enterprise to cover that to cover that shortfall. Um, one of the things I've been saying about the dredge recently after really digging in is the dredge was the department was created back 30 some odd years ago in the mid 90s and it was
sort of the state sort of gave us the money for a dredge and I think we said that's great. We bought a dredge but we never really I don't it doesn't appear that we ever really thought about developing a real department right out of this. Um, so we offered the the service, we made money. I don't know that we ever tracked the the expenses against the revenues uh all that well. Could never maintain the the equipment. They didn't maintain any of those books or the equipment or the dredge, but you know, came into the game. That's changed. It has changed. And I I think uh we're in a
position where we can really do a lot a better job of financial projection. we can do a better job of of you know figuring out where our our revenues are going to come from in terms of you know what permits are being issued by the state and federal government. Um people have to remember that we we and Ken mentions this every so often um but we're operating out of a field in the back of the Dennis DPW. So we literally operate our op you know this whole thing with an extension cord
um in a field and so that we can't continue to do that. We you know our dredge rates for the towns are probably somewhere between you know a third to a half of what the private sector um charges right now. So the towns are getting an incredible deal to maintain. Um we we have we have appropriated some money to provide a facility for didn't do talk about that long. We we've we've uh there's a line item in their budget that contemplates a rental. Um, having seen, you know, what the cost
is for for, uh, facilities to purchase, um, we're not confident that that we'll be able to house the dredge in a new facility or a new So, so I can tell you, uh, what we're proposing, uh, is to move the dredge operation into the old fire training, uh, facility, uh, which is a very serviceable building. It's it's underused right now. Um, so at least we want to give the dredge a home. Is it the perfect location? No. Um, but it's it is a location. It's undercover. We don't have a
home. Having a home is is better than no home. One more quick one more quick question. The composting facility at the base. We we had a presentation on that, but that is anticipated. Ultimately, that investment will save the town's money in the long run. Mhm. So about 30% of waste is uh coming off Cape is compostable. And if we can capture even even a percentage of that of that uh from prevent it from going over the bridge and having to go essentially that goes to Ohio, it
goes to you know all sorts of different places uh to be disposed of. So it's compostable. It can be uh composted, reused. Uh so I think in long term we're looking at at uh cost savings significant cost savings as the cost of of disposal of solid waste uh goes through the roof which well so it's a justified more than justified expense is absolutely a question absolutely the other thing is that there's grant money and some other dollars at state level to help finance the kind of composting facilities that we're looking at and uh the big challenges is finding making sure
that the site that's being that's been identified out of out of the case is is is appropriate for a long-term facility. No, exactly. I'm done. Okay, Commissioner L. No, I don't have any questions. Um, in that case, unless you have something to say, I could move the budget or you want to I wanted to kind of complain of and and eventually [ __ ] a little bit eventually. Um, okay. No, I'm gonna I'm gonna take I might join you if you said that. I'm going to take it up. there
there are some things that, you know, we keep talking about that we need to really dig into. Um, and it it it shouldn't hold up the movement of this ordinance. It's just that there's there's a lot of stuff that we have to do. Um, you know, we've talked before about the capacity uh of the dredge department in in having the ability to sort of work on the permitting side. Um, at the moment, everything is falling on Ken's shoulders right now. Uh it's it's an unsustainable burden and
uh you know Leslie and McGee and her firm they did it in an assessment. Um we've got to take action on that. We really got to do something there. Um you know we've talked a lot about um the transition that's underway with our clean water center and needing to provide more support to that department so that it can transition into a business model that's far more sustainable long term. So that's work that we have to do. There's just a whole host of things that um we haven't talked about, we haven't discussed that relate to reforming and improving
uh and helping promote more efficiencies and cost savings uh for some of these departments, but also at the same time helping them grow and deal with other demands. So, I I just sort of just want to reaffirm our strong support in working on those initiatives because I think they're critically important. I agree. In the meantime, I'm curious on the IT department. I've always had the sense that with IT, it's sort of a chicken and egg situation. You know, the ability to grow is there, but it's somewhat limited in terms of our ability to properly resource it. Is that still
um a principle that holds or are we in a position where because I've heard discussions that we may have other communities that are interested in tapping into the service. problem is is that we just don't have uh we haven't built it up sufficiently in order to provide the services. So please comment on that. Um I think that's that's a good question. I think you know in terms of techn I our IT department I think it benefits from some of the technology that's coming down the pike both artificial intelligence um and and just you know sort of industry uh standards
