darling the other two are going to be late Okay she's home at the dining table right now planting seeds Good evening everyone and welcome to night two of our budget review Rodney you going to take us into the uh
excitement tonight sounds good Thank you Mr Chairman Joining us we have uh select board member Moren Bernard assistant town Oh that's a lot tonight Assistant town manager Jen Breaker uh various staff members in the audience as well Um we're going to do a lot of the finance management legislative budgets this
evening And then tomorrow evening is when we'll do police fire um and public works So jumping right into the management budgets The first one is the management or the town manager budget Um the operating increase you can see of
7.94% is driven exclusively by postage So between the actual cost of postage rising as well as the potential that we may need to lease a larger uh machine that drives the cost on that budget Happy to answer any questions Questions from any board
members any questions from the the audience do we Mr Mr Chair do we have to a we going to be taking notes from this did you want to discuss that the fact that we're going to be doing I thought you said that the other night
that we needed to take we're going to start you we'll be having some minutes at the meetings some you'll be voting on some we minutes are taken they just have historically not been voted on in this committee as long as I've been a member but starting uh in the we'll be voting
on some minutes in a couple of weeks but no the minutes are always taken the uh but we're going to the minutes will be prepared by uh an Freighus Yes So okay I I vote to approve the budget as in the
in the book And is there a second second All in favor i opposed Thank you Sorry Next up we have department heads You'll see a decrease in the salary and wages that's related to turnover and the anticipated salaries of both the new
town manager coming on as well as the new DPW director when that is appointed later on this year Um and then operating expenses are flat This includes funding for all existing positions including vacancies that have historically been in the department head budget Happy to answer any specific questions on that
one as well Questions from the committee questions from the audience is there a motion move the budget Second motion and a second All in favor opposed thank you
Thank you Legal council This is where we predominantly it's Murphy Hessie but any other outside council as well is paid out legal council budget We show you you don't have to vote on water and sewer right now or electric We like to give you a total picture of our overall budget uh for legal counsel It's level
funded And again as we normally do we remind everyone that we receive great rates for being one of the first municipal clients if not the first municipal client of Murphy Hessie Tumi and Leah Happy to answer any questions questions questions from the audience Is
there a motion budget Second Motion and a second All in favor opposed thank you Going into the legislative budgets we can start with the town
moderator level funded questions bill Anything [Applause] okay Is there a motion move the budget Second Motion and a second All in favor
i opposed Thank you And secondly the select board uh slight increase that's related to our uh annual fee for MMA the Mass Municipal Association not mixed martial arts
Any questions the the only I when was the last time we increased the salary of I think I asked we did it three or four years Was it four years ago i believe it was five years ago Was it because for some reason I think we made $3,000 25 years ago when I was on this
yeah No we did increase it I believe it was four years ago It was Yeah Do do we know where that rates comparatively we did an analysis at the time I don't know four years later where that would range now Okay All right
I'm not asking for it I'm not going to give it to him If it's not linked to budget curiosity when is the MMA convention they have one in the spring or is it January january is the annual convention They have different events throughout the year Yeah Okay They is
that the one they move all over the state that one's Do you want to The MMA annual meeting occurs in Boston every year it has historically been at the Hines Convention Center This year they moved to um the Seapport I forget the name of the convention center over
there and we'll be there for I believe the next three years at least Um and then they have that's not the one I'm referring to Are you thinking of the annual finance committee yeah maybe that's meeting That's usually in the fall I didn't know when it was but I think you and I went at one point I I went a couple Sturbridge Yes Me
stirbridge Yes Yeah But that was a lot of fun Oh yeah It's a great barbecue place in Sturbridge But um yes Um yeah we were there I'm just curious as to when it is held Yeah and as a reminder to all of our FINCOM members you're always uh as members of the
Massachusetts Finance Committee's Association any of you are welcome to attend that meeting and I have found it helpful when I've attended in the past My one my one memory of the MMA convention that I was one of the ones that I was at was Wayne sent me to this
