[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] Hey,
hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]
>> Heat. Hey. Hey. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Just Just [music]
2. 1 2 [music] 3 4 5 6 7 8. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]
[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Good evening. I'm Bernard Green, chair of the Brooklyn Select Board, and this
is the regular meeting of the select board for February 17, 2026. First order of business. I move that the select board go into executive session for the purpose of discussing strategy
related to the negotiation negot uh excuse me negotiating position of the town with respect to real property. [clears throat] The real property matter is being held in executive session because an open
meeting discussion of the acquisition, lease, holding or disposition of real property may have a >> [snorts] >> effect on the bargaining position of the town and the chair so declares an executive session therefore to be necessary. All in favor of going into
executive session, please indicate by saying I. John, >> I Warren. >> Well, Uh, David, >> hi. >> Um, Michael, >> hi. >> Paul Warren. >> Sorry, I was locked out. I'm now in.
>> Okay. >> Hi. >> Hi. And chairside, we will reconvene in public session following the executive session. Thank you. >> Recording stopped. >> [music]
[music] [music] >> Hey. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Hey. [music]
Hey. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] [music]
>> Hey. Hey. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] [music]
[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Hey. Hey. Hey.
>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]
[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]
[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Oh yeah. [music] >> [music]
[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]
[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [bell] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]
[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]
[music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] [music]
[music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hallelujah.
[music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music]
>> Wow. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music]
[music] Oh, [music] [music] heat, heat. >> [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat.
[music] [music] Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] [music] Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music]
[music] Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [music]
>> Heat up here. [music] Heat. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] Oh,
[music] [music] [music] heat, heat. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music]
[music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> Heat up >> [music]
[music] [music] >> here. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music]
[music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] [music] [music] Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat.
[music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]
[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] [music]
[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Recording in progress. >> We're live in five. Four, three, two,
one. >> Good evening. I'm Bernard Green, chair of the Brookline Select Board, and this is the regular meeting of the select board after our executive session meeting for uh February 17, 2026.
Let's see. Let's start off with uh excuse [clears throat] me, uh with um updates or announcements from the select board, Michael. [snorts] So tonight, let us recognize and celebrate Lunar New Year, one of the
most significant cultural celebrations observed by billions of people around the world. Today, February 17th, 2026, marks the beginning of the year of the horse in the lunar calendar. Lunar New Year is celebrated across many
cultures and traditions as Chun J or spring festival in Chinese communities. Sul lal in Korean communities, Tet in Vietnamese communities, and Losar in Tibetan communities among many other
names throughout East and Southeast Asia. It is a time of reunion, renewal, gratitude, and hope for the year ahead. The horse in the Chinese zodiac symbolizes energy, freedom, passion, and
perseverance. qualities that are deeply reflected in our Brooklyn community every day. As we welcome this new year, we celebrate the vitality and determination that our residents bring to making Brooklyn a more vibrant,
inclusive, and connected town. Brooklyn is proud to be the home to a diverse and thriving Asian and Asian-American community whose traditions, cultures, languages, and contributions enrich the fabric of our town. from our local businesses and
restaurants to our schools and civic organizations. The presence and participation of our Asian and Asian-American neighbors strengthen Brookline in countless ways. On behalf of the select board, I extend our warmest wishes to all those celebrating
Lunar New Year in Brooklyn and beyond. May the year of the horse bring you and your loved ones good health, prosperity, joy, and togetherness. We encourage all Brookline residents to learn about and participate in the Lunar New Year traditions celebrated by their
neighbors, whether by visiting local businesses, attending community events, or simply extending warm wishes to those who are celebrating. Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year. >> Thank you, Michael. Any other John?
>> Uh, yes. Thank you, Michael. And [clears throat] seems only appropriate to note as well that um today is the first day of Ramadan and um I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on Ramadan. I have um thankfully I have uh friends from the Brooklyn Muslim friends
who um have helped me to to you know come to a better understanding of their faith um and also to break bread with them uh on ifar um on a couple of in some of the years recent years past and that opportunity is going to arise again
this Saturday for which I'm very grateful uh and I will conclude by wishing Ramadan Mubarak. [laughter] Thank you. >> You're welcome, >> David. >> I had prepared uh remarks on Chinese, well, not just Chinese, Lunar New Year,
of course, and on Ramadan, but I'll just add to the Ramadan part that uh Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and it uh consists of fasting from dawn to dusk, communal prayer, reflection, charity, and community. Uh
I've also attended some of these ifar dinners in the past, as have uh Bernard and I believe you did too, Michael. Uh Paul and [clears throat] Paul. Uh so a lot of elected officials in town get invited and various members from the
community and the programming is uh really quite excellent where the hosts offer brief educational lectures. They talk about the history of Islam in America, uh Muslim contributions to the United States. There are panel
discussions, Q&A sessions, uh even a fashion show most years. So, it's really a good time and people from uh all faiths come and get together and it's very enjoyable. So, I recommend it
to those who haven't gone before or to those who go every year uh as many of us do to continue going. Uh I also want to note as this is uh black [clears throat] history month that this week in 1919 the
panic a pan-African congress was convened. It was organized by web dubois. Uh it included a gathering of 57 delegates from 15 countries including the US. It sought to influence the Versailles Peace Conference which
demanded international oversight of African colonies eventual home rule and rights for people of African descent. This conference helped establish a foundation for future anti-colonial movements in Africa and internationalized the push for African
self-determination. It took decades longer for many African countries to eventually gain their independence. uh but this particular pan-African congress really set the groundwork for uh the independence of movements that began
more fully in earnest in the 1940s50s60s even into the 70s. >> Yeah. Thank thank you for mentioning that because that's a very important historical fact that I think very few people uh know about or or understand.
Um, >> has to have been just one more quick announcement and that is um there looks to be a very interesting program coming up on Thursday of this week uh 5:30 in room 103 right here at town hall and um uh essentially this is an invitation
from the Brooklyn Indigenous People's Celebration Committee um to a community conversation and the topic of the conversation is Trump Greenland and indigenous sovereignty. you're you're already enjoying the the
thought of attending, right? Um uh the conver conversation is going to be led by Kaylee Bennett uh of um uh our indigenous people celebration committee and Paul Mlan uh once again 5:30 room 103 on Thursday.
>> Okay. Um >> this is hand raised. >> Okay. Uh Paul, >> thank you Bernard. I just unmuted myself. Um, as you can tell, I'm remote uh off on a uh vacation with my family
during this school break. Um, which is a rare treat and it actually is a rare moment for me not to be in the select board room. But I did uh want to make a quick uh announcement reminder that the comprehensive plan um in second
engagement session is still underway. And if you have not filled out your survey uh for input into the comprehensive plan, which is our plan for the next uh 20 years or so, um that will help set things like zoning and
development areas and priorities for different types of surface services. Um now's the time to do it. the the survey is open until March 2nd and you can go to the town's uh website and there's a link in one of the news articles to be
able to get to the survey. Um and if you can't find it, give me a call or send me an email and I will send it to you. Thanks so much. >> Thank you. If I may add, um I think John brought up the fact that Ramadan uh is uh starting and uh the ifars that have
been held. Um, I I want to add that to me they're particularly important because they are examples of how in this town the [clears throat] three Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam um really come together on that
day uh in many ways and it's usually held either in a a Jewish synagogue or a Christian church and you you see um the ability of people uh uh coming together
around common goals, common understandings. And I think that that's one thing that we can be very proud of here at Brooklyn with respect to how we have uh incorporated uh that celebration
as well as others into our regular civic life. So, >> okay. Anything else? >> We're not one. >> Oh, yes. >> Just one more thing. Um I and I you know I think we I'm not sure if I heard it from Michael or or David or John but um
tomorrow is Wednesday. It's the first day of Lent. Um so there's there's quite a bit >> even I know that >> tomorrow is Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent which is very important um you know aspect of the
Christian faith. So >> yes. Okay, let's move on to uh public comment. Melanie could lay out the rules. >> Okay, thank you for joining us for public comment. This is an opportunity
for us to hear your perspective on the issues in Brooklyn that [clears throat] matter to you. Each person speaking tonight is limited to three minutes. You don't need to use the entire time, but you may if you like. Once 15 minutes has been met, there is an opportunity at the conclusion of the select board's
business for additional comments. Members of the public sometimes raise questions during public comment. We may be able to provide a quick answer to a question, but are more likely to work with staff to get a more thorough answer and respond over email. The onscreen timer will flash orange when you have
one minute remaining and red when your time is nearly up. Please conclude your remarks at that time. If you have more to say, you're welcome to send an email to board members expressing your thoughts in greater detail. Any [snorts] person wishing to speak must begin their comment by identifying themselves with
their full name, either their Brooklyn precinct number or street address, and the specific topic on which they wish to speak. The board encourages but does not require that remote users turn their video on when commenting. We did not have anybody signed up prior
to the meeting. Does anybody here wish to speak? >> Okay. >> For the what? for the fun. >> Fun. >> For the fun. >> Where Where is that gonna We have fun this [clears throat] meeting. It's just begun. >> We do have somebody online raising their hand.
>> Okay. >> John Heert, you can go ahead and share your screen. [snorts] >> Uh, thank you very much. Sorry for the poor video quality here. Um, [clears throat] I have a question about
the uh the comprehensive uh plan and um and it concerns whether the during the comprehensive planning process. Oh, first of all, I'm sorry. I'm John Heert. I live at 21 Auburn
Street. Uh I'm also a 10 meeting member here in precinct uh 7. [clears throat] My question is about the um comprehensive plan and I would [clears throat] merely like
to know if the during the comprehensive planning process there has been any um formal survey done methodical survey done um [clears throat] of the [snorts]
of a cross-section of people in Brooklyn or if the information that has been gathered for the comprehensive plan um is basically volunteer uh information and done in not as scientific a way.
>> Okay. Thank you. And my further concern would be that if if a uh if a methodical survey has not been done, then I then I would be concerned about the uh the results and the outcome.
>> Can we uh have someone provide you that answer offline? >> Uh sure. I'd be happy to receive that offline. >> Paul, do you hear that? >> Yep. I'd encourage John to uh send his
question to me or to uh to Linda Pelky who's a co-chair uh or to Cara Brutin, our director of planning and community development or John could attend a meeting and ask the question during many our many many uh public meetings the comprehensive plan.
>> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you, John. Any other public comments? >> Not that I could see online. >> Okay. You don't want to ask about when the fun starts. >> Okay. Wait. No. No. No. No. [laughter]
Should have kept my mouth shut. Okay. Um, next we have our miscellaneous calendar. And I'd like to take items um f uh I'm sorry. We first should
approve our minutes from February 10. I apologize. Um, any comments? I I see that Michael had some corrections to the uh >> to the minutes that weren't substantive, but they were still important.
>> So, unless there are any other, you know, edits uh with respect to the accuracy of the minutes, I'll move approval of the minutes for February 10, 2026. All in favor, John Vanco. I >> Paul Warren.
>> Paul Warren. >> Hi, >> David Pearlman. >> I >> Michael Rubenstein >> as amended. I >> Yeah. I'm sorry. That's good point. And chair votes I as amended. Okay. Next, I'd like to take items and now that the town administrator has has
arrived, I can actually bring up this next item. Um like to take items 5B to 5F in omnibus fashion. Except before the vote, I would like to take item 5e uh out for a briefing by the town
administrator of how the equipment being purchased um uh using funds or urban uh urban what's urban area security initiative uh funds will be used. Um,
and I think John said that he would like to make a proposal um that you know we would we would consider with respect to uh future federal grants. >> Sure. Um, so do you want me to talk about this specifically and then or John? Do you want to go first? >> What order you wanted to go in? I'm
>> Why don't you start off by just giving us a a briefing on, you know, this this uh grant? >> Sure. So, this is money that's reallocated from the um the overall amount of UASI funds. um we get the funds regionally and they are allocated
um per the consortium's uh policies and so this is some additional money that wasn't being spent on other things by the consortium that we are then able to use uh apply for and use um to in this case upgrade the auto visual equipment and the emergency
operations center emergency operations center is at the municipal service center on Hammond Street um it's where we run it's kind of the nerve center of any emergency uh response. Um that's where we ran our CO operations out of. Um that's also where we run snow
response out of. Um there's audio video equipment in there for communications purposes. Um there's actually uh the ability to stage a press conference if we need to in that space if there's an emergency that leaves town hall inaccessible. Um there's the ability to have large scale video conferencing. Um
so all of that is present in that space. um that equipment has not been upgraded in quite some time and is now quite old. Um so the opportunity to use this money for this purpose has arisen and we would like to make that investment. Um there's no there's no um surveillance aspect to
this at all. Um it's just using the grant money to upgrade the auto visual equipment in that space. >> Thank you. John, yes, you want to add [clears throat] >> Yeah. And um you know recognizing that and thanking the town administrator for um offering the clarification in advance
um uh the question I think we might want to consider as a select board is this is not the first time that there has been a question raised about a Yasi grant. There's a lot of heightened uh sensitivity towards the flow of money
from u department of uh uh homeland security to the town. Yasi um correct me if I'm wrong, but is under DHS. Um and uh I think we're going to have questions arise in the community on a regular
basis when we see UASI grants in the year ahead. And I happen to notice that in the budget for FY27, there is a line item in the expectation of over $400,000 in UASI grants. So, uh,
my suggestion is, um, we need a policy that helps us, uh, and helps the police chief and helps the town administrator to know, you know, when when is a particular UASI grant going to perhaps require closer scrutiny by the select
board than than routine grants that that are not UASI grants or not grants that originate with the Department of Homeland Security. Um, and we I don't think we have that policy. I I I know we do have um a very clear and a and a good proclamation that was made just within
the last couple of weeks on the whole subject matter of the cooperation between local municipal government and federal government on law enforcement matters. And I think we have to take into consideration that proclamation and come up with some more clarity as to
what kinds of UASI grants or what kinds of grants that originate with Department of Homeland Security might be uh grants that need to be pre-approved um by the select board after some review perhaps involving the police commissioners
advisory committee. >> Um thank you John. I I think there's two aspect two two thing two kind of take a step back money is not materially different than
other grants in the sense of the strings that are attached to it if that were to change and I am worried that it will change um then we have said for example if the federal government follows through on its threat and says you have to use at least at least a certain
percentage of this money towards immigration enforcement and you have to agree to uh allow your police departments to sign cooperation agreements with ICE then we wouldn't take the money um because that would be contrary to the select board's policies
and it just wouldn't come up and so yes we would lose that UAI money and but that's the consequence right we we have been prepared for that eventuality um you're going to see in some of the discussions that come up when we talk about the budget um that we are building
contingencies into the override potential override ask >> um so I don't you know if if there was a situation in which fundamentally taking Yuasi money required us to do something that was contrary to the policies of the
town we wouldn't be taking it um then the so that's one area where I've heard potential concerns raised about how yasi money might be used that somehow how it commits us to something that is contrary to our policies and we wouldn't take that money. We wouldn't participate in that if we thought that that was the
case. Um so that's the systemic issue and then there's the more specific concern that I first raised which is UASI funds what's called the brick the Boston regional intelligence center. Um now the brick is a one of the one of Massachusetts's kind of fusion centers.
