7:30 6:30 I'd like to call this meeting of the finance committee to order uh being Thursday April 17th 2025 at 6:30 uh this meeting will be broadcast on Chelsea Tele Media and available through Zoom and also be recorded for future viewing
uh we ask that if you are going to uh uh speak that you uh let us know otherwise we will be proceeding with the agenda uh call to order uh has occurred uh the approval of minutes for March 27th 2025 is the first item on the agenda has
everyone had ability in the opportunity to review them yes yes yes have a motion i make a motion to approve the uh cham finance committee meeting minutes for March 27th 2025 i second it
any discussion hearing none all those in favor i I I abstain and read it so all right five in favor one abstension one absent moving right along we review and discussion of warrant article 2 to amend the fiscal year 2025 operating agreement
with us this evening is Paul Coner town manager great and thank you good evening and I'm joined by John Souzer our finance director uh as is customary as we approach town meeting we work with the town accountant Darlene Lucier to review the status of accounts across the town um to see where we are with you
know just over two months left to go in the fiscal year um because as you know we sort of submit this budget at this time of the year and then we don't start until July 1 and then reality happens to our best late plans and then we got a little bit nervous because it was snowing last Saturday and we said we're going to need more snow and ice money
fortunately we didn't uh have to send the crews out but um so anyway what we have here is a few items that total $347,500 out of our $162.4 million budget and um they're listed there on the screen these were
presented and and approved for recommendation by the select board last Monday evening you can see the bulk of it is in municipal administration of expenses and in public safety expenses and I'll sort of just walk through those a little bit of breakdown on the next
page the first one on the municipal administration expenses and the bulk of it is legal services this and in my my now my 18th year here in the town I don't think we've ever surpassed our legal budget and if we did it wasn't certainly by this magnitude um and it
really has been an extraordinary year with with the town not only do we have a transition in new council and which we required some you know some transition and new contract documents and and formats but we've had a significant amount of of land use cases before the
boards of the town in terms of 40B applications uh you know in terms of the not only the hearings but also the plans for project eligibility um and so forth have come before the boards we've had number obviously extensive amount of of bylaw development
efforts as you've seen here for town meeting we've also had labor council involved with collective bargaining issues um and it's just been you know a you know an extreme year um and we're hoping that it does settle down but as you know these things are unpredictable
for for the community um in the human resources professional development that is an area where we replaced a longtime 30-year employee uh as our HR director um with a new HR director and we really had to incur some expenses there in
terms of getting the person up to certification speed training and so forth uh obviously which was not foreseen at the time that we developed the budget and then conservation reservation management that's under the conservation commission and what that was is it was really some peculiar
aspects on a couple of parcels one one off by Freeman Lake where they had to do an extensive land survey because of a boundary dispute uh and then there was some work that involved some tree removal and so forth so again rather rather extraordinary amount of activity in the conservation and and hopefully
and not expected to recur in future years under the issue of the public safety personnel services the seal of weights and measures uh as you know you may recall the this service up until about four months ago was provided by the Northern Middle Sex Council of
Governments they informed the towns uh their member communities that they were no longer going to provide this service we had operated this service under a revolving fund um and so two things happened one is we had to basically initiate our own seal of weights and measures services and we've done it on a
regional basis with the towns of Tukbury and Westford and we're the lead community but also there was no permit activity coming in because no inspections were being done and so now we're in a case where we've got to finish the fiscal year um and we have our sealer on board we had to do the
training and certification and so forth for that person um and we're closing out the revolving fund and so that's that's adjusted in the new budget going forward but this is basically transitioning us you know for the remainder of this fiscal year um so that again was extraordinary unforeseen and not what we
anticipated when the budget was developed um on the area of public safety expenses uh and you can see again a lot of this is just due to you know one case on the police uh recruitment for police vehicles replacement
equipment you know this this has to do with a couple factors one is we had to replace a couple extra police vehicles that were insurance recovered because of some insurance claims and then also with the newer models they don't the equipment doesn't fit um as replacement in some of the vehicles so you're buying
new new equipment to um replace and install and and put those vehicles into operation uh the contracted services is an item that we had to bring in an outside agency to conduct u a unique and hopefully one-time uh ex external I