are changing and shifting. So, so the ability to for us to do more with the same number of people um that that potential is growing. So, I think I think we've got um an IT staff very very uh well uh ver you know very educated, very well-versed. They know what they're doing. Um but but being able to tap into some of these uh sort of alternative solutions for instance uh being able to uh contract with a a service to provide sort of first level response you
know so my my you know I can't hook up my computer doesn't hook up to the printer or I can't you know join a team's meeting those are simple things those can be handled by by outsourced resources um and so you whatever percentage that is, it's a significant percent, but that takes the stuff this the small stuff off their plate and lets them tackle sort of larger issues. Um, you know, such as towns um conversions to Microsoft 365, which is is a big uh a big one for us and that's
that's what we've been recommending to towns. So, so I I I do appreciate um that question because at some point we'll we'll reach a we'll if we continue to take on more towns, we'll reach a point uh where we've got to increase staffing and and we're not there yet. Right. Bringing in more towns also means generating more revenue. Exactly. Exactly. Also, we're also generating more revenue in the in the budget you proposed some thousand dollars. So, we're keeping pace with it. Yeah. Yeah. But but you know with that revenue that usually pays for we the service
is charged at a rate where it really does pay for the extra person or has in the past. So the growth um you know it's a it's a normal growth as long as people can see it as that and that it's it's something that's necessary and in the end we'll also make some money out of that. It's not going to all just be apples to apples. So I think one of my challenges is being able to explain to to towns uh especially as you're going as the towns go through a budget process that you know the county
has the same you know staffing challenges as the towns. The benefit uh for letting the county do run a service, for instance, it is that we can we can bring together five, six, seven, eight staff members to tackle a problem that a town might only be able to afford to allocate a part-time person to. Right. So, I I think um I think the benefit especially in it, the benefit of regional services um you know far outweighs uh Borne was a good example. Very good example. Yeah,
very good example. you know, board had a cyber cyber incident and we were able to really get in there and save them uh before it was too late. So, unless there are any more questions uh in regarding the presentation, I'd like to move on to item 6F. And do you have a motion, Commissioner B? So, we're going back to the to the commission. We're going to item. Okay. Yeah. I move to
approve the proposed ordinance 26 to be empty number to make appropriations of the Cape Cod Commission operating budget for the fiscal year 2027 for introduction from the assembly of Delta. And I second that. Okay. A motion and a second. Is there any more discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Carries unanimously. Item G. Yeah. Unless you have anything else, I move to approve the proposed ordinance 26 to be numbered to make appropriations for Barnesville County's operating budget for the fiscal year 2027, including the
operations of the county assembly, executive branch, county agencies, boards, commissions, department, and institutions and the maintenance of certain county functions for interest reserve funds and serial bond requirements of the county for introduction to the assembly of delegates. I second. Okay. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Hearing none. That carries unanimously. Let's move on to item H. Commissioner Bergstrom, did you have a motion for item? Yes. I move to approve the proposed ordinance 26 to be numbered
adopting an operating budget for the dredge enterprise plan for the fiscal year 2027 for introduction to the assembly of delegates. And I second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Is there any more discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. opposed hearing none carries unanimously and the motion passes. Item I right before we get into a discussion of the motion here, I'd like to invite um the team to the table so that you can explain to us
and we'll let do all the landing back up. All right, he's at the table. All right, introduce yourself at home. Sure. So, I'm Brian Bombgard, director of the wastewater division at County Health and Environment. Um, we are here today to um well, look forward to borrowing more funds from Clean Water Trust for our aquafund program. Um it was a little bit more than two years ago at this point that we um had gone
through this process for around borrowing of $13 million. And since then we have spent 10 million of that dollars um on projects all across Cape Cod uh to do u not only septic system replacements but also um those critical sewer connections which are the last mile of uh all these projects that the towns are investing huge amounts of money in right now. Um it's a obviously a very critical program. Um each year we do what we call a sewer survey. We actually do it twice per year. Um
where we reach out to the towns to try to get a sense of what their thoughts are on uh when sewer connections are going to start to come forth. Um it's a bit of a an imprecise art I suppose in uh prognosticating where these things are actually going to end up. So you know we end up with a good set of data for probably the next 2 to 3 years. Uh but we do try to project out over the next 5 to 10 years so we can have a better sense of where these demands are going to lie over the longer term.
