e e e e e e e e for [Music]
[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good afternoon everyone welcome to the March 4 meeting of the chadam finance committee pursuant to Governor Healey's March 2923 signing of the act of 23
extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law until March 31 2025 this meeting of the Chan of finance committee is being conducted in person and via remote participation every effort will be made to ensure that the
public can adequately access the proceedings as provided for in the order a reminder that people who would like to listen to this meeting while in progress may do so by calling 508 945 4410 again
58945 4410 and enter conference ID 5042 2858 pound sign again 504 2858 pound sign or one may join the meeting online via Microsoft teams through the link in the posted agenda
this is a live broadcast and simal cast on channel channel TV despite our best efforts we may not be able to provide real-time access we will however post a record of this meeting on the town's website as soon as possible we will have our call to order and then we're going to continue to run
through uh various uh prospective articles for the warrant we are going to have an audible on a couple of these things which I'll explain in a minute but roll call Tommy D here Barb Merson here John papalardo here Joan sprag yes here Andy
young here chrisen Andres here is Shields here Eric Whitley here the chair is present um so we are going to start with a Citizens petition on tax title article the things we are not going to to do
today is uh um take any information on the refiling of the four various proposed articles select board is going to hear those tonight so we'll stand down from doing those now um so that uh
Carrie any background that you'd like to provide for the citizens petition otherwise we can ask Mr Taylor to approach the microphone all right welcome Seth thank you Mr chairman uh members of the finance committee I appreciate you having me here this
afternoon um I don't want to get too deep in the Weeds on this but I will upon request because I I have weighted into the weeds so um I will start by discussing the
property briefly with you and the owner of that property um it's Tommy Don's neighbor at 3 30 CA Street her name is Jill James Jill is a third generation resident of chadam and the last um
resident Wampa noag in the town of chadam of the aquina tribe her um tribal affiliation goes back to gay head on Martha's Vineyard and her grandfather came across with his family
and subsequently raised his family here in chattam um our VFW Hall Bears the name of one of her uncles who died in France in World War II her Uncle Frank was the longtime
music teacher at nset high school and the family has been um Dependable contributors uh to the very fabric of this town for their entire um residents here in that's a brief idea uh Jill uh
got that property when her parents died she's an only child and she's the only per person um who resides at that property I am not and I did not bring this um with any consultation with Jill
James until um this matter came to my attention and when it did um I recognize some significant inequities in the systemic in a systemic problem in the town and I felt like that should be addressed and
I tried to think of a way that it could be addressed and when I came up with what I thought was the answer I went to Jill um and I told her what I wanted to do and ask her if um that would be all right with her uh
the last thing in the world I was going to do is impose this on her she's a very private and a very shy person and the last thing in the world I wish to do was bring this stuff before the general public without her um agreeing to do so
so that's what brings me before you folks here today uh Jill hit a hit a hard patch um and we're not going to delve into that but it was back in the 80s and it led to non-payment of
taxes non-payment of taxes at a time when you're uh significantly underemployed and not earning amount of money uh leads to at best some sort of a tax plan where you try to chip away at
it unfortunately um chapter 60 of Massachusetts General law are um I think perhaps to say Draconian is not too extreme the interest rate that acrs on
back taxes that are unpaid is 16% um when you work on that and when your payments against that go against interest first and you realize every year on top of that unpaid balance
which is acre interest at 16% you also see the current year year's taxes which for Jill's property right now are somewhere around $5,500 most recent agreement that she tried to enter into with the town or not
tried to that did enter into with the town uh treasure was to pay $400 a month well that was what was agreed with the with the uh U uh tax folks downtown the tax
collector but despite that she's been paying $600 a month every month every year with an income of Social Security only that is $1,500 a mon a
month she has leaned on the kindness of the town to work as what I term an indebted servant of the town that provides her an additional $500 a year uh that is given against her
taxes at the beginning of every year so you're looking at a total amount of money from her to the town of $7,700 a year um when I first started this I asked the the tax collector to give me um a
balance All In Balance with the payoff date of June 1st of this year and she gave me a figure that approached $63,000 um this figure is a is a is a moving figure um which is why if you
look at the language of the the article um it says it's got the wishy-washy thing that says not more than but only as much as necessary um that's because it truly is a moving Target um interest acrs
daily and the balance on the money's owed determines the pum rate daily as of yesterday Jill's pum rate was $221.50 it just continues to accumulate um and as the the principal load
increases that pum rate would change and we're all familiar with um the benefits either negative or positive to compounding well Jill's $7,700 a year that she's paying now mind
you $600 off of $1,500 which is her total income is 40% of her income the people who we have living up at the Anchorage on croll road they pay 13 or 33 % of
their soural security to live up there um she's paying 40% of her income and she will never get ahead of the money that's owed to the town in fact
um although it's a moving Target um folks with any sense of numbers can come up to an approximation of what her real annual interest rate is and that approximated figure with my um math
skills which aren't unlimited but they're not horrible um was about a a real rate of about 133% um with a June one balance of about $63,000 um in 5 years her balance out to the town will be over 100,000 in 10
years it'll be over $200,000 and without uh oh and by the way that is with no um increase in valuation or increase in uh the mill rate that's everything staying
static um that's where we are um I think as an interesting point that I'd like to bring up since title 60 is really a a mouse trap to go
into there is and and the town back in uh I think January of 2017 special town meeting and then at the annual town in 2018 we adopted a couple of bylaw Provisions uh related to tax title and
tax title relief um and some of you may be familiar with those you can go back and look at them at any rate with e so I won't bore you with them but she doesn't qualify for any of those um one of them would require a 25% um upfront payment 25% of the money owed
and then uh uh 5 years to clear the rest of it which she couldn't financially do so although those things are written into our bylaws they're not something that will provide um Jill with the relief necessary um She Wants To Live and Die
in her home not a big ask um upon her death she would like to be able to direct direct the value of her assets which is only that piece of real estate and by the way anybody
that's driven by Jill's home you can ask Tommy Don about it um it looks like chadam when I was a kid you could throw a cat through any wall if you wanted to it's uh it's unfortunate
this article if it's approved the town meeting would allow her the relief to stay in her home continue to pay her taxes without any further problem because right now
her tax is at about $5,500 and she's paying um $600 a month or $7,200 right now um and there isn't any reason at her age 77 years old that she shouldn't be
able to get to the point where she realizes her dayss in her home and or if as is the case with many of us would like to age in place at our own home she gets to a situation where she needs help
and she depends on um Mass health our version of Medicaid to help her with her declining years um Mass health will then have full access to the full value of her home to reduce her medical costs or
her l long-term care costs upon her death which is I think also only a reasonable thing to pursue um I would entertain um questions if not I have one sort of like
interesting aside that I would add to this that I I think can foreclose this from ever happening again oh by the way there are 21 tax titles held by the town of chadam right now six of those are
owner unknown which means that there are 15 people who live in town or own residents in town I don't know whether there are any non-resident taxpayers who are in this category of being in tax title but there are 15 people with homes
