it is I an inch all right you're live sorry jump again a bit good all right five o' doing good March 11th we're going to call the selectboard meeting into order agenda this evening we have the
public comment and a discussion on 86 Century way consideration of the disposition update ual report dedication discussion um Chapter 70 formula in Project 22 with consideration of sending a letter to the
legislature an update on the FY 26 budget and then we will have uh go into executive session for two different purposes one is uh for pursuing to
General law 30 a21 A10 to discuss confidential comp tively sensitive information provided in the course of activities conducted as a municipal aggregator under General law 164 section4 and disclosure will adversely affect the town's ability to conduct
business in relation to other entities making selling Distributing electric power and energy and the second executive session is uh pursuant to General law 30A section 21A purpose two to conduct strategy sessions in
preparation for negotiations with non-un Personnel Jason Silva the Town Administrator and William farell Fire Chief and conduct contract negotiations with non-union Personnel Jason Silva non-administrator um I guess we will
then be coming back into public session for the town administrative contract and for the fire chief contract and um the municipal agregation so there we are jump to the public comments anyone in the public that would like to speak
to anything that is not on the agenda well I'm not happy that we're going into executive session and then coming back well we have to do it in that order because we have to discuss things into
executive session approve them and then the decisions going forward and the signing of the contracts has to happen after that oh okay it's the law Joan I could rewrite it I might but go
on anything else that no [Music] no this okay very good then we will move on to the discussion on 86th Century way so that is a the remaining
undeveloped lot on the century way subdivision and that property was taken by um tax title years ago and uh as a result of our land use committee they targeted this and thought
maybe it would be a good idea to get some income revenue and perhaps sell it brief update just wanted to follow up from our last meeting so I had a meeting with a law firm who I've worked with in the past on tax
title um Brian um mer whatever they don't do work so Brian he doesn't do his work and no one in The Firm does so I reached out to another firm um I had a good meeting with them
the law recently changed in November so um because we took the property so long ago it's not clear right now whether or not we need to go by the new law or the
old rules um so they're trying to sort through some of that um I reached out to them today just to see if they had any um additional Clarity on that and they don't just because there's not a lot of precedent because it just okay
it just went into effect in November so um so more to come on that um would we be obligated to follow that given that's the question yeah yeah that's the question what is the change in the law do you know you familiar with it at all
I I am a little bit so the the the way it can be sold or has to be sold is different like to I guess now you need to under the new law hire a broker remember this came up this actually came up in our last conversation so the old
value aution I guess initially under the new L you have to hire a broker and then um there's some question on the proceeds um under the Old Law the town um took a
property in the proceeds of sale under the new law um the town has to give the Mone for the school the town keeps the portion of the proceeds that they're owned and what is
the um to the former owner what yes really wow but we the we are right that's the law it Chang the new law Chang in November so because we took the probably 25 years ago there is a question on yeah
yeah which one which one we have to follow so they they're doing due diligence now okay I mean okay so just so that we understand this right because I bought foreclosures before right if we have
taxes you know what you're going to have to figure this out I don't want I mean before the law changed I know but if the law changed and now we're obligated to follow we're going to be calculating all of our property taxes for 24
years no no no it's just how the process in which we need to take in order to sell this property that the town is yeah but what he said is tax what what he said if I follow right the net proceed is subtract your taxes and give the
owners the rest of the money that's the new one so the net proceeds in terms of would be just what they owed us at the time of the takeing who pays all the disposition fees us no no no no that's after that's that's the closing cost no
so you got a hire broker the broker's going to get a percentage get the we don't know we don't know it's it's one of the and there are differences of opinions according to the firm that I talked to yeah different lawyers have different
opinions on the matter because there is no precedent right now I know in like it happened to my parents down down in K just for the sake of anecdotes but they the town sold it and they had to use a broker so they hired a broker that was
not within the county because they like all right everyone knows everybody it's a small thing and they did it that way and then they kept the proceeds but I I don't know all the peculiar so we know we know yeah all right I'll keep you updated
okay thanks for that yeah all right moving on um annual report dedication and we're getting ready for that to go to print um I don't really have anybody that have a mind for
that anybody else I just I don't know I think I have I read that you know and I'm I'm just putting this out there right as I as I think about it right we've typically in the past dedicated
