All right, we're ready. >> All right, good evening and uh welcome to the first of many or a few anyway selectman slash finance committee meetings. Uh this is where we review the budgets that come in and meet with the department heads or somebody representing these departments. Anyway,
like I said, this is our first and can I please have a roll call? >> Nicole Melo present on Zoom. >> Marko present. and Peter Karen is here. Um, you guys want to open your meeting? >> Sure. Open the uh March 3rd meeting of
the finance committee and we have a member on Zoom also. So, we'll do a roll call. Start >> Susan Loren present. >> Thomas present. Peter Roach present. Jake Evans present. >> Tracy Carol present. >> President. >> Thank you. >> All right. Great. Uh, can we please
stand for the pledge of allegiance? To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. >> I don't have the schedule in front of
me. Um, >> if you don't mind. >> Oh, I appreciate that. >> We don't have a copy, but we can share it. >> Sounds good. Thank you. Um, first up is overview of the uh proposed budget. That's you, Ralph. >> Yes, it is.
>> Okay. Um, just giving a quick overview of the budget just to let everybody know where we are at. So, Again, the timeline as you know, we begin the process uh in uh in at the end of 2025.
January 2026, the budgets were due uh to uh the town administrator. In um in February, I went through all the budgets with the with the department heads and committees. Uh as you know given you know unique circumstances this year with the potential um debt exclusion each
each department head as you as you'll see as we go through the evenings presented uh present the two budgets uh March 20 March 2026 is will be reviewing the budgets with the department heads and the 20 April is recommendations
and then um in the May you again come back jointly and discuss the warrants and annual calendar will be June 1st this year. Um just again for fiscal year 2027 proposed revenue um overview um you know
as always um efforts uh to plan the fiscal year 27 have centered on conservative budgeting. Um you know we do that every um every year. Uh this year in particular uh we actually we have um additional streams on our budget
as you know as we paid with the new tax levy our our capital obligations to both uh to both BP and Bristol Aggie this year. They amount to almost $810,000. 809 and change. Uh new new uh new uh
revenue because of two and a half was about 58 $587,000. New growth we calculated at $250,000. Uh we continue we continue to our local receipts we continue to um sort of
project conservatively uh for that. And then um we only have the cherry sheet from from the governor and it's only $27,000 more than uh more than last year. Um again uh with that uh proposed expense overview, I just want to point
out the department heads were asked to present two budgets. One factoring of the no debt exclusion and the other factor passage of the debt exclusion. And I want to point out for the finance committee and for the selecting that the no the no debt exclusion for the general government budget and that's really the
one we have the most control over than any of the other uh budgets we have um you know as we go through this process the one uh the one for no uh for no debt exclusion is 1% less 1% less than than
last year's general budget. And you know as we as we go forward that does include uh force reductions as we anticipated the debt exclusion if we get the debt exclusion I want to point out that the general government budget is only 2%
more than fiscal year 26. So so even you know uh you know none of the department heads that they'll be coming in here will be you know if they get a debt exclusion nobody's going you know nobody's going crazy. We're still we're still um um being very conservative in
our in our um in our budgeting process. Fiscal year 26 if we get the D solution includes no force reductions but but we are trying to um trying to increase some efficiencies with positions. So it does it does include that. And I just want to
point out also that both budgets in um I put it in I know the select will be voting on it tomorrow but uh uh there was a return of excess funds from DR in the amount of $750,000 and we're looking um I we should apply
that if we apply it to next year's uh DR fiscal year DR budget which again the DLS allows us to do that. So that why it's so little or it's not as basically impactful if we didn't have that return it would have been significantly.
>> Oh yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. As I like to you know as like to do um you know uh my my one sheet um I know not not the best but gives a great gives a great snapshot. Um
people in the waiting room. Uh so let me just run through this then I'll let them in. Um so um this is no, you know, no debt exclusion. Um we we
got a little bit of a little bit of good news. Our group health insurance isn't as much as we thought it was going to be. Um, I was going to say I'm still I'm still estimating a high on on on the DR school budget. Um, you know, I talked to
uh to Superintendent Rooney and he says, "Well, it's going to be somewhere between 3 and 4%." You know, I'm just keeping it a little high until I feel more more comfortable when he shakes my hand and tells me that number. Um, so
um, again, I have the 750 in there as you can see. I have snow and ice. Uh snow and ice deficit at 400,000 miles. It might be a little high, but we've had a rough rough year with snow and ice. Some things that we're not. Um also, we
have to factor in unemployment costs. So, I have that at $50,000. As you can see, my use of um we have approximately uh $950,000 in in in free cash. Uh so as opposed to last year where we where I used free
cash to to u to cover the um to cover uh general operating short all the free cash is used for for one-time things. It's um you know applying $200,000 of uh to snow and ice $50,000 to unemployment
25 and 25 to stabilization fund and oped and $55,000 to reserve fund. Why isn't all of snow and ice free cash? >> Why is it Why isn't all Why is it not all? Well, >> uh, you know, there's still some capital
things that we have to some things capital things that we have to take care of. We can um, >> haven't we always paid it from free cash? >> Not we we use free we apply free cash to not the whole thing. We don't pay whole thing. It depends what the what the
amount is. So, you know, again, that's a number we could look at and and adjust. >> Okay. >> Ralph, are you able to give us a copy of that at some point? >> I can email it to you. >> That'd be great. Great. Thank you. >> Yeah. Uh this is uh if we uh if we get
the debt exclusion, um you know, as you could see, uh again, the general government the general government budget number isn't um you know, we're not killing you. the general government budget. Uh but uh with the, you know, with the debt exclusion, I've lowered
the free cash. You know, I'm not applying it to um I I'm not applying it to stolen ice. You know, that's a, you know, that's a decision we'll make as we as we move forward. But with the um with the D looks like we have a um um maybe
on the plus side $510,000. So um again you know I'm just focusing on the budget without the uh without the debt exclusion and again I'll point out again we have an excess levy capacity of
approximately 106,000 as I explained how do we apply apply for cash uh something to um you know in this budget we're initiating a force reduction plan for fiscal year for fiscal year 27 and if we
don't get the uh if the that exclusion does not pass um you know we're going to have to look at cuts into the future. Um I already said that um each uh department head will be presenting two budgets but if I could go uh take a step back again to talk about the that
exclusion does not pass and these are some things you know we'll be looking at anyway. Uh but you know, we we're going to have to explore the shift in employee grow uh group health insurance percentage. Um you know, explore limiting a curbside trash pickup and
then you know when all else fails, we have to put in one question. I know this is round two on the debt override. >> Yeah. >> Attempt. >> Um is there a limit to to over to debt
exclusion attempts? Uh, no. >> I just know because they may, you know, I mean, I'm hoping that it passes this year obviously, >> but we talk about doomsday scenarios of it not and then people don't think it's
a big deal and then next year we go through this again and we know that it exponentially is going to get worse. >> Yeah. Um >> I think realistically when we get to that point um we should uh we really should be looking at um at an
override because maybe it's just gone too far that we have to we have to look at an override >> right >> where again you know overrides you have to express the purpose in the permit because opposed to that exclusion I've been given the state for the past four days is is for projects and it's and
it's limited. Okay. Thanks. >> Okay. You know, and you know, and with that in mind, we always have to, you know, we just can't think of this year, but next year we have to start thinking long term, you know, and and one day we're
going to be in a good a good financial position, which I believe. So, um, you know, with that, you know, we want to start thinking about, you know, what do we do? I think we should develop a five-year plan to increase the Dyon Fire Department by three firefighters. This
additional personnel would improve shift coverage and reduce overtime and develop a future budget to increase the Don Police Department by one patrol officer to improve again shift coverage over time. These are some things, right? We would think we have that funding. Um
develop a plan to replace the highway department agent equipment. Um, you know, I mean, those 30-y old trucks did a good job, you know, this past week, but how many more years can we get out of them? Uh, you know, we've got this
coming up, the Dyovit School District, uh, the reconstruction and replacement of Dy Elementary School. That's coming up. That's probably coming up in the next year or so. And initiate scheduling of a new, uh, Dyon Fire Department facility. in April we're going to be uh
uh we just completed the the study on that. So that's going to be uh presented to the select you know sometime in the future we should uh we should think of that and that's and that's it over time for those two alone is north
of $400,000 for just police and fire. So >> is there overtime contraction? >> Is it part of your contract? No contract. Are they guarant >> you? They have force force numbers that they have that they
have so many bodies in place like structural over but they have to that they have to force number of legal situation I think like all personnel
and normal wage is going to be a $150 to be $1.75 and over time, >> right? >> So, having full-time firefighters and another full-time officer to pay more time to another officer >> is going to be cheap.
>> Yeah. >> Correct. >> County Derek, can you can you unmute yourselves? And are you going to be doing your presentation? Um, do you want me to allow you to be the host so you can do your
Hold on. Oh, we can't hear. Can you guys I know you're not on mute. Oh, we can't hear you. >> Yeah, you might not have your mic on on your side, Derek. >> No, can't read. How about now?