special thing that was supposed to be getting it was called getting the tough project through And I remember being on the elevator going up the elevator with select board members and city councilors from other communities and they were talking about the tough projects they were trying to get through in their
community And one of them was a prison one was a was a um like a nuclear waste site or something of that sort And they looked at me and said "What is the your project?" And I said "The rail trail." And they went "Where where are you
from?" They went "Danvers." and they went "Oh yeah." So real Uh is there a motion and a second on the select board budget move the budget Motion Second Second All in favor i opposed
Thank you Thank you Our favorite finance committee reserve against this level fund As you're all familiar we use this for variety of reasons that pop up on expected expenses such as health insurance public sa safety overtime I believe the last time
we used it was I believe two years ago for some information technology expenses So not anticipating anything this year Um as of knock on wood as of now no I think we should be able to handle it all through transfers but again we still have that full 125,000 available at the
moment Great Do you recall Rodney um that the number has fluctuated in the past i think it was higher initially when I first came on Um or maybe it was lower and I'm just remembering things backwards But uh do you remember maybe uh in your history how that number has
fluctuated i believe it's been 125 as long as I've been here which would be seven years It might have been 150 maybe the first year That's maybe that number that's kind of Yeah Okay Do we the year that we did use it i can't remember Was it Do we need more than the 125 though do you remember no I think it ended up
being close to 100,000 Yeah See if I have that Questions from the audience Is there is there a limit to what that can be well one trillion dollars Is it whatever we approve yeah Okay
Whatever town meeting approves whatever town meeting obviously it's a limited sense that it would come from if it went up it would have to come from another we'd have to cut something else to balance But yeah it's part of the overall operating budget Is there a motion motion to move the second
Motion and a second All in favor i I opposed Thank you And next speaking of information technology we have the IT budget IT director Kobe Cousins is here Um slight increase based on contractual costs
relatively flat on salary and wages due to uh turnover and overall the budget's going up 1.21% So yeah relatively modest decrease this year [Music] Um nothing of real note We had um some
turnover in the department That's why salaries and wages went down a little bit but happy to answer any questions about the budget Mike what is the difference between an IT strategist and a technical support specialist
um well a technical support specialist is like a hands-on help desk type of person Um and then the IT strategist as it indicates is more of a higher level strategic role planning and design and that type of
thing And obviously your thought process was we're better served by having the the technical support specialist on staff Correct Yes Anything else no Arthur I'm good Mostly
set I'm good No I think I'm good Questions from the audience mr Bradreet Bill Brad town meeting member precinct What not a question a comment He's well worth what he's getting and he
deserves a raise Thank you Well we already voted on his salary on the drug department Then in another statement however you want to verbish it Go to my review every day
Thank you Amy Nice to see you Good evening Um Amy Butler town meeting member precinct one I just have a question about the telephone So there's a line item in this budget for telephone but there's also a separate warrant article we're going to be voting on
about a telephone So can you just briefly discuss the the difference between the two sure Sure Thank you Um the difference is um we're going to retire one in favor of
the other Um so currently we have about seven different phone systems in town So that's why you see line items in different places for phone service Um they're all integrated together and they
you can make calls with four-digit dialing amongst them but um it's really not the most efficient type of deployment and it's not the most efficient to maintain And we've been evaluating phone systems for a few years Um but we
finally landed on uh what we like which will allow us to consolidate all seven of those phone systems into one And that sort of bulk purchasing and economies of scale there are going to generate um
we're estimating around a 40 to 50,000 uh savings in the operating budget year-over-year So so yes the phones are a little confusing right now and that's one of our big projects to address at the moment Anything else from the committee
is there a motion move the budget Second Motion and a second All in favor i opposed Thank you Thank you Colobby Thank you Thank you Next we have our human resources budget uh salary wages increase related to salary adjustment of the assistant HR