this to some Community IND idual who has contributed significantly to the town me and in this particular case knowing what I've learned in the last eight or nine months right I'd be thinking George
McGavin George is that dairy farm has been there longer than you could imagine it is the Staple in our Gateway right he's retired his health is a little shaky George thanks for everything it's
just me I'm not I that's fine I'm just you asked I'm putting it on but if we don't we've tip who did we dedicate this to last year we haven't nobody yeah we've been sort of avoiding it yeah M was the last one that was like a
couple years ago and then we'll just leave it blank let's leave it blank we don't have to dedicate it to any yeah no we leave it play and you know the the concept of it was to dedicate someone who has done significant work in the town donation of
time volunteerism serving on boards has made a major impact on the town it's not just Don P recently died he was involved in quite
a few different committees and stuff well at one point we were talking about setting a a criteria for this I don't think we ever really got to that point yeah I don't think we have we have over the years right we've gone back and forth with
this you know with this one with that one yeah okay all right I I'm think yeah let's just go forward as is got it okay um so as you know I think I don't know a
month three weeks ago a month ago I'd sent a letter to the legislature about the Chapter 70 formula and since then um just we just dramatic hopefully reform to the Chapter 70 formula um as a
minimum age Community we are thank you we are um you know in a lot of ways getting short short end of the St and the formula as it is currently constituted is not keeping up with our expenses and inflation by so there is
this project to 11 Coalition that um the mass Association of Regional School schools is um organizing it was called project 211 because at the time there were 21 communities in the Commonwealth that um or school districts in the Comm that
were minimum communities affected by this now it's even more than that it's like 22 something I think 230 something but um we had a meeting last week um there were about 150 people on the
meeting and they they recommended or asked for all the school committees select boards Etc to send a letter similar to what was we sent
earlier so I've included that they actually even provided a draft which should be in your packet so I figured I'd bring it to you as a followup to see if um if you are interested to do that and if so we can get it out the
door I think it's a great idea idea anything that we can do to put the fire under the the seats of the folks making these decisions and revisions is very important for us to do and I will say too should be noted um rep
Scarville has been one of the major drivers on she actually helped pull everyone together so she's been really a leader one of the leaders on this issue so it's good to for representing yeah
representing us should Cena get a copy of this Cena if you want if you want just I know he he doesn't he's not a part of a dunable Precinct but he show to several but a couple of the meetings and does you know have a vested interest in ground
yeah that absolutely I we need to upate all the yeah them yeah yeah I think it's great you have a uh so can I just ask a question just from my own knowledge does is Project
211 the name of that initiative yeah okay and all of the municipalities that she's brought in are all part of project 21 yeah there's like 232 school districts that are affected by this like
I said I mean at the last meeting last week I think there were like 150 people on the on the zoom meeting yeah I had heard that it was yeah I did I was just just a question yep I just wondered it'd be nice if they had a website and I don't know if they
need yeah because I did Scurry around I did her and I talked about this a couple days ago and I did Scurry around and she's she's positive and she's definitely got the sun moon and the stars lined up the right way she just does she's working hard yeah yeah who
you're talking about Scarsdale Scarsdale you got be kidding me all right we're not going to go down that path we don't want to talk about that she vot she spend all our money on other things and don't this is not part
of our discussion we're discussing about chap 70 money and sending a letter do we have a a lettered out for us to sign so that we can send this for yeah it's in it's in your package no I know but this not the
so I move to send a letter to representative Margaret scell and Senator Ed Kennedy and rep Cena add him regarding the need for a reform for the Chapter 70 formula in additional funding for the BART dille Regional
School District consistent with the recommendations of project 21 second any further discussion all those in favor I yes stop voting for all that crap you vot
for all right we're moving on to the every want us to tell that yes budget update Jason okay so numbers have changed slightly they'll probably change a little more by
um next Wednesday but as it as it stands now there was another slight reduction in our assessment from Grant dun School District largely because of their health insurance they've been kind of talking about the fact that their health insurance they were planning on 10% um
amazingly I'm not sure how they they got this but their health insurance is only going up 2% this year so um that's amazing it's it's amazing so our assessment has um decreased slightly too
um so right now a level service budget our our deficit is right around 500,000 um so it's gone down about 40,000 okay so um that's where we're at we are I have developed kind of a sketch of how we're going to start Outreach and
um education to the community around the budget and um um presenting to advisory next Wednesday and then I'm hoping to get a recommendation from advisory next Wednesday and then I'm hoping a vote
from the select board on the 26th so that we can start publicizing it and getting getting information out there so that's that's the plan just want to update you on that too okay ADV their meeting next