Um so um you know just to give you some some numbers to look at or to think about Capewide um over the next 10 years we're looking at probably somewhere around 15,000 or more parcels connecting to sewer. And I think that's definitely a low estimate because towns are just very unsure about anything really beyond the five-year time frame. Um if you translate that into dollars um accounting for inflation and we talked about consumer price index a little while ago
uh we have to use a different index when it comes to calculating um these construction projects. So CPI is typically right now around 3%. For construction it ranges anywhere from depending on where you're looking 6 to 10% inflation rate. It's much higher. Um so accounting for that there's tariffs and you add tariffs in there as well. Um a lot of it really has to do with PVC pipe which exploded over the course of the pandemic. Um that increased some 40 to 60% in cost over that period
of time. Um but if you look at a high inflation scenario over the next decade, we're talking about probably in the realm of a quarter billion dollars in just sewer connections in terms of cost. Um if you look at a lower inflation scenario around 6% um still you know $214 million worth of sewer connections and that's just the data we have and are sure of right so it's a low number um looking out so let's just focus on you know the coming years and I'm talking about calendar years not our fiscal years on this um so looking at 2026 estimating somewhere around 2297 sewer connections
um probably about $25 million worth Capewide now We know not all those folks are going to come to our program to get their funding for this. Um it ranges somewhere between 25 to 35% of the total number of connections in any batch that come to us. Um you know we do our best to get the information out there but people just select other alternatives. Maybe they have cash available or look at other financing options. Question. Go ahead. Yes. What is the typical rate of connection as far as through our program or just what do you see is the you know they're
going to charge me $8,000 $10,000. What is what is sort of the average rate that people are being charged to cook hookup? The average rate right now is probably around $12,000 per connection. Yeah, it varies quite a bit depending on the project itself. If your plumbing comes out the back, obviously there's some internal plumbing to do, etc. And some of the projects by definition lie on the cheaper end, right? That's the average that's the average average cost right now. Yeah. And that's based on data that we got from uh the town of Chadam from one of their phases.
They did a big survey a number of years ago. Um and then accounting again for that inflation factor there and also looking at the cost of the projects that we've had recently come through the program. So we have good sources of data on that. Some pretty good insight I think. Um so looking at um between 25 and 30% or 35% uptake and then also accounting for a low and a high inflation scenario. Um you know for the coming year or so we're looking at between 6 and $9 million um potentially coming through our program puts the median at about 8.2. Um and then
for 2027 about the same uh maybe slightly fewer connections just because of the way the phases are working out with some of the town projects, but again somewhere in that realm of a median scenario of around 7.8 million. Um and then to add to that anticipated demand, we also have to factor in that standard septic systems are still being used. Uh very significant numbers of them are being used on the Cape. Um so that puts our total ask um which should account for about the next two years. It's
going to depend on how things shape out with the towns. Uh but that should give us enough um working capital to get through uh that period of time. Hence the ask for $20 million coming up. Sounds good. This is money coming from the Clean Water Trust. Correct. I should point out for folks that have been paying attention to the financial health of the trust, uh, President Trump proposed a huge cut in the SRF program which finances a lot of its work. And, uh, the Congress fortunately a few weeks ago came up with an appropriation that close to level funded the program, which was a
significant improvement in both, and it was widely supported in both the House and the Senate. So, I think we're um we dodged a bullet and I think going forward this shouldn't be the sort of the the state of panic that had settled in, you know, several months ago when when these first the first cuts were being proposed. So, my hope is is that we can continue to sustain level funding. The problem that we're having is is that there are communities that are able to get earmarks out of the SRF. So, we've put uh our we we have talked about doing our own getting in the game ourselves
here. So, I've been talking to Michael about make sure that with our delegation uh we pursue our own earmark uh for Barnstable County and we should pursue it at a very significant level. So, um I keep in regular touch with my former colleagues on Capitol Hill and everybody's telling me that this is that's a smart thing for us to do. So, while we're doing this, um, if we're able to pull something off there, that will provide some significant relief as well. So, um, I think
this is this is terrific. Any commissioners have any questions? Commissioner B? Yeah. Um, Brian, the money that we expend is actually comes back to us in a way. Correct. In other words, it's money we lend out openly. We we charge what 2% by rent. It depends on um so we have of course our new our newer program where we have the tiered interest rate for homeowners depending on their income level and the type of project they're doing. Um with the Clean Water Trust if we are loaning money
out at 0% they will give us a 0% loan um in kind for that. Same with the 2% loans. So those will both be at zero. Um we do still have 4% loans. Those are those standard septic systems uh that are not in our watershed areas. um those will be at a 2% rate. So there's still a little bit of a a margin to be had there for the program. And we use that interest um to pay the staff um to make sure that we have a sufficient um sort of reserve fund in place uh to account for perhaps you know like the scenario we've been faced with with the clean water trust and you know maybe the money not
being there um so that we'd have a little bit of a cushion um if need be. So what I'm trying to get out is the the increase the the extra money you're asking from the Clean Water Trust. That's not because the original money went out the door and gone forever. This is additional additional people coming on and requesting more. So now the problem we have is that we lend money out to anybody walks in the door at 4%. Okay. Right. Currently mortgage rates are around six or six seven. So if I'm a homeowner and I'm thinking about replacing my my system or hooking up, I'm thinking this is a good
deal, you know, and there's a lot of homeowners out there. reason that the average is what it is is because it, you know, you live in a little housing development, sewer hookup's not all that expensive. However, if you have a big property and you have a long driveway and stuff like that, it costs more. So, that drives up the price that drives up the average for everybody, right? But I would anticipate that the mo if you went to the median, you'd find out people spend a lot less than than $10,000. Although if like like me we have to pump it up to the road of course
that's double that still but no I mean it's a it's a tremendous benefit I mean that was the missing I went through the chat uh comprehensive wastewater management plan and that was the the word that's what we didn't talk about we talked about the expense of the town soaring but we recognized in the back of our mind everyone was going to sucked up was going to be mandatory that they spend that money and this program really made that last major piece to so to encourage towns and people to to you know protect our environment by by increase by increased so happy about it. Yes,
I think commissioner lines any no I am I'm very happy with this and um you know it's it's it is what it is and it is there to help people uh move forward uh and they're they're uh they have to do it. So this is a way to mixing up. I would um I would uh move to approve the proposed ordinance 26 to be numbered fiscal year 2026 supplemental appropriation for the bunchable country aqua fund
and ant in anticipation of renewed Massachusetts clean water trusting fund for the introduction to the assembly of delegates. Second clean water trust funding. Clean water trust funding. So we've got a second. Um any more discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Hearing none. Motion carries unanimously. By thank you and we'll see you on Friday. You will. Yep. See you Friday.