>> It's always a miracle as we come to these Zoom meetings that all of a sudden you pick the right mic. Right. >> Thank you everybody. We appreciate it. I I've I've got on the um also here with us is Sam Stone, our business manager. She's going to go through the presentation and um town administrator,
if you wouldn't mind giving Sam access to share her screen. She'll do that in a second. Um, while you do that, I just wanted to thank the board of selectmen that I do see some of them on Zoom and and obviously the finance board for the town of Dyon. It's been a number of years that we've been presenting. Um,
and we appreciate the fact that we're just good neighbors with each other and that's been some of the work that we've appreciated. Um, thank you as we've kind of built this $ 105 million um, kind of mini institution here on the side of the bridge and uh, we appreciate all the
help that the town has offered to us in this process. pieces that we've been very consider considerative about is as we look at the fiscical year 27 budget, there are 20 sending communities that are coming to Bristol Aggie that are in county and an
additional 15 that are out of county. And we were very conscientious as we're kind of looking through the budgetary process knowing that our budgets in many different towns are quite strained and are having some difficulty as you kind of walk through those challenges. So,
uh, we've presented it to our board of trustees a preliminary budget which they're going to be reviewing and Sam will go into a little bit more detail specifically that you're reviewing now in your hands for the town of Dyon. So, thank you for taking the time. I'm here to obviously answer the questions that are in place. I'm going to have Sam walk
through the budget with you so you have a chance to understand where we're coming from, specifically related to the town of Dyen. Sam, we can't hear you. >> Can you hear me now? >> Yes. >> Perfect. Thank you. My docking station disconnected in the middle, so I just
had to switch it over and I didn't want to test while Derek was speaking. So, let me just share my screen. So, I just want to start off by thanking you again for um taking the time to let us present our budget for you. I'm going to try to move a little quickly because
I know you guys have some time, but I'm happy to answer any questions you may also have. Um just a summary of our presentation. Um I'm going to go over just the chapter 70 projections that were released from the state. They are the preliminary ones. They are not finalized as of yet. Um, I'll have what
we currently have held in the budget for incounty tuition for in general as well as specific to Dyon, the same for the debt service and then Dyon totals. Um, the final slide will just be some upcoming important budgetary dates for Bristol Aggie just so you guys can have
it in your mind um in the back of your minds as well. So moving on to the first slide, the chapter 7D projections. As you can see here, um, Bristol Aagi, our enrollment for incount students only, because that's what this is based off of our
October 1 SIMS numbers did go down from 527 to 523. Overall, our contribution for county, I'm sorry, chapter 7 preliminary is 11,46528. Uh, it went up a total increase of 2.84%.
On the next slide here, I just have the county contribution as we call it or um what everyone the towns are specific to pay that roll up into the 6 million124. Um and that specific I have highlighted
just for Dyton. It shows the students for Dyon from fiscal year 26 to fiscal year 27. Um and that's based off of again the October 1, 2025 SIMS reports that were submitted. you guys did go down by two students and it just shows
that based on that Dyon's total contribution to the county contribution that gets paid to us from the chapter 70 is 399,000. So moving on to inount currently um our overall enrollment for inount decreased this year from fiscal year 27 by eight
students. Um, I'm currently right now holding a $200 increase per student. In the past, we have done a $400 increase year-over-year. Uh, Bristol Aggie, knowing that towns are struggling as well, and we're trying to be fiscally
responsible. I'm holding a $200 increase right now in our budget, as I said. Um, it is up for vote for the board. Um, but that's what we currently have. Since Dyon, if you go to the next um part of the slide, Dyon students, I have
from fiscal year 23 total enrollment through 27, uh Dyon did go down from 35 to 33 students. So with the $200 increase, um there's still a decreased total in tuition of 2,234
um for Dyen just because of the decrease of students as well. And again, these numbers, they're based off of our October 1, 2025 SIMS numbers. We bill in a rears at Bristol Aagi. So, moving on to debt service. Right
now, um we have not increased this or decreased this year-over-year. Um we're holding a 5,97966. So with the two to student decrease for Dyton the decrease is 11,95932
which is the total amount per student times 2. So for the Dyon totals I do have the comparison year-over-year and then in the red I have highlighted the change from the previous year. So as you can see in 24 it did go up. I went up a
little bit more in 25, but this year, even with the little bit of the increase in tuition, the total amount owed to Bristol AGI is projected to be a little bit lower by $14,000. Um, again, total increase decrease to students. Um, the total due for Dyen as
of right now is projected to be around $349,000 for fiscal year 27. And then these are just some upcoming dates for my budget timeline. I am presenting to my board and asking for a vote on tuition and debt on March 24th
and then I'm hoping to have a final board vote by April 14th. Um those are all preliminary dates, but those are my hopeful targeted dates as of right now. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. I am going to minimize the
slideshow so that I can access any other files in case anyone has any questions. >> Mark, do you have anything at this point? >> I don't. >> You don't. Okay. >> I just have one question. I I it's the first year you've had a decrease in student enrollment and was just curious
if that was intentional or lack of applicants or um you know, I wasn't sure if you approached the you know, full capacity and you kind of thought, hey, we're we're good. you didn't need it or or what what the process was around that. >> So, our application process last year
was based off of it wasn't the lottery. It was based off of different criteria that we had and it was students um based off of the towns. It wasn't anything targeted for the town of Dyen. It's just based on the students that accepted and who met our application and acceptance
criteria at the time. Um and that's kind of how the cards felt for this October 1 SIMS number report. Yeah, I wasn't I was less concerned about the actual D number I was talking about overall. You know, you've grown pretty consistently over the past five years. Um especially with the new addition and everything and you know just and it's it's a slight drop,
right? I'm not saying Yeah. >> but I was just curious whether if you think you've plateaued with with enrollment aheads or or is that kind of where you think you're going to stay in that area? >> So, we did finish our MSBA growth. Um and this year that we're in right now is
our final year of growth. So, we had our full enrollment of 640 students. So, we are around the area where we should be um for chapter 70 numbers and student enrollment. >> Okay, cool. Thank you. >> Do you guys keep a any statistics on
applications by town? >> We do not. >> Yeah. Just out of curiosity and more more so thinking in the future, are the Dyke numbers roughly the same as they've been >> and it's just a matter of there's two fewer students this year or was there a
change in applications this year as well? >> Yeah, so we we do keep track of our admissions individual students who apply town by town and how many students are accepted um from town by town. So we can give you specific numbers and we can
send it over to the town administrator over the and chart out Dyon for the last five years. What we're finding is that there has been a decrease in applicants and so from the town of Dyon. So we want to make sure that obviously we're keeping that open to any that are applying. This year we just ran the
lottery and once we'll run the statistics of the lottery right now I think it will be kind of telling to see um we've measured five years of enrollment based upon the the original application process and now things will be different now we'll be measuring it
based upon the lottery process. So we'll give you the last five on the enrollment and application and then we'll start a new with the lottery. So um it'll be interesting. It's a great question and I think the hard part about it and we've had this discussion before with other town administrators and um board of
selectment and finance committees has been with the lottery process there may be a disproportionality of towns who put in applicants. So like as an example Dyon may I'm going to look at hypothetical numbers may have 30 kids that apply and in the lottery they may
get selected eight kids and that's just freshmen obviously that's not the total enrollment. We'll give you the whole aspect of it. But the fearful piece of it that we are concerned with the lottery is that Dyton may have 30 kids apply and 30 get in.
>> Crying. >> I know. I know. I know. I know. And that's the conversation we've had with the board of education and the department of ed. Um and we spoke with that all the way to the legislators. uh because I think it's important for us to
have some set of controls in the amount not of applicants but some sort of budgetary responsibility for the towns especially taking a huge swing like that year after year. >> Thank you. >> No problem. Would it be helpful for us to send that tracking for you? Would you
like to see the numbers of the five years? >> That would be great. >> Yeah. More information the better. >> Yeah, for sure. I'm als >> All right. Thank you, sir. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you both. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. Good luck with you all. We appreciate your support. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Have a good night. >> You all sir. 30 question. >> Yeah, I know. Um if um if boards are amendable to it. I know we had a little
um rearranging of the schedule because we were going to have a reserve fund transfer request made fire department and they were going to go right into their budget. Uh they're not here right now. So I could I could fill the plan. I could do my budget and which which also
includes the commission on disability. So thank you. Thank you for that. >> Sure. Good. Just one question just as we start this when a department when we're going through a department budget we're going to do and exclude and exclude.
>> So what happens the first budget will be no the second budget is that exclusion. >> Okay. So um starting um and I'll just go through all mine then we'll go let me ask how do you want to do you want me to do the moderator
no dead exclusion the moderator exclusion I'll do that so this is pretty easy moderator salary um was uh $250 we knocked it downund
we knocked it down the half so uh the moder operator salary if you do not get a debt exclusion will be $125. If you get the debt exclusion it will be it will remain at $250. Moving on to the board. Moving on to the
board selectman. Um again um as u the salary of the the chair uh we're reducing it by um by half. So was uh
$1,250 again for the members the remaining members $2,500. Uh the salary of the administrative assistant um which is no no increase the
salary. So it's 3877416. Um the assistant the video assistant again no increase the salary 5612544 and then um over uh we have over time at uh 750 in
case in case if we have the uh we get the debt exclusion Um, I'm uh the chair salary remain the same at $2500. The members again the same that'll be
$5,000. the administrative assistant um we anticipate a 2% increase in salary that's reflected in 395 8460 and the BOS assistant again approximately 2% increase the salary to
572474 and um over time um we we kept it at the uh at the 1 $1,000 Why should overtime change >> just because that exclusion passes or doesn't pass?
>> Well, in case it's um in case it's needed. So, it was it was originally $2,000. We did drop it down to to $1,000. >> I I Right. I know that. But if
if the overtime does not if the debt exclusion does not pass, you're at 750. >> Yeah. >> Why should that change? Why not keep it at the 750 even if it does pass? >> Um I have no opposition to that. You
know, it's we just take a look at, you know, the world was and how much we use and It's like only 8% has been expended. Anyways, >> um we'll go to the account administrators. We have to do the bottom professional.
>> Oh, I'm sorry. Professional professional technical line. We dropped that $2,500 to 8,000 limitations that to 3,300
gold. loan is 65,000. >> What is that? I guess I'm confused. What is that right here? >> Hold on. >> It says Comcast AT&T.
Do you guys Do you guys pay like town Comcast bill for that? >> Yes. >> Yes. Yeah. For Yeah. And it's for uh all the town and it's under the BS bill. >> Yeah. That's a great one. Okay. Thanks.