guess investigation for lack of a better word um in the department and and that was completed and again certainly that was extraordinary and not foreseen when the budget was developed uh recruitment supplies in the police really had to do with the significant amount of turnover
of officers basically due in some cases to retirements uh and in some cases due to turnover where we've lost a couple of officers to other communities and so it's just been an extraordinary year uh in terms of of replacement uh and equipping of of officers and promotions
within the department um and again things just aren't getting any less expensive in those areas for cost of of bringing in new officers and so forth and then again dues and subscriptions were just beyond what what he had budget the chief had budgeted in his budget and
then on the fire side um utilities obviously the you know it was a colder winter and and a bit of a darker winter actually in February and so the with the increases in the electricity cost that we've seen residents experience and and some of the
and on the town side even though we're contracted we get we get change of contract language where if there's a mandate that's put in by the you know the state through the utilities very similar to what you see in residential bills that gets passed on and added on to even the town's accounts despite the
fact that we have a fixed price uh and then obviously we used more heat that this past winter than we have in a couple of years uh vehicle maintenance again with fire apparatus um it's just the it's just the cost and and the unpredictability of fire apparatus and
then and then there was you can see a significant increase in equipment for the fire department uh in terms of basically maintaining the the operational fleet in terms of the Scott air packs hoses nozzles and radio repairs and then you know the the always the variable of building maintenance for
for just over $9,000 which actually is a correction it should be 8,000 if you if you do all the math but that's okay um and then the senior center utilities is the same thing um and that really again was driven by electricity and a little bit by the weather and and what happened
was and John can attest to this February as you may recall was a snowy month this past winter and not only was it snow it was an overcast month and um so the bills came in for March um and the the March bill at the senior center that came in for month of February for the
solar was very low because there wasn't much solar generation then when she got the national grid bill I mean she immediately you know reached out for help because it was extraordinary uh so again you have the the the the change in service operations but again we're a
little bit weather dependent that when if you have you know a winter month which isn't great for solar to begin with um so you're not only getting the non-melting but the overcast um it's sort of through a budget agency a minor $2,000 adjustment in the overall budget
so that's um that's a summary of where we are on the adjustments the operating budget as as the board's committee's aware where our funding source is the finance committee reserve fund that would leave just over uh $50,000 remaining for the balance of the fiscal
year uh which we don't anticipate needing at this point in time but we've got two months to go all right any questions just a process question because I'm still new here so you know what would happen if we if this doesn't get approved
well what we would do is we we would do like any other funding agency or that's agency that's funded we would basically put immediate you know stringent measures in place to curtail expenses um it's hard to do with salaries on the
personnel side but as you can see most of these are really expense related um but that's what we would do is we would basically you know postpone or cancel any discretionary accounts in the year ahead but this has really been the custom that the town has had um uh in
terms of how we've adjusted and operate the budget over the years rather than calling the finance committee and to as events occur repeatedly during during during the months we generally tend to you know uh true up it up at the time of the spring annual town meeting and just from memory is it typically a right
around you know some 300 400,000 in that range every year in recent years it has been and and I in you know given the times we we thought but didn't think long about it was should we bump up the reserve fund from $400,000 because it's been $400,000 at least for a decade more than
a decade more than a decade and and and I remember when we last bumped it up you know to 400,000 so that would be ideal it just wasn't the right the right time to do it but on the other hand it sort of puts us to that exposure because you know for example we're going to go
$400,000 next year in $167.8 million budget but that's different than having $400,000 for $120 million budget and so so that's really something that I think we'll have to wrestle with ideally you know my if I had my if it were a normal budget year we probably would have put
it up to 500,000 um but this just isn't the time to do it as it is it's about 02% of the budget exactly yeah so it's really you know so it's it's really you know in other communities particularly in city and other governments they'll have sort of a where they don't have a finance community they'll sort of have a
manager you know discretionary fund is what they'll call it and that's how you deal with these type of things but in the town and in this time form we we we basically utilize the finance committee's reserve fund because that's where I was going is like is $400,000 enough are we going to you know maybe get a surprise next year and then you
know what happens if that happens yeah well again what God know goodness knows what's going to happen this year but we we'll look at the budget at fall town meeting very carefully because um you know not knowing what's going to happen with the federal because as you know the federal money comes through the state to