The next item on the agenda is Town of Parish request for the Cape Cod Commission to conduct development of regional impact DRRI review of the Pine Oak village number four and that was a 40B project in the town of Haritch and we had agreed to put this on the agenda for discussion because uh we have received we're aware of at one time a request by the Haritch Select Board to asked the
commission to do a DRRI review for this project. And we've also received a large number of letters, emails, communications from Haritch residents um on asking us to do that. So, we promised folks in January that we would take this up as an agenda item, have a conversation about it, and so it's here on the agenda. Um I reached out to the chairman of the uh board of selectmen uh Don
Howell uh because there have been some discussions between the Cape Cut Commission uh director Christy Senator as well as uh the select board and uh there's been letters communications and I think it's clear at this point that the select board now realizes that there is no special provision to get to require the Cape Cod Commission or to ask the Cape Cod Commission to do a separate DRRI
review on a 40B project. He confirmed that he had they had made a statement at the meeting uh this past week and I've given you a copy of the uh the statement in the transcript. Um I know there have been some interactions with Michael and some of the town officials. I don't know if you have any further updates from your uh nope. I reached out to the select board office just to make sure that uh any any uh uh member of the board uh feel free to come and and voice their opinion here and and
there was no uh not an interest at this time. So I appreciate that. Commissioner Bergman. Yeah. The the issue here is what would be the outcome of a if the hip commission conducted development of regional impact. When they do such a review, there's several different outcomes. They could disapprove the project. They could approve it with recommendations and they could limit the size and scope of the project. Unfortunately, under regulations promagated by the state 40b
and the enabling legislation for the Cape Cot Commission, they don't have the ability to recommend any of those things, right? So, you know, to ask the commission to go through a review, which is extensive and st knowing that the developers at this point, if they have permission from the building department of appeals and town to go ahead, it's not going to go anywhere. They can just ignore it, you know. And I think it does a disservice to the commission to to be brought into this and we go through that work when it's not within within their authority to
do that. I mean I I sympathize with the people of those neighborhoods feeling that they are being set upon by large developments. But like you know we we're a we're a legal entity as the Cape Cotch Commissioners. We have to work within the rules that are that we are we are given and and that's the story. So I appreciate that commissioner. So I just I just want to go to the agency mission as handed to us today in the presentation and it says following an unprecedented growth boom in
recognizing the region's unique natural, coastal, historical, cultural, and other values threatened by an uncoordinated or inappropriate uses of the region's land and other resources. The Massachusetts state legislature passed the Cape Cod Commission Act in 1989 which was signed into law by n January of 1990 and the act created the Cape Cod Commission as an agency within the structure of Barnstable County government. Its mission is to protect the unique values
and quality of life on Cape Cod by coordinating a balanced relationship between the environmental protection and economic progress. So to me the 40B is going against this against their their mandate and um and I know that it's created probably to do such a thing but I I do believe that there should
be an environmental review and impact and regional impact not just about the environment but there is a quotion of happiness in the Cape Cod Commission and it's a happiness quotient of what a community is and it's not over it's not overdeveloped. I mean we are into the open space and all of this but we have 14% land that's that's that's available and a lot of that is within threatened
wetlands. Mhm. So to me going through if they I would like to see what they did, what they found even if it meant nothing because then you have an argument. This is this is what we found whether you're it applies or not. And if you're going you could go to the state and say this is why a 40B fee does not work on Cape Cod because it it's they're you're faced you say okay we want to help with affordable housing and yet now you have a 250 unit uh threetory and Robinstown now is proposing