>> Sure. Uh, office supplies 2,000 and travel 800. Do some subscriptions about 4,500. Get the dead exclusion and technical
at 9,000 communications 3800 Communications call mail 66,000 2,000 space for office supplies travel 500 and subscriptions
again that's only $500. >> All the diesel subscriptions come at the end of the year. I see them listed out here. >> Yeah, >> but it's not it's like not only say 66%. >> Yeah, it comes at the June. >> June. I have a question if you don't mind.
>> Um, professional and uh technical 5300 uh under the rationale it looks like it's the same dollar figures on both um with dead exclusion or no dead exclusion. Okay. Um, so with the two
snow days, I didn't want to fall behind. So the zerobased budget documents were printed last week, >> but then we had to reschedule a bunch of meetings. So when we rescheduled the meetings and discussed them, some of the numbers were changed. >> Okay? >> So the Excel sheet with the budget
>> are the true numbers, >> right? >> And the um numbers in the zerobased budget might just be slightly off because of the timing on the printing. >> Okay, that's all. >> Thank you. You're welcome. But there are a couple of departments in my do
administrator know exclusion. Let's say give myself slight raise just to get it up to $135,000. But I want to point out that I get a uh I do get a well further down the line I get I'm contractually get a $3,000
stipen which I am not taking. So I will be taking less if we don't get that exclusion this year. Uh the ADA coordinator um no increase 321 32545
again the administrative assistant to the county administrator no increase in salary 38,77416 no overtime education stipens we're keeping the contractual stipen for the uh for
administrative is for the uh for the administrative assistant. No, no stipen for the town administrator professional and technical we had that at 1300. Um this other professional technical was
the ADA. So we we struck that all together. Communications is 7600 ADA auxiliary 1500 that's our coordinator and again
D and subscription 6500 see the um with with the debt exclusion and I I'll take my uh my contractual days for an interim town administrator
coordinator and again um we've given uh that person a slight right a slight increase we had discussed that with them administrative assistant again 2% raise
overtime hours none education stipen it was Um contractually set 1750 and then fine professional technical took that communication 7600 via aid to the um to the ADA
coordinator, you know, slight bump salary to 1750 and dues and subscriptions 6,500. >> I have one question 5161 the benefits the TA stipens how can we remove how can we remove those stipens if they
contractual >> I I it's my contract. >> Oh, >> so yeah, that's what I said. I hope they have to take it. >> I appreciate everyone not taking an increase. I guess I know it's small
money, but I'm hung up on some of these items that go up for for no apparent reason just because the debt exclusion passes. Everything goes up by 200, 250, 500. Why? >> Well, a lot of them >> What happens? Well, I mean, we're we're
cutting it very tight as it is. So, we figured with the, you know, um, and the the thought process is, you know, if we have a little more breathing room, we could we could we can put that in. Um, I have to say that everybody is going
through u going through it. They're they're a little nervous at the number. We got the kind of hoping that it that it, you know, we're making our best guess that will that will come in at the number. So, wherever they could cut, you know, I asked them wherever we could cut a little bit, what, you know, where we
could comfortably cut a little bit, let's do it. Now, we had a dead exclusion. We we headed back in. So, >> okay. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> Um I I wasn't aware that you put in there
that you were um opted not to take your full contractual um what's you know in your contract. I just want to say that's very very very kind of you to the town and um I very much appreciate that. Wasn't didn't expect that. So just wanted to say thank you. And then also
to the two budgets um as well um like the two different budgets. Either one is unsustainable. I mean right if we have a Did you say it's a 2% increase if the debt exclusion passes? It's >> which is still
>> 2% increase over totally it's 2% increase over fiscal year 26 budget >> which is still very very modest and a very small increase of you know two and a half so
>> okay thank you >> can you remind me for the board selectman communication the regular communications 5340 what's what's that Oh, 5340. Oh, I think um um communications has to do with
um if I remember correctly has to do with um stamps and things that we said. >> Stamps for the everybody like >> not just board of select. >> Yeah, just just the board of selectment. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. And similar to question about your contractual the other positions that are salaried positions that wouldn't be getting a change is that not contractual
>> they understand the financial situation and they're opting not to uh not to exercise their >> I do have one more question. Um so 5341 communications the co our co-ming coingled is that the entire um
>> town staff >> that's uh um our our public relations JGR so that's >> okay I see >> that's under the your town administrator okay >> yes >> so under the board of selectment
communications for 66,000 5341 >> that's Comcast and AT&T. Yeah, >> that's good. >> The whole town internet for the >> Yeah, that's what I asked. Yeah, >> except the library. >> Except the library
>> of the library. Okay, >> there's someone. >> Thank you. How does how does that um communications with Comcast work? I seem to remember that we had to have a
certain budget and we got some kind of a discount or we got a we got money back for that. Is that still the case? >> That's that's the PEG access. So the the cable Dave gets money based from from Comcast, but this portion of
the bill is just Comcast services to the town. >> Okay. >> I remember at one point um all the departments were seem to be paying their own bills and um I think it was Mallerie who consolidated it. Some nice
efficiency I guess. >> Yeah, I guess the question was I was just like why was it consolidated under your guys' department? That was >> instead of a town administrator, right? >> Yeah. Or town administrator or something. >> Like very interesting way to do it, but whatever.
>> Um to town council town council. Um again, this is one of those situations. No debt exclusion. Um you know, to
what department I'm sorry 151 And for the uh debt exclusion, we level funded it $45,000 percentage. It says July to September. Is that just the >> That is um one of our town councils are
behind on billing. So that's just that note that >> Okay. >> their bill is only through September. >> Okay. >> So we thank them for their So, at this rate, we might go over on um town council this this fiscal year.
>> Um we're close. >> Yeah, but I know we cut it this this fiscal year anyhow, so we knew it would be close. >> Yeah. Okay. >> And then department 155. >> Yep. Go to
network equipment computer 14,000 data 2394 AOS website support 4,217 17 permit uh per permanent software $9,600
network administration 8,000 and then COA prime time $1,900 you go to the div exclusion um there's a two everything for the most part things stayed the same with the exception of uh network equipment repairs and
maintenance. Um then instead 7,000 we put um we put 8,000 um you never know with computers and then the other uh the other thing which we did was that website support fees. Um
um we're we're we're maintaining that at the support 8690. Uh there's a functionality on there that um that um should have and you know we got to cut you know what we're doing in the note and the no debt
excluding us to cut it and hope and hope we could get by without it >> question. So on um data processing 5308, >> it looks like we keep budgeting and
voting for 1900 every year, but it doesn't get used. So what exactly is that for? Because we didn't use it in 25. It hasn't been spent this year, >> but we do budgeting for it. Does anybody
know what that's for? >> You know what that's I I apologize. I'll follow up with software. Yeah. Then they have the opportunity where they get grant money and they're very good at getting back with money. >> Okay.
>> For the building permit software, we have two fewer or a couple fewer users going forward because either case we're cutting the >> Yeah, we are. We are like
one machine cutting technology services is none of these are going to encumber our ability to collect revenue in any way. Correct. >> Correct. Right. That's why they are. >> Yeah. That's literally
>> exactly. That's cool. >> Department 192 energy 145,000 library taking care of their own library are going non energy office building 7,000
uh building repair maintenance 20,000 town hall service agreements we have the the 12 we took out uh the dog uh the dog shelter maintenance of the dog share because that's carried under the the
acco budget other property related services those are the um as you can see that's the fiber lines custodial housekeeping 116
housekeeping three grand and shared equipment copy 10,500 As you can see the with the deck we're pretty close the other difference town office
building where we're at 8,000. Um, we kept the maintenance on on the building to 20. Um, service agreements of state at 12. >> Dog shelter. >> Do we have a dog shelter?
>> I think that's for her trainer, isn't it? >> Yes, >> that's a trainer. >> We should take that one. Yeah. >> You're changing the recommendation on >> Yes, I am. I think remember last year there was she wanted funds to be able to power wash it. So I think that's what
that's for is just whatever maintenance the >> the trailer may need. >> I don't think we were keeping any of the animals in town. >> It's shortterm. Okay. >> Shortterm. Shortterm. >> Is the change in the custodial is that
just removing the library? >> Uh yes. um like a 9% drop in estimated energy cost. >> Yeah. Uh that's um the um the uh when I went over my staff, they were
comfortable with that with that number. They're saying how it's going and they feel that it's a that's a a comfortable number to keep energy at. Okay. you know, uh, slightly slightly up to with level funded grounds keeping
supplies 3,200 and then um, again level funded shared equipment 11,000 195 >> 195 reports we didn't change it. These are town
reports we printed out. Um so we're trying to reduce the amount of town reports we print out and sort of put them online electronically. So we're moving towards that but until we then print them up. How many uh printed
covers did we have left over from last year? >> Yeah. I don't know. I I not a lot because we because we cut the budget. Yeah. >> Yeah. We reduce the >> right. Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay.
>> And then 919. 919 both sides. pretty sure on both sides of the equation that is at 3,000 you know we have two people taking advantage of it
one person so we have it on both sides is 3,000 >> uh liability uh liability insurance. So, um, work a workman building and my building tracks. Um, for 280 again,
that's that's on both sides. >> I ran over >> just one of the lines. >> Yeah, it's >> as a whole. workers. >> So we pay we get that bill at the beginning of the year. So it's not you know
>> you're paying installments. >> No. Oh no. We pay right we get that in July. >> You pay all we pay the entire annual premium all at once. >> Yeah. So I guess my So I guess my question is if the bill for the year that you paid
was 63 grand, why are we not upping to it's not going to go down? >> Well, it's so Well, the total last year was 264,000. >> Yeah, I'm speaking specifically on workers comp, right? So I'm looking at 5173. You paid 63 grand for the for the
annual bill, >> but you didn't up the budget. >> Yeah. So I can look into that more. It could just be the way that it came over one big >> if it was like half of last year or something. >> Yeah. >> So, yeah, I would look at that because that ain't going to go down. I mean, the
mod rate could could potentially get better over time, but >> not that much. >> Not not yet. You're not going to get you're not going to get a 50% increase next year. Um, so we got to up that. We need to take that into account. And then same thing for liability insurance. like
a lot of these policies are going out of control. Um, so let's just make sure that, you know, take a look at what the annualiz was when you guys paid it up front and that should be the baseline that we use. >> We'll adjust. >> Yeah.