in chadam um that are also in tax title I didn't pull all of them up um so anyway that any questions I'd be happy to take and if not then I would add one aside before I stand down and I appreciate you all for taking the time
um to politely listen to what I had to say thank you Seth questions Eric please um Seth you would I think were starting to explain to us um what would happen to the property um at the end of U her life and then you kind of went a different
way I don't think you actually told us what the plan was for that yeah tax title will um the the T the town Treasurer um this Town treasur who's been on for I don't know 10 years maybe 12 years um I'm not certain of her
tenure um but she has not uh moved to a foreclosure petition against any uh property in which someone was living she has moved for uh foreclosure uh petition on uh vacant property or property
without um a residence on it um you should all understand though that property uh any any property in tax title um can be moved to be foreclosed it goes through land court and the thing that is
most onerous about that is when it goes through and land Court declares the property foreclosed none of the balance is owed to the person who owes it who or who owned it before the property is
foreclosed um and there is nothing to preclude someone at any point in time that has the authority to force foreclosure to do so um and I worry a great deal about
that I I also worry about what happens with people who know that there is someone as vulnerable as Jill is to the pressures that are put on someone in her position to sell that property to them
with the constant pressure of every year you wait the amount of money that you will get when this house is sold if the town approves sale is less and less and less and
less imagine being in that position where you simply want to live in your home horrible thing hope I answered your question um I think that's fine um how how about the the current value of the property
current current value is uh the lands over a million dollars the house is di Minimus um I don't have the number in front of me right now but it's somewhere around uh 1.1 million maybe approaching 1.2 as we all know um and this is one of the problems uh this is one of the
problems that that has attacked um resident uh families that are low-income people like Jill um this insatiable need for us to provide land for wealthy people who can afford it continues to
drive up our levels of assessment um in the last 10 years my taxes have doubled Mill rates stayed the same but my taxes have doubled um and that's what happens as as uh property depreciates uh when I sat on the board of selectman our um
assessed value for all of the class one property in town was around $9 billion uh no I'm sorry S A little over 7 billion now it's somewhere around $12 billion last year our budget was $100
million and as you pointed out uh Mr chairman in the past you know our per capita operating costs and our per capita um debt are first and second in the entire Commonwealth
um this year we're running a surplus of $1 million in free cash I don't have to talk to you folks about that I don't have to talk to you about that at all we're all smart people all right um Tommy is your hand
still up thank you Mr chairman um I don't know if I should be reusing myself or not uh I live on CA Street I'm not a next door neighbor and I just maybe look for a little guidance I don't necessarily see I mean
I'm not the I'm not our appointing authority obviously uh but I'm not sure I see a Nexus between your position residency and Cedar Street with this matter if I may inject Mr chairman Tom my my time on the board of selectman I'm
pretty familiar with the rules about needs to uh re re uh move yourself from a proceeding you are no different than any other taxpayer in the town in regards to this issue thank you that would be my view Barbara please thank
you Mr chair um Seth has the town approached the state to see about any sort of a waiver on the interest rate it seems to me and I'm I'm not really clear about it but it seems to me that since I've been on this board there has been at least one other case where that did
happen there this is of the bylaws that was that was adopted by the town which is provided for in chapter 60 but it has it has conditions that hang on to it the interest rate can be knocked from 16% to
8% and but in order to do that it requires a full payoff in five years and a and a down payment of 25% before you can even start on it and it will do nothing to go back and address the 16% interest that is already accumulated it
will just reduce the the accumulation of interest to 8% so yeah it's available going forward and that law was enacted I think in uh there was a change in the statute in 2024 but I've talked to the
town Treasurer and none of the current relief that's available under any of the recent changes in law are going to provide uh relief uh to to Jill or let's not say Jill let's say
relief to the property at 330 C Street either way whichever way you choose to view it what would you say to people who worry that this could be president setting I have the the potential answer for precedent setting um that I will
give to you when you've asked me all of the questions Germain to the immediate set of circumstances because it's a going forward cure and again I think that one of the
one of the things I would say is you guys here on this committee and the board of Selectmen have Twisted themselves into knots over the issue of affordable housing and we've even gotten
to the point of talking about um attainable housing with a household with an income of $200,000 getting tax relief or not tax relief but purchase relief of a piece of property to me that's bizarre
right at its most fundamental level when you look at what is we're talking about with Jill here you're paying short money short money for affordable housing that you are going to guarantee
a resident of this town gets right now when you build affordable housing everybody sits in and they Rings their hand and say well geez we're going to get tiate people from Lawrence a LEL a New Bedford a Fall River and there's no way we can stop them because that's what the state says we have to do they
say how do we do this how many times have we turned ourselves upside down to try to find a way to to allow affordable housing to be available to the residents longtime residents of the town of chattam first for 60 it's going to be
less than $63,000 when the when the um tax collector gets done with all of her minations I feel certain of that but at the end of the day $60,000 is the cheapest piece of affordable housing
that has ever crossed your desks well um you're talking about a property that's worth a million dollars have have has anyone given any thought to is there any way that that property could be turned into an incom producing property for the resident like if she
rented out a room or something like that no no thought or it can it is impossible it is not possible without that house being completely gutted and
and uh modernized and rebuilt that house is not in a state of good repair okay thank you now it's 87 Acres under the current zoning law it is not
subdividable it is a large lot that will become gobbled up and bulldozed and some of our well-meaning folks will build a mcmansion to Marvel any mcmansion that's
built anywhere and that's what'll happen there now I can tell you this I asked Jill I said Jill do you have a will this is recently she goes no I said Jill you need to have a will I said this is your only asset although
right now it's not you know it's going down hill fast because of tax title but I said if if upon your death have you thought about what you would do to that with that property the first thing that came out of her mouth was I might give it to the town and no I don't think you'd do a a
Donald Trump here and twist her leg and say yeah we'll do this if you promise to give us a property you know that's that's ridiculous but I can tell you that's the first thing that came out of her mouth when I when I talked to her about her her future plans you know had she even thought about
this Tracy please thank you Mr chair thank you Mr Taylor um I feel deeply sympathetic to this this Co cause but I doo have have some questions I mean I think in maybe what Eric was sort of
referring to is there a mechanism by which the the money can be recouped upon um upon her death and and the sale of the home um I do find it different than I'm a huge a proponent for
affordable and attainable housing um but this is this is only for a segment of time for the remainder of her life and then it will inevitably be as you said gobbled up um and made into a multi-million dollar
property my other concern and I maybe that's what you're going to address too is is what is then said to the say 15 other people or properties that are in a similar situation and to the people
who recently have faced a situation where they have to sell their home and their property because they can no longer sustain it um um and I've already had to make that choice and how it seems somewhat unfair or precedent setting for