It was created in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing. It's to supposed it's to support investigation of s you know what they call serious criminal activity violent crime gun violence terrorism threats multi-jurisdictional offenses and yes that includes gang violence um and what
people have said is one there's there are civil liberties concerns with the brick um because if you name is placed in the in a database there um your recourse to get out of it has often been clouded. Um there have been alloca allegations of false positives, you
know, people being branded as gang members in the brick when they weren't. Um and and a number of issues that have been raised with that as a policy matter. Um and so an argument and those are legitimate political arguments that
could be raised. You know, I would say, you know, the police chief will push back very strongly and say that there are extremely dedicated safeguards in place for the brick, that not participating in the brick would be a serious would seriously impede our ability to do multi-jurisdictional
investigations, all of that. And we could have that discussion about the brick, but there's no discussion to be had about UASI and the brick. whether we participate in the brick is not part of whether or not we
participate in UASI. So this idea that we are somehow inherently complicit in the brick's crimes if we take Yuasi money, the alleged crimes if we take Yuasi money is a false equivalency. Um UASI does not equal the brick. The brick
is funded by UASI but the fact that we also take Yuasi money does not render us [clears throat] brick associated you know brick by association. We are a member of the brick. We do participate in it. The police chief does think it has an extreme value. Um but if we want to have a discussion about the brick, we
can have a discussion about the brick. I don't think it makes sense to treat yasi differently just because there is this association between yasi and the brick or between yasi and DHS. I think that adds an unnecessary level of bureaucracy
to a process and politicization of a process that shouldn't be politicized. You know, these are basic, you know, when when we get these questions, right? People raise concerns. Oh, it says yasi. Does that mean it's surveillance? The answer to the question can be simple. It could be no. Um, and so where I want to
commit to the board is we want to be fully transparent when we put these YASI grants on your agenda and say very specifically this is what it's doing. It does not commit us to do anything that we don't want to do. Um, it does not implicate surveillance or the brick or
ICE or any of those things. it's just available money that we need to conduct our operations and treating it as though it is somehow inherently suspect I think would do us a disservice. Um I understand where the concerns are coming from. I just think that we're conflating
issues here. Um and I don't know if you need a policy. With that said, you know, the police chief, the fire chief and I are happy to talk about this with you with any with the board. We can put it on a future agenda. Um I just think it's really important that we don't single
out this grant and sort of say oh by association it requires heightened scrutiny. >> So um one of the policies we have is uh general order is it 43 immigration? >> Yes. >> And more importantly I hope people read
general order 50. Um, so those are some policies we have that that you know we would look at before we get too deeply involved with certain types of things. I'm wondering if you'd be able to um provide us with just a briefing paper on
the guard rails that you say um are associated with the brick. um because you know the monitoring gangs is very very important but you know that could also um uh
be a basis for some things that are really really bad. So if if we can get a sense of what those guard rails are I think that would be helpful to select board as well as the community. >> Any John? Well, I'm just wondering if maybe for for the time being could we at
least agree that um if any future UAS items will be given at least the line item in our agenda as opposed to under miscellaneous. Um so so that you know it doesn't no one has reason to believe that we're going to just you know
without any due consideration of uh the concerns in the community um you know pass through every single I I I understand that and I I just think, >> you know, conversations I've had with the public safety chiefs have been,
>> you know, I've been frankly they've been frustrated about this. They've been saying, why are we, you know, no one no one asks the planning department, no one asks DPW, you know, I mean, >> yes, we we when there are big grants, we do ask those questions, but you know, no one reflexively says, "Aha, um, that's
got to that's that's inherently suspect. Why are we treated?" Well, I I might have an answer in in that. Um I'll just cite the experience of the recent Super Bowl during which there was an [clears throat] ad by a company that is well known for their security um devices
called, you know, Ring devices that are in common use, you know, in communities all over the United States, including Brooklyn. And it turned into a firestorm of controversy because they wanted people to see the ad and feel warm and fuzzy about, you know, these Ring
security cameras that helped the people in a neighborhood to find a lost dog. And instead there was this wave of of very very deep concern and people were threatening boycots of the company and the company had to withdraw the ad for
further circulation. Attitudes are forming right now on where is the drawing, where is the the line between what we all love and respect, which is, you know, local law enforcement and what is unfortunately
has the the sort of the aspects of a security state that, you know, is being run from the federal level down to the local level. And I just think it's a it's a time of heightened concern and we have to be exercising heightened scrutiny. That's all. Michael,
>> um I guess I I guess my question for you Joel is given what the town administrator has said, my understanding is that the fact that the money comes from is not itself sufficient criteria.
And so I'm I'm wondering what the criterion is that you're looking for. Is is it actually >> well I'd set I'd settle for them being you know um item four on the agenda as opposed to item B under miscellaneous
but what going on item four as opposed to miscellaneous >> future UI grants we are we we have to routinely you know approve them or not approve them as it is but when they appear in the miscellaneous calendar it's as though we're minimizing you know the questions that people in the
community have about them >> but what I hear you saying just to make sure I understand is that the fact the fact that it is from Yuasi itself is the trigger for the for that distinction. And I just heard the town administrator say that the fact that the money comes
from Yasi does not actually relegate that money differently than money coming from any number of other Yeah. location. >> But we don't know until we see the substance of Absolutely. I mean, you know, we over the last couple years,
whenever there's a USI item in the miscellaneous miscellaneous agenda and someone has brought up an issue with it, we've pulled it out and had a full discussion like we did today. >> Yeah. >> And I think that, you know, that's I don't know why that isn't a good, you know, way of of dealing with it because
it identifies situations where, you know, you actually raises questions or presents problems that we need to really through, you know, in more detail. I mean, putting it in in the regular main agenda is not going to really change anything, >> you know, and, you know, it you're
absolutely right that having them on the miscellaneous agenda, you know, uh hasn't resulted in them not being uh, you know, occasionally questioned. But on the other hand, it res represents a source of aggravation, you know, to the police
chief, perhaps understandably that none of the other miscellaneous items get questioned, you know, but this one does, but it gets questioned for a reason. And that's my only point. >> And we question others, too. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. >> Yeah. And and I I again, I understand
where this is coming from. I just think the maybe the response is more community education as opposed to to that level of scrutiny so that people understand when they see Yuasi that the reflex that that that reflex isn't immediately triggered
this sense of hey you know oh it's got to mean something bad you know again like what I worry about is that these are kind that despite our efforts at community education we see the same concerns being raised over and over again we see this that people are raising this about us and then what it's
really about is it's about the brick right like that's what the underlying concern you scratch a youasi. I'm not saying that people don't have legitimate concerns. I'm sure they do. But ultimately, at the end of the day, what I see underneath it, what I continue to see from people who raise these objections is what they're really talking about is the brick. And that's a
political conversation. Like I we would be happy to have that conversation. We would be happy to talk about the brick and we could talk about whether or not it makes sense for Brooklyn to be a part of it. Um, but don't disguise that objection that that policy and political
objection under an objection to you. They're not the same thing. They're not. And I really think it does us a disservice to treat them as equivalent and basically gum up the works of the public safety departments because there
is a political objection to the brick, which again, that's a that's a legit I am not denigrating people who have objections to the brick. I think that is a legitimate political conversation to have, a legitimate policy conversation to have. But in the same way that I often say, please don't disguise your
substantive objections to things like new development as procedural objections. Don't disguise your procedural your your substantive objections to something that you funds as a procedural objection. That I think does your argument a disservice. Be honest.
>> Okay, Paul. >> Yeah. Uh, thank you, Bernard. Uh, and John, thanks for for bringing uh this up. I I think it is a it's a really helpful conversation and I um I appreciate what what Chaz is saying. I I do I do agree it's it's partially about
the brick, but it's also partially about the fear of surveillance. Um you know, when these items come onto our agenda, we usually hear from the same couple of folks. Um it's not like people aren't piling on, right? We hear from a couple. And when we do hear generally we we pull it out and have a more substantive
discussion. Um which is what we do on other grants that have taken place. Um you know but whether they're for planning or park and wreck or you know we we've had people give money to various departments directly. We've asked about that. Um we've had
discussions about CDBG here. How we use money from the housing trust fund um you know in detail. So, I I tend to agree with Chaz that to treat our public safety department differently than
anybody else just because it has these four letters uh in the grant name um is is I think um correct. I I I don't think we should be treating them differently. I wouldn't want to hand it over to the police commissioners advis advisory
committee to have more bureaucracy. But what I would encourage uh Chaz or staff to do is when one of these items a grant does show up to maybe provide a little more descriptive detail about what it's doing um either in I think in the
description of the agenda item would be really helpful because often the public doesn't see the the explanatory memo or the follow-up explanations that happen until the the night of the meeting where you know they people get anxious about these things. So, if we can put a little more information into the agenda about
what the item is going to be used for, um I think that would be helpful for public education. And then also, I would just say that, you know, I trust our police chief, um and I trust our town administrator to flag those things that they already know that we have policies for that we're concerned about. Um so, I
don't necessarily think we need to treat it differently, but always keep an eye out on it, John, which I I know you do and you'll continue to do. >> Okay. Uh, Michael, >> uh, I would just say fundamentally I agree with Paul. >> Okay. [laughter] For the record. >> For the record.
>> Okay. I agree with Paul, too. For the record. And I'd like to thank John for bringing this up. I mean, John uh frequently will identify items in our miscellaneous calendar that uh are are approving huge amounts of money and he
says, "Let's let's talk about this." uh or for some other reason um you know we should we should have a a discussion so that we understand what we're approving. So >> um thank you for that. Well, and I do want people listening who might not be familiar with the discussion of all
these issues to know. Um, it's not just here in Brooklyn that this kind of question is being raised by this kind of group. Select board. Boston city council has had extensive discussions and have has heard from groups calling on the
city of Boston to for further acceptance of yasi money. So it it's a topic that is getting serious consideration by serious people and uh I think it needs to be taken very seriously in Brooklyn. That's all. >> Thank you. >> Excuse me.
>> Okay. So let's move on to approving items 4B through 4F. Uh all in favor please indicate by saying I. John Vancoyak >> I. >> Paul Warren >> I. >> David Perman >> I. >> Michael Rubenstein >> I. >> And chair votes I. I I do have a
question though about uh 5D if I may. Not to be difficult, but just looking at the different change orders. I notice one of them is uh due to needing to install custom shower partitions due to discontinued product. Now, that in and
of itself is not a big deal to me. I'm just pointing out uh that it appears that we're running into a situation where certain items that are needed for the renovation are no longer available. And I'm wondering is this uh an issue
constrained to just shower partitions or is this something that we're seeing repeatedly happen in in other areas of the renovation? >> I have not seen that happen in other areas of renovation, but I I will follow up with the with the construction team and get back to you. That seems like an isolated incident. Usually, you know, if there are systemic issues, they get
elevated to me, but I haven't so I haven't heard that, but I will talk to the capital projects team and get back to you. Okay. >> Okay. Let's move on to our regular or main calendar. A reserve fund transfer, [clears throat] excuse me. Question of
approving a res reserve fund transfer request from the commissioner of public works in the amount of $300,000 for the Department of Public Works to initiate time-sensitive design, permitting, and preparatory work necessary for construction of a non-permanent transfer
station structure in accordance with D permit approvals and to forward the request to the advisory committee for their consideration. This is the transfer station item uh that we are working on and it costs money but uh any
discussion uh on on this item. Um, we are in communication with u residents in this area to um let them know what type of uh steps we're taking to uh mitigate smells
I assume noise and other issues that arise in connection with a a project like this. Um and uh we're doing as everything we can to make sure that uh this project gets completed quickly um
and uh you know with with as little um uh dis dislocation to the community as possible. One question I do have, how we arrived at 300,000 as the figure, is that what was requested? Is that a compromise
amount? Does that truly cover the totality of the need? >> I think that that really just prepares the groundwork for for the total project, but we should wait for Chaz to come back. >> If I may for the chair,
>> Commissioner Kash. >> Yes. even better >> trying to be so polite and wait uh to be called on. Would it be okay if I provided an update to the to the board? Okay. Um good evening the chair uh members of the select board. My name is Erin Chud. I'm the commissioner of
public works and uh I'm here tonight to request your approval of $300,000 uh reserve fund transfer. It's to begin begin the design, permitting and initial procurement of a temporary transfer station structure. Uh this is the first
phase of a larger project that is estimated uh at approximately $1.3 million total with the remaining 1 million already planned in the FY27 capital improvement plan for construction and installation.