a four-story huge apartment building which is not within the character of the Cape Cod Commission. So I feel that there is a misalignment here and that we should uh approach the state and have this changed that they can't have reven over 40b and I would like to just stop all of it until we have some kind of because it is impacting I don't think people appreciate a lot of I'm not sure of
all of the geology here. I know that there's more of a bedrock, but as you get out in the further on the Cape, it is a sand doom. It is a sand doom that is compressed together over millennia. And we all know if you have sand art and you start putting uh straws into this, it starts breaking down the integrity of this very tight structure and sand blows down and it spreads out and it's so easy to start falling into the ocean quicker. Mhm. So I think that there is a real concern here uh
being voiced by Haritch and it's bubbling in every community. Uh especially on the outer Cape is also we have one road out. Uh if you're bringing all these people in here, we do not have a year- round economy and we will never have a year- round economy. It doesn't fit. So there's a lot of uh unintended consequences. We could collapse the outer Cape economy as it is if we keep doing this because there'll be more development. Ours is tourism. People are not going to pay what they're
being charged to come here and rent a home, to sit in traffic, to not be able to get to a beach because you they're sitting in line and they can't get to a pond because the overdevelopment has now polluted it. So I think um the mission sort of speaks for itself and we should uh argue this point and have that ability given to the Cape Cod Commission. On the other hand, we are here sitting you know uh passing you know giving our our blessing to yeah let's help towns develop these
strategies. Let's help towns uh build affordable housing. So we're in a we're in a contradictory state here once we start seeing we have supported these efforts and now we're looking at them like this isn't quite what we thought and it's not just for the workers and it's not just for the children so they can live here. It's so other people can have the opportunity to live here and if you can't if you can't sustain all those people you can't have all those people here no matter how much they would like it and how much we would like it. And I'm not saying it because I live here. I'm one of
those people that feels guilty because I know that we should, most of us should be leaving uh for those winter months and coming back and let this place recharge. When I first ran for this seed, yeah, that was my whole emphasis was keeping a place I I called this a jewel carved carved by nature and God. Exactly. So, and it's our job to be the stewards of this. That's what we're here for. Okay. So I totally support I support the efforts of of uh the residents in Harvard.
Yeah. Let me let me quickly u believe it or not I I agree with a lot of what Sheila says and the but we have to look at the practical steps that we can take going forward. I'm not a big fan of 40B. I think three market rate units in return for one affordable housing is not a good bargain. Right now we what can we do? Well, we could we could try to eliminate that legislation, which I think would probably be a heavy lift. We could increase I think we could increase Let me
make sure I understand what you're saying. You're talking about amend the commission act. No, no, I'm talking about amend 40B. Oh, amend 40B. Okay. So we could either So what we do is a N40B to increase the definition of affordability which means that more house if we increase the medium income eligibility for a definition of affordability act that would give the towns more existing units once they got to 10% they would be out from under the the the cudel of 40B. Okay. The
other thing we could do is amend the commission um enabling legislation to allow them to review 40. I think that's what commission I'm just looking at what the options are. I understand here here's the option before us. It was a request from the Harwood Select Board and residents to ask the commission to do a DRRI review. Uh we have learned that it's not allowed under existing law. Uh we now know that the the select board in Harri has no interest in making that request anymore.