this now to be available for this one resident I I appreciate what this consideration concern is one I think one of the things that bothers me is we we're looking at this as a high value piece of property well there's just nothing in town that isn't high value
property um so to compare a million dollar piece of property where a resident is someone in J's condition or a you know something out in the Boondocks of East hoage um that might be worth $200,000 um I don't I I think they're
comparable I don't think we have to look at the value of that property as as what's at at stake here what fundamentally is going on here I also mentioned for the purpose of consistency that in uh uh special town
meeting January 2018 2017 yeah January 23rd 2017 sometimes I make notes that I actually bring with [Laughter] me um article seven again of special
town meeting January 23rd 2017 um the title of that article was moral obligation tax abatement three Beach Plum Road and the town voted to pay the
outstanding taxes that had been unpaid from fy2 2007 to fy21 five years title 40 now I'm getting into the weeds didn't want to do it title
60 requires that taxes be paid within 14 days of being due and that where real estate is involved following two years of not having been paid from the date due with that 14-day window that
property is subject to tax title we didn't take tax tax title on that property back then and in 201 17 the town meeting voted to go ahead and pay that woman's taxes and I'll tell
you right in there haven't been a member of the board of slugman at that time never should have happened that property was a Habitat for Humanity her taxes were being escrowed and by a mistake made by the
bank I think it was Cape Cod 5 but I can't be certain of directing the taxes to the wrong property it went unnoticed for 5 years and when the taxpayer went to pay the taxes and was told the taxes have
already been paid thought H isn't that nice somebody's paying my taxes when Habitat for Humanity who was helping said this money that that's
accumulated in this escrow account cannot stay in this escrow account pursuant to the terms of escrow that money was withdrawn and it did not go to its taxes you want to compare apples to apples we paid this person's taxes off
when she had the tax money to pay him and chose not to pursue how that happened done deal over the water fall it went but yeah there's precedent for doing this and I don't think we should be arbitrary based on the value of property or the fact that this one has
been in in tax areas for such a long period of time but anyway that's just me all right let's keep going I think chrisan you had your hand up and then Joanne thank you I I guess I struggle with what other Alternatives there might
be and I'm just don't we have a program where someone can offer a deed restriction to have an their house be affordable for some unknown amount didn't we pass that at last town meeting it's or what's the RFP that goes out for affordable housing that to
homeowners they can um yeah it's been talked about but it I don't think to my seen rfps though in the Bulet you can't not pay taxes chrisan that there is an outstanding tax
lean that is $60,000 you can't make that go away without paying them that's Massachusetts law you have to pay those taxes so somehow they have to be paid understood so I go back to my original question
what other Alternatives besides this petition have been looked into or I mean if this is it that's fine but I'm just curious well the fact that the treasurer has continued to do this since inheriting this tax title property and nobody has bothered to look at this
until now or even contemplate the potential problem that this raises with long-term residents and the health of our community as a residential long-term Community which appreciates and accepts the historical significance of the
people who've been here for Generations uhhuh there is value to that there is immense value to that don't mean to sound angry I'm not
well kind of I don't think any is going to dispute the value of of of the proposition um but to Christian's question I I can talk to you maybe it's appropriate time right now well hold on let's we still have a couple more questions I've got some to ends up next
then Tracy thank you Mr chair than we have danced all around this question as a money problem and it in a way it will but the taxpayers can always they'll decide how to solve that but what it really is is the glaring it's a Human
Services problem and we have no human services policy as Kristen mentioned in this town for something like this and we should have started getting the idea a few times ago when we were running into this
kind of a problem we need a human services policy to handle how do we handle as a town how do we we need to decide how we want to handle it so it's a big problem the tax are going to say yes or no to this goes on the warrant I
agree with you but it'll still come up again and again again if we don't do more human services are taken care of by a lot of different agencies but each town on this kind of uh policy and decision needs to have its own policy
and we need to work that out I I agree with you 100% um and and the fact of the matter is that as an initiative petition article this will go on the warrant and this will go before the voters um it just has to that that's the law but the reality is
um there are a a significant number of Voters who don't get into the weeds they trust the finance committee to represent them which is the whole point of the finance committee the checks and balances to offset uh our executive
branch which is the board of Selectmen because you guys represent only the voters you you shouldn't have anything to do with the board of Selectmen or what they want or what they want to do you're a independent evaluating uh presence that hopefully um stands behind
the taxpayer and the voter I should say the voter I apologize for that and and what we do will probably set a president without solving the problem it it it it is going to do something whether somebody accept that accepts that as
precedential I I shudder to say that that's true because every single one of those 15 people that is in tax title is an individual and independent set of circumstances they they are there are no
one siiz fits-all I can tell you with certainty that not every one of those tax titled people is low income thank you Mr chair done okay thanks Jo Trac I think I just was was back to that point in terms of what we say to the 15 other
cases um regardless of what their specifics are not everyone has is lucky enough to have an advocate such as you and yet as a town there should be some equity in how these cases are viewed so
if you know next town meeting one of the other ones comes before us how could it be not also voted yes if if we do this one or it's just meant to be it doesn't seem like enough for us as a as a town
to say well this person's historical significance outweighs the circumstances of somebody else that seems like a business that we shouldn't be getting involved in but have it be a standard practice um or not I I would hate to
have to answer to those 15 other people why they aren't being considered I I agree with you and and I will accept what you present as necessary let's accept the fact that somehow we have to treat all 16 tax title people
the same and that we have to go and and offer to pay their taxes um through an active town meeting with only one provisor that they are capable of and will continue to pay their taxes going
forward which is what Jill James has said she will do and has proven that she will do so there are Cal and conditions that can attach to all those things but let's say it's true $1 million in free cash this
year if we put 15 people at $60,000 it's $900,000 and you would have paid everybody's taxes and we have1 million in free cash this year we pay willingly
6% search charge every year to what ironically is called the community preservation act go ahead and take the time to look up Community see what it says doesn't talk about
buildings or Sports fields or you know brick or Brack it talks about people who share a local and a set of cultures and beliefs people of the community but we
willingly pay 6% every freaking year to pay huge amounts of money to sometimes organizations that have more money than God no pun
intended all right if I can just follow up so so let me just correct the record we it's not it's not 6% I think it's 3% that we pay just CPA yeah my apologies yep carry on as a as another point just for folks that are listening about the
$1 million in free cash part of it is is an accounting issue of of is it like six million that came from uh that just carried into into this year right correct it was not really an
it was just money that we weren't reimbursed for or money for borrowings that we didn't receive in the prior year where we should have received it so we would have received the 6 million the prior fiscal year hence why we received
11 million this fiscal year with all due respect in the last 15 years I don't believe there's been a a year where we've had less than a million dollars in free cash at the end of the year I I I don't I don't believe it if somebody wants to put that before me I'll withdraw that statement but I don't