The request is time-sensitive and operationally critical. Uh, in August of 2025, the concrete tipping floor at the transfer station at 8:15 Newton Street experienced a structural failure. Uh, a hole appeared in the floor used to dump,
sort, and load refues. Uh, engineering evaluations determined that the slab and underlying conditions are compromised and cannot safely support daily municipal solid waste operations. As a result, the facility is no longer usable
in its intended form, and we must implement an interimm solution while we plan for a permanent long-term replacement as part of the broader DPW facilities strategy. So, following this failure, DPW and the building department evaluated several alternatives. Uh we
looked at repairing the existing tipping floor using steel plating or structural infill, but those options were determined to be operationally unworkable, costly for their limited lifespan, and likely to trigger trigger additional regulatory requirements, and
importantly, even if repairs were attempted, the town would still need to construct a temporary facility in the future when the existing building is ultimately demolished and replaced. So investing in major repairs now would mean paying twice for essentially the
same interimm need. So after reviewing the options, the most fiscally responsible and operationally sound path forward is to contra construct a temporary enclosed transfer station structure uh in another area of the DPW
yard. This location has been reviewed with our environmental consultant and with the department of environmental protection. The structure will serve as an interim tipping floor and consolidation area while we undertake a comprehensive feasibility study for a
permanent transfer station. It's designed to be durable and adaptable so that when a permanent facility is eventually built, the structure can be repurposed for other DPW operational needs such as equipment, vehicles, or salt storage. And that way, this is not
a short-lived investment. It remains a useful long-term asset. So, the $300,000 requested tonight will fund the initial phase of work that includes hiring an engineering firm to prepare stamped civil and structural plans, advancing permitting through the planning board,
zoning board of appeals, and building department code review. Um, beginning site preparation, and making an initial payment towards the pre-fabricated structure um to the procurement there could begin. um starting now helps us
stay ahead of escalating costs and maintain operational continuity. Um Kevin Johnson, our deputy commissioner of DPW operations and director of highway sanitation and fleet services uh and I uh updated the neighborhood. We
met with the neighborhood last week to let them know um where we were in the planning process and they expressed interest in the project moving along as expeditiously as possible. So with that, that's a summary. We respectfully
request your approval of the $300,000 reserve fund transfer so we can immediately commence um this phase of the work. Um following your approval, it would be transmitted to the advisory committee for their u for their review. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner Shoot. That was
very um a very thorough and very informative uh summary. Any questions from the select board? Michael >> Paul has his hand. >> Okay, Paul, why don't I see that? >> It's the very top. >> Oh, okay.
>> It's so right there. See it, Bernard? >> I see that. [laughter] >> Uh thanks, Eron. Kevin, um I have a kind of a big picture question and then I have a detailed question. Um and this is a little bit from left field, so I apologize. If we didn't have the
transfer station, where would our trash go? if we didn't have the transfer station and I'll say we've been managing the town's trash at this facility since 1948 um when it was init initially
constructed as an incinerator and then it was um decommissioned in 1978 and um turned into a municipal solid waste and recycling transfer station. So, it's been serving the town since um well,
1948 to manage trash, but that would mean a haulandgo operation, which would lead to significantly increased costs for the town. Um because uh we would then have um increased hauling costs,
increased um waiting times and increased disposal costs at the um end disposal facility which is uh waste to energy. >> Yeah. So um if I I'm going to follow up just for a minute, Bernard, on this this
question and again I'm just cur it really is curious because I've always wondered about this. you know, other communities don't have a transfer station, right? So, they they either use ours or they use someone else's, right? Certainly would I know when we negotiated
um the recent uh trash hauling agreement, I think having that transfer station was a component of lowering the cost of keeping the cost lower. But essentially, that's what it would be. It wouldn't be that we wouldn't have trash. It it'd have to go somewhere. It just wouldn't go to us. And that would mean a
higher rate possibly passed on to those who pay trash within the >> Absolutely. Absolutely. And other communities are um you know in essence are envious that
we have the flexibility that the transfer station affords the town. >> And I'm I'm envious of some of the beautiful facilities and outside park spaces that other towns have. But that's beside the point. Um my detailed question is how long does the temporary
structure last? How long will it actually function as uh you know holding trash for us u before you have to have a permanent structure? >> So the I mean the the temporary structure could last um upwards of 20
years. >> Okay. So it could be do we have an idea of when we might build the permanent structure? We're um commencing a feasibility study in this coming um this coming year and I think following that
we'll have a better understanding of costs. Uh we'll work with the neighborhood, we'll work with the community on what that looks like and then um ultimately uh really figure out where it fits into the overall capital plan. So, I'm I'm not sure what that
what that time frame will be, but this will yield um some time that the town has to really figure out the appropriate next step. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. [clears throat] Any other
questions? >> Okay. Then I'd like to move approval of the um reserve fund transfer in the amount of $300,000 related to the transfer station. All in favor please indicate by saying I. >> John Dancoyak
>> I. >> Paul Warren >> I. >> David Pearlman >> I. >> Michael Rubenstein >> I. Chair votes I. Thank you. >> You >> next uh financial plan presentation. Who
on the select board is gonna do that? >> I just let Chaz know. >> Okay, good. >> Want to take a break? >> I don't know. >> He's going to be here shortly, right? >> And we're going to be joined by the advisory committee for this. Is that the way it's working? No.
>> No. Um, that fell through. >> Oh, okay. >> They didn't like our meeting space. >> Oh, okay. All right. So, they they're going to get their own presentation. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Didn't Didn't they already That's why we
started later, right? Isn't that where they were earlier? >> Yeah. Yeah, that was the plan, I believe. So, >> so maybe uh we will benefit from some of the questions that they may have asked. >> Melissa's with us, right? No, >> I think Melissa is going to be with
them. Is that correct? Okay. >> Melissa's with advis for you guys. >> Bernard, if you wanted to take a fivem minute break, that wouldn't um >> be a bad thing. >> If you want to do Why don't we take a
five minute break? I guess I'll make an executive decision. Five minute break. >> Okay. make this um into um a document that's worthy of the award that it wins uh on a year in yearout basis. He's so responsive to feedback from you and from
the advisory committee. He's putting together not just the online version, but a paper version. Um there's been a lot of late nights and hard work going into this. So, I want to thank him and Melissa and the whole team um who have put this together. And I want to thank you, the board, for the opportunity to present this to you.
FY27 is going to be a is is is a tough year. FY27 really is a year in which we stand on a precipice. Um, healthcare and other fixed costs continue to fuel our structural deficit, meaning that our
revenues are continually outpaced by our fixed cost increases. We can project a 12% increase in our health care costs for the next three fiscal years. Utility costs continue to rise as we electrify and electricity costs remain stubbornly high. Collective bargaining continues to
put pressures above and beyond what the limits of Proposition 2 and a half can support. for the public. Proposition two and a half is the uh ballot initiative that was passed in Massachusetts in 1982 and implemented by the legislature that says that property taxes, local property
taxes cannot go [clears throat] up by more than two and a half% in any given year plus a factor for what's called new growth, you know, new development in the community. In Brooklyn, that factor usually pencils out to between 0.5 to 1% in additional tax levy. Um, so in
practice, Brooklyn's taxes can only go up by a certain amount unless voters authorize either temporarily or permanently a tax increase. Uh, prior to the fiscal policy adjustments that are recommended in the financial plan, the gap between revenues and expenditures
mean projected revenues and projected expenditures leave the schools at a deficit of $8.1 million and the town at a deficit of $2.9 million. With that said, even facing these high numbers, we continue continue to pursue the kinds of initiatives that make Brookline a leader
in regionally uh and in the state and statewide uh and that continue to foster them and promote the goals of the select board uh and town meeting and the people of this community. Um we hope to use our solar initiative money to put solar panels on five roofs by the end of
calendar year 2027. Our uh promoting our energy independence and bringing costs down. Uh [clears throat] we are receiving access for the first time in over $1.1 million in new climate grant opportunities thanks to the work of the sustainability and natural resources division. We are more conducting more rapid motor repair roadway repair
projects. Um we are moving into the human services uh aspect of the community health improvement plan through our resource navigator and efforts there. We are continuing our long-range growth planning through the comprehensive plan evaluating Chestnut Hill West and other opportunities as
they present themselves. In order to balance the budget for FY27, the town is proposing roughly $ 1.57 million in cuts and $1.2 million in increased fees and fines, of which $421,000 will flow into the town's operating
budget. The remaining gap between that and that $2.9 million number you saw earlier must be filled by either additional cuts or a voluntary property tax increase, which is an operating override. With that said, that's only one year and it will does not answer
some of the out-year pressures in FY28 and beyond, including a tale to the fire union contract that adds $910,000 to departmental operation costs, the expiration of a sustain a grant for the sustainability and natural resources division, the continued mismatch of
fixed costs and revenues, and additional known costs that the community has asked us to address. For example, fire overtime um and six vacant positions in the police department. So, what would an override potentially look like? Um, the schools have been
working on trying to nail down a number. The the uh preliminary figures approved by the school committee on Thursday's meeting leave them with a gap of roughly $19.8 million projected cumulatively from FY27 to FY29. On the town side, the
town has proposed a preliminary override proposal that would increase its revenues by 5.31 million in an attempt to cover the years between FY27 and FY29. Um, this number when adjusted for
inflation is actually slightly lower than the number the town asked for in 2023, which was $4.99 million. So the town is attempting to keep its ask small as possible in order to be a responsible steward of the resources that are entrusted to it while also maintaining
the level of services that the community wants us to maintain. That said, that total bottom line number there currently of 26.15 million is extremely high represents around 7.8% of an increase in the overall tax levy from this past
fiscal year. And that does not include the tax increase that would happen from Prop 2 and a half. It's two and a half percent. The additional from the addition from new growth and the excluded debt for capital projects. All told, tax in your taxes would go up, tax
levy would go up by 5.1% next year in the absence of an override. And so if you put all of these things together and put them all into one year, which again is not uh necessarily what is going to happen or is what is recommended to happen, but that number um would put you
at around 12.9% uh growth in tax levy. Here is the official wall of numbers. Um you can see here the B this is a no override scenario. If there was no override on the budget on the ballot, this is how we would balance the budget. You can see that property tax growth
there by 5.1%. Um overall uh the total there uh in terms of FY27 $481 million um uh growth of 5.2% comparable growth in expenditures. You can see here municipal department's
growth the budgets of only 2.4% school department only 1.2% non-EP departmental expenses growing by 10.8%. That is your health care number. That is your budget busters. And we'll talk a little bit about [clears throat] how Brookline's budget works, but basically what is happening is not that we are allocating
[cough] less money to [clears throat] the schools or to the town. It is that the shared expenses that the schools in the town have are consuming all of our revenue before it can trickle down to either the schools or the other municipal departments. And what that means in practice is that percentage
change is lower than it has been in past years. departments, including the schools, are being asked to do more with less. Here are revenues at a glance. Property taxes continue to make up 72.6%. That's a little that's actually down a little bit um from last year, but not much. Um
local receipts 7.8%. Local receipts are taxes on things like meals, vehicles, uh fines and fees that we receive, parking violations, and so forth. That number represents an increase uh including uh that $1.2 million in fines and fees. We'll talk a little bit about more about
where that comes from in a minute. State aid at 5.5% free cash which is the amount of money unspent from the prior year at 4.2% other funds at 1.3% and enterprises which are net which run like a business um you know separate funds uh where their revenues and expenditures
balance at 8.5%. So again, property taxes. Uh here's the estimated property tax levy. We'll go up to around 350 million, $349 million, just under 350 million. Um 35 million of that around just over 10% is excluded
debt. Uh it is temporary debt on the levy that was passed directly to the taxpayers by a ballot vote. Funding things like the Pier School, the Driscoll School, the fire station rehabilitations, and so forth. those uh those debt exclusions will be with us for some time um because they are bond
bonded debt exclusions uh and the bond terms are quite long 20 or 30 years uh net state aid is at $8.6 million um in terms of the balance between what we get and what we are charged. It's an increase of less than a million dollars
from FY26. Unrestricted general government aid has increased by less than $200,000 2.5%. Um, the Massachusetts Municipal Association made a point of issuing a report last year talking about how in real terms, real dollar terms, the amount of g
unrestricted general government aid that the state has given municipalities has decreased over the last 25 years. Um, the mass municipal association suggested increasing uh unrestricted general government aid by at least 10%. Um, you
can see here that obviously didn't happen. Um the governor came to the MMA conference and basically said, "Sorry, um we continue to chronically underfund local services in the state budget." Same is true of our chapter 70 education
aid. Um it increased only by $512,000. The pressures here are a little different. The state allocates resources according to need. Um particularly trying to help um Gateway Cities and other communities that has been historically disadvantaged when it comes to education dollars. which again is a
laudable goal. However, it is lack of minimum aid communities like us lagging behind the cost of education. Um our assessment to the MBTA increased by 1.3%. Um again that's around $6.5 million. Local receipts up um again remember the
fines and fee increases make up a portion of this um make up $1.2 million of this. Um local receipts make up less than 10% of our overall budget. When people talk about ways to um avoid a property tax override or avoid cuts to
the system, they often say, "Why can't you raise local receipts? It always seems like you underproject them. Always seems like they come in better than you expect. Why don't you raise local receipts?" The answer is uh local receipts power our free cash number. In fact, the state tells us in no uncertain
terms, you should conservatively budget local receipts so that it can fund your free cash because free cash is used in accordance with your free cash waterfall policy, which we will see momentarily. um in order to fund things like capital projects. Local receipts are the best
way to do this because they often make up a small percentage of your uh tax base and they can be volatile at times. Um and uh they wind up providing the kind of firmst support for free cash uh that can't be found in other areas like
property tax. Um so people all you know I've se seen now at the past two annual town meetings people attempt to make amendments to the budget and basically say local receipts will cover it. Local receipts is not intended for that purpose and should not be used for that purpose. uh the consequences of doing
that you can actually see in Brooklyn in the early 90s um when Brookline was using one-time money that it didn't have to cover operating expenses. And what happened was capital uh things fell apart called the inshabification of
Brookline buildings were uh maintained in a really uh dilapidated state. Uh there was a fire at the high school in 1993 I believe. Um it was not a good time uh to be in municipal service. Um, and so I understand people look at the
delta between what local receipts brings in and what we projected at and they say, "Oh, there's money there." There's not money there. Um, if I could wave a magic wand and solve the problem, I would. Um, but that is not the magic wand. Um, the refuge fee uh increased to
meet contractual needs. It reflects a fee uh vote increase voted on by the select board and is part of an increase in a multi-year contract um with Cassella Waist Services. Our free cash estimate for this year is $23 million. We will appropriate uh 20.2
million of that. That's down from FY26, but still within the 5.5 to 7% of prior year's revenue that the state recommends for I in terms of an ideal free cash number. So that remaining balance is left unappropriated as best practice to
support our unreserved fund balance goal. That's one of the numbers that bond uh rating agencies look at to determine whether or not we are indeed a AAA rated community. So, of that money, 15.9 million will go through what's called the free cash waterfall. We'll first fund our operating reserves to the tune of
$893,000. Then our unfunded uh or liabilities or stabilization fund uh for uh 6.3 million. We will uh re uh uh re uh uh energize our liability and catastrophe
fund to the tune of 2.2 million. Increase our revenue funded CIP by 5.36 million. Again, this is down from the policies that you recommended from 6.6% down to 6% of revenue. Um, and because the affordable housing trust is under $5
million, we will allocate money to the affordable housing trust. The remaining 7.3 million is free for special purposes. This year, we recommend, especially because that revenue funded CIP number is down, that you put the rest of it into the CIP.
other available funds, the $6.3 million number small. Um they represent things like reimbursements from the enterprise funds to for general fund related costs. Um transfers from certain grant funding uh like host community agreements or opioids. U and then an overlay surplus.