director and a slight decrease in operating expenses Uh we have Philippe Pivite who's here to answer any questions Our HR director add anything So who is the director of public works right now
of public works Yeah So the acting director of public works is Rob De So it's acting Yes Okay That's my only question Okay Uh no no questions We had him roll up there You guys have to ask
Well actually I I have a question I think it might Go ahead The director of equity and inclusion That's that's unfilled at present Yep So that's in the department has a budget but it's budgeted But it's budgeted but it's not filled it Correct Paul
first of all I no real technical questions but I I've gotten to know Ron uh Phipe over the year or years and he's been an extreme help for me as a chair chair chairman of the HRC and when we uh it's I just can't
thank him enough for everything he does and the folks that work with him Thank you Thank you Arthur I'm good Mike No I'm good Thank you Okay Anything from the audience is there a motion move the budget Second All right Motion
in a second All in favor i posted Thank you Thank you Thanks Philipe And next we have the town clerk budget Our town clerk Kathy Ellsworth is here to answer any questions Again you'll see a lot of red which is great from a budgetary standpoint but it's really driven by the fact we'll have fewer
elections in FY26 versus FY25 which I'm sure the town clerk is very sad about Kathy welcome Thank you Nice to see you Ted anything no I don't think so I'm good Wally I'm good Thank you Okay no questions Well
thank you very much for all you do Kathy I appreciate all your help Thank you Um what are you going to do with all the extra time since there's going to be less elections that's a really good question Catch up with all the things that we didn't get to There we go Okay Thanks
Mike Um Kathy what's the on the for the local election what's the process in terms of of early voting that type of stuff is there do we do any of that i can't even remember it It's pretty much the same Uh we have the option to opt
into vote by mail which we did this year and we have the option for in-person early voting which we also opted in for And the idea is to make us available or to make voting um as convenient as possible for the voter So we do one day
of inperson early which will be on the 26th next Saturday from 10 to 4 Is that the only Is that the only day for the early voting is the one day on Saturday for the local election yes Yeah Okay Any any I mean you have
literally tens of viewers who may watch this So if there's anything else that you want to say to the community about the election go right ahead Nope I think that you know if if people want to come on election day at the fieldhouse we'll be there If they want to come early voting here next Saturday we'll be here
if they want to vote by mail they could um come in fill out an application or uh download the application on the website Thank you Kathy I' I've noticed you've been doing some renovations in the office Can you tell us about those we um did some research They look beautiful
Thank you I appreciate that Um we found that the configuration that we had that we did during 2020 during COVID really wasn't conducive to running an election So we had to kind of restructure it to give us more space to do the things that we need to do and stay organized Great
Thank you I'll let you know how it works out Any questions from the audience bill do you have something your hand is up Are you confused you having a You having a stroke
i hope he's going to give Kathy a raise like he gave Kobe a raise Are you going to give me a raise a comment yes raise please She does an excellent job Very helpful deserving Please I appreciate that I I think everyone else does The checks
in the mail Anything else i think that's it Is there a motion prove the budget is written in the book Second Motion in a second All in favor i All opposed thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Kathy Next we go into the
finance budgets We'll start with accounting Um increase in salary based on contractual um slight decrease in consulting services Overall a 4.5% increase Anything Mike nope Arthur all set All
set All set Ted I'm all good Anything from the audience move the budget Do we have a motion second Second All in favor i opposed Thank
you Next we have the assessing budget So we do have some savings here We reorganized the department structure So what we did was we took one of our admin positions and created a uh data analyst data analyst position to get out in the field What allowed us to
do is have better control on some of these uh cyclical inspections as well as reduce our contract with Patriot who provides our services So again it's a win-win for us and happy to answer any questions on the assessing budget I think I'm all set All set All set
Yes Fine Good Mike do when on our um building permits do does our assessor have to sign off on building permits i know a lot of communities have gone to that that it's part of their don't believe so but I can confirm that but I don't