believe that's ever happened in any event just one last comment like what you were saying about covering all of the folks I would be in support of of generating some sort of um language to support such a thing but to me it's hard
to support just one individual at a time well I appreciate your concern but again I I uh I have to wave it off as uh if I was playing soccer I'd throw the yellow flag because um th this town um came to
be a town in 1720 there have been people here since the 1600s my family being of them and I'm here to tell you things change and evolve but the fact that we got to this point now the fact that it takes a citizen to have seen this sort of a problem and to to think about how
to address it my my point is address it as a number one as a number one because none of you knew about this I promise you none of you did I promise you none of the board of Selectmen
did I promise you if 05% of the population knows about it I'd be amazed y right and here we are in 2025 a town that was incorporated in
1720 we're dealing with laws chapter 60 is part of an artifact of law from 1620 Massachusetts was around for 150 years before we got a constitution all
right Massachusetts judges have looked at this thing and said most of it's unconstitutional so they careful I want to jump in here I appreciate the history lesson but I want to keep moving forward on this thing I've got some questions just as a matter of fact to try to establish do we know in the date of the
agreement was with the town that provided for the $400 monthly payment I don't know the date that that started no okay uh she's been paying $600 regularly um I can give I can see that that number has gotten to you
because that's um with the the uh uh the treasurer Carrie maybe Sharon um yeah Sharon Sharon the the date when um the $400 started for her this particular resident welcome
Sharon thank you um so actually her payments actually started she made uh rough payments of about $100 a month for quite some time and then it went up to 350 uh looks like somewhere around
2016 and then in 2017 it moved to $400 and as of 2020 it went up to $600 okay thank you do we have any idea what the original outstanding principle
is of the roughly 65,000 so the principal balance right now which is to say the unpaid taxes I know the answer to that question would you would you like me to answer yeah please okay so that would be
52,1 19348 okay I'm going to round down the 48 um question for Carrie Andor Sharon can the town wave principal not principal wave interest and penalties so the the town
can wave interest penalties but in order to do so and to adhere especially to the new laws that were enacted back in nove on November 1st of
2024 a down payment of 25% would need to be would need to be established on the account um and then regular payments going forward okay so that was your toal pay off five years I already told L the uh if I'm not mistaken the property in
question has the house on it to the South I guess uh and then there's what appears to be basically an empty lot a wooded lot 87 Acres yeah so can there A lot can a lot line adjustment be made to that parcel to allow her to monetize the value of
that adjacent lot zoning has it precludes it being subdivided okay um Sharon do we have an a number for the aggregate tax title in town of these 16 total properties yes so as Mr
Taylor was saying because I furnished in the information we have 21 um tax title accounts six of which are owner unknown Parcels uh 14 are residential and one is commercial and the total value as of today of all of those tax title accounts
is $ 57,6 6530 so $600,000 as I said was pretty close yep okay that's helpful thank you um so this is and well let me just add any further questions from the
committee okay so my Tommy what Mr Taylor is saying is that if we pay or the town forgives is $63,000 yep they could end up with a piece of property that's worth over a
million could very easily do that because um then it'll depend on what Jill James who has no children and uh no next a kin at all she's an only child it's what she chooses to do with her her will
and I had her to dinner two nights ago because I wanted to I said people are going to wonder I said do you have a will what do you want CU I said from my point of view I think you're entitled to
the value of what generations of your people have done to try to leave something there and the honest to God the first thing came out of her mouth was I might leave it to the town you know the the home would have to
be bulldozed but you talk about an opportunity for um low-income housing Tommy now I don't know whether you'd be for that against it since it's kind of cross the street from you but you I think you'd be okay with it well you live down the street so I I yeah I know
they'd have to come by me you know all right so but the truth of the matter is if it went to low-income housing then the zoning could be overcome and that 87 Acres could be built used for more than one one home
all right so two two two points of fact one is that the select board is going to be hearing this tonight yep so we're not going to take any action on it now pending whatever they ultimately decide to do two is and I know Mr Taylor is aware of this um I guess at the request of the Town manager Our Town Council was
asked for an opinion on the matter and he has rendered an opinion that it would not be legal for the town of chadam to undertake this action and I will enjoy speaking to Town Council tonight yeah understood but for for us for now
there's not much else we can do so if you'd like yeah so you like to say I told you there's one more point of Interest oh yes please um and this is um since we went ahead in
20178 and adopted some bylaws that helped create this 25% reduced penalty blah blah blah thing you have to believe that somebody looked at title 60 to see what we could do to be
helpful title 60 chapter 60 section 3D provides that any town that adopts that section 3D can put a little block on their tax
tax bills property tax bills and their excise tax bills that allows every taxpayer to provide no less than $1 into money that creates a fund for
the elderly and disabled lowincome people in town and it provides all of the provisions for how that money is held kept invested and distributed and that's chapter
60 section 3D and I can assure you after I have my words with the esteemed Town Council tonight I will in all likelihood put my
pen in my little hand and go back for 10 signatures yeah to adopt this provision and to add language to this provision which authorizes town uh meeting to increase the amount of monies
uh put into this fund at any of its Town meetings upon vote of a majority of the people at at such town meeting and with that I'll create two more articles yep and I'll put them in and we can play this again yeah I'll play all
day long a compelling idea I'm I'll play all day long yep good this this matters folks understand and it takes it takes one thing thing one example one opportunity for us to talk about a problem if it can be identified I'm sorry that somehow or
another it has to be I how it fals to me to be the person that saw this but I did I hope we can fix it I like what you had to say Joanne a great deal we need to have a more comprehensive policy on how to handle these things thank you any
other questions I think we're good SE thank you very much thank you for your time appreciate of course your courtesy John please just to be clear after the select board take this issue up we'll revisit it depending on what they do but yeah I think we're going to
have to because this is point out it's going on the it's going on the warrant okay she's got the requisite signature so yes okay thank you we will Tracy can something go on the warrant if the council deems it illegal that'll be instant question
great I suggest that you tune in tonight for the select board meeting listen to what's happening all right Sharon I think we're uh I think we're good if you want to punch out I appreciate you're joining us thank you thank you Sharon thank you thank
you okay so next a an eagerly awaited update from uh the director of veteran services welcome I'm I apologize for the delaying getting you on board no not a problem that's democracy not here that
often so it's okay in fact I think my office the last time they were here was I think 2013 or something like that maybe uh so well we're really are delighted you're here thank you no my pleasure my pleasure um
and um uh since this last week I was at the U uh select board meeting in Yarmouth so I know this is the finance committee so I'm not sure uh I can talk about a lot of things and veteran services I assume you do want to concentrate on the budget and possibly
the hero act with the new uh uh veterans exemptions that uh are allowed now under the hero act um but by way of just um I'll just do a short uh intro as to what we do yeah I think for the for the benefit not
only of the committee but for the community who's either watching or will watch they can overview what what you guys do sure um can I just one uh to please yes and uh welcome major thank you for taking your time thank you to be
with us and I when I requested this as well I uh thought it would be interesting to all of us to understand what uh the money that you ask for us yes what kind of benefits do you provide for our veterans as far as homes uh