Um the overlay is a fund uh that the board of assessors maintains in order to pay out any potential settlements if we accidentally overt tax someone. um if they find that there is uh an overage in there, they will certify an overage and release it to the town for use for
appropriation that year. We believe the assessors will do that this year and to the tune of $1.5 million, which we will use, recommend using again to fund the CIP for capital projects. Enterprise funds, we talked about these, they generally function as businesses
and net in, net out, um the revenue increase from FY26 is 8.8%. um that uh is mirrored by their expenditures. We recover 100% of the cost from water and sewer and golf. The recre revolving fund has an 87.1% coverage of its costs.
We look now at the expenditures for FY27. See again that non-EP departmental number looms large. It's over a third of our total expenditures. School department is next largest at 30%. Town departments at 21%. the school department. We talked about that growth number and why it is the way
it is. A non-override PSB budget would be $144.5 million, a $1.7 million increase from FY26. This is the revenue allocation formula, the famed town school split. It's based on a historical budget percentage. It's adjusted for some expenses that are
covered by the town. And then after that um after um those fixed costs are paid for 59% of remaining general fund revenue is allocated to the schools. Then there are some mutual cost charges that are allowed for operational needs. Most notably the building department which rests on the town side of the
budget. Um their operation their school operations are funded by this sort of cost charge. The town school partnership manages this relationship. Uh it contains members of the um the school committee, the advisory committee and the select board. It's meant to ensure efficiency and savings in the allocation
formula and in shared services. This is the town side of the non-override budget. You can see where the limited growth is. Um town clerk's numbers are going up uh from because they are having three elections this year instead of one. Um they do receive reimbursement from the state for their
elections activities. So you will actually see there's a cut to their operating side of the budget uh their operating numbers because we believe that the state reimbursement should be sufficient to cover those expenses. Um and then these other items you know solid waste pickup and disposal which is
offset by the fee increases. Um uh and then you know some of these smaller things uh for example the building department um human resources for public safety recruitment now that we're out of civil service and the police department um increased cost in licenses um the cost of paying for that personal
property assessment service at the in the assessor's office and so on. Very minor increases uh and often just for the breathing cost of people's contracts. In the event of no override, this is
what we would cut. Um, this reflects this [snorts] between this and the revenue increase from fees and fines gets you to around $2.9 million. It's 17.4 full-time employees. Um, wherever possible, we are attempting
to make those reductions uh by eliminating open positions. Um, but realistically, we will see some layoffs in this circumstance. Um we would see um uh you know amongst other things those six police officer positions that are
currently being held open would be eliminated permanently. We would lose three personnel in the planning department, two economic development planners. Um we would lose um uh finance personnel, critical finance personnel um assistance in the offices that really
provide a lot of services that aren't seen by the public but that are critical. Um, and then wherever possible, tightening of belts, um, cutting library hours, eliminating the farmers market, um, cutting the town clerk's elections budget, and then talking about level funding our, uh,
other post-employment benefits, our opeds, that's, uh, our unfunded liabilities for retiree healthcare, and then reducing the revenue contribution to the CIP. Ultimately, that gets you to around $2.55 million, and the revenue uh, allocation gets you the rest of the
way there. Um this is a pretty grim collection of cuts I will say. Um it would provide it would lead to significant reduction in services um across the town um and be difficult um for many departments uh to move forward
providing the level of service that the community has come to expect. I will also say that this is just year one. Um, so if there were no override, uh, and that continued into FY28, we would be looking not just at this, but probably an additional 20 cuts and the
permanent closure of a fire company. Um, the mothballing of an engine. We would take an engine offline. So that $5.1 million of a potential override, what does that look like? What does that fund? What does that get us? Um, so the we talk about keeping the
lights on, continuity of service. we would make $ 1.56 million in cuts. Um there's a slide missing here, but I will uh I will um go get back to it at the end of this presentation about what those cuts are in a yes override scenario, but briefly um there are five
positions rather than 17.4. There would be no need for layoffs. Those would be positions reduced and we would see some minor cuts to some services budgets. Um but by and large, uh those cuts um while significant um would not be as arduous as the cuts in our no scenario. Then you
see the revenue there as well. Um you notice here on the far right there's this uh item labeled FY27 change or reserve. We'll talk about what that means in a minute. Um but you can see here for the maintenance of effort continuity of service 1.245 million. Um
to fund the fire department's new contract that 800 th00 that sorry that $910,000 beginning in FY28. You can see that there. the overtime deficit that we talked about, the fire department has posted an overtime deficit for the last five years trying to rightsize that budget. We believe that number has
plateaued given the efforts of the fire chief and the fire union to make things work which we think is important. Um but it's still um you know and reserve fund one reserve fund transfer after another and we need to ultimately balance that out. Sorry, let me go back there. Um the
department of public works, our sustainability division is funded by a grant. uh that grant is expiring uh at the end of 2027. Um we believe sustainability has really proved its worth to the community. In addition to unlocking other sources of grant
funding, it has already proven a success in terms of moving a solar initiative forward. Uh provide working on the climate action resiliency plan. Um identifying opportunities for vehicle charging. Um you know just building a green infrastructure. um trying to uh
build uh our our resiliency in the face of a changing climate um and ensuring that the priorities of the community including fossil fuel freedom by 2050 uh are on the right track. Tree protection town meeting passed a tree pro expanded tree protection bylaw. [laughter] Um
unfortunately uh the prediction that it would pay for itself has not come true. Uh the amount of money collected under that protection bylaw is less than a fourth of what we need to fund it. Um and so the reality of the situation is if that's what town meeting wants then we need to increase taxes to pay for it.
Um we cut a horiculturalist during COVID uh and have relied on contracted services since then. Um it has been a request for DPW to restore that position ever since CO passed and we have not had the resources to do it. It makes sense from an avoiding additional contracted
cost situation and it makes sense in terms of protecting our green space uh and other natural resources that the community expects DPW to protect. We would reverse the uh hiring freeze in the police department. We would restore six positions. We would increase our
collective bargaining reserve to cover for anticipated increased costs in union contracts going forward. Um unlike with other unions, our public safety unions can take their disputes to arbitration. um if they are at an impass and the joint labor management committee in
Massachusetts has in the recent years been quite favorable to employee unions in setting contracts through arbitration. Uh unfortunately one of the things that they do take into account which we believe they shouldn't be taking into account is whether or not a
community will pass an override. Um that often means that even if we are looking at a contract that is more expensive than the budget can bear without making cuts or adjustments, it still might be better than what we would get at JLMC.
And so we have to unfortunately um you know make those hard decisions um because the alternative could be even worse. Um the uh uh police case management software is depreciated. um support is
stopped for it. Um we need to upgrade it. It is an expensive upgrade both to make and to maintain. Um we need to increase the salary of the police command staff. After the last police department contract, the gap between the deputy superintendent who are the lowest non-UN position and the lieutenants who
are the highest union position is quite small. Uh that decreases interest in people stepping into management roles. uh and we need to obviously maintain um our succession planning and so being able to increase those salar excuse me being able to increase those salaries is
important. Um the senior center medical transit program um has been well used um by a number of our community members. It provides free rides um anywhere um for medical transit. Um it is the last of
its programs left in Massachusetts as far as we know. Um, we're doing additional research there to make sure we're right. As far as we know, no other community does what we do. Newton's program has stopped. Cambridge's program has stopped. Everyone else who tried a program like this funded by ARPA dollars found that it was not sustainable. And
so too have we. Um, we are maintaining this program through to the end of our ARPA dollars. Um, but once that money concludes, in order to maintain something similar to it, we are going to have to start charging for it. Um but we are going to charge the lowest amount
possible, a nominal fee um to people under a certain income level. Uh and then we are going to charge um a market rate fee to folks who can afford it uh in order to subsidize the program for uh folks who cannot. Um we're also
recommending here that we increase the um time of our transportation coordinator at the senior center. Um that's been a big success. Um, getting around is one of the biggest issues that folks have as they age. Being able to be mobile, being able to go to doctor's
appointments and get to and from um social activities uh and visiting family and otherwise having an active uh and engaging um life, particularly as they exit employment, um is really critical to the well-being and health of our uh
aging community. And so whatever we can do to support that in terms of our transit programs, we want to be doing. Um, again, we've had really great success with our transportation coordinator who came on at the beginning of last year, and we want to build on that and improve it. We also want to
shift uh a um an aid uh who is currently on soft money in the council on aging to our operating budget which will free up that money for programming rather than people which is what it should be going towards. In the building department um the director of public buildings has
asked for an additional $180,000. Some of that for repair and maintenance, some of that to bring on another plumber, a full-time plumber. We think from the savings that we would realize from bringing on that trades person, we could probably bring that down to 150. Um, it is the other big area where we
still have money, we still have contracts funded by ARPA dollars. We also have money funded by UASI as we pointed out. Um, and we do think there's the possibility of UASI going away after FY27. And so, um, you know, we do think it's if the federal government imposes
something like an immigration restriction on us, we're just not going to take the money. And so, we need to plan for that and build that into our operating budget. Lastly, the clerk uh has requested that a part-time senior clerk typus be moved to full-time. His rationale is that we're already paying that person extra hours and basically
they're working full-time anyway. Um, so rather than um expending those resources and not having them available for things the community wants, like digitization of files and public records requests and so forth, we should just move that person full-time since they're already effectively working full-time anyway.
Um, that adds up to 5.31 million. So that $ 1.56 million in the corner there, the reserve. Um, historically, Brooklyn has taxed when it's increased its over when it's increased its tax levy, it has
done so in steps. So, it's said on a ballot question, can we increase our taxes by, I don't know, $10 million? But then to the voters, it's promised, we're going to phase that in. We're going to do $3 million year one, $3 million year two, $3 million year three, so that the
impact to your taxes is not as severe as if we had phased it all in in year one. On the town side of this at least, what we are proposing is taxing to the full 5.31 in year one and sacking away the money that we don't spend in year one in an override stabilization fund. The
purpose of that fund is to avoid cuts in years two and three of the override, using that additional money to cover for unexpected expenses and the structural gap as we progress through years two and three, FY28 and FY29. Yes, you pay more
upfront earlier. 5.31 million dollars is roughly 1.6% of the tax levy. Um so hopefully the impact of that is relatively minimal when compared to the fact that in year one you already need around 5.7 sorry around $3.7 million of
that um just to fund it. So there's not a whole lot of money in that reserve, but there's enough to keep the overall override ask lower. And yes, that does raise the possibility that you could be setting yourself up for a larger structural deficit in FY30. But we think
between the pension obligations potentially being satisfied, um the fact that as a portion of the tax levy, our debt service will peak in FY29. Um the possibility of economic development later in the decade. We know it's not
going to be online by FY30, but hopefully the uh potential for increased growth is going to be realized there. Um that the situation will be brighter at the end of this override cycle than it is at the beginning of it. So here are the expenditures. You can
see the group health increase there, $6 million. Again, like I said, from here on out, we're expecting 12% going forward with no end in sight. Um we continue to fund our pension, $3 million increase. We are revising our rate of investment down. That's good. That means that in an economic downturn, we have
less to adjust for. We have $177 million of outstanding $178 million basically of outstanding liability. And we are still projecting a full funding date of 2030. Our opeds um we are holding that we are recommending that you hold that uh rate
stable. Um our assumption right now in the uh budget uh is that you uh go back to funding this in FY28 and 29. It is the request of the schools and it likely is required for us to balance our books
too that you maintain this policy of keeping OPEC contributions flat rather than increasing them and keep the CIP at 6% rather than 6.6% through to FY29. um in order to decrease the overall
override number. We don't like reducing the CIP. We don't like keeping OPEDs flat. We don't think it's the best outcome. The CIP is quite tight. But we think this represents the best balance in terms of what's palatable to the community while not compromising our
capital investments or our investment in paying down our outstanding liabilities. Again, we talked about this revenue finance finance capital budget. Um debt service increases six by six million goes up to 14%. Um total capital
expenses are 9.9% of the town's prior year net revenue which exceeds our target of 8.1%. That's good. The bond rating agencies want us to be investing appropriately in capital projects and repair and maintenance. And also it just reflects that we're doing well in terms
of maintaining and upkeeping our um our plant and our our um capital investments. When you factor in debt exclusions, that goes up to 19.8%. There is a lot of excluded debt out there. A lot of projects being funded directly by tax revenue.