Wednesday advis y all [Applause] right when do we want to talk as a board in terms of like over like so I left that meeting last week and then I
stopped and chatted with Jason I think the day after about like what if we what are other options like put all the cards on the table here and I know we're putting some money aside for free cash we're doing some Capital expenditures we're using some free cash to manage our
budget operating budget if you will and we have a pretty good chunk of free cash like do we want to talk as a board at some point about like hey the override fails what are we going to do or or
you know and it's a terrible business practice and J will look at me and tell me I'm crazy that you use more free cash in order to really that's we've been trying very hard and we've been pretty good at the past couple years of not doing that and building up our free cash
to the much as much as we can so that we can use a little bit more if we need to the next year but I I don't think anybody here wants to tap into that completely like we have done in the past it just puts us in a really bad situation I certainly don't want to but
it's again trying to if things just keep failing and it was we were pretty soundly told in leis and Gren and surprisingly here in dudo that people didn't want their taxes to go up but that was a different situation we were looking at this1 and a half million
dollar the ma granted was over three years yeah the math is still the same over these you know is the same the math is still the same every year you have to vote a budget every single year and you can't expect that the one vote that happened last year carries in
perpetuity I agree because things change and people know things change and you know there have been significant cuts and I don't like to have to put an override forward but sometimes you just have to do it to make the town continue to function in a way yeah I people you
can't you know I completely hear you people said no they said no to that that option yeah and the many people that I have spoken to didn't say no to the town they were saying no to the school and the school has taken their
hit and are facing another major hit if this doesn't pass again and so I hear that point yeah I don't think enough people know what the actual experience of what's going on in the in the individual schools it's it's it's late
we're now late in the ball game I know it we're at least in my opinion we've had all these meetings and the participation is frustratingly very low and which is important that we put this stuff out and there is an article in there from the school committee that is talking about
that stuff specifically they're having their starting to set up their meetings to discuss their budgets and it's hard for the word to get out there at this point because we don't have a budget of yet so
yeah we need advisor's recommendation we need the select board's approval for whatever the budget's going to be and then you know we already have queued up what we're going to be doing so like you know we're do we already have queued up
you know a day of Outreach where we're going to be doing coffees we're going to do a lunch and learn at the library we're going to do office hours at night we're going to offer believe it or not we're going to offer to go to some we're call I'm calling them kitchen conversations if you want to have us
over we will bring refreshments and we will talk to you about what's happening um and we'll go anywhere yeah um we're going to do the same type of um social media website out ret that we typically do
um and a whole lot of other things that are front of right now so we're gonna get the word out but I think we need advisor's recommendation to look at whatever that's going to be and then we can kind of mull over but I think the first thing
is whether or not you want to go for an override in the first place um I think we really need one but um but that had that has it even I mean I've got general direction from everybody but that I think that's that's the direction we
want to go in but and my idea is not is not responsible budgeting by any means but I also don't want to I don't want to see the library get Clos I don't want to see teachers get laid off I don't want to see us Dormer this building you know for Staffing and such like that but but that's the reality if
we don't increase our Revenue through the tax base but that's a tough sell when you said when we're saying we're going to put 100K in stabilization but people I mean people have to they run their own budgets at home and everyone has a savings account
I hope has invests in retirement and puts money in a Roth so that they know at some point you are going to need that money that's the security the town has to do the same thing I agree trust me I soundly agree with you I just think it's a tough
sell it's it's very challenging to say we're going to put whatever the advisory suggest we put into you know into stabilization when that money could Offset you know laying off a police officer it's and again it's terrible
business practice but I'm just I mean we're having it's a tough conversation so I mean just to be frank the reason to put money in into the stabilization fund is to save you from yourselves I mean this is the conversation we have we'll have if we don't because this free cash
is basically the same thing it's a one-time Revenue Source it's dependent based on the volatility volatil volatility volatility volatility sorry volatility of our revenues and our expenses like snow and ice budget this
year guess what it's spent much more than what we typically see because we've got a lot of snow so what's that going to do it's going to reduce our free cash yeah this year we're already um for FY 26 I mean where we've