physical uh disabilities and uh retirements things like that uh where the money goes to benefit our veterans right thank you thank you Mr chair well uh in general uh and I do know that you're aware that we're a veterans
District a municipal veterans District uh we are the largest in the Commonwealth by population served um there's more veterans in our district here than reside in the city of Boston so that's why we're busy um the
uh towns are allowed uh massachus the only state in the country that demands that a veteran service officer serve each and every town so all of our 351 towns have to be served by a veteran service officer that veteran service officer or those veteran
service officers must be honorably discharge veterans themselves we do have administrative support uh that uh can work in our offices and uh as we do and uh but as far as the vso of veteran
service officer position that has to be a veteran and uh every town has to have a veteran service officer however towns that geographically touch are allowed to form a municipal veterans District like a
school district that crosses Town borders and so uh we have 15 towns in our veteran services District here the barnable District uh but that also includes a little bit of Plymouth County uh weham is part of our district the
only place across the bridge that's not in our district is Falmouth um Falmouth has always decided to stay on their own um uh and while I'm on the subject of Falmouth uh I mean they're great there
uh they just had they have a new veteran service officer now that they had us over training but uh to give you an idea of their budget uh as a comparison uh on the operational administrative side not the money that goes to the veterans but to run the
office runs about 160,000 180,000 uh for that one service officer and is one admin person uh and there so that's their administrative um budget uh that's separate from the what we call chapter 115 budget which I'll get into
but our purpose um uh Massachusetts has had this uh charge to not poize its its veterans or their families since 1861 uh so we're very proud of
Massachusetts in this respect that Massachusetts is the only state in the country that gives out checks every month to lowincome Veterans and their dependence and the checks come from the town um uh their town of chadam checks
that that go to these individuals and you can uh divide our services up into two broad categories uh one would be state and town benefits would be the way I would word it and I have a little annual report for the last C calendar year I
can leave that um uh with you I didn't know if I should bring a bunch of them or not but uh uh and so the Comm what we call the state and town chapter 115 benefits which those checks are issued under that part of Mass general ener Law
chapter 115 uh is very strict and these are the people in your town in all of our towns that are financially hurting the most uh in listening to the discussion that you just had about that
Widow my uh vso duties kick in right away and I didn't want to grab them on the way out but if she's the um uh wife of a if her husband was a veteran she might be eligible for these benefits when I heard that she might be on Mass
health that tells me she's lowincome uh so I I need to track him down and find out that uh because we know that there's widows flying under the radar that don't know about this program and so in the town of chadam uh
last calendar year uh I know you work off fiscal year but last calendar year uh we G uh the through our office and through your town finance and Treasurers Office uh we issued $66,500 money chapter 115 budget it's
for housing food heat medical and other related cost as we pay prescriptions Medicare Part B uh for these folks that that can't afford it and if you want to know what kind of financial situation they're in uh if I can get it quick enough here uh but I can do it off the
top of my head uh round off the figures uh if you're a single veteran no Widow and I say Widow it could be a widower but on the cape we don't have any widowers that we're giving benefits to right now just it's all widows it just happens to work out that way and
Veterans low-income veterans if they're single I.E a widow or a single veteran they can't have a total income of more than $2500 a month so they can't have more if they're
single they can't have Assets in the Bank savings Ira you name whatever it is if it's even cash value in a life insurance policy can't total more than $8,400 so the money the town is given to these and and we're fiduciaries of your
money in my office um there's very strict application process that goes on with a ton of documentation we have files three inches thick on all of these uh applicants and so they are truly the ones that are financially hurting the
most in your town um we get three months of their past three months of bank statements we do Bank searches uh so that's what's going on what you're paying for on the operational admin side that's what you're paying for on the administrative side I will get into that budget a little bit uh but uh so that's
what our admin staff are doing they're interfacing with your with your finance and and uh Treasurer uh we have to send a big application uh all their uh Pharmacy bills uh because we pay we pay some of their drug costs uh so we're working with CVX and Walgreens and so
that's what our little office is doing all day long in hyanis uh is processing all those things and we send this big file and this big stack of documentation up to the state and it goes to a person called an authorizer in the executive office of veteran services at the state
level if they approve it after we get it all to them it comes back down to us and then we're interfacing with your finance and treasures department and and we're asking on your warrant can the Widow Smith get $650 this month and we do that
every month and thankfully uh to your offices and the folks behind the scenes that are actually part of this too they don't we get the uh reward of seeing them because it's only for Massachusetts veterans you can't come here for 3
months and get it and then leave uh if they do leave even if they go to Florida for three months we have to cut them off because this is your money this is not federal money this is uh this money comes from your real estate taxes and and your state income taxes and that's
the other Factor that's important in this chapter 115 budget uh so think think of veteran services in your town as having two budgets an operational administrative one and one that gives out the actual benefits uh and that and
they are bifurcated that way but the town the state the Commonwealth shares in the cost of the chapter 115 benefits with you and they reimburse the town 75% I hope they're doing it on a more timely basis now but uh so that it so
that chapter 115 budget when you see it when I say 66,000 you're paying 25% of that and the state is reimbursing the rest so uh that's how the partnership is between the state and the towns as far as uh
this goes um uh is it an unfunded mandate and I mean this part is law we that part of the budget the benefit budget which is highly unpredictable to be honest uh we usually come pretty close and most towns uh what the estimate
could be and really all we can do is look at the last year because we never know when Widow Smith is going to walk in the door in in financial crisis or a veteran comes to us there's no way to predict who can walk in the door and
they can't be denied so uh some people said is that an unfunded mandate not as far as chapter 115 goes that must be paid and um things like burials we uh we pay for burials uh
for Indigent veterans and uh veterans that are in that financial status and the and the town will pay $4,000 towards a burial if uh the total bill is not more than 5,000 that's tough to do with
the funeral homes on the cape right now so we have to rely on Mr Casper a lot to come down here and uh and and do some of these burials for us um even though everything inside of the national cemetery is free uh what happens outside
the gates is not but if they're Indigent veterans we we bury them and you bury them and that's part of the unpredictability for these smaller town budgets with chapter 115 if we and and the veteran population is
shrinking if two veterans die in June I have to say I we need $8,000 uh and there's not much we can do about it um so in that respect it's a little unpredictable some
towns sort of overfund it and then if there's money left they use it for other things uh snow uh snow plowing or I don't know what but uh and then others like to try to get it as close as possible and every town is different uh the way it's done so then you have a
operational admin budget and that's the budget that pays for me and my staff uh and our computers uh we actually rent our office in in hyanis and that was done long before me so we pay we pay rent to a landlord for our office space
we have about a little over 15,000 files on Cape veterans there uh three stories worth of file cabinets um but that's what your state and town benefits go our other duties which you don't really see but are super important is we uh we