Non-appropriate expenses. We talked a little bit about these. This is where they come in on the other side. Our Norfolk County assessment is $1.1 million level funded. We continue to think it would be great if we didn't have a county government. Um, we do obviously appreciate the work that they did for us, particularly during COVID. I
don't mean to denigrate county supervisors. They do important work. Um at the same time there is no county government in Middle Sex. There is no county government in Suffach. Um talked a bit about the overlay and how that why that number is going down. Um our enterprises again are net. Um there's
the 8.8% growth reflecting the 8.8% revenue growth. Um and again there's um the golf enterprise fund is using some of its retained earnings for the implementation of its master plan. Strongly encourage folks to check out how that is progressing. It looks really great down there. Um they're doing some
really wonderful uh work to keep that space uh such an excellent community resource. Uh the select board's goals and initiatives um I don't need to spend um too much time talking about these. They are reflected in more detail in the
budget book uh and they were set by this board early enough that they are reflected throughout in terms of the priorities of the departments. We're very grateful to the board uh for taking this work seriously and we're grateful that it then is we gives us the opportunity to reflect out um in terms
of what it is that we want to be doing for the community. In summary, um the community faces really pivotal questions about its future. Um key issues include what the priorities of the comprehensive plan are. um how we regulate development, how
we encourage development, how we reach fossil fuel independence, and how we deal with the continual tax issues that we face. This plan emphasizes careful budgeting to balance the community's needs with fiscal challenges. Um I strongly encourage residents to participate in discussions about this.
Uh we are doing our budget 101 sessions uh out on the road. Um the next session will be virtual uh next Thursday at 1:30 p.m. Uh be online, on Zoom. Uh it will be recorded um and folks can watch that at a later date. Um we're also going to
present live at the Baker School in South Brooklyn uh on March 4th, I believe. Checking my double checking my calendar. Uh Wednesday uh the next Wednesday, which is I believe that's March 4th. Um
and that will be at 5:30 p.m. at the Baker School Auditorium. Uh and we will be continuing to make these presentations throughout the community. We are looking for additional opportunities, including uh at a Brookline Housing Authority location. Um so if you have recommendations for where we should be going, if you would like to
invite us to part to give a budget 101 presentation, please reach out. We would love to uh we would love to speak with you and we would love to have that opportunity to answer your questions and uh address your concerns. I will say this is going to be a very challenging season, a very challenging time to even
reach FY27. Uh there will be these questions of whether an override will be placed on the ballot, if so, for how much, what structure will it take, how will we balance the needs of the schools in the town, um how will we keep doing what the community expects us to do. But the focus remains uh missiondriven,
remains dedicated to the goals that you and the select board have set. uh and it remains focused on fostering this supportive and cohesive community even through these tough financial times. So again, I want to close my section of this by thanking the board for your continued support uh and your continued
leadership um even in these tough times. Um it's really heartening to see um the work that you all do throughout the community uh and the leadership you show in making sure uh that this town runs as well as it does. So thank you. And with
that uh almost totally losing my voice. I will turn this over to uh Deputy Town Administrator Melissa Goff. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Jazz. Um I just also wanted to start off by um thanking the budget team. It's been uh a lot of really great
effort. Uh Charlie Young has been phenomenal. Uh I was saying to the advisory committee earlier that, you know, it's no longer just a a paper document. It's a paper document. It's an online interactive budget. Um this year in particular, we were very um mindful
of some of the ADA requirements around um being able to click on the instead of having images, having it so that you can read it with a screen reader and then where there are images that we couldn't convert um making sure there was alternate text available so that um
people understand kind of as they're uh flowing through the budget, you know. So we had a no override budget, an override budget, and then we had an online version and uh a print [clears throat] version. And we do try to make sure that we're improving the quality of both. And you know, we did get a GFOA budget award
this past year. We're anticipating that we're still on track to do do that as well. Uh also want to thank Tyler Balile and Nicole Lima. They were intrical parts of building this budget and Christina Medaf uh helping to build the slide deck and also supporting the budget 101 sessions as well. Um it's
been a really great effort with the budget team and I'm really happy uh you know we've got we've got a really great team in place for that. Uh so this slide here is just another summary of the budget where you can see the general fund revenues and the enterprise funds and how the revenue then flows into the appropriations as well. Um all of this
information will be posted online. We are still making some last minute uh tweaks as we're presenting and noticing some changes that we need to make. So uh this will be up sometime tomorrow. This is a a slide that we put together that essentially shows a fully allocated
budget. uh we have an exercise that we do at the end of the fiscal year where we uh ask departments to provide uh the services to provide an estimate of the costs associated with services that they provide to the school department. Uh we report that to the schools and they report that to DESI every year and then
we take those numbers and we project that into the following year's budget. So uh given that information we are uh anticipating that the school uh education portion of the budget is actually 56.6%. I think Chaz's earlier slide had that around 30% if you just look at the pure
school appropriation. Uh but when you build in all the support uh from crossing guards, from uh fire drills and things like that, we're actually at 56.6%. This is just another snapshot of the budget picture where you can see how our revenue then flows in. We have our
non-appropriated expenses which Chaz spoke about earlier, our state and county assessments and then we have our appropriations for both the schools, towns, the non-EP departmental obviously benefits being the biggest item there. Uh and then we have our enterprise funds as well for our total financial plan uh
picture. So then uh coming into revenue uh this is just some of the information about local receipts. So you can see that the overall growth there is $2.7 million. uh going down the categories here uh for departmental and other the most of the
growth that you see there that 711,000 is related to an improvement in the projection on uh parking meters. We're a little sluggish last year around this time. So our estimates for the fiscal 26 budget were around $5 million. We've seen some uh growth there. So we feel confident that we can improve that to
$5.7 million. Uh for general government, most of the increase in that category is related to uh the projected increase in building permit fees. Should the select board approve that, um that would be part of what that estimate includes. Uh for interest income, we've talked about in the past how a lot of the interest
that we've been earning uh in the past couple of years have been uh related to the high interest rate environment, but also around the uh the funding that we received from AL ARPA uh which are sitting in our bank accounts, but we've been surely um spending that fund. And
so we are uh anticipating our interest incomes basically going down to more normal levels uh and only providing a 3% uh growth year-over-year. Our licenses and permits are pretty steady. Uh so we are level funding those. Um those are, you know, our alcohol licenses and other
things like that. Uh local option taxes. We've got a 2% growth assumption there as well. I monitor those on a quarterly basis, but I also pay attention to what's going on at the state in terms of what they're projecting for uh local economic activity. Uh and then I also because we're boarded on three sides by
Boston, I'm always curious about how they're projecting their local option taxes as well, knowing that these are highly sub susceptible to downturns in the economic environment. Uh for our motor vehicle excise, we usually use a five-year average for motor vehicle excise. So that's what we see for the 6%
increase there as well. uh parking and court fines. Chaz's earlier uh part of the presentation talked about the increases that he is uh planning to put in front of the board around uh parking fee increases. Uh and then we have our pilots which are going up 2% which is
reflective of the current agreements that we have in place most notably with Boston University which is our large largest pilot. And then we have our refuge fee based on the uh fee set by the board uh last January. So this is our free cash. Uh Chaz did
cover this in an earlier slide. We are essentially following our fiscal policies in order to provide funding to our operating budget reserve. So the reserve fund is funded 75% from operating revenue, 25% from free cash. So that 8.92 is how you get to the free uh the the total number recommended for
the reserve fund which is 1% of prior year net revenue. Uh then we are trying to maintain unreserved fund balance stabilization fund uh in order to meet the Moody RA rating agency targets for uh levels of free cash. We think 6.3
million will uh help us get to that number. Uh then we have our liability reserve. You may recall that we had two pretty large settlements over the past couple of years. One in the school department, one in the police department. So we've drained our liability reserve. So, in order to get back to the policy levels, we're looking
at another $2.2 million in order to meet that obligation as well. Then we have our capital funding plan, 5.3 in order to meet the policy target there. If the affordable housing trust fund is below $5 million, whatever's left that hasn't been allocated yet, 15% of that goes
into the affordable housing trust. That's how you get to 1.2. And then if anything's left after that, um we have other um accounts like our trust funds and things like that that we look at and make policy recommendations on. Right now we are looking at um allocating the
entirety to the uh to do additional CIP. So then this is just a a slide that shows our fund balance ratio and where we're projecting to be in order to meet the uh the goals of the policy and uh looking to measure that against our other triplea
rated communities. Thank you. It's been a little it's a little late. Um so then we also have our expenditure growth here and you can see that the the story really is about how benefits is is consuming the largest piece of the budget. Uh that growth is 9.56 million.
uh and most of that is group health as well. And then you can see the other categories following debt service and then town and school budgets as well. This slide is the essentially the same slide as last year because we're on a two-year funding cycle and this is year two. So no nothing's really changed. Um
we'll get our new funding cycle uh probably sometime uh in June uh after they look at our January 2024 experience. This just shows the funding for OPEDs and we are level funding it in fiscal 27. So we're at $4.9 million for OPED
funding. Then we have our water and sewer enterprise funds, our golf enterprise funds, and our recre revolving fund as well. Then we have our capital plan that is also part of the um the financial plan as well. So we have a five-year plan,
$259 million. We've got a lot of great projects in the plan. Um, we talk a little bit about the strategic solar initiative that expenditure and revenue subcommittee has been uh recommending. We are looking at replacing the chiller at town hall, but while we're doing that, looking to make the building fully
electric. Uh, we are still using an estimate of free cash. Um, and we are looking at other projects like infrastructure, deferred maintenance, uh, and the new Lincoln school grounds which we had to put on hold last year. That is being funded in fiscal 27.
So this is another summary of the CIP and you can see how we get to the overall components of the CIP, how net prior year net revenue gets calculated and then how [clears throat] the operating revenue then uh factors into that calculation. So we've got $21.4
million of operating revenue. Then you add free cash to that equation. We are accessing overlay surplus. Uh that helps us to the tune of $ 1.5 million. And then you can see that with those components, you're at a 9.9% CIP funding. And then when you add the
debt exclusions to that equation, it's 19.8. And then you can see how that plays out in the out years of the plan as well. These are just some of the projects that are also covered in the plan. Um the other uh highlights would be the um soul athletic fields that's
been marching along in the plan and now that's coming in fiscal 27. even though we did some work in the pool. Uh that was dehumification we did last year and now we're going to be looking at the filtration system. So that's another major project coming online in the CIP as well. Uh and then we have some normal
water and sewer improvements and then obviously the board is very uh familiar with the Washington Street complete streets project as well. So we have our long range financial projection that's part of what's included in section one in the budget message and we have all the assumptions for the long range
financial plan. uh laid out so that you can see uh that with those assumptions and with the uh revenue projections and the expenditures that we're putting into the plan that we still have a structural gap. And then this is the overall components of that long range financial
projection. So you can see the revenue growth at the top and the expenditure growth at the bottom and how that plays into the projected deficit. And then you can just see the visualization of that on a uh on a graph here. And the drop that you do see in 2030 is more reflective of the fact that we should be
done with our pension uh our unfunded pension obligation. And so we have more normalized growth in pension instead of the 7.85% that we're seeing on an annual basis. And so we have a QR code here, but obviously there's also a website here, budget central. If you're at the
homepage, you can look for budget central. That's where our financial plan is. Uh, and any information that we have that comes out uh afterwards will be posted at budget central as well. So, um, and Chaz and I can answer any additional questions that the board has. >> Thank you.