the towns they're on an October fiscal year basis so we we'll we'll obviously keeping an eye in case there is some dramatic shift but we saw what what happened this week with the House of Representatives at the state house they're basically just doing business as usual until anything changes and I guess when you don't have the information you
just go on what you have but that is but that is something that we're going to keep an eye on is you know is where do we go from here sure thank you any other questions all right moving along we have a review and discussion of warrant article six yeah warrant article six is for
collective bargaining um and I'm pleased to report that there's nothing like a deadline to get some work done um although we weren't we weren't successful at all groups but we did we did achieve an agreement with the three police unions um what's most notable uh
is that this was the initial contract for the newly organized police lieutenants union um and so that's sort of where we began just under about nine months or so ago uh we we basically start with a clean sheet of paper in in
theory but in practicality we we really use the sergeants contract as the basis for the lieutenants contract because in in most other municipalities including all those around us that are unionized and similar to us they tend to be in the same group you know they you know the
sergeants and lieutenants but here they're two separate groups but the same union affiliation um so we use that as a template it you know it was a plotting process going through section by section as well as looking at the non-union benefits that the lieutenants had because they up until now they were
non-union employees um and and then as we as we hit sort of the um you know March time frame we sort of had the framework of a deal with the lieutenants um that you know had to be
finalized and exercising a few items wrinkled out but we were then able to pivot to the sergeants union which I mentioned earlier has the same union affiliation and we're able to reach a quick resolution with them and then once those two were in place we then we then met with the patrol union um which had
come to the table the latter of the three and um we were able to get it done rather quickly uh even though they were different union affiliation because the thing you've got to realize is they all work in the same building and generally you know word gets out of where things are going so what you see and what you
see is it the the size it settlements in the case of the the commanding officers which is the lieutenants group it covers a four-year period one was they started last July 1 where all the other groups had their contracts expire this coming June 30th so we did sort of a you know a
four-year period and so what we're asking under this item is the 37,931 to fund the current fiscal year and then the 80,767 for the upcoming fiscal year because the budget that's has been adopted under the operating budget
doesn't include any contract settlements because they're not allowed by our bylaws so that's the way of trueing it up it also makes the contract a legitimate three years going forward um and then for the um police superior officers it's just over almost 46,000
and then for the much larger patrol officers association it's over $300,000 and yes just for clarification it says FY24 and FY25 on the on the slide did I do that for uh oh gosh that's a typo i will correct that thank that was going
to be my later question do we Yeah it should be 25 and 26 i apologize that no no but that that that helps clarification i I'll I'll make that correction thank you um and then although did I get
it in Okay so if you go to the next slide you can see that again it's the initial contract document the wage increases for the current fiscal year so I got that part right it's 20 fth 25 is 2 and a half% and then it's the baseline increases are 2% for the upcoming fiscal
years what makes the police different is this postcertification um which is the peace officers standards and training commission certification um which applies to all police officers in the Commonwealth and all departments
and when this was implemented a few years back in the in the Brookline case of of mediation from the uh and arbitration from the Massachusetts Joint Labor Relations Commission which resolves public safety disputes they
awarded certification stipen in the Brooklyn case to the chagrin of the Mass Municipal Association and cities and towns across the Commonwealth um but it then became the norm and so again when we prepare for negotiations and conduct negotiations we look at what are the
actions from the Massachusetts Joint Labor Relations Committee what are the current contract settlements and then obviously we do our comparables for our neighboring comparable communities and sadly the trend on that is 2% per year over the three-year contracts and
basically where we did a four-year we kind of split it into fourths although if you look at the timing of it it you know it's a it's a bit because we did the first one and a half% on June 30th which is the last day of the first year of the contract so it really it amounted to a three one and a half one and a half
but it it but basically it's 6% over the life of the contract um and so that's that's sort of the the anomaly or the distinction and and again when we're at the table and we're you know we're conducting negotiations and we're contemplating you know what if you don't
reach agreement what's the outcome if you don't settle that's what you weigh and we knew that this was this was before us so that's the summary of the police commanders association paul a quick question so that does that mean like for 20 fiscal 26 it's two plus the