process VA disability claims va8 pensions va8 pensions are not a pension uh tied to how many years you worked or anything like that therefore what they really are is also a federal VA lowincome
benefit and in chadam last year uh we processed or or the in VA in terms of VA benefits cash benefits to your chadam veterans and widows 1,771 198
$3 went to your veterans and widows on the VA side what's important about that is we we do uh we're either number one or number two in the state in processing VA disability claims and when we do those
claims uh when and it we must do those claims because part of our Charter for your chapter 115 budgets is we're supposed to seek out alternative benefits and those benefits are tax-free and when we get those benefits to most
of your veterans or widows it takes them off of chapter 115 because they're then now over income for it so that's why that dovetails those VA uh benefits uh that are uh so prevalent uh dovet Tales
uh with chapter 115 and why uh behind the scenes we need to be doing both uh even though you don't see what the VA uh stuff that we do and that of course runs the gamut from everything from agent orange claims to U had a veteran in the
office this morning just got the news that um he has uh you know t- cell leukemia and what's going to happen with him and and that's the thing your veteran to ask what we do your veteran service officer it's it's a it's an awesome job we have it's great uh but
we're also seeing people in financial distress every day or medical disability distress every day uh just two weeks ago we had a couple come straight from Dana Farber to our
office and uh because the news was he wasn't going to be around that long and so you're telling them what uh what kind of benefits they might get federally um in most cases and so that's what your service officers are going home with
every night as well uh but they're a great crew we also I I can say this one for a fact um we have the most active duty of any veteran service officer uh uh Department in the State uh over 90
years of active duty between myself and and veteran service officers so we've all been around uh as well and if hopefully if any of you are veterans um you've talked to us about uh there is there's something that uh we could be
helping you with um so uh the the VA part other than our labor doesn't cost you anything um when those money monies go out that's taxfree money goes into your local economy that that 1.7 million your veterans and widows are spending in
town here um but uh the uh the chapter 115 budget now the operational and admin budget um is done by after the last uh uh presentation you just went through uh
this one's a little tough to talk about I guess but it's it's done by equalized valuation okay so chadam yes you're I think number three out of my 15 towns in terms of your equalized
valuation and so budget wise um you do have a higher uh uh piece of that budget um and I think I have it here yeah that is um the on the operational admin side at
$ 69,8 se4 for next year um that's voted on by all the town managers every year uh uh all 15 of them meet and decide and approve this budget because they all share in the cost of it
and so as I said that's why I bring up towns like Falmouth uh you can compare that to what they have but they have one veteran service officer what you do get out of a district is the benefit of a team and a centralized administrative uh dedicated administrative people in in
the office that works with your town finance and and town treasurers and because we have like you we have many state reports that we have to do showing what we do and it's very it's very uh codified and regulated and so we have
that little machine going with our two admin folks in the office and then you have we have uh five of us that take care of the 15 towns interfacing with all the veterans and uh in because Federal veterans doesn't matter where
they live our population our veteran population that can run between 18 and 22,000 can double or triple in the summertime for us because we can't turn a veteran away if they walk in and they need help with their VA stuff just
because they have a summer home here versus uh permanent home unfortunately but um or fortunately but uh we um and so uh that's uh that is uh part of uh how it works so uh equalized valuation I guess
was thought way back when and I know it's still used in other uh processes and budgets as a supposedly Fair way to a portion uh cost that serves multiple towns um let's see what else the hero
act um this could affect your budget possibly uh the hero Act was just signed into uh law by uh the excuse me the governor in August um lot of Provisions to it I won't I won't go through them
all I'll just talk about probably the ones that affect you the most here um unfortunately um I do have a little beef with it it didn't help those lowincome veterans and widows and that's what I'm a little upset about that um it really did
nothing next to nothing for them unfortunately however real estate exemptions which veteran real estate exemptions there are two Provisions there uh 22 I and J Clause 22 I and J I
believe that um uh right now you have what's prevalent across the state a veteran who is disabled by VA standards between a compensation level of 10 and 90% gets $400 off their real estate
taxes as a veteran exemption if they're 100% disabled and again 100% I'm talking about compensation levels it doesn't mean the veteran necessarily is a is a you know in a wheelchair although they might be
um uh it's a combination of disabilities and injuries that they had that total that uh that amount uh for compensation if they're 100% disabled they get $1,000 off their real estate
taxes uh another reason why I was asking if I was wondering if that other Widow that was mentioned here earlier today if her uh if her spouse was a veteran uh because maybe we could help them but um
the uh also for spouses what's interesting is if the veteran dies of a service connected disease or injury the spouse can pay no real estate taxes I'm sorry I have a question car
please go ahead um on the hero act that that needs to be adopted by Tom meeting correct yeah I was going to get there okay all right y I was given the basics of what it is right now okay and yes and I will get to that thank you um but that's why I say it could I didn't say you know it's not that it would but it
it it could affect uh and so but that's important to know that a a widow um and and and that is income and asset blind because that's based on a VA benefit a federal
benefit and so if uh let's take what's most prevalent a Vietnam veteran suffering suffering from some cancer from uh Vietnam uh and he succumbs to that and it's on the death certificate that something the
VA was paying him for is what he died of or it can be proven after that they died of a um presumptive disease associated with agent orange or now we have also have the packed act and we have so many marines from camp leun and all of that so we have we have lots of work that way
but if they die of that service connected disease or injury that Widow is entitled to pay no real estate taxes going forward and that's not an option uh on those so the $400 if you're 90% or below $1,000 if
you're 100% you get off on your real estate exemption and a widow whose husband did not die of a service connected disease or injury but was disabled getting the 400 or the Thousand that can that continues on with that
spouse if the veteran was 100% for 10 years the veteran does not need to die of a service connected disease or injury and the and then the Widow will just take the Thousand but it it if they die of a service connected disease or
injury it's it's a it's a full exemption yes sir um so my father was a disable 100% disabled Vietnam veteran and he had several different he lived in different places in the in Massachusetts and in Connecticut and each of the
communities gave him 100% abatement yes on real estate is this separate this is this is um Connecticut's one of the good ones there are states that give higher real estate exemptions than we do ours is the same across the state it's 400 or
a thousand um and the only way to get a full exemption is the only full exemption is for spouses there is no veteran while alive can a veteran while alive cannot get a full exemption like they can in some other states and you're right but the
difference between Massachusetts and those other states is those other states don't have chapter 115 those other states are not giving out checks to the ones in your towns that hurt the most okay that's only
here oh thanks for that um the 25,000 or less less than 8,400 in assets for chapter 115 chapter 115 it's excuse me it's what you you brought up two two qualifying numbers in order to qualify
for that uh less than $2,500 a month yeah $2,500 a month or less than 8,400 I think you said in the bank in Assets in the bank yep now house doesn't count car doesn't count when's the last time those numbers were adjusted my point about the hero act um
they they went up just a hair last last year a hair yeah a little bit uh it was it was uh 24 something and now it's 25 00 for a single it's uh 3410 it's I have it exact I have it here if I can just get through my papers I'll give you the