believe I know they they see the building permits obviously but I don't know if they need to Yeah it's interesting because I I just I know from my kids doing theirs that that in that particular community in order to be able to get a final sign off the the assessor which I think I know this might be a little bit controversial with some
people but obviously that the assessor likes to be able to take a look Yeah at these houses And that does sort of afford the opportunity to be able to do a a home inspection at the time um in order to get that permit which I think
they like Yeah So yeah I can find out questions from the audience Is there a motion move the budget as it appears the book Second Motion and a second All in favor i
opposed Thank you Thank you Next we have the treasure collector budget We have our assistant treasure collector Nick Naven who I didn't tell he'd have to answer questions so if he doesn't want to I'll fail them Um uh our treasure collector Jill Summit's on vacation celebrating her birthday
which sounds a lot more fun It's a big birthday too I'm I'm not going to It is her birthday I saw it on social media So um I also want to shout out Nick Naven Obviously we've all been wearing a couple of hats the past few months and
Nick Naven has taken on Yman's work helping to produce not only the actual financials of the budget but he you know really was the main driver of this book right here So kudos to Nick Nicely done Nick Thank you In terms of the budget uh the operating expenses the one that stands out and that's an increase in
bill printing as well as a slight increase in software maintenance costs as well Ted no questions No questions All set I'm good Mike
um investment wise do you do you I know it's crystal ball but I'm assuming we don't anticipate the same type of return this year that we had last year but it pretty similar I mean we're not budgeting to the actual wechieved in 24 or the one we'll achieve in 25 but we
expected to still be up right now I believe it's four and a half for our main depository account in our in our collections generally this year we've had no issues in terms of of seeing any diminishments in regard standard collection rate yeah thanks I am
surprised to see printing up only because I feel like more and more people are not receiving printed bills so this is the cost of yeah we still have some that mail a lot of this I think is driven by motor vehicle mailing those bills yeah we've seen an uptick from the vendor on that cost okay thank you
questions from the audience is there a motion move the budget Second motion in a second All in favor i opposed Thank you Debt service So overall the debt service budget is declining based on some um
debt falling off the schedule We have uh one new addition to the debt service year and that's the acquisition of the preservation restriction over at the Rebecca Nurse Homestead That was a $750,000 cost that we financed um same use of the debt stabilization as
the prior year at the 1.46 million Uh other than that happy to answer any questions on the debt budget Can you explain to me what the acquis acquisition of the preservation restriction is i can try
but I'll probably butcher it But essentially we brought the development rights at that property as part of our open space plan So that's not already private held owned by the they could it was yeah it's own uh the managed by the alarm list there
was a way for them it would be convoluted to un unwind it and make it developable I don't think that's their intention It it's not our intention Um the funding allows them to do some infrastructure work on the property as well When did we um appropriate that
it was used uh prior bond authorization for land acquisition that we had already had on the books for a few years Was that it that's it Yep Wally I'm good here I'm good I'm fine Arthur I'm good Mike just just so that we can make sure
that everybody is clear on this Our diminishment of our bond rating had nothing to do with how our debt service is structured in especially in the fact that none of it is quote unquote secured
by a debt exclusion No that did not impact the rating Okay Let me just ask Ju just that just maybe think so with that reduction if we were to go out to borrow what what's the effect on the interest rate i would say I want to confirm in the current market
but maybe a quarter basis point Okay Yeah Interesting Any questions from the audience no Great Move the debts Get a motion Is there a second second All in favor i I
[Music] Oh that's the that's Mike's favorite graph of the level funded debt If we want to take a look at that Again that just shows again that by level funding the debt so instead of having declining debt service which is ideal and which we try to do for the utilities um a lot of
our especially the big school projects good chunks of them are level funded which means that debt exists level funded throughout And that's why you see a pretty steady block that really doesn't start falling off until FY38 So Ron can I ask one question or maybe for
future Yep C can on the debt on this on page 82 can we just have a column that's got like uh principal balance on there yep absolutely And next we have the Danis Retirement System Uh again the valuation is