one so it's three and a half increase i just want to make sure yes okay thank you yeah so that that's the breakdown and you see it a little bit better on the next slide where you see the sergeants contract so again you see a two two and a two and then on top of that they get the 2% per the three fiscal years for the certification so
basically you're looking at four four and four there's another way to describe it um and then we also had this again this is the anomaly of the bargaining the non-union employees of the town have a percentage longevity the lieutenants
had you know percentage longevity that remained in the new contract and now we're trying to maintain uniformity so we basically converted the current dollar amount longevity schedule into an equivalent percentage it doesn't have an impact the first fiscal year obviously
but obviously in the reason they want the percentage in subsequent fiscal years as the pay rate increases the longevity increases since it's on a percentage basis and therefore they don't have to negotiate that going forward and then there was a minor change of a $10 per shift for the
officer in charge compensation when there's no lieutenant on those if on those shifts where there's no lieutenant on duty and then the final one was the police patrol officers association um here was a similar but a little more
distinct one of the concerns that we're we're also dealing with in addition to the post certification is the fact that the state has implemented a new civil service provision where you're you now can take 50% of your hires under civil service not off the civil service list
but by an open competitive fair process which basically means you're now in a compet a more competitive market because you if you have hired a civil service officer um and that civil
service officer wanted to go to another civil service community the the chief both chiefs have to sign off in the agreement meaning the community that is hired and trained and put this officer through the academy brought them on board and move forward would have to sign off you know the release of that
officer well that's all gone away now um in terms of the fact that you now have a open process where you can hire people not on the civil service list um and they have al and so what's happening is is we now have to look even more closer at what is our competitive wage schedule
in terms of new recruits as well as retention um and and you I think we may have discussed here at a meeting and I know we discussed it in other little look other meetings that we we actually had an officer that we put through the academy for you know 24 weeks was in
field training and then the officer left us for another community for a significant increase in pay and then we had a more longer term officer um who departed for another community for an increase in pay in that case it was a non-Ivil service community but the
reality is is it is now a case where you've because not as many people want to become police officers and you now have communities like Tukbury who have opted out entirely out of civil service that we have to be more competitive with our compensation for
new officers in order to retain and recruit and then retain them so that explains what you see here the other items there is one is we we modify the pay schedule by dropping the initial academy initial step and then and then
adding the a new step five at 6% above the existing step five what's the 6% it's that 2% per year postcertification we threw in as a as a new top step so in this case it makes our pay schedule more competitive but obviously the only ones
who are going to get there is you'd have to be there five years to get to that new top step and then you see the standard 2% per year wage increase to the pay schedule we also modified extra pay detail language to to be similar to what the sergeants and lieutenants have had in their contract that has to do
with Sunday details where they're basically getting double time for for utility Sunday details um and then similarly on the educational incentive um dozen years ago when the state did away with the Quinnville police career
incentive program that they contributed to when we brought the uh educational incentive up again to the market because other towns retained it we didn't at the time institute a master's level or a law degree level which which historically
had been 25% above the because basically if you got a associate was 10 10% in educational incentive bachelors was 20 and then masters in law was 25 at the time we took the position and we didn't have many any that well really doesn't
benefit the town to have a person with a master's degree or or a law degree at the patrol officer Now we come back to today's market we have officers and there are officers as part of this competitive process who look at your community and look at their
compensation and say where's where's my ability if I stay or if I have to get that 25% um stipen opportunity so we basically brought it back and again it aligns to what what other towns have most importantly with
the troll level um similarly we did the same thing with the longevity payment that I described earlier and then the other thing that was really becoming an issue was the EMT mandated certification requirement u we had a few we have some
officers who did not could did not pass the certification which we then would lose them and then the same thing is is we're trying to retra retain and recruit officers particularly in the recruitment that's a barrier for some for entry and so we've left the incentive there but
we've eliminated the mandated requirement for that so that's the summary of the three agreements again you can see um a lot of our outcomes are driven by external
factors either regulatory factors u such as JMC and the state's new um educ um civil service requirements or market factors uh in the case of compensation thank you that's the presentation on the articles thank you