exact here it is okay the income limits for a single veteran or Widow is $2,510 a month that's every source of income combined if they're married it's $
3,47 if they're single the asset limit is $8,400 total that's all you can have emergency funds if you have a little savings account somewhere if you're married it's 16,600 so it's these people are hurting
the ones that you that you're giving checks to every month and so that's but that is the difference um as veteran service officers like I said we get the reward of seeing them and knowing and that's the other thing uh we have to thank your town because
those checks are always on time when we ask for of them and uh you can imagine if that's your income and asset level if you don't get that check every month you're you're in trouble uh so it's truly
lifechanging and uh but it is it's it's that program that sets our benefits apart so I could complain and say gee I'm 10% disabled because I have ringing in my years and I get $400 only $400 off my
real estate taxes I'm doing a hell of a lot better than than these folks that really need it so um Greg I think we' got another question please Andy major I just had a couple of questions and and one I'm a little unclear
on what what who qualifies for these benefits clearly veterans clearly spouses other family members technically it could be uh a parent uh might qualify believe it or not
that's very rare uh the the when the parent qualifies the veteran themselves have to be qualified and so it's it we I think I've seen one or two in the last nine years or so as far as parents go um uh children count in the calculations I
mean there's a Arcane calculation we do to get to the amount of money that they get and I should talk about that a little bit the um what do they get uh how much money is this in chapter 115 uh it runs between it can be $50 or $100
at the low end all the way up to we have some getting 1,400 and that's that's near the top end uh and everything factors into that we have uh again this is State program it's uh there's a factor for if you're over the age of 65
uh are you paying for your own heat and so back in our office we're calculating all those things out and so to give you an idea the average pretty much across the Cape is probably 5 to 600 is what they're getting a month but like I said the top end could be about 1,400 and it
could be a lot less and as we get them those other benefits then that can go away Al together um and so uh it's not a lot of money per se but it is um it is coming from your your town major did my
other question was how many people how many beneficiaries are there in chadam chatam you have uh six or seven right now um and that fluctuates up and down we've had a lot of um uh and so and there and to answer your question it's uh between five and
$6,000 is what's going out every month from chadam to them great so that's that's the monthly and that's what we're looking at going forward bar please thank you Mr chair um major if our town through our um health
and Health and Human Services Department decided that we wanted to do something such as assist um and direct payments for utilities or something like that for our veterans would that be counted against them as income as far as your
organization is concerned I would have to dble I would have to check with uh the executive office of veteran services we're always worried about unintended consequences of of things like that um I don't believe it would if if it didn't
come to them as income right so if we paid directly to an oil company for instance right right no that that we wouldn't look at that uh if you did that today I wouldn't even know per se and and it's not something we would look at because they didn't receive it as income um I'm guessing they don't get a
1099 for it um that kind of thing so I I don't think so but that's a great question uh but if you I can I can check on it but I know that it's not part of our calculation now if it was being done somewhere uh it's not at all um but then then the
one last thing I guess well I won't say last thing that's up to you folks is the uh the real estate exemption the reason I focused on that what the basics was under 22 I and J that that came into being uh with great Fanfare in August um
like I said there's lots of veterans benefits in the hero act but the Big E for the towns and Veterans really is that real estate exemption it allows you to double those numbers I gave you um
and it it allows you to also attach a cola to it what the governor and my secretary of veteran services didn't say in that big pronouncement was that's all on you if you do that the state's not taking part
in that so they get a lot of credit um but uh and we understand the veteran service officer every town is different and so and and this is what the Dilemma is for many towns depending on how many folks you have in a town getting those real estate exemptions you know that
might have been another police officer or a a firefighter you know or teacher I you know so we understand that um we wish that the hero act as far as the real estate exemptions when it allows you to double those numbers and attach a cola
to it that um they were reimbursing you 75% % like they do with chapter 115 but they're not so you have to vote on that if you want that um we probably have one or two towns here on the cape that will
I think fet's definitely going to um uh but other towns uh and you have an option you can choose a cola I mean if you want to do it um you can choose a cola only you can double it only uh it's totally on the town but it has to be
voted on um it's local option I just thought you might like to know that we do have one veteran I know that's I didn't have time to say is she getting all the benefits she's supposed to get yeah I I hope um uh I
hope you've talked to us in our office I talk to shaie shaie Caroll the assistant director uh she usually uh we do have to obviously driving from our Western Front on the edge of weham to province toown would be a long drive every day so we I
do divide the vsos up kind of generally geographically and shaie Carrol uh uh does most of the stuff especially for your 115s here in um in in uh chattam and uh back and we have Victoria and
Wendy who I would be remiss if I don't mention they uh I've got a great team and I can thank the towns for uh voting to give me that team um uh we were when I got here uh there's a minimum Staffing guidelines that when a uh when towns
form a district uh you must be you must meet or you risk not getting reimbursed um and when I got here we were under the minimum Staffing guidelines but the town managers have uh gotten us to a point where we're just
over the minimum Staffing guidelines right now with what we have so we're we're happy we're not asking for more we we um uh we have a good really good crew and a good team and the good thing about having more than one vso available to
you is um uh we have a system that we put in place where case notes uh for all of these veterans any of us can see it and we know what to do and if somebody's out or sick uh it doesn't mean anything stops like it would if you were one vso
in a town and um that way so we have a team effort and it works pretty well Plus to correct myself we have two veterans right I I I could tell yep so um hopefully you folks are getting taken care of benefit wise but um we'll be
happy to talk to you if you haven't good further questions John please that number you gave six or seven recipients that was for the 115 chapter 115 yes I'll give you the numbers for the VA please I can tell you uh Cape Wide on
the VA side it's 112 million wow um here we go okay uh on the federal side uh it's a um yeah for chadam no chat South chatam
West chatam uh you have more ZIP codes in some of my bigger towns um that's for sure the uh um uh there's uh the total recipients on the on the federal side are 114 and that's uh like I said that's 1.7
million those 114 are getting so it's it's a substantial amount of money uh there's about uh you have about 11 widows getting what we call uh DIC benefits uh those are it's dependency and indemnity compensation that if the
veteran died of a service connected disease or injury it's about $1,648 a month from taxfree from the government um they potentially could be homeowners and and could uh by virtue of that if they have DIC that's a good
indication that uh the veteran died of service connected disease or injury which would trigger no real estate tax is for that Widow like say I say Widow because that's all we have right here Eric please um so on the again on
the 1.7 million 114 chatam people in that bucket um you you gave one category sounds like that's a substantial um piece but can you give us some other examples
of what that money is for is it medical is oh sure absolutely um it's uh it's the vast majority of it is VA disability compensation so that is a um injury that
uh was caused by or exacerbated by your time and service it's not you know we we also believe in being honest in our office as well it it doesn't necessarily mean that it was combat that it was something that happened to you in combat uh when I was