approved by the Danvers Retirement Board but in line with the overall town policy we target an 8% increase year-over-year in order to hit our fully funded projection of 2035 We at this point as of the most recent valuation 64.5% funded We also
lowered our assumed rate of return to 7% which is more in line with similar communities Um again happy to answer any questions on this Nick anything no
Is he disappointed it is Well what are you going to do i mean it's a killer but it is what it is Yep I'm I'm good Paul um just one thing Legal services went up Is that 10,000 did I see that right on the
uh what salaries wages and then legal services Yeah So we had an increase in our hourly rate and we al also have some RFPs that we're doing on some different investment consultants So um and we also had some bills So they function even though we appropriate now the retirement
system funders on funds on a calendar year basis So essentially this is getting bills caught up that we had carried over So it's a combination of factors but yeah Thank you Uh no questions Wally I'm good Thank you
Tip what's the total amount of assets in the fund roughly 160 million but if you want to give me a second I'll give you the real number That probably moved 3% today So I didn't have to get that What's that probably
moved 3% to that specific Yeah Um what does the contribution So when we get to 2035 assuming actuarial stuff is right how much does the pace
of of the contribution increase slow so we roughly will at that point we'll drop we'll based on the escalating cost every year it's the last time we did a projection I can pull up the fresh numbers it'll create roughly $14 million at that point in levy capac capacity and
we'll just pay the normal annual cost and the liability will reduce it to zero at that point So like 14 million and 20 $35 Exactly Our plan which the select board approved a couple years ago was to redirect that towards the OPED liability
Okay Okay That's it for me Thank you Anything from the audience is there a motion move the budget Second Motion and a second All in favor i opposed Thank you Thank you
And last but not least the benefits and insurance budget Um level funded on some of the various transfers like funding our workers comp fund unemployment and OPED Um slight increase in some of the other costs But the main driver as we talked about on Monday is the employee
insurance driven by the 10.9% renewal rate For those who didn't watch again that's driven by increased utilization the rising costs of prescription drugs as well as higher costs to deliver care Um we have some I know Eric's not here yet but we did have some
information on the loss ratio if you want to share that Jim Sure So the loss ratio for the plan uh for this year is 96 96.49 The loss ratio doesn't include admin cost Admin cost for our plan is
about 12 to 13 cents on the dollar So you have to add that in Our plan is running a little upside down this year once you add in the admin costs When you look back over the two years we're just under upside down Um but I think with
the efforts we're going to put in over the summer we should be moving back in the right direction What I guess Go ahead What's um how much has like our utilization in like dollar-wise increased in say like the last two or
three years like per employee or per So we don't have a they don't break down a utilization per employee Uh it's broken down per month per our full subscribers In the last calendar year
our utilization in dollars was just shy of 13 million This count um I'm sorry that was 23 calendar year 24 was just over 15 million And is this plan it's a co-op so is that shared is there a a private insurer on
the other end of this or are we self-insuring with a bunch of other municipalities so we're through um Maya Some of our claims are pulled after a certain point but our renewal rates are not pulled Can you explain that so our renewal
rates are based on our utilization our loss ratio claims I believe it's over a million dollars get moved to stop-loss um and can be pulled with other claims within the Maya pool at that point But it's premium based through Blue Cross Blue Shield Okay So there is a
Yeah there is a provider that's managing it So we're not self-insuring Is it is it blue which which state is the Blue Cross Blue Shield out of do you know is it Massachusetts or is it one of the other states so we're Blue Cross New England New England Okay Yep And we get a lower through Maya We get a lower
admin fee through Blue Cross I believe the admin fee is about 20% higher if we weren't through Maya So we're getting a benefit of being through Maya with Blue Cross with the lower admin rate And like well you said there would be some steps in the summer to help reduce
costs what like what are the step so we're going to gather the IEC PEC the the employee advisory committee to start some education sessions with them about what's been going on in the health industry over the past few years mainly since co what are those driving factors
that contributed to increased costs what can we do about ed educating our employees I think that's an area where we can definitely make improvements is educating employees about their health insurance plan um not just during open enrollment but year found uh and then we can look at plan design what's going on