at this time any questions question I want the question needs to be generic but Sure given this contract will it have an effect on your other negotiations in other in either
way and I know it's a generic question no I think I think it's a fair question no it's a fair question and I think it will i think however it's it is a unique thing to this to this to this profession right for example the teachers you teachers
have always had to be certified but they don't get a stipen for certification right um and there's no equivalent that we can see elsewhere other than this the state had adopted and John knows but there's nominal certific you know compensation for for accountants treasur
collectors and assessors who got their certification but I'm talking like $1500 things not you know not percentages of pay levels so the the to true answer your question Dave is yes um and but it's it's and that was why there was
such push back um to to the what we call the Brooklyn arbitration decision where they awarded post because the towns and I still don't believe that that was what that was what police reform that was not what police reform was intended to do police reform
was intended to be able to remove underperforming or out poorly issues of police performance and conduct and instead it became a compensation benefit um but those that's the way the cards
were dealt thank you all right next in the agenda public comment seeing no public move right along to review discussion vote and recommendations for fiscal year 26 budget uh Springtown meeting warrant articles two and
six so unpack the language of two and do I have a motion i make a motion to recommend article 2 fiscal year 2025 operating budget amendments uh in the amount of
$347,500 from the fiscal year 2025 finance committee reserve fund remainder as follows i second it discussion that's why it's there for Yeah if it's good use of the money i
Yeah and I think the town manager adequately explained that these were all unforeseen expenses which is part of the statutory requirement for us to take advantage of this well yes but we wouldn't need the statute to use a federal the violence reserve fund outside of uh uh in a town meeting in if
we're outside of town meeting we need the statute requirement for extraordinary and unforeseen if the funds are being used uh through the vote of a town meeting that takes away the requirement um so but even with that they are being used for unforeseen expenses we have done that in the past
um if this if as as the town manager explained if we did not do this uh there would be some uh curtailing and and and and cutting up to end of the fiscal year um so uh these all make sense to me
all right all right any further discussion hearing none all those in favor i any or abstensions hearing none six in favor one absent all right article six i make a motion to recommend article six collective
bargaining agreements in the amount of 52,264 uh the current fiscal year for employee contracts between the town and it's collecting bargaining units for the period as follows as presented as presented second
discussion so again another newbie question here is is how mechanically how does this work right so the 50 502 like where does that come from well so raise and appropriate so it's it's it's funds from from the levy it's it's
tax funds it's it's it's money that's available and we're voting it into the budget um so this money will be be taken from there so it becomes part of the becomes part of the overall budget and because we can't set aside money
ahead of time so I think we have a discussion we were talking about the union contracts and negotiations with with the with the um with the with the school unions though they're allowed under statute to set aside funds and pre-plan we cannot so these funds now
become part of the budget uh so the overall amount of the budget is increased essentially by 502 264 not but not not the not the total amount just the amount for 20 25 gets
added to the 26 budget right so you're kind of doing a onetime charge exactly a catch-up charge because you can't acrue for it going in like we can't we don't have a balance for it acrewed so we do a catchup and then each year afterwards their new salary will be built into the
budget to be on the budget okay got it thank you that's what I was missing okay any further discussion hearing none all those in favor i any or abstensions hearing none six in favor
one absent next on our agenda is review of reporting schedule so um report tomorrow you have everyone has my the draft of the of the chairman's letter um any comments let me know if not that's fine
uh as I noted in my email there are just a couple there are the two article 6 article 2 need to be inserted and included i'll get those off hopefully this evening um and then there's a tweak to another one of the article uh summaries but for the most part
everything should be ready to go and so Pam tomorrow morning you'll have the letter ready to go so we can submit it to the printer did anyone actually review it because I haven't had any corrections or anything so did anyone like review the blurbs that I have all the numbers right and any of that stuff
there's one that you'll have to change and I'll get that to you okay uh it's the one regarding the CFP because it it be I think what happened is in the presentation initially it had listed the source of funding for um open space twice and it said 150 then 135 okay uh
one of them is supposed to be historic and it's not supposed to be um uh open space and I I that's I looked at it and figured it out okay that's what it's supposed to be because the numbers don't line up otherwise so article 26 I think it is somewhere around there um
the one there is a 150 and a 135 so 150 twice and then a 135 you'll see it in my blurb in in the in the chairman letter and that's probably the best place to pull it from Pam uh because I break it down as to the the four sources of funding for this year um and so it just