They've they've stepped down from that. So um what I would argue is there's really no official standing request by to this body from the select board and supporting residents to ask us to take this action. So I I think I think this this particular project in the issue with this project has been addressed. um what I think is a broader question and a separate question that is whether or not we as a board want to either revisit some issues with respect to 40 40B or
do we as a board want to uh at least study and consider maybe uh giving the Cape Cut Commission or seeking permission for the Cape Cut Commission to have the same authority to review 40DS as as the Marth Commission. I think that's a legitimate area of conversation. However, that's really not on the agenda for for this. But I do think that we should ask Christie maybe to come before us to have a conversation about the pros and cons of the commission having that authority because
I think there'll be some interesting feedback and input. I believe the vineyard commission does have that. That's what we just said. not outside the realms of No, it's not. No, but if you actually talk to folks on the vineyard, um they're not particularly thrilled with having that authority over there. So, there's there's mixed feelings on the vineyard. So, remember that remember that battles, but you know, that doesn't mean that you should um Well, the vineyard commission is in court on a pretty regular basis on each of these projects. That's fine. So, I'm not suggest
I'm not suggesting that Commissioner, don't don't mistake me. I'm I'm interested in addressing some real concerns in the community, right, about the scale, but I my argument would be I'm not sure these are necessarily just 40B projects. What I'm concerned about um to sort of throw my sort of perspective on this. I get nervous about putting a lot of development pressure on undeveloped land, right? as as we've been hearing and reading about, there's only so much open space, undeveloped land
habitat left on Cape Cod. And wouldn't it make far more sense for us to be focusing on developing or redeveloping the blighted properties uh the that the the areas that could use redevelopment uh in my community this has been our priority uh to focus on those and there's been tremendous resistance in the community for development on some of these very precious open space areas. And I think to me what I'd like to do is see if we can revisit that conversation. Where are we
prioritizing affordable housing development? Are some of these projects well in excess of scale and do have regional impacts? And in those cases, even if they are 40ps, where can we at the county level play a more active role? So, I think I think there's a conversation to be had here uh and the discussion and we need to figure out a way to scope it out and put it on our agenda. But in the meantime, for the purposes of Harage, I feel that we put this on the agenda. We've we've we've heard from the people. We've done our due diligence. Um at this point, there's no dispute now between the
select board uh and town officials and community residents and the kick cut commission. So, from my point of view, we brought it up. We we we we've taken a look at this. I don't think we need to take any action on this item. I do think we need to come back to the broader questions of how some of these development projects can get some additional scrutiny. Um, and here's something else to keep in mind. The PI, it's not like the Pine Oaks village didn't escape somehow
commissioner review. The commission did a very detailed and thoughtful analysis of the project and as the local board under 40B, they did submit a report to the zoning board. Um, and the zoning board ultimately took action which meant they took action to approve the project. Right. The project has also been approved by the Harri affordable housing trust. Uh, they put money into it. Uh when I spoke with Chairman Howell, I think one of the things that he was legitimately upset about was the state's unwillingness to finance some of the smaller scale projects. There seems to be,
according to him, and this is maybe where we might want to invite some of the Harri officials in, um there's a sense that there's a bias towards the larger scale projects and communities that want to do smaller scale affordable housing projects somehow are disadvantaged. in the overall um awarding of funds and approvals for projects. 40B has taken away the authority of the towns to protect the town as they see it and to d and to direct the town and its future and it really comes
down to sustainability. I do want to point out uh Larry Brown had an editorial in the Cape Cod Times uh that I sent forward uh this Sunday. I recommend everyone to read that. It was very well said and done and he laid out all of the concerns. There's climate change. You look at this book here in 1985, you can just look at the amount of rainfall, snowfall, and our temperatures. And in 50 years,
there has been a dramatic change. And in the next 50 years, there's going to be another dramatic change. And we are not we're making believe that everything is even when we talk about well this is usually uh refunded by the state or those days are gone right now and we don't even have the time to catch up. So we we're whistling in the wind. Province Town has no water and they have two developments being reviewed. One is a 250 unit hotel and another is a 400 No,
I'm going to go too much on this, but the one that's coming up this week is also like another 250 huge fourstory apartment building on and they don't have any water. So, they're depending and now Toro is coming. This is not going to be sustainable. we're going to put our we're the frogs in the pot right now and if we keep making believe that we're not seeing what we're seeing just like everybody else in the country um we're we're we're we're not doing our duty. Okay. So
I think that we should do two tracks. I think we should we should talk about trying to do smaller scales and also try to impress upon the state that there are some places no matter how much we want it to happen it can't they can't sustain it well I I think the challenge is doing projects that fit right we've seen some projects that don't fit and we don't have to have another 200 people I got to give Ron I know go ahead I'm sorry I I sat on my my soap box I thank you for allowing
nominee. So I don't think if you they don't want this moment to pass, but the Christies um talk about the Cape Cod Commission going forward. They've done a freshwater bond study, they have done a housing study, and now they're going to concentrate on open space. They're going to say that an open space study, and I think that that's that's even important. So, you know, I think it's more than just study. I think it's an overall plan. It's a way to stitch together the open space plans of all the towns, right? And uh I think we should bring that up as an