with the GIC that really the GIC really drives our ability to change our plan uh because we have to benchmark against the GIC plan Uh and they have they've not made drastic sweeping changes to their health insurance plans yet Uh but can we tweak co-pays should we be looking at
contributions different things There's right everything's on everything and anything can be on the table Um and it just depends on what does what did those different changes relate to in cost savings for the plan moving forward And and what is GIC stand for group
Insurance Commission um through the state Some communities have opted into the GIC Um and some communities have stayed on other plans but it sounds like if they were underwater last year or upside down we should probably expect
another rate increase next year as well I mean you you could uh I right I I don't know what next year looks like Uh it depends on utilization One of the driving factors in addition to what uh Rodney mentioned is an aging population
So our our health plans are people are one living longer and um working longer So we're seeing our aging population and then you have more claims as that moves up um the weight loss drugs and then utilization coming out of CO especially
around mental health care I think that's it Thank you So can I just ask a couple um so we're going to have a rate increase regardless It's just maybe we won't have as big of a rate increase Correct I mean health
insurance is not going down I think LA one time we've had a decrease was when we switched providers from TUS to Yeah Right So um educating employees h how what what what the goal of that what what what education helps
i think there's don't don't use it No you're fine You're fine Everything's fine Um I think there's some education around what does the plan offer I I think there's some stopping on I have health insurance coverage I go to my
doctor a few times a year but what else can I do with my health how can I be an active consumer of health insurance uh what else does my plan cover what does that look like how am I ensuring I'm getting the best cost for my prescriptions uh there's things like Good RX out there that you can use as
well Um advocating when you go to the doctor Um right we're not going to do that We're going to bring in people from Blue Cross to share this information Um and then making sure folks understand um if somebody is on our benchmark plan there's impacts for co-pays depending on
what hospital you go to So do people know that how are we doing a better job of making sure our our employees know about their health insurance um those are some of the things that come to mind Thanks I'm good Just a question What kind of plan do we offer there are
multiple tiers Is it HSA FSA we offer all different types So we offer two plans We offer one that we refer to as the benchmark So when healthcare reform was passed uh it said that you have to offer a plan that's compatible with the GIC's benchmark And that's why we call
it the benchmark plan That's a standard HMO PO plan with co-pays Um co-pays for prescriptions and co-pays for the typical visits you would see office hospital ER overnight stays um MRIs CAT
scans We also offer um a high deductible plan It's a 4,000 family 2,000 individual Uh to accompany that plan we offer an HSA To accompany the benchmark plan we offer an FSA So a flexible spending account a way for employees to
set aside money pre-tax FSAs have to go with benchmark It's a use it or lose it An HSA can only go with a high deductible a health savings account and you can roll it over year to year Are you seeing more enrollment in the HSA over time or We're not We're actually we saw a lot of enrollment in the beginning
on that plan and I think that is another area of education um about I think people can be intimidated by a high a high deductible and we always say we have a low high deductible plan uh because the 24 is the lowest you can have on the deductible Um I think some
better education around what that plan looks like because really if you're a high user a low user a high deductible plan makes a lot of sense It's when you get in the middle that you really have to do the math to see is this a cost savings or will it cost me more It's the middle group that gets complicated with
that I found it work if the tables created for people and how to calculate it they'll actually end up using it and you'll see the savings So if you guys create that tool for them it might help them We did have a spreadsheet the first year we moved that showed all the different plans and what it would look like uh in a a flyer about how employees
could download their usage history and do that comparison And so we should definitely bring that back That's good Thank you Wally Anything paul I'm all set Mike you're all set Do Do we offer some incentive for employees to not take the
health insurance i thought Yes we have an opt out for one year So the first year they opt out they get paid 25% of the cost of the plan over uh 12 monthly payments Okay Um what what on I mean I I have to be careful in doing this but