needs to be inserted whichever one's missing and I think it was the 150 one of the 150s needs to be put into the into the later section in the book but I'll I'll send you that okay yeah as a just a note everything else looked for my cursory review looked like it was accurate i don't know if anybody else
had had an opportunity to to read through i just I literally opened it looked fine to me a chance to me too i read through it i didn't take and tie every number but it was reasonability check yep and then the the new voting language is in the back that that we had
in the fall I think so I think we're good with that too all right okay um so we'll get that off we'll get it to the printers I guess tomorrow sent over to the town be posted uh and so everyone that got their letter as a town meeting
rep can now find something at the link and be able to review it and then they'll be ready for the town session next Wednesday at the senior center at 7 o'clock at 7 o'clock all right um next on our agenda is a discussion of plans for upcoming
meetings this is normally where I say "Hey we'll see you guys in September." Guess what what not happening why we'll be meeting earlier than uh so uh the town managers reached out uh to me the other day i think it's yesterday
actually um there is going to be the need for a special town meeting uh in on June 23rd I think is the date the select board selected uh and so we'll need to meet at least well I think it should be only once based upon uh the request uh
just to give a quick u synopsis of what why that's needed and I have it right here bear with me uh so essentially as we voted in I believe last Was it was it last fall um
we voted uh for study $100,000 study for the uh design work for the south row partial roof replacement they have now had the meeting with the OPM that we have a number available uh the estimated I think it's public knowledge estimated estimated uh cost is going to be around
$3 million and so they'll need be a need in order to make sure that we're on schedule for 2026 replacement really need to get the bids out this summer um and so in order to do that the money will have to be um secured uh through a vote of town meeting and we'll need need to have that ready ready to go be before
those bids go out so we can stay on track to do that work i won't go into the the other details but that'll be presented to us um before a vote additionally I think we're is a placeholder for other collective party agreements that might come in in in
between now and then the the June 23rd well actually no two weeks at least two weeks prior to June 23rd because pursuant to the to the town code we have to uh for special town meetings have our recommendations out two weeks in advance as opposed to one week in advance of
town meeting so really uh as far as scheduling is concerned we're looking at the last date that we could hold a meeting in order to meet that would be uh really June 5th
5th june 5th yeah uh because if it's the 20 if it's the 23rd uh we need to get our book out no later than the than the 9th um so it'll be a quick quick turnaround uh June 5th possibly even May 29th depending on when we when information is available and ready to to
vote on so keep keep that in mind either May 29th or June 5th we'll need to have a meeting to to do the vote for the posh roof replacement uh possibly collective bargaining agreements and then there are two other potential things that might be available uh language for mausoleiums at
the cemeteries uh just updated language and then the other one was uh oh there's a potential request for the community presipation fund to conduct a perimeter survey at Kulis um so that would need that would need a a vote of town meeting as well and so uh I
guess the good news is there would be multiple items available for a special town meeting if you're going to hold a special town meeting at least have more than one thing to vote on um it's it makes having the special town meeting a little bit more Yeah thanks Steve a little more special
yeah um uh so keep that in mind either that uh last date that last Thursday in May or the first Thursday in June the only problem with the first Thursday in in June if we do hold it is that's typically the night that they hold the um zoning board of appeals and so if we
were to have it on June 5th um it would be in conflict with that and we wouldn't be able to live broadcast we'd have to go in another room and do a recording for future viewing which is not the end of the world um but just keep that in mind that we'd have to do that if if if uh we hold it on the 5th rather than on
the 28th i think 29th it is we'll push we'll push for the 29th okay it's got to go to the select board and pack it for the meeting on the anyway well that perfect okay so May yeah let's let's let's target May 29th okay i can't do June fourth you can't do June okay 5th fifth fifth fifth well I'll be Yeah
either way can't do it either way a quorum what happens if you don't have a quorum you don't have a meeting that's it i understand that but then what do you call it at a later date you would have to call you have you would have to call it at a later date and we would be not in compliance with the code if
that's the you can't hold a meeting for another quorum yeah so that's why I asked the question why you planning on not not being here i will go out of my way to be here special town meeting on the 23rd 23rd of
June yes yeah okay so that's our upcoming meeting we can talk about but hey we'll be able to vote on our minutes uh from from this night prior to prior to September fantastic look at that now there there's an upside Jim
all right uh any further public comment no no public all right i'll entertain a motion to adjurnn so move second all those in favor i I All right see you at town meeting 7:07 amen