in the Marine cor I thought that's what it what it meant myself uh but it doesn't anything that happens to you in the service our government's very generous I think um you you could be playing on the base football team break break your leg if that's still bothering
you when you get out that's VA compensation you're going to get for that so uh but the majority of this I will say across the cape especially Vietnam is still our largest cohort of veterans uh without doubt and a lot of
those are the things that you don't want that weren't you know football related or uh anything like that so that's that's directly combat related from their exposure same thing veterans that were in the Gulf um Iraq Kuwait
Afghanistan suffer burn pits anything that's associated with that that's what this compensation is Camp leun uh the Water there for 30 years um uh and those uh that's a lottery you don't want to win to get that VA money because that means
you have a serious cancer uh or something so so that's what the vast majority of this is but it can be Orthopedic things and uh you're a paratrooper and you have repetitive jumps and you know just like a NFL football player way down the line you're
kind of limping around now later in life everything's gone arthritic we do those kind of that's we do claims that way and and and that can be compensated so there's a whole variety a huge Spectrum here of um what this money is that that
those millions of dollar VA dollars that are coming into the cape it can be for a variety thing it can be PTSD uh military sexual trauma that's why we're you know quite frankly we're fortunate to have a um a a female veteran service officer on our staff
that's been very helpful um uh the uh so it's uh it's really anything and anything that happened to you in the service that is is you know a problem for you today uh medically uh could end up being uh disability compensation and
that's the vast majority like I said there is that little caveat that little bucket of pension that's income and asset based um uh that could be um uh actually uh you could be a child of a
veteran uh a single parent was a veteran died and and they can get uh some VA compensation sometimes under the pension program we call it and so so we do all of those things too in the office does that
answer the question Tommy please thank you Mr chairman just uh some information for you we have so many zip codes because the people can't get along but in the previous person at that
Podium was talking about a daughter of a veteran okay she was not a a spouse okay okay so that that would not qualify yeah unfortunately two in please thank you Mr
chairman and thank you again major uh just for the general public yes um a lot of veterans don't realize of Our Heroes of the we created in the legislature in the '90s what we call the free Heroes
plates and any veteran who is a holder of the Purple Heart Right the Silver Star Gold Star yep a distinguished flying cross can take their certificate walk down to the registry and get the
beautiful Heroes plate for nothing year after year after year and we were very proud because holders of the purp heart were paying a vanity fee I know yeah yeah to to put that license plates on their car the other thing we did in the
90s was we removed Massachusetts income tax from our Massachusetts veterans pensions which saved each veteran about $900 yes absolutely no it's one of the good things like I said as far as veteran services go Massachusetts I
think is uh uh considered right near the top uh so uh and like said it's been going on for a long time so yeah I think it's something everybody can be proud of Mr chairman Mr chairman I I propose we send the major away with the good news
that we are willing to approve the reserve fund transfer well we have to we have to vote on it first I know but so Carri can you just is if you're Indulgence major can you just walk us through the he actually didn't he's not aware of the reserve
fund transfer yeah well is that's for the to get to the end of the year with the chapter 115 correct yes so um I'll just give you guys a brief uh overview so last year when the budget was um when we did the budget I left in just
$35,000 for the veterans benefits um I was not aware that it had gone up to $63,000 um so in May um right before town meeting I received an email from Greg saying that the benefits were at $63,000 and I was
kind of like oh okay I'll address that after so here I am addressing it and then just I think last week he sent me an email saying that there was another veteran that came on and that's an additional $115,000 for the remainder of the fiscal
year so we have already spent out of that line um 40 almost $44,000 for the year out of the 35 um and that was up until January we hadn't we haven't not we did not process
February yet benefits because we get them at the towards the end of we get them at the beginning of the following month so we just got the um benefits for the month of February um so anyways There is five
months left out of that amount that we've already paid and I have estimated that we need around $45,000 to cover the remainder of the year for the benefits okay so the aggregate line including the
new would be right so we had 35,000 380,000 um it was brought to my attention that we needed 63,000 with an additional 15 that's 78,000 that we need so just doing the math it's around 40
43,000 I put in 45 just to make sure that we had enough in there okay fair enough so motion to um pass the draw from the finance committee Reserve fund $45,000 right I'm sorry Andy $45,000
$45,000 yes sir and it's reimbursable by 75% yes so the re um we receive 75% of the 115 benefits um the following year and that that's we get that through our state aid and we use our state aid to
help balance our budget for the following year so we received um an estimate for our cherry sheet State a already I think it was like 280 something thousand that we get but yeah that's used to offset our budget year
okay motion so moved second support Tommy yes Barbara yes John yes Joanne yes Andy yes Christen yes try yes Eric yes share supports okay mission accomplished thank you very much thank
you major we really really appreciate the insights as you know it's been it's been a while we're grateful okay so I think that takes us to a revisit of one of the CPA
articles um and just so people understand and the context we're going to revote uh the stall neck painting preservation uh I have some information from the Historical Society regarding the
preservationist uh I which has generated more questions I reached out to the chairman of the board to see if we can get a little more insight because from kind of the single page that was sent me regarding the qualifications of this individual painting restoration is not
mentioned uh it's a framing company and as again somebody who's spent many decades collecting art and case some cases restoring art that concerns me greatly um so I'd like to
have a chair chat with the chair of the board and the executive director and see if this is makes the most sense um I'm not sure since we previously voted um unanimously to support this article
that that would just necessarily change anybody's mind but I need to recuse myself I want to recuse myself uh because in in the excitement around this article I neglected to remember I'm an honorary Trustee of the Historical Society uh and I think there is one
other member of the finance committee who also wears that Crown Barbara who also forgot um so we apologize but we're going to revote the article with Barbara and I accusing ourselves from the vote so with that I'll turn it over to the
vice chair to administer the vote and I'm going to pretend I'm leaving the day I don't have an article number on this but it's the article Community preservation act stall neck painting preservation in the amount of $48,000 is there a motion to approve so
moved second second good those up please I'm I I'm lost a little bit I don't understand are we assured now that the restor restorative person is qualified I that was the question right I think I well I
think the reason we're rev voting is because of the non- recusals and so but I also have now knowing who the me honorary members of the committee are on the other side where the money's going I think we we have a have a good I have a good feel that that that the right
person is going to be selected once the money gets there oh okay because they on who refuse can't speak on this okay I think I get it now all right good we got a motion made and seconded those in favor start with Eric I okay and Tommy
hi and Joanne I and Kristen I Tracy yep John I chair votes I all right unanimous approval we're back my tenure was brief but wonderful no that was brilliantly
brilliantly done um okay uh I think that is it as uh we noted all the refile home petition articles uh were deferring until after the select board hears those I believe tonight um tonight next week I think it
may be next Tuesday actually yeah I think it's next Tuesday I think so to um we have a vacation day on Thurs yeah so I hope everybody does something unproductive with the two hours that
they've now found I'll uh I'll take a motion to adjourn second so John yes Tracy yes Kristen yes Andy yes Tommy yes Barb yes danan yes Eric yes
share supports thank you everybody appreciate it [Music] [Music] [Music]