>> I'd like to make a comment on the insurance. I know that we are um having a tight budget and if we don't get the debt exclusion, we're going to remain with a tight budget and health insurance, like you said, isn't going to go down. That would just mean that we would have to
have either higher deductibles or larger co-ayments, >> but that's something. >> Yeah, this is the this isn't the health insurance yet, though, Doug. the this is uh this is workers comp and and uh >> GLI general liability. So the health
will be later on. Um but agreed that was in that was in I don't know if you saw Ralph's presentation that was in one of his slides where he talked about if if the debt exclusion doesn't pass one of his one of his action items was looking at either changing the contribution
percentages or the deductible plans and things of that nature. So that is definitely something he's looking at. >> Now on the uh workers comp, is there a similar levers that can be pushed increasing or decreasing or are they set
in stone? You you get one premium, you get one type of plan? >> Yeah. No, I mean there there's very little you can do about workers comp from um from like a pricing lever perspective. The coverage is the coverage. The coverage levels are set by the state and you're basically given
every uh every job title is given a workers's comp code which has a rate set attached to that workers comp code that's modified based upon uh calculated based upon how much salary is done through that workers comp code. Right? So like somebody sitting at a desk is an 8810. So like that's a white collar
person and you pay like nothing for workers comp because they're not going to get injured, right? But somebody driving one of the plows that was helping us out last week would obviously have a higher workers comp risk because they're out plowing and they're operating heavy machinery. Um the only way you can really change what the rates
are like, you know, there's some carrier competition is is going into group pools. I don't know what if the town's in a group pool like they are with the health insurance. My guess is probably um so unfortunately you're kind of up
the creek in most of these situations. My only concern when bringing it up was just that we adjust accordingly and prepare for what next year's premium is going to be. Um workers comp you're kind of stuck with. But I on the health insurance I agree with you Doug like we
could pull those levers as needed. Now, um on the U workers comp, um is it a is it possible to look at self-insuring a percentage of it because if you don't
use it, it rolls over to the next year? Can you make a deal with your with your workers comp company to do that? Is that a is that a creative thing we could explore? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. workers comp, you can't self-insure in it that way. Um,
you have to have >> 10% of it, 20% of it, something like that. >> Yeah, unfortunately. I think you you'd have to be, you know, that's like a group pool, which is something that can be looked at, but I don't I with a municipality, there's weirdness there.
Um, I don't know if we would be big enough to look into those pools. Um, most of it is still even, you know, I have clients that have 8,000 employees that still go to a Travelers or an All State and get workers comp insurance. Like it doesn't, you know, they're not
self-insuring it. It's still through a carrier. So, it's it's it's tough. >> It's always a hard one. >> Yeah, it's tough. But to Peter's point, depending on what happens with the debt
exclusion, it the cost of workers comp is directly related to how much salaries being put through. So, you know, unfortunately, if we are cutting salaries, it'll go down. It's not going to go down a lot, but it'll go down a little bit because the amount you pay in
workers comp is directly related to how much salaries are being paid out by the town, right? Um, but I Yeah, that's >> Mr. Chairman. >> Yes, >> Nancy. >> Go ahead, Nancy. I think she's having
>> something you should be aware of. I don't know why we're getting an echo here. >> You're on twice, Nancy. I'm gonna take >> All right. >> Okay. I'm gonna say mute one of her. >> I'm just going to remove one of
Hopefully I remove the right one. Oh, boy. >> Okay. >> Don't record it. >> Can you hear me now? >> There you go. Um, something you need to be aware of
periodically the town gets audited for workers comp. I remember one time when I was the selectman. >> I think it was probably between 2015 and 2020. uh we had not been audited uh by our
work workers comp or whoever does it and they came in and did an audit and based on activity they in effect raised the cost during the fiscal year. So I think
since then they have probably I hope conducted workers comp audits more often than like three, four or five years. But you just need to keep in mind a major driver of your premium is your activity. If you go without injuries for a period
of time, that's a plus. If you have injuries, your rates are going to go up. So you need to know that. >> Mr. Chairman, through you. This is Paul Reynolds. I just wanted to let the board know that there was a workers comp audit um either late last fiscal year or early
this fiscal year. It's all started to blend together a little bit to be honest, but I'd say somewhere in the last six months or so there was a workers comp audit. >> Very good. >> Thanks, Paul. Any issues, Paul? >> Uh not that I'm aware of. It was a new audit company and it was their first
time doing it. It was a fully um correspondence audit. that wasn't a uh field like field person like there usually is with the uh back when Neielson used to do it. They'd send somebody down. Um as far as I know, there were no issues. We u were able to match everything to the code. I worked with um Karen Brady a little bit to get
the codes and um make sure that we were classifying people correctly. There's a couple people that were miscatategorized according to their records, but we got everything straightened out and there were no no major glaring issues. >> Serena said no issues. Can I get a paper cut?
>> Does anybody else have any questions on insurance? >> We can move on to fire. >> Yeah. >> Department 220. Chief and we are starting with no debt. >> What's that? >> We're starting with no debt.
>> Know you like doing this so much you want to do it twice. >> Oh yeah. be ready. >> I not much to say everything thereally level funded. The only thing that's not are the contractual obligations and the
payroll lines. The only description is a little bit extra cash for the only difference is a little bit extra cash for equipment repair between the two. It looks like >> between no debt and >> between debt and no debt. Yeah,
>> correct. So that Yeah, the debt and no debt. I got the whole 2 and a half% increase that was suggested to me towards repairs because I'm through my repair budget right now and I still have four months to operate. So, I have grave concern over both of
these budgets because I'm putting off vehicle repairs right now >> to next fiscal year. Um, and that's concerning for personnel safety, for public safety, for all of it. Um, I'
I've been through my two repair lines for my apparatus in December. Um, so to say that I have concerns is is an understatement. >> I just hope that our taxpayers understand the importance of a debt
exclusion um for public safety, not just personnel wise, but the personnel that we are going to keep need safe apparatus to operate in. Um he we specifically when we were
writing our arguments for me coming cuts for public safety, you know, if it didn't pass in an attempt to kind of get the >> um urgency across is what we'll call it because yeah, we're aware.
>> A couple questions for you. >> Sure. Um, who when when you push off vehicle maintenance for at this point around 4 months who determines whether a vehicle can go out or can't go out? Is that just on
you? Is it the highway? >> It's on me, >> but just on you. >> Yep. So, obviously anything emergent is getting repaired. Um, if I can put it off and I feel like it can be put off, then we're putting off those repairs. Um there's like for instance A1 needs some
exhaust repair right now that well now it's A2 needs some exhaust repair that can wait till next fiscal. So those types of things I'm trying to put off. Um but there's things that still need to be done this fiscal like uh I have ground ladder testing coming up the
actually this Sunday. I have state inspections that all need to be done on all the apparatus. All that stuff is still being drawn from those accounts. What do you have that's emergent? >> I'm sorry. >> What do you have right now that you
consider emergent, especially for your staff safety? >> There's not there's nothing. >> So, you're you're comfortable with that right now? >> Correct. Yep. >> Okay. >> When's your new vehicle come in? >> I'm sorry. >> When's your does your new vehicle come in? >> It's in. >> Oh, it's in.
>> Yes. So the repair work that was going towards that is not necessary anymore. >> The repair >> that you you were paying money to have your old vehicle repaired. >> So my old I don't know if everybody
knows but my old cruiser >> went down to >> No, was total. >> Oh. >> During during a windstorm, I took a tree across the windshield >> um and it it totaled the vehicle. >> Okay. I didn't know that. So, my my cruise of the 2019
um is is the insurance company totalled it and it's gone. So, we're still running a 2006 with 180,000 miles on it. >> So, the one that we were going to get rid of is now on. >> Is now on. >> Correct.
Yeah. >> Great. I was out in a windstorm. You got to do your job. Doing my job here was the other vehicle that we just lost. 2019. So >> now we have a 20-y old vehicle as number
two. >> Yep. So >> did we get insurance money for that? >> Uh $21,000 was the payout roughly. Just over 21,000, right? Yeah. >> Not enough to replace it.
>> But it can go towards the new one. >> Correct. What was the what was the cost of anyone? Do you remember what we just approved off the top of your head? >> A 100,000. >> But I'm trying to get a vehicle that we
could put the equipment from the previous cruiser into. But I'm not having much luck with that process. >> Yeah. Right. So you're still looking at an 80 call about an 80k delta. Mhm.
I have a question. Sure. >> Um, fire equipment repairs and maintenance. Is that what we're talking about when you talk about your >> correct the 5240 line? >> Five 5240. >> Correct. >> So for no debt exclusion, that's
$16,169.50. And then with the debt exclusion, it's $18,88750. Is that $18,000 figure cover everything like you wouldn't be putting off maintenance or is that still cutting it? >> That's still that's still the reflection
of the $30,000 hit I took. So it's still less than what we were operating with previously. >> Okay. So for you to be operating at the most comfortable number for you to maintain your equipment, it' be 18,000 plus 30,000. Is that was that
>> 30? It would be 30,000. >> The 30,000 came from I took from several lines throughout the budget when I did it. I don't remember exactly what the I don't know if it's on here, but >> 25 was 28259, >> right? So that's what we were operating at. So it's still $10,000 short of what
we had for a line before. >> Okay. >> And that doesn't include the 231 account. >> Mhm. >> What's the 231 account? >> The ambulance. the ambulance. Okay, >> thank you.