>> So, questions. >> Who wants to start? [laughter] >> Well, you always want to start. >> Maybe I shouldn't this time around. >> Do you want to start? >> No, please. >> Okay, David. So given that for FY27
uh particularly around the 6 and a.5 million gap for the schools some of that is being mitigated by uh parking fees CIP uh redirected funds. So how what is the outlook then for FY28 if you're using
sort of these one-time fixes for now? How do we avoid compounding that deficit further? So the the uh fee and fine increases that we have proposed to the board those would be permanent increases. So they would be they would continue on. I think the things that we are looking for board
direction on are the alterations that we've made to the fiscal policies to ratchet back on the CIP and then also to pause OPED increases. So um that's part of what we're looking to discuss with the board whether or not we should be amending our policies or whether or not this is a temporary three or override
cycle pause. um kind of what the overall sentiment is around th those those policies. Excuse [laughter] me. I will say right we're we're right now I think in order to balance on the town side the expectation is that we
should continue those that that shift at least through FY29 um and then reassess at FY29 but basically commit for this three-year cycle to keep those constant that also has obviously a knock-on positive impact on the schools. I will say that even
even with that right if we're the problem is we continue to project the health care cost being so high they continue to outpace everything the school's revenue number is going to is going to get slow the school's revenue growth is going to get slower and slower and it's eventually going to
>> fall back even in FY29 even if we can even if we decrease the CIP contribution and pause the increase in OPED contributions we still see FY the the delta from FY27 to 28 being like maybe
$5,000 and then the delta between 28 and 29 being a negative number. Um if we weren't to do that then it would turn negative next year. Um so it is what it is. Um we this there's
there's very little we can do given that the shared costs are what they are. But that's one way that we can at least help slow that process. Paul. >> Yep. Uh, thank you, Bernard. Uh, thank you, Melissa and Chaz. Um, a great job
with a a very [clears throat] difficult subject, frankly. Um, so I have two two questions. The first is related to a memo that we received about um health care contributions
by employees and the the rate that we're contributing and how we compare to other uh municipalities around us. Um my question is you know are we what do we plan to do with that and are we going to bake that into our planning going forward? I realize it's it's dependent
upon collective bargaining but it seems unsustainable to continue um on the path that we're on. That's my first question. And then the second question is related to uh the timing of a conversation related to uh potentially
putting an operating override on the ballot and how that how we may structure that um because that is a very large ask what you presented to us. So those are my two questions for now. >> Um with regard to healthcare, yes. So
right now in most cases the town pays 83% of the health care plan costs for its employees and the employees pay the other 17% via deductions out of their um paycheck. Most employees on the town side are paid on a weekly basis. Um that
is high. Um that contribution is higher than most of our peer communities. Um one of the members of expenditures and revenues study committee Dick Bank did a really good survey of other communities. Um there are communities that are as high as 8020 uh in some cases. Um but by
and large it seems the number is 7525 tends to be the the more accepted split. Some communities have uh been able to go as low as 50/50 for newer employees. Newton just did that for example. Our problem is when we joined the health
insurance consortium, the GIC um we were early adapters and so we joined under a more arduous standard for changing our rules once we have once we have set them. Uh basically in order to change that contribution we need to have a weighted certain weighted percentage of
the collective bargaining units agree to do so. And in practice, what that means is you need the teachers and at least one other union to say yes to a change or you need and it has to be a larger sorry one of the larger unions um to say
yes to a change or you need everyone else except the teachers and that includes the retirees um in order to effectuate a change. And um so from a bargaining position, getting getting a group that large to
move on this would require us to offer something to them, offer something meaningful in terms of how we would realize those savings and in their paychecks and offset the uh increase in the deductions. [clears throat] Um,
we've calculated roughly every percent that we pay less is roughly the equivalent of an additional $400,000 in revenue. A little over $400,000 in revenue. And that would have to go through the split. Um, so that would be split 6040 between schools and town. Um,
every 1% roughly translates to an additional $5 deduction per pay period for employees. So employees are paid monthly $5 sorry employees are paid weekly $5 a week $20 a month $240 a
year. Um and you know that adds up particularly if you're an employee who is at the top of your grade or you the top of your step uh if you have steps to begin with. Some labor positions don't have steps. Um and the only the only
salary increase you see a year in year out is cost of living adjustment. um which is 1.5% this year in FY27 and is budgeted for 2% in the out years. So um you know that adds up right um if we
move to from 8317 to 8020 um then you're talking about you know $720 a year in additional deductions for employees. We would see an additional realization of around 1.2 two, you know,
almost $1.3 million in revenue, which is not nothing. Um, but it is not a silver bullet. Um, so yes, it is something that we are working with our unions. I think our, you know, we're all operating in good faith. Everyone understands the fiscal cons pressures that the town is
under. Um, but I think, you know, one of the one of the things that kind of got floated at expenditures and revenues is why don't you just reduce the override by that amount and tell them, you know, take it or leave it. Um, and I think the problem there is they would say, "Thanks, we're going to leave it. Um,
you can't force us to do this. Um, and you're just going to have to go to town meeting and exp and pass an unbalanced budget." Um, because we're going to say no. Um, I wouldn't want to do that. I wouldn't want to be in that position. Um, I would rather us try and come to
some mutual understanding than try and, you know, say there's no other choice. You have to accept this because they will say I don't have to accept this. you have to accept it. You're the one that has to pass the budget. Um, so >> can I ask a quick follow up on that
question? So Chaz, you mentioned this constraint that we have with the the source of the insurance of the insurance consortium. >> Yes. >> Um, seems like a significant constraint. >> Yes. >> Um, how do we how do we change that? >> We would need a change in state law. Um,
there are other communities that are similarly situated to us, but there aren't that many of them. Um, and I actually believe um Melissa's predecessor, Sean Cronin, tried uh to get a um uh a home rule petition through the legislature uh that would have changed this law uh and was not
successful. Um but that was, you know, many years ago. So I don't know if the legislature would be more willing to take it up now, but you know, they're >> you know, I think there would be competing interests in their ear telling them not to do it. Um >> so you answered my question, it's not possible. How about structure of the
death of overact? [laughter] >> Good question. Okay. Um this is less uh so expenditures and revenues has targeted getting a report to you by no later than March 13th. Um a final report. In the interim they will be I think they're going to be sending materials to you as they as they clear
them so that you have the opportunity to review them. So it's not like you're going to get something dumped on your doorstep all in once on March 13th. you will be getting, you know, interim reports, pieces of the report coming through, final recommendation no later than March 13th. You would take that up
at your um working session on March 17th. Um you'd then have the opportunity to hold a public hearing on the 24th. Um if you wanted to vote the night of the 24th, you could. Um otherwise, the drop dead date for setting a ballot question is March 31st,
>> midnight. >> Yes. Mhm. >> Um so yes during th as part of that we can have those conversations and they will be ongoing at expenditures and revenues about what does the structure of an override look like. I will continue to say that I think the town
and the schools are stronger together than apart. Um, I think we need to take a but we need to take a hard look at um what our topline numbers are and you know I think the schools are going to have that opportunity to make the case to expenditures and revenues now that those numbers are out there. Talk about
where's this come from? Why is it what it is? What do we you know what do we what do we you know how what are the cuts that we've made to get where we are you know even to where we are. Um, so you know, those conversations are pending. Um, and I know they're going to be happening in the in the near future.
But, you know, in the interim, you know, my my goal is to provide as much education as I can to the community on what the townside issues are. Um, and, you know, take direction from you and expenditures and revenues on what the
contrs of the ballot question should be. John. >> Um, a couple questions. Um, starting with I I I keep waiting to hear that we've had uh a breakthrough with uh that that there's been an audit done.
When was the last time we had an audit done? >> The FY24 audit was just finalized. >> We just got it a few weeks ago, John. >> Yeah. So, um, we we should be probably SK I think I'm not sure if an audit committee meeting has been scheduled, but, um, I
believe that the finance team intends on, uh, reviewing that with the audit committee before it comes to the select board. >> And, and is that available on the town's website? >> Uh, if it's not, we will make sure it is. >> But, uh, so far, no no F25 audit.
>> We were just working with the team to get through 24. there were a lot of um I think with the you know there were a lot of issues that delayed the 24 audit and so now that that's behind us we've got to figure out what that means for 25 and and the process that we're using to get that done.
>> Okay. Um uh you know obviously there's a lot to learn from an audit. So be useful to have that in hand and it's unfortunate that we went for what over a year without audit. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Um, so I went back and I looked at the FY20
budget, which was the last one before COVID hit, and it turns out we've added 21 FTEEs since FY20. And I'm just thinking that that made the initial chart that
you showed us of, you know, the FTE cutbacks that would have to take place if we don't get an override seem almost reasonable. I mean, it would kind of get us back to where we were with the last budget we we um approved before CO. Do
do you want to comment on that? >> I think there's more to the more to this than FTEES, right? I think you're talking also about the increased base cost of other services. You're talking about the services the community is asking us to provide. Um, you know, I don't think necessarily that we're, you
know, going the cost of doing business is so much higher than it was. >> Well, sure. >> But I mean, in terms of whether there's room for some dealing with the gap um in the budget through reductions in FTE,
>> there does seem there does seem to be room. >> So, John, I think that um Charlie's analysis showed that most of that grow most of the growth in FTEES was around soft money. So we have HCA funds that provided additional positions. We had um capital projects that were taking on additional positions like project
managers that we have for our fire station renovation projects, things like that. So when you pull out the soft funds from that analysis, it actually shows that we're flat since co >> well uh but every time we funded positions with soft money, we would
always say now we understand, don't we, that we can't just keep these positions in the budget because when the money goes away, the position has to go away. >> Yep. And that's what we for HCA, we have definitely, you know, we we added positions in the police department. Those no longer exist. We've added um
positions in DPW. we've slowly been you know reducing that as well. So you know to the extent even ARPA we had you know functions and services that we are no longer relying on in fiscal 27 >> but does anyone disagree with the the the math that I just cited? I mean, if
you it's it's in the FY27 budget book >> and it's in the FY20 budget book and it's the same table and the bottom line on the table on FY20 is one number and the bottom line on the FY27 is another and the and the FY27 has 21 more FTEEs
in it than the F FY >> and I think the distinction is the funding source and I think if you look at that that's really where the differences are. But so well actually I'm not sure that's true because I'm talking about from general appropriations and then there's
a second set of FTEEs that are from soft money sources >> which were not reported in FY20 in 20 the FTE number was not reported in the same manner that the 27 budget is reporting it. >> That's not my recollection. I mean I just did this the other day and I was looking at two different bottom line
numbers. one for uh general appropriation FTEES, one for soft money FTEEs in both budgets. >> Yeah, >> you're talking about that upper number. >> Sure. And I think we can probably sit offline with you and go through that and make sure that you are comfortable with where we are because I think that
Charlie has done a phenomenal job making sure that the FTE numbers in 27 are accurately reflected and then also looking at the his history and finding out where the discrepancies are in the in the way the interpretation of how the FTEES were calculated. >> This is this is one of the big things
that expenditures revenues on the town side is looking at as you know right Janet and you know the team at your subcommittee team is focused on this. It is it is an important question. have we meaningfully increased and how and I think the analysis shows that because we weren't tracking this as well as we
could have in terms of where the source of revenue is may look different but I think you know we can >> well if we were if we were able to answer that question by simply saying well actually no it's not impacting the money that we have to raise off the tax
levy because those extra 21 positions are all soft money um we wouldn't have to be asking for all this money to increase the tax levy, right? I mean, >> we're saying it's not an apples to apples comparison that what you're looking at in 2020 is was not was not
described in the right way and that there is money that is >> was soft money in 2020 that was not articulated in the in the right way. And so in 27, >> it is captured in the right way. And so when you're looking at 20 versus 27, it's not a fair comparison. And I think
we can sit down and kind of go through that so that you understand kind of where the differences are. >> Okay. Well, we'll put that that aside uh just for the moment. Um, early in the presentation, I thought I heard you say that if we're going to close this
structural gap in the FY27 uh, budget, we're going to need, and it sounded like you, the numbers eventually came to around 12% increase in revenues to close the structural gap all the way >> in the revenues or in the levy
>> in >> in the levy. >> In the levy. So if you were so over the over the three-year if you if you were to raise everything in year one to close the structural gap then yes you would be looking at around a 12.9% number but that's assuming you tax everything in
year one um >> with the assumption that there would but so realistically I don't know what the proposition on the school side is going to be but I would imagine that they might not take the approach that the town is taking. They might they might say we are going to
phase it in over time. So there won't be a 12.9% jump in the tax levy in one year. It would be a more gradual increase over time. >> So if we divided it in three years, >> it would be 4% [clears throat] a year. >> No, I I would I would want to do I would
want to gain the numbers out there. If we divided the schools ask, it would be let me let me do the math and I'll get back to you. >> And isn't there kind of a onetoone connection between increasing the levy and increasing an individual homeowner's taxes or at least
the average residential homeowner tax. Um in line >> it's not quite one to one because of the exemption. Um so and it depends right again on >> close to it. >> It's I I wouldn't want to I would really >> values also swing as well. So we do have a a calculator that we can provide when
we are looking at order of magnitude and what a dollar number would give you in terms of what the estimated levy impact would be. And then so when the board is considering their the override number, we can give you kind of like 1 million does this, 5 million does this, 10 million does that. >> Well, just so that we're all on the same
page, I I did look at the last 10 years of residential tax increases in Brooklyn. >> Yeah. >> They come out to four and a half to 5% on the average. >> Um and then last year's tax increase was around 5%. >> Right. Um, so even if it's divided over
three years, we're talking about a 9% on top of a 5% increase over two years. I >> mean, you're looking I'm doing the math now. Um, you're looking roughly. Yeah, let's see.
Yeah, you're looking roughly around 8% a year. Uh, no, let me take it back. you're looking at 8% in the first year and then you're looking at um more like 6% for the outy years. So in
year FY21 you'd be looking at 8% uh or sorry FY FY27 you'd be looking at 8% assuming you split the school ask evenly. Um you'd be looking at 8% roughly in year one and around 6% in the out years because the town's number would be baked in. The town's number
would be done. Um so you would again and you would assume you would assume levy you and you're again assuming comparable growth in the base levy. So the base plus the >> um plus the debt plus the excluded debt.
>> Um and you know we have more modest new growth budgeted in the outy years. So again that would be a somewhat aggressive assumption to assume that we're going to see the same new growth that we're seeing this year. Um but if you want to not lowball it then yeah you could say 8% in year one 6% in the out
years. >> And um for now just one final question. I mean looking at that looking at 5% having been uh imposed on taxpayers last year. >> Yeah. looking at the likelihood that even on the low side, 8% is what we're
talking about imposing on taxpayers under this FY27 ask and maybe as much as, you know, another 12%. Um, how do how do you think we as a select board should make the political calculation as
to what is the right uh level of ask in an override that takes into consideration the reality that if you ask for too much >> it'll get rejected and then you won't get anything.
>> I rely very heavily on your understanding. >> I knew you would say that >> of the of the community. you might not want to rely on mine actually tell you that. >> But I I mean I I I I do I I rely on the the the the consensus of the body. Um
and I do value your input on this because I think you have your ear to the ground on this stuff. You know, you >> are talking about this when it's not on people's minds. Um and so it is important. Um like I really do value the work that you do >> to encourage people. You know, I am a
subscriber to your newsletter and I read it. Good for you. >> I I I and I really do value the work that you do um to try and educate the the community about this stuff. So I don't >> you know I don't take any you know do
what how do I envision the political calculus of this? This is an extremely hard number to look at on the page where it is now. I don't know where it's going to wind up. I don't know how it's going to be phased in or how it's going to be packaged or how you would like us to try
and package that. The largest override that has ever passed in Massachusetts is Mel Roses, 13.5 million. But that said, that brought their taxes up by around 13.5%. Um, or I'm sorry, not I don't remember the exact percentage, but it's it's more
than it's it's in that ballpark. It's it's it's above 10%. Um, you know, the now largest override on the ballot is in Arlington, and that's 14.8 million. Um, the only reason that number is as low as
it is is because Arlington has an override reserve that it's been building for decades now. Um, and they have enough money. Arlington's gap is actually pretty much our gap. It's which means that as a percentage of their levy, it's even bigger overall. you
know, Arlington is looking at, you know, really ruinous numbers, $25 million in the hole over the course of the next three years, similar to our numbers. Um, but the reason why they've been able to get their B ball ballot question lower is because they're going to spend all of
that money they've they've accumulated over the last 10 plus years just to get through to the next three years. Um, so you know, we're not alone in where we are in this. Other communities are experiencing comparable strains and
asking comparable questions. Like Stonem, I think, had seven failed overrides before this one. Uh, finally passed one. Um, but again, you know, $9 million in Stonem um also a pretty significant portion of the levy. um communities are really struggling with
these sort of existential questions um and trying to figure out what is the right number. You know, one of the things that Stonem did was they put two questions on the ballot. They said if you really want to close this gap, here's the big question, which I think was in the $13 million range, and then
here's the small here's the, you know, this will keep the lights on, but we're going to have to make cuts and you may not like it question. Um and they passed the lower one. They passed the $9 million question. So, that's one way you might structure it. You might say, "Here's everything and here is this would be bad, but we would could still
make we would make cuts and do it." Um, you know, that's a possibility. You could talk about phasing it in. You could talk about um, you know, those those various kinds of strategies, but I think a lot will depend on, you know, the message from the schools. I think
one of the things that the Arlington superintendent and school committee did that was really smart was that they did what we're doing is that they went out on the road. They went out and did budget 101 presentations and said, "Yeah, we don't like it either, but this is the gap and this is why." Um, it's not like we've been prleant with your
money. Um, we've been trying to provide the level of education that you've come to expect from this public school system. Um, and so we have a similar task in front of us. So, um, if you don't mind, because you know me. >> Yeah.