increased estimates on local receipts um we've we're relying on a small it's 25,000 but still it's 25,000 from overlay Surplus um so those things you know $50,000 increase in um lcal
receipts to balance guess what that's doing that's reducing your free cash number so you can't do both right if you if you're going to continue to draw our free cash we can't we can't increase our local receip number so those are those are the things
but our financial policies which this board adopted and advisory adopted you know say we're going to we're going to um contribute $225,000 at minimum to General stabilization and we're going to reduce our fre cach
Alliance and operating annually and um that's that's kind of what we've done we've made great progress on that um over the last couple years but if you take the step back it's
really hard to get back because you're just creating that hole you're creating a large hole and and that's sort of the ding that we've been getting from the DLS over the years is that we are not feeding the stable we should be and we're using too much free cash it's just a really poor practice and we've been in
a really good forward Trend the past could be with those policies to start um I I just I'm Sor if the information's out there for people to read we've put the information out there we've talked about the importance of free cash and for
years and you know if people aren't understanding it or they're they are and they still criticizing us for the the practice I'm sorry I don't know how well to get the information to put it's it's very important that we set
money aside for the free cash I and I don't disagree I'm just I'm just trying to again if we have two votes and they both fail we're in the same place anyways really the answer is always no unless you try with you I'm optim I mean
I'm optimistic that I mean I really believe I know some people have questioned this but I I think the circumstances this year are far different than what they were last year and I really believe that if we're able to talk to people and help them understand that I think there's it's a
much smaller request than last year and um in 20 whatever 25 26 27 positions Less in the schools yeah and other things um I think that you're talking
about last year's cuts at the school 29 yeah yeah yeah so but I want just go back on what Kieran brought up which is you know and this is just discussion all right what if it doesn't pass what's well if it doesn't pass then I think these are the conversations are going to
have to happen but it's gone but no no I think I mean at that point then I mean I've gone through the exercise in the office I thought all right if it doesn't you know what are the what are the types of decisions that
are going to be have to be made yeah and um you know on what we're going to have to match Bron's number which is like a $200,000 number that's budget so we're going to have to find that somewhere um unless
we're passive the override then we have to find a much larger that's 500 if we don't pass it so that's the problem you know um what's our credit rating right now you just it went up a week at a I forget I don't
want to say I'll get I we were at B for a long time oh no we're at a we went up yeah we went up I think two years ago I thought two just when you started okay yeah yeah it just went up so we're [Laughter]
probably well no no exactly and that affects you know a borrowing costs yeah yeah yeah yeah mean we got I don't know what I did with the letter but standard po dinged us about 10 years ago over stabilization and here we are 10 years later I don't
think we put a bucket in that thing since they vote us there's a letter around I'll look for it that speaks to our budgeting process from standard P not DLS okay I've seen the one from DLS no there's a kind of the same thing we're talking yeah
exactly yeah no stand po get your ship to go I guess in my last Point like and I don't agree with everything uh Mr Bud Robertson says in gr but he's right but he goes there's a chance we're back here next year doing the same thing it's possible which I'm
like yeah then then I think of the you know the family that was in the back right corner here that night we said we're doing a threeyear override and $1,100 like well so here we are yeah so I hope it doesn't preparing
my brain for no we all need to prepare we do I mean we will be having these discussions on at some point what we need to do and we'll get advisory and maybe after that we can do a joint meeting and yeah sort of come up with ideas and
scenarios yeah if the timeline is really It's Tricky if yeah if we if the town ask for an override to level Serv rest those schools it fails we have to go back for a second override to match
gr's number that fails then we have to call a special town meeting to pass a balance budget and that's that is a makes June look like a lot of fun that's an it's an interesting timeline schedule May and
June are G to be intense then so next year no all right anything else in this before we move into executive sessions no okay nothing another motion uh I move that the select board
enter into executive session for the following purposes one pursuant to Mass General laws chapter 30A section 21A purpose two to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with
non-union Personnel specifically Jason Sil the Town Administrator William farell Fire Chief and to conduct contract negotiations with non-union Personnel Jason Silva the T administrator to pursu to general laws
section 30 subsection 21 A10 to discuss confidential competitive sensitive information provided in the course of activities conducted as a municipal aggregator under General law 164 section 134 in
disclosure would adversely affect the town's ability to conduct business in relation to other entities making selling or Distributing electric power and energy the board will reconvene in Open Session following the executive
session second all those in favor Ron Michael Yes Leah basbanes yes caring me in yes okay little door door