>> No problem. You guys have any more questions? No. Move on to what is the ambulance is next? 231. >> 231 ambulance. Thank you. Just all the same stuff. Yeah.
>> Um I guess you're putting the two together. Um something I don't know if you're here. We we're chatting a little bit about overtime hours. One of the things that you we're hopeful that that exclusion passes. Obviously, we can help you out equipment wise, but um
the town administrators made it a point uh we're looking to get you some additional personnel help as well. Um you know, because we're burning through a lot of overtime pay, not just with you, but also the police department. Um do you feel that uh the way that this
the department is set up currently from uh compensation package is a thing of the nature makes an attractive location for people to go to. So if we said hey you have a budget to hire an additional officer next year. >> Just tell the truth. I saw the story.
>> Yes. So we have a very comparable or competitive rate. Okay. The problem with my department is is because we don't run run a four group system. We run a three-roup system. When you play out all the hours, my personnel work more hours
than an average fire department. So in a year they work more hours than if you go over to Taton Fire, look at what their schedule works, how their schedule works. They're working more hours in a year. So we're losing personnel to go to other departments because of that. >> So it's a work life balance.
>> Less work. Correct. So you're you're working less hours in a year for the same amount of money. >> And so you're doing a three group instead of a four because you don't have enough people. Correct. Correct. >> Correct. >> How many personnel does it take to get you to a four group? >> Yeah. How many would you need?
>> Two more would get us to a four group system. >> Just play this out the whole day. Go to a four group system. I'm assuming that probably wouldn't change anything from an overtime standpoint. >> So, as you as you know, right? So, if I add more personnel, it's going to mean
more time off, which means more back filling. So, it I don't think that it will reduce overtime. It might a little bit. Um the thing that it will reduce overtime in is is right now we're paying two full-time personnel to staff a
Saturday shift on overtime. So, >> every Saturday is two people on guaranteed overtime. >> Correct. for a 12 or an eight >> for 24 >> for 24. So it's 48 hours a week of overtime every single week for 52 weeks a year.
>> Correct. >> Back to the maintenance. Sorry. What what would be what's the difference between either side fire equipment fire rescue equipment versus equipment? How do we
how do we put it in which box? >> I go at the discussion >> what what do we what which lines Peter? >> Uh 5850. >> Yep. >> Versus a 5240. So 50 5850 is what we use to purchase
turnout gear SCBA supplies and all that stuff. The 5240 is the repairs and maintenance on apparatus. >> Okay. >> Correct. >> So as you'll see if you're looking at the current um the 5850
we probably have money that's not expended all the way. 5050 or it might be the other. >> Yeah. through six months it had there was only $130 down that >> correct. So I have $21,000 worth of gear on order. >> Okay. >> So I order between five and six sets of
gears a year. So that way all my gear is not expiring in the same year because they have a 10y year lifespan. As soon as the gear hits 10 years, it's going to be taken out of service. So I try to rotate it so all the gear is not expiring at one time. So we're not buying 40 sets of gear, 50 sets of gear
in one year. So basically you're staggering it out so you don't have to take a huge hit. >> Correct. >> Which is actually the smartest thing to do. >> Um I think when we first segment was about three four years ago we were having a lot of issues getting equipment especially PPE and some of these
specialty things. Has that gotten better? >> It's gotten much better. Yeah. So so um turnout gear with the coat and pants that we order is taking roughly between 3 and 4 months turnaround time because they're building it to order because it has a lifespan. They're not building anything to put it on the shelf anymore
like it used to be. So now basically when I order a set of gear for a member, it's it's customtailored to them. It's made for them and then it it comes with the date that we receive it is the date that the the date um that the expiration
starts for the 10 years. >> Odd question, but if you have it tailor made to a person, what happens when that person goes if they go? So, it still goes back into our our inventory and we use it for somebody new. >> Okay.
>> It's it's it's tailored for somebody, but it's not truly tailored for somebody. >> All right. >> So, in other words, people get fit for a standard, you know, if you're 38 waist, you get a 38. >> Okay. >> Um, we can >> mostly our female employees, we have to
make it more custom because they're >> shorter and stuff like that. >> Okay. >> Those are really custom, but >> okay. The other stuff we take and we use for other personnel. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> No problem. >> Besides the uh exhaust, any other
ambulance type maintenance being put off? >> Not ambulance maintenance. No. No. How are we doing with the ambulance fees offsetting these costs? I mean,
are they out on a lot of calls or >> ambulance calls like our run numbers are increased exponentially probably from last year to this year. I think we went up three or 4%. >> Okay. >> Um on runs. Um, we're bringing in600
to $700,000 a year roughly and we >> Yeah. >> And we put I think last year 475 >> Yes. >> from the ambulance account into the general revenues. >> Okay. >> So, >> All right.
>> Yeah. Collections we we we're doing all right with. It's, you know, that's a battle always. So, Okay. >> Thank you. Yep. Does the majority of that get paid by the health insurance of the person that is being attended to?
>> Uh yeah. Well, majority of it is um uh insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid, and then uh private pay. >> Questions? >> No. Do you still plan on bringing a reserve fund request or reserve fund
transfer? >> No, >> not at all. >> Not at this time at all. >> And then he also has department 299 emergency management. I didn't do anything to this. I just left it the way it is.
on both. The biggest thing that the emergency preparedness budget pays for is the um the code red system that we have, which is an emergency notification system that we can use in emergencies. Um so that's really what the budget really pays for
and then other stuff. We replace traffic cones, stuff like that that we use a lot of during storms, lighting, things along those lines. >> All right. >> Thank you everybody. Thank you.
>> We can move on to Tom. Mhm. We'll follow Department 294. >> I was going to say, yeah, this is a great way to start. First question
then department 422 I had a tough week. >> Busy week little bit last week. Yes. >> Have you gotten any applicants on the job? >> Yes, we have several. Yes. The difference between the two is mainly
position. >> It shows seven employees under me with no exclusion. Um, do you feel uh we I don't think you were here uh rocking
you up an extra 200k for snow and ice. >> It's a 400. >> Well, it's just Yeah, it's a 400k. >> How do you feel about how do you feel about that figure for this year for snow and ice? 400. >> I don't like that smile, Tom.
>> Are you making a deal to shut it off now? >> I don't like that smile, Tom. It's hard to say. Yes. We're going to be flirting with that. Absolutely. Yes. >> Um so a question that I have is for um
5240 the equipment repairs and maintenance. Obviously you discussed the fact that most of your vehicles are older than many people. Um,
you know, I mean, are you going to be comfortable with this number given, you know, the age of your equipment? >> That that shows an increase. Um, that's where me and Ralph Young wrestled on. He won.
>> I think she means the no debt side at 37. >> Yeah, the no debt side at 37. >> Ralph still got that at 42. >> No, I >> Oh, did you? I see 37 >> to the right. the tax recommendation. >> Yeah.
>> Over over to the right of >> Oh, 42. >> Yeah, that really has to go up. Yes. >> With with and without the dead exclusion. There's no question about that. >> Okay.
Are you putting off any maintenance at this point? >> Do we put you mean >> trying to put off any maintenance till next year? with the things that you can put off. >> Me and Ralph have to have a conversation. Yeah, we're looking at a transmission in one point more than one.
Uh the radiator has to come. He doesn't know what radiator yet either. When you're talking about 30y old equipment, you can only put a band-aid on it. with the exclusion. It looks like Ralph on that arm wrestle too.
>> Yes. Okay. Put up much of a fight. So, the vehicle supplies, that's the routine maintenance, and it the other one that we were just talking about for the vehicle repairs, that's the one that hurts us the most.
Um, between the two budgets, 5106 salary first time, uh, salary full-time, excuse me. Are you looking at not replacing the one if not exclusions come?
>> Correct. >> But you're looking to hire somebody now. >> There's two positions. >> Oh, replacing one. So we'll have a compliment of seven and would if we do get the dead exclusion >> you'll go for the
>> depending on the am >> equipment or men just to note on these salaries it's also some of it is within department 432 the storm water just note that okay there's eight weeks
of salary in the other budget >> all right >> and that usually does not get exercised until March May June Okay. What piece of equipment would you say is in the most need of right at this moment
that's going to cost us the most money if we keep it? The the larger trucks. Yes. >> The what truck? >> The larger trucks. Six wheel dumps. There's three of them right now we're wrestling with. >> They just got nickel and dimeless reg.
>> What year are those? >> Uh one's a 92, the other one's 95. Uh, second one's a 95 also. So, the three are in 90s. >> The newest one is at a dealership now
trying to get an electronic issue resolved, but that should be a nickel and diamonds. That hopefully is a warranty issue. >> Have you submitted a request to the capital outlay committee with your five-year plan? >> A five-year plan? No.
>> For both for this fiscal year? >> Yes. Two vehicles. Okay, thank you. >> That's awesome. >> I I believe a fivey year plan we should do it with the capital outlay, >> right? Okay. >> We got the other the ones that hold the press. We got to figure that out.
>> Okay. >> Any questions for Tom? >> No thanks. >> And no budget 423. notate less than this current, it is >> the last year. >> That was nice.
>> Refresh my memory on that. Don't we have to put a certain amount in regardless? >> The snow and ice budget. >> Yeah. 50,000. >> 50. Okay. >> That wasn't enough. No, not this. Not not yesterday.