>> And you know, I came prepared for the Stonem and the Melrose examples. Uh well, if you go back and you you uh look at communities that have succeeded in overrides um since uh 2000,
um Stonem succeeded with one. That was the the current one, >> right? >> Melrose two. Um Brookline has had four and Arlington has had four, right? Um, so there's not a lot of communities that
that are doing this at the rate that, you know, communities like Brooklyn and Arlington and Stonem have been have been doing it, you know. So, >> it's actually true that and I will say that it's actually an undercount. I think in for Brooklyn's case, I don't think the state has all of our overrides in the database.
>> That's possible. by the um by the MAPC's count, there have been more overrides than that in Brooklyn, but maybe they are confusing overrides and debt exclusions. Um so yeah, so I mean and everything has to be put in context and and what the one context that, you know,
I'm going to be, you know, making sure to include in this conversation is how do you measure the ability of the average homeowner to pay >> Yep. um for an override um given the uh existing level of taxation in each of
those communities. And I guarantee you that in those communities you will not find average homeowner tax bills anywhere near Brook lines and and you will even find surprisingly and this may be because there's a little bit of an under reporting of the average income in
Brooklyn. I think that's subject to interpretation, but that, you know, as a as a uh comparison of per capita income to uh uh uh average taxation, uh Brooklyn is unfortunately Oh, yeah. number one.
>> Oh, yeah. It's absolutely true. >> In a bad way. >> Yeah. And it's because we're, you know, we're uniquely positioned in many in so many ways, right? We have >> we have, you know, large, you know, multi-million dollar single family homes and we have public housing. Um,
substantial amounts of public housing, income subsidized, you know, extremely low-income housing. You know, we are a community of extremes, um, in a lot of ways. Um, and that means that, you know, when you look at the median, it's it
mean it's it's a it's a strange it produces not, you know, not unhelpful results, but strange results. You know, why is the med you know, Brooklyn has the highest median tax bill in the state. Um, and we don't have the highest median home prices. It's true, but we're
up there. Um, and it's that combination of the desiraability and our tax rate that puts us where we are. Um, and then you have these issues of like, well, you know, per thousand dollars of value, Brookline's assessment is pretty low, but that's not what people pay, right?
That number doesn't mean a lot to people when you look at what their bottom line tax bill is. >> Um, and so there are all these different ways to measure are we undertaxing people, are we overt taxing people, where are we? And what I think is really helpful in terms of this long-term conversation is what is the bottom line
ability to pay? What is the capacity to pay of the community? And how do we calculate that? And that is something that expenditures and revenues are important. >> We have to calculate it because if we get it wrong, the voters will just correct it for us enough. >> Okay. Uh Paul, you have your hand. >> Yep. Right. >> Uh yep. Uh yes, I do, Bernard. Thank
you. Um and I will put it back down while I talk. Um, so I have uh just a couple of asks uh in preparation for our continued discussion of this. Of course, they I don't need the answers tonight, but I do want to kind of put them out there. Um, you know, John John raises a
good point um about positions and I know that positions isn't headcount isn't everything, but it is 85% or something of our cost. Um it would be helpful to understand since co
um what new positions we've added not replacements but what positions have we added um by you know a detailed list including the function. Uh that would be really helpful to know um because we keep going around and round about headcount going up. Um it just would be
good to know what's been added. It doesn't mean that you know that though that should change. it just would be really helpful to know. Um the the second thing is around this whole tax percent discussion is I found confusing.
Um I'm going to think like a like a someone who pays the tax bill. Um you know I'd like to know what my tax bill is going to be next year. um everything the past overrides Pierce
um you know what what's going to make up my tax bill what percentage is it going to be and because everybody's been kind of surprised this year like everybody you know I've heard gotten phone calls my goodness I got my tax bill um it would be really helpful to know percentage-wise I think you talked about 8% then I heard 6% I heard a 12 point
something percent um these numbers are very confusing to me and I'd really like to just see clearly Right. Next year, um, should the override pass, we don't know what the structure is yet, but here's what people's tax bills will include. It's
going to include the pier school. It's going to include the fire stations. Here's the percentage. Just so we know where what the total bill is because people forget that when they approved the tax override last time, well, there's money that's going to hit us because it's a debt exclusion. When that money gets spent, it then hits the hits
their tax bill. Be really helpful to see that. And then the third thing I' I'd like to suggest we do and I think you need this guidance is um I think we need to have a a really open discussion
uh you know through a public session about prioritizing services um and and and what's core services and what's additive which should help inform um what a a structured override should
be look like. I I kind of agree with what I think it was Stonem did. They had two ass. They had the here's everything and here's, you know, here's a lower number which is kind of core. Um and I'm afraid if we go in with just one number,
we're going to get zero. Um it it won't really help educate the community about what's at stake. Um and I I would like to see that. So, you know, I I'm sure if you pulled us, you know, the five of us may have different views as to what is a
priority to fund uh in an override year on the ballot versus, you know, something that might be secondary. So, I do think if we could add that to a future agenda to have a detailed discussion about you made your suggestions about what you would cut.
Um, I'd like to have that discussion with the board. David, >> we would do David. >> So, a question I have regarding free cash and AAA bond rating and by asking this question, I'm not uh taking a
particular position, but it'll obviously come up and it comes up periodically. Has staff calculated at what point the benefits of maintaining the AAA bond rating would be
outweighed by the uh cost of making deeper and deeper cuts in town services. I would think that at some point maintaining our AAA bond rating might not be worth the experience our residents would have by making deeper
and deeper cuts. So where is that line? Do we know? >> We don't know. We don't know where that line is. But I would say the other reason why we don't touch onetime money to fund a structural gap is that it just
widens the structural gap. Right? you know, in addition to jeopardizing your bond rating, doing all of that, you know, cutting cutting the CIP, you know, cutting capital investment, doing all of those things that are negative, it doesn't really solve your problem. It papers over. Um,
and that's really what Brookline did in the aftermath of Prop 2 and a half, right? And from 82 until 95, basically Brookline struggled along, cut all of its human services, cut all of it, you
know, cut 100 plus positions, um, between the town and the schools, um, and then just earned through one-time money to try and keep itself afloat doing core services. And that didn't solve the problem,
right? It just it what eventually solved the problem was that eventually Prop 2 and a half the the new growth and the Prop 2 and a half got to the point where there was enough money in the system to
allow for some uh equilibrium and then there was an override. Um there was an override to bridge the gap and that put Brookline back onto firmer footing. And after that the town school partnership came into existence. There were policies
and procedures that came into play that enabled stability with the understanding that there was going to still be these structural things creeping in. Um but that allowed the town to stabilize. So, I think if you go back to that era of
using one-time funds to paper over the problem, um you won't find long-term solutions there. Um you have you have to if we were to do that, it would have to be a means to some greater end. Um so, I
don't know. I don't know you my so I think my question would be and then what? Um and I don't think there's a then what there. Well, I I think the potential and then what and if we commit ourselves to so we talked in the
workshop about setting a goal of uh net new revenue each year to some degree and if we knew with certainty that by FY30 for instance we would have x amount net
new revenue is there the potential to build a bridge between FY27 and FY30 with some of these one-time funds so that our residents don't get hit as hard in tax increases, but at the
same time, we're not burning through money without any long-term vision. >> I just don't know if the money is there. Yeah, I I would say that we we did build an override cycle a few years ago with an assumption around new growth and those estimates did not turn out to bear
out on the time track that we thought that they would. So then we ended up needing to implement cuts instead of having the revenue. So that's the risk that you run when you try and build an assumption around incoming development. The timing may not always work out.
Haven't we been using one-time funds for that purpose by not adding to our oped contribution or you know proposed to do that? >> Not necessarily there. We don't we don't have an obligation to fully fund our opeds. Um but
>> but an expectation there. >> I mean yes. I mean and and remember like that's an unfunded liability like we pay we're paying for the fact that we're not you know we're not fully paying that down right that it's it crimps our budget because we have to make payments on it every year. Um it's not like we
pay nothing. Um but you know pausing the contributions that we make towards paying down that deficit. um they have an impact, but it's not as though we're spending one-time funds necessarily. Um, you know, I think it's more
um right like free free cash is is the is the best example of this because it is prior year's money. You can't really guarantee the best the only thing you can do is put policies in place that guarantee a stable floor by doing things
like under budgeting local receipts. Um but you can't you know that's that's a that's an area where there's not as much certainty. >> Before I call Paul um I guess there is also the concern that if we make those
types of uh decisions we may not go from AA to double A. We may go below that. I mean is is that a risk? I'm a little concerned because there are a number of categories in Moody's criteria where we are below double A.
>> Um I don't know what the answer to that is. >> I think that the part of what is really the strength of our rating is the the fiscal discipline that we have through our fiscal policies and then you know our the willingness of the voters to support overrides. Those are two components that are highlighted in the
reviews every year. >> Okay. But isn't it also true that if an override fails, our rating takes a hit? >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> So, it's still a calculation that's to be made on either end of it. >> Yeah, >> it's true. Um, I will say that in the
face of a failed override, Newton did some clever accounting and that's what they've been trying to do in terms of their their budget. But it doesn't it it again it's they're they're basically saying at a certain point we'll satisfy
our pension obligations and then everything will be fine. Um and I don't think that's true, right? I think we satisfy our pension obligations things will be better. Um, and we'll be able to make, you know, have those more detailed conversations about paying down the OPED
liability, you know, phasing in money from the from the pension over time and all that stuff. Um, but I don't think it's going to be I don't think it's a panacea. And I think what Newton is doing, they kind of had no choice because they had a failed override. Um,
and they didn't want to cut services. Um, they did cut services. They didn't want to cut services that much. Um, and they're that choice I think is going to redown to them in a tough way when they find their pension obligations satisfied and then there's going to be no money and all of a sudden they're going to be
back to where they were. They're going to say, "Whoa, where did the structural def deficit come from?" Um, you know, it's it's it's it's a series of tough tough choices. >> I think I think one might find too that they're paying a little bit more for
their borrowing than than we are. >> Yes, they are. Y >> Mike, would you have your hand up? >> Yeah. Um, first of all, I want I want to thank you both and the team um for for this. And uh I'm I'm just looking at the DPW page and I noticed that the data was
updated on February 17, 2026 at 2:07 a.m. Um, [laughter] and so I don't know whether that was Charlie or you, Melissa, or somebody else, but but I want to at least call out that that amount of hard work. Um I
I want to follow up a little bit on what Paul and John were talking about in terms of understanding the uh the FTE increase um and how that has occurred over time. Um one thing that I will note
and the reason I was looking at the DVW page is it doesn't actually look like the division of sustainability uh and natural resources is broken out on that page. Um, and I'm not sure why, but we can look at that later. >> We can talk about that, Michael. Uh, just really quickly, I think, um, you
know, the Department of the Division of Sustainability doesn't have its own operating budget line items yet at this point. It's operating off of grant funds. There's only one, uh, line item in the budget, and it's it is listed under parks and open space right now.
>> Uh, okay. Um but but [clears throat] one of the reasons one of the reasons why I was looking at that one because um I I knew it was was operated by grant funding and um one of the things that I'm also interested in understanding for
some of our positions and this may be an example and this may be example in our planning department as well where we have positions that through the course of their functions are actually revenue generating or uh
or revenue neutral. Um I we have grant funer funding positions for example that that sort of fulfill that role and um I would at least want to know that within the context of our our um our
examination of FTEES to know what the what the uh budget implications of those positions are specifically you know if they're grant funded and they're finding their own grant money for example or if they are lead helping to lead new
growth. Um because um those are not positions that I think we as a town should uh should think about in the same way that we think about funding services that are
strictly cost centers. Paul, >> you're muted. Paul, >> looks like your hand is >> Okay, there I am. So, sorry about that. Um, I I was saying that I I agree with Michael what he just said. I think it'd
be really helpful to know um, you know, funding source and also do they do they generate revenue um or neutral. Uh, Bernard, I wanted I wanted to just kind of emphasize your caution um that you raised about um one-time
funds and and our fiscal policies. Um I I do think that we have to be very careful with that. Um that's you know that's the core uh to our our financial management I think is those fundamental those fundamental policies. Um, and we
should be we should be very very cautious in changing them. I know we just changed one going from 6.6% I think to 6% I forget what Chaz said >> um with OPEC, but I think we need to be very very careful. Um, and the other thing I I know this is probably another
third rail item. Um, but I did notice um we've got a million and a half going into the uh affordable housing trust fund because they dipped below. Now, that is a policy that we have in our free cash, which um you know, I I assume
we can revisit from time to time. Um we've the affordable housing trust fund now has additional sources of revenue um other than free cash that that they didn't have before. Um and I just, you know, I would ask that we think about
that. Is that is that the right level at this point? Um when when we're in in such dire straits financially? Um is that the right place to put money? Um of course I'm a strong supporter of of deed restricted affordable housing and I like
what the housing trust fund can do for increasing housing. Just takes a long time to do that. Um it's often, you know, five years of war to get something. And when we're in a near-term challenge like this, um I I'm not sure Charlie or Chaz or Melissa, would
reducing the affordable housing trust fund contribution impact our Moody's rating? Do they look at that uh free cash? >> I think we we have talked about that before. We've talked about that as a with the board as well. And I do think that that is something that has been
kind of a question mark now that we have the CPA. How does the board feel about the current level of support? Um, and you know, I in giving this number to Roger Blood, I also said, you know, I I can tell you that this is what the current policy provides, but in the face of a no override vote, these funds are
very much at risk. And um, this is not a metric that Moody's is measuring. Um, it's just a commitment that the town has to affordable housing. >> Okay, that that's really helpful to know. And again, I'm I'm you know, I'm a strong supporter of affordable housing. Um, but it this may be something we need
to have a little bit more conversation about. Charlie, you have your hand up. >> Thank you, Bernard. Um, I would just like to offer the opportunity to to put a pin in the the FTE conversation while we're here. Um, if I can just share my
screen for a second. So, um, was happy to go over this again offline. Um, but just because it's something we're very interested in talking about, I'd like to I'd like to address it formally. So, um, I had put together this spreadsheet for expenditures and revenue study
committee. Um, but I just uh revamped the the today column um so we can have this conversation. So this is the number that comes from the FY2020 budget book. Um I can pull it up on a separate tab here. Um but suffice it to say we had a
total of 682 general funded FTEES according to the FY2020 budget book. Um, and in the budget summary section on page 30 into FY27, we show a total of 664
or a reduction of 17 general fund budget funded FTEES. And we're showing this by breaking out the number that are on soft money. And we can send this to you, John, so you can look at it after the fact. And the number that we were counting on soft
money was just 9.59 in um, FY20. And I I found over here I've noted all the FTEEs that were not counted that were on soft money at that point um that we're capturing now in the current budget book. Um and you'll see over here we have 43 soft money funded FTEES in 27.