agenda item. What do you think? I I agree. And I think you should bring in I would also recommend that we invite uh APCC to come in. They just have come up with an initiative. Yes. About how we can work together to protect um what's left what I was waiting for for APC. You know, also I think we should pay attention to the legislation moving through the uh through the uh state house because some of that is proposed as helping the towns, but some of it is also empowering. In other words, over overruling overruling overruling local control. And I believe truly that the towns
have been very generous. We have projects up and down Cape Cod that have been proposed and approved by the towns. I don't think we should forget we are doing something about affordable, right? And we don't have to do more. I think Commissioner Bertstrom has hit on something that I I think state officials need to be paying closer attention to is the state leadership needs to be very careful about continually overriding local zoning because we hear this we hear this all the time. It's not working good on the federal level. So it's not going to work good on this. No,
this concept of home rule seems to be tread upon quite significantly. So I I think the more we see actions to override uh local controls, I think the more problems we're going to run into. We need to find a balance. Uh locals can make the right decisions. Local officials can do the right things, but sometimes they need help. They need guidance and they need financing, right? And we need different tools to be able to do different projects and not just a 40p. So um so I think I think we can move on from that particular item and I thank Harage. Very good. Now
uh the next item I'm going to ask Commissioner uh Bergstrom to uh move the next item. A there's no new business. Right. No new business. Okay. And Mr. I will move to I Excuse me. I think I do have new business. I got I have a um Sorry. I have a uh an email. I've gotten two emails now from they're doing they're doing civics at Sturis and probably you know I know that Monoy and all this. So I'm getting these emails from students and this one is about food and um and what we're doing and I
will forward this to Michael and to the board and to Vera and Robin so they just have it but I don't want to ignore it. I haven't uh answered these these two young women yet, but they are looking at our food security. Did you get one on seagulls? I didn't get that one. Okay, I got one on seagulls. I already answered it. I I just think it's great that uh we're receiving these letters, number one. And number two, uh how can we acknowledge it? Um should we bring should we should we ask anybody
to come in and maybe some of these that might not be a bad idea. some of these civic teachers, some of these students and and how can we have that relationship with them? I mean, I'm talking about people, you know, how can we impose kids these careers, these civics projects that school students do and they're encouraging the state is mandating uh curriculum that encourages students to do civic projects. I think it's at the middle school level. And so this is my my brother is a middle school teacher so he's involved in this in his school up and up they are we're getting
we're getting now handfuls of letters from kids and I love them. Um and for me many of them are directed to either Yarmouth stuff or other stuff that I can easily answer. But I think you make a great point. I think maybe we should think about with one of these we invite the student to come in in the meantime. Maybe at least provide some kind of interim reply either you or if you need help. Yeah, I am going I'm going to be and I'm going to forward it on to Michael. It's really about uh so we should keep an eye out let them know what's going on. Letters from students because they're
they're very thoughtful. I got one from a student um I think it's a Sturgeist student from Dennis and she was concerned about the lack of signage encouraging people not to feed the seagulls. And so, um, she and I have been communicating back and forth at length. So, I've given her a whole host of ideas in terms of how she can be an effective advocate for uh for wildlife. And so, we've been back and forth. I just, in fact, just earlier today, I got a nice thank you note from
her asked thanking me for all the suggestions. But I love the idea of maybe bringing it up for some discussion here at one of our meetings and maybe even inviting some students in your teachers. I think it would be great. Okay, that was new business. Thank you. Now, let me go to Commissioner. Yes. Um, Mr. Chairman, I move to authorize the commissioner's consent agenda items 8A as listed on the February 11th, 2026 agenda. Um, do I have a second? Second. Okay. And I'll
call for a vote. All those in favor say I. I. I abstain. And one abstension. Okay. The motion passes. The motion passes. Thank you, Commissioner Bster. I move to authorize the commissioner's consent agenda items 8B through 8 L as listed on the February 11th, 2026 agenda. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. It carries unanimously. The next
item is the approval of meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes of January 28th? I move to approve the regular meeting minutes of January 28, 2026. I second. Okay. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Carries unanimously. Item number 10, commissioners reports. Okay. I have a report. I attended as did um Commission Alliance a meeting in Walthleet on the subject of ICE the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Um and it was discussed
what the the general tenor of the meeting was to discuss for those who are opposed to ISIS presence the proper response how to protest peacefully how not to get into trouble and what how to be effective in in in emphasizing their um their opposition to what's going on. So I think it was a very informative meeting. was probably attended by 150 people on a snowy night while fleet and so I just say that because that this is a small part of a lot of organization that's going on the Cape.
We can anticipate that we're going to see more demonstrations. We anticipate that we may even see a greater ICE presence and I think we should be ready to make sure that everything is done in a way that's not going to it's going to bring credit to the people of the Cape. Right. No, I agree. And uh our police chief was there and I thank him for that. And um I in Wle in Wleet and Mr. Lorocco Mr. Chief Lorocco and he Yanith resident former neighbor of Was he? Yeah, he's he's a very good guy and a good chief and uh and a good neighbor because he said everything that he
said everything right last night. Everybody loved him. No, I mean it there we have we are a small community here. I think the police appreciate that across the Cape. We're really um we have our own issues that are like everywhere else, but there we're not um understood. We don't want this. So, it was it was very uh it was very well done and there will be more to come. I do think um these things it it's good to show up at them. It's good to hear people and it's good to give our support.