>> You do Berkeley Bridge too, Tom? >> Yes. Fortunat 432. Uh, Mr. Chairman. >> Yes. >> Are you on storm water now? >> Yes. >> Tom, do you have anything before I talk about the email I got from Weston and
Samson? >> No. Okay. In the budget that you have before you, we put in a $15,000 placeholder, uh, which is what is in the current budget in order to do, uh, testing. Uh,
we are required to do now. I sent an email to Jury Schwarz who is the engineer at Western and Samson who's working on the uh project that is being funded by APA to do the kind of things we need updated in our storm water program.
Um she said that um again everything's contingent on funding. She's saying that for the FY27, the 15,000 that is proposed uh should be in there in order to comply with testing and things we have to do.
Now, I said to her, what else do we have to do besides the 15,000 for testing, which we did in 25, we've got to do, excuse me, we did in 25, we're doing in 26, and we got to do in 27. So, she came up with a list. When
I totaled it, it was $50,000. Um, not going to happen. However, she prioritized them. And the first item she lists that we need to consider is additional mapping of drainage infrastructure in urbanized areas. It's
an estimated cost of $20,000. um the other things that are on here this list. Um I don't think it's crunch time and I have to uh listen to her
recommendations. So we're looking for an additional $20,000 in that line where the 15 is and it would be or create a new line. It's for mapping of drainage infrastructure in urbanized areas. Now, some of that work
has already been done and they did map um they did update maps when they were here last year and that was paid for through the OPA grant. So, the testing that was done previously
was paid for through the OPA grant. So, the 15,000 that's in there this year is going to be something we have to provide. We don't have anybody qualified to do this. So, we'll probably be looking for an engineering firm like Weston and Samson. And then again, just
to repeat, her recommendation is if there is additional funding, if it becomes available, we need to look at additional mapping. >> Is that 53? Is that 5305 on the budget, Nancy? >> Yes. MS4 compliance.
>> We're still waiting for the new uh MS4 regulations to be approved. The town is currently in year nine of the 10-year plan, the notice of intent that I submitted um nine years ago.
They've been talking about revisions to MS4, but that's gone on for years, too. Because even when we filed the notice of intent, we had been waiting more than five years to find out what we were supposed to do. So, everything that I'm talking about and what we are planning
on is under the current MS4. Uh, I don't think we'll have any surprises that would have money attached to them. Again, we've still got year 9 and 10 to complete in our notice of intent. So, I think we've got a little bit of breathing room there. Um, after that,
it's like everything else that comes down from the EPA, we wait and see. transfer station. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. I have one question on the salary line. Um, we've got a seven 7.35 increase of
4.58. Um, under Oh, that's under street cleaning. No more. >> Yeah, I think um >> sorry, what's the question? >> I I think there was some there was some
discrepancy in um in the number of employees that that uh Tom was counting. That's normal. >> Oh, in the storm water. Yeah. >> Yeah. That's 5105 and 5106.
>> What are other salary lines are only increased by 2% or Yeah. So, I'm not sure why. I think they had additional employees when they voted for their department request. And then on the town administrator line, we
agreed on the seven employees. So, then we adjusted it in the town admin recommendations, but I can't change it on the department request because they're committee and that gets voted. Okay.
And the split might have been a little different in FY26. >> So we added the employees or no. So they they have two open positions. So a no debt they're going to hire one employee, right? >> And then with the debt they'll fill the
two positions. So it might be the way that it split in FY26. And they also had employees leave. So the new people are coming in lower. >> Okay. Identical on both. >> Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm not saying that I'm not saying that's incorrect. I'm just saying we can just look at one and not have to go back and forth. Uh any change to hours of operation this year the transfer station? >> No.
>> Everything else is based on tonnage and it's pretty consistent from year to year. Cool. I think what the the total dollars amount was collected on the stickers. You have any idea what that is?
to the with the dead exclusion. With the dead exclude, >> I think you can probably move on to cemetery 491. Okay. We just renegotiated that contract, right? >> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Was that four months? I think that's it for you. >> No, we're going to do exclusions. >> We going back and forth. Okay. >> Looking up the answer for question. I don't have it individually.
FY25 it was 14,000. We estimated 14,000 >> and 425 we collected 14,155. >> Right? That was a split year >> with just the automobile stickers, >> right? That was a split year with the previous year. I think this is the first full year.
So the previous year we increased it in the middle of the fiscal and switch it from a calendar year to a fiscal year. It ends more. It just makes sense for me the way I think that to have the stickers paid for
that salary fiscal basis. So it's right around 650 stickers times 30 come up pretty close to that. Thanks Tom. Thank you.
>> Good evening everybody. Can you hear me? Okay. >> Yeah. All right. Wonderful. Would you like to begin with the debt exclusion or no debt exclusion? >> No debt. >> So with with debt? >> No debt. >> No debt. I'm sorry. Thank you.
So for no debt to begin at 145 town treasurer. Um I did put in a level fund for my own salary. Um that includes no raise. I also am testing for my certified Mass Municipal Treasurer certification this year and the town did
adopt the bylaw. um to pay an additional thousand dollar stipend upon certification, which um I have foregone. Um the assistant treasurer salary. Um Serena, could you please let me know if this includes the 12-year bump? I know
that we had to do a uh a change because I think there was a longevity consideration um based on the assistant treasurer collector hitting 12 years this year. So, I know that we might have done a slight revision on that. Um, Serena, do you know if the the number in the packet reflects that or not
>> I believe on the town admin. >> Yeah, I believe it does. Y >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. So that that just represents the contractual obligations and the the new step. The uh senior clerk um that represents that
position um being split. So that normally uh historically has been 25 hours in our office and that's going to go down to uh right about half that. Um overtime and additional hours we have set to $250. And then education stipens
which are for um uh set to 250 which is for the the bilingual and the CPR certifications for that are contractual union obligations for the clerical folks. Uh was there any questions on the personnel um lines or would we like to move down into
expenses? >> Uh 5116 is basically um personnel cut. >> Yes, exactly. So we we had a 25-hour employee that um that would in this
budget be moving down and becoming a uh roughly I believe this is budgeted what 12 12 hour I think we did Serena 11 and a half 12 hour something like that. Um, so to move down into the equipment maintenance, uh, 5240,
we do have a couple of printers, a variety of PCs. Um, it just felt like responsible to budget something. $200 give buys you about an hour and a half of retrospect. So, I I figured we can probably bank on using that at some point during the year.
um the professional and technical. I'm going to dive into my zerobased budgeting breakdown for that. So, the primary drivers for that is our um our payroll provider, customized data services, is is closing up shop. They're going to be going out of business at the
end of this calendar year. Um we have not made an official decision, but I believe we're most likely going to be moving towards Harper's Payroll. I did receive three quotes and I sent them out to um Ralph and Serena, but given the busyiness of this season, um we'll probably be setting a time sometime in the next I don't know week or so, I
would imagine a week or two maybe to sit down and finalize that. Uh we received quotes from ADP paychecks and Harpers. Harper seems to by far have the most functionality. Um they're able to integrate with our current provider, our current reporting. It's not going to require um manual reduplication of
employee information, employee numbers, personnel files, pay history. People aren't going to have to get multiple W2s to reflect from the records of one payroll company and the other and then kind of have to wade through the weeds to do their taxes. There'll just be one W2. Um,
and that is that represents about approximately 12 to 15,000 was the the range that we had planned on for our payroll provider, which is um, you know, comparable to where we've been now. It's a little little pricier, but the company that
we've been using is fairly antiquated. So, in professional and technical, 15,000 of that is our payroll. um 7,450 of that is the our oped valuation. So this is paid every other year. Um
so 7450 is the OPB valuation through our actuary. Um there might be I've sent out an email. I'm not positive yet on if we'll the way that the period that they're going to be examining runs. I'm not sure if we're going to be able to encumber some funds this year to offset
the expense or if I'll be able to um pay half next year and then half the half in FY28. That's that's still not entirely clear, but the cost of that from the quote that I was given is $7450.
Um professional and technical also contains the annual fee of $100 for the credit card. Um, I put in a buffer of $100, which hopefully is not needed, but that's for interest and god forbid the event the credit card gets paid late. Uh, we have had situations where um, you
know, a charge gets authorized to the card. So, the way that the the credit card works currently is the department head or authorized uh, spender for a department calls our office, requests permission to use the card. If they're trying to place an order over the phone, they'll be given the the card number
over the phone to enter it. And then at that point, they'll be emailed a copy of the credit card authorization form, which is kind of the credit card equivalent of the schedule of bills payable. And then they'll complete that and the um provide that and the invoice to my office. And then
when the credit card statement comes, I compile them for all departments and then submit one master bill schedule. And we have had issues in the past where snail mail you get a statement late or um a department we had we had one happen a couple of years ago where a um a a
board used it and then the there was only one authorized signer who was unavailable for a couple of weeks. I forget if it was due to illness or or what it was. Um but we built in $100 just in for some kind of contingency in the event that we get whacked with a with a month of interest. Um there's
$155.40 40 cents in there, which is for the transfer station, Unipe. When we set up Unipay to accept credit cards at the transfer station, um that's paid out of my budget. It's $38.85 cents build quarterly. I also included an Adobe renewal. I use
um Adobe for document editing conversion um converting PDFs into spreadsheets, PDFs into uh Word documents, and vice versa. And I believe based Oh, and then the FSA admin fee. I apologize, my uh my
justification sheets a little uh all over the place. And then the FSA admin uh fee is that is the FSA cafeteria plan uh administrative fee of $85 a month which allows it's employee benefit that allows folks to have the FSA.