And then over here I'm totaling the two, right? And so this is the total FTEES that we're recording in the budget book. And so if you look at this number in 2020 and you look at this number, you'll see an increase of 20 or 30 FTEES. Um, but this number was not accurately
accounting for all the FTEEs we had outside of this in FY2020 that were on SA soft money. Um, and so when you do that and you take the current year 707 and you strip out the 43 FTEES we have on soft money, you get the actual number
that are on property taxes that are on revenues that are in the general fund, right? And that number has gone down by 17.4 FTEES since FY2020. So again, I can I can share this so you can look at it more, John. All of these numbers tie out to what's in the FY2020 budget book. And
all of these numbers here, here, and here tie out to what's in our budget book. And again, if you look at these two numbers, you will see an increase of 30 FTEEs. If you look at these two numbers, which again, you can vet these yourselves, you'll see that we're dropping 17 FTEEs in those years.
>> Well, Charlie, I'm quite familiar with those numbers, in fact. But um the the difference is that I was um relying on the page that has the 707 number and right below it it then has other positions which are funded through soft
money. >> So so that is you can subtract that from the 707 and the same was true in you know in FY20 there would be the top number and then there would be a separate number that was positions funded through >> and you can see both of those in my
spreadsheet. tie out to what's in the FY2020 budget book. So, again, I I'll share my screen and I'm actually happy to pull up the budget book and look at this together right now. I'm happy to do that. So, um so if we pull up the FY2020 budget book, right, this is or this is actually 19, but we can look at 2020 as
well. Um if if you look at um I guess I had 19 pulled up just now, but I was just looking at 2020. John, you're talking about down here, right, which shows total FTEES, right? That's the 682 number. And you're talking about down here which shows additional positions
that are funded by grants. Right. Right. >> Right. >> That that is missing several FTEEs. That's what I'm trying to tell you is that they were not accurately counting for all of those and we are >> I'm helping the credibility of the budget book with this discussion, Charlie. >> I understand, John. Um it's it's a
conversation I'm having with it's a conversation I'm having with you. I'm having with ENRC, I'm having with Chaz and Melissa and saying, "Look, you know, I understand folks are concern concerned about the FTE changes, but we can actually track that and show that it's not a matter of the actual number of bodies we had employed by the town, but
just a matter of how it was accounted for, right?" And so these two numbers together again in my spreadsheet, you can you can see how they match up, right? So the budget book in FY back then is showing 9.59 FTEES on soft
money. So again, that's shown in the same section you were talking about down here, 9.59 FTEES. Um, and then up above, you can see the total 682. Those together would equal what I'm showing in my sheet over here, 691
total FTEES if you count if you add them together. So that that's the apples to apples comparison with the 707. And yes, in that time between soft money and general fund, we've grown 15 FTEEs. But this analysis, when you look at the 9.59
compared to we're reporting 43 FTEES on soft money, that's where the growth has come from. In fact, the net number of positions on general fund dollars has decreased. We we went up by 30 capital and soft fun grant and soft money funded positions and we actually went down by
uh a by a greater amount. So, we're actually net fewer positions than we were in FY20. Um, and I completely understand the the uh you know the concern about the integrity of the data. Trust me, we are trying to improve it every year. And we had this conversation internally, John, like do we revise the
prior year numbers because they clearly don't look right um because they clearly are not factoring in other other um other data. And we decided no, that we weren't going to do that. um that we were going to leave the the data where it was and explain through these conversations and narrative. So anyway,
please feel free to reach out if you still have questions. >> Thank you, Charlie. >> Michael, >> um one of the other places that it would be helpful to know about the flow of funds is um there were certain items in
the CIP um that I assume have grant dollars associated with them also to pay for. I'm thinking about the Washington Street Y rebuilt. Um, so that was listed at something like $43 million and I'm my understanding and please correct me if
I'm wrong is that that is not the amount that is the town is paying for that item. Is that right? >> Correct. So in the um CIP spreadsheet that we have that lays out the plan, there's also a key at the top of the spreadsheet that identifies the funding source. And so you'll be able to tell
which which uh is which is funded with uh re town revenue, which is bond funded, which is state state aid, state funds, uh grants, things like that. [clears throat] So that's all articulated out through the plan. >> Right. And I'm I'm just wondering in the
conversation about like the size of the CIP or the size of these items when people, for example, look at that and say, "Wow, that's a $43 million project. if we if we delayed that or cut it, then would we save $43 million? And I realize
the answer is no. Um, but I don't know whether that's a point of education or there's some other sort of way to to show that information. Um but I think in sort of explaining what the
opportunities are for um tightening up our budget, that kind of understanding is very helpful. >> Any uh more questions? >> I have one question. >> Okay. Um, is there any place in the budget book that describes what union
contracts are upcoming in fiscal year 27 through 29? >> I think that there might be some reference in the HR narrative uh around accomplishments and objectives, but um in terms of spelling out what where we
are kind of with all of the different contracts, that's something that we can probably just uh provide the board. Um >> everything is up in 27. Um 27 is the LA is everything that we've settled I believe is up in 27. I don't think if we have anything that goes into 28 >> just the tail from the fire contract.
>> The tail from the fire contract, but that's not technically right because it it goes into effect the last day of FY27. So I don't think any contracts are settled into FY28. Um >> I'm I'm just I'm just wondering where where the risks are in terms of the
negotiations. I think the risks are as always in places where we would where we could we would be stuck arbitrating. Um so it really is with police and fire. Um it's my hope that we would be in a good
position with ASME after this particularly with regard to the study that was conducted through DPW of the positions. But I do think that implementing that is also going to be a bit of a budget buster in the sense that we know we have this document that says
in order to get to this percentage of pay we've got to pay these people more. It's going to have ripple impacts across. I think that's going to obviously be above the rate of growth. Um and so that's going to come to roost if not in FY27 than in 28 or 29. But the
others you know were we are currently assuming 2% growth in cost of living in 28 and 29 which is below 2.5 but again inflation being what it is etc etc. I you know I I I know that the real
purchasing value of people's paychecks goes down and I don't like it. Um, and so trying to figure out how to balance that all out, you know, but I will say one potential solution in an override scenario is cost of living adjustment
goes down. Um, I really don't want to do that. Um, but you know, we had a zero year in CO. Um, and we never heard the end of it. Um, so >> how much do we save with bringing the cost of living down? because I mean it's
not really a cost of living. It's just a it's just based on a certain number, >> right? >> And and you get a cost of living adjustment for that number >> which is not the full amount of your salary. So I'm wondering if if there's really any savings from that.
[clears throat] >> Yeah. No, we there's there would be savings if the number went down like your Yeah. Your total wages increase by a set percentage is how we said it. Um so um >> but the total wages >> that's not what we um discussed a few
months ago when we had the increase in cost of living. >> So are you talking about like the peripherals that also can vary or like there's a base salary and then for public safety there are peripherals that are added on top of that. So typically
we talk about colar in terms of what gets applied to the base and then the peripherals sometimes float differently depending on what gets negotiated with the unions >> right some people have educational benefits some people >> okay maybe I'm maybe I'm confused here but we we discussed how
a cost of living adjustment is given on a pot of money I think $30,000 or maybe is $12,000 not the full salary of of an employee. >> So, you're talking about um probably
with teachers where in in addition to getting a cost of living increase, they also get step increases and they also get lanes. >> I don't think that's what I'm talking about. >> Okay. And I'm not sure what you're referencing. >> So, you know, for my social security I and let's say I don't get this much.
Let's say it's $100,000 a year, right? Cost of living would be um 2% of $100,000. My understanding of how we do it is I would get 2% of
$12,000 or some other smaller amount not 2% on the full sorry >> so for retirees there is a base that cost of living increases get applied that functions differently from the town employees in the way that we apply cost of living increases to their base salary
so it does function differently >> Bernard I have One more question. >> Oh, yeah. >> Thank you. Um, Chaz, you had I'm going to go back to your presentation. You had mentioned um I don't remember what the time frame was
of potentially closing or um not staffing of an engine company. >> Yeah. >> Could you talk more could you talk more about that? And what does that mean? Like is it a is that's is that 16 20 people? How many? Help me understand
more about that. Yeah. I mean, so the the right the reality of the the tail of the fire contract is that we've got um if we you know that's $910,000 beyond what's in the budget to pay for.
And so if that comes online in FY28 and we don't have the revenue to meet it, you know, I can't really think of another way to close that gap other than saying we're going to reduce the number of engines we have on the road by one. Um so the number of we
would close a fire and we would we would we would um you know close we would do what's called closing a company. So we would reduce the total number of staff by 20. That's the number of people that you would have staffing that apparatus
on in total and then you just wouldn't that truck would go into storage. Um and it wouldn't be part of the regular runs. Um we don't want to do that. Um I think that would be a real negative outcome.
But I also just don't see how to pay for that large of an increase absent. You know, you know, I I I I couldn't, for example, in good conscience make say, well, this is the fire contract and
so we're going to pay for this by cutting the police department or we're going to cut DPW. You know, that number is too big um for me to try and spread the pain across departments. Um the reality of the situation is the driver of the cost is that department and that
department needs to address the consequences of it. Um and that's not what I want to do. Um I think we should be going the opposite direction. I want to be supportive of the firefighters and the good work they do. But,
you know, I can't there's there's no there's no good answer to where to find $910,000 in that situation. >> Okay, that that's that's helpful. So, it's the tail of the contract. We don't have the funding for the contract unless we have an operating override.
Very helpful. This is I was going to say one more thing, but just to to close a loop on this, this is why the structure of an operating override is so important. how we bundle things together and if if we can have tears. Um that's for a future discussion, but I I hope we
can get that conversation soon. >> Michael, >> yeah, I I would just say um to sort of follow up on some of the previous comments I Paul made and you made uh Bernard about fiscal discipline. Um, I think what this sounds like and I
support it is is moving fiscal discipline not just at sort of the finance department level but really instilling it within the departments as well and that's that's
what this kind of action does >> and I I will say too you know I think our departments have done a tremendous job in very trying circumstances all of our departments I think the public safety team has I think the planning
especially I think buildings I think you know health all these folks are being asked to do more with less um and it's stressful it's very stressful on them um and I see that impact in their operations and the uncertainty that kind of weighs on them so I don't in in this
I hope one of the things that you see as the departments present their individual budgets to you which is what's going to be happening over the next several months I hope you see that the they are very good stewards of the money that you entrust them with. Um there is a lot of
fiscal discipline going on in these departments and the hard choices they have to make in terms of balancing the operations that they are being asked to do. Um you know a part of this a part of this education is to talk about is there fat in this budget and if so where are
we cutting it from? Um, and you know, of the $1.56 million cuts that we're suggesting, there's just there's not a lot of fat there. Um, we're already cutting into operations. Um, we're doing whatever we can creatively to keep the
lights on. Um, and we are going to start to see real serious reduction in service. Um, and so, yeah, we need to have those conversations. As Paul said, what are core services? What do we value? Um, how do we how do we address it? Okay. Um, if there's any further
discussion, >> David, I'm have another question. I was looking on my >> I was when I was looking at the list of other municipalities that have had recent overrides, I noticed that where actually had an underride. >> Yes.
>> And is there anything that where has been doing differently that we could learn from? [laughter] >> We could be we could be a small community. Uh >> yes, they have a population of 10,000. So obviously it's it's very different, but I was just surprised to see that in
the context of this parade of overrides everywhere else. >> Yeah, I can do I can do a little more digging into the wearer underride. Um I did see that. Um it's it's it's a different environment. Um and you know, maybe there's different
expectations of service there. Um but I don't know. Um boy, I would love to pass an underride. Um but it's not environment that we're in. >> And also, most of these overrides appear to be in the single digits.
And so that creates another challenge here. There are very few that have actually been double digits. >> Double digits in terms of overall millions of dollars. >> Yes. Yes. We were we were one of the first in 2023 and now we've been joined by a couple of other communities, but there still aren't that many. Um, and
there have not, and again, I don't want to I don't want to un understate, right? The largest override >> is current that has ever passed is only $13.5 million. And you're already looking in around the $25 million range.
Well, that's a lot of money. Um, and it needs it would need in order for that to go on the ballot, it would need a very strong justification. Okay, that's it. Any um anything else? Anyone in the audience want to make a comment
under our extended public comment uh >> period? Anyone online? >> Okay. Therefore, I end the meeting. Thank you. >> Thank you.