The one thing I thought was interesting is everybody was saying like, you know, we haven't ice on the cape, but we really haven't seen them in places like Province Town or where there's a large portion of uh seasonal workers and immigrant families. And it's all probably because of the one road. We could block them. We could There you go. There's no way out, you know. And there's there's a lot of stuff that in Provintown, you know, one of the things that brought up,
one of the things brought up is that we've seen all seen the I hope to see what happening in Minnesota with with people dressed in combat gear and and automatic weapons and military presence. Their success is that they've been peaceful. Yeah. They see right here what they're saying is that ICE ICE does have a presence on the Cape. They're in unmarked vehicle. They're not dressed in military combat gear and they're targeting specific individuals, right? rather than right, you know, showing up in the street military force. So, it's a different approach. You know, you might
argue it's a better approach or a worse approach, but they we anticipate some people anticipate we may see a Minnesotaike response here, but I don't I don't think that's going to happen. I I also want to point out that there was an article uh yesterday, I believe, in the or or the day before by Kevin Cullen in the uh Boston Globe about an Irish citizen and his ordeal that he's presently nobody really knows where he is. They get them out of Massachusetts so they can get them in front of um like Texas judges and all of that. So, uh, but it's not just happening to, you know, this is
something that's coming coming to your door maybe soon, okay, if we don't do something about it. So, any more commissioner reports? No. Okay, good. Upcoming business, Michael. How does the next meeting agenda look? Uh your next meeting uh as a reminder is in uh town of Barnstable and uh we will have uh a um report from uh Paul Rala and GZA regarding the permeable the results excuse me of the permeable reactive barrier uh that was installed excuse me at the fire academy.
Uh we'll also uh believe we're also going to have Jay uh Gardner come in and talk a little bit about um about some of the health uh grants that uh that we've secured and and the town of Barnstable's participation in that. So um so we should make sure that we have on the agenda the discussion of kind of testing that we can do for people, right? People get asked questions a lot. I want to know if I have pupas in my water. Mh. So, um, you know, we we need to make sure that we can explain to people what they need to do, if there's a form to fill out, where to go online, and pass
out some information with specifics on that. That would be That would be good. Perfect. Perfect. And anything else on that agenda? Are we going to hear from Mark El's or the Barnstable Town Council leadership? Are they going to I I suspect we'll hear from the leadership. Um, Mr. L's uh hopefully will be there. Um yeah, we're not certain that not certain. Okay, so that's in the works and maybe a me Yeah, a couple members of the council. We we will certainly extend the invitation as we Good administrator and staff reports. Uh I just have two quick items for you. Uh just uh as FYI's
I'm meeting uh with uh mass development and the base uh a little later this afternoon just to talk about the details of of how the base uh wants to participate in the uh actual agreement the the intergovernmental intergovernmental agreement. Um so just some of the some of the details and the minutia uh involved with that. Um, and also I just want to let you know, uh, as you may know, April 1st, uh, sometime in April is a deadline for communities of 50,000 or more to comply with,
uh, digital accessibility. And, uh, and so we have been working pretty hard, uh, to, uh, make sure that we've got, uh, our website up to speed. Uh, our website actually is in really pretty good shape in terms of accessibility. We've got some work to do on on documents that are in different parts of our website, specific documents, but uh but we will work on that. Um and Sonia Shesley has uh has organized a communications group on the Cape and uh is providing sort of a
uh recommendations on on how to best uh comply with uh digital uh accessibility requirements that are coming down from federal government. So, um, so that's all work in progress and at some point, uh, I'll ask Sonia to come in. The, uh, the towns, uh, have another year, uh, at least to to comply with the requirements. So, they're just beginning their process. This is how we're all going to incorporate AI into our lives. I hope not. I think so. Um, again, whether we like it or not.
Any other reports from the county administrator? And that's all I have for right now. Any questions for the county administrator by the commissioners? Commissioner, do you have any questions? Nothing for Michael. Commissioner Lines. No, I just want to say it's nice to see Robin. It is nice to see Robin. We miss Robin. Thank you, Robin. Yeah, she's become an an expert now on accessibility, right? Well, she it shows, but you know, I thought about you. We were freezing here on Cape Cod that you And just just a reminder, we have a Cape Island Municipal Leaders Association meeting
on Friday at 7:30 at the Chattam Fire Station and we're going to hear have Brian give us an update on some of the great work that's going on over at the Clean Water Center. Yeah. And so, um, this will be, uh, another in a series of opportunities to brief local officials on some of the great work that's going on here in Blanch County. So I'm using I'm using my insight you are as president of the association. You're doing a good job promoting like highlight highlighting our county. Okay. So um you do that not so much when when it's necessary. Yeah. Yeah.
I know I try to keep a little prof I try to keep those profiles separate but anyway I'd like a motion to adjurnn. I move to adjurnn. And I will second. Okay. Um all those in favor of a motion to adjurnn here at 12:22 I say I carried unanimously meeting is adjourned. Thank you.