Were there any questions on the 5300? 5300. Good. >> Yep. Yes. Good on that one. >> Okie do. So, to move on down to certification of legal fees. Uh, this one is our recordings. This is registry recordings. This one is going to be
going up quite a bit towards the end of the year. I'll probably be encumbering most of all of this um right towards the end of the year once the snow melts. So the the tax title law that is now the law of the land. It used to be that with for delinquent tax titles, you you could
post it in the newspaper and um that would be the notice that would satisfy the notice requirement. Now I literally have to hire a constable to drive around and post a physical notice on every single property that's going to be taken into tax title. And for FY25, I have 120
delinquent properties. So, if you figure that you're going to hire a constable at 4550 um plus the that line item is the $16 recording fee for the registry of deeds. Um, so I'm going to end up in the course
of I've been I've been lagging on these one because the ability to comply with it has been kind of nebulous and murky and DLS and DOR have finally got some really good guidance on there and the land court attorneys have finally started to really get a strong grasp on
how to actually comply with this law which is always good and um so we will end up being encumbering that but that is for our um our recordings and postage meter. This one we adjusted
down quite a bit. Um, so this is my actual postage. So the way that postage works is that in the collector budget you'll see the lease payment for the actual Pittney Bose mail machine. So this is um we advance funds off of a
line of credit into the postage machine which all departments then use and then monthly I will run a report which we provide to Serena which shows each individual department's access code that they type in their password in order to run mail through the machine. And so
essentially I am advancing money into the machine from this budget and then billing it out to other departments. But additionally, this also encapsulates any um any money that my department itself um uses, which is primarily if we have
to mail out documents, corrected tax bills, uh revised things, um late notices, um courtesy courtesy mailers, and um correspondence to the retirement board, new employee enrollment packages, um uh
pension enrollments, and so forth. Yeah. But before I keep moving on, was there any questions on any uh either of those two? >> All righty. Uh 5420 is office supplies. And um these are just your basic bread
and butter office supplies. Um register tape, um things with the adding machine, cleaning supplies, pens, post-it notes. um as as the treasurer's office on that side, we take in obviously the receipts and departmental turnovers for every
department. So, we use um you know the nice heavy duty binder clips to keep them organized because um as you probably know, we're undergoing our our uh audit this this week. And um it's just a lot easier to keep them organized. It's never fun. And I've I've used paper clips in the past a couple of
times and it's never fun when you're digging out something that you did 11 months ago that you have to then reconstruct because the paper clip burst off and it exploded all over the floor. Um travel. So for travel,
this I um this includes both my um historically the treasurer's office has received a stipend of $150 quarterly to go to the post office and then go to the bank and do all the kind of regular um you know regular daily travel. That that's just kind of part and parcel of
the position. It's also used to pay the um the hotel fee and the parking when I go to the annual school at UMass Amherst. Um I will be staying an additional night in Amherst this year because I'm eligible to test and um I had thought
I'd be eligible to test last last summer, but the education committee um I was just a couple points shy of the experience points. uh they have a rubric for how long you have to have been in office, what educational um criterions you have to hit and so forth. And so on
travel um I will be able to test for the certified Mass Municipal Treasurer which is on Friday. Normally the school itself runs Monday uh Tuesday through Thursday. So normally I'm coming home Thursday afternoon, but I do have to pay for one more additional night in the hotel this year. Um, and then dues and
subscriptions that pays for our um the annual school itself and our memberships in the Mass Collector Treasury Association and the uh and the Bristol County Treasurers Association. Were there any questions on um on those lines or would you like me to jump into
146? So, um the personnel is more or less a repeat of of above where there's the um $1 12 uh the $250 in stipens for the clerical union folks. Um my salaries flat and the other employees just
represent their um contractual obligations under the union contract and the office assistant position decreasing roughly 50% in hours. or senior clerk as it's listed there. And then to move down to rentals and
leases. The reason that this one has jumped up is because our postage machine was not imi compliant. And so as of January 21st, 2026, needed to be retired from service. So because of that, our old one was about $3,200. I was able to
um to we got a new machine through Pittney Bose. And when we re-upted with Pittney Bose, um the we were able to get by with this $4,000 budget that we've uh that we that we have in place now
because um the first couple of quarter payments were at that lower rate. And so now 4240 just represents the new lease amount. Um professional and technical that exists in case I need to get a legal opinion or pay for a constable as I go through. Um, I'd anticipate I'm
going to need constable um money as I go through to do uh tax takings and serve those papers. Um, the new requirement is going to literally require us to go around and post a physical mailing on every parcel. And I'm going to need a
legal opinion for some of them because um, good question would be how do you post a notice on a landlocked property that the abutters do not give you permission to cross the parcel? I frankly don't know. The Mass Collector Treasury Association doesn't have a great answer, nor does nor does anyone
else have asked. So, I'm I'm going to uh know I want to make sure that we've I've got legal opinions for whatever I ultimately have to do um in order to perfect those leans and get the taxings recorded. Uh tax bills, that just represents cost of postage going up. I
got quotes for our um for from our folks who do our excise and our real estate mailings. Um we did approximately 14,200 excise bills last year. Um and um then obviously between the
actuals and the preliminary bills that just that 195 just represents what the uh the labor cost really didn't change at all. It's mostly postage driven. The office supplies I cut it down as much as I could to to hit my number and you know between to to have have a
department $1,500 for office supplies I felt like is just pretty conservative no matter how you slice it. Um travel again that just represents the other half of that that travel budget which includes uh the $600 annual stipen for me plus my
travel school parking and hotel expenses and then dues and subscriptions. The Bristol County Collector Treasures Association has been defunct for a number of years. Ironically, last Tuesday during the snowstorm, it was scheduled to have its first inaugural meeting in many years. But um I've been speaking with the treasur collector in
Swansea in the and uh Somerset who are working on revitalizing that organization and that that amount represents what the dues for that will be once the organization gets back on its feet. Were there any questions on the collector expenses or would you like me to jump into the debt exclusion budget?
All righty. So to go back to town treasurer the budget there is I did request a raise if we are able to secure a debt exclusion. So that brings
my salary up to 41 94554. I don't see the percentage increase on the spreadsheet I'm looking at. I believe it's either two or two and a half percent. Um, I don't know if Serena could confirm, but it's either two or two and a half. I believe >> the town administrator's recommendation is a 2%.
>> Got it. Okay. Um, then the union folks, there's um the assistance stays the same. The senior clerk would uh this would represent basically preserving that
position as it as it currently is. bring it up to the new uh to the new pay rate without bringing it down in hours. Um overtime stays the same and the educational stipens also stay the same.
And then to move down into equipment that actually um all stays more or less the same. the primary differences whereas an additional thousand dollars in certification of legal fees. Um that's
just less less of a headache for me of which ones I can which ones I can I have to do now and which ones I can let ride for another year is really what that comes down to without securing a lean and tax title. Just a regular default
property tax delinquency stays perfected for uh three and a half fiscal years or five calendar years. Um, so you have plenty of time. It used to be in the olden days you wanted to secure your tax title leans immediately as soon as possible. The reason for that is that
the interest rate on a delinquent real estate tax is 14%. The delinqu the interest rate on a delinquent tax title is 16%. So you'd want to get it secured as fast as you could in order to get that extra interest. However, the legislature in their infinite wisdom
reduced tax title interest rate to 8%. So now it actually makes better business sense if you really want to um to to get more from your penalties to leave them unsecured by tax title until you get start getting closer to that um to that three and a half uh fiscal year cutoff
window. And so at the same time that does take some kind of brain capital to to to manage them and make sure that you're uh staggering the waves in which you secure them effectively. So, putting the extra thousand in there just would let me do
do more at once. Um, the I believe that's actually the primary differences as I look through them. Yeah, those are the only differences on the departmental expense is a thousand bucks for uh for registry costs.
And then to move on to collector, sorry, I printed these two-sided. collector collector. All righty. So, once again, that that uh puts in the raise request for me that just mirrors the treasurers. The senior clerk
position remains preserved and just brought up to the step that it would be under the clerical union. The rentals and leases that doesn't change. And actually, the expenses don't change at all on that. So
I I I really did in in the in the spirit of zerobased budgeting and in this in the spirit of trying to be fiscally conservative and a dollar that I take that I don't need is a dollar that you know that you know the fire chief was just here talking about you know public safety the safety of his personnel. So
we really did try to cut it down as as low as we could because you know a dollar that I take is a dollar somebody else can't. So in the spirit of that we really did try to be good partners here. Um, was there any questions or feedback on the um, expenses for the collector side?
>> Just one one clarification. It's more more for Ralph. The collector and treasurer clerk is 25 hours right now. >> Yes. >> And then the proposal is zero
with no exclusion. 12 six and six with exclusion. Is that the way I'm reading that >> from my recommendation? >> Yes. >> Right. Uh my recommendation is with no no dead exclusion with um the uh the
clerk the town clerk position and the and the other uh the the collector the uh senior clerk position. Both of those are eliminated. And then but with the debt exclusion
um with the debt exclusion. What you would see in the no dead exclusion is what I would have with the debt exclusion. So what would be uh would be a position with the the 10 uh 10 hours with the clerk and and the
shifting around. I apologize. I'm looking at the national. So, uh uh yeah, uh the senior clerk at if we get the debt exclusion will be at 12 and a half and then the senior clerk for the collector would be at 12
and a half with no uh with no debt exclusion. My recommendation is the the elimination of that position. >> So, just the difference then between yours and the department request of that position. >> It's half. So he's saying when it go
from 12 and 1/2 and 1/2 25 down to >> so 6 and 6 and 1/4 6 and 1/4 12 and 1/2 total >> right yeah so we're where let's say foration point the ball has the card at
uh 77 one uh 7718 37 um with no debt exclusion that's eliminated where I have and then if you go with the deck exclusion. The clerk
where he has it at uh60076794 I would have that at the um adjusted rate for um contractual adjusted rate of 81 $8,14. >> So we in essence are we looking at with the exclusion you're going with Paul's
exclusion numbers? Okay. >> Yeah. Okay, >> that's an easy way to say >> and how's this going to affect I mean how's this going to affect operations Paul? >> Um if I were to lose the position
entirely I cannot guarantee the operations of my office. if I would do my best. Um, we would have to assess because right now my office takes on a lot of duties, some of which are statutory requirements, some of which are not statutory requirements. >> Um, for example, you know, we have a
statutory obligation to um, you know, pay our debt obligations to issue tax bills, to reconcile cash, um, things of that nature. We have no statutory obligation to oversee health insurance, administer the benefit programs, or run
payroll. Um, so if we were end up if we end up in a position where we we have to choose between the things that I'm legally responsible for and the things that we do that we're like not legally responsible for, we might have to start critically assessing the duties that our
office is responsible for. And then then um playing triage as as we need to because we have to we have to follow the law at the end of the day is our most important responsibility. And um if we can't fulfill every mission that we currently do based on the staffing shortages, that's it's it's
going to be a problem that falls to other departments. >> Thank you. >> Questions for Paul? No. >> No. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Paul. >> My pleasure. Uh would you like to move on to tax title?