the say our average employee whatever that average employee makes what is it what do you think it costs us and this might be put in a difficult position but it costs us on a yearly basis to provide health and dental to any individual employee because that's pretty much regardless of what they make it's sort
of consistent with it I think when we did the average it was around 15 grand was it the average is 15 because the family plan will be more and the individual will be less Yeah The uh um I mean do you do you think that if we would there be any advantage to a to a
more robust type of incentive plan i mean obviously people have to have health insurance and generally one of the reasons that you would take a job with a a town a municipality is because of the benefits Um but do you think that we could see any benefit financially
from a more robust incentive plan with that i mean I'm asking your opinion which I value potentially Yeah I mean I I think that's I you know I've I've been saying this since I've been here This is the you know there's a few monsters that
that lie in this book and this is the probably the been the biggest monster especially postco I think we knew coming out of CO that we were going to see dramatic changes in the in the healthcare industry and the and that's starting to occur now This has nothing to do with
necessarily our own ability individually But there is absolutely no excuse that municipalities all municipalities in the state have not bound together in some form shape or form of a of a shared program with this and that we should be
able to get incentivize one of the very large hospital chains that make a lot of money even if they are nonprofits in the state to be able to team with the municipalities to be able to come up with a a more robust MIA plan but a plan
that includes all of them And I know that's going to include state action but it it it's something that we need to work hard at because this is going to ultimately be probably the biggest budget buster we have or we're going to be forced which I don't think anybody wants to do because I was around when we
did it the last time diminish that number from 7030 to something below that You know I think I I think I remember it Bill probably remembers more when he first started you know in 1920 when he was a cop that was like I think it was
like 9010 if at at some point with it So um you know I this I know I was speaking to the choir with the both of you It's you both also pay pay insurance premiums as part of the town This is one area where everybody who is in this together
whether it's management or union non-union whoever it might be we we all face this this dilemma Um but I we've got to find some way to be able to rail this in because we cannot we can't continue to assume 12 and 13% increases
on a 12 million $15 million portion of our budget A 10 you know a more than 10% portion of our budget So I agree the new person will get to face that Well so
basically what Mike was just saying we each town in city basically are on your own or is there are there groups that are regionalizing or doing things together go ahead Sorry There are some communities that have regionalized into
a smaller form of AMaya but they are still getting renewal rates based on their individual communities based on their specific utilization So I'm not aware of any communities that have pulled their employee groups together That's how our retirees on our medics
plan they're retired across the state So all retirees on a Medicare plan on Maya are pulled together right um but other than that I'm not aware Does that does that work cheaper do you think Jen the way it works for the retirees if we were
I mean I'm guessing that would require state action to allow us to do that I think if clearly if it's something that we could do easily enough we would probably already be doing it So yeah I there's a benefit to the employee right because they're getting a renewal rate based on a group and not their individual So if a if a retiree has a
complicated difficult health year if they were on an individual plan they would see the repercussions of that greatly whereas it gets pulled in with a lot of other rates Uh so that that's the benefit for the retired employee Um I think we do see some benefit to that as
well because we have the larger pool Yeah Okay Um is there competition other than Blue Cross Blue Shield and TUS i mean when you go out if you were looking to to change your healthcare coverage is is or is it just basically those two bigname
uh companies in in our area those are the two biggest If you go out closer to Worcester and in that area you'll see a few others One or two others jump in Um but Tus and Blue Cross have really locked in the market in our area Sure And that's it for me
Anyone else questions from the audience move the budget Second motion in a second All in favor i opposed Thank you And that concludes night two Do you want
to just do we'll just do the fire department now while they're not here if anyone asks we were here until 10:30 Sounds good Somebody call Eric and tell him to go home I already I just texted him and said don't bother coming Thank
you everyone It's got to be good evening