>> 158. >> Uh 158. I just left that at 5,000. And basically what will happen is um I'm just going to encumber everything that's left over in my budget in the spring as I begin the process of uh securing all these leans. And so I'm just going to
I'll have more than enough to expenses to encumber my entire 5,000. And then once I use the other 5,000 um I know that I'll have enough for that because of the 120 delinquencies in FY25 that I have right now. I could probably get some of some of these folks to pay them
off because there's a few that are just lagging small balances. Um, a few um a few who are already in tax title as well. That allows us to not have to do all the posting requirements because we can do just what's called the
certification of subsequent tax title. Basically means folks that are already in tax title, they're not paying their current taxes. We can just scoop them from one bucket into the next without the rigomearroll. It's the new people that require you to do the posting and the constable and uh all of that extra
work. So, I I know for a fact that I have at least $10,000 worth of that to do. So, I figure that I can encumber this 5,000 this year, encumber uh spend the 5,000 from next year, and then um that will at the very least will allow
me to um to do anything that's getting close to that three and a half year cut off. And then for fiscal 28, I can look see how much we have left, see how things are trending, and then um you know, a year from now, I can let you know what we would need to button everything up. But I'm confident with
five 5,000 and what we've got left over for this year that um that we can get everything that needs to be done done without too much uh without any hassle. like you mentioned about um having to get a constable
being being March. How will you have a an issue getting it all done by June? >> Um yes. I don't think it'll actually be done by June, but as long as I begin the process and start the engagement, then I'll be able to um to encumber the funds over as long as it's kind of like an in
in process transaction. Hey Paul, what kind of estimate do you have for um unpaid property tax that let's say is more than a year old that's owed to the town? >> I don't um I don't have it in front of
me right now. I know that the FY25 outstandings were around 290,000. >> Okay, thank you. >> No problem. Um, did you want me to jump down into um long-term debt? Uh 710 is just our maturing principle on
our long-term debt. That just represents the police station communications building and the uh WPAT notice. Uh WPAT was the old name for the what's now the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust. That was a loan in interest free loan that we received from uh D in order to fund our
septic betterment program. And so that basically just represents our uh payment there. And that 6668 is actually um transferred out of the folks that are paying back their Betterments. So as betterments get paid off, that money gets transferred over to pay to pay that
uh pay that expense. That 235 is the principal on the police station. Um that is our only interest bearing long-term debt. So, um the next one into 751
is that represents our interest there. Um our retirement and pension contributions is that's just our assessment that we get from Bristol County retirement and um that we have those numbers in. So, those are uh those are accurate
numbers. Group health insurance. Um, this one based on the news that we received today, we might be able to revise. And if you'd like, I'd be happy to um work out some numbers and send them to Ralph that he could provide at uh maybe tomorrow's meeting or the one
after that. Um, the reason for that is that we were told to expect anywhere between 12 and 14% increases at one point. Then we were told to expect between 10 and 12% increases. Um about a year ago or so, I be uh I actually was
um fortunate enough to become vice chairman of SMHG, our our health insurance group, which is good because it's given the town the ability to kind of um emphasize some of our our needs in um in our the way that the the group
looks at its surplus draw its trust fund. So, just at our meeting this morning, we were quoted a 9.7% renewal rate from Blue Cross that we were able to actually buy down by drawing on our excess funds uh with the group's trust. The SMHG currently has an approximately
$10.7 million trust of which we've drawn on a million dollars in order to buy down our premium expense. So, by putting that in play, we've actually dropped that all the way down to 7.5%. And as I've discussed in previous years, our this budget number does not actually
represent the true spend on health insurance. Based on the renewal rates that we'd received, I would expect our actual true dollars for dollar spend on employees based on the March enrollment to be approximately 1.5 1.45 1.5 million
of the town share. And that's based on the town's portion based on FY27 rates and present- day enrollment. And um one of the things that I I do believe that Ralph mentioned exploring the
possibility in the future of looking at introducing additional plans. Um SMHG actually has introduced a higher deductible HSA plan. Um, I will leave that to the selectman and the town administrator and um maybe labor council to determine if that represents a plan
and change design that would need to be bargained through the IA. But um but we do have some options to intro uh through SMHG where there are some um higher deductible plans that are available and um that could be an fairly easy
bargain if it didn't involve sunsetting the pre-existing plans. If it was just offered in addition to what's already offered without any modification of the price point, which is possible, um that might represent hopefully some lowhanging fruit. So, I'd say that one roughly about 1.5 million of this number
is our actual true spend. Um, it'll be a little bit lower because I just haven't calculated and I based that based off the 9.7% rate that I've been quoted earlier. So, say maybe 1.4% 1.4 million is probably about our two spend. The rest of that money represents um a
buffer to absorb qualifying life events because you do have a a a good handful of those. know folks that uh a single uh single individual gets married, goes from an individual plan to a family plan or somebody who is has family coverage through their spouse, their spouse changes jobs, now they pick up the
family plan. So under the Affordable Care Act, those are called qualifying life events that allow folks to pick up coverage mid year. So I do like to include a buffer of, you know, five, six, seven family plans, which might be overkill, but I figured it's a contractual obligation. It's something that we have to provide. It's one of
those lines that can never be negative. And um so if there are additional thoughts or once I u update the spreadsheet with that increase um you know if if Ralph and the selectman and the fincom want to make um make tweaks
to that number, I'm amendable, but I I can get you as close to what what I project our true spend is based on current enrollment. I can get you that uh this week. Um, is there any questions on health insurance before I moved on? >> No.
>> All righty. And then group life insurance 915. This one is just that's just another contractual benefit. We pay um we pay 50% of the group life insurance policy that we offer to every employee. It's um two bucks per person per month. And um for the retirees, it's
a dollar a month. A$101 a month. Um, you see, not not a a ton of people have it, but we do have some folks who've picked it up and um, this just represents our share of that. I know that I'm I've overbudgeted it by a little bit based on
the um, based on the the current spend, but again, qualifying life events, folks come in. And uh, at the time that I had originally bumped this up to $1,500, Boston Mutual was looking at reassessing our rates. They hadn't changed their rate rates in a long time. and uh we
didn't know what they were going to be so I put it at 1500 and since we seem to finish every year somewhere in like the mid to high 80s on this it just it felt close enough for the small dollars that it represented. Um if we wanted to play with this number and bring it down to 1300 I don't think that would be the end
of the world but um I don't know how granular we want to be with the benefit lines. And then 916 for employer contributions. This is just our share of Medicare. We're required to pay that 1.45% four or five% of our gross payroll for Medicare. Um, and this just represents our Medicare contributions. I
increased it by 4.76%. Um, I did that because I know that while wages are obviously not going to be increasing grand total by 4.76%. I know that there are several department several unions that are getting uh raises. I know that there's some uh individuals with contracts will be
getting raises. And I know that um you know, as we heard from the chief earlier, there are staffing issues that lead to driving up overtime sometimes for public safety uh departments. And um so I figured that that 4.76% is an
increase is I wanted to make sure that we stay ahead of that because as you recall, as you might recall, that was one of the lines that did go negative a couple of years ago. Um because as the end of the fiscal year, I know that that can kind of spike based on uh based on where things are at. So, I just wanted to make sure that we had enough padding
there to sustain it. >> Regarding the group life insurance, what's the death benefit that uh employees can get without having to show insurability and are they able to keep that through retirement? Does the death benefit fall
or rise or do they have to pay additional premium? And does that premium stay at a fixed amount? Yeah, great questions, Doug. So, it's the grand total. We pay half of the $44 premium per month for active employees
for $4,000 worth of death and then $4,000 worth of AD and D. And um then at retirement that goes down to $22 and then the coverage goes down to 2,000. >> Okay. And are they able to buy up more
if they want to contribute some of their payroll through the cafeteria plan? They can. It's It is through Boston Mutual. It's not through their group program. It's through what they call their work site division, but uh Boston Mutual's work site division does allow for
employees to purchase um to purchase additional uh life and disability, cancer insurance, so forth. They are able to do that and pay for it as uh payroll contributions. And the work site, unlike the group, the work site coverage is portable, so they can take it with them when they leave if they
choose to. >> That's all I have. Did anybody else have any questions? >> Oh, not on that. >> Awesome. Well, I believe that does it for my budget and I thank you all very much for the opportunity to be with you this evening and uh I regret not being
able to be there in person and I look forward to seeing you all live sometime again soon. >> Thank you. It's the last one, right? Yeah. >> Thursday. Two days.
>> Two days. Yeah. April, April 16th is set for April 16. >> Motion to adjurnn. Step chair and second. All those in favor? I >> I
>> I favor. >> Yeah. >> Make out with all the snow. >> Yeah. Very good. Yeah. Yep. I enjoyed I kind of enjoyed going out there taking care of it. Yeah, it was good.